Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves

ALI BABA AND THE FORTY THIEVES

Author:

Anonymous

First edition:

Ali Baba is a tale within The Arabian Nights, a collection of Persian, Arabian and Indian folk tales handed down through several centuries

Main illustrators:

Blachon Boudignon Dahan Luzzati Morgan Norac Soro Truong

In short:

Living a Persian village, Ali Baba is a poor woodman. One day, in the forest, he hears galloping horses: forty armed men enter in a cave where they hide their stolen treasures. Ali Baba discovers their secret and the magic words needed to open the cave door: "Open, Sesame!". Thus he becomes a rich man, but unfortunatelly, his ambitios brother and sister-in-law get mixed in the adventure...

Selection of edition:

Ali Baba et les quarante voleurs, illustrated by Roger Blachon, Gallimard, 1978.
Ali Baba et les 40 voleurs, illustrated by André Dahan, Hachette, 1979.
Ali Baba et les quarante voleurs, illustrated by Tenggren, Deux Coqs d'Or, 1980.
Ali Baba et les 40 voleurs, illustrated by Ronald Heuninck, Chantecler, 1984.
Ali Baba et les quarante voleurs, illustrated by Amato Soro, Hachette, 1988.
Ali Baba et les 40 voleurs, illustrated by Morgan, Gallimard, 1990.
Ali Baba, illustrated by Emanuele Luzzati, Editori Riuniti, 1992.
Ali Baba et les quarante voleurs, illustrated by Francesco Rovira, Deux Coqs d'Or, 1993.
Ali Baba et les quarante voleurs, illustrated by Dimitri Makhashvili, Deux Coqs d'Or, 1994.
Ali Baba et les quarante voleurs, illustrated by Françoise Boudignon, Didier, 1995.
Ali Baba et la quarante voleurs, illustrated by Emre Ohrun, Nathan, 2000.

Adaptations:

Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1944), directed by Arthur Lubin, is the oldest film version of this Arab classic. Jacques Beckers released in 1954 the French version of Ali Baba.

Excerpt of the tale:

"He observed that they were forty in number. Ali Baba saw the robbers, as soon as they came under the tree, each unbridle his horse and hobble it. Then all took off their saddlebags, which proved to he full of gold and silver. The man who seemed to he the captain presently pushed forward, load on shoulder, through thorns and thickets, till he came up to a certain spot, where he uttered these strange words: "Open, Sesame!" And forthwith appeared a wide doorway in the face of the rock. The robbers went in, and last of all their chief, and then the portal shut of itself." (from Sir Burton's translation of 1888)