1001 Nights or

Arabian Nights
Cherane Christopher
 ُ ‫أَ ْل‬ʾ ,Alf Laylah wa-Laylah) is a
• One Thousand and One Nights (Arabic: ‫ف لَ ْيلَ ٍة َولَ ْيلَة‬
collection of Middle Eastern folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden
Age.
• It is often known in English as the Arabian Nights, from the first English-language
Introduction edition (c. 1706–1721), which rendered the title as The Arabian Nights'
Entertainment.
• The work was collected over many centuries by various authors, translators, and
scholars across West, Central and South Asia, and North Africa.
• Some tales themselves trace their roots back to ancient and medieval Arabic,
Persian, Indian, Greek, Jewish and Turkish folklore and literature.
How does the Arabian
Nights start?
• The initial frame story of the ruler Shahryār and his wife
Scheherazade.
• The story goes that she was one of the sultan’s
concubines, and the sultan, after marrying a woman,
would have her killed.
• Scheherazade, in a cunning move devised to save her life,
decided to start telling the sultan a story, but each night
would break off in the middle of the narrative … so the
sultan would keep her alive until the next night, when he
would find out what happened at the end of the story.
• Hence the title, One Thousand and One Nights.
• The tale of Aladdin, along with the story of Ali Baba and
the Forty Thieves, and the Seven Voyages of Sinbad the
Sailor, is one of the most famous tales Scheherazade told.
Introduction
• Despite not being part of the original
Arabic text of The Book of One
Thousand and One Nights (The Arabian
Nights), it is one of the best known tales
associated with that collection.
• It was actually added by the Frenchman
Antoine Galland, who acquired the tale
from Maronite Christian storyteller
Hanna Diyab.
Where is the
Aladdin story set?
• The original story of ‘Aladdin’ is, maybe
surprisingly, set in China.
• In the earliest versions of the story, Aladdin
is Chinese.
• He’s also not an orphaned street urchin but
a lazy boy living at home with his mother.
• All the characters in the tale are also
Chinese apart from the wicked magician
who is from North Africa.
• Some scenes of the story take place in
North Africa, but we remain in China for
the majority of the story.
Characters in
the Original
Aladdin
Characters in the Original
Aladdin
• More recent re-tellings of ‘Aladdin and his Wonderful Lamp’, notably the
Disney film have popularised characters and eliminated others that appear
in the original story.

• One of the main distinctions of the original story is Aladdin’s mother. In the
early versions of the tale, she is alive and well and plays a significant role in
aiding Aladdin to meet the beautiful princess. However, in later versions,
he is orphaned and homeless and has to find his own way to win the
princess.

• Another character dropped in later versions is the second genie. There are
two genies in the original story. The first we all know and love is the Genie
of the Lamp. The second is not as well-known and is the slave of a magic
ring which Aladdin receives from the evil magician.