Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp

folktale · Syria · Middle Eastern

A poor young ne'er-do-well in a Chinese city is recruited by a Maghrebi sorcerer to retrieve a magic lamp from a booby-trapped cave. When the sorcerer betrays him, Aladdin discovers a genie bound to the lamp that grants wishes. He becomes wealthy, marries Princess Badroulbadour, and builds a magnificent palace. The sorcerer returns to steal the lamp by trickery, but Aladdin uses a magic ring to recover it. Though added to the Arabian Nights by Antoine Galland from Syrian storyteller Hanna Diyab, it became one of the most famous Middle Eastern tales worldwide.

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