Arabian Nights
Arabian Nights are a whole group of magical fairy tales, but you are about to read the whole aladdin lamps stories, some history of fairy tales, particularly the 1001 arabian nights.
Andrew Lang wrote it best when he said...
"The Arabian Nights,"..." are only fairy tales of the East."
"The people of Asia, Arabia, and Persia told them in their own way, not for children, but for grown-up people.
There were no novels then, nor any printed books, of course; but there were people whose profession it was to amuse men and women by telling tales."
What are the 1001 Arabian Nights?
The most exciting tales such as Aladdin and Ali Baba And The Forty Thieves.
Tales that make your heart race, full of bandits, pirates and thieves.
Princesses and Palaces and evil princes. The three P's
It just makes me want to create art - does it make you want to draw?.
As you read the re-telling of the Aladdin Lamps story imagine the scenery and the wonderful characters.
The full story (original although translated many times) which is very long
I have presented it in three parts - so scroll down and read all three parts.
I have not tackled the Ali Baba stories yet. The stories are enormous.
Well for more info about them ...
The stories and their origins...
Collections of the stories were also called The "1001 Arabian Nights".
The story goes that the collection of tales were told originally by a woman who was trying to divert a king's attention - which she apparently did for at least 270 nights. That is the story of the woman called Shiherazade
The "1001" was added by collectors of the stories just to make the point that there were a lot of them.
An Oral Tradition
All Fairytales have been handed down through the generations by grandmothers, parents and entertainers in the street or around campfires. The Arabian Nights tales are no different.
So really nobody knows how old these tales are.
People in different parts of the world all tell them differently, although most are the same stories re-told and added to by travelling bands of entertainers...
Sometimes they were even called the Arabian Knights, but the important thing is that the story of aladdin lamps, jasmin aladdin, and all the aladdin characters were passed down and sometimes altered, ...and as I said each grandmother.
Adding to the Tales
It is also supposed by scholars that adding to the tales was an interest of people in the east for a long time... hence the "1001" title.
Andrew Lang did a translation of many of the tales in 1898.
Andrew Lang explained Fairytales like this...
"whether among little Zulus, at the Cape, or little Eskimo, near the North Pole. The changes are only in matters of manners and customs; such as wearing clothes or not, meeting lions who talk in the warm countries, or talking bears in the cold countries."
He also explained... "There are plenty of kings and queens in the fairy tales, just because long ago there were plenty of kings in the country. A gentleman who would be a squire now was a kind of king in Scotland in very old times, and the same in other places."
The adventures convey many ideas of truth and justice, with an underlying faith in the unseen realm.
Do you want to draw?
As you read these Arabian Nights tales you will not be able (if you are creative - which most of us are) to not imagine the whole world of Aladdin.We have all seen the wonderful Disney Cartoon and we have our own imaginings.
If you want to draw as you go along, do it.
For some help with some basic drawing skills I have a whole section on how to draw and you will be able to get your abilities going, to really sharpen up your drawing skill, check out my drawing book.
My Re-Tellings
There are many translations of the Arabian Nights tales, and I am doing my own re-tellings in order to bring these tales to kids of our time.My re-tellings are from a version printed in 1909 by Kate Douglas Wiggin and her sister Nora Smith, where they collected twelve tales and had them illustrated by Maxfield Parrish.
A great children's story illustrator.
I have broken the story of Aladdin into three parts, only to make it easier to read. Aladdin is a huge work and I have re-told it in today's language. So to start reading
Part I - Aladdins Lamp
If you enjoy that continue reading the rather long manuscript. I have included Part II and named it
Part II - Aladdins Princess
The conclusion of the story in my little Arabian Nights Series.
Part III - Aladdins Palace
These three parts make up the entire re-telling of Aladdin and the Lamp. I hope you enjoy. I may tackle another of these stories in the future.
A Little More History
The Arabian Nights have existed for thousands of years, and are really old tales that were told in Persia, Arabia, India and Asia.
The events were supposed to have happened in the reign of the great Caliph or King who lived in Baghdad in 786-808 A.D.
People in France and England knew almost nothing about these Arabian Fairy Tales until the reigns of Queen Anne and George I., when they were translated into French by Monsieur Galland.
Grown-up people were then very fond of Fairytales, and they thought these Arab stories the best that they had ever read.
They were delighted with the Geni, who seemed to be a kind of magic giant or ogre, and with Princesses who work magic spells, and with Peris, who are Arab fairies.
For more about Fairie, The Word and all about the history of the actual word.
No one seems to know where the word Fairy came from.
If anyone is interested in a lot more Fairies History, there is a lot more to read.
The Fairy and Fairy Tale Art
This site is all about the art of fairies and fairy tales, and if you are looking for some Fairy Coloring Pages, just keep exploring.
Paper Dolls and Dress Up Games will only expand your need to create fairy tale art.
Explore all these pages and find out how many more there are, but don't forget to come back and read more fairy tales.
More Facts about Arabian Nights
The oldest manuscripts date from the 15th century.
The stories were were written down in a definite form during the late 13th century, somewhere in Syria or Egypt (Haddawy xii).
There were two main versions of the stories, one developed in Syria and the other in Egypt.
There is no ONE version of the tales. These Fairytales were introduced to Europe by Antoine Galland in 1704-17; This was in French
From the French translation came the earliest English version 1706-08.
During the 18th century, "Sindbad," "Aladdin," and "Ali Baba" were published.
These are the stories that are most well known.
More Facts about Fairy Tale Creatures
There is so much fun info at Fairys where you can learn about fairy tale creatures like mermaids, fairies, and unicorns, and all the lore surrounding them.
Dragon History is of course about all the delicious rumors and facts about dragons throughout time, and all over the world.
