Jasmin's father

[Adrian]

I just had an AHA experience (Not sure if you have that term in English, but epiphany regardless) that Jafar (From Disney's Aladdin) is Dja'far from Thousand-and-one-nights BUT does that mean that Jasmin's father is Harun al-Rashid?

 

Suddenly I feel that part of my disney childhood is fading away and I can't (and likely shouldn't) stop it...

[freespace2dotcom]

I wonder where you got the Disney reference to pop in your head?

 

You're sure it's not Mastery? Maybe the legate should take a look.

 

(Actually never read 1001 nights...)

[Adrian]

To be fair I hadn't started reading it before I played Sheherazade... and haven't actually read it to the end yet,... but I'm working my way through it (albeit slowly). But I'm "currently" reading a story in it where Sheherazade is telling the story of Dja'far telling a story about two Vesir brothers (but it is actually about their great-grand children having sex and not knowing their parentage and God knows what else...)

 

 

I'm surprised how sex focused the stories are,... but of cause, if you are telling stories for your life you might want to spice it up a bit,... just in case.

[isadorbg]

Well when i was younger i read Ala'ddin in a book for children with many tales.

 

If I remember right, neither the Sultan, the princess or the Vizir are names in this tale they just go with their titles. So maybe Disney thought it would be better if they had name.

 

The main differences with the original however is that Ala'ddin mother is alive and an important character too ! And there is acturally two genies. The Genie of the ring who only fulfill 3 wish in total it doesn't reset with a new holder and he's "less powerfull" than the Genies in the Lamp.

The genie in the Lamp grants an unlimited amount of wish.

Obviously Disney's genie is a mix between the two.

[freespace2dotcom]

I should perhaps note in early versions of the Disney production, Aladdin's mommy was alive. There's even a deleted song with storyboarding if you look for it.

 

Edit:

[Albert]

Back when the book was written it was likely safest not to write names of powerful people or names that could be interpreted in certain ways. Titles were respectful and non-specific(less risk of causing offense). Also, it was more like that in those days, kings and people with fancy titles were their titles and people with names had names.

 

Disney wanted things to get more personal, it's easier for people to relate to people with names rather than titles. Especially for children.

[Schwarzbart]

Isn't it in nearly all Legends / Faery Tales that they name the mighty just with the title and never with a name?

[isadorbg]

I think they don't have names simply because they don't need one.

It's very clear who is who in the tale and adding name can only add confusion.

 

In the main tale tough everyone is named: you have Scheherazade of course, her father, the vizir Jafar or the Sultan Shahryar and even minor character. But that's probably because it's the most important story of the thousand nights and to avoid confusion with other Vizir/princess/Sultan, a recurring them in these tales.

[Adrian]

Dja'far is actually in another story, not the main one, and I can't actually find the name of Sheherazade's father. But I guess it is as you said Isadorbg, he doesn't really need it for the story. The only people who actually hears the stories are Sultan Shahryar and Scheherazade's sister Dinarzade - no other people (from the 'main' story) need be named I suppose.. though a few WERE named, like the kings brother. I was about to add his wife (his first wife, before he began killing them at dawn) to the list but she wasn't actually mentioned, the man who she... was "frolicking" with was though. I'm not exactly sure how that works

 

 

I haven't actually read Aladdin, should be fun, and never knew he had a mother either! (Not that most people doesn't have a mother, but... yeah)