Aladdin Was Added to Arabian Nights By Its French Translator

The book One Thousand and One Nights, often known as Arabian Nights, was first published in the 1700s and contains a collection of several Middle Eastern folktales. As a result of the book and, most notably, Aladdin, characters such as Ali Baba and Sinbad entered popular culture.

In terms of the whole work, Aladdin is the most engaging character. Thanks to Disney, everyone is familiar with the story of the lad who discovers a magical lamp and woos a princess. However, it was never a part of the original tale. It was added later, after Antoine Gallard translated the book into French. The story had never been published before. So, where did a French translator get one of the most famous Arabic stories?

To begin with, the story was not from the Arabic world. That was later added. The original plot was set in China rather than the Middle East. Galland's source is said to be a Syrian named Hanna Diyab. He allegedly told Galland the story, who subsequently wrote it down. He included it into 1001 Nights on his own volition, with no way of verifying any of the sources or how he chose to transcribe it, and it became history.