Приближение к Аль-Мутасиму

Short story by Jorge Luis Borges

"The Approach to Al Mu'tasim" (original Spanish title: "El acercamiento a Almotásim") is a fantasy short story written in 1935 by Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges. In his autobiographical essay, Borges wrote about "The Approach to Al Mu'tasim", "it now seems to me to foreshadow and even to set the pattern for those tales that were somehow awaiting me, and upon which my reputation as a storyteller was to be based."

Written in 1935, "The Approach to Al Mu'tasim" was first published as an essay in Borges's 1936 philosophical essay collection A History of Eternity (Historia de la eternidad). It was labeled a short story when it was reprinted in 1942 in Borges's first short fiction collection, The Garden of Forking Paths (El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan), which became a subsection of Ficciones when that was published in 1944. (Si murgh means "thirty birds".) At times he demonstrates great knowledge of detailed information, but at other times he cannot grasp the most basic concepts. His narrative is uncertain and inconstant. His confusion serves to emphasize the incomprehension of the main character of the fictitious book as he goes on his pilgrimage. Borges's use of an allegory to shed light on a detective story shows his use of religious doctrines for aesthetic value.

In his autobiographical essay, Borges writes that when "The Approach to Al Mu'tasim" was first published, the people who read it "took it at face value, and one of my friends even ordered a copy from London."

Psychedelic rock band Blaak Heat named their 2016 album, Shifting Mirrors, after the subtitle of Bahadur's fictional book mentioned in the short story. The album also contains a track named after The Approach To Al Mu'Tasim.