Aladdin and the Magic Lamp

Despite not originally being a part of the larger One Thousand and One Nights (it was instead added later), Aladdin and the Magic Lamp by Youhenna Diab has nonetheless proved to be one of the most popular of the tales. Aladdin is a young boy who receives a magic ring and quest from a sorcerer. The ring can summon a genie, who Aladdin can use to help retrieve a magical lamp that the sorcerer wants, which happens to reside in a magical cave full of traps. When the sorcerer inevitably double crosses him, Aladdin manages to summon the genie of the ring who returns Aladdin to his home, along with the lamp. When rubbed, the lamp raises a powerful genie, or jinn. Thanks to the help of the genie, Aladdin becomes rich and powerful and is able to wed Princess Badroulbadour, and the two move into a newly constructed palace.


His adventure is hardly over, though. The sorcerer hears of Aladdin’s fortune and wiles his way back to the lamp. With the help of the princess, Aladdin eventually defeats the sorcerer and gets the lamp back. Still, Aladdin and his wife have one more peril to contend with before they are allowed their happily ever after.


The orphan tales are stories that were not initially part of the One Thousand and One Nights. Aladdin and the Magic Lamp and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves are two of the more famous orphan tales (and both have been successfully transposed to other mediums). They were added to the larger work by the French translator of the Nights, Antoine Galland, in 18th century. Galland first heard the story when he met Youhenna Diab in 1709, who had traveled to Paris from Aleppo.