Green bandReady now · Open and print today

The Merchant and the Genius

A tale from The Arabian Nights Entertainments, collected by Andrew Lang

This story comes from The Arabian Nights, a collection of tales from the Middle East and South Asia gathered over many centuries. Andrew Lang published this English version in the nineteenth century. The tale reflects its era; a few period terms have been modernised. It is a frame story: one tale contains others, each told to save a life. The merchant's plight, the old men's marvellous tales, and the test of mercy and storytelling have made this one of the Nights' most remembered episodes. A child who reads it meets the power of a well-told story and the idea that even a genius may be moved by wonder.

Band

Green · Independent readers, earlyTypical starting range: ages 9–11

Length

medium · about 812 words in 6 sections · 3 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.

Report a concern about this reader · What’s in a HummingRead reader