Finding Aladdin

A captivating tale of literary deduction, uncovering the legendary storyteller behind the Arabian Nights

This is a book about stories and storytelling, and about celebrating a young storyteller whose name was almost lost to history. When The Arabian Nights were first translated into European languages in the 1700s, they caused a sensation. Most were ancient tales, drawn from Arabic folklore. But perhaps the most famous of all, Aladdin, was completely new. Centuries later, a discovery in the Vatican archives revealed that Hanna Diab, a young Syrian adventurer, had spun stories from his own extraordinary life to create Aladdin, his alter ego in fiction. In this captivating case of literary deduction, Matthew Teller unearths the hidden history of the boy, the genie and his lamp, recovering a skilled storyteller hiding in plain sight.