Middle-eastern Stories

At sixteen, Saerina al-Hakim has spent her life crossing the deserts of the Qamari Empire alongside her father's renowned merchant caravan. Clever, sharp-tongued, and gifted at reading people, she expects to continue the family trade, not become a prize in the Sultan's harem. But when a chain of desperate lies and cruel misfortune places her before the empire's newly crowned Sultan, her future is no longer her own. Determined to marry for love rather than fight for a ruler's attention, Saerina refuses to play the deadly game of palace politics. Instead, she allies herself with the Sultan's most favored consort, believing that loyalty and obscurity are her safest path to freedom. She is wrong. Behind gilded walls and silken veils, every smile conceals an ambition, every kindness carries a price, and every whispered secret can cost a life. The skills that once made Saerina an exceptional merchant prove dangerously inadequate against seasoned courtiers, ambitious consorts, and royal schemers who have spent their lives mastering deception. And the greatest danger of all may be the Sultan himself. Intelligent, calculating, and impossible to ignore, he is unlike the tyrant she expected. The more fiercely Saerina resists him, the more their fates become entwined, drawing her deeper into a court where survival demands more than honesty - it demands power. In the palace where affection is a weapon and trust is the rarest currency, Saerina must decide how much of herself she is willing to sacrifice before the game consumes her entirely.

UPDATE: 1/14/24 - Per reader request, I will turn this from a short story into a novella. It will be taken down soon and re-published! Despite years passing since Hasan moved his children from Québec to Amman, twenty-four-year-old Yazid still struggles to see passed his father's decision to leave his mother. As the firstborn, he attempts to take on more responsibility for his sisters, but one of them perpetually meets him headstrong. If there are three words Hasan would use to describe his son, they would be reckless, disagreeable, and unpredictable. For this reason, he entrusts his eldest daughter Aseel to care for the family, investing in her more than investing in Yazid. With his mother thousands of miles away, and his father unapproachable, the young man finds solace in injecting himself with needles of "amnesia" as he puts it, unaware that, with every memory he washes away, he grows in sin. On one lonely night, Yazid comes in contact with slithering dancers, swaying from side to side, whispering in his ear that there is only one true way to cleanse himself of his sins. Genre: General Fiction Themes: Suicide, substance abuse, anxiety

Sadaf is 16 years old, when the feeling in real earnest hits her. She wants to leave. A sense of claustrophobia hits her when she is at home; in this place she will never be accepted as who she is, in this place she cannot be free and no good memories reveal here. She will move out as soon as she has the opportunity and seek her freedom before it is too late. But she is troubled by doubt; will she be able to support herself? will the feeling of loneliness get worse? will her parents see this as a scandal, and will it bring them shame? And lastly, will she be welcome and allowed to return back home? A story about the individual, freedom, parents, taboo and loneliness.

Asad is an American Muslim who travels to Iraq as he tours the Middle East. While taking a taxi to a hotel, Asad saves a woman who was about to jump off a bridge. Not long, a Sheik claiming to be her Wali (guardian) quickly whisk her away. Feeling obligated to check on the well being of the distressed woman, Asad decides to track her down. After successfully locating the Sheik, Asad discovers the so called religious leader has been prostituting women, through Muk'tah marriages (temporary marriage).

A unification of our brothers and sisters of color.

A short story....

Tale of The Queen who chose Revenge over love,follow her as she discovers the power a Queen can achieve, Misunderstood,and Cruel. CW! All the images used in this story do not belong to the creators,They are saved from pinterest and belong to their rightful owners.

✨ THE NIGHT MARKET OF DREAMS ✨ Some nights, sleep feels impossible. Your mind races with thoughts, worries, questions that have no answers. You lie awake while the world sleeps, wondering if you're the only one who can't find peace. You're not alone. And there's a place for people like us. When Layla discovers a mysterious silver coin beneath her pillow, she's invited to the Night Market of Dreams-a floating bazaar between earth and stars, visible only to those who truly need it. Here, extraordinary merchants offer what restless minds seek: 🌙 Zahara bottles starlight for wisdom and peaceful sleep 🌙 Three sisters weave custom dreams from pure moonbeams 🌙 Nasir sculpts clouds into pillows of perfect comfort 🌙 Khalil keeps memories safe and preserves joy This is a story for: 💫 Overthinkers and insomniacs 💫 Anyone whose mind never stops 💫 Lovers of cozy, atmospheric fantasy 💫 Those seeking escape from stress and anxiety 💫 Readers who appreciate cultural richness A soothing journey through a magical world, perfect for reading before bed (or at 2am when sleep won't come). Genre: Fantasy | Magical Realism | Comfort Read Vibes: Studio Ghibli meets Arabian Nights meets a warm hug Status: ✨ COMPLETE - All 8 chapters available now ✨ Sweet dreams, restless souls. The market awaits.

An eternity lived with the same sunrise. Brothers in throne, twelve princes are cursed to live out their forever in their changeless city, Kabaru, unaware of how many years will go by until their curse is heaved. Amongst the twelve of them, a young prince with eyes of the lightest brown spends his nights restless and hopeful, dreaming of the day they'll be free to age once more. But, when hope grows thin and brother's slowly become enemies the young prince decides to pray one last prayer. Perhaps this one will get answered. It does. As the sandstorm rages through the deserts and into Kabaru's ancient streets, they bring forth a flailing girl with hair of the blackest night and heart of the most defiant of nature. With this one stranger's impossible presence now, everything will change, but, only time will tell if it's for the better or for the worse. *** The Twelfth Sun All rights reserved ©2017

Novel about a character's personal journey from the US to a fictional island near the Balkan peninsula, where the constructed language Indėvroplu is spoken, in an effort to re-instill his cultural values.

In which I tell you people of color faceclaims

In a desert empire where power is as fleeting as the shifting sands, an ancient prophecy resurfaces-foretelling that the next ruler will not be chosen by birth, but by fate. As the Sultan's life wanes, the struggle for the throne begins, entangling the empire's most powerful figures in a deadly game of ambition, betrayal, and destiny. A cunning vizier, who rose from nothing, seeks to bend fate to his will. A mysterious seer, feared and revered, holds visions of a future drenched in blood. A forgotten prince, raised as a warrior, is forced to choose between vengeance and duty. A simple healer, untouched by power along with her musical companion or so, becomes the unexpected key to the kingdom's survival. But the prophecy is a riddle, twisted and unclear-each player interpreting it in their own favor, unaware that the true enemy lurks in the shadows, orchestrating the empire's fall. As war brews and the final grain of sand slips through the enchanted hourglass, alliances will shatter, hearts will break, and the throne will demand its final sacrifice. When the dust settles, who will rule-and who will be buried beneath the sands of time ? And who will become the final sacrifice ?

[TJZ'S EXPANDED VERSION IS NOW AVAILABLE IN MY PROFILE!] Believed to be created by the founder of Zecaj, the Jewel of Opulence is said to curse whoever possesses it with endless riches beyond their wildest dreams. Desperate to get his hands on more fortune to aid a brewing war, Sultan Shahrayar, the kingdom's cunning ruler, calls his people far and wide with a declaration: the one who presents him with the mythical artifact shall be rewarded with a tower of gold. * * * In the lowly province of Klalasha, Badriya bint As-Sahra is sick of piling up camel dung and picking people's pockets for a living. But she can't do anything else unless she wants to rot in the streets and die. When she hears the sultan's decree, she jumps at the chance to become rich in the easiest way possible. And perhaps get a title for herself to prove that women are more than just slaves and child-bearers. But, as Badriya would learn the hard way, searching for an object that may not exist is proving harder than it should be. With other, more resourceful competition and a handsome stranger distracting her, she will have to use her wits and skills to achieve her goal or risk losing something even greater than herself. -- Featured in @retold, @WattpadFantasyPH, @StoriesUndiscovered, @Fantasy, @antiheroesgalore, @dangerouslove, @classicauthors, @WattpadExplorer, @WattpadAsianFantasy, @WattpadESL, @Alt-U and @mythandlegend Book graphics by the amazing @Dayisdemigod and @Lueur_laVespine! | 30,000 - 35,000 words. First, rough draft. |

It was April, and there was a conflict in Palestine (now called Israel). Me being me decided that I wanted to go attend the protest with some of my family members. No one knows I'm Palestinian. I ran away from L.A without anyone knowing. That week will be living hell.

"You've shown everyone how to love a man and hold him down. Now show them what happens when it crumbles." In which an Palestinian football player falls in love with a college girl after spotting her at one of his games, sparking a love story and what others would describe "history".

This Wattpad book is filled with facts about the one and only Sheikh Khalifa Bin Hamad Al Thani a.k.a. KHK! If you like it, please, don't forget to like and comment. Thank you! :) ♥️

Meet the city of Lamae - in which the government keeps their citizens blind. Each person prides themselves for their lack of sight, believing that it is for the weak-willed. Every citizen is under the delusion that the Alhukum is good, wise, and has their best interests in mind. But when Chaima Almasi is kidnapped by the rebels and given her sight, she finds that this trust is sorely misplaced. And as she sets back out into Lamae to find out why the government blinds its citizens, she finds a bitter truth. The Alhukum cannot be trusted. They have lied about the rebels and about themselves. And the reason they blind their citizens is one of unspeakable cruelty. ACHIEVEMENTS - Featured on @justwriteit

Four outlaws, doomed to spend their lives in prison if it weren't for the set of skills they possessed. A woman with a talent in combat. A Cello player with ice in his eyes. A man with a gentle heart and a catalogue for a mind. And a woman skilled in poison. Brought together by a mysterious man in colorful robes demanding a single trinket for their freedom: The Genie's Lamp. With nothing binding them other than their wish for freedom, the four strangers embark on a journey they do not believe in. How can such a thing exist in a world with no magic? How can four strangers, who can't bare to be in the same room without being at each other's throats, succeed in this impossible mission? How can the fighter, determined to be free, unravel the secrets of the ice man, so she may disarm him and flee?