The Syndicate Behind the Real Aladdin

In 1867, Baghdad’s alleys whispered about a boy named Adil al-Din. Surviving by sleight of hand, Adil thought he had stolen coins from a foreign merchant. Instead, he found a heavy, leather-bound ledger—coded pages filled with debts, bribes, and the skeleton of the city’s corruption.

With it, Adil blackmailed judges, exposed ministers, and played the powerful against each other. From the slums to the palace, he rose as if guided by a genie. But the book was never lost. It was meant to be stolen, bait from a syndicate older than the palace itself. When the chaos peaked, Adil was made the scapegoat, erased from record, while the ledger returned to its true owners.