Finding Aladdin: The Hidden History of a Syrian Storyteller

Finding Aladdin is a captivating work of literary deduction that unearths the true story of the young man who created Aladdin, a tale almost as strange as the fantastical stories themselves.

When The Arabian Nights were first translated into European languages, they were a sensation. Many were ancient tales drawn from Arabic folklore, but the most famous of all, Aladdin, was completely new.

Centuries later, a researcher working in the Vatican Library finds an anonymous Arabic manuscript that tells of a young Arab man, Hanna Diab, brought on as an interpreter by a French adventurer travelling the Middle East. One day, they hire a small child to go into a narrow, cavelike grave, and the child comes out with some coins and a beat-up oil lamp. After many more adventures, Hanna Diab ends up at the French court where he meets the now famous translator of the Arabian Nights. He sits down to tell him a story, and the tale of Aladdin and the magic lamp is born.

In Finding Aladdin, Matthew Teller unearths the hidden history of a young man desperate to escape his fate, who found early salvation in stories, shining a spotlight on a skilled storyteller hiding in plain sight.