Vathek

Valthek by William Beckford is a gothic novel and fictionalized account of the Caliph Al Wathiq. This novel chronicles the fall from power of the Caliph Vathek, who renounces Islam and engages in a series of licentious and deplorable activities designed to gain him supernatural powers. At the end of the novel, instead of attaining these powers, Vathek descends into a hell ruled by the demon Eblis where he is doomed to wander endlessly and speechlessly.