Theories of narrative framing often resort to the Arabian Nights as a prime example of how frame tales and embedded tales interact. This contribution aims to move beyond the classical understanding of narrative framing by exploring a contemporary Tunisian example. In his novel Mayār: sarāb al-jamājim thumma māʾ [Mayār: The Mirage of Skulls, then Water] (2017), Muṣṭafā al-Kīlānī (b. 1953) revives two layers of literary history. His first point of reference is the modern Tunisian author Maḥmūd al-Masʿadī (1911–2004), whose literary œuvre serves as a source of al-Kīlānī's imaginary, style, and characters. The story of Mayār, however, reaches back even further to the accounts that entwine around the ayyām al-ʿarab, the early Arab battles. The author's dialogue with these two sources allows for a multi-dimensional reading of narrative framing, including paratextual, intratextual, and metatextual elements, thus serving as a textual interpretation of "temporal communities" across several layers of literary history.