Farouk is a minor character in Disney's 1992 animated feature film Aladdin and a recurring character in its television adaptation.
Personality[]
In all of his appearances, Farouk is depicted as a very harsh and no-nonsense attitude, not tolerating theft (or what he perceives as theft) in any way, shown when he was enraged at Jasmine merely for taking an apple from his cart to feed a hungry child. To a certain degree, he is also shown to be a brutish savage; though it is unknown whether he had the authority to do so, he very nearly chopped Jasmine's hand off for taking the apple, something that would have definitely landed him in serious trouble (because he didn't know Jasmine was the daughter of the Sultan, who would surely have had Farouk executed for dismembering his daughter, he at least heard that Jasmine knew the Sultan but apparently paid no attention to this particular detail). Even after learning that Jasmine was the Sultan's daughter and that Aladdin had effectively saved him from a potential execution, Farouk does not change his attitude towards either of them and is still ready to engage in the most amoral acts in order to make a profit, no matter what the cost.
Appearances[]
Aladdin[]
He appears briefly in the movie where Jasmine takes an apple from his stand to give to a hungry child. He asks angrily if she has money to pay and when she says she doesn't, but she knows the sultan, he attempts to cut her hand off before Aladdin intervenes. Aladdin pretends she is his mentally handicapped sister and sneakily takes an apple from his stand and gives it to him, making it seem like Aladdin is giving him a new apple in exchange for the one Jasmine took. He lets them off until he sees that Abu stole more of his apples and yells at them, but they escape. By doing this, Aladdin effectively saves Farouk's life as well, as cutting Jasmine's hand off would surely have led to the Sultan having him beheaded by Razoul for treason.
Farouk reappears with his belly drummed by Genie, and he isn't seen again for the rest of the film.
Aladdin: The Series[]
He appears a few times throughout the series selling fruit and water. In "Web of Fear", Aladdin saves him, but he is ungrateful, telling him he took long enough. Later he leads an army of the villagers against the Unkbuut, only to learn they are good and claims that he knew all along they were good (an obvious lie as he refused to believe Jasmine when she said they were good, saying she was under their spell). In "Power to the Parrot", he gladly takes one of the jewels Iago is offering for free to everyone but Genie intervenes saying Iago is abusing his powers as a genie (which Genie lent him to prove who was the better genie) before Farouk tosses him away. He later throws rotten fruit at Iago as everything he has done has backfired. In "Poor Iago", he sells water at exorbitant prices during a drought.
Trivia[]
- He was the boss in the Aladdin Super Nintendo video game, in the fourth level.
- A street vendor in the Once Upon a Time episode "A Wondrous Place" is based on him.
- He is the reason Aladdin and Jasmine meet in the first place as their first encounter is Aladdin saving Jasmine from him.
- Though a minor character, the depiction of Farouk was one of the various things pointed out by Jack Shaheen for his book/documentary Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People. Shaheen highlights Farouk's scene as one of many in Hollywood that depict Arabs as stereotypical sexist savages and pay particular attention to when Farouk, an ordinary Arab food seller, either has the authority to cut off a woman's hand for something as simple as taking an apple from his cart to feed a hungry child, or is merely a "savage Arab" willing to take the law into his own hands, regardless of the potential punishment for such an action. Shaheen cited this as one of Hollywood's most damaging stereotypes of Arab people, given that it is depicted in a movie intended for children.
- A character based on Farouk, named Jamal, appears in the 2019 remake of Aladdin, and plays out the same role, though he sells bread rolls instead of apples, and grabs Jasmine's hand in order to remove her bracelet in retaliation for her taking his bread to feed hungry children instead of attempting to cut her arm off. This was likely done due to changes in political correctness in Hollywood.
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