# Arabian Nights and a vizier named Jafar **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 11, 2004, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arabian-nights-and-a-vizier-named-jafar/223965 "2004-01-11T08:29:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2004, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arabian-nights-and-a-vizier-named-jafar/223965/1 "2004-01-11T08:29:04Z")
I know next to nothing about this kind of literature, but I got the new _Prince of Persia_ video game, and the antagonist is a [maharajah’s vizier](http://www.princeofpersiagame.com/assets/characters/vizier/screenshots/char_vizr_scr4full.jpg) who reminds me a lot of [Jafar from Disney’s _Aladdin_ (1992)](http://www.owlnet.rice.edu/~davids/pics/jafar.jpg). Then I remember that the bad guy in the original _Prince of Persia_ game (1989) was also a vizier named Jaffar, and this got me thinking. So I read _Arabian Nights_ for the first time (the Burton edition, found at [arabiannights.org](http://www.arabiannights.org/index2.html)). It’s really fascinating, and it seems like it would make great bedtime stories. I think my favorite is the story of the Greek king and the physician Douban, and the story of the dead hunchback is pretty funny. And the story of Prince Camaralzaman and Princess Badoura was great too. Anyway, a lot of the tales do have a vizier as a character, which makes sense as Scheherazade was a vizier’s daughter. Some are good and some are evil, inasmuch as anyone is good or evil in these stories. The story of Aladdin has a vizier, but he’s not magical or named. (It makes a lot of sense for Disney to have combined the characters of the vizier and the African magician.) In particular a few stories feature the Caliph Haroun-al-Raschid and his vizier named… well, this translation gives it as “Giafar”. It looks like another one gives it as “Ja’afar”. By all accounts Giafar was a good and loyal friend of the Caliph. It seems [Harun al-Rashid](http://en2.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haroun_al-Raschid) was indeed a real Caliph, but what about this Giafar? Was he real? Are there other clues to this sly sidekick whence the Disney villain apparently gets his name? (I understand the version I read is not complete - in particular, there was no tale of Ali Baba.) Also, any thoughts on _Arabian Nights_ at all that you have are most welcome. ---
**Author:** ![TERRA\_Rising](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@TERRA\_Rising](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TERRA_Rising)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2004, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arabian-nights-and-a-vizier-named-jafar/223965/2 "2004-01-11T11:46:22Z")
Disney has a tradition of creative license. Using _Alladin_ as an example, I highly doubt that parrots really exist in the Middle East… There could be a perfectly reasonable, and much simpler, explanaion. Maybe “Jafar” means something in Arabic? Just a thought. ---
**Author:** ![Nichol\_storm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Nichol\_storm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nichol_storm)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2004, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arabian-nights-and-a-vizier-named-jafar/223965/3 "2004-01-11T12:40:29Z")
Transliteration of Arabic words into Roman letters is tricky. That’s what you see so many different spellings – Jafar, Jaafar, Djafar, Giafar, etc. Jafar is a very old name; it’s in the 11th century Futuwwah. If I’m not mistaken, it means “little stream”. Doesn’t seem too devious to me. My hunch is that someone over at Disney was reading Arabian Nights, noticed the vizier named Jafar, and thought, _Say…_ ---
**Author:** ![Daniel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Daniel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daniel)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2004, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arabian-nights-and-a-vizier-named-jafar/223965/4 "2004-01-11T17:14:11Z")
Yeah, TERRA’s right; Disney does seem to let its movies stray quite far from the literature. Let us not forget Tarzan, where a male ape antagonist named Terkoz, who once tried to kidnap Jane Porter, became a female ape sidekick named Terk, voiced by Rosie O’Donnell, who had her very own song. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2004, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arabian-nights-and-a-vizier-named-jafar/223965/5 "2004-01-11T17:41:52Z")
Harun al-Rashid’s chief viziers were: **Yahya ibn Khalid** of the powerful Barmakid family, 786-803 **Fadl ibn Rabi** ( 803-809 ) To a very substantial extent, they ran the Caliphate for Harun, who essentially abdicated serious adminstrative functions to them ( while still otherwise retaining control over the state ). The Ja’far of the Arabian Nights is Yahya’s son, who wasn’t chief vizier, but rather a lesser ( but still very high-ranked ) administrator/vizier in Harun’s Caliphate ( as was Yahya’s other son, Fadl, who is not the same as the one listed above ), who was also the Caliph’s closest buddy. It was he that appears to have had a falling out with the Caliph over the Caliph’s sister ( but more to the point politically, there was increasing uneasiness over the enormous power and wealth of the Barmakids, who had come to hold a virtually dynastic grip on the office of the vizier ), which led to the downfall of the Barmakids, the execution of Ja’far and the imprisonment until death of Yahya and his other son, Fadl. - Tamerlane ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2004, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arabian-nights-and-a-vizier-named-jafar/223965/6 "2004-01-11T17:57:43Z")
I might also add that Yahya ibn Khalid was vizier under the earlier Caliphates of al-Mansur and al-Mahdi ( then was very briefly deposed during the short reign Harun’s brother Muhammed al-Hadi ) and had been the tutor of the young Harun. Yahya’s father, Khalid ibn Barmak, had been finance minister under the first Abbasid Caliph, Abu al-Abbas, and governor of a few provinces and vizier before his son under al-Mansur. With Yahya’s sons also wielding enormous power and influence it is easy to see why the Barmakid family came to be regarded as a threat in certain quarters. - Tamerlane ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2004, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arabian-nights-and-a-vizier-named-jafar/223965/7 "2004-01-11T20:24:55Z")
The story of Aladdin in my Burton translation of the Arabian Nights, by the way, is set in China. The Evil Magician is not a vizier and not named Jafar, and he’s from Morocco (that’s a helluva long walk). The story is worth reading, because it’s ctually very good, and rather complex. Aladdin isnt noble at the start – he really _is_ a “street rat” would didn’t follow his father into business nd now is literally a good-for-nothing, supported by his mother. The story is as much about his redempotion and transformation into a dutiful son, using his wits as much as the genies (there’s one in the ring, too) to overcome obstacles. Well worth reading. and IIRC, it’s not even in he “Arabian Nights” proper, but in a kind of Arabian Nights Apocrypha that Burton called th “Supplemental Nights”. ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2004, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arabian-nights-and-a-vizier-named-jafar/223965/8 "2004-01-11T22:22:45Z")
Thank you so much for the historical information **Nichol\_storm** and **Tamerlane**. That’s exactly the kind of trivia I was looking for. 🙂 I never would have guessed that there actually was a well-known vizier named Ja’far. As for Disney changing the _Aladdin_ story, I actually think they did a really good job. The story as it is doesn’t really make for a movie plot. As with many of the tales, it’s more about fantastic voyages and wondrous spectacle than overcoming an obstacle. (Though I can see what **CalMeacham** is saying about the redemption and transformation.) I think they kept all of the important elements. There may not be any parrots in the Middle East, but one of the stories has a magical “Talking Bird”, so it’s not so out of place. Oh, and speaking of which, Iago is just the perfect name for him. Heh. And a lot of changes to the story simply had to be made. Like before he falls in love with the Princess, Aladdin has two genies at his disposal, with no limit on wishes, and he lives in his mom’s basement for “many years” wishing for food every now and then, and selling the plates it comes on. Yeah. Right. Also, when Aladdin first gets with the princess, he’s such a jerk. The princess marries the vizier’s son, and on their wedding night the jealous Aladdin has the genie abduct the groom, and transport the bed with the princess in it to Aladdin’s chamber. The story then says: “the princess was too frightened to speak, and passed the most miserable night of her life, while Aladdin lay down beside her and slept soundly.” He’s not exactly protagonist material here.