Arabic/Egyptian folk hero needed!

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

My player characters will be heading to an "Arabian" section of my game world in the near future, and I'm looking to incorporate a folkloric plucky young hero as their translator/guide/redshirt. I'd like it to be drawn from real world folk tales, so I can dip into an unfamiliar well for inspiration, but I don't want it to be Aladdin, since his particular well is higher level than I'm comfortable with for this NPC's role.

Any suggestions?

 

[blargney the second]

Hassan CHOP!

 

[Thunderfoot]

Though just as popular at one time, but much less so now are Ali Baba and Sinbad. Both are swashbuckling style heroes, Ali Baba a little more on the cerebral side and Sinbad more muscle than brain, though quick in the thought department when it counts.

A great source is the actual books of the 1001 Arabian Nights. I said books, because the original story is so long it comprises volumes. Check your local library and just scan the titles of the different stories for inspiration, but don't forget that you will have to start reading the story about halfway through the previous chapter in order to get all of it. (The original volumes are actually titled by day, not by story.) The abridged copies are more easily read, but many omit several tales and there are many more about El-al-a-din [el - al - AH - DEEN] (Aladdin).

Also, if you study a little bit about the Arabic language, you can use the proper forms of address and the party might never catch on to whom they are actually speaking (such as the aforementioned El-al-a-din).

 

[Tonguez]

Of course Aladin is actually chinese but hey if you want to stick with the Arabian Nights then

Ali Shar who wasted his inheritance and became a beggar until he falls in love with a slave girl - the PCs could meet him whilst he is a beggar

Sindbad the Porter is a good one for the PCs to meet too. Just a lowly porter he one day stops to rest outside the house of a rich merchant with whom he shares a name - the merchant is Sinbad the sailor

Abu Nuwas - a real life poet (Bard) described in 1001 Nights as a hedonist poet in the court of Caliph Harun al-Rashid, the PCs could encounter Abu

For egyptians
You could name the NPC Heru after Heru ben Ausar is a version of Horus son of Osiris and is thus a divine prince destined to overthrow evil

or Tuti - a peasant who rose up to become vizier

and don't forget Mercury Ali from 1001 Nights - an egyptian con-man who was always trying to scam someone

 

[Wik]

Of course Aladin is actually chinese but hey if you want to stick with the Arabian Nights then

What the? The tale of Alladin was added to the 1,001 nights by Antoine Gallad, who wrote the first european translation of the nights. The only thing chinese about Alladin was the city he starts in at the beginning of the tale; I think the lamp was said to be in a chinese tomb, as well.

***

To the OP: my suggestion to you is to read some of the arabian nights yourself, to get a feel for the roguish character. here is a quick one I pulled off the internet, though I'm sure there are others. Project Gutenberg seems to be down for a spell, so that's out. But, yeah, give 'em a read. You won't regret it.

 

[Huw]

Of course Aladin is actually chinese but hey if you want to stick with the Arabian Nights then

Afghan, actually.

If you want someone historically based, have them meet Ibn Battuta - Africa's answer to Marco Polo. Now he would make an ideal guide and translator.

 

[Oryan77]

Afghan, actually.

If you want someone historically based, have them meet Ibn Battuta - Africa's answer to Marco Polo. Now he would make an ideal guide and translator.

Aladdin is not Afghan. Believe me, I'm married to a Muslim Afghan woman and if Aladdin was Afghan, every Afghan I know would make sure to brag about it. Afghans are very proud people and they like to boast

He's not middle-eastern either. He actually is supposed to be from China, which makes him Chinese.

It's a middle eastern tale and the people in the story are supposed to be Muslim. But Aladdin is in fact from China. He's considered a Chinese Muslim.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

These are good suggestions, thanks. My problem, though, is I'm looking for someone lowly enough not to upstage mid-level characters, and flexible enough to leave the capital city of the region and travel with them to the lost temple of Tiamat. A plucky street urchin with a bazaar beggar's grasp of multiple languages is more what I'm looking for (he'll probably be Group Level -2 as a rogue as well).

I'm thinking I'll merge Mercury Ali and Aladdin (pre-djinn) for my purposes. There's even a messenger god I can use instead of Mercury, too.

 

[Ed_Laprade]

These are good suggestions, thanks. My problem, though, is I'm looking for someone lowly enough not to upstage mid-level characters, and flexible enough to leave the capital city of the region and travel with them to the lost temple of Tiamat. A plucky street urchin with a bazaar beggar's grasp of multiple languages is more what I'm looking for (he'll probably be Group Level -2 as a rogue as well).

I'm thinking I'll merge Mercury Ali and Aladdin (pre-djinn) for my purposes. There's even a messenger god I can use instead of Mercury, too.

I know absolutely nothing about Mercury Ali, but I suspect that the name refers to the element rather than the god.

 

[Huw]

Aladdin is not Afghan. Believe me, I'm married to a Muslim Afghan woman and if Aladdin was Afghan, every Afghan I know would make sure to brag about it. Afghans are very proud people and they like to boast

He's not middle-eastern either. He actually is supposed to be from China, which makes him Chinese.

It's a middle eastern tale and the people in the story are supposed to be Muslim. But Aladdin is in fact from China. He's considered a Chinese Muslim.

Fair enough. The details of the story (mountainous kingdom, veiled women, Jewish merchants) point to somewhere in central Asia, with northern Afghanistan being the best match. Of course, there're other details and anachronisms that point to Antoine Galland probably having made the whole story up