Biography of Jafar

On this page is the biography of Jafar as can be reconstituted from as many sources as can be compiled into a mostly consistent whole. It is ever a work in progress, and you are welcome to add to it; however, all sources must be mentioned.

Biography

Early life

Jafar, brother of Nasira, was born to uncaring parents who sold him (and presumably his sister) away at such an earlier age that by the time he became Grand Vizier, Jafar had quite forgotten his birth last name.

Rise to power

Jafar reminisces about one of his rivals whom he assassinated, in Why Me?.

Seeking power at all costs, Jafar ingratiated himself into the high administration of the city-state of Agrabah, but found himself "unappreciated by his peers"; convinced that he was far worthier than any of the other advisors, or, indeed, than the childish Sultan himself, and that he deserved absolute power of the city,^[UNOFF] he eventually had his political rivals murdered one by one, keeping their skulls stacked neatly in a hidden room in the Palace which he had made his laboratory of sorcery and general-purpose lair.

For indeed, Jafar was by then a fervent student of the occult; he became the owner of a Snake Staff infused with part of the power of the Ring of Vor, with one account showing that in one parallel universe at least, Jafar was open about his being a sorcerer in the Court, even taking on an apprentice.^[FANWORK] Using the Snake Staff, or, rather, a series of weaker copies thereof, Jafar was able to hypnotize the weak-willed Sultan to do his bidding. Climbing to the rank of sole advisor and Grand Vizier, he came to effectively rule the land. This was not enough for Jafar, however, especially considering that heir to the throne Princess Jasmine saw right through him and the Sultan was getting old.

Arcane activities

A younger Jafar faces the Cave of Wonders for the first time (in Diamond in the Rough).

Jafar researched ancient legends about Genies and sought out the Genie's Lamp.. In one universe, he and his apprentice found it through means unknown, with Jafar manipulating his apprentice into making a wish with disastrous consequences. Terrified at the power they'd unleashed, this Mage betrayed his master and took the lamp to the Cave of Wonders in the hope that he would never find it; Jafar caught up with him moments too late and was only successful in sealing him into the Cave as well, transformed into a Magic Carpet.^[FANWORK]

This account of a divergent timeline is, however, at odds with the Genie's claim to have inhabited the Cave of Wonders for ten thousand years prior to being freed by Aladdin.

At some point, Jafar purchased a parrot called Iago from a bazaar, and, to deal with his own emotional outbursts, performed a magical ritual which siphoned off Jafar's frustrations and anger issues into the bird. This left Iago a perpetually-angry, but also sapient parrot who could now act as Jafar's spy and familiar — though it's unclear if this was an intended consequence of the ritual or a happy coincidence.

Meeting Mizrabel

Mickey Mouse helps a younger Jafar realize he has been played by the witch Mizrabel, in Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion.

At a point in his life when he still saw cultivating the Sultan's favor as the path to power, but already dreamed of being a powerful sorcerer, Jafar was plucked from his timeline and trapped in Wasteland in the Castle of Illusion by the witch Mizrabel. Mizrabel used her illusion magic to convince Jafar that she had made him the most powerful sorcerer in the world and that Princess Jasmine was his, in return of which he was more than happy to fight Mickey Mouse on her behalf.

However, Mickey was able to make him realize that the witch had messed with his mind, and he agreed to keep to his room and not attack anyone, waiting for Mickey to sort things out. He was returned to his proper world and time like all of Mizrabel's prisoners, with Jiminy Cricket imparting upon him the parting advice that friends were more important than power — which Jafar misunderstood as an admonishment to cultivate friends in high places to accumulate power. He vowed to redouble his efforts to remain in the Sultan's good graces.

The Diamond in the Rough

Controlling the Sultan (in Aladdin).

Jafar eventually tracked down both halves of the Golden Scarab, an artifact which would reveal the entrance to the Cave of Wonders where he knew the Genie's Lamp to be located. He arranged for a lowlife called Gazeem (who had recovered one half of the Scarab for him) to enter the Cave first, with instructions to bring back the Lamp but take any treasure he liked for himself aside from said Lamp.

This attempt was a failure as Jafar learned that only the pure of heart could enter the Cave. Having figured out the identity of the perfect "Diamond in the Rough", either via a magical working predicated on the Sultan's sapphire ring or a potion of some sort Jafar manipulated the lucky chosen one — a good-hearted street thief called Aladdin — into getting the lamp for him via disguising himself as an old prisoner or a traveller, either way enticing him with the chance to win Princess Jasmine's love via the riches acquired.

After Aladdin returned from the depths of the Cave with the Lamp, Jafar attempted to double-cross him and leave him to die in the Cave while taking the Lamp, revealing his identity in the process; yet Aladdin, even as he fell back into the now-sealed Cave, ended up keeping the lamp and befriending the Genie within.

Jafar's Finest Hour

On Iago's suggestion, Jafar (who believed he had lost the Lamp for good) switched tactics for something decidedly more mundane, seeking to use his Snake Staff to hypnotize the Sultan into making Princess Jasmine marry him, with the intention of then having both his father-in-law and wife assassinated and keep the reins of power to himself. This was foiled by Aladdin's triumphant return in the form of "Prince Ali Ababua", aided by his first Genie-granted wish of three.

"Sweet revenge" (in Aladdin).

Jafar tried to have Aladdin murdered, only for the younger man to be saved from drowning by the Genie and expose Jafar's hypnotism to the Sultan. Jafar easily evaded capture by the royal guards, merely slinking away to his laboratory. Iago soon stole the Lamp back, and Jafar proceeded to crash the wedding announcement of "Prince Ali" and Jasmine, using his first wish either to make Jasmine his prisoner and his second to become Sultan, or his first to become Sultan to start with.Unfortunately, he had failed to take into account that the title didn't mean much if no one in Agrabah acknowledged him as ruler. Furious, Jafar ordered the Genie to make him into the most powerful sorcerer in the world, allowing him to take effective control of Agrabah and the Palace and deal out ironic vengeance on all those whom he felt had wronged him, such as the Sultan and Jasmine.

Some of the commoners of Agrabah, such as the merchant Gale, attempted to rebel and restore the rightful Sultan, but were swatted away like nothing, with Gale retaining lifelong injuries from the ill-fated attempt.

Downfall and imprisonment

A brief taste of godhood (in Aladdin).

Aladdin, whom he had banished to the far ends of the Earth with his magic after exposing his lies to Jasmine, returned thanks to the loyalty of the Magic Carpet. After a battle during which Jafar got the chance to flex his new powers as the world's greatest sorcerer by transforming into a humongous cobra snake, Aladdin tricked him into using up his final wish to become "an all-powerful genie", pointing out that as powerful as Jafar was, the Genie who'd given him that power was still more powerful. Jafar enjoyed an all-too-brief taste of godly omnipotence before the full effects of the wish kicked in: as Aladdin had hoped, Jafar becoming a genie (all-powerful or otherwise) meant he was now bound to a lamp, which the good Genie kicked into the Cave of Wonders to remain banished for a thousand years.

Jafar spent some months fuming inside the lamp with Iago, receiving infuriating postcards from the Genie's travels around the world. Iago managed to get out of the Lamp eventually, but refused to rub it to release Jafar, instead heading over to the now-empty Genie's Lamp, in which he became trapped, although the Genie himself eventually recovered his Lamp and kept it as a literal mobile home, with Iago back inside Jafar's Lamp with Iago.

Kicked out of the Cave of Wonders, Jafar dispatches Iago to go find him a gullible "Master" (in More Arabian Nights).

Jafar's "constant crabbiness" eventually caused the Cave of Wonders to spit out the Lamp with Jafar and Iago inside, and they lingered in the shifting dunes of Agrabah's desert until Jafar got the idea to send out Iago with the order to find some naive travelers to manipulate into rubbing the Lamp and, in the longer run, freeing Jafar. He managed to manipulate a family of a traveling merchant into rubbing the Lamp.

The situation was beyond the elderly merchant, who wasted his first wish on "a nice, cold drink" and some cushions to soften up his wife's camel ride. He then let his daughter have the last wish, and she wished they'd never come on the trip at all, causing that timeline to collapse and the family to vanish from the desert, having never been there at all. Jafar and Iago were, however, left on the surface, free of the Lamp, and quickly happened upon a group of brigands.

Jafar attempting (fruitlessly) to get a small-minded brigand leader to go along with his plans (in More Arabian Nights).

With the Lamp rubbed by the leader, Jafar first flexed the ability to twist the Master of the Lamp's wish against them, turning his men into dogs when the brigand leader wished he had "more trustworthy and loyal companions". The leader then wished to live out his days as "a lazy, pampered creature", causing Jafar to transform him into a cat in disgust at the man's not even listening to what Jafar had to offer.

Found by a passing woman, the Lamp was sold to a wily, elderly lady at the Old Ladies' Bazaar; she managed to "make her wishes last quite a while" by asking for such things as for Jafar to sweep her house until not a speck of dust was left. Finally, after those wishes ran out, Jafar transformed Iago into a man-sized anthropomorphic parrot, allowing him to set up a stall in the Bazaar to sell the Lamp to an ideal, malleable Master in a position to take the Lamp back to the Palace.

Jafar duels the Genie (in More Arabian Nights).

This ideal candidate came in the form of the Uncanny Isabella, a magician and prestidigitator with an uncanny resemblance to Jafar himself. Through a mix of threats and promises, Jafar managed to persuade Isabella to help him lure the Sultan away from the Palace so that Jafar could trap him inside a crystal ball. However, after Jafar revealed the full extent of his vengeful cruelty to Isabella, the magician was convinced by the Genie (who had been magically dueling Jafar to buy him some time) to use his third and final wish to send Jafar and Iago back into the Lamp, and their Lamp back to the Cave of Wonders.

Jafar's Lamp glowing with power as Jafar rages within (in The Return of Jafar).

Iago was bullied by Jafar into physically digging them out of the Cave again, and they once again emerged in the desert with Jafar able to eject Iago from the Lamp but not to get out himself. Jafar was under the impression, by then, that Iago rubbing the Lamp would be enough to free him, but to his utter shock, Iago refused, having had enough of Jafar ordering him around with no reward. Heading for Agrabah, Iago dumped the helpless Jafar's Lamp down a well.

Return and death

Freed by Abis Mal, Jafar takes on the guise of his former human self (in The Return of Jafar).

The bumbling and self-aggrandizing bandit-lord Abis Mal, who had coincidentally just sworn revenge against Aladdin for stealing back Abis's loot and redistributing it to the poor, later found the Lamp when trying to draw water from the well, and rubbed it with the intent of cleaning it up and selling it for "a few shekels". Emerging in a mad, revengeful frenzy, Jafar unwittingly saved Abis's life, scaring away his henchmen who had been intent on murdering their disappointing and tyrannical leader.

Jafar bossing Abis Mal around (in The Return of Jafar).

However, he soon realized that he was still bound by the Rules of the Genie and could not simply fly away to perform his revenge on his own, having to remain within a certain radius of his Lamp. He thus set about manipulating Abis into taking the Lamp where he needed it to be. To do so, Jafar morphed into a humanoid form broadly identical to his original human body, as his true form proved "too overwhelming for [Abis Mal's] limited mind". He explained to Abis Mal that he was a Genie but advised him not to try to make his three wishes too quickly, granting Abis's first and thoughtless wish for "sunken treasure" by almost drowning him to show how dangerous it would be to disobey him.

Trapping him in a realm of pure magic, Jafar mocks the Genie and defeats him (in The Return of Jafar).

Cowing Iago back into his service, Jafar leveraged the fact that Iago had, during his short solo career, had insinuated himself into Aladdin's good graces, to hatch an extremely twisted revenge scheme. With the help of Abis Mal and Iago, he framed Aladdin for the (imaginary) murder of the Sultan of Agrabah, having kidnapped the Sultan and beaten the Genie in a protracted magical battle across space and time. Disguising himself as Princess Jasmine, he then condemned the "traitorous" Aladdin to death, forcing him to die believing it was on the order of the love of his life. However, Iago, plagued by remorse, freed the Genie from Jafar's crystal ball in time for him to save Aladdin from headsman Razoul's axe.

As his Lamp melts away, the wicked Jafar is destroyed (but is it for good, this time?) in The Return of Jafar.

Unaware that his scheme had failed, Jafar headed to the Palace's gardens and granted Abis Mal all the treasures he wished for in exchange for Abis Mal promising to use his remaining wish to set Jafar free from the Lamp. Just as he was about to do so, Abis began having doubts about whether Jafar would keep his word not to harm him after he was free. During this moment of indecision, the freed Aladdin burst in atop the Magic Carpet and snatched Jafar's Lamp from Abis, having learned from the Genie that destroying it would mean the death of Jafar. The nigh-omnipotent Jafar made short work of Aladdin and the Carpet, but was unable to kill them outright before Iago fully betrayed him and kicked the Lamp into the very lava Jafar (now calling on his full power) had conjured to kill Aladdin with. As the Lamp melted away into nothingness, Jafar's body was wracked by mystical energies before imploding altogether.

By the time of Aladdin and Jasmine's wedding, the Genie was confident that "Jafar and all of his malice" would no longer be a threat.

A failed resurrection

Learning

Jafar's ghost stands by his sister Nasira in Nasira's Revenge as they face down Aladdin one more time in Nasira's volcanic lair.

of her brother's death, Jafar's sister Nasira, a powerful sorceress in her own right, soon tried to avenge him, wreaking havoc across Agrabah and laying the stage for a grand ritual which would bring him back from the dead more powerful than ever.She succeeded in summoning Jafar's ghost, drawing on the power of a magical pool of lava to give him a magical and humongous physical form. However, before his life could be fully restored, the former Grand Vizier and his sister were defeated once again by Aladdin and Jafar returned to the netherworld.

Rising from Hades

Jafar's soul bargains with Hades in the Underworld (in Hercules and the Arabian Night).

Jafar's soul ended up in the Underworld, where he refused to stop bothering the imps Pain and Panic, insisting that it was a "dreadful mistake" for him to be here. He demanded to speak with Hades, whom he confidently treated as an equal, to the Greek God's general bemusement. Nevertheless, after this uneasy start, the two bonded over their shared frustrations with foolish heroes constantly foiling their best schemes (Hercules and Aladdin respectively). In a calculated move, Jafar boasted that were he still alive, he could make short work of Hercules, prompting Hades to decide to grant him a new Snake Staff which would resurrect him, and grant him newfound sorcerous power, so long as he held it.

This proved ineffectual, with Hades having to recorporate Jafar over and over again (and him etting more and more on the God's nerves). Jafar thought of an alternative strategy, attempting to turn Hercules against Aladdin in the hope that they'd destroy each other. However, the two were able to work through their artificial differences in time to burst into the Underworld together, finding Hades about to trick Jafar into taking on the reins of the afterlife, a tiresome job which Hades had never actually wanted.

"No! It can't be!" (In Hercules and the Arabian Night.)

Jafar attempted to kill both of them himself, but his strategy was scrambled by the fact that Aladdin and Jafar had disguised themselves as each other. After countering his misaimed attacks, Aladdin and Hercules managed to seize the Snake Staff, with Hercules snapping it in half.

With an angry cry of "IT CAN'T BEEEEE!", Jafar lost his coroporal form again and, as he had foolishly been hovering above the River Styx at that point, was dragged into its depths.

Into the 21st century

Jafar and Iago arrive at the House of Mouse in the Cobra Car (in House of Magic).

Somehow, however, Jafar still escaped the River Styx and regained some of his magical powers. Either living through the centuries himself or being transported through time alongside (apparently) the rest of Agrabah, Jafar ended up a regular guest at the House of Mouse in the late 1990's and early 2000's; he appeared, by then, to have patched things up with Iago somewhat, as the two would get from Agrabah to the House together by means of Jafar's automobile.

Though willing to, for example, bargain and make deals with Mickey Mouse, Jafar was still intent on taking over Agrabah if he got the chance, and would often break the "No scheming" house policy, for instance tricking Donald Duck in an attempt to get a lamp belonging to Mickey Mouse.

A new imprisonment

Jafar, who retained magical abilities, was in fact, by one account, still technically a genie at this stage of his existence, even though he never appeared in another form than his human-like, original one in full Grand Vizier getup.

Jafar in control of the Cave of Wonders in Mickey's House of Villains.

The Cave of Wonders, who had previously served as the keeper of all the guests' possession in the House of Mouse's storage room, fell under Jafar's power at a point when he was once again in possession of the Golden Scarab. On Halloween 2002, the Scarab-wielding Jafar used the Cave to make an impressive entrance at the House of Mouse. Planning on breaking the rules of the House to an unprecedented extent in honor of Halloween, Jafar then spearheaded a takeover of the House by all its "villainous" guests, exiling all heroes from it and its magic and making it into the forces of darkness's base of operation.

Jafar and Mickey Mouse duel for the House of Mouse (in Mickey's House of Villains).

The very same night, however, a resolute Mickey Mouse returned to reclaim the House, wearing the Sorcerer's Hat and putting all he had learned from Yen Sid to good use. A magical duel ensued and very nearly ended with Jafar killing Mickey, until Aladdin tossed Mickey the empty Genie's Lamp.

By rubbing it, Mickey was able to suck the genie Jafar into this designated prison, ending the Villains' reign of terror.

Jafar is sucked into a lamp by Mickey Mouse (in Mickey's House of VIllains).

A lamp in which Jafar was trapped alone was later found in 2004 by an unwise individual in the desert; Jafar, speaking from within, tried to convince the individual to make some wishes, allowing Jafar to trick them into freeing him, but Aladdin was able to convince them that Jafar was better left alone. It is worth noting however that the lamp in question was identical to Jafar's Lamp, rather than being the golden Genie's Lamp in which Mickey had trapped Jafar two years earlier.

Serving Hades once again

Jafar finds himself the agent of Hades once more, in Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom.

In 2010, Jafar was briefly summoned to the Underworld by Hades as part of his ploy to raise the amount of evil present in his realm, which in this case rather backfired in that while he was there, Jafar was seen to admit to Iago that despite all the history between them he still saw the parrot as "his best friend".

Two years later, Jafar once again, and more seriously, found himself in the God's debt, during Hades's scheme to take over the Magic Kingdom and make it into his new dominion. Under the guise of "Prince Azure", Hades freed Jafar from his Lamp in the Cave of Wonders and ordered him to find the Crystal of the Magic Kingdom (though of course, Jafar was fully intent on double-crossing Hades in the long run), putting him in conflict with Merlin, who imprisoned him back in his Lamp.

Jafar, in full genie form, was summoned again by Hades during his faction's final showdown with the apprentice-sorcerers recruited by Merlin to foil the God of Death's scheme. When the villains predictably meet their defeat, Jafar was sucked into the Crystal of the Magic Kingdom like the others.

Since 2012

The Midship Detective Agency suspects file's profile on Jafar (in Midship Detective Agency).

As early as March 2012, a month after the Magic Kingdom debacle, Jafar and several other Disney villains were present on a cruiseship where he ended up being investigated by Mickey Mouse's Midship Detetive Agency. The Agency had a succinct file on Jafar which restated that his main hobbies remained "dark magic" and "plotting to take over the desert city of Agrabah".

Jafar in the Sorcerer's Arena (in Coming Soon: Disney Sorcerer's Arena).

In 2019, Jafar was one of the sorcerers from various worlds and time periods who were available to be summoned to the Sorcerer's Arena using Enchanted Cards, to be used as the champion of an eager apprentice seeking to become the next Master Sorcerer. He notably found himself facing a Trident-wielding Ariel with Captain Hook at his side, with a barely-deflected beam of magic from the Trident instead blowing Iago off his shoulder at one point.