Talk:Magic carpet

Unsourced moved from article

In popular culture

Magic carpets have also been featured in modern literature, movies, and video games, and not always in a classic context.

• In his comic fairy tale Prince Prigio, Andrew Lang makes one of the hero's christening gifts a magic carpet.
• Poul Anderson's Operation Chaos features an alternate America in which flying carpets are a major form of transportation, along with brooms.
• In Super Mario Bros. 2, an enemy named Pidgit rides on a flying carpet.
• A flying carpet is also a character (complete with personality) in the 1992 Disney film Aladdin.
• Contemporary journalists often described the 1955 Citroën DS automobile as having ride quality similar to a magic carpet.
• In Sourcery, the fifth novel in the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett, Rincewind, Corina, Nijel and Creosote escape from Klatch using a magic carpet stored in Creosote's treasury. However, the escape does not initially go according to plan since the carpet does not work until Rincewind "just paid attention to certain fundamental details of laminar and spatial arrangements." (the carpet being upside down) and commands it to go 'down' in order to make it fly.
• Mr. Popo from the famous manga and anime Dragon Ball rides a magic carpet.
• Flying carpets are a mode of transportation called "Hawking mats" in the novel Hyperion by Dan Simmons.
• Harry Potter - The Ministry of Magic has made magic carpets illegal made in a reference in the 4th book Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
• In the online MMORPG RuneScape, magic carpets (made from camel hair) used to be a popular and common method of transportation around the Kharidian Desert, but lost favour after the Emir of Al Kharid, the desert town, fell to his death after mistaking an ordinary carpet for his magic one. However, certain enterprising businessmen have revived this method of travel across the expanse of the desert, for a price.
• The Magic carpet also return in Sonic Riders and Sonic and the Secret Rings.
• A popular amusement ride which rotates riders vertically but keeps them heads-up is called "Flying Carpet".
• In one episode from Baby Looney Tunes, when Daffy borrowed and used Sylvester's blanket on a slide, Daffy went airborne for a few seconds in a way resembling one riding on a flying carpet.

---

Moved this unsourced WP:OR from the article to the talk page. As stuff gets sourced, it can be moved back. Cirt (talk) 05:51, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

what is tapestry? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 125.160.90.204 (talk) 03:33, 12 November 2009 (UTC)

No Alladin?

I can't believe the movie (or story, whatever) of Alladin isn't mentioned in the popular culture reference. He's what comes to mind when people talk about magic carpets!

Only in the Disney version! In the real story Aladdin is transported by a genie. --Soundofmusicals (talk) 12:03, 7 March 2012 (UTC)

Magic Carpet

I actually can't remember a specific story in the Nights with a magic carpet - although Disney sneaked one into their (per)version of Aladdin (which is not a real "Nights" story anyway!!). In any case the (nice) magic carpet graphic was at best misplaced. If someone badly wants to put it back - please find a story it relaltes to and put it in a more appropraite place in the article. --Soundofmusicals (talk) 01:07, 27 October 2011 (UTC)

it doesn't seem to be in the burton version, although of course who can ever be sure of that, but it does seem to be in mardrus and payne and possibly others. i think burton mentions it in a note in one of the supplemental volumes (see e.g. here towards the bottom but i this is a different edition from mine and i can't actually find it) i don't have time to think about the image in the wp article right now, so i'm putting these here in case someone finds them useful before i have a chance to get to it:

1. Joseph Charles Mardrus; E. P. Mathers (31 December 1990). Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night. Psychology Press. p. 558. ISBN 978-0-415-04541-4. Retrieved 27 October 2011.
2. John Payne (1884). The book of the thousand nights and one night. R. Worthington. p. 235. Retrieved 27 October 2011.

— alf.laylah.wa.laylah (talk) 16:34, 27 October 2011 (UTC)

An editor keen to preserve the image we're talking about did a google on the subject and came up with a book, evidently for children, about city life in the Muslim Golden Age. And this is not only NOT a reliable source - but again inserts a similar illustration to ours next to a very brief (and not very accurate) snippet about the "nights" - with no mention of which story they were illustrating. I strongly suspect that they would have said "Aladdin" if you'd asked them - but there is no magic carpet in the proper Aladdin story, only in the Disney (per)version. If you can quote chapter and verse and the name of the story - then by all means. In the meantime this needs a proper reference. --Soundofmusicals (talk) 11:27, 7 March 2012 (UTC)

Hey, I've done some searching of my own! We DO have a magic carpet in 1001 Nights - in a story called "The tale of the three Princes and the Princess Nouronnihar" - Prince Husain the eldest of the sons of the Sultan of the Indies uses a magic carpet. The snag is that it doesn't fly, but "instantly translates" its passenger to where he wants to go. So the picture IS irrelevant. Sorry, but I did my best.--Soundofmusicals (talk) 12:23, 7 March 2012 (UTC)

Recently Soundofmusicals has put up an intolerant and irrelevant argumentation regarding the existence of Flying Carpets in the 1001 Nights...well FYI:

The flying carpet is indeed one of the most enduring images in 1001 Nights and it is affiliated with many stories, and traditionally Prince Housain in the story of "The Three Brothers" is the one and only person to fly on a magic carpet in the collection of stories from the 1001 Nights.

This answers the stubborn edit conflict and the odd question put up and aggressively placed by Soundofmusicals... — Preceding unsigned comment added by 182.182.47.117 (talk) 01:23, 26 April 2012 (UTC)

What does "affiliated with" mean in this context? How can a story be "affiliated" with an object that does not play a part in it? Or for that matter rate a mention in it! I have tried very hard to find a story with a magic carpet in it somewhere in the nights. I am a retired librarian, and my research has involved Google of course, but also a search of various printed texts. The only one I can come up with is the Three Brothers or "The tale of the three Princes and the Princess Nouronnihar", which in various versions comes up over and over again. Three princely brothers are all in love with a princess - her father sends each of them on a quest to find something that will restore her to health - one brother returns with a magic tube that helps diagnose her illness, one with a magic apple that cures her, and one with a magic carpet that returns the three brothers to the princess in time to save her. The problem is that the carpet is NOT a flying one - even more marvellously, it "teleports" its user to any place he can think of. I have been though all your internet sites (most of which I had already seen myself) and none of them mention any story but this one. Not one mentions another story actually containing a "flying" carpet a la Disney, nor for that matter a teleporting one either. Broadly, that is precisely the conclusion I finally drew from my own research.

People may very well THINK of flying carpets when they think of the Nights - but I'm afraid this is all down to a certain (very much altered) animated version of Aladdin. Aladdin, it need not be said, certainly does not include a carpet, flying, teleporting, or otherwise - at least in the original version.

I have repeatedly asked you to mention a story from the nights with a flying carpet in it - in order to justify the illustration of one in our encyclopedia article. In the circumstances this is hardly "argumentative", or "agressive", much less "intolerant" or "irrelevant". This article is meant to be part of an authoritative encyclopedia - we can't "tolerate" nonsense, "relevance" refers to the point in question. It is NOT a junior high school project. You have been blocked (not by me) for your conduct in repeatedly reinstating a (very nice) picture that simply does not belong there - without any attempt at justification. I explained why I deleted it - and until now you have made no attempt whatever to answer me, except to remark (quite incorrectly) that there were lots of flying carpets in the Nights. Not so, there aren't any. Incredible as it probably sounds, I'd be delighted to be proved wrong here - but it will need a real Arabian Nights story that really and truly DOES have a flying carpet in it. --Soundofmusicals (talk) 06:40, 26 April 2012 (UTC)

I don't know why you are so interested in this irrelevant argument Soundofmusicals...but you are wrong...go ahead and check these references. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 182.182.23.5 (talk) 16:48, 26 April 2012 (UTC)

File:1721 Tales 100.jpg

Artwork from Hungarian stamp showing three people riding on a flying carpet.

— Preceding unsigned comment added by 182.182.13.155 (talk) 12:19, 29 April 2012 (UTC)

It is mentioned in the following references that: "The wind took up the Flying Carpet and transported it (gliding through the air)"...

In another place it says: "Prince Ahmad buys a Flying Carpet and together with his brothers they fly to the aid of a dying Princess"...

This Magic Carpet had the special property of transporting whoever sits on it from one place to another...Prince Husain's enchanted Flying Carpet can transport the person standing upon it to any place he desires, just like the Flying Carpet of Solomon son of David...

The Muslim story of Solomon son of David's Flying Carpet was the main inspiration behind the Flying Carpet of Prince Housain.

Prince Housain's Magic Carpet hastened to her (Princess) therefore it moved by itself...it naver Teleported at all... — Preceding unsigned comment added by 182.182.119.244 (talk) 12:14, 29 April 2012 (UTC)

None of your random websites is a valid source - and in any case none of them mention an Arabian Nights story with a magic carpet other than The Three Brothers anyway!!! See Brewers dictionary of phrase and fable p. 305 if you want a reference - and please read the above. I am interested because, like all non-vandalistic editors over the mental age of 5, I want this encyclopedia to be accurate rather than a repository of childish nonsense. --Soundofmusicals (talk) 03:23, 27 April 2012 (UTC)

Text from Brewers below -

Carpet The magic carpet of Tangu. A carpet to all appearances worthless, but if anyone sat thereon, it would transport him instantaneously to the place he wished to go. So called because it came from Tangu, in Persia. It is sometimes termed Prince Housain's carpet, because it came into his hands, and he made use of it. ( Arabian Nights: Prince Ahmed.) (--Soundofmusicals (talk) 03:37, 27 April 2012 (UTC))

Soundofmusicals you have totally exaggerated and falsified the Teleportation thing, by yourself...

No I haven't - see above --Soundofmusicals (talk) 11:07, 29 April 2012 (UTC)

Teleportation via Magic Carpet is not mentioned anywhere in the 1001 Nights, in fact only Jinn's have the ability to do that, not the Flying Carpet of Prince Hussain. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 182.182.119.244 (talk) 12:09, 29 April 2012 (UTC)

Here is how Burton describes the carpet - Whoever sitteth on this carpet and willeth in thought to be taken up and set down upon other site will, in the twinkling of an eye, be borne thither, be that place nearhand or distant many a day's journey and difficult to reach. . This procedure is followed several times in the story.

This is NOT "falsified" or "exaggerated" but is a straight cut and paste of the text itself!!! --Soundofmusicals (talk) 02:08, 30 April 2012 (UTC)

I think the confusion here is based on various "as retold by" versions of certain tales from the "Nights" - Disney of course, and earlier "adapters for children" who also took major and minor liberties with some of the stories. The original tale (as translated by Burton) does have a carpet that "instantly translates" the user - there is no description of it rising from the ground or being wafted by the wind - the "journey" is not described at all - except that the traveller is unaware of how he got there (!) In fact the first jouney of the carpet specifically begins and end INDOORS (from the back room of the merchants' shop to the prince's room at the Khan). Sorry - but this IS an encyclopedia, not a book for kiddies. The fact is that there are no flying carpets in the nights, nor do the Genies give "three wishes". The flying carpet actually comes from Jewish and Russian folk tales, while the "three wishes" is from Celtic and Germanic folk tales of Pixies and Dwarfs, not Arabic Genies!!!

Casual websites from here and there are not necessarily terribly good souces - much better are original scources like Brewer and Burton himself - although the results of Google searches can often give us a good idea of where to look for something with authority. --Soundofmusicals (talk) 23:58, 2 May 2012 (UTC)

References

Definition

Magic carpet is defined as a carpet that will transport the user "instantaneously or quickly". I am not sure that great speed is an inherent part of the description. As shown in movies such as The Thief of Baghdad, the carpet can travel fast, but it is also shown travelling slowly. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 101.98.175.68 (talk) 20:37, 26 January 2014 (UTC)