On re-reading it over forty years later, I found that there was still a large part of me that is receptive to what this book has to offer. Not that it is the greatest literature - it is not - but it is literate and intelligent.
Abdullah is a natural storyteller. How easy it would be to imagine him in the markets of old Baghdad, holding his audience spell-bound as he weaves his tale. His diction is purple, and perfectly so for this purpose; the action has its climaxes and respites in good measure; and the hero is sufficiently well-drawn to make him interesting (he is a Muslim who moves increasingly from a mercenary life towards an awakening spirituality).
The Thief of Bagdad began life as a script for the Douglas Fairbanks movie of the same name (1924). Abdullah turned it into a novel in the same year. While one suspects that a lot of what we are told in the tale is pure Hollywood, there are enough domestic details in the book to evoke (with what feels like some degree of verisimilitude) a time and a way of life that no longer exist. Didactic without being overly so; and best of all, the book is highly enjoyable.
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