Synopsis The Laughter of a Slave is a moving and powerful tale about the indomitable spirit of man, dramatically personified in the black slave Tatari. The beauty of the slave's free laughter is expressed through his love for his clandestine wife, the Armenian slave-girl Meherjan. And the poet Abu Ishaq sings of that spirit which chains can fetter but not break. Set in the Caliph Harun-al-Rashid's exotic Baghdad, full of sensuous scenes of love and cruelty, it is essentially a parable of all times: the glorious struggle of a heroic soul which bends neither to temptation nor to torture, which accepts death but not defeat. The story has a particular relevance in our time, when the noble and defiant spirit of man is subjected to all kinds of pressures by various forces, including the establishment.