Frances Sheridan published The History of Nourjahad in 1767. The story describes Nourjahad's life, who is tricked by the sultan Schemzeddin to believe that he has become immortal and that his period of sleep last for several years at a time.

Walter Scott refers to Nourjahad in a letter to J. G. Lockhart (dated July 19, 1819), in which he discusses Dr. Morris' Peter's Letters to his Kinsfolk:

Dr. Morris ought, like Nourjahad, to revive every half century, to record the fleeting manners of the age, and the interesting features of those who will only be known to posterity by their work. (404)

Illusion, or the Trances of Nourjahad, by Mrs. Frances Sheridan, opened at Drury Lane on 25 November 1813. The play was mistakenly attributed to Byron, who sarcastically commented upon this in his poem 'The Devil's Drive'.