The first (partial) translation into English of an indigenous chivalric romance set in the Nile Valley and originally composed sometime during the 13th through 16th centuries. Jayyusi's lively English version--a prose tale studded with frequent verse interpolations--reproduces approximately one-quarter of the 2,000-page Arabic original: the story of the eponymous Sayf, a Muslim ruler of Yemen before the formal establishment of Islam, in his battles against (mainly Ethiopian) ""infidels""; encounters with various jinns, monsters, and other supernatural beings and forces; and, most interestingly, quest for a wife and for an accommodation with women (who are here something more than the pallid virgins of conventional romance)--especially in his adventures in the City of Maidens and in his conflict with his scheming mother Qamariyya, a startlingly avaricious and lustful creature who is the tale's most vivid and memorable character. A charming and agreeable surprise, similar (as noted in an introduction by Harry Norris) to such corollary works as Ariosto's Orlando Furioso and, of course, The Arabian Nights. A welcome gift to Western readers.