This is an English audiobook reading of Alladin:
The original story of Aladdin and the Magic Lamp
This English listening practice features easy-to-read on-screen text so you can listen and read
along while I narrate the story.
Audiobooks are a great way to help you perfect your English and become more fluent.
Alladin and the Magic Lamp is told in easy modern English.
The Story of Aladdin, Part One
There once lived a poor tailor, who had a son called Aladdin.
Aladdin was a careless and lazy boy who would do nothing but play in the streets all day
long with other idle little boys like himself.
This so grieved Aladdin's father that he died.
Yet, in spite of his mother's tears and prayers, Aladdin did not mend his ways.
One day, when he was playing in the streets, as usual, a stranger asked him his age, and
whether he was the son of Mustapha, the tailor.
I am his son, sir," replied Aladdin, "but he died a long while ago."
On hearing this, the stranger, who was a famous African magician, began to hug his neck and
kiss him, saying: "I am your uncle, and knew you because of your resemblance to my brother.
Go to your mother and tell her I am coming."
Aladdin ran home and told his mother of his newly found uncle.
"Indeed, child," she said, "your father had a brother, but I always thought he was dead."
Regardless, she made supper and asked Aladdin to find his uncle, who came carrying wine
and fruit.
He presently fell down and kissed the place where Mustapha used to sit.
He begged Aladdin's mother not to be surprised at not having seen him before, as he had been
out of the country for forty years.
He then turned to Aladdin and asked him his trade.
Aladdin hung his head and his mother burst into tears.
On learning that Aladdin was lazy and refused to learn a trade, he offered to buy a shop
for him and stock it with merchandise.
The next day he bought Aladdin a fine suit of clothes and took him all over the city,
showing him the sights, and brought him home at nightfall to his mother, who was overjoyed
to see her son so fine.
The day after that the magician led Aladdin into some beautiful gardens a long way outside
the city gates.
They sat down by a fountain and the magician pulled a cake from his girdle, which he divided
between them.
They then journeyed onwards till they almost reached the mountains.
Aladdin was so tired that he begged to go back, but the magician beguiled him with pleasant
stories and led him on in spite of himself.
At last, they came to two mountains divided by a narrow valley.
"We will go no farther," said the false uncle.
"I will show you something wonderful.
But first, you gather up sticks while I kindle a fire."
When it was lit the magician threw a powder on it while saying some magical words.
The earth trembled a little and then opened in front of them, revealing a square flat
stone with a brass ring in the middle to raise it by.
Aladdin tried to run away, but the magician caught him and gave him a blow that knocked
him down.
"What have I done, uncle?" he said piteously.
More kindly now, the magician said, "There is no need to fear, but you must obey me."
Beneath this stone lies a treasure which is to be yours.
No one else may touch it.
So, you must do exactly as I tell you."
At the word treasure, Aladdin forgot his fears and grasped the ring as he was told, saying
the names of his father and grandfather.
The stone came up quite easily and some steps appeared.
"Go down the steps," said the magician.
"At the foot of the steps, you will find an open door leading into three large halls.
Tuck up your gown and go through them without touching anything, or you will die instantly.
These halls lead into a garden of fine fruit trees.
Walk on until you come to a niche in a terrace with a lighted lamp standing in it.
Pour out the oil it contains and bring it to me."
He drew a ring from his finger and gave it to Aladdin, wishing him good luck.
Aladdin found everything as the magician had said.
He gathered some fruit off the trees, and, having got the lamp, arrived at the mouth
of the cave.
The magician cried out in a great hurry:
"Quickly, give me the lamp."
Aladdin refused to do this until he was out of the cave.
The magician flew into a terrible rage, and throwing some more powder on the fire, he
said something, and the stone rolled back into its place.
The magician left Persia forever, which plainly showed that he was no uncle of Aladdin's.
Instead, he was a cunning magician who had read in his magic books of a wonderful magic
lamp that would make him the most powerful man in the world.
Although he was the only one who knew where to find it, he could only receive it from
the hand of another.
He had picked out the foolish Aladdin for this purpose, intending to get the lamp and
kill him afterward.
For two days Aladdin remained in the dark, crying and lamenting.
At last, he joined his hands to pray and in so doing rubbed the ring, which the magician
had forgotten to take from him.
Immediately an enormous and frightful genie rose out of the earth, saying:
"What wouldst thou with me?
I am the Slave of the Ring, and will obey thee in all things."
Aladdin fearlessly replied: "Deliver me from this place!" whereupon the earth opened, and
he found himself outside.
As soon as his eyes could bear the light he went home, fainting on the threshold.
When he came to, he told his mother what had happened, showing her the lamp and the fruits
he had gathered in the garden, which were, in reality, precious stones.
He then asked for some food.
"Alas! child," she said, "I have nothing in the house, but I have spun a little cotton
and I'll go and sell it."
Aladdin told her to keep her cotton.
He would sell the lamp instead.
As it was very dirty she began to rub it, hoping it would fetch a higher price.
Instantly a hideous genie appeared and asked what she would have.
She fainted away, but Aladdin, snatching the lamp, said boldly, "Fetch me something to
eat!"
The genie returned with a silver bowl, twelve silver plates containing rich meats, two silver
cups, and two bottles of wine.
Aladdin's mother, when she regained consciousness, said, "Where did this splendid feast come
from?"
"Don't ask, just eat" replied Aladdin.
So they sat eating breakfast till it was dinner-time, and Aladdin told his mother about the lamp.
She begged him to sell it, and have nothing to do with devils.
"No," said Aladdin, "since chance has made us aware of its virtues, we will use it and
also the ring, which I will always wear on my finger."
When they had eaten all the genie had brought, Aladdin sold one of the silver plates, and
so on till none were left.
He then had recourse to the genie, who gave him another set of plates, and thus they lived
for many years.
One day Aladdin heard an order from the Sultan proclaiming that everyone was to stay at home
and close his shutters while the princess, his daughter, went to and from the bath.
Aladdin was seized by a desire to see her face, which was very difficult, as she always
went veiled.
He hid himself behind the door of the bath and peeped through a chink.
The princess lifted her veil as she went in, and looked so beautiful that Aladdin fell
in love with her at first sight.
He went home so changed that his mother was frightened.
He told her he loved the princess so deeply that he could not live without her and meant
to ask her father to allow him to marry her.
His mother, on hearing this, burst out laughing.
But Aladdin, at last, convinced her to go before the Sultan with his request.
She took a napkin and laid in it the magic fruits from the enchanted garden, which sparkled
and shone like the most beautiful jewels.
She took these with her to please the Sultan, and set out, trusting in the lamp.
The grand-vizier and the lords of council had just gone in as she entered the hall and
stood in front of the Sultan.
He, however, took no notice of her.
She went every day for a week and stood in the same place.
When the council broke up on the sixth day the Sultan said to his vizier: "I see a certain
woman in the audience-chamber every day carrying something in a napkin.
Next time, call her so that I can find out what she wants."
The next day, at a sign from the vizier, she went up to the foot of the throne, and remained
kneeling till the Sultan said to her: "Rise, good woman, and tell me what you want."
She hesitated, so the Sultan sent away all but the vizier, and asked her to speak freely,
promising to forgive her beforehand for anything she might say.
She then told him of her son's violent love for the princess.
"I prayed him to forget her," she said, "but in vain.
He threatened to do some desperate deed if I refused to go and ask your Majesty for the
hand of the princess.
Now I beg you to forgive not me alone, but my son Aladdin."
The Sultan asked her kindly what she had in the napkin, whereupon she unfolded the jewels
and presented them.
He was thunderstruck, and turning to the vizier said: "What sayest thou?
Ought I not to bestow the princess on one who values her at such a price?"
The vizier, who wanted her for his own son, begged the Sultan to withhold her for three
months, during which time he hoped his son would find a way to make the Sultan a more
valuable present.
The Sultan granted this and told Aladdin's mother that, though he consented to the marriage,
she must not appear before him again for three months.
Aladdin waited patiently for nearly three months, but after two had elapsed his mother,
going into the city to buy oil, found everyone rejoicing, and asked what was going on.
"Do you not know," was the answer, "that the son of the grand-vizier is to marry the Sultan's
daughter tonight?"
Breathless, she ran and told Aladdin, who was overwhelmed at first but presently remembered
the lamp.
He rubbed it, and the genie appeared, saying: "What is thy will?"
Aladdin replied: "The Sultan, as you know, has broken his promise to me, and the vizier's
son is to have the princess.
My command is that tonight you bring the bride and bridegroom here."
"Master, I obey," said the genie.
Aladdin then went to his chamber, where, sure enough, at midnight the genie transported
the bed containing the vizier's son and the princess.
"Take this new-married man," he said, "and put him outside in the cold, and return at
daybreak."
Whereupon the genie took the vizier's son out of bed, leaving Aladdin with the princess.
"Fear nothing," Aladdin said to her; "you are my wife, promised to me by your unjust
father, and no harm shall come to you."
The princess was too frightened to speak, and passed the most miserable night of her
life, while Aladdin lay down beside her and slept soundly.
At the appointed hour the genie brought in the shivering bridegroom, laid him in his
place, and transported the bed back to the palace.
Presently the Sultan came to wish his daughter good morning.
The unhappy vizier's son jumped up and hid, while the princess would not say a word, and
was very sorrowful.
The Sultan sent her mother to her, who said: "Why will you not speak to your father?
What has happened?"
The princess sighed deeply, and at last told her mother how, during the night, the bed
had been carried into some strange house, and what had passed there.
Her mother did not in the least believe her but made her get up and consider it all to
be a dream.
The following night exactly the same thing happened, and on the next morning, when the
princess again refused to speak, the Sultan threatened to cut off her head.
She then confessed everything, telling him to ask the vizier's son if it were not so.
The Sultan told the vizier to ask his son, who admitted the truth, adding that, dearly
as he loved the princess, he would rather die than go through another such fearful night,
and wished to be separated from her.
His wish was granted, and there was an end of feasting and rejoicing.
When the three months were over, Aladdin sent his mother to remind the Sultan of his promise.
She stood in the same place as before, and the Sultan, who had forgotten Aladdin, at
once remembered him and sent for her.
On seeing her poverty the Sultan felt less inclined than ever to keep his word and asked
the vizier's advice, who counseled him to set so high a value on the princess that no
man living could come up to it.
The Sultan then turned to Aladdin's mother, saying, "Good woman, a Sultan must remember
his promises and I will remember mine.
But your son must first send me forty gold basins filled to the brim with jewels, carried
by eighty slaves, splendidly dressed.
Tell him that I await his answer."
The mother of Aladdin bowed low and went home, thinking all was lost.