Aladdin

Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)

a-lad' in, the hero of the story of Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp, in The Arabian Nights' Entertainments . Aladdin is a poor boy in China who becomes possessed of a magic lamp. If he rubs it, a powerful jinnee or spirit appears, who is entirely at the service of him who owns the lamp. Aladdin becomes rich through the aid of his lamp. He wins a princess for his wife. He has a palace built for her in a single night, but one window is left unfinished which no one can complete to match the others. At last the original owner of the lamp attempts to regain it by offering to exchange new lamps for old. Aladdin's mother sells the magic lamp, and various troubles ensue. Aladdin finally recovers it, kills the first owner, moves his palace to Cathay, and, to crown all, becomes sultan. Many proverbial sayings have arisen from the story of Aladdin. "To finish Aladdin's window," means to complete what has been begun by some more capable person. "To exchange old lamps for new," is an allusion to the mother's giving away the rusty magic lamp for a new and useless one. Aladdin's lamp is mentioned frequently in literature. Sometimes the expression is used figuratively for the imagination, thus Lowell: When I was a beggarly boy, And lived in a cellar damp, I had not a friend nor a toy, But I had Aladdin's lamp; When I could not sleep for cold, I had fire enough in my brain, And builded, with roofs of gold, My beautiful castles in Spain!