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The Story of the Greek King and the Physician Douban

From The Arabian Nights Entertainments, collected by Andrew Lang

This story comes from The Arabian Nights Entertainments, a collection of Middle Eastern and South Asian folk tales compiled over many centuries. Andrew Lang published this version in the late nineteenth century as part of his popular 'colour' fairy tale series. The tale is a frame story—a story that contains other stories—and this reader presents the outer frame, which stops just as the king is about to tell a nested tale. The Arabian Nights uses this structure throughout, with each story opening into another. The conflict between the physician and the envious vizir explores timeless questions of trust, evidence, and the corrosive effects of jealousy on judgment. This text reflects its era; period terms have been modernised where appropriate.

Band

Blue · Independent readers, confidentTypical starting range: ages 12–14

Length

long · about 939 words in 4 sections · 2 pictures

Source

The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Andrew Lang

First published

see the About page in the reader

Regions

Canada · United States

Included formats

• · Web reader and PDF
• · EPUB for e-readers
• · Home-print sheet
• · Folded booklet
• · Binder edition (8.5 × 11)
• · Worksheet
• · Quick Check (10 questions) with answer key
• · Read-aloud script
• · Teacher’s Edition (members)

Readers are engineered from the original public-domain text with AI under HummingRead’s published canon and Content Philosophy, checked by automated audit and sampled by a person. Pictures are made with AI to HummingRead’s brief for each story. How a reader is made.

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