How Accurate was Buzzfeed? Jasmine pt 1

Disney | Eugene Lee Yang via youtube.com

Buzzfeed places Jasmine as coming from a pre-Islamic, 300’s CE Arabian Peninsula -- but there are problems with this time and setting.  Buzzfeed’s “context clues” state “The opening song, ‘Arabian Nights,’ is pretty clear about where this story takes place.”  Actually, the lyrics are rather vague.  From the Disney Wiki:

Oh, I come from a land, from a faraway place

Where the caravan camels roam

Where it's flat and immense and the heat is intense. (Where they cut off your ear if they don't like your face)

It's barbaric, but hey, it's home

When the wind's from the east

And the sun's from the west

And the sand in the glass is right

Come on down

Stop on by

Hop a carpet and fly

To another Arabian night

Arabian Nights like Arabian days

More often than not

Are hotter than hot

In a lot of good ways

Arabian Nights 'neath Arabian moons

A fool off his guard

Could fall and fall hard

Out there on the dunes

Without reference to Arabian Nights (which we’ll discuss later why this is pretty weaksauce anyway) the terrain and presence of caravan camels could describe the Gobi or Sahara or anywhere over-land merchants traveled, magic carpets notwithstanding.  It’s obvious to the audience that the story takes place in the Middle East because of a legacy of Western cultural stereotyping -- the whimsy and fantasy of magic carpets, adventure, and severe corporal punishment long associated with the tales of Arabia.  At best the lyrics narrow down a general region.

Luckily, Disney is a lot more specific and places the fictional setting of Agrabah along or very near the Jordan River.  After the opening theme song the peddler greets the audience: “Welcome to Agrabah.  City of mystery, of enchantment, and the finest merchandise this side of the river Jordan, on sale today, come on down!”  Geographically this would place the setting for Disney’s narrative in what is today Israel, Jordan, or Palestine.  The Arabian Peninsula consists of Yemen, Omar, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudia Arabia, Kuwait, the U.A.E., and the southernmost parts of Iraq and Jordan.  

This is where someone jumps up and down going “Ah-hah! So they’re right about the setting!”  Hold on there, Sparky.  The Jordan River forms from streams in the Hula Valley and ends in the Dead Sea; it doesn't pass through the parts of Jordan that could be claimed by the Arabian Peninsula.  “Semantics!” you might say.  “Big deal, it’s in the Middle East, close enough!”

It might be news to the general audience, and I suspect it’s news to Buzzfeed, but the region we refer to as the “Middle East” is actually fairly large and diverse with an incredibly rich history -- at least more so than we’re generally lead to believe on the evening news.  The culture in Oman is not going to be exactly the same as the culture in Lebanon, Egypt, or Chad.  It would be like assuming since Norway and Spain are in the same continent that they would be culturally interchangeable.  The customs of dress and society, especially in a pre planes, trains, and automobiles era differs greatly.

For argument’s sake, let’s just say that the peddler’s comment is just a really loose indicator of the location.  He is a travelling merchant after all and even though we've established the Arabian Peninsula is more to the Southeast of the Jordan River it’s not like he had satellite view or GPS, right?  Even if we agree to say the setting is in the Arabian Peninsula, there’s still issue with the timeline.

Buzzfeed’s “context clues” that place the time frame is: “When Genie makes over Aladdin into Prince Ali, he says, ‘First, that fez and vest combo is much too third century,’ making it seem like Aladdin must take place in at least the fourth century A.D.”  The Fez (see also: Tarboosh) has its origin in the Middle East stretching as far back as 800 BCE, and it didn't reach the height of it’s use until the Ottoman Empire, roughly 1850’s CE.  Dating the fez as “too” any time period is incorrect.  Even so, Aladdin’s Genie is a whopping, fourth wall breaking, anachronistic black hole.  He makes references to the Disneyland theme park and pop culture figures like Rodney Dangerfield.  His joke only tells us when the story is not and cannot be used to clearly identify a timeline (unless, y’know, you’re really lazy).

So when did the story of Disney’s Aladdin most likely take place? To understand this we must first recognize that it was very likely not pre-Islam.

Disney has been often criticized for anglicizing physically, culturally, and religiously the peoples and places depicted in the company’s film and television.  It’s not surprising then to see a marked absence of Islamic culture in Aladdin.  We shouldn't assume that because there isn't anything distinctly Islamic in the film means that it's necessarily in a pre-Islamic time.

Know what I'm sayin'?

There are four mentions to Allah, most notably from the Sultan’s curse upon his daughter, “Allah forbid you have any daughters!”.  There is some argument that this is meaningless; that “Allah” is just a word for “God” and could have been used pre-Islam.  This is true; the word “Allah” has been found on inscriptions from as far back as 500 BCE.  It’s also likely Disney included it in the movie to lend a sort of ethnic or cultural authenticity (and I mean that really loosely).  Since this is a word that could be used both before and after the invent and spread of Islam, it doesn't work as good evidence to establish a timeline.

Some might argue that Aladdin practices some of the pillars of Islam, namely charity.  But the tenant of charity is not unique to Islam.  The idea that one should give to the poor even when you yourself have little or nothing at all can be found in many monotheistic and polytheistic religions preceding the invent of Islam.  Moreover, there’s nothing to indicate that his behavior is religiously motivated; it’s just as likely that his willingness to help a starving child is just him being an upstanding and moral character.

What about Sultan?  Though the word “Sultan” didn't get its first recorded usage until 1586, the Medieval Latin “Sultanus” uses the word specifically in reference to a position of authority between at least the 5th and 15th centuries CE.  But, this is also probably another attempt from Disney to bump up their “authenticity.” It’s likely that the character we know as Sultan would have been better described as a Caliph, or a ruling governor or king.  The era of caliphates stems directly from the successors of Mohammed and would not have been pre-Islamic.

This brings us to the original text.  The anthology we know as Arabian Nights or 1001 Arabian Nights is comprised of written stories surviving the Islamic Golden Age (750 CE to 1258 CE).  An oral tradition of telling stories necessarily predates the written versions, yes, but just like in a game of Telephone a story changes every time it’s passed on.  The details of a story will change to match the context of the time and setting in which it’s being told.   If our story came from the Islamic Golden Age then we could safely assume that the story was also set in that time. It should be interesting to note, then, that the earliest recorded (i.e. written) instance of Aladdin we know of today was from 1709.

So where are we then?  Clearly the story is not meant to have taken place in the 1700’s but the filter by which we interpret the tale would have been heavily influenced by that society.  At the very least, we can rule out the story’s setting as pre-Islamic.

While we’re talking about the original text, let’s revisit the physical setting.  In the original story Aladdin isn’t in Arabia -- he's in China.  

Anyone remember this?  Anyone?

Okay, lets quantify this.  In the story, the evil sorcerer -- who incidentally is not given a name -- travels from the “Utter West” of Maghreb, a region in Northwest Africa (you’ll hit Egypt then keep on going, just keep going) to the “Utter East” just to get this lamp.  While this is open to interpretation, placing the destination at the furthest reaches of the commonly known world illustrates the importance of the lamp to the antagonist.  In the perspective of a storyteller in 1709, the known world to the East goes beyond Persia, beyond Tartary, and lands us in China.

The names of characters in the story are obviously Arabic/Islamic in nature (Jasmine, by the way, was originally Princess Badroulbadour) and there is no mention of anything distinctly Chinese.   Most likely the reason all the characters have Arabic/Muslim names and a noticeable absence of Chinese culture is simply because the story is told by someone who is Arabic.  However, if we were to take this literally and assume that it’s set in a town that is predominantly Muslim/Arabic in China, that still places the story in an Islamic Era.  Remember, the presence of Arabian merchants in China didn't really kick off until the spread of Islam (600 CE onward) and reached it’s height in the Mongol Yuan Dynasty (1271 to 1368 CE).

Let’s say the reason there aren't any distinctly Chinese names or things in the story is because it’s not set in China.  Because having the setting be as far East as possible is so crucial to the story, this would mean that the story is likely being told from the perspective of someone who doesn't know China existed.  You’d have to go a long way back to do this, but for the sake of the exercise let’s say it’s so.  If that’s the case then the “Utter East” would land us in Tartary - we’re talking Mongolia, Manchuria, Turketsan, Sibera, etc. Too far East? Alright, we’ll scale it back to Persia.  For Persia to be the farthest East you know of as an Arabic storyteller, you’d have to be in the BCE’s.  You’d finally be able to achieve pre-Islamic status, but it wouldn’t be in the Arabian Peninsula and it wouldn’t be in 300 CE.

Enough talking already!  Show us the costumes!