''The Arabian Nightmare'' is a novel by Robert Irwin published in 1983.Stableford, Brian, "Irwin, Robert (Graham)" in ''St. James Guide To Fantasy Writers'', edited by

David Pringle David Pringle (born 1 March 1950) is a Scottish science fiction editor and critic. Pringle served as the editor of '' Foundation'', an academic journal, from 1980 to 1986, during which time he became one of the prime movers of the collective whi ...

. St. James Press, 1996, p. 301–3. ''The Arabian Nightmare'' was inspired by ''

The Arabian Nights ''One Thousand and One Nights'' ( ar, أَلْفُ لَيْلَةٍ وَلَيْلَةٌ, italic=yes, ) is a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as the ''Arabian ...

'', as well as the novel ''

The Manuscript Found in Saragossa ''The Manuscript Found in Saragossa'' (; also known in English as ''The Saragossa Manuscript'') is a frame-tale novel written in French at the turn of 18th and 19th centuries by the Polish author Count Jan Potocki (1761–1815). It is narrated ...

'' by

Jan Potocki Count Jan Potocki (; 8 March 1761 – 23 December 1815) was a Polish nobleman, ethnologist, linguist, traveller and author of the Enlightenment period, whose life and exploits made him a celebrated figure in Poland. He is known chiefly for his pi ...

Plot summary

''The Arabian Nightmare'' is a novel in which the setting is

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metr ...

in 1486, under the rule of the

Mamluk Sultanate The Mamluk Sultanate ( ar, سلطنة المماليك, translit=Salṭanat al-Mamālīk), also known as Mamluk Egypt or the Mamluk Empire, was a state that ruled Egypt, the Levant and the Hejaz (western Arabia) from the mid-13th to early 16t ...

. The protagonist is Balian of Norwich, an Englishman going to a pilgrimage to the view the relics of Saint Catherine in the Sinai Desert, while also working as a spy for the French court. After Balian arrives in Cairo, he falls asleep and begins to have a series of disturbing dreams.

Reception

Dave Langford David Rowland Langford (born 10 April 1953) is a British author, editor, and critic, largely active within the science fiction field. He publishes the science fiction fanzine and newsletter ''Ansible'', and holds the all-time record for most ...

reviewed ''The Arabian Nightmare'' for ''

White Dwarf A white dwarf is a stellar core remnant composed mostly of electron-degenerate matter. A white dwarf is very dense: its mass is comparable to the Sun's, while its volume is comparable to the Earth's. A white dwarf's faint luminosity comes ...

'' #69, and stated that "It is a dream without awakening (says the blurb), a flight without escape, a tale without end. I liked it a lot."

John Clute John Frederick Clute (born 12 September 1940) is a Canadian-born author and critic specializing in science fiction and fantasy literature who has lived in both England and the United States since 1969. He has been described as "an integral part ...

, reviewing ''The Arabian Nightmare'', stated "''The Arabian Nightmare'' is a joy to read. As a teacher of medieval history who has published in the field, Irwin clearly knows Mameluke Egypt very thoroughly indeed and has anchored his most fantastical flights with details that seem clearly authentic".

Reviews

*Review by Brian Stableford (1984) in

Fantasy Review ''Fantasy Newsletter'' was a major fantasy fanzine founded by Paul C. Allen and later issued by Robert A. Collins. Frequent contributors included Fritz Leiber and Gene Wolfe. Publication history The first issue appeared in June 1978, and Allen ...

, October 1984 *Review by Maureen Porter (1987) in

Vector Vector most often refers to: *Euclidean vector, a quantity with a magnitude and a direction *Vector (epidemiology), an agent that carries and transmits an infectious pathogen into another living organism Vector may also refer to: Mathematic ...

141 *Review by Don D'Ammassa (1988) in

Science Fiction Chronicle DNA Publications was an American publishing company that existed from 1993 to 2007 and was run by the husband-and-wife team of Warren Lapine and Angela Kessler. Initially based in Massachusetts, DNA Publications relocated to Radford, Virginia. A ...

, #102 March 1988 *Review by Robert K. J. Killheffer (1989) in The New York Review of Science Fiction, May 1989

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arabian Nightmare 1983 novels English fantasy novels Novels set in the 1480s