Aladdin

Aladdin in the Magic Garden, an illustration by Max Liebert from Ludwig Fulda's Aladin und die Wunderlampe^[1]

Aladdin (/əˈlædɪn/; Arabic: علاء الدين‎, ʻAlāʼ ad-Dīn, IPA: [ʕalaːʔ adˈdiːn]) is a folk tale of Middle Eastern origin. It is one of the tales in The Book of One Thousand and One Nights ("The Arabian Nights"), and one of the best known—but it was not part of the original Arabic text, being added in the 18th century by Frenchman Antoine Galland, who attributed the tale to Syrian storyteller Youhenna Diab.

Since it first appeared in the early 18th century "Aladdin and the Magic Lamp" has been one of the best known and most retold of all fairy stories.

Plot summary[edit]

The Sorcerer traps Aladdin in the magic cave.

The story is often "re-told" with variations – the following is a precis of the Burton translation of 1885.^[2]

Aladdin is an impoverished young ne'er-do-well, dwelling in "one of the cities of China". He is recruited by a sorcerer from the Maghreb, who passes himself off as the brother of Aladdin's late father, Mustapha the tailor, convincing Aladdin and his mother of his good will by pretending to set up the lad as a wealthy merchant. The sorcerer's real motive is to persuade young Aladdin to retrieve a wonderful oil lamp from a booby-trapped magic cave. After the sorcerer attempts to double-cross him, Aladdin finds himself trapped in the cave. Aladdin is still wearing a magic ring the sorcerer has lent him. When he rubs his hands in despair, he inadvertently rubs the ring and a jinnī (or "genie") appears who releases him from the cave so that he can return to his mother – still carrying the lamp. When his mother tries to clean the lamp, so they can sell it to buy food for their supper, a second far more powerful genie appears who is bound to do the bidding of the person holding the lamp.

With the aid of the genie of the lamp, Aladdin becomes rich and powerful and marries Princess Badroulbadour, the sultan's daughter (after magically foiling her marriage to the vizier's son). The genie builds Aladdin and his bride a wonderful palace, far more magnificent than the sultan's.

The sorcerer hears of Aladdin's good fortune, and returns; he gets his hands on the lamp by tricking Aladdin's wife (who is unaware of the lamp's importance) by offering to exchange "new lamps for old". He orders the genie of the lamp to take the palace, along with all its contents, to his home in the Maghreb. Aladdin still has the magic ring and is able to summon the lesser genie. The genie of the ring cannot directly undo any of the magic of the genie of the lamp, but he is able to transport Aladdin to the Maghreb where, with the help of the "woman's wiles" of the princess he recovers the lamp and slays the sorcerer, returning the palace to its proper place.

The sorcerer's more powerful and evil brother plots to destroy Aladdin for killing his brother by disguising himself as an old woman known for her healing powers. Badroulbadour falls for his disguise and commands the "woman" to stay in her palace in case of any illnesses. Aladdin is warned of this danger by the genie of the lamp and slays the imposter. Everyone lives happily ever after, Aladdin eventually succeeding to his father-in-law's throne.

Sources[edit]

Known along with Ali Baba as one of the "orphan tales", the story was not part of the original Nights collection and has no authentic Arabic source, but was incorporated into the book Les Mille et Une Nuits by its French translator, Antoine Galland.^[3]

John Payne quotes passages from Galland's unpublished diary: recording Galland's encounter with a Maronite Syrian scholar from Aleppo, Youhenna Diab. According to Galland's diary for March 25, 1709, he met the man he called "Hanna", who had travelled from Aleppo to Paris with Paul Lucas, a celebrated French traveller. Galland's diary reports that his translation of "Aladdin" was made in the winter of 1709–10. It was included in his volumes ix and x of the Nights, published in 1710. Payne also records the discovery in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris of two Arabic manuscripts containing Aladdin (with two more of the "interpolated" tales). One was written by a Syrian Christian priest living in Paris, named Dionysios Shawish, alias Dom Denis Chavis. The other is supposed to be a copy Mikhail Sabbagh made of a manuscript written in Baghdad in 1703. It was purchased by the Bibliothèque Nationale at the end of the nineteenth century.^[4]

As part of his work on the first critical edition of the Nights, Muhsin Mahdi has shown^[5] that both these manuscripts are forgeries—"back-translations" of Galland's text into Arabic.^[6][7]

Setting[edit]

The opening sentences of the story, in both the Galland and the Burton versions, set it in China and imply, at least, that Aladdin is Chinese.^[8] On the other hand, there is practically nothing in the rest of the story that is inconsistent with an Arabian or Middle Eastern setting. For instance, the Sultan is referred to as such rather than being called the "Emperor", as in some re-tellings, and the people in the story are Muslims: their conversation is larded with devout Muslim platitudes. A Jewish merchant buys Aladdin's wares (and incidentally cheats him), but there is no mention of Buddhists or Confucians (or other distinctively Han Chinese people).

China's ethnic makeup has long included Muslim groups, including large populations of the Hui people whose origins go back to Silk Road travellers. In addition, large communities of Muslim Chinese have been known since the Tang Dynasty, as well as Jewish communities. Some have even suggested that the intended setting may be Turkestan (encompassing Central Asia and the modern Chinese province of Xinjiang).^[9]

For all this, speculation about a "real" Chinese setting depends on a knowledge of China that the teller of a folk tale (as opposed to a geographic expert) might well not possess.^[10]

Adaptations[edit]

Adaptations vary in their faithfulness to the original story. In particular, difficulties with the "Chinese" setting are sometimes resolved by giving the story a more typical Arabian Nights background.

Books[edit]

• In 1962 the Italian branch of Walt Disney Productions published the story Paperino e la grotta di Aladino (Donald and Aladdin's Cave), written by Osvaldo Pavese and drawn by Pier Lorenzo De Vita. As in many pantomimes, the plot is combined with elements of the Ali Baba story: Uncle Scrooge leads Donald Duck and their nephews on an expedition to find the treasure of Aladdin and they encounter the Middle Eastern counterparts of the Beagle Boys. Scrooge describes Aladdin as a brigand who used the legend of the lamp to cover the origins of his ill-gotten gains. They find the cave holding the treasure - blocked by a huge rock requiring a magic password ("Open sesame") to open.^[11]
• One of the many literary retellings of the tale appears in A Book of Wizards (1966) and A Choice of Magic (1971), by Ruth Manning-Sanders.
• "The Nobility of Faith" by Jonathan Clements in the anthology Doctor Who Short Trips: The Ghosts of Christmas (2007) is a retelling of the Aladdin story in the style of the Arabian Nights, but featuring the Doctor in the role of the genie.

Pantomimes[edit]

An 1886 theatre poster advertising a production of the pantomime Aladdin.

In the United Kingdom, the story of Aladdin was dramatised in 1788 by John O'Keefe for the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden.^[12] It has been a popular subject for pantomime for over 200 years.^[13]

The traditional Aladdin pantomime is the source of the well-known pantomime character Widow Twankey (Aladdin's mother). In pantomime versions, changes in the setting and story are often made to fit it better into "China" (albeit a China situated in the East End of London rather than Medieval Baghdad), and elements of other Arabian Nights tales (in particular Ali Baba) are often introduced into the plot. One version of the "pantomime Aladdin" is Sandy Wilson's musical Aladdin, from 1979.

Since the early 1990s Aladdin pantomimes have tended to be influenced by the Disney animation. For instance, the 2007/8 production at the Birmingham Hippodrome starring John Barrowman featured songs from the Disney movies Aladdin and Mulan. Disney Theatricals itself produced a Broadway-style musical in Seattle in 2011, and another musical premiered in Toronto in 2013 and then opened on Broadway in 2014.

Films[edit]

Play media

Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp (1917)

Animated

• The 1926 animated film The Adventures of Prince Achmed (the earliest surviving animated feature film) combined the story of Aladdin with that of the prince. In this version the princess Aladdin pursues is Achmed's sister and the sorcerer is his rival for her hand. The sorcerer steals the castle and the princess through his own magic and then sets a monster to attack Aladdin, from which Achmed rescues him. Achmed then informs Aladdin he requires the lamp to rescue his own intended wife, Princess Pari Banou, from the demons of the Island of Wak Wak. They convince the Witch of the Fiery Mountain to defeat the sorcerer, and then all three heroes join forces to battle the demons.
• Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp is a 1939 Popeye the Sailor cartoon.
• The 1959 animated film 1001 Arabian Nights starring Mr. Magoo as Aladdin's uncle and produced by UPA.
• The animated feature Aladdin et la lampe merveilleuse by Film Jean Image was released in 1970 in France.^[14] The story contains many of the original elements of the story as compared to the Disney version.
• Aladdin and the Magic Lamp was a rendition in Japanese directed by Yoshikatsu Kasai, produced in Japan by Toei Animation and released in United States by The Samuel Goldwyn Company in 1982.
• Aladdin, the 1992 animated feature by Walt Disney Feature Animation (possibly currently the best known re-telling of the story). In this version several characters are renamed or amalgamated (for instance the Sorcerer and the Sultan's vizier become one character named Jafar, while the Princess is re-named Jasmine), have new motivations for their actions (the Genie of the Lamp only grants three wishes and desires freedom from his role) or are simply replaced (a magic carpet fills the place of the Ring Genie in the plot, while a royal "magic ring" is used by Jafar to find Aladdin). Names from and elements of the 1940 live-action The Thief of Bagdad are borrowed (for instance, the names "Jafar" and "Abu" and the Sultan's delight in toys. Also, the physical appearances of the Sultan and Jafar greatly resemble their counterparts in the 1940 film). The setting is moved from China to the fictional Arabian city of Agrabah, and the structure of the plot is simplified.
• Aladdin by Golden Films was released directly on video in 1992.

Live action

• Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp (1917), directed by Chester M. Franklin and Sidney A. Franklin and released by the Fox Film Corporation, told the story using child actors.^[15][16][17]
• The 1940 British movie The Thief of Bagdad borrows elements of the Aladdin story, although it also departs from the original story fairly freely: for instance the genie grants only three wishes and the minor character of the Emperor's vizier is renamed Jaffar and becomes the main villain, replacing the sorcerer from the original plot.
• A Thousand and One Nights (1945) is a tongue-in-cheek Technicolor fantasy film set in the Baghdad of the One Thousand and One Nights, starring Cornel Wilde as Aladdin, Evelyn Keyes as the genie of the magic lamp, Phil Silvers as Aladdin's larcenous sidekick, and Adele Jergens as the princess Aladdin loves.
• In 1957, the story of Aladdin was produced as a movie in Telugu entitled Allauddin Adhbhuta Deepam,^[18] Tamil Allavudeenum Arputha Vilakkum^[19] and Hindi Alladdin Ka Chirag.^[20] They were directed by T. R. Raghunath and produced by T. S. Balaiah.
• In the 1960s Bollywood produced Aladdin and Sinbad, very loosely based on the original, in which the two named heroes get to meet and share in each other's adventures. In this version, the lamp's jinni (genie) is female and Aladdin marries her rather than the princess (she becomes a mortal woman for his sake).
• A Soviet film Volshebnaia Lampa Aladdina ("Aladdin's Magic Lamp") was released in 1966.
• A Malayalam film Allauddinum Albhutha Vilakkum was made in 1979. This film was remade in Tamil as Allaudinaum Arputha Vilakkum the same year.
• Gary Wong and Rob Robson produced Aladdin the Rock Panto in 1985.
• In 1986, an Italian-American co-production (under supervision of Golan-Globus) of a modern-day Aladdin was filmed in Miami under the title Superfantagenio, starring actor Bud Spencer as the genie and his daughter Diamante as the daughter of a police sergeant.
• 2009 saw the release of the Hindi Bollywood retelling in the film Aladin.
• The New Adventures of Aladdin, France modern retelling of the tale of Aladin.
• Ashchorjyo Prodeep, a 2013 Bengali film based on the same story of a middle class man (played by Saswata Chatterjee) who accidentally finds a magic lamp containing a Jinn (played by Rajatava Dutta). This Anik Dutta film is based on a Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay novel of the same name and deals with the issues of consumerism.
• Syfy released a made-for-TV horror adaptation called Aladdin and the Death Lamp on September 15, 2012.^[21]
• Aladdin, an upcoming Disney live-action remake of the 1992 animated film.

Television[edit]

• Aladdin appeared in Episode 297 of Sesame Street performed by Frank Oz. This version was made from a large lavender live-hand Anything Muppet.
• A segment of the Marty Feldman episode of The Muppet Show retells the story of Aladdin with The Great Gonzo in the role of Aladdin and Marty Feldman playing the Genie of the Lamp.
• In 1986, the program Faerie Tale Theatre based an episode on the story called "Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp", directed by Tim Burton and starring Robert Carradine
• Aladdin featured in an episode of Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child the story was set in "Ancient China" but otherwise had a very tenuous connection with the original plot.
• Aladdin features as one of five stories in the Hallmark Entertainment TV miniseries Arabian Nights from 2000, featuring Jason Scott Lee as Aladdin and John Leguizamo as both the genies.
• An adaptation of the Disney's animated film was featured in the 6th season of ABC's hit TV show Once Upon a Time and on its spin-off, Once Upon a Time in Wonderland.
• A 2018 live action Indian show Aladdin - Naam Toh Suna Hoga is an SAB TV fantasy show starring Siddharth Nigam and Avneet Kaur.

Musical theatre[edit]

New Crowns for Old, a 19th-century British cartoon based on the Aladdin story (Disraeli as Abanazer from the pantomime version of Aladdin offering Queen Victoria an Imperial crown (of India) in exchange for a Royal one).

• The New Aladdin was a successful Edwardian musical comedy in 1906.
• Adam Oehlenschläger wrote his verse drama Aladdin in 1805. Carl Nielsen wrote incidental music for this play in 1918–19. Ferruccio Busoni set some verses from the last scene of Oehlenschläger's Aladdin in the last movement of his Piano Concerto, Op. 39.
• In 1958, a musical comedy version of Aladdin was written especially for US television with a book by S.J. Perelman and music and lyrics by Cole Porter. A London stage production followed in 1959 in which a 30-year-old Bob Monkhouse played the part of Aladdin at the Coliseum Theatre.^[22]
• Broadway Junior has released Aladdin, Jr., a children's musical based on the music and screenplay of the Disney animation.
• The Disney's Aladdin: A Musical Spectacular musical stage show has been running in Disney California Adventure since January 2003.
• Starkid Productions released the musical "Twisted" on YouTube in 2013, an Aladdin spin-off that is told from the royal vizier's point of view.
• A Disney Theatrical production of Aladdin debuted in 2011 in Seattle, and opened on Broadway at the New Amsterdam Theatre on March 20, 2014.
• Aladdin; book by Jim Eiler; Music by Jim Eiler and Jeanne Bargy; Lyrics by Jim Eiler.^[23]

Manga[edit]

• The Japanese manga series Magi is not a direct adaptation, but features Aladdin as the main character of the story and includes many characters from other One Thousand and One Nights stories. An adaptation of this comic to animation was made in October 2012.

Video games[edit]

• The 1993 game Disney's Aladdin for Sega Genesis was developed by Virgin Games and Disney Software and followed the Disney movie's plot.
• The video game Sonic and the Secret Rings is heavily based on the story of Aladdin, and both genies appear in the story. The genie of the lamp is the main antagonist, known in the game as the Erazor Djinn, and the genie of the ring, known in the game as Shahra, appears as Sonic's sidekick and guide through the game. Furthermore, the ring genie is notably lesser than the lamp genie in the story.
• The Disney version of Aladdin appears throughout the Disney/Square Enix crossover series Kingdom Hearts, with Agrabah being a visitable world.
• In 2010, Anuman Interactive launched Aladin and the Enchanted Lamp, a hidden object game on PC and MAC.^[24]
• In 2016 Saturn Animation Studio has produced an interactive adaptation of The Magical Lamp of Aladdin for mobile devices.

Pachinko[edit]

• Sammy Corporation began manufacturing pachinko and pachislot machines based on Aladdin since 1989. The Aladdin series of pachinko and pachislot machines is owned and manufactured by Sega Sammy Holdings, which has sold 520,000 Aladdin units to pachinko parlors and amusement arcades.^[25]

Gallery[edit]

• 

  Aladdin trades the silver plates to a Jew for a piece of gold

• 

  The Sorcerer tricks a handmaiden and offers "new lamps for old lamps".

• 

  Aladdin in Disney's stage show.

See also[edit]

• 54521 Aladdin, asteroid
• Arabian mythology
• Genie in popular culture
• The Bronze Ring
• Jack and His Golden Snuff-Box
• The Tinder Box

References[edit]

Bibliography[edit]

• Allen, Roger (2005). The Arabic Literary Heritage: The Development of Its Genres and Criticism. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521485258.
• Burton, Sir Richard (2009). Aladdin and the Magic Lamp. Digireads.com Publishing. ISBN 1-4209-3193-8.
• El-Shamy, Hasan (2004). "The Oral Connections of the Arabian Nights:". in The Arabian Nights Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9781576072042.
• Honour, Hugh (1973). Chinoiserie: The Vision of Cathay. Ican. ISBN 978-0064300391.
• Irwin, Robert (2004). Arabian Nights, The: A Companion. Tauris Parke Paperbacks. ISBN 1 86064 983 1.
• Littman (1986). "Alf Layla wa Layla". in Encyclopedia of Islam (2nd ed.). Brill.
• Dobie, Madeleine (2008). "Translation in the contact zone: Antoine Galland's Mille et une nuits: contes arabes". In Makdisi, S., Nussbaum, F. (eds). The Arabian Nights in Historical Context. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199554157.CS1 maint: Uses editors parameter (link)
• Payne, John (1901). Aladdin and the Enchanted Lamp and Other Stories. London.
• Plotz, Judith Ann (2001). Romanticism and the vocation of childhood. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 0-312-22735-3.
• Mahdi, Muhsin (1994). The Thousand and One Nights Part 3. Brill. ISBN 90-04-10106-3.
• Moon, Krystyn (2005). Yellowface. Rutgers University Press. p. 23. ISBN 0-8135-3507-7.
• Witchard, Anne Veronica (2017). Thomas Burke's Dark Chinoiserie. Routledge. ISBN 9780754658641.

Further reading[edit]

• Haddawy, Husain (2008). The Arabian Nights. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0393331660.
• Nun, Katalin; Stewart, Dr Jon (2014). Volume 16, Tome I: Kierkegaard's Literary Figures and Motifs: Agamemnon to Guadalquivir. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. ISBN 9781472441362.

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Aladdin.

• The Arabian Nights by Andrew Lang at Project Gutenberg
• Aladdin, or, The wonderful lamp, by Adam Gottlob Oehlenschläger, William Blackwood & Sons, 1863
• "Alaeddin and the Enchanted Lamp", in John Payne, Oriental Tales vol. 13
• Alaeddin, by Sir Richard Francis Burton. (in HTML and annotated)
• The Thousand Nights and a Night in several classic translations, with additional material, including Payne's introduction [2] and quotes from Galland's diary.