books of Alladdin

Encyclopedia Britannica Ask the ChatbotGames & QuizzesHistory & SocietyScience & TechBiographiesAnimals & NatureGeography & TravelArts & CultureProConMoneyVideos Literature Fictional Characters Aladdin fictional hero Also known as: ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn Written and fact-checked by Article History Aladdin Aladdin Aladdin Saluted Her with Joy, illustration by Virginia Frances Sterrett from a 1928 edition of The Arabian Nights. Aladdin, hero of one of the best-known stories in The Thousand and One Nights. The son of a deceased Chinese tailor and his poor widow, Aladdin is a lazy, careless boy who meets an African magician claiming to be his uncle. The magician brings Aladdin to the mouth of a cave and bids him enter and bring out a wonderful lamp that is inside, giving him a magic ring for his safety in the meantime. Aladdin goes in and returns with the lamp but refuses to hand it over to the magician until he is safely out of the cave. The magician thereupon shuts him inside the cave with the lamp and departs. Wringing his hands in dismay in the dark, Aladdin finds that he can summon up powerful jinn, or genies, by rubbing the ring. He returns home and soon finds that rubbing the lamp also produces genies. These supernatural spirits grant him his every wish, and Aladdin eventually becomes immensely wealthy, builds a wonderful jeweled palace, and marries the beautiful daughter of the sultan. After defeating the attempts of the frustrated African magician and his even more wicked younger brother to recover the lamp, Aladdin lives in longtime marital happiness, succeeds the sultan, and reigns for many years, “leaving behind him a long line of kings.” Arabic: ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn The story of Aladdin—like several other popular stories in The Thousand and One Nights, such as the adventures of Sindbad the Sailor—was not part of the original story collection. Two costumed actors performing a dance onstage. theater, performers. Hompepage blog 2009, arts and entertainment, history and society Britannica Quiz The Literary World (Characters Quiz) This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen. Literature Novels & Short Stories The Thousand and One Nights collection of Middle Eastern and Indian stories Also known as: “Alf laylah wa laylah”, “The Arabian Nights” Written and fact-checked by Last Updated: Mar 28, 2025 • Article History Aladdin Aladdin Aladdin Saluted Her with Joy, illustration by Virginia Frances Sterrett from a 1928 edition of The Arabian Nights. 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. Shahrazad ShahrazadShahrazad (Scheherazade), illustration by Edmund Dulac from a 1911 edition of The Thousand and One Nights. As in much medieval European literature, the stories—fairy tales, romances, legends, fables, parables, anecdotes, and exotic or realistic adventures—are set within a frame story. Its scene is Central Asia or “the islands or peninsulae of India and China,” where King Shahryar, after discovering that during his absences his wife has been regularly unfaithful, kills her and those with whom she has betrayed him. Then, loathing all womankind, he marries and kills a new wife each day until no more candidates can be found. His vizier, however, has two daughters, Shahrazad (Scheherazade) and Dunyazad; and the elder, Shahrazad, having devised a scheme to save herself and others, insists that her father give her in marriage to the king. Each evening she tells a story, leaving it incomplete and promising to finish it the following night. The stories are so entertaining, and the king so eager to hear the end, that he puts off her execution from day to day and finally abandons his cruel plan. Also called: The Arabian Nights Arabic: Alf laylah wa laylah Though the names of its chief characters are Iranian, the frame story is probably Indian, and the largest proportion of names is Arabic. The tales’ variety and geographical range of origin—India, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Turkey, and possibly Greece—make single authorship unlikely; this view is supported by internal evidence—the style, mainly unstudied and unaffected, contains colloquialisms and even grammatical errors such as no professional Arabic writer would allow. Row of colorful books on a bookshelf. Stack of books, pile of books, literature, reading. Homepage 2010, arts and entertainment, history and society Britannica Quiz The Literary World The first known reference to the Nights is a 9th-century fragment. It is next mentioned in 947 by al-Masʿūdī in a discussion of legendary stories from Iran, India, and Greece, as the Persian Hazār afsāna, “A Thousand Tales,” “called by the people ‘A Thousand Nights’.” In 987 Ibn al-Nadīm adds that Abū ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbdūs al-Jahshiyārī began a collection of 1,000 popular Arabic, Iranian, Greek, and other tales but died (942) when only 480 were written. It is clear that the expressions “A Thousand Tales” and “A Thousand and One…” were intended merely to indicate a large number and were taken literally only later, when stories were added to make up the number. By the 20th century, Western scholars had agreed that the Nights is a composite work consisting of popular stories originally transmitted orally and developed during several centuries, with material added somewhat haphazardly at different periods and places. Several layers in the work, including one originating in Baghdad and one larger and later, written in Egypt, were distinguished in 1887 by August Müller. By the mid-20th century, six successive forms had been identified: two 8th-century Arabic translations of the Persian Hazār afsāna, called Alf khurafah and Alf laylah; a 9th-century version based on Alf laylah but including other stories then current; the 10th-century work by al-Jahshiyārī; a 12th-century collection, including Egyptian tales; and the final version, extending to the 16th century and consisting of the earlier material with the addition of stories of the Islamic Counter-Crusades and tales brought to the Middle East by the Mongols. Most of the tales best known in the West—primarily those of Aladdin, Ali Baba, and Sindbad—were much later additions to the original corpus. The first European translation of the Nights, which was also the first published edition, was made by Antoine Galland as Les Mille et Une Nuits, contes arabes traduits en français, 12 vol. (vol. 1–10, 1704–12; vol. 11 and 12, 1717). Galland’s main text was a four-volume Syrian manuscript, but the later volumes contain many stories from oral and other sources. His translation remained standard until the mid-19th century, parts even being retranslated into Arabic. The Arabic text was first published in full at Calcutta (Kolkata), 4 vol. (1839–42). The source for most later translations, however, was the so-called Vulgate text, an Egyptian recension published at Bulaq, Cairo, in 1835, and several times reprinted. Get Unlimited Access Try Britannica Premium for free and discover more. Meanwhile, French and English continuations, versions, or editions of Galland had added stories from oral and manuscript sources, collected, with others, in the Breslau edition, 5 vol. (1825–43) by Maximilian Habicht. Later translations followed the Bulaq text with varying fullness and accuracy. Among the best-known of the 19th-century translations into English is that of Sir Richard Burton, who used John Payne’s little-known full English translation, 13 vol. (9 vol., 1882–84; 3 supplementary vol., 1884; vol. 13, 1889), to produce his unexpurgated The Thousand Nights and a Night, 16 vol. (10 vol., 1885; 6 supplementary vol., 1886–88). The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen. Philosophy & Religion Spirituality jinni Arabian mythology Also known as: genie, jinn, jinnī Written and fact-checked by Article History jinni, in Arabic mythology, a spirit inhabiting the earth but unseen by humans, capable of assuming various forms and exercising extraordinary powers. Belief in jinn was common in pre-Islamic Arabia, where they were thought to inspire poets and soothsayers. Their existence was affirmed in the Qurʾān, and they are conceptualized in Islam as creatures parallel to human beings who are capable of choosing between good and evil and must thus face eventual salvation or damnation. They are beings of smokeless flame by nature, in the same manner in which humans are said to be made of earth, and they cannot be seen by human beings. Jinn, especially through their association with things unseen, have always been favourite figures in North African, Egyptian, Syrian, Persian, and Turkish folklore and are at the centre of an immense popular literature, appearing notably in The Thousand and One Nights. In India and Indonesia they have entered the local Muslim imagination by way of the Qurʾānic descriptions and Arabic literature. Plural: jinn Also called: genie Arabic: jinnī In common folklore, jinn are capable of assuming human or animal form and are said to dwell in all conceivable inanimate objects—stones, trees, ruins—and underneath the earth, in the air, and in fire. They possess the bodily needs of human beings and can even be killed, but they are free from all physical restraints. Jinn delight in punishing humans for any harm done to them, intentionally or unintentionally, and are said to be responsible for many diseases and all kinds of accidents. However, those human beings knowing the proper magical procedure can exploit the jinn to their advantage. Ghūl (treacherous spirits of changing shape; ghouls), ʿifrīt (diabolical, evil spirits), and siʿlā (treacherous spirits of invariable form) constitute classes of jinn. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by Adam Zeidan. Philosophy & Religion Ancient Religions & Mythology Middle Eastern religion ancient religious beliefs and practices Written by Fact-checked by Article History Middle Eastern religion, any of the religious beliefs, attitudes, and practices developed in the ancient Middle East (extending geographically from Iran to Egypt and from Anatolia and the Aegean Sea to the Arabian Peninsula and temporally from about 3000 to 330 bc, when Alexander the Great conquered much of the area). They have had an enduring influence on Western civilization. While this article treats only those religions of Middle Eastern antiquity that have not survived to modern times, special attention is given in the introduction to their role as antecedents of the major Western religions (i.e., Judaism, Christianity, and Islām), all of which originated in the region. For full treatment of these “inheritors” of the Middle Eastern tradition, including also the surviving Zoroastrianism and Parsiism, see under the names of the individual religions. General considerations The ancient Middle East constituted an ecumene. The term ecumene comes from the Greek word oikoumenē, which means the inhabited world and designates a distinct cultural-historical community. The material effects of the commercial and cultural interconnections that permeated the component regions of the ancient Middle Eastern ecumene are richly supplied by archaeological excavations, which provide evidence of the spread of architectural, ceramic, metallurgical, and other products of ancient Middle Eastern man’s industry. Manufacturing and services tended to be monopolized by professional guilds, including religious personnel specializing in sacrifices, oracles, divination, and other kinds of priestcraft. The mobility of such guilds throughout the entire area helps to explain the spread of specific religious ideas and techniques over great distances. Just as guild potters spread ceramic forms and methods, so also guild priests spread their religious concepts and practices from the Indian Ocean to the Aegean Sea, and from the Nile River to Central Asia. The Greek poet Homer, in the Odyssey, noted the mobility of guildsmen, mentioning religious personnel as well as architects, physicians, and minstrels. Guild priests called kohanim were found at ancient Ugarit on the Mediterranean coast of northern Syria as well as in Israel. Moreover, Mycenaean Greek (late Bronze Age) methods of sacrifice are similar to the Hebraic methods, which are preserved in many countries to this day in the traditional techniques of Jewish ritual slaughter. Related Topics: Mesopotamian religion ancient Egyptian religion ancient Iranian religion Syrian and Palestinian religion Anatolian religion The “archaeological revolution” The decipherment of Mesopotamian and Egyptian literatures in the 19th century opened new vistas of ancient Middle Eastern history. Hitherto, scholarly knowledge had been limited to the contents of classical Hebrew, Greek, and Latin literatures. Explorations and excavations in the Middle East yielded not only texts but also an abundance of ancient art objects, artifacts of daily life, and architecture and thus have revolutionized scholarly knowledge of the ancient Middle East, including its religions. A ziggurat excavated at Babylon illustrates the form of the biblical Tower of Babel. The prototype of the biblical story of the Deluge has turned up in the Gilgamesh epic. A fragment (dating from about 1400 bc) of that Babylonian epic has been found at Megiddo in Israel, showing that the Mesopotamian version was current in Palestine before the Hebrews, under Joshua, conquered the land about 1200 bc. A previously little-known people, the Hittites, are, because of archaeological discoveries, now recognized as a major power of antiquity with a rich legacy of religious texts, especially rituals. The earliest and certainly the most fundamental ancient Middle Eastern civilization—the Sumerian—had vanished without a reference in the literatures of the world. Sumerology is now an important field of investigation. Biblical studies have been revolutionized by the tablets (1400–1200 bc) found from 1929 onward at Ugarit. It has become extremely difficult to keep abreast of the continually growing body of material, and very few scholars today feel secure enough to venture beyond limited areas. Literary sources of knowledge of ancient Middle Eastern religion Classical literature remains an important source for ancient Middle Eastern religion. The Roman historian Livy wrote many descriptions of religious rites of the ancient Middle East. The Roman poet Virgil’s Aeneid and Eclogues reflect Egyptian, Semitic, and Anatolian, as well as Greek, antecedents. The Greek biographer Plutarch’s De Iside et Osiride (“Concerning Isis and Osiris”) is still the best description of the Egyptian myth of Isis and Osiris and of the cult of the dead. The Greek satirist Lucian’s De Dea Syra (“Concerning the Syrian Goddess”) is of enduring value for an understanding of Canaanite religion. The writings of Herodotus, the 5th-century-bc Greek historian, remain an indispensable source for the cultural history and religion of the ancient Middle East. And owing to the discovery of texts from Ugarit, the Homeric epic of the Greeks is now firmly linked to Middle Eastern literature. The Hebrew Bible is still the most important single source for knowledge of the ancient Middle East, reflecting life from Egypt to Iran, and from the Bronze Age beginnings to the Hellenistic Age. There is very little in the Old Testament that does not follow the types of religious literatures in the older Middle East: psalms, hymns, laws, rituals, prophecy, wisdom literature, and other types. Sometimes parts of the Bible are related in detail to specific outside sources. The Egyptian Wisdom of Amenemope, first published in modern times in 1923, for example, parallels Proverbs 22:17–24:22 so closely that it effectively opened up the field of the comparative study of ancient Middle Eastern wisdom literature.