Walt Disney Productions Presents Sindbad The Sailor

A sailor's adventures make him a wealthy man.

A sailor is kidnapped and forced to dive for pearls by a wicked ship's captain and crew.

Sindbad the sailor helps his friends after a fearful storm ruins the merchants' wares, and their jewels are stolen by robber birds.

This book retells the story of Sinbad the Sailor and recounts tales of the voyages on which he acquired his wealth, of the strange peoples and monsters he encountered along the way and of lands beyond the horizon. It places the fiction of Sinbad, popularised in the collection of stories known as the Arabian Nights, into the context of medieval Cairo where these tales were originally told. By retracing the history of these stories and the Arabian voyages of exploration and trade which inspired them, and by examining modern incarnations of Sinbad that have appeared since his stories reached the West, this book breathes new life into these ancient tales of adventure, magic and mystery.

Sindbad, now an old man, has finally learned his lesson, and sworn never to leave Bagdad. Yet when the Caliph demands that he return to Serendib (modern-day Sri Lanka), Sindbad has no choice but to set sail again – this time facing pirates and slavery before he can return home for good. See Sindbad’s adventures through to the end in his seventh and last voyage, the twenty-second of 34 tales in the classic Arabian Nights collection translated by Andrew Lang. A treasure-trove of timeless stories, the One Thousand and One Nights or Arabian Nights have been loved, imitated, and added to over many centuries. Similar to the fairy tales collected by the Brothers Grimm, the Arabian Nights are drawn from the folklore of India, Iran and the Middle East, and were collected in Arabic versions throughout the medieval period; others were added as recently as the eighteenth century. These stories of the exotic East have been popularised for new generations by film adaptations such as Disney’s Aladdin, starring Robin Williams and Gilbert Gottfried in 1992, and Will Smith in 2019, and Dreamworks’ Sinbad, starring Brad Pitt and Michelle Pfeiffer. They continue to inspire writers as varied as Salman Rushdie and Neil Gaiman, while numerous Bollywood and manga versions attest to their popularity around the world. These stories of magic, adventure and romance have shaped readers’ imaginations for generations, and are sure to be retold for years to come. This selection was translated by Andrew Lang from the French versions by Antoine Galland, who was the first to include the stories of Aladdin and Ali Baba. Born in Scotland in 1844, Lang was a scholar of ancient Greek, a journalist, historian, novelist and poet, and the author of 25 popular collections of fairy tales; his edition of the Arabian Nights’ Entertainment was published in 1898. He became a Fellow of the British Academy in 1906, and died in 1912.

Many legends are told about whales so huge they are mistaken for islands, and wake up when sailors light a campfire on their backs, plunging into the depths and drowning the poor mariners. An encounter with this leviathan is only the start of the adventures in the first voyage of Sindbad the Sailor, the sixteenth of 34 tales in the classic Arabian Nights collection translated by Andrew Lang. A treasure-trove of timeless stories, the One Thousand and One Nights or Arabian Nights have been loved, imitated, and added to over many centuries. Similar to the fairy tales collected by the Brothers Grimm, the Arabian Nights are drawn from the folklore of India, Iran and the Middle East, and were collected in Arabic versions throughout the medieval period; others were added as recently as the eighteenth century. These stories of the exotic East have been popularised for new generations by film adaptations such as Disney’s Aladdin, starring Robin Williams and Gilbert Gottfried in 1992, and Will Smith in 2019, and Dreamworks’ Sinbad, starring Brad Pitt and Michelle Pfeiffer. They continue to inspire writers as varied as Salman Rushdie and Neil Gaiman, while numerous Bollywood and manga versions attest to their popularity around the world. These stories of magic, adventure and romance have shaped readers’ imaginations for generations, and are sure to be retold for years to come. This selection was translated by Andrew Lang from the French versions by Antoine Galland, who was the first to include the stories of Aladdin and Ali Baba. Born in Scotland in 1844, Lang was a scholar of ancient Greek, a journalist, historian, novelist and poet, and the author of 25 popular collections of fairy tales; his edition of the Arabian Nights’ Entertainment was published in 1898. He became a Fellow of the British Academy in 1906, and died in 1912.