The Carpet from Bagdad

In a tapestry woven with threads of ancient tradition and burgeoning capitalist greed, Harold McGrath’s 'The Carpet from Bagdad' unfurls a sprawling narrative that traverses continents and moral landscapes. At its heart lies the formidable Mohamed, a loyal retainer tasked with safeguarding the fabled Sacred Carpet of Bagdad, a relic imbued with profound cultural and spiritual significance. Simultaneously, across the Atlantic in the bustling metropolis of New York, the avaricious banker Arthur Wadsworth orchestrates a familial betrayal, disinheriting his brother Horace. This act of fraternal perfidy propels Horace into the shadowy embrace of a criminal syndicate, their nefarious scheme revolving around the audacious robbery of the Wadsworth Bank. Their chosen vector of ingress? A subterranean tunnel originating from the seemingly innocuous adjacent residence of George P. A. Jones, an antique dealer whose life is about to become inextricably entangled with destiny. The narrative then takes an exotic turn, as the gang, with Horace in tow, tracks Jones to the sun-baked lands of Egypt and eventually the labyrinthine souks of Bagdad. Here, Horace executes the audacious theft of the Sacred Carpet, subsequently offloading it to the unsuspecting Jones. Amidst this escalating intrigue, Fortune Chedsoye, the guileless daughter of a gang member, finds herself captivated by Jones, her innocence a fragile counterpoint to the surrounding machinations. When the zealous Mohamed, driven by an unyielding sense of duty, threatens Jones’s life to reclaim the sacred artifact, Fortune, in a moment of protective ingenuity, secretes the carpet amongst her late mother’s effects. The ensuing desert ordeal, a harrowing crucible of torture inflicted by Mohamed upon Jones, Wadsworth, and Fortune, reaches a fever pitch before a cataclysmic sandstorm grants them a miraculous reprieve. The narrative circles back to New York, where Wadsworth, now a complicit participant, rejoins the gang at Jones’s abode. Fortune and Jones, stumbling upon the crooks' tunneling operation, are confronted with a moral quandary. Jones, demonstrating an unexpected streak of compassion, grants the would-be thieves a two-hour grace period before alerting the authorities. The Sacred Carpet, a witness to this cross-continental saga of avarice, loyalty, and redemption, remains with Fortune and Jones, its journey concluded. Meanwhile, in the distant East, Mohamed, a figure of stoic resignation, bows to the inscrutable will of Allah, acknowledging the capricious dance of fate that has played out.