Then I tried to explain to my driver what I wanted. Not knowing the Arabic for "skull," I said I wanted the head of a camel, râs al-jamal. Oh, said Tejani, that would be easy. We'd stop at Shendi, where I could buy a camel, cut off its head, and take it with me! My wife is heartily thankful that I did not follow up this suggestion.
L. Sprague de Camp
Book information
"THE DRAGON OF THE ISHTAR GATE...
is a remarkably convincing recreation of the third century B.C. in Persia in the reign of Xerxes ... It is a picaresque story much in the vein of THE ARABIAN NIGHTS ... Bessas' adventures are a chronicle of the deceit, trickery, cruelty and raw courage that has always been the hallmark of the Middle East. Strange, fantastic and marvelous things happen along his route beset by gods, demons, and sorcerors and the reader is irresistibly drawn into the reality of the superstition by a devout believer in it."
—Dr. George Woodbury
"A flashy farrago of fights, feints, flights, fornication, fevers, feasts, facts, folklore, fun, and ferocity is this historical romance from the prolific pen of an author better known for science fiction, fantasy, and solid volumes like LOST CONTINENTS and handbooks on inventions."
—Library Journal
To Sam Freiha of Beirut,
the best tourist guide in the whole Middle East.
LANCER BOOKS 
NEW YORK
A LANCER BOOK • 1968
THE DRAGON OF THE ISHTAR GATE
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 61-12511
Copyright © 1961 by L. Sprague de Camp
All rights reserved
Printed In the U.S.A.
With the exception of actual historical personages, the characters are entirely the product of the author's Imagination and have no relation to any person In real life.
LANCER BOOKS, INC.
1560 BROADWAY
NEW YORK, N.Y. 10036