Uploaded January 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
The musical version of Aladdin on Broadway did more than just provide me with enjoyment, it sparked a curiosity about why the genie’s domicile was referred to as a “lamp.” Certainly, it didn’t look like any lamp I had ever seen, so I had to look into the history of lamps. Obviously, that’s a pretty easy task these days with online resources ready to spew out more information than anyone needs. It quickly became clear that the genie had emerged out of an “oil lamp.” In the days of Aladdin, that would have been olive or sesame oil.
Basically, oil lamps work the same way as a candle but instead of dipping into melted wax, a wick wax dips into oil. The earliest such lamps date back some 10,000 years and were made of stone, later succeeded by clay and bronze lamps. The industrial age saw a bit more sophisticated versions that were used as carriage and bicycle lights. These at first used whale oil but by the end of the 1800s, this was replaced by kerosene derived from petroleum that was cheaper, burned with a brighter flame and was less odourous.
I had another revelation on looking into the Aladdin story. It actually wasn’t part of the original Thousand and One Arabian Nights but was added by Antoine Galland in the 18th century who translated the stories into French based on a Syrian folktale he had heard. Anyway, then I started to look into the original stories and came upon one about a desperate merchant who had not been able to father a child for forty years. He hoped for an aphrodisiac effect by first following a diet of spiced, roasted pigeon, male fish with intact genitalia, and fried rams’ testicles for three days before swallowing a concoction of opium, skink meat, frankincense and coriander. What is wrong with this story besides the fact that this regimen does not have an aphrodisiac effect?
Aphrodisiacs are substances that are supposed to increase libido, sexual attraction and prompt sexual behaviour but have nothing to do with male fertility which depends on delivering an adequate amount of healthy sperm. If the merchant had a low sperm count, even if there were a true aphrodisiac effect that triggered extra activity with his wife, the problem would not have been solved.
Of course, the stories in One Thousand and One Nights were written about a thousand years ago when the causes of infertility were unknown. The writers of these stories had no scientific background, but Moses Maimonides who lived roughly around the same time was a physician who recommended a similar regimen, albeit not for infertility. He urged men in search of a sexual boost should “take the penis of an ox, dry it and grind it, and then sprinkle it on a soft-boiled egg that should be consumed in sips.” He did not offer any advice about how the main ingredient should be acquired.
The musical version of Aladdin on Broadway did more than just provide me with enjoyment, it sparked a curiosity about why the genie’s domicile was referred to as a “lamp.” Certainly, it didn’t look like any lamp I had ever seen, so I had to look into the history of lamps. Obviously, that’s a pretty easy task these days with online resources ready to spew out more information than anyone needs. It quickly became clear that the genie had emerged out of an “oil lamp.” In the days of Aladdin, that would have been olive or sesame oil.
Basically, oil lamps work the same way as a candle but instead of dipping into melted wax, a wick wax dips into oil. The earliest such lamps date back some 10,000 years and were made of stone, later succeeded by clay and bronze lamps. The industrial age saw a bit more sophisticated versions that were used as carriage and bicycle lights. These at first used whale oil but by the end of the 1800s, this was replaced by kerosene derived from petroleum that was cheaper, burned with a brighter flame and was less odourous.
I had another revelation on looking into the Aladdin story. It actually wasn’t part of the original Thousand and One Arabian Nights but was added by Antoine Galland in the 18th century who translated the stories into French based on a Syrian folktale he had heard. Anyway, then I started to look into the original stories and came upon one about a desperate merchant who had not been able to father a child for forty years. He hoped for an aphrodisiac effect by first following a diet of spiced, roasted pigeon, male fish with intact genitalia, and fried rams’ testicles for three days before swallowing a concoction of opium, skink meat, frankincense and coriander. What is wrong with this story besides the fact that this regimen does not have an aphrodisiac effect?
Aphrodisiacs are substances that are supposed to increase libido, sexual attraction and prompt sexual behaviour but have nothing to do with male fertility which depends on delivering an adequate amount of healthy sperm. If the merchant had a low sperm count, even if there were a true aphrodisiac effect that triggered extra activity with his wife, the problem would not have been solved.
Of course, the stories in One Thousand and One Nights were written about a thousand years ago when the causes of infertility were unknown. The writers of these stories had no scientific background, but Moses Maimonides who lived roughly around the same time was a physician who recommended a similar regimen, albeit not for infertility. He urged men in search of a sexual boost should “take the penis of an ox, dry it and grind it, and then sprinkle it on a soft-boiled egg that should be consumed in sips.” He did not offer any advice about how the main ingredient should be acquired.
