Orientalia: A Thousand and One Nights in Venice

by Alberto Toso Fei

In a Venetian version of the "Arabian Nights," Saddo Drisdi-the Italianized version of his Turkish name, Sa'dullah Idrisi-the last surviving Turk in the city of Venice, captivates seven children who have fled the Austrians and crept stealthily into the Fondaco dei Turchi, an ancient entrepôt now slipping into decay, with tales of princesses and corsairs, sultanas and doges, saints and warriors. The year is 1838 and the city on the lagoon is languishing under Austro-Hungarian very little survives of the one-time splendor of the Serenissima. The old man gathers the children around him to recount countless stories of Venetians and Ottomans, filled with savage battles, passionate love affairs, women abducted, saints' relics pilfered, and evildoers turned into stone. These are the doings that filled the centuries-old histories between the Serenissima and the Sublime Porte, between Venice and Constantinople, hovering between mythology and history. "Orientalia" is a seductive account shrouded in legend that reconstructs with scholarly precision the past and the iconography of a Venice now (perhaps) lost.

120 pages, Paperback

Published December 31, 2021

About the author

Alberto Toso Fei descends from an ancient family of glassmasters in Murano, and is an expert on the history and the mysteries of Venice. He is a journalist and has written a series of books that constitute an anthology of mystery in Venice and the lagoon.
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Alberto Toso Fei è discendente di una antica famiglia di vetrai di Murano, ed è un esperto di storia veneziana e di misteri. Giornalista, ha scritto alcuni libri che costituiscono una sorta di antologia del mistero su Venezia e sulla laguna.