Board Thread:Spoilers!/@comment-5094906-20150506224835/@comment-5106672-20150509215742

I agree with those who say they prefere source tales rather than Disney product placement.

And yep, Baldroubadour aka Jasmine (and Aladdin too) were Chinese in the original tale, while the Sorcerer (aka Jafar) was from Maghreb. This was meant to show the distance he was ready to cover to get the lamp (as Maghreb was the extreme west and China the extreme east compared to the Middle Eastern region).