Open sesame

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For other uses, see Open sesame (disambiguation).
Ali Baba overhearing one of the thieves saying "Open Sesame".

"Open sesame" (French: Sésame, ouvre-toi; Arabic: افتح يا سمسم) is a magical phrase in the story of "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" in Antoine Galland's version of One Thousand and One Nights. It opens the mouth of a cave in which forty thieves have hidden a treasure.

Documentation[]

The phrase first appears in Antoine Galland's Les Mille et une nuits (1704–1717) as Sésame, ouvre-toi (English, "Sesame, open yourself").[1] In the story, Ali Baba overhears one of the 40 thieves saying "open sesame". His brother later cannot remember the phrase, and confuses it with the names of grains other than sesame, becoming trapped in the magic cave.

Galland's phrase has been variously translated from the French into English as "Sesame, open",[2] "Open, sesame" and "Open, O sesame".[3][failed verification]

Classification[]

Open sesame has been classified by Stith Thompson as motif element D1552.2, "Mountain opens to magic formula".[4]

Origin[]

Sesame seeds grow in a seed pod that splits open when it reaches maturity,[5] and the phrase possibly alludes to unlocking of treasures,[6] although it is not certain that the word "sesame" actually refers to the sesame plant or seed.[7]

Other theories include:

  • Sesame is a reduplication of the Hebrew šem 'name', i.e. God or a kabbalistic word representing the Talmudic šem-šāmayīm ("shem-shamayim"), 'name of heaven'.[8]
  • Sesame is connected to Babylonian magic practices which used sesame oil.[9]

See also[]

Notes[]

  1. ^ "Les mille et une nuits : contes arabes / traduits par Galland, ornés de gravures". Gallica.bnf.fr. 2009-05-25. Retrieved 2013-08-15.
  2. ^ "The Novelist's Magazine - Google Boeken". 1785. Retrieved 2013-08-15.
  3. ^ Burton
  4. ^ S. Thompson, Motif-index of folk-literature : a classification of narrative elements in folktales, ballads, myths, fables, mediaeval romances, exempla, fabliaux, jest-books, and local legends", 1955-1958. [1] cf. Aarne–Thompson classification system
  5. ^ "Sesame: Origin, History, Etymology and Mythology". MDidea.com. 2015-11-30. Archived from the original on 2018-01-25. Retrieved 2018-01-25.
  6. ^ "Open Sesame". The New York Times Magazine. 2015-04-08. Retrieved 2018-01-25.
  7. ^ Armstrong, Marian (2007). Wildlife and Plants. 16. Marshall Cavendish. p. 972. ISBN 978-0761477105. Retrieved 2014-12-24.
  8. ^ in Orientalistische Literaturzeitung (1902), as reported in Haupt.
  9. ^ Theodor Nöldeke in Zeitschrift für Assyriologie (1914), as reported in Haupt.

Bibliography[]

  • (in English) Paul Haupt, "Open Sesame" in Beiträge zur assyriologie und semitischen Sprachwissenschaft 10:2, 1927, p. 165ff. Originally presented at the meeting of the American Oriental Society, Washington, April 15, 1916.
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