It is one of the best-known tales associated with The Book of One Thousand and One Nights (The Arabian Nights), despite not being part of the original text; it was added by the Frenchman Antoine Galland, based on a folk tale that he heard from the Syrian Maronite storyteller Hanna Diyab.
The tale of Aladdin is found in The Arabian Nights tales or One Thousand and One Nights. An enchanting and magical collection of fairy tales of Middle Eastern origin. The Arabian Nights stories were first introduced to Europe in a French translation by Antoine Galland in 1704.
In May 2019, Disney released a live-action version of Aladdin, which tells the story of an affable street-urchin who accepts the services of a trickster genie to win over the sultan's daughter, Jasmine. The film is an adaptation of a folktale from the 18th-century, Arabic-language collection, A Thousand and One Nights.
The tale of Aladdin is one of the most famous stories from "One Thousand and One Nights" or "The Arabian Nights," a collection of Middle Eastern folktales.
The Thousand and One Nights, collection of largely Middle Eastern and Indian stories of uncertain date and authorship. Its tales of Aladdin, Ali Baba, and Sindbad the Sailor have almost become part of Western folklore, though these were added to the collection only in the 18th century in European adaptations.
Aladdin and the Magic Lamp | Fairy Tales and Bedtime Stories for Kids | Adventure Story
Is Aladdin based on an old fable or true story?
But, though those tales were of medieval origin, Aladdin may be a more recent invention. Scholars have not found a manuscript of the story that predates the version published in 1712 by Galland, who wrote in his diary that he first heard the tale from a Syrian storyteller from Aleppo named Hanna Diyab on May 8, 1709.
If Ritchie's film was based on the original story, the entire cast would be Chinese - apart from the sorcerer, who would be North African - but as it's said to be a faithful remake of Disney's animation, Aladdin and Princess Jasmine should really be Middle Eastern or South Asian, despite the film not being an authentic ...
Supervising animator Glen Keane was inspired by various teen idols and movie actors in designing Aladdin's physique. The main inspiration for his appearance was originally Michael J. Fox in Back to the Future, but later changed to Tom Cruise. Keane based the movement of Aladdin's loose pants on rapper MC Hammer.
The original Aladdin story was actually set in China. Aladdin is one of the stories compiled in The Thousand and One Nights — a collection of Middle Eastern and Indian folk tales, however, it did not appear in the original Arabic text.
Her country of origin, for example, has been frequently disputed. While some claim Jasmine is Arab because the movie opens with a song called Arabian Nights, others believe that the architecture in Agrabah is clearly based on the Taj Mahal, making Jasmine Indian.
On Oct. 15, Disney Plus introduced a new disclaimer that appears before older films like Dumbo (1941) and Aladdin (1992), warning viewers that the films include harmful stereotypes. The new message replaces the one that came with the original launch of Disney Plus late last year.
Created by screenwriters and directors Ron Clements and John Musker with co-screenwriters Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, Jasmine is based on Badroulbadour, a princess who appears in the One Thousand and One Nights folktale "Aladdin and the Magical Lamp."
Princess Jasmine, a fictional character from Disney's animated film "Aladdin," is not explicitly identified as Indian in the movie. Instead, she is depicted as a resident of the fictional city of Agrabah, which is often seen as a blend of Middle Eastern and South Asian cultures and influences.
3. Aladdin doesn't come from Agrabah. In the both Galland's text and Richard Burton's popular 1885 English translation, Aladdin lives “in a city of the cities in China.” Illustrations of the tales from the Victorian era depict the story and its characters as Chinese.
In the original story, Aladdin is born to a poor tailor in “the capital of one of China's vast and wealthy kingdoms”. The Chinese setting of the story, however, has in most recent iterations, notably the Disney animated film of 1992, been almost entirely rewritten.
The reason we think of the story as one of the true-born Arabian Nights is that many of the characters in the tale of Aladdin are Arabian Muslims with Arabic names. But Aladdin is Chinese … at least, he is if you go back to the known origins of the story.
The rise of our current era of big names plastered over animated film posters has been traced back to Robin Williams in the 1992 Aladdin. And it's that same Aladdin that gives Tom Cruise a connection — albeit a loose one — to animation: he was actually a model for the main character.
Cassim is the father of Aladdin. Long before the events of the first film, he left his wife and young son in order to find a better life for the poverty-stricken family. While he was gone, Aladdin's mother died, leaving Aladdin as a presumed orphan.
Eric is based on the "prince" character of Hans Christian Andersen's 1837 fairy tale "The Little Mermaid," but was adapted by the writer-directors Ron Clements and John Musker for the film adaptation.
Final Verdict. With everything we have to go off of, Aladdin is set in the 15th century in the Ottoman Empire. With Agrabah seemingly being in a desert, I initially set this movie in 1521 after the conquest of Cairo and the areas of Arabia that bordered the Red Sea.
In the collection of tales recorded around the 15th century in Arabic, and which comprise "The Thousand and One Nights" or "Arabian Nights," Aladdin and Jasmine were actually residents of Baghdad, Iraq, a city widely considered a center for Arab culture and civilization.
Mena Massoud (Aladdin) is Egyptian, Nasim Pedrad (Jasmine's handmaiden) and Navid Negahban (the Sultan) are Iranian and Marwan Kenzari (Jafar) is Tunisian. Interestingly though, Naomi Scott (Jasmine) is a British actress whose mom is Ugandan with Indian decent, neither of which are Middle Eastern.
In this continuity, Jafar is the illegitimate son of the Sultan, and his interest in genies stems from his mentor and lover, Amara, who discovered a ritual that could be used to rewrite the laws of magic using the power of three genies and two sorcerers.
The lamp is owned by Aladdin, a fictional item in Middle Eastern tales. Contains a genie granting wishes when rubbed. No proof of its existence, widely regarded as a myth.
Aladdin reclaims the lamp and, after considering but dismissing using his final wish to become a prince again, he fulfills his promise to Genie and sets him free. From then on, the lamp is used as a home/residence for Genie instead of a prison.
