Aladdin

more...

Home
*Best Sellers
Advertising
Animals
Animation Art, Characters
Arcade, Jukeboxes & Pinball
Autographs
Banks, Registers & Vending
Barware
Bottles & Insulators
Breweriana, Beer
Casino
Clocks
Comics
Cultures, Ethnicities
Decorative Collectibles
Disneyana
Fantasy, Mythical & Magic
Furniture, Appliances & Fans
Historical Memorabilia
Holiday, Seasonal
Housewares & Kitchenware
Knives, Swords & Blades
Lamps, Lighting
Aladdin
Art deco
Chandelier
Gas
Handel
Lamp
Mission
Slag
Table lamp
Linens, Fabric & Textiles
Metalware
Militaria
Most Popular
Pens & Writing Instruments
Pez, Keychains, Promo...
Photographic Images
Pinbacks, Nodders,...
Postcards & Paper
Radio, Phonograph, TV, Phone
Religions, Spirituality
Rocks, Fossils, Minerals
Science Fiction
Science, Medical
Tobacciana
Tools, Hardware & Locks
Trading Cards
Transportation
Vanity, Perfume & Shaving
Vintage Sewing
Wholesale Lots

Aladdin (an adaptation of the Arabic name (originally Tunisian) Alā' ad-Dīn, Arabic: علاء الدين literally "nobility of faith") is one of the tales of medieval Arabian origin in The Book of One Thousand and One Nights (Arabian Nights), and one of the most famous.

Synopsis

The original story of Aladdin is an Arabic folk tale. It concerns an impoverished young ne'er-do-well named Aladdin, in a Chinese city, who is recruited by a sorcerer from the Maghreb, who passes himself off as the brother of Aladdin's late father; to retrieve a wonderful oil lamp from a booby-trapped magic cave. After the sorcerer attempts to double-cross him, Aladdin finds himself trapped in the cave. Fortunately, Aladdin retains a magic ring loaned to him by the sorcerer. When he rubs his hands in despair, he inadvertently rubs the ring, and a djinni appears, who takes him home to his mother. Aladdin is still carrying the lamp, and when his mother tries to clean it, a second, far more powerful djinni appears, who is bound to do the bidding of the person holding the lamp. With the aid of the djinni of the lamp, Aladdin becomes rich and powerful and marries princess Badroulbadour, the Emperor's daughter. The djinni builds Aladdin a wonderful palace - far more magnificent than that of the Emperor himself.

The sorcerer returns and is able to get his hands on the lamp by tricking Aladdin's wife, who is unaware of the lamp's importance. He orders the djinni of the lamp to take the palace to his home in the Maghreb. Fortunately, Aladdin retains the magic ring and is able to summon the lesser djinni. Although the djinni of the ring cannot directly undo any of the magic of the djinni of the lamp - he is able to transport Aladdin to Maghreb, and help him recover his wife and the lamp and defeat the sorcerer.

Meaning

The theme of a trickster being outwitted by another trickster of lowly birth is a widespread fairy tale motif.

One Jungian view of the story of Aladdin would hold it as a classic example of a "rags-to-riches" story. This type of story presents in three parts: from lowly beginnings, a protagonist achieves an initial success in life, traverses a major crisis in which all seems lost, and finally triumphs over adversity to achieve more stable and enduring success. This final success is only possible because the hero has learned a degree of inner maturity by going through the crisis. Aladdin's first success came too easily and was not based on his own efforts, but the djinn who helped him; his despair at losing the princess and the palace to the evil sorcerer takes him to a spiritual place at which he needs to arrive before he can develop true strength and wholeness by making his own efforts to succeed. The wholeness he finally achieves is symbolized by the re-establishment of the relationship with the princess. Under this view, one of the reasons for the enduring interest of the Aladdin story lies in our often unconscious recognition of the importance of its underlying meaning. We recognize our own struggles to grow and develop in Aladdin's journey.

Read more at Wikipedia.org