The Thief Of Bagdad (1924)

Ahmed formerly known as The Thief Of Bagdad is the titular protagonist of the 1924 silent film of the same name. He's a former street thief who would encounter and fall in love with the princess of Bagdad during one of his heists, which would lead to abandoning his thieving ways, and working to win the princess' heart in a fair way.
He was portrayed by the late Douglas Fairbanks Sr.
== Biography ==
=== Introduction to the Thief ===
He starts off as a common street thief, who's introduced pretending to be asleep on a stone platform above a small drinking water fountain, and pickpocketing a passing man's purse (stuffing the riches inside his pantaloons) when he pausing to drink from the fountain in front of him. He fights with a second possible victim and draws a crowd of onlookers. When the thief claims the purse was his in front of an authority figure, the victim tells the thief to explain what's in it, to which he relied that it was empty. The purse was indeed empty, and he's handed it empty purse, to which it's revealed he had secretly taken the gold coins from the purse.
Feeling hungry, he noticed a woman was heating up a bowl of food on the upper balcony of her residence, so he steals a cloth rope from a sleeping merchant, throws the coiled piece of cloth into the air over the balcony railing and attaches the end of the rope to the hind-end of a donkey to create a pulley, and lift himself up high enough to get some of the food. He notices a street magician below with a "magic basket," he places a young boy into and a "magic rope of Ispahán", which could extended upwards - becoming rigid and straight with a few commands. The Thief watched in amazement as the boy from the basket magically appeared clinging to the top of the rope, before scampering down. When accosted and beaten by the woman of the home, the Thief lept onto the still erect rope and slithered down to the street when the magician ended the trick.
While everyone's bowed down to a Holy man, the thief grabbed the magic rope and acrobatically escapes pursuit. He tied the rope around his waist and eluded capture by leaping and bouncing in and out of numerous giant clay pots in the marketplace. When the enormous vase that he was hiding in cracked open, he extended the magic rope upwards and climbed into the open window of the mosque, where he observed religious believers in prayer, led by the Imam. He challenges the Holy Man and other mosque-goers by asserting his own philosophy of life: taking what he wanted without regard for others. He expressed his sneering disdain for religion, and his belief that Allah was a myth. He makes it the street from the mosque, just in time to witness a different thief get publicly punished by flogging for stealing a jeweled ring. When everyone leaves, the thief tripped the ring's owner (who had ordered the punishment), and cleverly stole the ring without the man knowing.
As the procession passed, he rolled under the open litter transport held up by porters, clung to its under-carriage, and removed a ring from the extended hand of the unaware carriage's occupant. Then he descended into a secret passageway and tunnel, and entered into his abode - a secret cave at the bottom of a well. There, he bragged about his latest stolen treasures to his partner-in-crime, revealed his stolen coins and the magic rope.
=== Breaking in and Seeing the Princess ===
On the day when the princess' suitors had arrived to be wed, the thief and his partner attempted to break into the palace but when they joined the parade, were denied entry. The Thief vowed to steal the many valuables and jewels brought as gifts by the suitors by scaling the tall palace wall with his magic rope. In the middle of the night "when night reaches its noon", the Thief used his magic rope to climb to the top of the wall to initiate a break-in. As an intimidating guard on the lower level fell asleep, the thief snuck up the stairs, found three fat guards sleeping, and used one of their keys to unlock a treasure chest of jewels. However, he's interrupted by the sounds of a lute, strummed by a female handmaiden-slave next to the bedside of the sleeping princess. After the maid-servants went to their bedchamber, the thief went down a long staircase and saw the princess sleeping under a veil, which he was instantly entranced by. After he gets one of her silk slippers, she stirred and woke up, all of the guards (inside and outside of the palace) and the handmaidens rushed to her aid, while the thief hides under a blanket. With the princess seemingly safe, she went back to asleep. Her slave-servant detected the thief under the blanket, to which he reacts by poking her in the left side with his dagger to silence her, and with the knife still pointed into her back, marched her over to a corner of the bedroom wall. He braced the knife against her back with a pillow and ordered her to not turn around, to make her believe that he was still there so that he could make his escape. He grabbed one of the Princess' silk slippers and jumped through an open window to flee from the palace, seconds before the slave-servant realized she had been tricked.
=== Planning to Abduct the Princess ===
The thief, still dreamily thinking of the Princess, remembered her through her purloined slipper, and then went towards the imposing gates of the Palace that separated him from her. The Thief's partner griped about his master being love-struck. The Thief scaled a lengthy ivy branch high in the air next to the Palace wall to spy upon the Princess and her maid-servant on a balcony and his companion reminded him to be more realistic, claiming the princess was beyond his reach. The companion, then told a tale that not-so-subtly suggested abducting of the Princess - the object of the Thief's intense desire - by drugging her and kidnapping her when she was unconscious.
=== Wooing the Princess ===
The Princess' three suitors each wanted to win the princess over, and the thief was watching the display of princely gifts and garments, and his companion suggested that the thief should pose as a fourth royal prince (by stealing expensive raiments), and try to compete with the other suitors to win the Princess' love - fairly. The duo would shop-lifted princely silk garments and other items from some of the merchant vendors, as a means to impersonate a prince and get in. The princess would reject all three of her original suitors each for different reasons, and afterwards the thief would arrive under a false title: "Ahmed, Prince of the Isles, of the Seas, and of the Seven Palaces", riding a horse. The Princess was pleased, and hoped he'd fulfill the prophecy by touching the rose-tree, so she could marry him. At that moment, as Prince Ahmed was riding by the rose-tree/bush, a bee caused his horse to buck, and he was tossed into the top of the magical rose-bush, allowing him to fulfill the prophecy much to the Princess' delight. The Mongol Prince (one of the princess' suitors) sneered at the false prince, wanting to kill him.
Now that he knew the Mongol prince knew the truth, Prince Ahmed told his associate, he had to steal the princess quickly. Prince Ahmed sprinkled water onto one of the rose petals plucked from the tree (and placed into his waist-belt) before scaling the palace wall to climb onto the Princess' balcony. From below, he overheard her wish to be with him, jumped onto her balcony and came face-to-face with her, as she ran and coyly hid behind a curtain-veil. When he extended the rose to her, she welcomed him and accepted it. After being told of the prophecy he had fulfilled, he repeatedly kissed her extended hand and kneeled before her as she swooned. They embraced and kissed before she affirmed her desire to be his wife - he then left her presence.
After climbing down from the balcony, the regretful Prince Ahmed told his associate that their situation was risky due to his masquerade, and decided to leave the area, But, the two were summoned into the Caliph's presence, with the princess' handmaiden and the Mongol Prince watching nearby.
During a ceremonial assembly before the Caliph, the three princely suitors plus Ahmed were brought forward. The Caliph announced that the Princess had chosen her suitor according to custom, and the princess places her ring on Prince Ahmed, choosing to marry him, and causing outrage by the other three authentic suitors. But Ahmed didn't officially marry the princess yet. When the ceremony ended, the Caliph led everyone from the Throne Room to the celebratory betrothal feast, except for Ahmed - who stayed behind.
=== Exposed ===
Princess' main Mongol handmaiden recognizes Prince Ahmed as the thief who had broken into the princess' bedchamber and held a dagger to her back. She tips of the Mongol Prince's counselor about his true identity, to which he smiled in approval, joined the betrothal feast, and reported Prince Ahmed's scam to his master, the Mongol Prince. In a public accusation in front of all the Caliph's guests, Prince Ahmed was denounced by the Mongol Prince. Caliph urgently ordered his troops to arrest him. Meanwhile, the remorseful Prince Ahmed is already in a private location with the tearful Princess in a palace garden where he removed his betrothal ring and humbly confessed that he was just a common thief, rather than a prince like she thought. When the Palace's sword-wielding guards approached, the Princess urged Prince Ahmed to hide, but he stands frozen in his tracks, as the princess gently took his hand and placed the ring in his palm before revealing her true love for him, as the military guards seized and arrested the thief. He was led to the Caliph in the feast room for the pronouncement of judgment.
The Caliph angrily pronounced a gruesome sentence to punish the thief for false impersonation of a prince. The Princess watched in horror and distress as the thief was stripped to the waist and brutally flogged. The Caliph then ordered his gruesome death - dismemberment by the fearsome giant ape guarding the palace entryway. Luckily, the Princess secretly arranged for him to be released, freed and smuggled out of the palace. She offers her pearls as a bribe to the guard troops, delivered through one of her loyal handmaidens, and the thief was thrown out of a secret panel or door into the street. He momentarily glanced at the Princess' ring on his finger to remind himself of how close he had come to marrying the Princess.
Shortly later, the Princess was summoned by her father and sternly ordered to choose a different husband. But the princess, by suggestion of her slave-handmaiden, delayed and deferred her choice to buy some time, in order to keep the rose-prophecy in the sand intact, and then presented a challenge to her suitors with a future promise. She pledged herself to the one suitor who went on a grand quest or journey and brought back "the rarest treasure" after "seven moons". The Caliph happily agreed with the Counselor and his daughter's proposal.
=== The Thief's Redemption ===
The next morning, the stunned thief woke up on the street, where his associate found him and suggested abducting the princess, but this time the thief refuses to do so. They watched as the other three Princes departed from the Palace - to set out on their quests to find "treasure" over a period of seven moons. The Thief assured that he could win the heart of the Princess, and at the same time the Princess was unhappy about losing Prince Ahmed. The thief stumbled into the mosque entryway to kneel before the Holy Man that he had mocked and scorned earlier, much to his associate's disgust. The kindly Holy Man saw the Thief's pain and depression, and encouraged him to find hope in his life by seeking treasure and happiness. He asserted that the humble thief could earn a new life by transforming himself into a prince, acquiring the love of the princess, and changing his fate and fortune. The Thief split the princess' ring in half with his sword, then handed one part to the Holy Man. Meanwhile, as the Mongol Prince was departing from the palace, and he told his counselor to stay behind and prepare his military plan to conquer Bagdad, by smuggling his army inside the palace's walls, planning was to conquer Bagdad either by winning the Princess or by conquering the city.
Category:Male
Category:Live Action Heroes
Category:Movie Heroes
Category:In Love
Category:Redeemed Villains
Category:Thieves
Category:Strategists
Category:Titular
Category:Stalkers
Category:Selfless
Category:Fantasy Heroes
Category:Adventurers
Category:The Hero
Category:The Chosen One
Category:Honorable
Category:Criminals
Category:Vigilantes
Category:Monarchs
Category:Love Rivals
Category:Wealthy
Category:Fighters
Category:Martial Artists
Category:Unwanted
Category:Determinators