The Transformation of Ala'addin Abolshamat's Story in Persian Folk Tales

One of the stories of the famous book One Thousand and One Nights is called "Ala'addin Abolshamat". This story narrates Ala’addin’s adventure from his birth in Egypt to his trip to Baghdad and permanent marriage to the girl with whom he was supposed to be with for just one night as well as other adventures until the end of his life. A part of this story has become the source of legends with the same structure in Persian folk tales. In this article, ten types of these narrations have been identified and analyzed. Some of these stories have been published in collection of anecdotes, but most have remained unknown. These narrations have more or less some differences in the method and details of narration as well as linguistic and literary issues. Although the general structure of the stories is the same, the narrators have inadvertently or intentionally made changes in the details over time; maybe because it was more attractive for the audience or the story became more believable for the Iranian audience. By analyzing the details of these narrations, we can get some interesting points. From a broader perspective, we can determine the order of changes in the narratives based on the same details.