Aladdin and the Magic Lamp
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So now, everyone is happy, the sultan, his daughter, Aladdin, and the whole population of the city. And the sorcerer is dead.
But Sheherazade tells us that a new danger is approaching that will, once again, threaten Aladdin's life.
ON THE THIRTY-NINTH NIGHT
Sheherazade said:
And the sultan embraced his daughter, shedding tears of joy, bordering on tenderness; and her too. And, when he was able to open his mouth and speak, he said: "O my daughter, I see with astonishment that your face is not much more changed or more yellow in complexion, because of all that is arrived, that the day when I saw you for the last time! However, O daughter of my heart, you must have suffered greatly from your estrangement, and it was not without a great alarm and terrible anguish that you must have seen yourself transported from one place to another with the whole palace! Myself, just thinking about it, I feel overwhelmed by the trembling of terror! Hasten, then, my daughter, to tell me the reason for so little change in your countenance, and to tell me, without concealing anything from me, all that has happened to you from the beginning to the end!" And Badrou'l-Boudour replied: "O my father, know that if my face has changed so little and my complexion so little yellow, it is because I have regained what I had lost by my estrangement from you. and my husband Aladdin. Because it is the joy of finding you both that gives me back my freshness and my complexion of yesteryear. But I have suffered a lot and cried a lot, as much to be delighted with your affection and that of my beloved husband as to have fallen into the power of a cursed North African magician, who is the cause of all that happened, and who told me things that I didn't like and wanted to seduce me, after kidnapping me. But all this is due to my thoughtlessness which pushed me to give up to others what did not belong to me!" And she told her father all that happened, down to the smallest detail, without forgetting anything. But there is no point in repeating it. And when she had finished speaking, Aladdin, who until then had not opened his mouth, turned to the sultan, stupefied on the verge of stupefaction, and showed him, behind a curtain, the inert body of the magician, whose face was completely blackened by the violence of the bang, and said to him: "Here is the impostor, cause of our past misfortune and my disgrace! But Allah punished him!"
At this sight, the sultan, entirely convinced of Aladdin's innocence, kissed him very tenderly, pressing him to his bosom, and said to him: "O my son Aladdin, do not blame me too much for my behavior in your respect, and forgive me for the ill behavior I have used against you! Because I deserve a little that you excuse me, because of the affection I feel for my only daughter Badrou'l-Boudour, and because you know very well that the heart of the father is full of tenderness and that I, in particular, would have preferred to lose my whole kingdom than a hair from the head of my beloved daughter! And Aladdin answered: "It is true, O father of Badrou'l-Budour, you are very excusable! for it is only your affection for your daughter, whom you thought lost through my fault, which made you use expeditious procedures towards me. And I have no right to blame you for anything. It was up to me, in fact, to prevent the perfidious designs of this infamous magician, and to take precautions against him. And you will only be able to really understand his malice when, once I have the time, I will have told you the story of all my history with him!" And the sultan kissed Aladdin once more and said to him: “Certainly! O Aladdin, it is absolutely necessary that you soon find the leisure to tell me all this. But it is more urgent, at this time, to get rid of the sight of this cursed body which lies lifeless at our feet, and to rejoice together in your triumph! And Aladdin ordered his teenage genie servant to remove the body of the Maghrebian and burn it in the middle of the maidan square on a bed of manure and throw the ashes into the garbage pit. Which was executed punctually, in the presence of the entire assembled city, which rejoiced at this deserved punishment and the return of emir Aladdin in the good graces of the sultan.
After which, the sultan announced through the criers, amid the players of clarinets, timpani, and drums, that he was granting the prisoners their freedom, as a sign of public rejoicing; and he caused great relief to be distributed to the poor and the needy. And in the evening he caused the whole city to be illuminated, as well as his palace and that of Aladdin and Badrou'l-Budour. And so it was that Aladdin, thanks to the blessing he had upon him, escaped the danger of death for the second time. And it was this same blessing that was to save him again for the third time, as you will hear, O my listeners!
Indeed, Aladdin had already been back for a few months and had been leading with his wife, under the tender and watchful eye of his mother, who had now become a venerable lady with an imposing air but devoid of pride and arrogance, a quite delectable life, when his wife entered one day, with a somewhat sad and dolent face, into the vaulted crystal temple, where he usually stood to enjoy the view of the gardens, and approached him and said to him: "O my master Aladdin, Allah, who has showered us both with His favors, refuses me until now the consolation of having a child. Because we've been married long enough, and I don't feel my insides being fertilized with life. Now, I come to beg you to allow me to bring to the palace a holy old woman named Fatmah, who arrived a few days ago in our city, and whom everyone venerates for the healings and the marvelous cures that she performs and the fertility that she gives to barren women, just by the laying on of her hands...
— At this point in her narration, Scheherazade saw the morning appear and quietly fell silent.
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