One of the stories Shahrāzād tells her murderous husband is called "Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp." Though Aladdin's tale is probably the best-known one from One Thousand and One Nights these days, it actually doesn't appear in any of the original Arabic versions of the text. He's also fallen in love with her, so he's like, "Eh, I guess I won't kill you, after all. By then, she and the king have a couple kids together, too. She does this for 1,001 nights, until she finally runs out of stories. Shahrāzād finishes the story the next night and then starts another but stops right before she gets to the good part. Eh, looks like he won't be able to kill her if he wants to figure out how the story ends. The night they're married, Shahrāzād starts telling a story, and the king gets super engrossed-but his new bride doesn't have time to finish the tale. Meanwhile, the kingdom is running out of virgins, so the vizier's daughter, Shahrāzād (or Scheherazade), steps forward and volunteers to marry the brutal Shahryār. This guy needs a divorce lawyer and some therapy. Since he's not done overreacting, he decides to marry a series of virgins and then have them each killed the morning after the wedding, before they can break his heart again. There's a king named Shahryār whose wife cheats on him. You might also know that book by the name Arabian Nights, though that's a bit of a misnomer, since the stories come from all over the Middle East, including non-Arab areas like Iran.Īnyway, you've probably heard of this book, but you might not have read it. This one comes from the book One Thousand and One Nights. Like most Disney movies, Aladdin is based on a folk tale. Again, that's technically not an Arab country, but it's right next door, so we'll give him a pass. Aladdin's layout supervisor, Rasoul Azadani, also took inspiration from his childhood memories of Iran. The design for the Sultan's palace was roughly based on the Taj Mahal, which is in India (which, we'll point out, is in Asia and is not an Arab country). Rearrange the letters in Baghdad a little, and you get something like Agrabah.īut that's not the only real-life inspiration behind Aladdin. Then, war broke out in Iraq, so Disney decided that setting their movie in the place where Saddam Hussein was chilling might not go over so well with American audiences. Some of the characters and plot elements are loosely based off the 1940 movie Thief of Baghdad, so that made sense. In an early draft of the movie, Aladdin was supposed to be set in Baghdad, Iraq. Okay, so there's a few things the Sultan might need to work on. Guess there's a law against female rulers in Agrabah.Īgrabah also has a vibrant marketplace where a percentage of the population lives far below the poverty line-and where stealing is punishable by…amputation. The Sultan's only daughter cannot inherit his throne, so she has to marry a prince so that a dude can one day become sultan. Either way, religion isn't something the movie touches on.Īgrabah is also a monarchy ruled by the Sultan. The Sultan says, "Praise Allah" and "Allah forbid," but "Allah" is just the Arabic word for God, so, technically, he could be talking about any God. So, what's up with Agrabah? Well, it's a fictional city somewhere in the Arab world. We're interested in the Dead Sea Tupperware already. City of mystery, of enchantment, and the finest merchandise this side of the river Jordan." The peddler lets us know exactly where we are. We then getting a sweeping view of the city we're about to visit. Where it's flat and immense And the heat is intense It's barbaric, but hey, it's home.Īh, those good old Arabian nights. PEDDLER: Oh, I come from a land, from a faraway place Where the caravan camels roam. In fact, you might say it's the first character we meet. Aladdin doesn't waste any time introducing us to its setting.
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