‘The City of Copper’, probably the most chilling story in the Arabic Thousand and One Nights, tells of a mysterious city in the depths of the Libyan desert inhabited only by the dead. The story has generated many later versions, including an important nineteenth-century text in Tamil—perhaps the earliest known example of modern literary prose in this language.

Caught in the Cogs of Time offers a synthesis of the themes that run through all versions—the multiple temporalities that shape our lives and the enigmatic relation between eternity and everyday experience. It also delves into the intense debates among the Islamic philosophers of the tenth and eleventh centuries, particularly the Isma‘ili thinkers, which have had an impact on the formation and afterlife of this famous story.

Contents:

Acknowledgements

Toward the City

1. The Spaces of Time
2. On Being and Being Late
3. Imam al-‘Arus
4. Las Mimosas
5. Conclusion: History, Prose, and the Road to Sijilmasa

Bibliography