| arabian nights | |
noun | |
| a collection of folktales in Arabic dating from the 10th century [syn: Arabian Nights' Entertainment] |
A famous collection of Persian, Indian, and Arabian folktales. Supposedly, the legendary Scheherazade told these stories to her husband the sultan, a different tale every night for 1,001 days; therefore, the collection is sometimes called The Thousand and One Nights. The Arabian Nights includes the stories of familiar characters such as Aladdin and Ali Baba.