Arabian Nights

by Richard Burton

  “Your majesty,” Aladdin answered, “I don’t know anything about it, nor do I know what’s happened.”

  “Then you must find out,” answered the king. “I have pardoned you only so that you can look into this affair and find out what has happened to my daughter. Do not ever show your face here again unless you bring her back with you, and if you don’t bring her back, I swear that I’ll cut off your head!”

  “As you command,” Aladdin replied. “My only request is that you grant me forty days to do this. If I don’t produce her within forty days, you can cut off my head and do with me whatever you wish.”

  “I shall grant you a delay of forty days,” said the king, “but don’t think you can ever escape me. No matter where you go on this earth, and even if you hide in the clouds, I’ll find you and bring you back.”

  “Your highness, I’ve given you my word,” said Aladdin. “If I don’t bring her back within forty days, I’ll return, and you can cut off my head.”

  Now, when the people saw that Aladdin was free, they were overcome with joy. But the way he had been put to shame before his friends and the exultation of his envious foes made him hang his head. So he went into the city alone and wandered about, perplexed by what had happened. He lingered in the capital for two days in the most sorrowful state, not knowing what to do. Indeed, he did not have the slightest idea of how to find his wife and his pavilion, and during this time various friends brought him something to eat and drink. After the two days had passed, he left the city and drifted aimlessly about the fields and open plains. As he walked, he came upon a path that led him to a river, where, because of the stress and sorrow, he abandoned himself to despair and thought about throwing himself into the water. However, being a good Moslem, who believed in the unity of the Godhead, he feared Allah in his soul, and standing upon the river bank, he prepared himself to perform the Wuzu ablution. But just as he was scooping up the water in his right hand and rubbing his fingers, he also chanced to rub the ring. All at once its jinnee appeared and said to him, “At your service. Your thrall has come. Ask me whatever you want.”

  Upon seeing the marid, Aladdin rejoiced and cried out, “Slave, I want you to bring back my wife and pavilion and everything that was inside it.”

  “My lord,” replied the jinnee, “you’re demanding a service of me that is impossible for me to perform. Only the slave of the lamp can do this. I can’t and won’t even dare to attempt it.”

  “Well, since the matter is beyond your power,” Aladdin responded, “I won’t demand this of you, but at least transport me to my pavilion, wherever it may be.”

  “As you command, my lord,” said the jinnee, and after lifting him high in the air, in a split second he set Aladdin down beside his pavilion in Africa on a spot facing his wife’s apartment.

  Despite the fact that it was nighttime, he took one look and recognized that it was his home. Now all his cares and worries disappeared, and he regained trust in Allah after abandoning all hope of ever finding his wife again. Then he began to ponder the secret and mysterious ways of the Lord (all glory to His omnipotence) and how Allah had deigned to bless him and how the ring had come to his rescue just as he had thought he had been overcome by despair. Happy and relieved, Aladdin was also exhausted, for he had spent four days without sleep because of the stress he had been under. So when he approached the pavilion, he found a spot beneath a tree and slept near the building that had been set down among the gardens outside the city.

  Although his head was full of worries, he managed to sleep soundly until morning, when he was wakened by the warbling of small birds. So he arose and went down to the bank of the river that flowed into the city and washed his hands and face. After he had finished his Wuzu ablution, he said the dawn prayer and then returned to sit beneath the window of his wife’s apartment.

  Now, the Lady Badar al-Budur had become extremely sad at being separated from her husband and father, and she suffered greatly from the misfortune that she had experienced at the hands of the accursed Moor. Since she could not eat or drink and found it difficult to sleep, she had become accustomed to rising with the dawn and sitting in tears by her window. Her favorite slave girl would enter her chamber at the hour of morning prayer in order to dress her, and this time, as destiny would have it, when she threw open the window to let her lady comfort herself by looking at the trees and hills, she caught sight of her master sitting below and quickly informed the princess.

  “My lady! My lady!” she cried out. “My lord Aladdin is sitting at the foot of the wall.”

  So the princess arose hurriedly and went to the window, where she saw Aladdin, who caught sight of her just as he was raising his head. Immediately they greeted each other, and their hearts soared with joy.

  “Come up to me through the secret door,” she called out to him. “The accursed magician is not here now.”

  And she gave orders to the slave girl, who went downstairs and opened the door for him. Once Aladdin entered, he was met by his wife, and they embraced and kept kissing each other with delight until they wept for joy. After this, they sat down, and Aladdin said, “My lady, before anything else, I must ask you a question. I used to keep an old copper lamp in my apartment. Could you tell me what happened to it?”

  When the princess heard these words, she sighed and cried, “Oh my darling, it was that very lamp which caused this catastrophe.”

  “How did it happen?” Aladdin asked.

  And she answered by recounting everything that had occurred from first to last, especially how they had exchanged the old lamp for a new one. Then she added, “The next day at dawn we suddenly found ourselves in this land, and the man who deceived us and took the lamp informed me that he had accomplished everything through the magic lamp. He is a Moor from Africa, and we are now in his native country.”

  “What does this wretched criminal intend to do with you?” asked Aladdin. “What has he said to you? What does he want from you?”

  “Every day he comes to visit me, just once,” she said. “He has been wooing me and wants me to forget you. In fact, he insists on replacing you and wants me to marry him. He told me that my father had cut off your head, and that it was he who made you so rich, for at one time you were just the son of poor parents. Most of the times he has tried to use sweet talk with me, but he’s only received tears and moans in reply. Not one kind word has passed through my lips.”

  “Tell me if you know where he keeps the lamp,” Aladdin asked.

  “He always keeps it on him,” she answered. “It never leaves him. Once, when he was talking to me about it, he took it from his breast pocket and showed it to me.”

  When Aladdin heard these words, he was very pleased and said, “My lady, listen to me now. I intend to leave you right away, but I’ll return after I change my clothes. So don’t be alarmed when you see me in different garments. I want you to order one of your slave girls to stand by the secret door, and when she catches sight of me, she’s to open it at once. Now I’m off to devise a plan to slay this damned madman.”

  Upon saying this, he arose and went through the secret door. Then he walked for a while until he met a peasant, to whom he said, “Friend, I would like to exchange clothes with you.”

  But the peasant refused, and Aladdin had to use force to strip him of his clothes, but he left the man with his own rich garments to wear. Then he followed the highway leading to the nearby city, and after entering it, he went to a bazaar where incense and drugs were sold. There he bought a rare and potent drug called bhang, and he returned by the same road in disguise until he reached the pavilion. Once the slave girl caught sight of him, she opened the secret door, and in he went to the Lady Badar al-Budur.

  And Scheherazade noticed that dawn was approaching and stopped telling her story. When the next night arrived, however, she received the king’s permission to continue her tale and said,

  “Listen carefully,” Aladdin said to his wife. “I want you to get dressed in your very best
garments and cast off all show of melancholy. In addition, when the accursed Moor comes to visit you, you’re to welcome him and greet him with a smiling face and invite him to dine with you. Make him think that you’ve forgotten Aladdin your beloved and your father as well, and that you’ve fallen tremendously in love with him. At one point, you’re to ask for some wine. Make sure that it’s red, and pledge yourself to him. After you’ve given him two or three cups full and he’s grown careless, you’re to drop this powder into his cup and fill it with wine. As soon as he drinks it, he’ll fall down senseless as though he were dead.”

  “It will be very difficult for me to do all this,” said the princess. “However, I know I must do it if we’re to escape this vile magician who’s tormented me by this abduction. It’s both lawful and right to kill this villain.”

  Then Aladdin ate and drank with his wife to placate his hunger, and immediately afterward he left the pavilion. Then the Lady Badar al-Budur summoned her slave girls, who dressed her in her finest raiment, adorned her, and sprayed her with perfume. Just as they were finished, the Moor entered her apartment, and he was most pleased to see her in this condition, and even more when, contrary to her former behavior, she greeted him with a smiling face. All this made his love and lust for her increase. Then she took him by his hand, and seating him beside her, said, “My darling, if you are willing, I would like you to come and dine with me tonight. I have mourned long enough, and even if I continued to do so for a thousand or two thousand years, Aladdin could not return to me from the tomb, for I believe what you said yesterday, that my father had him slain in sorrow over the separation from me. So you needn’t wonder why I’ve changed so much from one day to the next. I have thought about everything and decided to accept you as my friend and lover and as Aladdin’s successor, especially since I have no other man except you. Therefore, I want you to dine with me tonight, and we can drink wine and enjoy each other’s company. I’d particularly like to taste some of your African wine, since I’ve heard that it is much better than the wine we drink in China.”

  Although Lady Badar al-Budur’s change was sudden, she managed to convince the Moor that she had abandoned all hope of seeing Aladdin, and in his ecstasy, he said, “Your wish is my command, my lady. I have a cask of our native wine at home that I’ve carefully kept stored deep in the ground for eight years, and I’ll go now and fetch whatever we shall need and return to you as soon as I can.”

  But since the princess wanted to tease him and excite him even more, she said, “My darling, don’t leave me alone. Send one of your eunuchs to fetch the wine. Remain seated next to me so that I may enjoy your company.”

  “My lady,” he replied, “nobody knows where the cask is buried except me, and I won’t be away too long.”

  After saying this, the Moor left, and after a short time, he brought back as much wine as they needed. Thereupon, the princess said to him, “You’ve gone to great pains to please me, my beloved, and I apologize.”

  “Not at all, my dearest,” said the Moor. “It is an honor to serve you.”

  The Lady Badar al-Budur sat down at the table with him, and they began eating. Soon the princess requested the wine, and a slave girl filled her cup and then the Moor’s. So she drank to his long life and his secret wishes, and he also drank to her life. Since the princess had a great gift in making eloquent speeches, she began to make all sorts of toasts to him and beguiled him by addressing him in the sweetest terms full of hidden meaning. Unable to see through her deception, the Moor thought that her actions resulted from her true inclination for him and did not suspect that she was setting a trap. So his longing for her increased, and out of love for her, his head began to swim, and the world seemed as if it were nothing in his eyes. When they came to the end of the dinner, and the wine had gotten the better of him, the princess realized that she had him at her mercy and said, “There is a custom in our country, but I don’t know whether you do the same thing in yours.”

  “What is it?” asked the Moor.

  So she said to him, “At the end of dinner, each lover takes the cup of the other beloved and drinks it.”

  Thereupon she took his cup and filled it with wine for herself. Then she poured the wine into hers, mixed with the drug, and asked a slave girl to give it to him. Now she had instructed the slave girl what she was to do, and all the slave girls and the eunuchs in the pavilion longed for the sorcerer’s death and supported the princess’s plan. Accordingly, the slave girl handed him the cup, and when he saw the princess drinking from his cup and was taken in by her show of love, he imagined he was Iskandar, Lord of the Two Horns. Then she leaned over to him, swaying to and fro, put her hand within his hand, and said, “Oh my life, your cup is with me, and mine with you, and this is the way that lovers drink from each other’s cup.”

  Then she kissed the brim, drained his cup, and then kissed the brim of her own cup for him to drink. By now he was delirious, and he wanted to follow her example. He kissed the brim, raised the cup to her, and then drank the contents down, without worrying whether there was anything harmful in it. And immediately thereafter he rolled over on his back as though he were dead, and the cup dropped from his hand. Right then and there the slave girls ran hurriedly to the secret door and opened it for their lord Aladdin, who was still disguised as a peasant. He ran up to his wife’s apartment and found her still sitting at the table and facing the drugged Moor. At once he approached her, kissed her, and thanked her for all that she had done. Overjoyed by what had taken place, he said, “Please withdraw with your slave girls to the inner chamber, and leave me alone for a while so that I may think about what I have to do.”

  The princess went away at once with her slave girls, and Aladdin locked the door behind them. Then he walked up to the Moor, stuck his hand into the magician’s breast pocket, and drew out the lamp. After doing this, he unsheathed his sword and slew the villain. Then he rubbed the lamp, and immediately the jinnee appeared and said, “At your service, my lord. What is it you want?”

  “I want you to take my pavilion and transport it to China,” replied Aladdin. “You are to set it down on the spot where it was standing before.”

  “As you command, my lord,” said the marid.

  Then Aladdin went to his wife, and throwing his arms around her, he kissed her, and she kissed him, and they sat in conversation while the jinnee transported the pavilion and all its contents to the designated place. Soon Aladdin ordered the slave girls to set the table, and he and the Lady Badar al-Budur began eating and drinking with great joy until they had contented themselves. Thereafter, they withdrew to the drinking room, where they caroused and kissed each other. It had been a long time since they had been able to enjoy each other, and they continued to do so until the wine rose in their heads and sleep got the better of them.

  Early the next morning, Aladdin awoke and woke his wife. Then the slave girls entered and helped her get dressed, while Aladdin donned his finest raiment. The two were ecstatic about their reunion, and the princess was especially joyous and glad that day because she expected to see her beloved father.

  So much for Aladdin and his wife, the Lady Badar al-Budur. Now let us return to the sultan.

  After he had driven away his son-in-law, he kept mourning the loss of his daughter, and every hour of every day he would sit and weep for her as women weep because she was his one and only child. And as soon as he shook off sleep morning after morning, he would rush to the window, throw it open, and peer in the direction of Aladdin’s pavilion. Then tears would stream from his eyes until his lids were red and sore.

  Now on that particular day he arose at dawn, and according to his custom, he looked out and suddenly saw a building. So he rubbed his eyes and kept looking at it curiously until he was certain that it was his son-in-law’s pavilion. So he called for a horse right away, and as soon as the steed was saddled, he mounted and headed for the pavilion.

  When Aladdin saw his father-in-law approaching, he went down and met him
halfway. Then, taking him by the hand, he helped the sultan upstairs to his daughter’s apartment. Anxious to see her father, the princess had descended and greeted him at the door of the staircase facing the ground-floor hall. Thereupon the king hugged her in his arms and kissed her, shedding tears of joy, and she did likewise, until Aladdin finally led them to the upper salon, where they took seats, and the sultan began asking her all about what had happened.

  “My father,” she began, “I only regained my life yesterday when I saw my husband, and it was he who set me free from a vile magician. I don’t believe that there is a more treacherous man on earth than this Moor. If it had not been for my beloved, I would never have escaped him, nor would you ever have seen me again. I had been deeply grieved because I had lost you and also my husband, to whom I shall be grateful for the rest of my life for freeing me from that wicked sorcerer.”

  Then the princess related everything that had happened to her, how the Moor had tricked her in the disguise of a lamp-seller, how she had given him the magic lamp, and how she had laughed at the Moor when she exchanged the old lamp for the new one, how she had been transported in the pavilion to Africa, and how Aladdin had freed them with the help of the potent drug. In turn, Aladdin recounted how he had slaughtered the wizard when he had found him dead drunk, how he had taken the lamp from the sorcerer’s breast pocket, and how he had ordered the jinnee to transport the pavilion back to its proper site, ending his tale with, “And if your highness has any doubt about our story, come with me and take a look at the accursed magician.”

  Accordingly the king went with Aladdin, and after looking at the Moor, he ordered the corpse to be carried away and burned and its ashes scattered in the air. Then he embraced Aladdin and said, “Pardon me, my son. Indeed I was on the verge of taking your life because of the foul deeds of this damned wizard, who put you in a dangerous situation. You must excuse me for what I did, because I was deeply upset about my daughter, my only child, who is dearer to me than my kingdom. You must know the great love parents bear for their offspring.”