ARABIAN ARCHITECTURE. See _Moorish Architecture_, _Saracenic Architecture_.
ARABIAN NIGHTS, or THE THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS, (Ar. Alf Layla wa-Layla), a celebrated collection of Eastern tales, based upon an old work, called _Hazar Afsana_, long current in the East, and supposed to have been derived by the Arabians from India, through the medium of Persia. They were first introduced into Europe in the beginning of the eighteenth century by means of the French translation of Antoine Galland. Of some of them no original MS. is known to exist; they were taken down by Galland from the oral communication of a Syrian friend. The story which connects the tales of _The Thousand and One Nights_ is as follows: The Sultan Shahriyar, exasperated by the faithlessness of his bride, made a law that every one of his future wives should be put to death the morning after marriage. At length one of them, Sheherazade, the generous daughter of the grand-vizier, succeeded in abolishing the cruel custom. By the charm of her stories the fair narrator induced the sultan to defer her execution every day till the dawn of another, by breaking off in the middle of an interesting tale which she had begun to relate. In the form we possess them these tales belong to a comparatively late period, though the exact date of their composition is not known. Lane, who published a translation of a number of the tales, with valuable notes, is of opinion that they took their present form some time between 1475 and 1525. Sir Richard Burton's complete English translation was issued in 16 vols. (1885-8).
ARABIAN SEA, the part of the Indian Ocean between Arabia and India.
ARABIC FIGURES, the characters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0; of Indian origin, introduced into Europe by the Moors. They did not come into general use till after the invention of printing.
ARA´BI PASHA, Egyptian soldier and revolutionary leader, born 1839. In Sept., 1881, he headed a military revolt, and was for a time virtually dictator of Egypt. Britain interfered, and after a short campaign, beginning with the bombardment of Alexandria and ending with the defeat of Arabi at Tel-el-Kebir, he surrendered, and was banished to Ceylon, being pardoned in 1900. He died in obscurity in Cairo in 1911.