Short fiction was an immensely popular art in the medieval and premodern Arab world, providing the perfect vehicle for transmitting the tenets of classical Islam. Reading these texts today illuminates the wide spectrum of early Arab life and suggests the influences and innovations that flourished so vibrantly in medieval Arab society. The only resource of its kind, Salma Khadra Jayyusi's Classical Arabic Stories chooses from an impressive corpus, including excerpts from six seminal works: Ibn Tufail's novel, Hayy ibn Yaqzan; Ibn al-Muqaffa's Kalila wa Dimna.