YMMV / The City of Brass

• Values Dissonance:
  • Within the story, Solomon's demand for al-Aziz to convert to Islam and the subsequent war when al-Aziz refuses are supposed to be a righteous act. On the premise that there is a single religious truth and that this truth is Islam, most readers should be able to follow along. However, Solomon is not primarily motivated by religious truth, but by a desire to bed al-Aziz's daughter. This is a lot less universally justifiable. Solomon's eternal imprisonment of the djinn that were minding their own business until he demanded they submit to him also comes across as excessively cruel and tyrannical if one doesn't view Solomon as divinely right.
  • The aesop of "The City of Brass" is that all earthly adornments are nothing in the face of inevitable death. Therefore, it is better to be humble, kind, and to favor spiritual growth over any other gain. The problem is that the aesop is not applied equally from most standpoints. Kush and his entire court find themselves doomed because of Kush's egotism, while Tedmur and her entire city get doomed for no discernible reason other than that they're wealthy. Unlike with Kush, there's no mention of egotism. This is contrasted by Caliph Abd al-Malik, who gets to send out a whole expedition, some of which members do not survive, just for his personal amusement, and Solomon, who seemingly gets to do whatever he wants and even is praised for being deserving of it all.
• Viewer Name Confusion: There are quite a few manuscripts of "The City of Brass" and among the varying details between them are some characters' names. And differences also occur in translations when the translators have to decide how to present names in the Arabic script to another script. Tedmur, for instance, is also rendered as Tadmurah and Tamuz, while in BNF #3668 her name is Ramkiyah (ibnat Amalaq ibn Kanan ibn Ad ibn Shaddad ibn Ad al-Akbar) instead and Tunis #04576 her name is Zuhrah. On the transliteration side, Abdussamad ibn Abd al-Kuddus may also be rendered as Abd al-Samad ibn abd al-Qaddus and Dahish ibn Amash as Dazmish ibn al-Anash.