Was ALADDIN written by Chinese or Arabs?

Question

Was ALADDIN written by Chinese or Arabs?
All my life i was told that Aladdin was a part of Arabian Nights, and was written by people of middle east or India but recently on wikipedia
i saw that Aladdin was written by the Chinese, which makes no sense to me and i even watched the 2000 abc channel movie Arabian Nights and they showed Aladdin portrayed by a Chinese guy which kinda took the Aladdin element out of the story, Not that i have anything against Chinese people, its just Aladdin is suppose to be an arab a tan guy not chinese right?

Answer 1

In the original tale of Aladdin, Aladdin was actually Chinese. Aladdin is apart of the Arabian Nights, but then, China is part of Asia. Scheherazade used any tale that she could learn to tell her husband, so she told him tales from other parts of Asia that she had learned. Aladdin was one of these tales.

Answer 2

The story of Aladdin is part of The Thousand and One Nights. This collection of tales has no one author and source. They are Indian, Persian and Arabic in origin. Writers and translators collected them after generations have enjoyed these stories, much like how Andersen and the Grimm Brothers collected their fairy tales.

In the story of Aladdin, he is described as to be of Chinese descent. The characters and settings of the tales in the entire Thousand and One Nights encompass the entire Eastern to Middle Eastern Asia. The magician who tricked Aladdin into getting the lamp is Moroccan. This man had to go to China to look for Aladdin because according to an evil inspiration he received one day (something to do with the occult since this man is a magician), only Aladdin could go down the earth to procure the magic lamp. There is no clue as to the exact geographical location in China where Aladdin was supposed to have come from, however. Most probably, the first one who made the tale has not, himself, gone to China but have heard about it and thought it was exotic enough to situate Aladdin's story.

Answer 3

According to Husain Haddawy, the translator of "The Arabian Nights:II" (Alfred A. Knopf 1998), Aladdin first appeared in Arabic in 1787, no Chinese writer was mentioned.

Answer 4

No medieval Arabic source has been traced for the tale, which was incorporated into The Book of One Thousand and One Nights by its French translator, Antoine Galland, who heard it from an Arab Syrian Christian storyteller from Aleppo. Galland's diary (March 25, 1709) records that he met the Maronite scholar, by name Youhenna Diab ("Hanna"), who had been brought from Aleppo to Paris, France by Paul Lucas, a celebrated French traveller. Galland's diary also tells that his translation of "Aladdin" was made in the winter of 1709–10. It was included in his volumes ix and x of the Nights, published in 1710.

John Payne, Aladdin and the Enchanted Lamp and Other Stories, (London 1901) gives details of Galland's encounter with the man he referred to as "Hanna" and the discovery in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris of two Arabic manuscripts containing Aladdin (with two more of the "interpolated" tales). One is a jumbled late 18th century Syrian version. The more interesting one, in a manuscript that belonged to the scholar M. Caussin de Perceval, is a copy of a manuscript made in Baghdad in 1703. It was purchased by the Bibliothèque Nationale at the end of the nineteenth century.

Note that although it is considered an Arabic tale either because of its source, or because it was included in The Book of One Thousand and One Nights, the characters in the story are neither Arabs nor Persians, but rather are from the Far East. The Far Eastern country in the story is an Islamic country, where most people are Muslims. There is a Jewish community, regarded by others with a prejudice. There is no mention whatever of Buddhists or Confucians. Everybody in this Far Eastern Country bears an Arabic name and its King seems much more like an Arab ruler than like an actual Chinese emperor. The Country of the tale was a mythic far-off place, definitely eastwards.

Answer 5

From what I have learned about storytelling, usually origins are difficult to trace because in the beginning the tales are passed down orally. If you are really interested, I would say DON'T rely on wikipedia - because anyone can write those articles and make changes. I would go to the library and do the search. You can find HEAPS of information regarding 1001 Arabian Nights.

Answer 6

Alladin was written by the Arabs. all the incidents and the social life described in the story realates to Arabia.
characters like Jasmine, Sultan are more associated with Arabs than to the Chinese. the names also make it clear.

so Alladin and other Arabian Night tales are not Chinese but Arabic.


Arabian Nights as such is the story of a King of Somewhere in the Middle-east. he is told a story each night by the daughters of his Wazir, Sharazad and Dunyanazad.the King has been cheated by his wife and so takes revenge by killing all the women in his kingdom. when it comes to the daughters of his wazir they tell him stories the conclusion of which they postpone for another night. in this way they delay the death of Sharazad. after 1001 stories in as many nights the King is transformed and pardons Sharazad.

all the stories of Arabian Nights are told to the king by Sharazad and their ends are beautifully interconnected leading from one story to another.

Answer 7

Wow, that's strange. I could have sworn that Aladdin took place on the Arabian Peninsula or somewhere by that area.

Answer 8

If I'm remembering correctly, in the Arabian Nights I read a few years ago, the story took place in China.

Answer 9

There's a lot of controversies around this one