The detective-story form predates Sherlock Holmes by roughly a millennium

Evidence

For the 10-year-old (Ages 9–11): This tale, written down by the 9th or 10th century, may be the world’s first detective story — a murder mystery solved by a vizier within a time limit. Long before Sherlock Holmes. What does it mean that the detective story is so old? — , A Year of World Stories, 1915

Categorization

• QUESTION: The claim it is the world’s first detective story is asserted with hedging (‘may be’); worth chasing what other early detective precedents exist.
• SEED: Article angle: the deep antiquity of genre forms — detective fiction, adventure, horror — as prefigured in the Nights.