This chapter examines translations and adaptations of the European novel into Arabic during the period 1835–1925. More specifically, it considers the ways in which the novel and its translation into Arabic drew on and transformed much older forms of local, popular narrative knowledge that previously had been beyond the reach of authorizing discourses and structures. The chapter begins with a discussion of works of translated fiction that were published serially in journals and periodicals as part of the flowering of the periodical press. It then looks at the emergence of unattributed and falsely attributed translations, or what scholars of translation studies call pseudo-translations, before turning to Arabic novels that show how adaptations of the mysteries genre spoke directly to a local and contemporary social imaginary. The chapter also explores the relationship between fiction adaptation and the medieval Arab storytelling tradition.