Category: Short Stories

The Weird Orient: Nine Mystic Tales

In introducing to the general public a writer who has heretofore been known chiefly among the people of his own race, his publishers may perhaps be permitted to say a word. Rabbi Iliowizi is a Hebrew of pure lineage, the son of a zealous member of the Chassidim, a Kabbalistic...

Chapters

9. Part 9

Poor Solomon picked himself up in a far distant land, astonished and confused. His memory failed him; he stood transformed in face and form, and only darkly remembered that he h...

10. Part 10

As Ben Abir peered out of his tent to convince himself of Ibraeem's illusion, he saw with amazement a golden pile of coin, the pieces glowing like lupine eyes in the dark. This...

15. Part 15

The next morning the streets of Fez were filled with the cries of the Sultan's heralds, calling on him, who was entitled to the great prize, to come forth and obtain it.--"Bring...

14. Part 14

But the student of Timbuctu with whom this tale is concerned was in every way an exception. He disdained luxury, spurned the delights of the harem, consorted with nobody, had bu...

3. Part 3

"My memory is aglow as I recall the day of lurid skies, an atmosphere saturated with oppressive vapors, an ominous fluttering of birds, and a spasmodic rumbling, as of explosion...

6. Part 6

"Thy words are not meant as a reprimand, yet am I startled at what they imply," spoke Firdusi in a deliberate tone. "Even at my age theories may be revised, and new conclusions...

13. Part 13

There had been a mysterious gleam on the lower balconies of the palace; it flared up, vanished, reappeared again, and once more; and then nothing was seen or heard save at the p...

7. Part 7

In less time than it takes to tell it, Jupiter established himself in a manner which left in Odin no doubt that the whilom sovereign of Olympus had come to stay. Thor burned for...

4. Part 4

With ravenous greed Sheddad and Almena surrendered to the garden's temptations, swallowing great quantities of precious fruit, but feeding a hunger that seemed to grow with its...

2. Part 2

While stopping for a moment, irresolute as to the direction he should take, the muffled figure discerned a human form stranger than his own, whelmed by the flood and on the poin...

12. Part 12

In the ninth year of his rule Chosroes Nushirvan, the conqueror of kingdoms, sat one day on his gem-incrusted throne, surrounded by all the symbols of earthly majesty. The room...

8. Part 8

It is well known that after Solomon had succeeded his father David as ruler over Israel he had a vision wherein the Lord gave him the choice between riches and wisdom, and that...

5. Part 5

It was through a bewildering gorge, which heavy rain transforms into the bed of a wild torrent, that, in the year 410 of the Hegira, two men of note, preceded by four experience...

11. Part 11

It was that hour of the day when the lengthened shadows indicate the descent of the glowing orb, but the striking absence of bird or insect in a quarter where every inducement f...

1. Part 1

In introducing to the general public a writer who has heretofore been known chiefly among the people of his own race, his publishers may perhaps be permitted to say a word. Rabb...

16. Part 16

It was fortunate for Yezed that, in his precipitous flight, he had mounted El Barak in mistake for his own horse, and the sagacious animal carried him instinctively to the right...