The Arabian Nightmare

Arabian Nightmare by Robert Irwin is a novel about thriller, horror and paranoid fantasy of Balian, a spy who failed to perform his duty in Cairo, Egypt. Balian, who came to Egypt through Alexandria, as part of Pilgrimages to St Catherine in Sinai Hill had to stay in Cairo for three days before continuing their journey since the grandson of Sultan of Mamluke was going to be circumcised, a big party would take place. Balian who came not only as pilgrim but also as a spy to learn the Mamluke movement went to Mareotis Beach where he met Giancristoforo Doria who then told the story of a father who would kill a son for two dinars. It indeed happened and the play was real as if he indeed had mutilated his son. After getting paid the money, they left; but the next morning in Alexandria, they both were seen in front of a cafe having breakfast, well and so healthy. That was the first perfect illusion to be encountered in Cairo. Balian red the book Giancrostoforo left, written in Arabic with some rough English translations in between paragraphs. Very Strange. After reading the book, he began to dreams non-sense things. When he woke up, his mouth and nose were bleeding, his body was aching. He also met Zuleyka, a whore who taught him sex lessons. After meeting Michael Vane and he were told that he had the Arabian Nightmare disease attacking his brain and known it had been done by an ape, a creature of jinn or Satan. Balian was cured by the Father of Cats, an alchemist curer who had a 'House of Sleeping' designed for all the victims of such disease. He became more unstable and nearly insane, his sickness became worst from day to day especially after his visa request had been denied by Dawadar officials, he suffered and his condition was not much better than a suffering beggar. He went in and out the 'Alam al-Mithal' where his existence was unclear whether he was in the real world or inside the world of fantasy. He met strange creatures, jinn, demon, devil, Satan, and various kinds of creatures from different life zones. It came to a time that the crime detected and discovered. The Father of Cats was behind everything concerning the Arabian Nightmare disease. He created it. He murdered people, sent diseases to others and all bad things. Eventually he was captured by the Sultan of Dawadar from Mamluke. Balian was healing and he returned healthy. He could eat well now. At last he decided to find Zuleyka who was found out to be an insane lady of Sultan. By the end the story ends, readers will still question whether what happened to Balian is real or just a fantasy . . . Submitted by: Arthur431, Bogor, Indonesia.

Robert Irwin borrows the stories-within-stories scheme, well known among Arab storytellers (think about the "arabian night" for instance....). At times this tecnique is taken to such an extent that you'll easily lose track of what's happening... but then who ever knows what's really happening in this oneiric wandering through the streets of Cairo? I tend to love everything that reeks of mystery and/or eccentricity and this novel definitely met my expectations. It's full of absurd, disturbing characters and intriguing machinations, all intertwined with tales/legends that stem from arab folklore. I couldn't put it down until it ended and... I definitely loved the ending ;-)

This book, in such a relatively compact space, unfolds and unfolds itself, into stories within stories within stories. The cast of characters is continually shuffled around in a landscape that is equal parts real and unreal. (Cairo itself IS a major character in the story.) The results are very entertaining, albeit very dark. The Father of Cats, in particular, is a particularly chilling villian. I read this book for a week, and each night I would read it in bed, before I fell asleep. Although I never had any nightmares from reading the book--the experience of my own drowsiness when reading the book reminded me of the central issues in the book. It teeters between the waking world and the dream world, and the book succeeds brilliantly when the two are indistinguishable.

Quite probably one of the best books I have ever read and a doomed to be forgotten masterpiece of the twentieth century. The Arabian Nightmare is a dark narrative of a hallucinagenic fouteenth century Cairo. Talking apes, magicians, Caliphs and mysterious underworld figures drift in and out of the interlocking tales within tales. This is, as its title suggests, the Arabian Nights gone wrong; it is imposssible to know what is happening or even who is who at any moment. Comparable only to perhaps Gustav Meyrink or The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, this book is impossible to put down and will give you dangerous dreams for many a night. Absolutely superb.

Set in the fifteenth century, this novel ostensibly tells the story of an English spy (or is it pilgrim?) who may possibly have contracted an unknown and unknowable illness while on sojourn in Egypt. The lines between waking and dream increasingly blur, and as with all dreams, the more that is revealed the less clear things become. A marvelous horror-fantasy, at once whimsical and terrifying, as well as a clever pastiche of "The Arabian Nights." Also, the best attempt at conveying the disjointed yet strangely patterned twists of dream logic on paper I have ever read. Highly recommended.