8 h 4 minAudiobook8 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the only thing standing between you and death is the next story you tell?
In The Bakhtyār Nāma, young Bakhtyar faces death at a royal court. King Azad Bakht holds the power of judgment, while jealous viziers press him to condemn the young man. Bakhtyar has one means of holding off the sentence: his gift for telling stories.
This anonymous Persian collection joins Bakhtyar’s struggle to inner tales of merchants, rulers and clever speakers. Stories open inside stories, and advice takes the shape of an example. At court, flattery and jealousy cloud judgment. Each tale brings patience, power and the choice of whom to trust into sharper view.
What you’ll discover
- A life at stake Follow Bakhtyar as he turns storytelling into his defense against a sentence of death.
- The king’s uncertain judgment Watch Azad Bakht weigh counsel in a court where jealous voices demand the young man’s death.
- Tales within tales Meet merchants, rulers and clever speakers whose choices reveal good judgment and its failures.
- The strength of patience Explore why waiting matters when power can turn a hasty judgment into a deadly sentence.
- Advice through example Discover short tales that entertain while asking how rulers should listen, trust and decide.
Who will love it
Readers who love framed tales in the spirit of the Thousand and One Nights, stories of court intrigue, lost children and clever pleading, and anyone curious about wisdom taught through short, vivid fables from the Persian world.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A king flees and leaves his son
- A robber's foster son rises at court
- One drunken night sets a deadly trap
- Merchants and princes who could not wait
- Patience, appearances and the cost of malice
- What the tales teach and how they fit
Who’s who
- BakhtyārA foundling raised by robbers who rises to the king's treasury, then faces execution on a false charge and tries to save himself with stories.
- King ĀzādbakhtA king who loses his throne through a hasty marriage, regains it, and now must decide whether to trust his favorite.
- FarrukhsuwārThe robber chief who finds the abandoned infant by the well and raises him as his own son.
- SipahsālārThe proud vizier whose daughter the king takes, and who answers with a secret plot to seize the throne.
- The QueenThe king's wife, who is pushed by the viziers into a false accusation and must live with what she has said.
- The Ten ViziersThe envious court officials who day by day press the king to carry out the execution.
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- Audiobook
- 8 h 4 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 8 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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El Bakhtyār Nāma
by Traducido por sir William Ouseley; editado por W. A. Clouston
A condemned young man tells one story a day to outwit ten viziers who want him dead.
Challenging5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
The Bakhtyār Nāma is a Persian romance by an unknown author, built as a cycle of tales inside one frame story. A young man named Bakhtyār sits in a royal prison, accused of a crime he did not commit.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A king flees and leaves his son
The tale opens in the land of Sīstān, where King Āzādbakht rules and his vizier Sipahsālār serves him. The vizier has a daughter of famous beauty, and he cannot bear to be apart from her. While he is away inspecting the country, he sends men to bring her to him by litter.
The king is returning from a hunt when the wind lifts the litter's curtain and he sees the young woman. He falls in love at once and takes her as his wife without waiting for her father. When the servants ask only that the girl be taken to her father first, the king is angry at their advice. He leads the litter back to the city himself, and the marriage is performed the next day.
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What is The Bakhtyār Nāma about?
It follows Bakhtyār, a young royal favorite jailed on a false charge. Ten viziers urge the king to execute him, and each day Bakhtyār wins a delay by telling a story about haste, patience and malice.
What does Nāma mean in the title?
Nāma is a Persian word meaning book or history, so the title means The Book of Bakhtyār. Many Persian works use it, and it tells you the book is a connected telling of one life.
Who are the Ten Viziers?
They are the king's chief ministers, who envy Bakhtyār's rise and plot his fall. Each one takes a day to argue for his execution, and Bakhtyār answers each with a tale.
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