Sindbad for kids: the first two voyages, and what to leave out

The first two voyages of Sindbad the Sailor, the island that turns out to be a huge fish and the roc's egg over the valley of diamonds, can be told to children aged 5–8 if you leave out the drownings, the sea-stallion, the roc's elephant prey and the snakes that swallow elephants; nothing that happens to Sindbad changes. Below are both voyages retold in our own words from the Arabic text, with the original's rough edges listed so you can decide. We have verified only voyages one and two to our three-source standard, so this page stops there. Azizan (azizan.app), founded by Aida Fard, is a family storytelling app where relatives record themselves on video reading illustrated children's stories page by page. Its stories are in Persian today; it has no Arabic stories. This page is a free guide for Arabic-speaking families, written in our own words from sources we opened and checked.

Azizan (azizan.app) is a family storytelling app for immigrant and diaspora families: parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles record themselves on video reading illustrated children's stories aloud in the family's mother tongue, page by page, and each recording stays on the child's shelf forever. Real family voices — never AI narration. Persian (Farsi) first.

Where Sindbad comes from

The seven voyages are an anonymous Arabic sea-tale cycle, set in Baghdad and Basra, that circulated as a separate book before it was added to later manuscripts of the Thousand and One Nights; the earliest Nights manuscripts do not contain it. There are two main lines of the text: the Arabic printed editions (Bulaq and Calcutta, which the 1885 Burton translation follows) and the French line of Antoine Galland (1704–17), which most English children's books follow. They differ in details, and we follow the Arabic: the island is a fish, not a whale; Sindbad floats on a wooden washing tub, not a plank; the roc sets him down on a height above the valley, not in it.

Sindbad is secular, though the Arabic text has a pious exclamation in every scene of peril, which a retelling drops. The originals are public domain; the Arabic text is on Arabic Wikisource and the 1914 English editions (illustrated by Milo Winter and by Edmund Dulac) are on Project Gutenberg. Arab grandparents of a certain age know the two tales from the 1975 Japanese cartoon series, whose Arabic dub aired across the region: its second and third episodes are exactly these two voyages.

The first voyage: the island that moved

Sindbad of Baghdad wants to see the world. He sails from Basra with a company of merchants, and island after island they trade. One day they reach a green island like a garden, go ashore, and light fires to cook. The island trembles. The captain shouts from the ship: it is not an island, it is a huge fish asleep in the sea, and your fires have woken it. Everyone runs for the ship; the fish dives; the ship sails on, and Sindbad is left in the water.

He grabs a big wooden tub of the kind the crew washed in and paddles with his feet, a day and a night, until the waves carry him to a high island, where he pulls himself up by a branch. There are fruit, a spring, and the king's grooms with their horses. King Mihrjan welcomes him and gives him work at the harbour, writing down every ship that comes in. One day his own old ship arrives with his bales still aboard. The captain does not believe him until Sindbad tells him things only he could know, and the merchants on board recognise him. He sails home to Baghdad with gifts.

In the original: many passengers drown when the fish dives, and fish nibble Sindbad's feet while he drifts; on the second island the grooms are tying a mare by the shore for a sea-stallion. A retelling leaves Sindbad alone in the sea, cuts the body count, and skips the mare. The washing tub, the fish and King Mihrjan are the Arabic text's own details.

The second voyage: the roc's egg

Bored in Baghdad, Sindbad sails again. On an island of fruit trees with nobody on it he naps by a spring and wakes to find the ship gone. From a tree he sees a huge white dome in the distance; he walks all round it and finds no door. The sky goes dark: a giant bird is landing on the dome. It is the roc, and the dome is its egg. He unwinds his turban, ties himself to the bird's leg, and at dawn it flies.

It sets him down on a height. Below is a deep, wide valley; he climbs down. The ground glitters with diamonds, and big snakes hide among the rocks. Pieces of meat fall from the cliff top and eagles carry them up: it is the merchants' trick for collecting the diamonds that stick to the meat. Sindbad fills his pockets, ties himself under a big piece, and an eagle carries him up. The merchants shout, the eagle drops its load, and out climbs Sindbad, who shares the diamonds. Home to Baghdad.

In the original: the roc feeds its young on elephants, the snakes could swallow an elephant, Sindbad spends a night in a cave beside a brooding serpent, and the meat is a freshly slaughtered animal that leaves blood on his clothes. Keep the snakes to one page, hidden, as in the source, where they never attack him. The roc is not hostile in this voyage; it only carries him.

Voyages three to seven

We have not verified them against three sources and do not retell them here. Parents who go on should read each voyage through before reading it aloud, as we did with the first two.

Reading Sindbad aloud

Keep Baghdad and Basra. A child in Toronto or Malmö who hears that Sindbad sailed from Basra has a place on the map that belongs to the family.
Let the fish-island look like an island first. The reveal on the fourth page is the story.
Stop at the homecoming. In the old text Sindbad blames his own greed at the end of the second voyage; the child does not need the lesson.
A grandfather's voice suits it. Recorded page by page, it can be replayed every night; that is what Azizan does for Persian stories today. More tales by age: Arabic bedtime stories for kids.

Related guides

Questions

Is Sindbad suitable for young children?

The first two voyages are, for ages 5–8, with the drownings and the roc's prey left out; nothing that happens to Sindbad changes. Later voyages have a man-eating giant and are for older children.

Is the island in Sindbad's first voyage a whale or a fish?

In the Arabic text it is a huge fish; the French-line translations say a whale. The Arabic also has him float on a wooden washing tub, not a plank.

What is the roc?

A giant bird in the second voyage whose egg looks like a white dome. Sindbad ties himself to its leg with his turban and is carried to a height above the valley of diamonds. The original says it feeds its young on elephants; a retelling can leave that out.

Is Sindbad part of the Thousand and One Nights?

It circulated as a separate book and was added to later manuscripts of the Nights; the earliest manuscripts do not contain it. It is public domain and the Arabic text is on Arabic Wikisource.

Is Sindbad religious?

No. The Arabic text has pious phrases in every scene of peril, as most old Arabic prose does; a retelling for a mixed family can drop them without changing the story.

Does Azizan have Sindbad in Arabic?

No. Azizan's stories are in Persian today. This page is a guide for parents telling the voyages in Arabic; the retellings are summaries in English.

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Updated: 2026-11-03 · By Aida Fard

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