A group of lawyers in Egypt has called for the book known in English as Arabian Nights to be banned, describing the tales as obscene and a call to "vice and sin". Sinbad the Sailor, Aladdin and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves are familiar characters whose epic adventures are recounted in the centuries-old literary classic, known in the original Arabic as One Thousand And One Nights. Hugely influential, this collection of folk tales and short stories was first published in medieval times. Egypt's writers Tuesday voiced solidarity with the literary classic during a crisis meeting in Cairo. Meanwhile, the State-run publisher said it would reprint the Arabic version.