Reading Notes: Arabian Nights, Part B

An illustration from the classic story of Aladdin from the Arabian Nights anthology

This specific story in the Arabian Nights reading is the basis for the Walt Disney adaptation of Aladdin, a classic and defining movie of my own childhood. Though not entirely based on the original story, it is very interesting to see the inspirations from the story itself. This story begins by introducing Aladdin, a lazy boy that lives with his mother in poverty. One day, a man appears claiming to be Aladdin's uncle and able to make him rich. His mother releases him to the man. Afterwards, the man, a magician, uses Aladdin to fetch an oil lamp in a cave, giving him a magic ring to protect him. After locating it, he refuses to hand the magician the lamp before he allows him to exit the cave, fearing that he will trap him in the cave. In a fit of rage, the magician seals Aladdin in the cave. After two full days, Aladdin accidentally rubs the ring and a jinn (genie) appears. Aladdin asks to be sent home, and the jinn complies with his wish. After cleaning the lamp, intending to sell it, an even more powerful jinn appears and grants their wish for food, at the hesitation of Aladdin's mother. After seeing the sultan's beautiful daughter, Aladdin uses the lamp jinn to conjure jewels and food and wealth to impress the sultan and win over the daughter, but his greedy vizier convinces the sultan to wait 3 months so his own son can compete. Aladdin loses the daughter, but uses the jinn to teleport him into the bed with the daughter on their wedding night and for a month until the couple divorce, allowing Aladdin to marry her. The magician hears of this and steals the lamp from the palace, transporting the palace and daughter to Africa. Aladdin uses the ring to get their, and the sultan's daughter poisons the magician, and they move the kingdom back. Later, the magician's even more wicked brother sneaks into the kingdom and tries to summon a roc for the sultan's daughter by convincing Aladdin to do so. This enrages the jinn, as the roc is his master, but realizes the trickery of the magician's brother and sparing Aladdin. The jinn grants prosperity to Aladdin and the sultan's daughter forever, and Aladdin eventually becomes the sultan himself.

Bibliography: Scheherazade, Arabian Nights. http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/04/myth-folklore-unit-arabian-nights.html