Aladdin

Part One · The Uncle Who Wasn't

Long ago, in a city in China, there lived a poor tailor's son named Aladdin, who was the laziest boy for a hundred streets in every direction. While his father sewed coats and his mother spun cotton, Aladdin played marbles in the market and climbed on other people's walls. When his father died, his mother worked harder than ever, spinning from sunrise until midnight, but Aladdin still would not learn a trade. "Tomorrow," he always promised. Somehow tomorrow never arrived.

One day, when Aladdin was fifteen, a stranger in a fine cloak stopped him in the street. The man had a pointed beard and sharp, glittering eyes, and he stared at Aladdin as if he were examining a jewel. "Aren't you the son of Mustapha the tailor?" he asked. When Aladdin said yes, the stranger burst into tears and hugged him. "I am your father's long-lost brother," he sobbed. "I have traveled across the world to find my family!" This was not true. The stranger was a magician, and he had come from far away in Africa to find something that only Aladdin could fetch.

The magician gave Aladdin a handful of gold coins and bought him a splendid new suit of clothes. He brought baskets of food to Aladdin's mother, who was astonished, because she had never heard of any uncle. The next morning, the magician led Aladdin out through the city gates, past the gardens and the farms, and deep into a valley between two bare mountains. "Gather some sticks," he said mysteriously, "and I will show you something extraordinary, something no other boy in China has ever seen."

Part Two · The Cave

The magician lit a fire, sprinkled a strange powder into the flames, and muttered words that Aladdin did not understand. The ground trembled and split open, and there lay a flat stone with a brass ring in the middle. "Beneath this stone is a treasure," said the magician, "and it is meant for you alone. Go down the steps and through the halls, but do not touch the walls. At the end, in a garden, you will find an old lamp burning in a nook. Bring it to me." Then he slid a ring from his own finger onto Aladdin's. "This will keep you safe," he said.

Aladdin lifted the stone and climbed down into the dark. He crept through three great halls full of golden jars, careful not to brush the walls with his sleeves. Beyond them lay a garden so marvelous that he forgot to breathe. The trees were heavy with fruit, but the fruit was made of jewels: white pearls, red rubies, green emeralds and purple amethysts, all glowing in the dim light. At the end of the garden, in a nook in the wall, he found the lamp. It was dusty and plain, so he blew out the flame, tucked it into his shirt, and filled his pockets with shining fruit.

When Aladdin reached the bottom of the steps again, the magician was waiting at the top. "Hand me the lamp," he said, reaching down. "Help me out first," said Aladdin, "because my pockets are too full to climb." "The lamp first!" snapped the magician. "Out first!" said Aladdin. They argued until the magician's face turned purple with rage. He threw more powder on the fire, shouted a magic word, and the stone slammed shut over Aladdin's head. The boy was trapped in the dark.

For two miserable days, Aladdin sat on the cold steps, hungry and terrified. At last, he clasped his hands together to pray, and as he did, he rubbed the ring the magician had given him. Instantly a genie rose out of the floor, enormous and smoky, with a voice like a drum. "What do you wish?" it boomed. "I am the servant of the ring, and I obey whoever wears it." Aladdin was so frightened that he could barely whisper. "Please," he stammered, "take me home." In a blink, he was standing outside his mother's door.

Part Three · The Lamp

Aladdin's mother wept with joy, and he told her the whole strange tale while he ate everything in the house. There was no money for more food, so the next morning she decided to sell the old lamp. "It will fetch a better price if it shines," she said, and she began to rub it with a cloth. The lamp grew hot. Smoke poured from its spout, and out of the smoke rose a second genie, far larger than the first, whose head brushed the ceiling. "What do you wish?" it thundered. "I am the servant of the lamp, and I obey whoever holds it." Aladdin's mother fainted on the spot.

Aladdin grabbed the lamp out of her hands. "We're hungry," he said bravely. "Bring us something to eat." The genie vanished and returned at once with twelve silver dishes piled with delicious food, along with bread and fruit and two silver cups. When his mother woke up, she could hardly believe her eyes. They feasted until they were completely stuffed, and the next day Aladdin sold one silver dish in the market. That money lasted them a long time. For the first time in his life, Aladdin began to think carefully about how to use what he had.

Over the next few years, Aladdin gradually became sensible and wise. He listened to the merchants in the market and learned the value of things, and he discovered that the colored fruit in his pockets were not glass at all but jewels finer than any king's. He worked, he saved, and he used the lamp only when he truly needed it. Then one day, the Sultan's daughter rode through the city. Her name was Badroulbadour, and when Aladdin caught sight of her, he decided that he would marry her or no one.

Part Four · The Princess

His mother laughed until she cried. "You are the son of a tailor," she said, "and she is the daughter of the Sultan." But she wrapped the jewel fruit in a cloth and carried it to the palace. When the Sultan unwrapped the cloth, the throne room filled with colored light. "Your son may marry my daughter," he said, astonished, "if he sends me forty golden trays heaped with jewels like these." That night, Aladdin rubbed the lamp. In the morning, a long parade of servants in silk robes marched through the streets, each carrying a golden tray that sparkled like a small sun.

The Sultan kept his promise. Aladdin asked the genie for one more thing, a palace for his bride, and when the Sultan woke the next day, there stood a new palace across from his own. It had walls of marble, windows framed with diamonds, and a great hall with twenty-four windows, all finished except one. Aladdin and Badroulbadour were married with music and feasting that lasted for days. Aladdin was generous to everyone, and the people of the city loved him. Far away in Africa, however, the magician looked into his magic sand and saw that Aladdin was alive and rich. He set out at once.

Part Five · New Lamps for Old

One day, while Aladdin was away hunting, a peddler walked beneath the palace windows with a basket full of shiny copper lamps. "New lamps for old!" he called. "Who will trade an old lamp for a new one?" The princess's servants giggled at the foolish peddler, and one of them remembered a battered old lamp on a shelf. Badroulbadour knew nothing of its secret, so she laughed and let them trade it. The peddler snatched the lamp and hurried away. It was the magician, of course, and that night he rubbed the lamp and ordered the genie to carry the palace, with the princess inside, all the way to his home in Africa.

In the morning, the Sultan looked out of his window and saw an empty field where the palace had stood. He was so furious that he immediately summoned Aladdin and threatened to throw him into prison. "Give me forty days to find her," Aladdin begged, and the Sultan agreed. Aladdin wandered for three days in despair. Then he remembered the ring. He rubbed it, and the genie of the ring appeared. "I cannot undo what the genie of the lamp has done," it said. "But I can carry you to wherever the palace is." In a rush of wind, Aladdin found himself beneath his own palace windows, in a faraway land.

Badroulbadour cried with happiness when she saw him, and together they made a plan. That evening, the princess invited the magician to supper. She smiled and chatted and poured him a cup of sherbet, a sweet fruit drink, but into the cup Aladdin had stirred a sleeping powder. The magician drank it in one gulp and dropped into a snore so deep that a parade could have marched across his nose. Aladdin found the lamp hidden in the magician's robe. He rubbed it once, and the genie appeared. "Take this palace home," Aladdin said, "and leave him here."

The next morning, the Sultan looked out of his window and rubbed his eyes, because the palace was back, gleaming in the sun as though it had never moved. He hugged his daughter, forgave Aladdin, and ordered a celebration that lasted ten days. Far away, the magician woke up alone in an empty field, with nothing but sand in his pockets, and he was never seen in that city again. Years later, Aladdin became the Sultan himself and ruled wisely and kindly. He kept the old lamp on a high shelf, where no peddler could ever reach it.