The Story of the Lamp

November 2, 2018 6:14 AM

Who was the “real” Aladdin? From Chinese to Arab in 300 Years and Who “wrote” Aladdin? The Forgotten Syrian Storyteller are a pair of articles written by Arafat A. Razzaque for Ajam Media Collective about the story of Aladdin. The essays cover a wide range, from next year’s Disney film to how the tale entered the 1001 Nights corpus when the Syrian storyteller Ḥannā Diyāb told it to French translator Antoine Galland. Yasmine Seale has a new translation into English coming later this month, keeping in mind “the particular voices of these two men”.
posted by Kattullus (5 comments total)

As disnified appropriative as the new IMAZ 3D surround big budget real life (with actual authentically brown actors) the mishmash of the stories has been hashed and rehashed:

An anonymous 1879 play script for Sinbad the Sailor declares in the byline: “Written, re-written, adapted, translated, fabricated, invented, arranged and composed.”

Authenticity is unlikely to be unwound until a time machine is devised.

Aladdin, Sinbad and Ali are great but are the other 995 stories so mundane, what about The Fable of the Donkey, the Ox, and the Farmer? How about Bakbook, the Barber's First Brother? Probably should do a post just on "The Young Woman and Her Five Lovers" but what about "The Historic Fart" and "The Tale of Kafur the Black Eunuch"?

Perhaps we should take this to the green and do a post a night for the next three+ years for all the insomniac sultans of the land of mifi.
posted by sammyo at 7:36 AM on November 2, 2018 [10 favorites]

Perhaps we should take this to the green and do a post a night for the next three+ years for all the insomniac sultans of the land of mifi.

I'm sold! Do it! Do it!
posted by gusottertrout at 7:39 AM on November 2, 2018 [7 favorites]

Yay! I’m all for a 1001 Nights book club on FanFare!
posted by Kattullus at 9:10 AM on November 2, 2018 [4 favorites]

When I was a kid I read the 1001 Nights and yeah the fact that Aladdin was set in China got stuck in my head. I didn't make a big deal about the Disney animated film being wrong but I would point it out. The idea that China didn't necessarily mean China but just as shorthand for somewhere far away didn't enter my mind but I like it.

Today I'd be OK with the actors in the new Aladdin being from anywhere between the Middle and Far East: Arab, Persian, Indian, Kazakh, Vietnamese, Chinese, you name it. Maybe a mix of all of them because in a big city there'd be people from all over.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 10:25 AM on November 2, 2018 [1 favorite]

If you are reading this and haven’t indulged yourself in the treasure story of the FPP… GET TO IT. This is a fabulous tale and wonderfully told!
posted by artof.mulata at 9:16 PM on November 5, 2018 [1 favorite]