Pop Culture References of Wizard101: Mirage – Sinbad and his Crew

A Pirate101 Crossover

Sinbad and his crew – Sinbad, Sailor of the Seven Seas
https://wiki.wizard101central.com/wiki/NPC:Sinbad
https://www.pirate101central.com/wiki/NPC:Sinbad
https://wiki.wizard101central.com/wiki/NPC:Rahim
https://wiki.wizard101central.com/wiki/NPC:Anwar
https://wiki.wizard101central.com/wiki/NPC:Akbari
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinbad_the_Sailor
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rahim
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anwar_(2007_film)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akbari
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Admiral_Ackbar
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akbar

Rahim and Anwar are sky pirates being held captive by Ali Baboon in the Thieves’ Den until their Captain, Sinbad and Akbari bring the Dune Star back to Ali Baboon.

Rahim and Anwar entreat your wizard to come to the aid of their Captain.

Your wizard encounters the famed Sky Pirate Captain and noted adventurer, as he heroically thrashes a pack of vicious scaly demons in their den. After ransoming his crew from the clutches of Ali Baboon and the local Thuggee gang, he enlists the aid of the Wizard in recovering his stolen Skyship, the Chimera, from Akbari, his traitorous former First Mate.

Later after returning to the Skull Island Skyway from Mirage, Sinbad becomes wrapped up in troubling altercations during his search for the fabled Belt of Champions, and its connections to the mysterious Eye of the Liger.

Sinbad the Sailor is a fictional mariner and the hero of a story-cycle. He is described as hailing from Baghdad during the early Abbasid Caliphate (8th and 9th centuries A.D.). In the course of seven voyages throughout the seas east of Africa and south of Asia, he has fantastic adventures in magical realms, encountering monsters and witnessing supernatural phenomena.

The tales of Sinbad are a relatively late addition to the One Thousand and One Nights – they do not feature in the earliest 14th-century manuscript, and they appear as an independent cycle in 18th- and 19th-century collections. The tale reflects the trend within the Abbasid realm of Arab and Muslim sailors exploring the world. The stories display the folk and themes present in works of that time. The Abbasid reign was known as a period of great economic and social growth. Arab and Muslim traders would seek new trading routes and people to trade with. This process of growth is reflected in the Sinbad tales. The Sinbad stories take on a variety of different themes. Later sources include Abbasid works such as the “Wonders of the Created World”, reflecting the experiences of 13th century Arab mariners who braved the Indian Ocean.

The Sinbad cycle is set in the reign of the Abbasid Caliph Harun al-Rashid (786–809). The Sinbad tales are included in the first European translation of the Nights, Antoine Galland’s Les mille et une nuits, contes arabes traduits en français, an English edition of which appeared in 1711 as The new Arabian winter nights entertainments. Its best known full translation was perhaps as tale 120 in Volume 6 of Sir Richard Burton’s 1885 translation of The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night.

Rahim (also anglicized as Raheem) is one of the names of Allah in Islam, meaning “Merciful”, from the root R-Ḥ-M. It is also used as a personal male name, short for Abdu r-Raḥīm “Servant of the Merciful”. Spellings include Rahim, Raheem, Rohim and Roheem.

Anwar is a 2007 Indian romantic thriller film written and directed by Manish Jha, who is famous for his work in Matrubhoomi. The film stars Siddharth Koirala, Manisha Koirala, Rajpal Yadav and Nauheed Cyrusi.

Akbari is a Persian name and can also be anglicized as Akbar or Ackbar.

Fleet Admiral Gial Ackbar is a fictional character from the Star Wars franchise. A member of the amphibious Mon Calamari species, Ackbar was the foremost military commander of the Rebel Alliance, and he led the attack against the second Death Star in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (1983), the final entry in the original Star Wars trilogy. Although his time in the film was brief, Ackbar became a prominent character in other Star Wars media, including novels, comic books, video games, and television shows, and later made appearances in the sequel trilogy films Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) and Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017), and the television series The Clone Wars.

Update 7/2/2024 Ashley D. points out that Akbari could also refer to Abu’l-Fath Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar (October 15, 1542 – October 27, 1605), popularly known as Akbar the Great, and also as Akbar I, was the third Mughal emperor, who reigned from 1556 to 1605. Akbar succeeded his father, Humayun, under a regent, Bairam Khan, who helped the young emperor expand and consolidate Mughal domains in the Indian subcontinent. He was considered one of the greatest emperors of India in Indian history.

The current list of all the (known) Mirage references can be found here.

Although I am well versed in Pop Culture references but I do not claim to have caught them all. Let me know your favorites in the comments and if I’ve missed one you caught, let me know so I can add it to the list.

Text for this article is excerpted from the linked wiki pages

Sinbad, Rahmi, Anwar, and Akbari images are from Wizard101, and are copyright of KingsIsle Entertainment

Sinbad the Sailor illustrations are borrowed from Wikipedia. They are in the public domain.

Admiral Ackbar image is copyright Lucasfilm

Akbar I image is borrowed from Wikipedia. It is in the public domain.

Image usage qualifies as fair use under US copyright law.