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The Arabian Nights

A memory of golden Baghdad, inspired by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

This reader is inspired by a poetic excerpt from Alfred, Lord Tennyson's 'Recollections of the Arabian Nights,' first published in 1830. Tennyson imagines a narrator remembering his childhood sailing down the Tigris River through Baghdad during the reign of Caliph Harun al-Rashid (786–809 CE), a time remembered as a golden age of Islamic culture, learning and prosperity. The poem evokes the wonder and beauty of the Arabian Nights tales. This text is worth a child's time because it paints a vivid picture of a legendary era and shows how memory can carry us back to times and places filled with beauty and meaning. This text reflects its era.

Band

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

Length

medium · about 807 words in 4 sections · 3 pictures

Source

The Arabian Nights: Their Best-known Tales, Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin, Nora Archibald Smith and Maxfield Parrish

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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