The story of Aladdin (Ala ad-Din) is based on a Middle-Eastern story told by a Syrian traveller to a French writer named Galland in about 1709. Galland added it to his published translation of The Thousand and One Nights in 1710., though it was not psart of the orginal collection.The original setting placed the story 'in one of the cities of China' which was the Arabic equivalent for 'a land far, far away'.

When John O'Keefe dramatised the story as an English pantomime in 1788, he took the Chinese setting literally, though his China resembles the East End of London, and added a Dame in the form of Aladdins' mother, Widow Twankey the laundrywoman, and a clown as Aladdin's brother Wishee-Washee.

However, the name of the lead character, and the fact that the sprits in both lamp and ring are called Genii, -anglicising the Arabic 'jinni' (the Chinese word is 'shen') -are clear signs of the storys' original Middle Eastern setting. A setting to which Disney reverted, not without a certain degree of stereotyping and the unnecessary addition of cute animals!