"The Magic Lamp of Aladdin": remember a famous fairy tale

"The Magic Lamp of Aladdin" is one of the most famous fairy-tales of the cycle "A Thousand and One Nights". By the way, in fact, in the collection it is called "Aladdin and the Magic Lamp". But in 1966 in the Soviet Union appeared a wonderful film-fairy tale based on a magical story. The screen became very popular right away, that's why the name of the literary masterpiece, and the name of the film "The Magic Lamp of Aladdin" was written in the memory of many people (and even entire generations). Let's talk about some facts today, which you probably do not know about.

Tales from the collection "1001 Nights" - one of the greatest treasures of the world. They have existed for thousands of years and include magical stories that were passed from mouth to mouth in Persia, Arabia, India and Asia. Fairy tales, as you know, are united by a common storyline: every night the young wife of Sultan Shahriyar, Scheherazade, tells her husband to save his life. The stories are so entertaining that, contrary to tradition, Shahriyar can not execute his wife - he wants to know the continuation of history.

The fairy tale "The Magic Lamp of Aladdin" was told by Scheherazade in 514th night. Many modern philological scientists believe that it was not included in the original collection of Arabian fairy tales "1000 nights", but was added to it somewhat later. Some even suspected the falsification of the first translator of the collection, which opened it to Western readers - Antoine Gallana. One way or another, however, the fairy tale came to light, and became more popular than those whose authenticity was not disputed by specialists.

It is interesting that not only the Frenchman Gallan could impose his vision of the Arab-Persian world on us. Each translator of the book could take part in the creation of the legend. So, in the English version of the fairy tale events take place in China, and the villain-uncle is to the protagonist from Morocco. British researchers believe that these names are rather arbitrary, they should symbolize the East and West respectively, or even translate into words "far far away," as they say in Western tales.

As you know, in the Russian version of the translation events are, in all probability, in Baghdad, and the uncle comes from the Maghreb. As in any work, in this magical story you can find many parallels with famous fairy tales. We are faced with the motive of the forbidden room, referring us to the fairy tale "Bluebeard", the motive of the struggle of the "ordinary guy" against power (compare with the story "Jack and bean seed"), the desire to marry the princess (there is almost any fairy tale), and so on .

"The Magic Lamp of Aladdin" inspired many artists and writers to create their own images. So, many researchers believe that Andersen's fairy tale "Ognivo" was created under the clear influence of the story from "The Thousand and One Nights". Soviet readers are well acquainted with the image of the amusing genie Hottabych, who appears from the clay vessel found by the pioneer Volka Kostylkov at the bottom of the river.

Why is the "Magic lamp of Aladdin" so popular? The Arabian tale (or, as we have already shown, a later layering of Western stories) shows us the growth of personality: from a lazy, rather stupid and trusting teenager to an enterprising young man ready to fight for his own happiness. Of course, Aladdin does not look much like the heroes of the Slavic tales. He embodies other traits and ideals, but that's what interests us. In addition, the pages of the fairy tale "The Magic Lamp of Aladdin" created an amazing magical world, capable of capturing the imagination of both children and adults.