Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves

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Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves
The One Thousand and One Nights, translated by Antoine Galland

"Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" (

Arabic: علي بابا والأربعون لصا) is a folk tale in Arabic added to the One Thousand and One Nights in the 18th century by its French translator Antoine Galland, who heard it from Syrian storyteller Hanna Diyab
. As one of the most popular Arabian Nights tales, it has been widely retold and performed in many media across the world, especially for children (for whom the more violent aspects of the story are often suppressed).

In the original version, Ali Baba (

Arabic: علي بابا ʿAlī Bābā) is a poor woodcutter and an honest person who discovers the secret of a thieves' den, and enters with the magic phrase "open sesame
". The thieves try to kill Ali Baba, but his faithful slave-girl foils their plots. His son marries her, and Ali Baba keeps the secret of the treasure.

Textual history

The tale was added to the story collection

Richard F. Burton included it in the supplemental volumes (rather than the main collection of stories) of his translation (published as The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night).[2]

The American Orientalist Duncan Black MacDonald discovered an Arabic-language manuscript of the story at the Bodleian Library;[3] however, this was later found to be a counterfeit.[4]

Story

Ali Baba and his older brother, Cassim (

Arabic: قاسم Qāsim, sometimes spelled Kasim), are the sons of a merchant. After their father's death, the greedy Cassim marries a wealthy woman and becomes well-to-do, building on their father's business. Ali Baba marries a poor woman and settles into the trade of a woodcutter
.

One day, Ali Baba is at work collecting and cutting firewood in the forest, when he happens to overhear a group of 40 thieves visiting their stored treasure. Their treasure is in a cave, the mouth of which is sealed by a huge rock. It opens on the magic words "

open sesame
" and seals itself on the words "close sesame". When the thieves are gone, Ali Baba enters the cave himself and takes a single bag of gold coins home.

Ali Baba and his wife borrow his sister-in-law's scales to weigh their new wealth. Unbeknownst to them, Cassim's wife puts a blob of wax in the scales to find out what Ali Baba is using them for, as she is curious to know what kind of grain her impoverished brother-in-law needs to measure. To her shock, she finds a gold coin sticking to the scales and tells her husband. Under pressure from his brother, Ali Baba is forced to reveal the secret of the cave. Cassim goes to the cave, taking a donkey with him to take as much treasure as possible. He enters the cave with the magic words. However, in his greed and excitement over the treasure, he forgets the words to get out again and ends up trapped. The thieves find him there and kill him. When his brother does not come back, Ali Baba goes to the cave to look for him, and finds the body quartered and with each piece displayed just inside the cave's entrance, as a warning to anyone else who might try to enter.

Ali Baba brings the corpse home where he entrusts

Arabic: مرجانة Murjāna), a clever slave-girl from Cassim's household, with the task of making others believe that Cassim has died a natural death. First, Morgiana purchases medicines from an apothecary, telling him that Cassim is gravely ill. Then, she finds an old tailor
known as Baba Mustafa whom she pays, blindfolds, and leads to Cassim's house. There, overnight, the tailor stitches the pieces of Cassim's body back together. Ali Baba and his family are able to give Cassim a proper burial without anyone suspecting anything.

The thieves, finding the body gone, realize that another person must have known their secret, so they set out to track him down. One of the thieves goes down to the town and comes across Baba Mustafa, who mentions that he has just sewn the pieces of a corpse back together. Realizing the dead man must have been the thieves' victim, the thief asks Baba Mustafa to lead the way to the house where the deed was performed. The tailor is blindfolded again, and in this state he is able to retrace his steps and find the house. The thief marks the door with a symbol so the other thieves can come back that night and kill everyone in the house. However, the thief has been seen by Morgiana who, loyal to her master, foils the thief's plan by marking all the houses in the neighborhood similarly. When the 40 thieves return that night, they cannot identify the correct house, and their leader kills the unsuccessful thief in a furious rage. The next day, another thief revisits Baba Mustafa and tries again. Only this time, a chunk is chipped out of the stone step at Ali Baba's front door. Again, Morgiana foils the plan by making similar chips in all the other doorsteps, and the second thief is killed for his failure as well. At last, the leader of the thieves goes and looks himself. This time, he memorizes every detail he can of the exterior of Ali Baba's house.

The leader of the thieves pretends to be an oil merchant in need of Ali Baba's hospitality, bringing with him mules loaded with 38 oil jars, one filled with oil, the other 37 hiding the other remaining thieves. Once Ali Baba is asleep, the thieves plan to kill him. Again, Morgiana discovers and foils the plan when her lamp runs out of oil and she has to get it from the merchant's jars; the thieves give themselves away one by one hearing her approach and mistaking her for their boss. After refilling her lamp, Morgiana kills the 37 thieves in their jars by pouring boiling oil on them one by one. When their leader comes to rouse his men, he discovers they are all dead and escapes. The next morning, Morgiana tells Ali Baba about the thieves in the jars. They bury them, and Ali Baba shows his gratitude by giving Morgiana her freedom. However, she continues living with Ali Baba and his family anyway.

To exact revenge, the leader of the thieves establishes himself as a merchant, befriends Ali Baba's son (who is now in charge of his late uncle Cassim's business), and is invited to dinner at Ali Baba's house. However, the thief is recognized by Morgiana, who performs a sword dance with a dagger for the diners and plunges it into the thief's heart, when he is off his guard. Ali Baba is at first angry with Morgiana, but when he finds out the thief wanted to kill him, he is extremely grateful and rewards Morgiana by marrying her to his son. Ali Baba is then left as the only one knowing the secret of the treasure in the cave and how to access it.

Analysis

Classification

The story has been classified in the Aarne–Thompson-Uther classification system as ATU 954, "The Forty Thieves".[5] The tale type enjoys "almost universal ... diffusion".[6]

Variants

A West African version, named The Password: Outwitting Thieves has been found.[7]

Percy Amaury Talbot located a Nigerian variant, called The Treasure House in the Bush, from Ojong Akpan of Mfamosing.[8]

An American variant was collected by Elsie Clews Parsons from Cape Verde.[9]

In popular culture

Audio recordings and music

Audio readings/dramatizations include:

Theatre - Stage

Poster for 40 Thieves at the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, 1886
  • The story has been used as a popular pantomime plot for many years. An example of the "pantomime Ali Baba" was the pantomime/musical Chu Chin Chow (1916).
  • Badi-Bandar Rupkatha (বাঁদী-বান্দার রূপকথা) is a 2014
    Bangladeshi theatrical dance adaptation of Ali Baba and Forty Thieves organised by Srishti cultural centre and Nrityanchal. Many leading Bangladeshi dancers performed in the adaptation such as Shamim Ara Nipa, Shibli Sadiq, etc.[13]

Theatrical films

Live-action non-English language films

Live-action English-language films

Animation - USA

Animation - Europe and Asia

Television

Live-action

Animation

Video games

Military

At the

P-40 Warhawks".[34]

The name "Ali Baba" was often used as derogatory

occupation, it is used as a general term for the insurgents.[37]

The Iraqis adopted the term "Ali Baba" to describe foreign troops suspected of looting.[38]

Miscellaneous

Gallery

  • A depiction of the Forty Thieves.
    A depiction of the Forty Thieves.
  • The Forty Thieves attack Cassim.
    The Forty Thieves attack
    Cassim
    .
  • A member of the Forty Thieves tries to discover the location of the house of Ali Baba.
    A member of the Forty Thieves tries to discover the location of the house of Ali Baba.
  • A member of the Forty Thieves marks the door of Ali Baba
    A member of the Forty Thieves marks the door of Ali Baba
  • Morgiana pays Baba Mustafa the Cobbler.
    Morgiana pays Baba Mustafa the Cobbler.
  • Morgiana pours boiling hot oil into the jars containing the infamous Forty Thieves.
    Morgiana pours boiling hot oil into the jars containing the infamous Forty Thieves.
  • Ali Baba presents treasures from the magical cave of Sesame to Morgiana.
    Ali Baba presents treasures from the magical cave of
    Sesame
    to Morgiana.

Notes

  1. ^ Goodman, John (17 Dec 2017). Marvellous Thieves adds a new chapter to Arabian Nights – Paulo Lemos Horta gives 'secret authors' their due in his study of the World Literature classic. North Shore News.
  2. ^ Burton, R. F. Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night with Notes Anthropological and Explanatory. Vol. III, fasc. 2. p. 369. (n.)
  3. S2CID 163708921
    .
  4. ^ Mahdi, Muhsin (1994). "Galland's Successors". The Thousand and One Nights: From the Earliest Known Sources; Part 3, "Introduction and Indexes".
  5. ^ Uther, Hans-Jörg (2004). The Types of International Folktales: Animal tales, tales of magic, religious tales, and realistic tales, with an introduction. FF Communications. p. 592 - 594.
  6. ^ Paulme, Denise. "Morphologie du conte africain". In: Cahiers d'études africaines, vol. 12, n°45, 1972. p. 153. [DOI: https://doi.org/10.3406/cea.1972.2775]; http://www.persee.fr/doc/cea_0008-0055_1972_num_12_45_2775
  7. ISBN 978-0810116504
    .
  8. ^ Talbot, Percy (1912). In the Shadow of the Bush. George H. Doran Company. pp. 389–393.
  9. ISBN 978-1-57806-959-0
    .
  10. ^ "A Bing Crosby Discography". BING magazine. International Club Crosby. Retrieved 4 October 2017.
  11. ^ "Char Chand". Gaana.
  12. Tips Official. 10 September 2020. Archived
    from the original on 13 November 2021.
  13. ^ "Leading Dancers to Present Ali Baba". Cinema.com. Archived from the original on 29 December 2014. Retrieved 29 December 2014.
  14. ^
    ISBN 9780851706696
    .
  15. ISBN 978-0-14-306340-7
    .
  16. ISBN 9780948911408
    .
  17. ^ "Alibaba 1940". Alan Goble. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 20 September 2014.
  18. ^ Spaas p.148
  19. ^ Bali, Karan (2 January 2015). "Tamil Nadu's trailblazing Modern Theatres studio spun romances, period dramas and colour films". Scroll.in. Archived from the original on 6 September 2016. Retrieved 6 September 2016.
  20. ^ Sim Sim Margina (1958). MySwar.
  21. ^ "Ali Baba 40 Dongalu (Banner)". Chitr.com.
  22. ^ "Ali Baba 40 Dongalu (Direction)". Filmiclub.
  23. ^ "Alibabayum 41 kallanmaarum". malayalasangeetham.info. Retrieved 6 October 2014.
  24. ^ Malhotra, A. P. S. (4 March 2017). "Alibaba Aur 40 Chor (1979)". The Hindu. Retrieved 11 May 2018.
  25. ^ The Illustrated Weekly of India, Volume 101, Issues 18-34
  26. ^ "Приключения Али-Бабы и сорока разбойников – в Багдаде все спокойно". Nashfilm. Archived from the original on 13 October 2007. Retrieved 13 October 2007.
  27. ^ "A Li Ba Ba (1988)".
  28. ^ Gautam, Savitha (25 January 2002). "Alibaba". The Hindu.
  29. ^ "Alibaba and The Forty Thieves (2018)". Indiancine.ma.
  30. Amazon.in
    . December 2013. Retrieved 5 November 2018.
  31. ^ Fienberg, Daniel (18 December 2019). "'A Christmas Carol': TV Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 21 December 2019.
  32. ^ "Ali Baba Dastaan – e – Kabul | First Look | New Show - Coming Soon". Youtube.
  33. ^ "Raj & Shilpa Shetty Kundra Turn TV Producers With A 13 Part Animation Series !". Bollyy. 31 October 2018.
  34. ^ "Cadet Squadron 40". usafa.af.mil. Retrieved 12 September 2022.
  35. ^ Vasagar, Jeevan. "Court martial hears of drowned Iraqi's final moments". Retrieved 18 April 2007.
  36. ^ Norton-Taylor, Richard (21 September 2009). "Baha Mousa inquiry: 'rotten' UK military blamed for death in army camp". The Guardian.
  37. ^ Fumento, Michael. "Back to Falluja: The Iraqi Army versus the Keystone Kops insurgency". Retrieved 18 April 2007.
  38. ^ Levin, Jerry (3 May 2003). "Will The Real Ali Baba Please Stand Up". CPT. Archived from the original on 11 April 2007. Retrieved 18 April 2007.
  39. ^ "Alibaba's IPO Filing: Everything You Need to Know - Digits - WSJ". blogs.wsj.com. 7 May 2014. Retrieved 11 July 2014.
  40. ISBN 978-0-387-97317-3
    .

External links

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