While the movie is set in a city based on Baghdad, Iraq, Aladdin contains aspects of multiple Middle Eastern and Asian cultures. The sultan's palace in Aladdin, left, and the Taj Mahal in Agra, India.
Disney's Aladdin (the 1992 animated version, not the 2019 live action remake) is set in a fictional city called Agrabah, which is based off Baghdad, Iraq (which was supposed to be the setting of the film, but was changed to Agrabah during production due to the Gulf War of 1990–91 which involved the Iraqi invasion of ...
In fact, records show that the folktale on which Disney's Aladdin is based is originally set in China, and later mixed with a story set in Persia as told by a Syrian woman, then translated and added to 1001 Arabian Nights by a French man, adding to the layers of cultural conflation and Orientalism at play.
Agrabah is a fictional sultanate that serves as the setting for the Aladdin franchise. Aladdin was initially intended to be set in the Iraqi city of Baghdad, but after the Gulf War happened, the name Agrabah was chosen as an approximate anagram of the name of the city of Baghdad.
Aladdin opens in the capital of “one of China's vast and wealthy kingdoms”, but according to its latest translator, the story's Syrian roots make it “an artefact from a destroyed world”.
Galland's tale isn't even set in the Middle East - it's actually set in a Chinese city, and Aladdin is not an orphan but a poor Chinese boy living with his mother, with the only other location mentioned in the story being Maghreb, North Africa, where the sorcerer is from.
It is deliberately not attributed to any specific modern country. The implication is that it is in what one might call Arabia or that part of the Middle East, rather than South Asian like Pakistan. So no, Princess Jasmine is not Pakistani.
The character of Aladdin originally taken from One Thousand and One Nights book, a famous collection of Middle Eastern folk tales between the 8th and 13th Century. The book was first translated into English over 400 years later and renamed the Arabian Nights. But, however, the story was actually set in China.
Interestingly, the original Aladdin folk tale was vague on its setting, as well: In Richard Burton's popular 1885 English translation, Aladdin lives in China. (Victorian illustrations depicted the characters as Chinese.) Others have suggested the setting was intended to be Turkestan in Central Asia.
Mena Massoud, who plays Aladdin, was born in Cairo, Naomi Scott (Jasmine) is of Anglo-Indian descent, Numan Acar (Hakim) is Turkish, and Nasim Pedrad (Dalia) and Navid Negahban (The Sultan) are Iranian.
Prince of Persia was enormously influential. Aladdin by a long shot, it traces back to the 18th century. The Book of 1,001 Nights came first, obviously. But the Disney movie has very little to do with the original story.
Universally accepted, the character's status as Disney's first Arabic princess "won over hearts" upon the film's 1992 release, according to Andre Tartar of Vulture.com.
In the Disney versions he's from the fictional country of Agrabah (Agrabian?) In Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp (1982) he's from an unnamed arabian country. In The Wonders of Aladdin (1961) like in most other retellings of the story he's from Baghdad.
Disney's Aladdin (the 1992 animated version, not the 2019 live action remake) is set in a fictional city called Agrabah, which is based off Baghdad, Iraq (which was supposed to be the setting of the film, but was changed to Agrabah during production due to the Gulf War of 1990–91 which involved the Iraqi invasion of ...
“Fantasy middle Eastern”. He is neither identifiably Persian nor Arab in fact, he is really just an orientalist pastiche of vaguely “Middle-Eastern” background.
Aladdin is an impoverished young ne'er-do-well, dwelling in "one of the cities of Ancient 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 ...
The fictional kingdom of Agrabah ruled over by Princess Jasmine's father, The Sultan, has no link to a singular geographical location in our world, but draws inspiration from the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, the bustling souks of North Africa and the remarkable architecture seen in Indian buildings such as the Taj Mahal.
Moana as she appears in Moana (2016). Inspired by Polynesian mythology, Moana is depicted as the strong-willed daughter of a chief of a Polynesian village, who is chosen by the ocean itself to reunite a mystical relic with the goddess Te Fiti.
She comes from the South Asian-inspired Kingdom of Sherabad, which Jafar wanted to conquer to expand Agrabah. She also is mentioned to have been the victim of murder, which caused her husband to keep their daughter inside the palace for protection.
Jasmine is a secular creation by a wealthy company. It is incidental that she is Arabic, and practically irrelevant that she is Muslim, as she has zero connection with Islam or actual Muslim women.
