The Vizier of the Two-Horned Alexander

A young traveler finds himself aboard a French steamer bound for New York when a dark, fog‑filled night brings a sudden collision with a ghostly wreck. The ship begins to sink, and panic ripples through decks where language barriers turn calm orders into confusion. As passengers scramble for lifeboats, the narrator wrestles with his own conscience, refusing to push aside women and children. In the midst of the chaos, an unexpected companion, the affable New Yorker Crowder, appears with a cryptic warning.

The warning drags the narrator’s thoughts back to an ancient chronicle he once read, the legend of El Khoudr, vizier to the mysterious Two‑Horned Alexander—a ruler some have mistakenly linked to Alexander the Great. According to the medieval historian Tabari, the vizier’s daring exploits span the age of Abraham, confronting jinns, sages, and sovereigns across distant lands. The novel weaves these mythic adventures with the present danger, promising a tale where past and present collide in a quest for survival and revelation. Listeners will be drawn into a world where history’s shadows echo in the storm‑tossed seas.