Achmed Abdullah

Achmed Abdullah was a prolific early twentieth-century writer of adventure fiction, short stories, screenplays, and books connected to silent cinema. The Ten Foot Chain belongs to an unusual 1920 symposium in which Abdullah, Max Brand, E. K. Means, and P. P. Sheehan each answered the same fictional question; Abdullah contributed the opening tale, An Indian Jataka. The Thief of Bagdad, published in 1924, developed the fantasy associated with Douglas Fairbanks's silent film and drew on the Arabian Nights tradition. Library of Congress records identify Abdullah as the book's author and the H. K. Fly Company as its original publisher, while the volume itself states its basis in Fairbanks's screen fantasy. Abdullah also worked directly in film, contributing to screen stories and scripts during the period when Hollywood adapted popular adventure writing for new audiences. Together, these titles show two sides of his practice: collaborative magazine-era experimentation and a richly illustrated film-linked narrative designed to carry cinematic spectacle into prose.