H. P. Lovecraft's fabled character, Alhazred, the Mad Arab who wrote the infamous Necronomicon is back with new and startling tales of sword and sorcery, horror, and adventure.
Alhazred, author of the dreaded book known as the Necronomicon, lives in comfort and relative security at Damascus in the Lane of Scholars with his two companions, the young Egyptian girl, Martala, and the scarred mercenary and master swordsman, Altrus. In the basement of his house he is free to practice his necromantic arts unhindered by the Caliph's laws or the religious fury of the mullahs. But trouble has a way of finding Alhazred. When Moawiya the Second, the Caliph at Damascus, asks him to investigate an island of walking corpses ruled over by alien monsters from another dimension, Alhazred is hardly in a position to refuse, even if he wants to do so. He and his companions are launched into a series of deadly adventures involving sorcery, ghouls, djinn, strange creatures and vindictive priests that lead them across the entire breadth of the ancient Islamic Empire, and beyond.
In addition to ten linked stories of magic and high adventure that take place when Alhazred is a young man, the novella The Last 12 Days of Alhazred recounts the events of the final days of Alhazred in his old age through the eyes of his pupil, Hassad ibn Khaled, a young man of good family at Damascus to whom Alhazred has promised to teach the necromantic arts. As his study of the Necronomicon progresses from day to day, Hassad becomes aware of a gathering shadow hanging over the house of Alhazred, but he is unable to prevent the unfolding of Alhazred's horrifying fate.