Anyone who has watched Disney’s animated film Aladdin knows a thing or two about magical flying carpets, and why they are a must-have for those who have just fallen in love and are being chased around by goons. However, the original story of Aladdin in The Thousand and One Nights – a collection of Middle Eastern folktales compiled in Arabic – did not have any flying carpets. That’s right, it was a Disney invention, and quite skillfully inserted into the tale, one must add. But there is another story in The Thousand and One Nights called “Prince Ahmad and the Fairy Peri-Banu”, where a flying carpet has been described in detail.
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