The True Confessions of Aladdin

This is the real story behind the adventure that was my life; it will not be published until many years after my death and somewhere far away, but the truth will not be known until my story is told. When I was young my father died and my mother followed him shortly. After that I was on my own, living by my wits on the street, always staying one step ahead of the lawman. I quickly realized that it would be easier for a boy to make a life on the streets than a girl, so I made my dresses into pants in order to move about more freely. I lived alone as a street rat for years, stealing what I needed to eat, until I found an abandoned monkey, named Abu, who became my only friend. He helped me steal food usually by distracting the shop keepers.

One day, rather suddenly, our lives changed. It was a day like any other but on this particular we ran into a girl in the marketplace who seemed rather confused, almost as if she had never been there before. I thought that it would be interesting to watch her excursion so we followed her only to see her make a big mistake. She saw a young urchin, much like I had once been, begging for food and she simply took a piece of fruit off of a table and handed it to the child. Immediately the shopkeeper grabbed her arm and started yelling "thief, stop thief." I knew that she was in danger of losing an arm if someone did not intervene, a crowd was already gathering to witness the spectacle. I didn't want that to happen to this beautiful and seemingly naïve girl, so I decided to intervene.

With some quick thinking on my part and good acting on the girl's we managed to convince the merchant that she was my very "sick" sister who was not supposed to leave our house. We just managed to convince him to let us go before the lawman arrived, so I led her through the crowd. Weaving, ducking and dodging her body was drawn up against mine, increasing my strange attraction. I led her back to the abandoned building where I was living. We spent the night talking and learned that we had a lot in common although I did not tell her that I was a girl too, I let her believe that I was a boy. We both felt that we were trapped in a world in which we didn't belong, that we were both limited and couldn't escape the narrow confines of our lives. We wanted to break free and yet were both in some way constrained. I was trapped by my poverty but did not ask her what held her in place, I knew we only had a little time together and I wanted to make the best of it. The next morning I was showing her around my world, teaching her the ins and outs of life in the marketplace when you had no money when the lawmen caught up to us, they stopped us because we looked suspicious, I could have escaped but I would have had to leave the girl, Jasmine behind. In the struggle her hood fell off and the guards suddenly stopped and their behavior changed instantly. They called her "Princess Jasmine" and immediately began acting solicitously towards her, but I was arrested because, as I overheard the guards saying I "kidnapped the princess and was planning to ransom her." Jasmine, now I knew that it was true and she was the Princess, attempted to argue and order them to let me go but they would not listen to a mere woman and my protests made no difference because I was a street rat.

I was taken to the castle and thrown in the dungeon. I thought that I was alone in that wretched place, there were rats and pools of stagnant water, I was chained to a wall and was contemplating my fate when Abu snuck in. He had brought my burglar's tools, which I used to get free of the wall, but there was still no way to get out of the dungeon. I was wandering around when I encountered an old man; he was emaciated, stooped over, and frail but still alive. He asked, "Do you want to get out of here?" I agreed, but I wondered what he wanted in return. He showed me a secret passage out but then took me to a house, an obviously affluent home. He told me that in exchange for my freedom I needed to break in and steal a very valuable gemstone set in a ring. I didn't want to do it, I only stole what I needed to survive but I had been told that I was scheduled for execution at dawn the next morning so I went into the house.

Here comes the largest departure from the well known version of my story, there was no genie, I cannot stress this enough. I went into the old man's home, but the old man saw me. He asked what I wanted and seemed like a kind man. I told him the entire sad tale and that I did not want to steal from him but did not want to die young either. He gave me a ring that looked just like the one that was described to me but he winked and told me to return later that day after I ditched the other prisoner. I went outside and gave the old man the ring and he told me, "now you have stolen from one of the richest and most vindictive men of the realm not to mention kidnapped the Princess, now you will have to remain hidden, or better yet leave." Then he left, laughing to himself and seeming strangely triumphant. I wandered around for a few hours, assuring myself that the old man would not see me when I returned to the rich man's home. When I came back the rich man greeted me warmly, he told me that he had a solution to my problem of not being able to be with Jasmine because she must be married by a prince. He told me that the other "prisoner" was likely Jafar, the grand vizier and chief advisor to the sultan, and that the ring he had given me was a copy to throw off thieves. He also explained that because he hated Jafar so much and wanted revenge for the insult of stealing his ring he would help me appear to be a prince and win Jasmine, whom he knew Jafar was attempting to seduce. He did not know that I was a woman, but he immediately started to gather the proper clothing for me and when he would have helped me put it on I had to tell him. He was a little surprised but it didn't change his mind, he said something about forbidden love being all the sweeter, many years later I would learn that the reason he was alone and childless was that when he was younger he had fallen in love with another young man and that they had lived together and refused to marry. He helped to outfit me and then arranged for a grand entrance into the city for the new Prince Ali, we used cosmetics to subtlety alter my appearance a little.

My entrance was marked by a lavish parade and I was warmly welcomed by the citizens. However, Jasmine was less warm upon receiving me because she thought that I was like all of the others, just another man competing for her hand like some prize to be won when I really cared about her and knew that we had much in common, even more than she knew. Yet when she looked at me now she did not see the ragged street rat that she had so much in common with and whom she now believed to be dead, rather she saw another smug, arrogant prince. Over the next day or so I attempted to do everything in my power to show her that I truly cared about her, but I soon realized that I would have to confess all to her. At the same time I noticed that Jafar was marking advances on Jasmine. I overheard him talking to her father, the sultan, who seemed genuinely taken with me but in some sort of thrall to Jafar, who was trying to convince him that if; Jasmine did not pick a husband by her next birthday she would have to marry Jafar. He was trying his best to tempt and seduce the innocent and naïve Jasmine, if not outright force or trick her into marriage and I could not allow that. I could not abide his attempts to kiss her or the attempts at seduction that Jasmine would tell me about after the fact. From careful observation and a bit of creative snooping on the part of myself and Abu I discovered that he simply wanted to take control of the kingdom by marrying the vital Jasmine with her wild nature, evidenced by her pet tiger, Raja, and turn her into a cipher after getting rid of the old sultan. I resolved to tell Jasmine the truth that night, but Jafar too was snooping on me, which turned out to be more disastrous than I would have guessed.

I went to Jasmine to tell her that I was the street rat she had spent the night with only to find Jafar already in the room. He must have told her the truth because when she looked at me her eyes were full of pain, betrayal, and a death of innocence. I had never meant for her to feel betrayed, I hadn't wanted it to happen this way. I called her name in anguish but she turned away from me and into Jafar's embrace. I left her doorway only to return an hour later and find Raja pacing outside the door. When I tried to approach Raja bared her teeth and took a swipe at me. Once again I walked away, but this time I went to see Robin, the old man who had helped turn me into a Prince in order to win Jasmine. When I told him what had happened he tried to comfort me, but then said he had something serious to talk to me about. I knew that Jafar had been trying to seduce Jasmine, it had been making me jealous since I came to the palace as Prince Ali. However, I only got angrier when Robin told me the truth, Jafar only wanted Jasmine to have a more legitimate claim on the throne when he tried to take over the kingdom. I asked how long he had known and he was honest enough to admit that he had known the entire time and had provided me with the guise of a prince in an attempt to get Jasmine married to someone other than Jafar. I was about to walk out on him when he said that he had an idea. I turned around and he explained the plan.

We went back to the castle and got a ladder. I climbed up to Jasmine's balcony and begged her to talk to me. Through the latticework doors she could see me begging on my knees and eventually she came up to the door and seemed ready to listen. "Look, Jasmine, I fell in love with you the day I met you. But when the guards took you away I knew that I had no chance with you unless I was a prince. I was put in jail and told I would be executed but then was given a chance to get out if I would do one task. I did and I met Robin, he helped me become Prince Ali so that I could spend time with you and hopefully you would come to love me to," I told her, barely daring to hope that she might believe me.

"But I cared about you from the beginning too. Why did you let Jafar tell me the truth about you instead of just admitting it yourself," she asked.

"I was planning to tell you when I found him in your room." I could tell that she was skeptical but it looked like she might believe me, so I decided to gamble and tell her the truth about Jafar as well. I told her that Jafar was only being so "nice" to her was that he wanted to marry her in order to gain a claim on her father's kingdom. At first she protested that he had known her forever and cared about her. Eventually she realized that I was telling the truth but told me that I was still not forgiven for lying to her. I considered telling her that I too was a woman but I decided to wait because she had absorbed enough hard truths for one day. I had also told her that Robin had been helping me and might be able to help us deal with Jafar. She agreed, so we went to see him.

At Robin's house we began to plan for Jafar's downfall. We decided that the best way to get Jafar out of power was to expose his nefarious plans to Jasmine's father, but in order to do that we had to get the sultan out of the castle and away from Jafar. As the sultan's chief advisor Jafar went with the sultan the few times that he ventured out into the city. We decided that Jasmine and I would convince the sultan to ride horses with us and we would take him to meet with Robin, one of his oldest friends. We managed to get the sultan to the oasis where we were meeting Robin and convincing him turned out to be much easier than we had anticipated. We sat under a date palm eating the fruit and looking into the pool while Robin explained the facts to the sultan. At the same time I decided that this was the best place and possibly the best time to tell Jasmine the truth. Without looking at her, I said, "Jasmine, we need to talk." She agreed and we wandered a bit away from the Robin and the sultan, whom we had already convinced of Jafar's duplicity, leaving them having an enjoyable chat. When we were a safe distance away we sat down again and staring into the water I told her, "Before we face off with Jafar I want to tell you the whole truth about myself. I am a girl, my name is Alianah. Years ago I was orphaned and quickly learned that it was much easier and less dangerous for boys to roam the streets, so I decided to pretend to be a boy. I am sorry that I deceived you, but I have lived as a boy for years now and I fell in love with you and didn't want the truth to ruin that. I hope that you can forgive me and still love me."

Jasmine stood there in stunned silence for a few minutes. Suddenly, she threw her arms around me and squeezed tight. "You fool, I love you, man or woman, I fell in love with you that first night. I was devastated when I thought you died. But never lie to me again or I will have Raja attack you," she scolded.

We returned to the castle along with Robin and the sultan. There we were met by the guards, whom Jafar had hired, who hurried us to Jafar. The sultan confronted Jafar with his new knowledge of the advisor's duplicity and Jafar attacked. He ordered the guards in, grabbed Jasmine, and ran. I managed to get free of the guards and took off after them, but they had a head start. I had just gotten to the top of the stairs leading to the courtyard when I realized that Jafar had made a mistake. The very protective Raja was roaming the courtyard for exercise. I saw Jasmine "trip" when she saw Raja, who was just out of Jafar's line of sight. She called for her pet and Raja sprang into action. Before anyone had the time to react Raja disemboweled Jafar with one swipe of her paw. I ran into the courtyard and immediately went to Jasmine. She stood up and brushed herself off. Then we walked over to the dying Jafar. My sweet Jasmine looked down at him and said, "You never should have tried to attack me, hurt Aladdin, or take my father's kingdom. You should have known that it would not end well." Jafar died and those were the last words he ever heard.

We went back inside and when the guards learned that Jafar was dead they released Robin and the sultan. I was angry but willing to forgive them when they told us that the reason they obeyed Jafar was that he was holding their family members hostage. The four of us retired to a private room and I told the sultan my secret as well. He readily accepted the truth and I became known as Princess Ali. A year later Jasmine and I were married and we have lived more or less happily ever after for the past twenty years.

A Note from the Editor:

My name is Aleah, my family has always called me Ali. I found this story when going through my grandmother's attic, it was in a trunk that had not been open for many years. It turns out that my I-don't-know-how-many-times-great-grandmother was the street urchin from the marketplace. Princesses Jasmine and Ali had adopted her and raised her as their own even before they were married. This story had been given to her upon her "parents'" deaths and had been passed down from mother to daughter in the trunk ever since. Over the years the story had been forgotten, but the trunk was passed down. Now that I rediscovered a piece of history I feel that I should share it with the world, this is the truth behind the story of Aladdin, as told by Aladdin, better known as Ali.