Basra - in Fiction

In Fiction

  • In Voltaire's Zadig "Bassora" is the site of an international market where the hero meets representatives of all the world religions and concludes that "the world is one large family which meets at Bassora".
  • The city of Basra has a major role in H.G. Wells's 1933 future history "The Shape of Things to Come", where the "Modern State" is at the center of a world state emerging after a collapse of civilization, and becomes in effect the capital of the world.
  • In the 1940 film The Thief of Bagdad, Ahmad and Abu flee to the city from Bagdad. Ahmad falls in love with the sultan's beautiful daughter, who is also desired by his enemy, and former Grand Vizier, Jaffar.

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