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The Arabian Nights

A poetic evocation from The Arabian Nights, edited by Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin and Nora Archibald Smith

This reader presents a poetic evocation of the Arabian Nights, drawn from the 1909 collection edited by Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin and Nora Archibald Smith, with illustrations by Maxfield Parrish. The passage is a literary meditation on memory, childhood and the golden age of the Baghdad caliphate under Haroun Alraschid (also known as Harun al-Rashid), who ruled from 786 to 809 CE. The text reflects its era; a few period terms have been modernised. The poet's vision is not a tale from the Arabian Nights but a distillation of the spirit that animates them—a longing for a world of wonder and justice, and a recognition that the past, once lost, can be reclaimed only in imagination. The passage invites readers to consider how memory shapes identity and how the stories we tell about the past reveal what we value and what we mourn.

Band

Red · Complex language and analysisTypical starting range: ages 15–17

Length

long · about 1267 words in 3 sections · 2 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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