For eight hundred years the wit of Bar Hebraeus has delighted readers across the Middle East and beyond. A Syriac Orthodox bishop and one of the great scholars of the thirteenth century, he gathered hundreds of funny, shrewd, and touching sayings from Greek philosophers, Persian and Arabic storytellers, desert monks, and the courts of kings, and set them down as The Laughable Stories. Here we meet the wise man who answers a fool's question with an even better question, the miser who treats his friend to a feast of words, the doctor with a remedy for everything except the bill, and the judge whose verdicts leave everyone surprised. Warm, playful, and quietly profound, these stories show laughter as a path to insight. This new edition renders the classic in clear, present-day English, faithful to the original's spirit and meaning, with helpful notes and an introduction to the author and his world. Part of The World Scriptures Library.