Zakariyya Tamir (b. 1931) is generally considered to be one of the most innovative authors in contemporary Arabic literature. One characteristic of his short stories is how they take up and retell the historical and literary traditions in a variety of ways: in his texts Tamir works - and plays - with subjects, literary models, conventions, lore, and popular folk fictions. It is this work with and on tradition which this study explores in narratological and intertextual analyses. The study shows how Tamir narrates tradition and how he - through this very same narrative act - forges a new concept of tradition.