"The People of the Black Circle" is one of the original novellas about Conan the Cimmerian, written by American author Robert E. Howard and first published in Weird Tales magazine in three parts over the September, October and November 1934 issues.

[1] It is set in the fictional Hyborian Age and concerns Conan kidnapping an exotic princess from Vendhya (prehistoric India), while foiling a nefarious plot of world conquest by the Black Seers of Yimsha.

Due to its epic scope and atypical Hindustan flavor, the story is considered an undisputed classic of Conan lore and is often cited by Howard scholars as one of his best tales.

Inside his subterranean temple, Yimsha agrees to an alliance with Kerim Shah, a mercenary working for King Yezdigerd of Turan, who had arranged for Bunda Chand's assassination so he could conquer Vendhya in the resulting turmoil.

Soon after, Kerim Shah and a tribe of Irakzais (Orakzai Pashtun people), hired by King Yezdigerd to capture Yasmina, encounter Conan.

Their respective roles pull them in opposite directions - she is Queen of Vendhiya, he's leader of nomadic hillmen engaged in constant robbery against Yasmina's domain.

In the 1957 novel Return of Conan, Björn Nyberg and L. Sprague de Camp allow the two rivals to encounter each other again for one night of intensive love-making, many years later - when he is already King of Aquilonia and there is no more a conflict of interest.

"[3] Fritz Leiber praised the story lavishly, comparing it to "the melodramas of Marlowe" and declaring, "it has stirring language, strong motives, awesome sorcerers, brilliant magical devices, sympathetic hero-villains, and a Conan subdued enough to make the outcome interesting.