Aladdin and the Magic Lamp

In one of the great cities of China there lived a poor tailor called Mustafa. He had a son called Aladdin. Aladdin was a very naughty and lazy boy; his father wanted to teach him his trade, but Aladdin preferred to play in the streets with his friends all day. His father fell ill with grief and died. His mother could barely support herself and her son by spinning cotton.

One day, while Aladdin was playing in the street, a stranger came up to him. This man was really a wicked sorcerer from Africa. By studying the stars, he had learned that somewhere in the world, under the ground, there was a magic lamp. But only someone young and pure of heart could take the lamp from its place. The sorcerer chose Aladdin. He hugged him and wept: "I'm your uncle, your father's brother! I've spent many years in foreign lands."

The sorcerer went to Aladdin's mother too and brought her money and food. He bought Aladdin fine clothes and promised to make him a merchant. One day he took Aladdin out of the city into the mountains. They stopped in a narrow valley between two mountains. The sorcerer lit a fire, threw incense on it and said magic words. The earth shook and split open, and a large stone with a bronze ring in it appeared.

"Under this stone there is a treasure," said the sorcerer. "You can lift the stone, because this treasure has been kept in your name." Aladdin lifted the stone; beneath it were steps leading down. The sorcerer said to him: "Go down the steps. You'll pass through three halls full of jars of gold and silver. But don't touch any of them, not even with the hem of your robe, or you'll be turned to stone. Then you'll come to a garden full of fruit trees. At the end of the garden you'll see a lamp burning in a niche. Put out the lamp, pour out the oil and bring it to me. On the way back you may pick any fruit you like from the trees in the garden." Then he took a ring from his finger and put it on Aladdin's: "This ring will protect you from every danger."

Aladdin went down the steps, passed carefully through the halls and touched nothing. When he reached the garden, he was amazed: the fruits on the trees were colourful precious stones; the white ones were diamonds, the red ones rubies, the green ones emeralds, and the purple ones amethysts. At the end of the garden he found the lamp in the niche, put it out, poured out its oil and put it inside his shirt. On the way back he filled his pockets and the front of his shirt with the stone fruits from the trees; he did not know they were valuable and thought they were just pretty glass.

When he reached the top of the steps, the sorcerer was waiting impatiently: "Give me the lamp, and then I'll pull you out!" But because Aladdin's arms and pockets were full of fruit, he could not get the lamp out: "Uncle, pull me out first, and then I'll give it to you." The sorcerer insisted, and Aladdin insisted. At last the sorcerer flew into a rage; since he could not get the lamp, he threw incense on the fire and said magic words, and the stone closed again. Aladdin was left in the dark under the ground.

For two days Aladdin wept in the dark. On the third day, as he clasped his hands together to pray, he rubbed the ring the sorcerer had given him without realising it. Suddenly a fearsome-looking jinn appeared before him: "Command me, master! I am the slave of the ring. I serve whoever wears the ring." Trembling, Aladdin said, "Get me out of here." A moment later he found himself above ground, at the place where the sorcerer had lit the fire. He ran home and told his mother everything.

There was nothing left to eat at home. His mother said, "I'll sell this old lamp. It will fetch a little money." The lamp was dirty, so to make it sell better she began to rub it with sand. At that moment a huge jinn rose out of the smoke: "Command me, master! I am the slave of the lamp. I serve whoever holds the lamp!" His mother fainted with fright. Aladdin took the lamp and said to the jinn, "Bring me something to eat." The jinn vanished in an instant and came back with the finest food on silver trays.

For a long time Aladdin and his mother lived by selling the silver trays one by one. As Aladdin wandered about the market, he learned from the jewellers that the stone fruits from the garden were really very valuable jewels. He grew wiser, made friends with the merchants and began to become an honest young man.

One day, as the sultan's daughter Badroulbadour was going to the bathhouse, Aladdin saw her and fell in love with her. "Go to the sultan and ask for his daughter's hand for me," he told his mother. His mother was very frightened, but she put the precious stones her son had brought from the garden into a porcelain bowl and went before the sultan. The sultan had never seen such beautiful jewels in his life. But his vizier wanted the princess for his own son. He whispered to the sultan: "Sire, wait three months and see what kind of young man this is." The sultan said he would give his answer in three months. But after two months the princess was engaged to the vizier's son.

When Aladdin heard this, he rubbed the lamp. Every night the jinn frightened the vizier's son and drove him out of the palace, and in the end the vizier's son broke off the engagement. When the three months were up, Aladdin's mother went to the sultan again. The sultan set a difficult condition: "Let him bring forty golden trays full of jewels, carried by forty black slaves and forty white slaves." Aladdin rubbed the lamp, and the jinn prepared it all in an instant. The procession going to the palace with trays of jewels at the head of eighty slaves astonished the whole city.

The sultan was very impressed and agreed to give his daughter to Aladdin. Aladdin asked the jinn for jewelled robes, a white horse and servants, and went to the palace like a prince. Then he asked the jinn to build a magnificent palace opposite the sultan's in a single night. In the morning, when the sultan looked out of the window, he saw a palace of marble, gold and silver, with windows decorated with diamonds and rubies. But one window of the palace had been left unfinished; Aladdin had left it so that the sultan could complete it from his own treasury. Even with all his jewels, the sultan could not finish the window; in the end Aladdin had the jinn complete it. The wedding was held, and Aladdin and the princess began to live happily. Because Aladdin was generous to the people and kind to the poor, everyone loved him.

But in far-off Africa, the wicked sorcerer looked at the stars and learned that Aladdin had not died and had even gained a great fortune with the lamp. He set off at once. When he reached the city, he bought a lot of new, shiny lamps and began to cry out in the streets: "New lamps for old!" That day Aladdin was out hunting. When the princess heard the cry, she laughed and said to her maid, "Give him that old lamp in the room and take a new one." She knew nothing of the lamp's magic. As soon as the sorcerer had the lamp, he rubbed it and ordered the jinn to carry Aladdin's palace, with the princess inside it, to Africa.

In the morning, when the sultan looked out of the window, he saw an empty plot where the palace had stood. He was furious. He had Aladdin seized and brought before him: "Where is my daughter? If you don't find her within forty days, you'll be punished!" Aladdin left the city in bewilderment and walked to a stream. As he was washing, he rubbed the ring on his finger, and the jinn of the ring appeared. Aladdin asked him to bring back his palace, but the jinn of the ring could not interfere with the work of the jinn of the lamp. "Then take me to where my palace is," said Aladdin. A moment later he was in Africa, under the window of his own palace.

The princess saw him from the window and let him in secretly. She told him that the lamp was hidden in the sorcerer's robe. Aladdin made a plan: he gave the princess a sleeping powder. In the evening the princess smiled at the sorcerer, invited him to the table and put the powder in his drink. When the sorcerer fell into a deep sleep, Aladdin took the lamp from his robe. He rubbed the lamp and ordered the jinn to carry the palace back. He also told him to leave the sorcerer in the farthest desert of Africa, where he could never harm anyone again.

The next morning, when the sultan looked out of the window again, he saw his daughter's palace back in its place. He ran to hug his daughter and apologised to Aladdin. From then on Aladdin never let the lamp out of his hands, and he used it only for good. When the sultan died, Aladdin came to the throne, and with the princess he ruled the land justly for many years.

This tale tells us: a magic lamp may give a person riches, but it is wisdom and a good heart that know how to use it. Even a lazy, naughty boy can grow wise through hardship and become a good person.