One Thousand and One Nights
The One Thousand and One Nights is a collection of folk tales, created anonymously, from the IXth to the XVIth century. These tales originate from Persia, the Arab world, and other parts of the Far East.
These tales are told by Schahrazade or Scheherazade to a king of Persia named Schahriar over 1,001 nights. Scheherazade has to tell these stories continuously to the king, otherwise she is in danger of being executed in the morning.
Several of the most well know stories have been added during the XVIIIthe century. Among those, we have Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, Sinbad the Sailor and Aladin and the Magic Lamp.
Aladdin and the Magic Lamp
This story has been added by a French guy in a book of the One Thousand and One Nights that was published at the beginning of the XVIIIthe century. He claimed that he was told the tale by a Syrian storyteller from Aleppo.
In my version of the story, it is told by Scheherazade during 42 nights.
The story starts in "China". In the Arab world, China meant some part of the Far East, probably North of India, but definitely not Beijing or Shanghai.
On the first night, we encounter several of the main characters: Aladdin himself, his father, his mother, and the sorcerer. Except for Aladdin, we don't know their names. The name of Aladdin's father, Mustapha, is indicated only five times in the story.
ON THE FIRST NIGHT
Sheherazade said:
I have been told, O fortunate King, O Sultan gifted of good manners, that there was - but Allah knows better - in the antiquity of the time and the past of the ages, in a city of China, whose name I don't remember at the moment, a man who was a tailor by profession and poor in condition. And this man had a son named Aladdin, who was quite a backward boy in education, and who seemed to be, from a very young age, a very troublesome boy. When he was ten years old, his father wanted him first to learn some honorable trade; but, as he was very poor, he could not afford to spend any money on his education, and he had to content himself with taking the child with him at his shop, to teach him his own trade, needlework. But Aladdin, who was a rogue child, and who liked to play with the young boys of the neighborhood, could not force himself to stay a single day at the shop. On the contrary! instead of paying attention to the work, he watched for the moment when his father was obliged either to be absent on some business or to turn his back to take care of a client, and immediately he would rush off and run to join the young scoundrels who looked like him in the alleys and gardens. And such was the behavior of this urchin who wanted neither to obey his parents nor to learn the trade of a tailor. So his father, very grieved and desperate to have a son inclined to all vices, ends up abandoning him to his licentiousness; and in his pain, he became so ill that he died. But that didn't correct Aladdin for his misbehavior, not at all!
Then Aladdin's mother, seeing that her husband was dead and that her son was nothing but a rascal with whom there was nothing to do, decided to sell the shop and all the tools in the shop, in order to be able to subsist for some time on the proceeds of the sale. But as that was quickly exhausted, she had to get into the habit of spending her days and nights spinning wool and cotton to try to earn something to feed herself and her son, the rascal.
As for Aladdin, when he saw himself delivered from the fear of his father, he no longer had any kind of restraint and sank much deeper into childishness and perversity. And so he spent all his days away from home, only to return at mealtimes. And his poor mother, this unhappy woman, continued, in spite of all her son's wrongs towards her and the abandonment in which he left her, to make him live on the work of her hands and the product of her watching, crying all alone with very bitter tears. And that was how Aladdin reached the age of fifteen. And he was really handsome and well-made, with two beautiful black eyes, and jasmine complexion, and an attractive appearance.
However, one day, as he was in the middle of the square located at the entrance to the souks of the neighborhood, only occupied in playing with little kids and vagabonds of his kind, a Maghrebi dervish happened to pass by, who stopped staring stubbornly at the children. And he ends up fixing his eyes on Aladdin and observing him in a very singular way and with very particular attention, without worrying about the other little boys, his comrades. And this dervish, who came from the depths of the Maghreb, from the countries of the distant interior, was a distinguished magician well versed in astrology and the science of physiognomies; and he could, by the power of his sorcery, cause the highest mountains to move and crash against each other. He continued to observe Aladdin with great insistence, thinking: "Here is finally the boy I need, the one I have been looking for for so long, and for whom I left the Maghreb, my country…
— At this point in her narration, Scheherazade saw the morning appear and quietly fell silent.
Next: Second Night