The Magic Carpet Magazine Volume 4 Number 1. This issue actually contains two Howard stories. ‘Alleys of Darkness‘ where he used the pseudonym Patrick Ervin and ‘The Shadow of the Vulture’. 

“The Shadow of the Vulture” is a short story, first published in The Magic Carpet Magazine, January 1934. The story introduces the character of Red Sonya of Rogatino, who later became the inspiration for the popular character Red Sonja, archetype of the chainmail-bikini clad female warrior. The latter has little in common other than the name and that she is a warrior.

Unlike Howard’s better-known fantasy work, “The Shadow of the Vulture” is historical fiction, set in the 16th century. It uses the career of Ottoman sultan Suleiman the Magnificent (also known as Sultan Suleiman I), the aftermath of the Battle of Mohács (1526) and the later Siege of Vienna of 1529 as a backdrop for imaginary characters and events.

Contents

• 515 • Speed Planes for Moscow • short story by S. Gordon Gurwit
• 515 • Speed Planes for Moscow • interior artwork by Jayem Wilcox
• 530 • The River of Perfumes • short story by Warren Hastings Miller
• 530 • The River of Perfumes • interior artwork by Jayem Wilcox
• 541 • Alleys of Darkness • [Dennis Dorgan] • short story by Robert E. Howard [as by Patrick Ervin]
• 541 • Alleys of Darkness • interior artwork by Jayem Wilcox
• 551 • The Shadow of the Vulture • non-genre • novelette by Robert E. Howard
• 551 • The Shadow of the Vulture • interior artwork by uncredited
• 577 • Five Merchants Who Met in a Tea-House • short story by Frank Owen
• 583 • The Little Affair of the Eiffel Tower • short fiction by Arthur Morris Crosby
• 583 • The Little Affair of the Eiffel Tower • interior artwork by Jayem Wilcox
• 594 • Passport to the Desert • novelette by G. G. Pendarves
• 595 • Passport to the Desert • interior artwork by uncredited
• 613 • The Spider Woman • novelette by Seabury Quinn
• 613 • The Spider Woman • interior artwork by Jayem Wilcox
• 632 • Hindoo Student’s Prayer • poem by Katharine C. Turner
• 633 • The Souk (Magic Carpet Magazine, January 1934) • essay by uncredited
• 633 • Letter (Magic Carpet Magazine, January 1934) • essay by Bruce Bryan
• 634 • Letter (Magic Carpet Magazine, January 1934) • essay by Thomas S. Gardner
• 635 • The Mayor’s Four Chins • short story by James W. Bennett
• 640 • Rivers • poem by Frank Owen [as by Hung Long Tom]

Notes

Edited by Farnsworth Wright
Page numbers do not include covers. Page numbers are continuous through volume; this issue starts on p. 513.
“The Souk” is a combined editorial and letters to the editor.

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