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I was watching the cutscenes for Sonic and the Secret Rings the other day, and I started to wonder, "Hey, how accurate were they in portraying these stories from the Arabian Nights?" So I whisked out to the library and checked out the book, and this is what I discovered:
(In case you're not vid game savvy, here's a commentated playthrough of Sonic and the Secret Rings courtesy of Hellfire Comms:)
As far as I've read, Sonic doesn't actually fit into any of the stories in the Arabian Nights, nor does he portray any pre-existing characters like Knuckles, Tails, and Doctor Eggman do; quite appropriately, the hapless hedgehog is writing his own legend, and in the process is adding a new chapter to the Arabian Nights, according to the game.
The story of Aladdin and the Magic Lamp:
The story from which both Shahra and the Erazor Djinn come from is the story of Aladdin (or The Wonderful Lamp)...which, contradicting the Disney version of this story, took place in China and Africa. There is a Genie of the Ring in the original story, but that genie was changed to a female for the game; there was also a Genie of the Lamp, but in the version I read, neither genies were given a proper name. Also, though Erazor Djinn is the villain in the game, the genie in the book was not necessarily good or evil; he just did as he was told by his masters. Here's the story: Aladdin was the son of a tailor, but he was lazy and wouldn't work. His father died from lamenting, leaving Aladdin and his mother. One day when Aladdin was a teen, an African magician came claiming that he was Aladdin's uncle on his father's side. Through a series of stupid events, Aladdin was tricked into going into a magic cave where he was told not to touch anything but the lamp (sound familiar?). The magician gave Aladdin a ring as a good luck charm and sent him in...but when the boy saw what he thought were fruit (were jewels, actually) he picked them...and the cave started toppling down. Grabbing the lamp and jewels, he made a break for it, but the magician wouldn't help him if he didn't give him the lamp. Blah blah blah, got trapped, accidentally rubbed the ring, "Shahra" appears and saves his ass, blah blah blah went home, Genie of the Lamp fed them, blah blah, fell in love with the princess blah revenge blah death blood gore well anyway you get the picture!
Bottom line: the Genie of the Ring's powers were not as great as the Genie of the Lamp (as stated in the game), but neither was good or evil, just obedient.
The story of King Shahryar:
Ironically enough, his is perhaps the most important story of the Arabian Nights, for without his hurt manhood, the collection of a thousand and one stories would not exist.
So here's the story (virgin eyes, turn away, tis bad): Shahryar and his younger brother Shah Zaman were royalty and very close; they divided up their land and ruled justly for a long time goin'. But one day, Shahryar decided he wanted to see his brother and sent for him. So Lil Bro says, "Mk, I'll go," and prepares to leave...but before he left, lo, he forgot a gift for Big Bro is his chambers. So he went back for the present--only to walk in on his wife slutting around with the cook (poor guy, he hadn't even left the city yet). Well, in a pissed rage, he slaughtered his wife and the cook and set off to see his brother, telling no one of what he saw...but his health declined. His bro noticed but didn't ask, and decided to go hunting one day; lil bro didn't go, but stayed behind--and accidentally witnessed Shahryar's wife and concubines getting their pleasure from other men...a greater insult to a greater king. So Shah Zaman saw this and felt better, cuz his plight didn't seem so bad. Well eventually he had to tell Shahryar what he saw, and safe to say Shahryar wasn't too happy about it. So the two brothers went off on a pilgrimage to find a man who had their same problem, only worse..........aaaaanyway, well, after all this crap went down, Shahryar had his wife and his women killed, then decided that from now on, he would marry virgins, do the deed, then kill them so they would not disgrace him like his wife did. After three years of killing virgins, his kingdom (safe to say) was a lil miffed. So one woman, the daughter of the king's Wazir, said she'd be his next wife. In order to keep herself alive, however, she and her sister devised a scheme that enabled her to tell stories every night to keep the king from killing her and other women...and so the one thousand and one Arabian Nights were told. The woman's name was Scheherazade. THAR...take that, Eggman.
The story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves:
Considering the game only took three themes from this story, they were pretty accurate...one, for using the name; two, for having Tails say "...I've still got some tricks up my sleeve"; and three, the forty thieves are resurrected as evil spirits.
Here's the story: Ali Baba and his brother Kasim (that name should sound familiar to Disney fans) had their father's riches divided between them when he died; Kasim being the older, he got the most, and ended up being wealthy due to marriage rights. Ali Baba, on the other hand, was poor, married poorly, and had a poor trade. One day he was out with his donkeys getting firewood when he happened upon a group of forty horsemen who came to a rock beneath a tree. Hiding in fear of the men, Ali Baba witnessed the leader of the men say "Open Sesame" to the rock, opening a secret room that they all went inside. Ali Baba snuck in when they weren't around and stumbled upon a vast loot of treasure. He took some home, but tried not to attract any attention to his wealth. Well, his brother found out that he had money and tricked him into revealing the location of the treasure. ...well, Kasim was killed by the forty thieves, but Ali Baba kept going back for more treasure as what suited his family's needs. The thieves noticed one day, that, "Heeeeey, wait a second...our treasure's disappearing!" So they traced it back to Ali Baba and tried to kill him twice...he was saved both times by one of his female slaves. Eventually all the thieves were killed, the female slave was given her freedom and married to Ali Baba's son, and they all lived happily ever after (yeah, mhm, anyway).
Considering Tails is only eight years old, they did a fair amount with this story, I guess.
Sinbad the Seaman's Seven Voyages:
Oh boy...it's no wonder he calls himself "the adventurer of adventurers" in the game, and it's no surprise that they made Knuckles play this cameo.
To make a looooooong story short (I'm gonna make you read these stories because it would take too much time to describe each voyage individually) Sinbad was a rich man in a well-bred family, but one day he decided he wanted to go out on the sea and sell some merchandise in other lands. Each time he went on a voyage, he encountered something terrible, something that made him beg for his life, something that made him say almost every time, "If I survive this, I'm never going on another voyage again." Well he somehow managed to survive each voyage and came into a huge amount of wealth each time, going home a happy man. So he got home, drank and made merry...and forgot what happened to him. Give it a few months, and: "I miss the sea and different cultures...I'm going on another voyage!" And the cycle repeats...seven times.
So as I said, it's no wonder they made Knuckles play Sinbad. "Wisdom...Knuckles?" lmao
Other Story/Game Tidbits:
~ Seven Rings in Hand: The Arabian Nights make reference to the number seven A LOT. In the first story with Shahryar and his brother, they found an Ifrit who kept a maiden locked in a chest with seven locks; Sinbad has seven voyages; etc... but as far as I've read, the Seven World Rings aren't actually in the real stories.
~ Shahra the Ifrit: "Ifrit" and "djinn" literally mean "genie." An Ifrit isn't necessarily a genie that controls fire, as is stated in the game... "So, you're an Ifrit, Shahra dear." - (Holly, my sister)
~ "Aladdin and the Land Before Time": There are stories taking place in a jungle, but there is NO REFERENCE to dinosaurs in the original Arabian Nights, even though the game has an entire level dedicated to dinosaurs. What's up with that?!
~ Too Much PotC Hype: They say that Sinbad was fighting some pirates "when he was taken away by the Rukh"...weeeeell, Sinbad went through a lot of crap in his seven voyages, but none of them included pirates.
