Ali Baba

The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable | 2006 | 514 words | Copyright

Ali Baba the hero of a story supposed to be from the Arabian Nights (but actually first added to the text in a French translation of the early 18th century), who discovered the magic formula (open sesame) which opened a cave where forty thieves kept their treasure.

Planning to recover what they had lost, the thieves concealed themselves in Ali Baba's courtyard in forty tall oil jars, but Ali Baba's slave Morgiana, discovering their presence, poured boiling oil into the jars and killed them, saving her master.

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ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "Ali Baba." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Encyclopedia.com. 29 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "Ali Baba." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Encyclopedia.com. (May 29, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O214-AliBaba.html

ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "Ali Baba." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Retrieved May 29, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O214-AliBaba.html

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