Anonymous 
The Tale of Attaf (Cotheal) 

‘The Tale of Attaf’ is one of the stories featured in a set known as One Thousand and One Nights, which is a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. ‘The Tale of Attaf’ itself is a tale about Harun al-Rashid, who consults his library (the House of Wisdom), reads a random book, and ends up laughing and weeping and eventually dismisses the faithful vizier Ja’far ibn Yahya from sight. Ja’afar, disturbed and upset flees Baghdad and plunges into a series of adventures in Damascus, involving Attaf and the woman whom Attaf eventually marries.