THE ZAMBEEL, UMRO AYYAR & TILISM-E-HOSHRUBA

There are tales of magic, and then there are tales that are magic. Such is the Tilism-e-Hoshruba; a story so rich, stories are told about how it came to be.

A zambeel is a strange, enchanted thing, a master of disguise. In Umro’s hands, it looks like a humble leather pouch … in your hands, it could look like a book.

Don’t believe me? Try it. Just open the covers of a book and you set are free from the constraints of space and time. All the treasures of the world - present or future, real or imagined - are now at your disposal. You may travel to another galaxy, or halfway across the globe. You can pull out a thought from the mind of someone who lived centuries ago, or make friends with someone who never lived at all. Within the pages of a book, you will find new ideas, new dreams, new friends, new possibilities, new worlds.

Every book is a zambeel.

Through this saga of high adventure and fantasy, fairies and djinns, romance and intrigue, there wanders a trickster: Umro Ayyar. No jadoogar or monster can get the better of him, no trouble or trap can hold him. However dire the problem, Umro Ayyar finds a solution in his Zambeel - a bag of wonders, which contains all that has ever existed, or may yet exist. In moments of crisis, Umro reaches in to the Zambeel and what he pulls out is always exactly what was needed.

Join Ibby Pakistan in our quest to bring the magic of reading to children all across our beautiful, storied, country. Come. Let the adventure begin.