'Appointment in Samarra' - The Fable and The Concept

The fable of the ‘Appointment in Samarra’ is an ancient Middle Eastern story about a servant who tries to escape death by fleeing to Samarra. The fable is used as a metaphor for the inevitability of fate and the futility of human attempts to avoid it. The fable was popularized by W. Somerset Maugham in his play Sheppy (1933) and by John O’Hara in his novel Appointment in Samarra (1934).

Graham Greene's novel echoes the fatalistic themes of the Appointment in Samarra fable is The Heart of the Matter (1948).