ARABI PASHA (1839?-1911), more correctly AHMAD 'ARABI, to which in later years he added the epithet al-Misri, "the Egyptian," Egyptian soldier and revolutionary leader, was born in Lower Egypt in 1839 or 1840 of a fellah family and entered the army as a conscript. Said Pasha gave him a commission in 1862, and he served in the Abyssinian campaign of 1875 under Ismail Pasha. A charge of peculation, unproved, was made against him in connection with this expedition and he was placed on half-pay. He joined a secret society formed by Ali Rubi with the object of getting rid of Turkish officers in the Egyptian army. In 1878 he was employed by Ismail to foment a disturbance against the ministry of Nubar, Rivers Wilson, and de Blignieres, and received in payment a wife from Ismail's harem and the command of a regiment. In the agitation against the government of Tewfik Pasha, Arabi was put forward as the leader of the discontented Egyptians ; he was in reality little more than the mouthpiece and puppet of abler men such as Ali Rubi and Mahmud Sami. On Feb. 1, 1881, Arabi and two other Egyptian colonels, summoned before a court-martial for acts of disobedience, were rescued by their soldiers, and the khedive was forced to dismiss his then minister of war in favour of Mahmud Sami. A military demon stration on Sept. 8, 1881, led by Arabi, forced the khedive to increase the numbers and pay of the army, to substitute Sherif Pasha for Riaz Pasha as prime minister, and to convene an assem bly of notables. Arabi became under-secretary for war at the beginning of 1882. Sherif fell in Feb., Mahmud Sami became prime minister, and Arabi (created a pasha) minister of war. Arabi, after a brief fall from office, acquired a dictatorial power that alarmed the British Government. British and French war ships went to Alexandria at the beginning of June; on the I 1 th of that month rioting in that city led to the sacrifice of many European lives. Order could only be restored through the inter vention of Arabi, who adopted a more distinctly anti-European attitude. His arming of the forts at Alexandria was held to con stitute a menace to the British fleet. On the refusal of France to co-operate the British fleet bombarded the forts (July 1 1) and a British force, under Sir Garnet Wolseley, defeated Arabi on Sept. 11, at Tel-el-Kebir. Arabi fled to Cairo where he sur rendered and was tried (Dec. 3) for rebellion. In accordance with an understanding made with the British representative, Lord Dufferin, Arabi pleaded guilty, and sentence of death was imme diately commuted to one of banishment for life to Ceylon. The same sentence was passed on Mahmud Sami and others. After Arabi's exile had lasted for nearly 20 years, however, the khedive Abbas II. exercised his prerogative of mercy, and in May 1901 Arabi was permitted to return to Egypt. He died at Cairo on Sept. 21, 1911. Arabi, as has been said, was rather the figure head than the inspirer of the movement of 1881-82 and was prob ably more honest, as he was certainly less intelligent, than those whose tool, in a large measure, he was. The movement which he represented in the eye of Europe, whatever the motives of its leaders, "was in its essence a genuine revolt against misgovern ment" (Lord Cromer in Egypt, No. I, 1905, p. 2), and it was a dim recognition of this fact which led Arabi to style himself "the Egyptian." See EGYPT: History; also Lord Cromer's Modern Egypt (1908). ARABISTAN, Persia : see KHUZISTAN.