The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an

ethnic group An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...

mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, North Africa, the

Horn of Africa The Horn of Africa (HoA), also known as the Somali Peninsula, is a large peninsula and geopolitical region in East Africa.Robert Stock, ''Africa South of the Sahara, Second Edition: A Geographical Interpretation'', (The Guilford Press; 2004), ...

, and the western

Indian Ocean islands The islands of the Indian Ocean are part of either the eastern, western, or southern areas. Some prominently large islands include Madagascar, Sri Lanka, and the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Java. Eastern Indian Ocean * Andaman Islands (I ...

(including the

Comoros The Comoros,, ' officially the Union of the Comoros,; ar, الاتحاد القمري ' is an independent country made up of three islands in southeastern Africa, located at the northern end of the Mozambique Channel in the Indian Ocean. It ...

). An Arab diaspora is also present around the world in significant numbers, most notably in the

Americas The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. Along with th ...

, Western Europe, Turkey, Indonesia, and Iran. In modern usage, the term "Arab" tends to refer to those who both carry that ethnic identity and speak Arabic as their native language. This contrasts with the narrower traditional definition, which refers to the descendants of the tribes of Arabia. The religion of

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

was developed in Arabia, and

Classical Arabic Classical Arabic ( ar, links=no, ٱلْعَرَبِيَّةُ ٱلْفُصْحَىٰ, al-ʿarabīyah al-fuṣḥā) or Quranic Arabic is the standardized literary form of Arabic used from the 7th century and throughout the Middle Ages, most notab ...

serves as the language of Islamic literature. 93 percent of Arabs are Muslims (the remainder consisted mostly of Arab Christians), while Arab Muslims are only 20 percent of the global Muslim population. The first mention of Arabs appeared in the mid-9th century BCE, as a tribal people in eastern and southern

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

and the northern

Arabian Peninsula The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate ...

. The Arabs appear to have been under the vassalage of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, as well as the succeeding

Neo-Babylonian The Neo-Babylonian Empire or Second Babylonian Empire, historically known as the Chaldean Empire, was the last polity ruled by monarchs native to Mesopotamia. Beginning with the coronation of Nabopolassar as the King of Babylon in 626 BC and bein ...

, Achaemenid, Seleucid, and

Parthian Parthian may be: Historical * A demonym "of Parthia", a region of north-eastern of Greater Iran * Parthian Empire (247 BC – 224 AD) * Parthian language, a now-extinct Middle Iranian language * Parthian shot, an archery skill famously employed by ...

empires. The Nabataeans, an Arab people, ruled a kingdom near

Petra Petra ( ar, ٱلْبَتْرَاء, Al-Batrāʾ; grc, Πέτρα, "Rock", Nabataean Aramaic, Nabataean: ), originally known to its inhabitants as Raqmu or Raqēmō, is an historic and archaeological city in southern Jordan. It is adjacent to t ...

(modern-day Jordan) in the 3rd century BCE. Arab tribes, most notably the

Ghassanids The Ghassanids ( ar, الغساسنة, translit=al-Ġasāsina, also Banu Ghassān (, romanized as: ), also called the Jafnids, were an Arab tribe which founded a kingdom. They emigrated from southern Arabia in the early 3rd century to the Levan ...

and the Lakhmids, began to appear in the southern

Syrian Desert The Syrian Desert ( ar, بادية الشام ''Bādiyat Ash-Shām''), also known as the North Arabian Desert, the Jordanian steppe, or the Badiya, is a region of desert, semi-desert and steppe covering of the Middle East, including parts of sou ...

from the mid-3rd century CE onward, during the middle to later stages of the Roman and Sassanid empires. Before the expansion of the

Rashidun Caliphate The Rashidun Caliphate ( ar, اَلْخِلَافَةُ ٱلرَّاشِدَةُ, al-Khilāfah ar-Rāšidah) was the first caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was ruled by the first four successive caliphs of Muhammad after his ...

, the term "Arab" referred to any of the both largely nomadic and settled Arabic-speaking people from the Arabian Peninsula, the Syrian Desert, and

Lower Mesopotamia Lower Mesopotamia is a historical region of Mesopotamia. It's located in the alluvial plain of Iraq from the Hamrin Mountains to the Faw Peninsula near the Persian Gulf. In the Middle Ages it was also known as the ''Sawad'' and al-Jazira al-sfli ...

, with some even reaching what is now northern Iraq. Since the height of

pan-Arabism Pan-Arabism ( ar, الوحدة العربية or ) is an ideology that espouses the unification of the countries of North Africa and Western Asia from the Atlantic Ocean to the Arabian Sea, which is referred to as the Arab world. It is closely c ...

in the 1950s and 1960s, "Arabs" has been taken to refer to a large number of people whose native regions became part of the Arab world due to the spread of Islam, which saw the expansion of Arab tribes and the Arabic language throughout during the early Muslim conquests of the 7th and 8th centuries. These cultural and demographic influences resulted in the subsequent

Arabization Arabization or Arabisation ( ar, تعريب, ') describes both the process of growing Arab influence on non-Arab populations, causing a language shift by the latter's gradual adoption of the Arabic language and incorporation of Arab culture, aft ...

of the indigenous populations. The Arabs forged the Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid, and Fatimid caliphates, whose borders at their zenith reached

southern France Southern France, also known as the South of France or colloquially in French language, French as , is a defined geographical area consisting of the regions of France that border the Atlantic Ocean south of the Marais Poitevin,Louis Papy, ''Le midi ...

in the west,

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

in the east, Anatolia in the north, and

Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...

in the south, forming one of the largest land empires in history. In the early 20th century, World War I signalled the beginning of the end of the Ottoman Empire, a

Turkish Turkish may refer to: *a Turkic language spoken by the Turks * of or about Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities and mi ...

polity that had ruled much of the Arab world since its conquest of the Mamluk Sultanate in 1517. The Ottoman defeat in World War I culminated in the 1922 dissolution of the empire and the subsequent partitioning of Ottoman territories, which formed the modern Arab states. Following the adoption of the Alexandria Protocol in 1944, the

Arab League The Arab League ( ar, الجامعة العربية, ' ), formally the League of Arab States ( ar, جامعة الدول العربية, '), is a regional organization in the Arab world, which is located in Northern Africa, Western Africa, E ...

was founded on 22 March 1945.Arab League formed , This Day in History — 3/22/1945
" '' HISTORY''. US: A&E Television Networks. 2010. Retrieved on 28 April 2014. The

Charter of the Arab League The Charter of the Arab League (also known as the Pact of the League of Arab States) is the founding treaty of the Arab League. Concluded in 1945, the agreement aims to strengthen relations and improve cooperation in various areas between signat ...

endorsed the principle of a unified Arab homeland whilst respecting the individual sovereignty of its member states. Today, Arabs primarily inhabit the 22 member states of the Arab League. The Arab world stretches around , from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the east and from the Mediterranean Sea in the north to the

and the Indian Ocean in the southeast. People of non-Arab ethnicities associated with non-Arabic languages also live in these countries, sometimes as a majority; these include Somalis, Kurds,

Berbers , image = File:Berber_flag.svg , caption = The Berber ethnic flag , population = 36 million , region1 = Morocco , pop1 = 14 million to 18 million , region2 = Algeria , pop2 ...

, the Afar people, Nubians, and various others. The ties that bind Arabs together are ethnic, linguistic,

cultural Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human Society, societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, and habits of the ...

, historical, identical, nationalist, geographical, and political. The Arabs have their own customs, language, literature, music,

dance Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

, media,

cuisine A cuisine is a style of cooking characterized by distinctive ingredients, techniques and dishes, and usually associated with a specific culture or geographic region. Regional food preparation techniques, customs, and ingredients combine to ...

, dress, society, sports, and mythology, as well as significant influence on Islamic architecture and Islamic art. Arabs have greatly influenced and contributed to diverse fields, notably architecture and the arts, language, Islamic philosophy, mythology, ethics, literature, politics, business, music, dance, cinema, medicine, science, and technology in ancient and modern history. Arabs are a diverse group in terms of religious affiliations and practices. In the pre-Islamic era, most Arabs followed polytheistic religions. However, some tribes had adopted Christianity or Judaism and a few individuals, known as the ''

hanif In Islam, a ( ar, حنيف, ḥanīf; plural: , ), meaning "renunciate", is someone who maintains the pure monotheism of the patriarch Abraham. More specifically, in Islamic thought, renunciates were the people who, during the pre-Islamic perio ...

s'', apparently observed another form of monotheism.* * Presently, there is a sizable Christian minority in the Arab world.

Arab Muslims Arab Muslims ( ar, العرب المسلمون) are adherents of Islam who identify linguistically, culturally, and genealogically as Arabs. Arab Muslims greatly outnumber other ethnoreligious groups in the Middle East and North Africa. Arab Mu ...

primarily belong to the

Sunni Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word '' Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagr ...

, Shia, Ibadi, and

Alawite The Alawis, Alawites ( ar, علوية ''Alawīyah''), or pejoratively Nusayris ( ar, نصيرية ''Nuṣayrīyah'') are an ethnoreligious group that lives primarily in Levant and follows Alawism, a sect of Islam that originated from Shia Isl ...

denominations.

Arab Christians Arab Christians ( ar, ﺍَﻟْﻤَﺴِﻴﺤِﻴُّﻮﻥ ﺍﻟْﻌَﺮَﺏ, translit=al-Masīḥīyyūn al-ʿArab) are ethnic Arabs, Arab nationals, or Arabic-speakers who adhere to Christianity. The number of Arab Christians who l ...

generally follow

Eastern Christianity Eastern Christianity comprises Christian traditions and church families that originally developed during classical and late antiquity in Eastern Europe, Southeastern Europe, Asia Minor, the Caucasus, Northeast Africa, the Fertile Crescent and ...

, such as those within the Oriental Orthodox Churches, the Eastern Catholic Churches, or the Eastern Protestant Churches.* * There also exists a small numbers of

Arab Jews Arab Jews ( ar, اليهود العرب '; he, יהודים ערבים ') is a term for Jews living in or originating from the Arab world. The term is politically contested, often by Zionists or by Jews with roots in the Arab world who prefer ...

still living in Arab countries, and a much larger population of Jews descended from Arab Jewish communities living in Israel and various Western countries, who may or may not consider themselves Arab today. Arabic-speaking Christian minorities in Arab-majority states may also not ethnically identify as Arabs, such as

Copts Copts ( cop, ⲛⲓⲣⲉⲙⲛ̀ⲭⲏⲙⲓ ; ar, الْقِبْط ) are a Christian ethnoreligious group indigenous to North Africa who have primarily inhabited the area of modern Egypt and Sudan since antiquity. Most ethnic Copts are C ...

and

Assyrians Assyrian may refer to: * Assyrian people, the indigenous ethnic group of Mesopotamia. * Assyria, a major Mesopotamian kingdom and empire. ** Early Assyrian Period ** Old Assyrian Period ** Middle Assyrian Empire ** Neo-Assyrian Empire * Assyrian ...

. Other smaller minority religions also exist, such as the

Druze The Druze (; ar, دَرْزِيٌّ, ' or ', , ') are an Arabic-speaking esoteric ethnoreligious group from Western Asia who adhere to the Druze faith, an Abrahamic, monotheistic, syncretic, and ethnic religion based on the teachings of ...

and the Baháʼí Faith.

Etymology

The earliest documented use of the word ''Arab'' in reference to a people appears in the Kurkh Monoliths, an Akkadian-language record of the

Assyrian conquest of Aram The Assyrian conquest of Aram (c. 856-732 BCE) concerns the series of conquests of largely Aramean, Phoenician, Sutean and Neo-Hittite states in the Levant (modern Syria, Lebanon and northern Jordan) by the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911-605 BCE). This ...

(9th century BCE). The Monoliths used the term to refer to

Bedouin The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu (; , singular ) are nomadic Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia. The Bedouin originated in the Syrian Desert and A ...

s of the

under King Gindibu, who fought as part of a coalition opposed to Assyria. pp. 105, 119, 125–27. Listed among the booty captured by the army of the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III in the Battle of Qarqar (853 BCE) are 1000 camels of "''Gîndibuʾ'' the ''Arbâya''" or "

he man He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...

Gindibu belonging to the ''Arabs''" (''ar-ba-a-a'' being an adjectival nisba of the noun ''ʿarab''). The related word ''ʾaʿrāb'' is used to refer to Bedouins today, in contrast to ''ʿarab'' which refers to Arabs in general. Both terms are mentioned around 40 times in pre-Islamic

Sabaean Sabean or Sabaean may refer to: *Sabaeans, ancient people in South Arabia **Sabaean language, Old South Arabian language *Sabians, name of a religious group mentioned in the Quran, historically adopted by: **Mandaeans, Gnostic sect from the marshl ...

inscriptions. The term ''ʿarab'' ('Arab') occurs also in the titles of the Himyarite kings from the time of 'Abu Karab Asad until MadiKarib Ya'fur. According to Sabaean grammar, the term ''ʾaʿrāb'' is derived from the term ''ʿarab''. The term is also mentioned in Quranic verses, referring to people who were living in Madina and it might be a south Arabian loanword into Quranic language. The oldest surviving indication of an Arab national identity is an inscription made in an archaic form of Arabic in 328 CE using the

Nabataean alphabet The Nabataean script is an abjad (consonantal alphabet) that was used to write Nabataean Aramaic and Nabataean Arabic from the second century BC onwards.Imru' al-Qays ibn 'Amr as 'King of all the Arabs'. Herodotus refers to the Arabs in the Sinai, southern Palestine, and the frankincense region (Southern Arabia). Other Ancient-Greek historians like Agatharchides,

Diodorus Siculus Diodorus Siculus, or Diodorus of Sicily ( grc-gre, Διόδωρος ; 1st century BC), was an ancient Greek historian. He is known for writing the monumental universal history ''Bibliotheca historica'', in forty books, fifteen of which su ...

and

Strabo Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-sighted that he could see ...

mention Arabs living in Mesopotamia (along the

Euphrates The Euphrates () is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Tigris–Euphrates river system, Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia ( ''the land between the rivers'') ...

), in Egypt (the Sinai and the Red Sea), southern Jordan (the Nabataeans), the

Syrian steppe The Syrian Desert ( ar, بادية الشام ''Bādiyat Ash-Shām''), also known as the North Arabian Desert, the Jordanian steppe, or the Badiya, is a region of desert, semi-desert and steppe covering of the Middle East, including parts of s ...

and in eastern Arabia (the people of

Gerrha Gerrha ( grc, Γέρρα, translit=Gérrha) was an ancient and renowned city within Eastern Arabia, on the west side of the Persian Gulf. History Prior to Gerrha, the area belonged to the Dilmun civilization, which was conquered by the Assyria ...

). Inscriptions dating to the 6th century BCE in Yemen include the term 'Arab'. The most popular Arab account holds that the word ''Arab'' came from an eponymous father named Ya'rub, who was supposedly the first to speak Arabic. Abu Muhammad al-Hasan al-Hamdani had another view; he states that Arabs were called ''gharab'' ('westerners') by Mesopotamians because Bedouins originally resided to the west of Mesopotamia; the term was then corrupted into ''arab''. Yet another view is held by al-Masudi that the word ''Arab'' was initially applied to the Ishmaelites of the Arabah valley. In Biblical etymology, ''Arab'' (Hebrew: ''arvi'') comes from the desert origin of the Bedouins it originally described (''arava'' means 'wilderness'). The root ''ʿ-r-b'' has several additional meanings in Semitic languages—including 'west, sunset', 'desert', 'mingle', 'mixed', 'merchant' and 'raven'—and are "comprehensible" with all of these having varying degrees of relevance to the emergence of the name. It is also possible that some forms were metathetical from , 'moving around' (Arabic: , 'traverse') and hence, it is alleged, 'nomadic'.

History

Antiquity

Pre-Islamic Arabia refers to the Arabian Peninsula prior to the rise of Islam in the 630s. The study of Pre-Islamic Arabia is important to Islamic studies as it provides the context for the development of Islam. Some of the settled communities in the Arabian Peninsula developed into distinctive civilizations. Sources for these civilizations are not extensive, and are limited to archaeological evidence, accounts written outside of Arabia, and Arab oral traditions later recorded by Islamic scholars. Among the most prominent civilizations was Dilmun, which arose around the 4th millennium BCE and lasted to 538 BCE, and Thamud, which arose around the 1st millennium BCE and lasted to about 300 CE. Additionally, from the beginning of the first millennium BCE, Southern Arabia was the home to a number of kingdoms, such as the Sabaean kingdom ( ar, سَـبَـأ, Saba', Quran 34:15 possibly Sheba), and the coastal areas of Eastern Arabia were controlled by the

and

Sassanians The Sasanian dynasty was the house that founded the Sasanian Empire, ruling this empire from 224 to 651 AD in Persia (modern-day Iran). It began with Ardashir I, who named the dynasty as ''Sasanian'' in honour of his grandfather (or father), Sa ...

from 300 BCE.

Origins and early history

According to Arab- Islamic-Jewish traditions,

Ishmael Ishmael ''Ismaḗl''; Classical/Qur'anic Arabic: إِسْمَٰعِيْل; Modern Standard Arabic: إِسْمَاعِيْل ''ʾIsmāʿīl''; la, Ismael was the first son of Abraham, the common patriarch of the Abrahamic religions; and is cons ...

was father of the Arabs, to be the ancestor of the Ishmaelites. * Both Judaism and Islam see him as the ancestor of Arab peoples. * Ishmael is recognized by Muslims as the ancestor of several prominent Arab tribes and being the forefather of Muhammad. ''A–Z of Prophets in Islam and Judaism'', Wheeler, ''Ishmael'' Muslims also believe that Muhammad was the descendant of Ishmael that would establish a great nation, as promised by God in the

Old Testament The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...

. * Genesis 17:20 * * Ishmael was considered the ancestor of the Northern Arabs and Muhammad was linked to him through the lineage of the patriarch Adnan. Ishmael may also have been the ancestor of the Southern Arabs through his descendant Qahtan. * Assyrians referred to the Arab Tribes as Ishmaelites, or "Shumu'ilu" as recorded in their inscriptions. * "

Zayd ibn Amr Zayd ibn Amr ibn Nufayl (died 605) was a monotheist who lived in Mecca shortly before Islam. Family He was the son of Amr ibn Nufayl, a member of the Adi clan of the Quraysh tribe.Muhammad ibn Saad. ''Kitab al-Tabaqat al-Kabir'' vol. 3. Translat ...

" was another Pre-Islamic figure who refused

idolatry Idolatry is the worship of a cult image or "idol" as though it were God. In Abrahamic religions (namely Judaism, Samaritanism, Christianity, the Baháʼí Faith, and Islam) idolatry connotes the worship of something or someone other than the A ...

and preached monotheism, claiming it was the original belief of their rabsfather Ishmael. * The tribes of Central West Arabia called themselves the "people of Abraham and the offspring of Ishmael." Qahtanites

The first written attestation of the ethnonym ''Arab'' occurs in an

Assyrian Assyrian may refer to: * Assyrian people, the indigenous ethnic group of Mesopotamia. * Assyria, a major Mesopotamian kingdom and empire. ** Early Assyrian Period ** Old Assyrian Period ** Middle Assyrian Empire ** Neo-Assyrian Empire * Assyrian ...

inscription of 853 BCE, where Shalmaneser III lists a King Gindibu of ''mâtu arbâi'' (Arab land) as among the people he defeated at the Battle of Qarqar. Some of the names given in these texts are Aramaic, while others are the first attestations of

Ancient North Arabian Ancient North Arabian (ANA)http://e-learning.tsu.ge/pluginfile.php/5868/mod_resource/content/0/dzveli_armosavluri_enebi_-ugarituli_punikuri_arameuli_ebrauli_arabuli.pdf is a collection of scripts and possibly a language or family of languages (or ...

dialects. In fact several different ethnonyms are found in Assyrian texts that are conventionally translated "Arab": ''Arabi, Arubu, Aribi'' and ''Urbi''. Many of the

Qedarite The Qedarites ( ar, قيدار, Qaydār) were a largely nomadic ancient Arab tribal confederation centred in the Wādī Sirḥān in the Syrian Desert. Attested from the 8th century BC, the Qedarites formed a powerful polity which expanded its ...

queens were also described as queens of the ''aribi''. The Hebrew Bible occasionally refers to ''Aravi'' peoples (or variants thereof), translated as "Arab" or "Arabian". The scope of the term at that early stage is unclear, but it seems to have referred to various desert-dwelling Semitic tribes in the

and Arabia. Arab tribes came into conflict with the Assyrians during the reign of the Assyrian king

Ashurbanipal Ashurbanipal (Neo-Assyrian language, Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , meaning "Ashur (god), Ashur is the creator of the heir") was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 669 BCE to his death in 631. He is generally remembered as the last great king o ...

, and he records military victories against the powerful

Qedar The Qedarites ( ar, قيدار, Qaydār) were a largely nomadic ancient Arab tribal confederation centred in the Wādī Sirḥān in the Syrian Desert. Attested from the 8th century BC, the Qedarites formed a powerful polity which expanded its ...

tribe among others.

Old Arabic Old Arabic is the name for the pre-Islamic Arabic language or dialect continuum. Various forms of Old Arabic are attested in many scripts like Safaitic, Hismaic, Nabatean, and even Greek. Classification Old Arabic and its descendants are class ...

diverges from

Central Semitic Central Semitic languages are one of the three groups of West Semitic languages, alongside Modern South Arabian languages and Ethiopian Semitic languages. Central Semitic can itself be further divided into two groups: Arabic and Northwest Semit ...

by the beginning of the 1st millennium BCE. NabateensRoutes

Medieval Arab genealogists divided Arabs into three groups: # "Ancient Arabs", tribes that had vanished or been destroyed, such as ʿĀd and Thamud, often mentioned in the Qur'an as examples of God's power to vanquish those who fought his prophets. # "Pure Arabs" of

South Arabia South Arabia () is a historical region that consists of the southern region of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia, mainly centered in what is now the Republic of Yemen, yet it has also historically included Najran, Jizan, Al-Bahah, and 'Asi ...

, descending from Qahtan. The Qahtanites (Qahtanis) are said to have migrated from the land of Yemen following the destruction of the

Ma'rib Dam The Marib Dam ( ar, سَدّ مَأْرِب ', or ar, سُدّ مَأْرِب ') is a modern dam blocking the ''Wadi'' or Valley of Adhanah (, also ''Dhanah'' ) in the Balaq Hills, located in the Ma'rib Governorate in Yemen. The current dam was ...

(''sadd Ma'rib''). # The "Arabized Arabs" (''mustaʿribah'') of Central Arabia (

Najd Najd ( ar, نَجْدٌ, ), or the Nejd, forms the geographic center of Saudi Arabia, accounting for about a third of the country's modern population and, since the Emirate of Diriyah, acting as the base for all unification campaigns by the H ...

) and North Arabia, descending from

the elder son of Abraham, through Adnan (hence, Adnanites). The Book of Genesis narrates that God promised Hagar to beget from Ishmael twelve princes and turn him to a great nation. The Book of Jubilees claims that the sons of

intermingled with the 6 sons of Keturah, from Abraham, and their descendants were called Arabs and Ishmaelites: Assyrian and Babylonian Royal Inscriptions and North Arabian inscriptions from 9th to 6th century BCE, mention the king of Qedar as king of the Arabs and King of the Ishmaelites. Of the names of the sons of Ishmael the names "Nabat, Kedar, Abdeel, Dumah, Massa, and Teman" were mentioned in the Assyrian Royal Inscriptions as tribes of the Ishmaelites. Jesur was mentioned in Greek inscriptions in the 1st century BCE. TCCKhaldun

Ibn Khaldun Ibn Khaldun (; ar, أبو زيد عبد الرحمن بن محمد بن خلدون الحضرمي, ; 27 May 1332 – 17 March 1406, 732-808 AH) was an Arab The Historical Muhammad', Irving M. Zeitlin, (Polity Press, 2007), p. 21; "It is, of ...

's ''

Muqaddima The ''Muqaddima'' ( ar, المُقَدِّمَة ''al-muqaddima,'' "The Introduction"), also known as the ''Muqaddima of Ibn Khaldun'' ( ar, مقدّمة ابن خلدون) or ''Ibn Khaldun's Prolegomena'' ( grc, Προλεγόμενα), is a b ...

'' distinguishes between sedentary Arab Muslims who used to be nomadic, and Bedouin nomadic Arabs of the desert. He used the term "formerly nomadic" Arabs and refers to sedentary Muslims by the region or city they lived in, as in Yemenis. The Christians of Italy and the Crusaders preferred the term

Saracens file:Erhard Reuwich Sarazenen 1486.png, upright 1.5, Late 15th-century Germany in the Middle Ages, German woodcut depicting Saracens Saracen ( ) was a term used in the early centuries, both in Greek language, Greek and Latin writings, to refer ...

for all the Arabs, Muslims. The Christians of Iberia used the term

Moor Moor or Moors may refer to: Nature and ecology * Moorland, a habitat characterized by low-growing vegetation and acidic soils. Ethnic and religious groups * Moors, Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, Iberian Peninsula, Sicily, and Malta during ...

to describe all the Arabs and Muslims of that time. Muslims of Medina referred to the nomadic tribes of the deserts as the A'raab, and considered themselves sedentary, but were aware of their close racial bonds. The term "A'raab" mirrors the term Assyrians used to describe the closely related nomads they defeated in Syria. The Qur'an does not use the word , only the nisba adjective . The Qur'an calls itself , "Arabic", and , "clear". The two qualities are connected for example in Quran 43:2-3, "By the ''clear'' Book: We have made it an ''Arabic'' recitation in order that you may understand". The Qur'an became regarded as the prime example of the , the language of the Arabs. The term '' ʾiʿrāb'' has the same root and refers to a particularly clear and correct mode of speech. The plural noun refers to the

tribes of the desert who resisted Muhammad, for example in '' at-Tawba'' 97, "the Bedouin are the worst in disbelief and hypocrisy". Based on this, in early Islamic terminology, referred to the language, and to the Arab Bedouins, carrying a negative connotation due to the Qur'anic verdict just cited. But after the

Islamic conquest The spread of Islam spans about 1,400 years. Muslim conquests following Muhammad's death led to the creation of the caliphates, occupying a vast geographical area; conversion to Islam was boosted by Arab Muslim forces conquering vast territories ...

of the eighth century, the language of the nomadic Arabs became regarded as the most pure by the grammarians following

Abi Ishaq ʿAbd-Allāh ibn Abī Isḥāq al-Ḥaḍramī (Arabic, عَبْدُ اللّهِ بْنُ أَبِي إِسْحَاقَ الْحَضْرَمِيُّ), (died AD 735 / AH 117)Kees Versteegh, ''Arabic Grammar and Qur'anic Exegesis in Early Islam' ...

, and the term , "language of the Arabs", denoted the uncontaminated language of the Bedouins.

Classical kingdoms

Al-Khazneh (The Treasury) 2, Petra, Jordan

Proto-Arabic, or

, texts give a clearer picture of the Arabs' emergence. The earliest are written in variants of

epigraphic Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the wr ...

south Arabian '' musnad'' script, including the 8th century BCE Hasaean inscriptions of eastern Saudi Arabia, the 6th century BCE

Lihyanite Lihyan ( ar, لحيان, ''Liḥyān''; Greek: Lechienoi), also called Dadān or Dedan was a powerful and highly organized ancient Arab kingdom that played a vital cultural and economic role in the north-western region of the Arabian Peninsula ...

texts of southeastern Saudi Arabia and the Thamudic texts found throughout the Arabian Peninsula and

Sinai Sinai commonly refers to: * Sinai Peninsula, Egypt * Mount Sinai, a mountain in the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt * Biblical Mount Sinai, the site in the Bible where Moses received the Law of God Sinai may also refer to: * Sinai, South Dakota, a place ...

(not in reality connected with Thamud). The Nabataeans were nomadic Arabs who moved into territory vacated by the Edomites – Semites who settled the region centuries before them. Their early inscriptions were in Aramaic, but gradually switched to Arabic, and since they had writing, it was they who made the first inscriptions in Arabic. The

Nabataean alphabet The Nabataean script is an abjad (consonantal alphabet) that was used to write Nabataean Aramaic and Nabataean Arabic from the second century BC onwards.Safaitic Safaitic ( ''Al-Ṣafāʾiyyah'') is a variety of the South Semitic scripts used by the nomads of the basalt desert of southern Syria and northern Jordan, the so-called Ḥarrah, to carve rock inscriptions in various dialects of Old Arabic and A ...

inscriptions (beginning in the 1st century BCE) and the many Arabic personal names in Nabataean inscriptions. From about the 2nd century BCE, a few inscriptions from Qaryat al-Faw reveal a dialect no longer considered ''proto-Arabic'', but ''pre-classical Arabic''. Five Syriac inscriptions mentioning Arabs have been found at Sumatar Harabesi, one of which dates to the 2nd century CE. Temple of Bel, Palmyra 15

Arabs arrived in the Palmyra in the late first millennium BCE. The soldiers of the

sheikh Sheikh (pronounced or ; ar, شيخ ' , mostly pronounced , plural ' )—also transliterated sheekh, sheyikh, shaykh, shayk, shekh, shaik and Shaikh, shak—is an honorific title in the Arabic language. It commonly designates a chief of a ...

Zabdibel, who aided the Seleucids in the battle of Raphia (217 BCE), were described as Arabs; Zabdibel and his men were not actually identified as Palmyrenes in the texts, but the name "Zabdibel" is a Palmyrene name leading to the conclusion that the sheikh hailed from Palmyra. Palmyra was conquered by the

after its 634 capture by the Arab general

Khalid ibn al-Walid Khalid ibn al-Walid ibn al-Mughira al-Makhzumi (; died 642) was a 7th-century Arab military commander. He initially headed campaigns against Muhammad on behalf of the Quraysh. He later became a Muslim and spent the remainder of his career in ...

, who took the city on his way to Damascus; an 18-day march by his army through the Syrian Desert from Mesopotamia. By then Palmyra was limited to the Diocletian camp. After the conquest, the city became part of Homs Province. Pergamon-Museum - Wandmalerei 3

Palmyra prospered as part of the Umayyad Caliphate, and its population grew. It was a key stop on the East-West trade route, with a large '' souq'' ( ar, سُـوق, market), built by the Umayyads, who also commissioned part of the Temple of Bel as a mosque. During this period, Palmyra was a stronghold of the Banu Kalb tribe. After being defeated by Marwan II during a civil war in the caliphate, Umayyad contender

Sulayman ibn Hisham Sulaymān ibn Hishām ibn ʿAbd al-Malik (; ) was an Arab general, the son of the Umayyad Caliph Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik (). He is known for his participation in the expeditions against the Byzantine Empire as well as his prominent role in the civ ...

fled to the Banu Kalb in Palmyra, but eventually pledged allegiance to Marwan in 744; Palmyra continued to oppose Marwan until the surrender of the Banu Kalb leader al-Abrash al-Kalbi in 745. That year, Marwan ordered the city's walls demolished. In 750 a revolt, led by Majza'a ibn al-Kawthar and Umayyad pretender

Abu Muhammad al-Sufyani Ziyād ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yazīd ibn Muʿāwiya ( ar, زياد بن عبد الله بن يزيد بن معاوية), commonly known as Abū Muḥammad al-Sufyānī ( ar, أبو محمد السفياني) was an Umayyad prince and a pretender t ...

, against the new Abbasid Caliphate swept across Syria; the tribes in Palmyra supported the rebels. After his defeat Abu Muhammad took refuge in the city, which withstood an Abbasid assault long enough to allow him to escape.

Late kingdoms

The

, Lakhmids and Kindites were the last major migration of pre-Islamic Arabs out of Yemen to the north. The Ghassanids increased the Semitic presence in then-Hellenized

, the majority of Semites were Aramaic peoples. They mainly settled in the

Hauran The Hauran ( ar, حَوْرَان, ''Ḥawrān''; also spelled ''Hawran'' or ''Houran'') is a region that spans parts of southern Syria and northern Jordan. It is bound in the north by the Ghouta oasis, eastwards by the al-Safa (Syria), al-Safa ...

region and spread to modern Lebanon,

Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...

and Jordan. Roman Empire 125 political map

Greeks and Romans referred to all the nomadic population of the desert in the Near East as Arabi. The Romans called Yemen " Arabia Felix". The Romans called the vassal nomadic states within the Roman Empire '' Arabia Petraea'', after the city of

, and called unconquered deserts bordering the empire to the south and east

Arabia Magna The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate ...

. The Emesene were a Roman client dynasty of Arab priest-kings known to have ruled from Emesa,

. Roman empress Julia Domna, matriarch of the Severan dynasty of Roman emperors, was one of their descendants. The Lakhmids as a dynasty inherited their power from the Tanukhids, the mid Tigris region around their capital Al-Hira. They ended up allying with the Sassanids against the Ghassanids and the Byzantine Empire. The Lakhmids contested control of the Central Arabian tribes with the Kindites with the Lakhmids eventually destroying the Kingdom of Kinda in 540 after the fall of their main ally Himyar. The Persian Sassanids dissolved the Lakhmid dynasty in 602, being under puppet kings, then under their direct control. The Kindites migrated from Yemen along with the Ghassanids and Lakhmids, but were turned back in Bahrain by the Abdul Qais Rabi'a tribe. They returned to Yemen and allied themselves with the Himyarites who installed them as a vassal kingdom that ruled Central Arabia from "Qaryah Dhat Kahl" (the present-day called Qaryat al-Faw). They ruled much of the Northern/Central Arabian peninsula, until they were destroyed by the Lakhmid king Al-Mundhir, and his son 'Amr.

Medieval period

Arab caliphates

=Rashidun era (632–661)

After the death of Muhammad in 632, Rashidun armies launched campaigns of conquest, establishing the Caliphate, or Islamic Empire, one of the

largest empires in history Several empires in human history have been contenders for the largest of all time, depending on definition and mode of measurement. Possible ways of measuring size include area, population, economy, and power. Of these, area is the most commonly ...

. It was larger and lasted longer than the previous Arab empire of Queen Mawia or the

Aramean The Arameans ( oar, 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀; arc, 𐡀𐡓𐡌𐡉𐡀; syc, ܐܪ̈ܡܝܐ, Ārāmāyē) were an ancient Semitic-speaking people in the Near East, first recorded in historical sources from the late 12th century BCE. The Aramean h ...

-Arab Palmyrene Empire. The Rashidun state was a completely new state and unlike the Arab kingdoms of its century such as the

Himyarite The Himyarite Kingdom ( ar, مملكة حِمْيَر, Mamlakat Ḥimyar, he, ממלכת חִמְיָר), or Himyar ( ar, حِمْيَر, ''Ḥimyar'', / 𐩹𐩧𐩺𐩵𐩬) ( fl. 110 BCE–520s CE), historically referred to as the Homerit ...

, Lakhmids or

=Umayyad era (661–750 & 756–1031)

Great Mosque of Kairouan Panorama - Grande Mosquée de Kairouan Panorama

In 661, the Rashidun Caliphate fell into the hands of the Umayyad dynasty and

Damascus )), is an adjective which means "spacious". , motto = , image_flag = Flag of Damascus.svg , image_seal = Emblem of Damascus.svg , seal_type = Seal , map_caption = , ...

was established as the empire's capital. The Umayyads were proud of their Arab identity and sponsored the poetry and culture of pre-Islamic Arabia. They established garrison towns at Ramla, Raqqa, Basra, Kufa, Mosul and

Samarra Samarra ( ar, سَامَرَّاء, ') is a city in Iraq. It stands on the east bank of the Tigris in the Saladin Governorate, north of Baghdad. The city of Samarra was founded by Abbasid Caliph Al-Mutasim for his Turkish professional army ...

, all of which developed into major cities. Caliph

Abd al-Malik Abdul Malik ( ar, عبد الملك) is an Arabic (Muslim or Christian) male given name and, in modern usage, surname. It is built from the Arabic words '' Abd'', ''al-'' and '' Malik''. The name means "servant of the King", in the Christian insta ...

established Arabic as the Caliphate's official language in 686. This reform greatly influenced the conquered non-Arab peoples and fueled the

of the region. However, the Arabs' higher status among non-Arab Muslim converts and the latter's obligation to pay heavy taxes caused resentment. Caliph

Umar II Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz ( ar, عمر بن عبد العزيز, ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz; 2 November 680 – ), commonly known as Umar II (), was the eighth Umayyad caliph. He made various significant contributions and reforms to the society, and ...

strove to resolve the conflict when he came to power in 717. He rectified the disparity, demanding that all Muslims be treated as equals, but his intended reforms did not take effect, as he died after only three years of rule. By now, discontent with the Umayyads swept the region and an uprising occurred in which the

Abbasids The Abbasid Caliphate ( or ; ar, الْخِلَافَةُ الْعَبَّاسِيَّة, ') was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abdul-Muttalib ...

came to power and moved the capital to Baghdad. Dome of the Rock III, Jerusalem

Umayyads expanded their Empire westwards capturing North Africa from the Byzantines. Before the Arab conquest, North Africa was conquered or settled by various people including

Punics The Punic people, or western Phoenicians, were a Semitic people in the Western Mediterranean who migrated from Tyre, Phoenicia to North Africa during the Early Iron Age. In modern scholarship, the term ''Punic'' – the Latin equivalent of the ...

, Vandals and Romans. After the Abbasid Revolution, the Umayyads lost most of their territories with the exception of Iberia. Their last holding became known as the Emirate of Córdoba. It wasn't until the rule of the grandson of the founder of this new emirate that the state entered a new phase as the Caliphate of Córdoba. This new state was characterized by an expansion of trade, culture and knowledge, and saw the construction of masterpieces of al-Andalus architecture and the library of

Al-Ḥakam II Al-Hakam II, also known as Abū al-ʿĀṣ al-Mustanṣir bi-Llāh al-Hakam b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān (; January 13, 915 – October 16, 976), was the Caliph of Córdoba. He was the second ''Umayyad'' Caliph of Córdoba in Al-Andalus, and son of Ab ...

which housed over 400,000 volumes. With the collapse of the Umayyad state in 1031 CE, Islamic Spain was divided into small kingdoms.

= Abbasid era (750–1258 & 1261–1517)

The Abbasids were the descendants of Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib, one of the youngest uncles of Muhammad and of the same

Banu Hashim ) , type = Qurayshi Arab clan , image = , alt = , caption = , nisba = al-Hashimi , location = Mecca, Hejaz Middle East, North Africa, Horn of Africa , descended = Hashim ibn Abd Manaf , parent_tribe = Qu ...

clan. The Abbasids led a revolt against the Umayyads and defeated them in the

Battle of the Zab The Battle of the Zab ( ar, معركة الزاب), also referred to in scholarly contexts as Battle of the Great Zāb River, took place on January 25, 750, on the banks of the Great Zab River in what is now the modern country of Iraq. It spel ...

effectively ending their rule in all parts of the Empire with the exception of al-Andalus. In 762, the second Abbasid Caliph al-Mansur founded the city of Baghdad and declared it the capital of the Caliphate. Unlike the Umayyads, the Abbasids had the support of non-Arab subjects. The Islamic Golden Age was inaugurated by the middle of the 8th century by the ascension of the Abbasid Caliphate and the transfer of the capital from

Damascus )), is an adjective which means "spacious". , motto = , image_flag = Flag of Damascus.svg , image_seal = Emblem of Damascus.svg , seal_type = Seal , map_caption = , ...

to the newly founded city of Baghdad. The Abbasids were influenced by the Qur'anic injunctions and hadith such as "The ink of the scholar is more holy than the blood of martyrs" stressing the value of knowledge. During this period the Muslim world became an intellectual centre for science, philosophy, medicine and education as the Abbasids championed the cause of knowledge and established the "

House of Wisdom The House of Wisdom ( ar, بيت الحكمة, Bayt al-Ḥikmah), also known as the Grand Library of Baghdad, refers to either a major Abbasid public academy and intellectual center in Baghdad or to a large private library belonging to the Abba ...

" () in Baghdad. Rival dynasties such as the Fatimids of Egypt and the Umayyads of al-Andalus were also major intellectual centres with cities such as Cairo and Córdoba rivaling Baghdad.Vartan Gregorian, "Islam: A Mosaic, Not a Monolith", Brookings Institution Press, 2003, pg 26–38 Harun-Charlemagne

The Abbasids ruled for 200 years before they lost their central control when Wilayas began to fracture in the 10th century; afterwards, in the 1190s, there was a revival of their power, which was ended by the Mongols, who conquered Baghdad in 1258 and killed the Caliph Al-Musta'sim. Members of the Abbasid royal family escaped the massacre and resorted to Cairo, which had broken from the Abbasid rule two years earlier; the Mamluk generals taking the political side of the kingdom while Abbasid Caliphs were engaged in civil activities and continued patronizing science, arts and literature.

=Fatimid Caliphate (909–1171)

A side view of the front gate of Al Azhar mosque

The Fatimid caliphate was founded by

al-Mahdi Billah Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh/ʿUbayd Allāh ibn al-Ḥusayn (), 873 – 4 March 934, better known by his regnal name al-Mahdi Billah, was the founder of the Isma'ili Fatimid Caliphate, the only major Shi'a caliphate in Islamic history, and the e ...

, a descendant of Fatimah, the daughter of Muhammad, in the early 10th century. Egypt was the political, cultural, and religious centre of the Fatimid empire. The Fatimid state took shape among the Kutama Berbers, in the West of the North African littoral, in Algeria, in 909 conquering Raqqada, the Aghlabid capital. In 921 the Fatimids established the Tunisian city of Mahdia as their new capital. In 948 they shifted their capital to Al-Mansuriya, near Kairouan in Tunisia, and in 969 they conquered Egypt and established Cairo as the capital of their caliphate. Intellectual life in Egypt during the Fatimid period achieved great progress and activity, due to many scholars who lived in or came to Egypt, as well as the number of books available. Fatimid Caliphs gave prominent positions to scholars in their courts, encouraged students, and established libraries in their palaces, so that scholars might expand their knowledge and reap benefits from the work of their predecessors.Shorter Shi'ite Encyclopaedia, By: Hasan al-Amin, The Fatimids were also known for their exquisite arts. Many traces of

Fatimid architecture The Fatimid architecture that developed in the Fatimid Caliphate (909–1167 CE) of North Africa combined elements of eastern and western architecture, drawing on Abbasid architecture, Byzantine, Egypt, Ancient Egyptian, Coptic architecture ...

exist in Cairo today; the most defining examples include Al-Hakim Mosque and the

Al-Azhar University , image = جامعة_الأزهر_بالقاهرة.jpg , image_size = 250 , caption = Al-Azhar University portal , motto = , established = *970/972 first foundat ...

It was not until the 11th century that the Maghreb saw a large influx of ethnic Arabs. Starting with the 11th century, the Arab bedouin Banu Hilal tribes migrated to the West. Having been sent by the

Fatimids The Fatimid Caliphate was an Isma'ilism, Ismaili Shia Islam, Shi'a caliphate extant from the tenth to the twelfth centuries AD. Spanning a large area of North Africa, it ranged from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Red Sea in the ea ...

to punish the Berber Zirids for abandoning Shias, they travelled westwards. The Banu Hilal quickly defeated the Zirids and deeply weakened the neighboring

Hammadid The Hammadid dynasty () was a branch of the Sanhaja Berber dynasty that ruled an area roughly corresponding to north-eastern modern Algeria between 1008 and 1152. The state reached its peak under Nasir ibn Alnas during which it was briefly the ...

s. According to some modern historians. their influx was a major factor in the arabization of the Maghreb. Although Berbers ruled the region until the 16th century (under such powerful dynasties as the

Almoravids The Almoravid dynasty ( ar, المرابطون, translit=Al-Murābiṭūn, lit=those from the ribats) was an imperial Berber Muslim dynasty centered in the territory of present-day Morocco. It established an empire in the 11th century that ...

, the

Almohads The Almohad Caliphate (; ar, خِلَافَةُ ٱلْمُوَحِّدِينَ or or from ar, ٱلْمُوَحِّدُونَ, translit=al-Muwaḥḥidūn, lit=those who profess the unity of God) was a North African Berber Muslim empire fo ...

, Hafsids, etc.), the arrival of these tribes eventually helped Arabize much of it ethnically, in addition to the linguistic and political impact on local non-Arabs.

Ottoman Empire

From 1517 to 1918, much of the Arab world was under the

suzerainty Suzerainty () is the rights and obligations of a person, state or other polity who controls the foreign policy and relations of a tributary state, while allowing the tributary state to have internal autonomy. While the subordinate party is cal ...

of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans defeated the Mamluk Sultanate in Cairo, and ended the Abbasid Caliphate. Arabs did not feel the change of administration because the Ottomans modeled their rule after the previous Arab administration systems. In 1911, Arab intellectuals and politicians from throughout the Levant formed al-Fatat ("the Young Arab Society"), a small Arab nationalist club, in Paris. Its stated aim was "raising the level of the Arab nation to the level of modern nations." In the first few years of its existence, al-Fatat called for greater autonomy within a unified Ottoman state rather than Arab independence from the empire. Al-Fatat hosted the

Arab Congress of 1913 The Arab Congress of 1913 (also known as the "Arab National Congress," "First Palestinian Conference," the "First Arab Congress," and the "Arab-Syrian Congress") met in a hall of the French Geographical Society (Société de Géographie) at 184 Bo ...

in Paris, the purpose of which was to discuss desired reforms with other dissenting individuals from the Arab world. However, as the Ottoman authorities cracked down on the organization's activities and members, al-Fatat went underground and demanded the complete independence and unity of the Arab provinces.Choueiri, pp.166–168. After World War I, when the Ottoman Empire was overthrown by the British Empire, former Ottoman colonies were divided up between the British and

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

League of Nations mandate A League of Nations mandate was a legal status for certain territories transferred from the control of one country to another following World War I, or the legal instruments that contained the internationally agreed-upon terms for administ ...

Modern period

Arabs in modern times live in the Arab world, which comprises 22 countries in Western Asia, North Africa, and parts of the

. They are all modern states and became significant as distinct political entities after the fall and defeat and dissolution of the Ottoman Empire (1908–1922).

Identity

Arab identity is defined independently of religious identity, and pre-dates the spread of Islam, with historically attested

Arab Christian Arab Christians ( ar, ﺍَﻟْﻤَﺴِﻴﺤِﻴُّﻮﻥ ﺍﻟْﻌَﺮَﺏ, translit=al-Masīḥīyyūn al-ʿArab) are ethnic Arabs, Arab nationals, or Arabic-speakers who adhere to Christianity. The number of Arab Christians who l ...

kingdoms and

Arab Jewish tribes The Jewish tribes of Arabia were ethnic groups professing the Judaism, Jewish faith that inhabited the Arabian Peninsula before and during the History of Islam, advent of Islam. In Islamic tradition, the Jewish tribes of the Hejaz were seen as th ...

. Today, however, most Arabs are Muslim, with a minority adhering to other faiths, largely Christianity, but also

and Baháʼí. Paternal descent has traditionally been considered the main source of affiliation in the Arab world when it comes to membership into an ethnic group or clan. NE 565ad-Lakhmid

Today, the main unifying characteristic among Arabs is Arabic, a Central Semitic language from the

Afroasiatic language family The Afroasiatic languages (or Afro-Asiatic), also known as Hamito-Semitic, or Semito-Hamitic, and sometimes also as Afrasian, Erythraean or Lisramic, are a language family of about 300 languages that are spoken predominantly in the geographic su ...

. Modern Standard Arabic serves as the standardized and

literary Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to ...

variety of Arabic used in writing. The Arabs are first mentioned in the mid-ninth century BCE as a tribal people dwelling in the central Arabian Peninsula subjugated by Upper Mesopotamia-based state of Assyria. The Arabs appear to have remained largely under the vassalage of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911–605 BCE), and then the succeeding Neo-Babylonian Empire (605–539 BCE), Persian

Achaemenid Empire The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire (; peo, 𐎧𐏁𐏂, , ), also called the First Persian Empire, was an ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. Based in Western Asia, it was contemporarily the largest em ...

(539–332 BCE), Greek

Macedonian Macedonian most often refers to someone or something from or related to Macedonia. Macedonian(s) may specifically refer to: People Modern * Macedonians (ethnic group), a nation and a South Slavic ethnic group primarily associated with North M ...

Seleucid Empire The Seleucid Empire (; grc, Βασιλεία τῶν Σελευκιδῶν, ''Basileía tōn Seleukidōn'') was a Greek state in West Asia that existed during the Hellenistic period from 312 BC to 63 BC. The Seleucid Empire was founded by the ...

and Parthian Empire. Arab tribes, most notably the

and Lakhmids begin to appear in the south Syrian deserts and southern Jordan from the mid 3rd century CE onwards, during the mid to later stages of the Roman Empire and

Sasanian Empire The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the History of Iran, last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th cen ...

. Also, before them the Nabataeans of Jordan and arguably the Emessans, Edessans, and Hatrans all appear to have been an Aramaic speaking ethnic Arabs who came to rule much of the pre-Islamic fertile crescent often as vassals of the two rival empires, the Sasanian (Persian) and the Byzantine (Eastern Roman). Thus, although a more limited diffusion of Arab culture and language was felt in some areas by these migrant minority Arabs in ''pre-Islamic'' times through Arabic-speaking Christian kingdoms and Jewish tribes, it was only after the

rise of Islam The spread of Islam spans about 1,400 years. Muslim conquests following Muhammad's death led to the creation of the caliphates, occupying a vast geographical area; conversion to Islam was boosted by Arab Muslim forces conquering vast territorie ...

in the mid-7th century that Arab culture, people and language began their wholesale spread from the central Arabian Peninsula (including the south Syrian desert) through conquest and trade.

Subgroups

Arabs in the narrow sense are the indigenous Arabians who trace their roots back to the tribes of Arabia and their immediate descendant groups in the Levant and North Africa. Within the people of the Arabian Peninsula, distinction is made between: * "Perishing Arabs" ( ar, الـعـرب الـبـائـدة), which are ancient tribes about whose history little is known. They include ʿĀd ( ar, عَـاد), Q54:21 Thamûd ( ar, ثَـمُـود), Q7:73-157 Tasm, Jadis, Imlaq and others. Jadis and Tasm perished because of genocide. 'Aad and Thamud perished because of their decadence, as recorded in the Qur'an. Archaeologists have recently uncovered inscriptions that contain references to ''Iram dhāṫ al-'Imād'' ( ar, إِرَم ذَات الـعِـمَـاد, Iram of the Pillars), which was a major city of the 'Aad. Imlaq is the singular form of 'Amaleeq and is probably synonymous to the biblical

Amalek Amalek (; he, עֲמָלֵק, , ar, عماليق ) was a nation described in the Hebrew Bible as a staunch enemy of the Israelites. The name "Amalek" can refer to the nation's founder, a grandson of Esau; his descendants, the Amalekites; or the ...

. * "Pure Arabs" ( ar, الـعـرب الـعـاربـة) or Qahtanites from Yemen, taken to be descended from Ya'rub ibn Yashjub ibn Qahtan and further from Hud. * "Arabized Arabs" ( ar, الـعـرب الـمـسـتـعـربـة) or Adnanites, taken to be the descendants of

son of Abraham. Arabians are most prevalent in the Arabian Peninsula, but are also found in large numbers in Mesopotamia (

Arab tribes in Iraq Many Arabs in Iraq identify strongly with a tribe (العشيرة ashira''). 30 of the 150 or so identifiable tribes of Iraq are the most influential. Tribes are grouped into federations (''qabila''). Below the tribe, there are the clan (ا� ...

), the Levant and Sinai (

Negev Bedouin The Negev Bedouin ( ar, بدو النقب, ''Badū an-Naqab''; he, הבדואים בנגב, ''HaBedu'im BaNegev'') are traditionally pastoral nomadic Arab people, Arab tribes (Bedouin), who until the later part of the 19th century would wande ...

, Tarabin bedouin), as well as the Maghreb (Eastern Libya, South Tunisia and South Algeria) and the Sudan region. This traditional division of the Arabs of Arabia may have arisen at the time of the

First Fitna The First Fitna ( ar, فتنة مقتل عثمان, fitnat maqtal ʻUthmān, strife/sedition of the killing of Uthman) was the first civil war in the Islamic community. It led to the overthrow of the Rashidun Caliphate and the establishment of ...

. Of the Arabian tribes that interacted with Muhammad, the most prominent was the

Quraysh The Quraysh ( ar, قُرَيْشٌ) were a grouping of Arab clans that historically inhabited and controlled the city of Mecca and its Kaaba. The Islamic prophet Muhammad was born into the Hashim clan of the tribe. Despite this, many of the Qur ...

. The Quraysh subclan, the

, was the clan of Muhammad. During the early Muslim conquests and the Islamic Golden Age, the political rulers of Islam were exclusively members of the Quraysh. The Arab presence in Iran did not begin with the Arab conquest of Persia in 633 CE. For centuries, Iranian rulers had maintained contacts with Arabs outside their borders, dealt with Arab subjects and client states (such as those of Iraq and Yemen), and settled Arab tribesmen in various parts of the Iranian plateau. It follows that the "Arab" conquests and settlements were by no means the exclusive work of Arabs from the

Hejaz The Hejaz (, also ; ar, ٱلْحِجَاز, al-Ḥijāz, lit=the Barrier, ) is a region in the west of Saudi Arabia. It includes the cities of Mecca, Medina, Jeddah, Tabuk, Yanbu, Taif, and Baljurashi. It is also known as the "Western Provin ...

and the tribesmen of inner Arabia. The Arab infiltration into Iran began before the Muslim conquests and continued as a result of the joint exertions of the civilized Arabs (ahl al-madar) as well as the desert Arabs (ahl al-wabar). The largest group of Iranian Arabs are the

Ahwazi Arabs Khuzestani Arabs () are the largest Arab community in Iran which primarily reside in the western half of the Khuzestan province. This area is known as Ahwaz by the Arab community, and the capital of Khuzestan is Ahvaz. As of 2010, Khuzestani Arab ...

, including

Banu Ka'b The Banu Ka'b ( ar, بنو كعب) are a nomadic Arab tribe which originated in the Najd region of the Arabian Peninsula, and inhabit Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, and Iran (Khuzestan). They often raided, then settled various areas of southern and c ...

Bani Turuf The Bani Torof or Turuf tribe lives in Ahwaz, in the south west of Iran and near the Iraqi border. They are part of Tayy tribe and are a Qahtanite The terms Qahtanite and Qahtani ( ar, قَحْطَانِي; Arabic transliteration, transliterat ...

and the

Musha'sha'iyyah The Musha'sha' (also spelled Mosha'sha'; ar, المشعشعية) were a Shi'i Arab dynasty based in the town of Hoveyzeh in Khuzestan, ruling from 1435 to 1924. Initially starting out as a tribal confederation, they gradually transformed into a ...

sect. Smaller groups are the Khamseh nomads in Fars Province and the

Arabs in Khorasan Khorasani Arabs are Iranian Arabs who are descended from the Arabs who immigrated to the Khorasan area of Iran during the Abbasid Caliphate (750−1258). Unlike the Arabs of Iran's Khuzestan Province in the southwestern part of the country, who ...

The Arabs of the Levant are traditionally divided into Qays and Yaman tribes. This tribal division is likewise taken to date to the Umayyad period. The Yemen trace their origin to South Arabia or Yemen; they include Banu Kalb,

Kinda Kinda or Kindah may refer to: Politics and society *Kinda (tribe), an ancient and medieval Arab tribe *Kingdom of Kinda, a tribal kingdom in north and central Arabia in – Places * Kinda, Idlib, Syria * Kinda Hundred, a hundred in Sweden * Kinda ...

, and Lakhmids. Since the 1834 Peasants' revolt in Palestine, the Arabic-speaking population of Palestine has shed its formerly tribal structure and emerged as the

Palestinians Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...

. Native Jordanians are either descended from

s (of which, 6% live a nomadic lifestyle),Lowi, Miriam R., ''Water and power: the politics of a scarce resource in the Jordan River basin'', Cambridge University Press, 1995, p.36 or from the many deeply rooted non bedouin communities across the country, most notably Al-Salt city west of

Amman Amman (; ar, عَمَّان, ' ; Ammonite language, Ammonite: 𐤓𐤁𐤕 𐤏𐤌𐤍 ''Rabat ʻAmān'') is the capital and largest city of Jordan, and the country's economic, political, and cultural center. With a population of 4,061,150 a ...

which was at the time of Emirate the largest urban settlement east of the

Jordan River The Jordan River or River Jordan ( ar, نَهْر الْأُرْدُنّ, ''Nahr al-ʾUrdunn'', he, נְהַר הַיַּרְדֵּן, ''Nəhar hayYardēn''; syc, ܢܗܪܐ ܕܝܘܪܕܢܢ ''Nahrāʾ Yurdnan''), also known as ''Nahr Al-Shariea ...

. Along with indigenous communities in Al Husn, Aqaba,

Irbid Irbid ( ar, إِربِد), known in ancient times as Arabella or Arbela (Άρβηλα in Ancient Greek language, Ancient Greek), is the capital and largest city of the Irbid Governorate. It also has the second largest metropolitan population in ...

Al Karak Al-Karak ( ar, الكرك), is a city in Jordan known for its medieval castle, the Kerak Castle. The castle is one of the three largest castles in the region, the other two being in Syria. Al-Karak is the capital city of the Karak Governorate. ...

, Madaba, Jerash,

Ajloun Ajloun ( ar, عجلون, ''‘Ajlūn''), also spelled Ajlun, is the capital town of the Ajloun Governorate, a hilly town in the north of Jordan, located 76 kilometers (around 47 miles) north west of Amman. It is noted for its impressive ruins of t ...

Fuheis Fuheis ( ar, الفحيص) is a Christian majority town in the central Jordanian governorate of Balqa. It lies in Wadi Shueib between Salt and Amman, at a distance of 6 and 13 kilometers respectively. It has an elevation between 740-1050 meter ...

and Pella. In Jordan, there is no official census data for how many inhabitants have Palestinian roots but they are estimated to constitute half of the population, which in 2008 amounted to about 3 million. Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics put their number at 3.24 million in 2009. The Old Bedouin, aged over 112 years, and his Wife

The Old Bedouin, aged over 112 years, and his Wife

The Bedouins of western Egypt and eastern Libya are traditionally divided into

Saʿada and Murabtin The Saʿada (singular Saʿdawi) and Murabtin (singular Murabit) form a twofold social division within the Bedouins of western Egypt and eastern Libya. In modern times, the term ''Murabit'' contrasts with ''Saʿdawi'' and marks a division of soci ...

, the Saʿada having higher social status. This may derive from a historical feudal system in which the Murabtin were vassals to the Saʿada. In

, there are numerous Arabic-speaking tribes, including the Shaigya, Ja'alin and Shukria, who are ancestrally related to the Nubians. These groups are collectively known as Sudanese Arabs. In addition, there are other Afroasiatic-speaking populations, such as

and Beja. Chief of Mascara

The medieval

trans-Saharan slave trade During the Trans-Saharan slave trade, slaves were transported across the Sahara desert. Most were moved from Sub-Saharan Africa to North Africa to be sold to Mediterranean and Middle eastern civilizations; a small percentage went the other ...

in the Sudan drove a wedge between the Arabized Sudanese and the non-Arabized Nilotic Sudanese populations. It has contributed to ethnic conflict in the region, such as the Sudanese conflict in South Kordofan and Blue Nile,

Northern Mali conflict {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Mali War , partof = the Islamist insurgency in the Sahel and the War on terror , image = MaliWar.svg , image_size = 380 , caption = Military situation ...

, or the

Boko Haram insurgency The Boko Haram insurgency began in July 2009, when the militant Islamist and jihadist rebel group Boko Haram started an armed rebellion against the government of Nigeria. The conflict is taking place within the context of long-standing iss ...

. The Arabs of the Maghreb are descendants of Arabian tribes of Banu Hilal, the

Banu Sulaym The Banu Sulaym ( ar, بنو سليم) is an Arab tribe that dominated part of the Hejaz in the pre-Islamic era. They maintained close ties with the Quraysh of Mecca and the inhabitants of Medina, and fought in a number of battles against the Is ...

and the Maqil native of Middle East and of other tribes native to Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Iraq. Arabs and Arabic-speakers inhabit plains and cities. The Banu Hilal spent almost a century in Egypt before moving to Libya, Tunisia and Algeria, and another century later some moved to Morocco, it is logical to think that they are mixed with inhabitants of Egypt and with Libya.

Demographics

The total number of Arabic speakers living in the Arab nations is estimated at 366 million by the CIA Factbook (as of 2014). The estimated number of Arabs in countries outside the Arab League is estimated at 17.5 million, yielding a total of close to 384 million.

Arab world

According to the

(also known as the ''Pact of the League of Arab States''), the League of Arab States is composed of independent Arab states that are signatories to the Charter. Detailed Afroasiatic map

Although all Arab states have Arabic as an official language, there are many non-Arabic-speaking populations native to the Arab world. Among these are

Berbers , image = File:Berber_flag.svg , caption = The Berber ethnic flag , population = 36 million , region1 = Morocco , pop1 = 14 million to 18 million , region2 = Algeria , pop2 ...

, Toubou, Nubians, Jews,

, Armenians, Kurds. Additionally, many Arab countries in the Persian Gulf have sizable non-Arab immigrant populations (10–70%). Iraq, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Oman have a Persian speaking minority. The same countries also have Hindi-Urdu speakers and Filipinos as sizable minority.

Balochi Balochi, sometimes spelt in various other ways, may refer to: * Balochi language, a language of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan * an adjective for something related to the Baloch people, an ethnic group of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan * an adjecti ...

speakers are a good size minority in Oman. Additionally, countries like Bahrain, UAE, Oman and Kuwait have significant non-Arab and non-Muslim minorities (10–20%) like Hindus and Christians from South Asia and the Philippines. The table below shows the distribution of populations in the Arab world, as well as the official language(s) within the various Arab states.

Arab diaspora

Arab diaspora refers to descendants of the Arab immigrants who, voluntarily or as refugees, emigrated from their native lands in non-Arab countries, primarily in

East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territories make up Eastern Africa: Due to the historical ...

, South America, Europe,

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

and parts of South Asia, Southeast Asia, the

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

, and West Africa. According to the International Organization for Migration, there are 13 million first-generation Arab migrants in the world, of which 5.8 million reside in Arab countries. Arab expatriates contribute to the circulation of financial and human capital in the region and thus significantly promote regional development. In 2009, Arab countries received a total of 35.1 billion USD in

remittance A remittance is a non-commercial transfer of money by a foreign worker, a member of a diaspora community, or a citizen with familial ties abroad, for household income in their home country or homeland. Money sent home by migrants competes wit ...

in-flows and remittances sent to Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon from other Arab countries are 40 to 190 per cent higher than trade revenues between these and other Arab countries. The 250,000 strong Lebanese community in West Africa is the largest non-African group in the region. Arab traders have long operated in Southeast Asia and along the

's Swahili coast. Zanzibar was once ruled by Omani Arabs. Most of the prominent

Indonesians Indonesians (Indonesian: ''orang Indonesia'') are citizens or people originally from Indonesia, regardless of their ethnic or religious background. There are more than 1,300 ethnicities in Indonesia, making it a multicultural archipelagic coun ...

, Malaysians, and Singaporeans of Arab descent are Hadhrami people with origins in southern Arabia in the Hadramawt coastal region. Amel bent

There are millions of Arabs living in Europe, mostly concentrated in France (about 6,000,000 in 2005). Most Arabs in France are from the Maghreb but some also come from the Mashreq areas of the Arab world. Arabs in France form the second largest

after ethnically French people.France's ethnic minorities: To count or not to count
The Economist (26 March 2009). Retrieved on 12 July 2013. In Italy, Arabs first arrived on the southern island of Sicily in the 9th century. The largest modern societies on the island from the Arab world are Tunisians and Moroccans, who make up 10.9% and 8% respectively of the foreign population of Sicily, which in itself constitutes 3.9% of the island's total population. The modern Arab population of Spain numbers 1,800,000, and there have been Arabs in Spain since the early 8th century when the Umayyad conquest of Hispania created the state of Al-Andalus. In Germany the Arab population numbers over 1,000,000, in the United Kingdom between 366,769 and 500,000, and in Greece between 250,000 and 750,000). In addition, Greece is home to people from Arab countries who have the status of refugees (e.g. refugees of the Syrian civil war). In the Netherlands 180,000, and in Denmark 121,000. Other European countries are also home to Arab populations, including Norway, Austria, Bulgaria,

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

, North Macedonia, Romania and Serbia. As of late 2015, Turkey had a total population of 78.7 million, with Syrian refugees accounting for 3.1% of that figure based on conservative estimates. Demographics indicated that the country previously had 1,500,000 to 2,000,000 Arab residents, so Turkey's Arab population is now 4.5 to 5.1% of the total population, or approximately 4–5 million people. Arab American National Museum

Arab immigration to the United States began in sizable numbers during the 1880s. Today, it is estimated that nearly 3.7 million Americans trace their roots to an

Arab country The Arab world ( ar, اَلْعَالَمُ الْعَرَبِيُّ '), formally the Arab homeland ( '), also known as the Arab nation ( '), the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, refers to a vast group of countries, mainly located in Western As ...

. Arab Americans are found in every state, but more than two thirds of them live in just ten states: California, Michigan,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, Florida, Texas, New Jersey, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Metropolitan Los Angeles, Detroit, and New York City are home to one-third of the population. Contrary to popular assumptions or stereotypes, the majority of Arab Americans are native-born, and nearly 82% of Arabs in the U.S. are citizens. Arab American Population Highlights Arab American Institute Foundation Arabs immigrants began to arrive in Canada in small numbers in 1882. Their immigration was relatively limited until 1945, after which time it increased progressively, particularly in the 1960s and thereafter. According to the website "Who are Arab Canadians," Montreal, the Canadian city with the largest Arab population, has approximately 267,000 Arab inhabitants. Latin America has the largest Arab population outside of the Arab World. Latin America is home to anywhere from 17–25 to 30 million people of Arab descent, which is more than any other

diaspora A diaspora ( ) is a population that is scattered across regions which are separate from its geographic place of origin. Historically, the word was used first in reference to the dispersion of Greeks in the Hellenic world, and later Jews after ...

region in the world. The Brazilian and Lebanese governments claim there are 7 million Brazilians of Lebanese descent. Also, the Brazilian government claims there are 4 million Brazilians of Syrian descent. According to research conducted by

IBGE The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics ( pt, Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística; IBGE) is the agency responsible for official collection of statistical, geographic, cartographic, geodetic and environmental information ...

in 2008, covering only the states of Amazonas,

Paraíba Paraíba ( Tupi: ''pa'ra a'íba''; ) is a state of Brazil. It is located in the Brazilian Northeast, and it is bordered by Rio Grande do Norte to the north, Ceará to the west, Pernambuco to the south and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Paraíba ...

, São Paulo,

Rio Grande do Sul Rio Grande do Sul (, , ; "Great River of the South") is a Federative units of Brazil, state in the South Region, Brazil, southern region of Brazil. It is the Federative_units_of_Brazil#List, fifth-most-populous state and the List of Brazilian st ...

Mato Grosso Mato Grosso ( – lit. "Thick Bush") is one of the states of Brazil, the third largest by area, located in the Central-West region. The state has 1.66% of the Brazilian population and is responsible for 1.9% of the Brazilian GDP. Neighboring ...

and Distrito Federal, 0.9% of

white Brazilian White Brazilians ( pt, brasileiros brancos ) refers to Brazilian citizens who are considered or self-identify as "white", typically because of European or Levantine descent. The main ancestry of current white Brazilians is Portuguese. Histori ...

respondents said they had family origins in the Middle East. Other large Arab communities includes Argentina (about 4,500,000) The interethnic marriage in the Arab community, regardless of religious affiliation, is very high; most community members have only one parent who has Arab ethnicity.

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

(over 3,200,000), Venezuela (over 1,600,000), Mexico (over 1,100,000), Chile (over 800,000), and Central America, particularly

El Salvador El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south b ...

, and

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...

(between 150,000 and 200,000). is the fourth largest in the world after those in Israel, Lebanon, and Jordan.

Arab Haitians Arab Haitians are Haitian citizens of Arab descent. In Haiti, there are a sizable number of Haitians that are either of Middle-Eastern Arab ancestry or who trace their origins to Arab descendants. Hadrami and Levantine Arabic ancestry can be fo ...

(a large number of whom live in the

capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...

) are more often than not, concentrated in financial areas where the majority of them establish businesses. Caucasus 1060 map en

In 1728, a Russian officer described a group of Arab nomads who populated the

Caspian Caspian can refer to: *The Caspian Sea *The Caspian Depression, surrounding the northern part of the Caspian Sea *The Caspians, the ancient people living near the Caspian Sea *Caspian languages, collection of languages and dialects of Caspian peopl ...

shores of Mughan (in present-day Azerbaijan) and spoke a mixed Turkic-Arabic language.Genko, A. ''The Arabic Language and Caucasian Studies''. USSR Academy of Sciences Publ. Moscow-Leningrad. 8–109 It is believed that these groups migrated to the South Caucasus in the 16th century.Zelkina, Anna
Arabic as a Minority Language
Walter de Gruyter, 2000; p. 101 The 1888 edition of Encyclopædia Britannica also mentioned a certain number of Arabs populating the

Baku Governorate The Baku Governorate, known before 1859 as the Shemakha Governorate, was a province ('' guberniya'') of the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire, with its center in the booming metropolis and Caspian Sea port of Baku. Area (1897): 34,400 sq ...

of the Russian Empire.Baynes, Thomas Spencer (ed). "Transcaucasia." Encyclopædia Britannica. 1888. p. 514 They retained an

Arabic dialect The varieties (or dialects or vernacular languages) of Arabic, a Semitic language within the Afroasiatic family originating in the Arabian Peninsula, are the linguistic systems that Arabic speakers speak natively. There are considerable variatio ...

at least into the mid-19th century,Golestan-i Iram
by Abbasgulu Bakikhanov. Translated by Ziya Bunyadov. Baku: 1991, p. 21 there are nearly 30 settlements still holding the name ''Arab'' (for example, Arabgadim, Arabojaghy, Arab-Yengija, etc.). From the time of the Arab conquest of the South Caucasus, continuous small-scale Arab migration from various parts of the Arab world occurred in

Dagestan Dagestan ( ; rus, Дагеста́н, , dəɡʲɪˈstan, links=yes), officially the Republic of Dagestan (russian: Респу́блика Дагеста́н, Respúblika Dagestán, links=no), is a republic of Russia situated in the North C ...

. The majority of these lived in the village of Darvag, to the north-west of Derbent. The latest of these accounts dates to the 1930s. Most Arab communities in southern Dagestan underwent linguistic Turkicisation, thus nowadays Darvag is a majority-

Azeri Azerbaijanis (; az, Azərbaycanlılar, ), Azeris ( az, Azərilər, ), or Azerbaijani Turks ( az, Azərbaycan Türkləri, ) are a Turkic peoples, Turkic people living mainly in Azerbaijan (Iran), northwestern Iran and the Azerbaijan, Republi ...

village.Seferbekov, Ruslan
Characters Персонажи традиционных религиозных представлений азербайджанцев Табасарана.
Stephen Adolphe Wurm et al
Atlas of languages of intercultural communication
Walter de Gruyter, 1996; p. 966 According to the ''History of Ibn Khaldun'', the Arabs that were once in Central Asia have been either killed or have fled the Tatar invasion of the region, leaving only the locals.History of Ibn Khaldun However, today many people in Central Asia identify as Arabs. Most Arabs of Central Asia are fully integrated into local populations, and sometimes call themselves the same as locals (for example, Tajiks, Uzbeks) but they use special titles to show their Arab origin such as Sayyid, Khoja or Siddiqui.Arabic As a Minority Language By Jonathan Owens, pg. 184 Ketchimalai Mosque- Beruwala, Sri Lanka

There are only two communities in India which self-identify as Arabs, the

Chaush The Chaush or Chaus are MuslimMediaeval Deccan History, eds Kulkarni, M A Naeem and de Souza, Popular Prakashan, Bombay, 1996, pg 63, https://books.google.com/books?id=O_WNqSH4ByQC&lpg=PA52&pg=PA63#v=onepage&q&f=false community of Hadhrami Arab ...

of the Deccan region and the Chavuse of Gujarat. These groups are largely descended from Hadhrami migrants who settled in these two regions in the 18th century. However, neither community still speaks Arabic, although the Chaush have seen re-immigration to Eastern Arabia and thus a re-adoption of Arabic. In South Asia, where Arab ancestry is considered prestigious, many communities have origin myths that claim Arab ancestry. Several communities following the Shafi'i madhab (in contrast to other

South Asian Muslims Islam is the second-largest religion in South Asia, with more than 600 million Muslims living there, forming about one-third of the region's population. History of Islam in South Asia started along the coastal regions of the Indian subcontinent a ...

who follow the Hanafi madhab) claim descent from Arab traders like the Konkani Muslims of the

Konkan region The Konkan ( kok, कोंकण) or Kokan () is a stretch of land by the western coast of India, running from Damaon in the north to Karwar in the south; with the Arabian Sea to the west and the Deccan plateau in the east. The hinterland ...

, the Mappilla of Kerala, and the Labbai and Marakkar of Tamil Nadu and a few Christian groups in India that claim and have Arab roots are situated in the state of Kerala. South Asian

Iraqi biradri Iraqi Biradri is a Sunni Muslim caste found chiefly in Ghazipur, Azamgarh, Ballia, Deoria and Gorakhpur districts of the eastern Uttar Pradesh in India. Iraqi Biradri is also referred to as Iraqi Shaikh. History and origin Iraqi biradri is a desc ...

may have records of their ancestors who migrated from Iraq in historical documents. The

Sri Lankan Moors Sri Lankan Moors ( ta, இலங்கைச் சோனகர், translit=Ilaṅkaic Cōṉakar; si, ලංකා යෝනක, translit=Lanka Yonaka; formerly Ceylon Moors; colloquially referred to as Sri Lankan Muslims) are an ethnic minorit ...

are the third largest ethnic group in

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

, constituting 9.23% of the country's total population. Some sources trace the ancestry of the Sri Lankan Moors to Arab traders who settled in Sri Lanka at some time between the 8th and 15th centuries. There are about 5,000,000 Native Indonesians with Arab ancestry. Arab Indonesians are mainly of Hadrami descent. Baggara_Arabs_Belt

Afro-Arabs Afro-Arabs are Arabs of full or partial Black African descent. These include populations within mainly the Sudanese, Emiratis, Yemenis, Saudis, Omanis, Sahrawis, Mauritanians, Algerians, Egyptians and Moroccans, with considerably long estab ...

are individuals and groups from Africa who are of partial Arab descent. Most Afro-Arabs inhabit the Swahili Coast in the African Great Lakes region, although some can also be found in parts of the Arab world. Large numbers of Arabs migrated to West Africa, particularly

Côte d'Ivoire Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, in the centre of the country, while its largest city and economic centre is ...

(home to over 100,000 Lebanese), Senegal (roughly 30,000 Lebanese), Sierra Leone (roughly 10,000 Lebanese today; about 30,000 prior to the outbreak of civil war in 1991),

Liberia Liberia (), officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to its north, Ivory Coast to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean ...

, and Nigeria. Since the end of the civil war in 2002, Lebanese traders have become re-established in Sierra Leone. The Arabs of Chad occupy northern Cameroon and Nigeria (where they are sometimes known as Shuwa), and extend as a belt across Chad and into Sudan, where they are called the Baggara grouping of Arab ethnic groups inhabiting the portion of Africa's

Sahel The Sahel (; ar, ساحل ' , "coast, shore") is a region in North Africa. It is defined as the ecoclimatic and biogeographic realm of transition between the Sahara to the north and the Sudanian savanna to the south. Having a hot semi-arid c ...

. There are 171,000 in Cameroon, 150,000 in Niger), and 107,000 in the Central African Republic.

Religion

Nemesis Allat and dedicater-MBA Lyon-IMG 0557

Arabs are mostly Muslims with a

majority and a Shia minority, one exception being the Ibadis, who predominate in Oman.See, for example: * *

generally follow Eastern Churches such as the Greek Orthodox and Greek Catholic churches, though a minority of Protestant Church followers also exists. There are also Arab communities consisting of

and Baháʼís. Before the coming of Islam, most Arabs followed a pagan religion with a number of deities, including Hubal, Wadd,

Allāt Al-Lat ( ar, اللات, translit=Al-Lāt, ), also spelled Allat, Allatu and Alilat, is a pre-Islamic Arabian goddess worshipped under various associations throughout the entire Arabian Peninsula, including Mecca where she was worshipped alongs ...

, Manat, and

Uzza ''Uzza'' is a monotypic genus of seed bugs in the tribe Drymini, erected by William Lucas Distant William Lucas Distant (12 November 1845 Rotherhithe – 4 February 1922 Wanstead) was an English entomologist. Biography Early years Distant ...

. A few individuals, the ''

s'', had apparently rejected polytheism in favor of monotheism unaffiliated with any particular religion. Some tribes had converted to Christianity or Judaism. The most prominent Arab Christian kingdoms were the

Ghassanid The Ghassanids ( ar, الغساسنة, translit=al-Ġasāsina, also Banu Ghassān (, romanized as: ), also called the Jafnids, were an Arab tribe which founded a kingdom. They emigrated from southern Arabia in the early 3rd century to the Levan ...

and

Lakhmid The Lakhmids ( ar, اللخميون, translit=al-Laḫmiyyūn) referred to in Arabic as al-Manādhirah (, romanized as: ) or Banu Lakhm (, romanized as: ) was an Arabs, Arab kingdom in Sawad , Southern Iraq and Eastern Arabia, with al-Hirah as ...

kingdoms. When the

king converted to Judaism in the late 4th century, the elites of the other prominent Arab kingdom, the Kindites, being Himyirite vassals, apparently also converted (at least partly). With the expansion of Islam, polytheistic Arabs were rapidly Islamized, and polytheistic traditions gradually disappeared. Kaaba at night

Today, Sunni Islam dominates in most areas, vastly so in North Africa and the Horn of Africa. Shia Islam is dominant among the Arab population in Bahrain and southern Iraq while northern Iraq is mostly Sunni. Substantial Shia populations exist in Lebanon, Yemen, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, northern

and Al-Batinah Region in Oman. There are small numbers of Ibadi and non-denominational Muslims too. The

community is concentrated in Lebanon, Syria, Israel and Jordan. Many

claim independence from other major religions in the area and consider their religion more of a philosophy. Their books of worship are called

Kitab Al Hikma The Epistles of Wisdom or ''Rasa'il al-Hikmah'' ( ar, رَسَائِل ٱلْحِكْمَة) is a corpus of sacred texts and pastoral letters by teachers of the Druze faith native to the Levant, which has currently close to a million practition ...

(Epistles of Wisdom). They believe in reincarnation and pray to five messengers from God. In Israel, the Druze have a ''status aparte'' from the general Arab population, treated as a separate ethno-religious community. Orthodox church in Amman1

Christianity had a prominent presence In pre-Islamic Arabia among several Arab communities, including the Bahrani people of Eastern Arabia, the

Christian community of Najran The existence of a Christian community in the city of Najran is attested by several historical sources of the Arabian peninsula, where it recorded as having been created in the 5th century AD or perhaps a century earlier. According to the Arab Musl ...

, in parts of Yemen, and among certain northern Arabian tribes such as the

, Lakhmids, Taghlib, Banu Amela,

Banu Judham The Judham ( ar, بنو جذام, ') was an Arab tribe that inhabited the southern Levant and northwestern Arabia during the Byzantine and early Islamic eras (5th–8th centuries). Under the Byzantines, the tribe was nominally Christian and fough ...

, Tanukhids and Tayy. In the early Christian centuries, Arabia was sometimes known as ''Arabia heretica'', due to its being "well known as a breeding-ground for heterodox interpretations of Christianity." Christians make up 5.5% of the population of Western Asia and North Africa. A sizeable share of those are Arab Christians proper, and affiliated Arabic-speaking populations of Copts and Maronites. In Lebanon, Christians number about 40.5% of the population. In Syria, Christians make up 10% of the population. In West Bank and in

Gaza Strip The Gaza Strip (;The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p.761 "Gaza Strip /'gɑːzə/ a strip of territory under the control of the Palestinian National Authority and Hamas, on the SE Mediterranean coast including the town of Gaza.. ...

, Christians make up 8% and 0.7% of the populations, respectively. In Egypt, Coptic Christians number about 10% of the population. In Iraq, Christians constitute 0.1% of the population. In Israel, Arab Christians constitute 2.1% (roughly 9% of the Arab population). Arab Christians make up 8% of the population of Jordan. Most North and South American Arabs are Christian, so are about half of the Arabs in

who come particularly from Lebanon, Syria and Palestine. One well known member of this religious and ethnic community is Saint Abo, martyr and the patron saint of Tbilisi, Georgia. Arab Christians also live in holy Christian cities such as

Nazareth Nazareth ( ; ar, النَّاصِرَة, ''an-Nāṣira''; he, נָצְרַת, ''Nāṣəraṯ''; arc, ܢܨܪܬ, ''Naṣrath'') is the largest city in the Northern District of Israel. Nazareth is known as "the Arab capital of Israel". In ...

, Bethlehem and the Christian Quarter of the

Old City of Jerusalem The Old City of Jerusalem ( he, הָעִיר הָעַתִּיקָה, translit=ha-ir ha-atiqah; ar, البلدة القديمة, translit=al-Balda al-Qadimah; ) is a walled area in East Jerusalem. The Old City is traditionally divided into ...

and many other villages with holy Christian sites.

Culture

Arab culture is the culture of the Arabs, from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the east, and from the Mediterranean Sea in the north to the Horn of Africa and the Indian Ocean in the southeast. The various religions the Arabs have adopted throughout their history and the various empires and kingdoms that have ruled and took lead of the Arabian civilization have contributed to the ethnogenesis and formation of modern Arab culture. Language, literature, gastronomy, art, architecture, music,

spirituality The meaning of ''spirituality'' has developed and expanded over time, and various meanings can be found alongside each other. Traditionally, spirituality referred to a religious process of re-formation which "aims to recover the original shape o ...

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

and mysticism are all part of the cultural heritage of the Arabs. Arabs share basic beliefs and values that cross national and

social class A social class is a grouping of people into a set of Dominance hierarchy, hierarchical social categories, the most common being the Upper class, upper, Middle class, middle and Working class, lower classes. Membership in a social class can for ...

boundaries. Social attitudes have remained constant because Arab society is more conservative and demands conformity from its members.

Language

Another important and unifying characteristic of Arabs is a common language. Arabic is a Semitic language of the

Afro-Asiatic Family The Afroasiatic languages (or Afro-Asiatic), also known as Hamito-Semitic, or Semito-Hamitic, and sometimes also as Afrasian, Erythraean or Lisramic, are a language family of about 300 languages that are spoken predominantly in the geographic su ...

. Evidence of its first use appears in accounts of wars in 853 BCE. It also became widely used in trade and commerce. Arabic also is a liturgical language of 1.7 billion Muslims. Arabic is one of six official languages of the United Nations. It is revered as the language that God chose to reveal the Quran. Arabic has developed into at least two distinct forms.

is the form of the Arabic language used in literary texts from Umayyad and Abbasid times (7th to 9th centuries). It is based on the medieval dialects of

Arab tribes The Tribes of Arabia () or Arab tribes () are the ethnic Arab tribes and clans that originated in the Arabian Peninsula. The tribes of Arabia descend from either one of the two Arab ancestors, Adnan or Qahtan. Arab tribes have historically inhabit ...

. Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) is the direct descendant used today throughout the Arab world in writing and in formal speaking, for example, prepared speeches, some radio broadcasts, and non-entertainment content, while the

lexis Lexis may refer to: * Lexis (linguistics), the total bank of words and phrases of a particular language, the artifact of which is known as a lexicon *Lexis (Aristotle), a complete group of words in a language *LexisNexis, part of the LexisNexis onl ...

and

stylistics Stylistics, a branch of applied linguistics, is the study and interpretation of texts of all types and/or spoken language in regard to their linguistic and tonal style, where style is the particular variety of language used by different individu ...

of Modern Standard Arabic are different from

. Colloquial Arabic, an informal spoken language, varies by dialect from region to region; various forms of the language are in use today and provide an important force for Arab cohesion.

Mythology

Illustration of Aladdin Flying Away with Two People from the Arabian Nights

Arabic mythology Religion in pre-Islamic Arabia included indigenous Arabian polytheism, ancient Semitic religions, Christianity, Judaism, Mandaeism, and Iranian religions such as Zoroastrianism, and Manichaeism, and rarely Buddhism. Arabian polytheism, the ...

comprises the ancient beliefs of the Arabs. Prior to Islam the Kaaba of Mecca was covered in symbols representing the myriad demons, djinn, demigods, or simply tribal gods and other assorted deities which represented the polytheistic culture of pre-Islamic. It has been inferred from this plurality an exceptionally broad context in which mythology could flourish. The most popular beasts and demons of Arabian mythology are

Bahamut Bahamut, or Bahamoot ( ; ar, بهموت), is a monster that lies deep below, underpinning the support structure that holds up the earth, according to Zakariya al-Qazwini. In this conception of the world, the earth is shouldered by an angel, w ...

Dandan A dandan or dendan is a mythical sea creature that appears in volume 9 of ''The Book of One Thousand and One Nights'' (or ''Arabian Nights''). It appears in the tale "Abdullah the Fisherman and Abdullah the Merman", where the merman tells the fis ...

, Falak, Ghoul, Hinn, Jinn, Karkadann, Marid,

Nasnas In Arab folklore, the Nasnas ( ar, النَّسْنَاس ''an-nasnās'') is a monstrous creature. According to Edward Lane, the 19th century translator of ''The Thousand and One Nights'', a nasnas is "half a human being; having half a head, hal ...

Qareen A Qareen ( ar, قرين ''qarīn, Urdu:'' ہمزاد literally meaning: 'constant companion') is a spiritual double of human, either part of the human himself or a complementary creature in a parallel dimension.Kelly Bulkeley, Kate Adams, Patrici ...

, Roc, Shadhavar, Werehyena and other assorted creatures which represented the profoundly polytheistic environment of pre-Islamic. The most obvious symbol of Arabian mythology is the Jinn or genie. Jinns are supernatural beings of varying degrees of power. They possess free will (that is, they can choose to be good or evil) and come in two flavors. There are the Marids, usually described as the most powerful type of Jinn. These are the type of genie with the ability to grant wishes to humans. However, granting these wishes is not free. The Quran says that the ''jinn'' were created from "mārijin min nar" (''smokeless fire'' or ''a mixture of fire''; scholars explained, this is the part of the flame, which mixed with ''the blackness of fire''). They are not purely spiritual, but are also physical in nature, being able to interact in a tactile manner with people and objects and likewise be acted upon. The ''jinn'', humans, and angels make up the known

sapient Sapient means to be able to reflect on memories, and or possessing wisdom and may refer to: * Brian Sapient, co-founder of atheist activist group Rational Response Squad * SAPIENT, a scholarship programme * Publicis Sapient, a digital consulting f ...

creations of God. A ghoul is a

monster A monster is a type of fictional creature found in horror, fantasy, science fiction, folklore, mythology and religion. Monsters are very often depicted as dangerous and aggressive with a strange, grotesque appearance that causes terror and fe ...

or evil spirit in

, associated with graveyards and consuming human flesh, demonic being believed to inhabit burial grounds and other deserted places. In ancient Arabic folklore, ghūls belonged to a diabolic class of jinn (spirits) and were said to be the offspring of Iblīs, the prince of darkness in Islam. They were capable of constantly changing form, but their presence was always recognizable by their unalterable sign—ass's hooves. which describes the ''ghūl'' of Arabic folklore. The ''ghul'' is a devilish type of jinn believed to be sired by

Iblis Iblis ( ar, إِبْلِيس, translit=Iblīs), alternatively known as Eblīs, is the leader of the devils () in Islam. According to the Quran, Iblis was thrown out of heaven, after he refused to prostrate himself before Adam. Regarding the o ...

Literature

The Qur'an, the main

holy book Religious texts, including scripture, are texts which various religions consider to be of central importance to their religious tradition. They differ from literature by being a compilation or discussion of beliefs, mythologies, ritual prac ...

, had a significant influence on the Arabic language, and marked the beginning of Islamic literature. Muslims believe it was transcribed in the Arabic dialect of the

, the tribe of Muhammad. As Islam spread, the Quran had the effect of unifying and standardizing Arabic. Not only is the Qur'an the first work of any significant length written in the language, but it also has a far more complicated structure than the earlier literary works with its 114 '' suwar'' (chapters) which contain 6,236 '' ayat'' (verses). It contains

injunction An injunction is a legal and equitable remedy in the form of a special court order that compels a party to do or refrain from specific acts. ("The court of appeals ... has exclusive jurisdiction to enjoin, set aside, suspend (in whole or in pa ...

s, narratives, homilies,

parable A parable is a succinct, didactic story, in prose or verse, that illustrates one or more instructive lessons or principles. It differs from a fable in that fables employ animals, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature as characters, w ...

s, direct addresses from God, instructions and even comments on how the Qu'ran will be received and understood. It is also admired for its layers of metaphor as well as its clarity, a feature which is mentioned in

An-Nahl The Bee (Arabic: الْنَّحْل; ''an-nahl'') is the 16th chapter (''sūrah'') of the Qur'an, with 128 verses ('' āyāt''). It is named after honey bees mentioned in verse 68, and contains a comparison of the industry and adaptability of h ...

, the 16th surah. Al-Jahiz (born 776, in Basra – December 868/January 869) was an Arab prose writer and author of works of literature,

Mu'tazili Muʿtazila ( ar, المعتزلة ', English: "Those Who Withdraw, or Stand Apart", and who called themselves ''Ahl al-ʿAdl wa al-Tawḥīd'', English: "Party of ivineJustice and Oneness f God); was an Islamic group that appeared in early Islamic ...

theology, and politico-religious polemics. A leading scholar in the Abbasid Caliphate, his canon includes two hundred books on various subjects, including

Arabic grammar Arabic grammar or Arabic language sciences ( ar, النحو العربي ' or ar, عُلُوم اللغَة العَرَبِيَّة ') is the grammar of the Arabic language. Arabic is a Semitic language and its grammar has many similarities with ...

, zoology, poetry, lexicography, and

rhetoric Rhetoric () is the art of persuasion, which along with grammar and logic (or dialectic), is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. Rhetoric aims to study the techniques writers or speakers utilize to inform, persuade, or motivate parti ...

. Of his writings, only thirty books survive. Al-Jāḥiẓ was also one of the first Arabian writers to suggest a complete overhaul of the language's grammatical system, though this would not be undertaken until his fellow linguist Ibn Maḍāʾ took up the matter two hundred years later. There is a small remnant of

pre-Islamic poetry Arabic poetry ( ar, الشعر العربي ''ash-shi‘ru al-‘Arabīyyu'') is the earliest form of Arabic literature. Present knowledge of poetry in Arabic dates from the 6th century, but oral poetry is believed to predate that. Arabic poetry ...

, but Arabic literature predominantly emerges in the Middle Ages, during the

Golden Age of Islam The Islamic Golden Age was a period of cultural, economic, and scientific flourishing in the history of Islam, traditionally dated from the 8th century to the 14th century. This period is traditionally understood to have begun during the reign ...

Literary Arabic Literary Arabic (Arabic: ' ) may refer to: * Classical Arabic * Modern Standard Arabic Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) or Modern Written Arabic (MWA), terms used mostly by linguists, is the variety of Standard language, standardized, Literary ...

is derived from

, based on the language of the Quran as it was analyzed by

Arabic grammarians Arabic grammar or Arabic language sciences ( ar, النحو العربي ' or ar, عُلُوم اللغَة العَرَبِيَّة ') is the grammar of the Arabic language. Arabic is a Semitic language and its grammar has many similarities with ...

beginning in the 8th century. Badr al-Din Lu'lu'

A large portion of Arabic literature before the 20th century is in the form of poetry, and even prose from this period is either filled with snippets of poetry or is in the form of '' saj'' or rhymed prose. The ''

ghazal The ''ghazal'' ( ar, غَزَل, bn, গজল, Hindi-Urdu: /, fa, غزل, az, qəzəl, tr, gazel, tm, gazal, uz, gʻazal, gu, ગઝલ) is a form of amatory poem or ode, originating in Arabic poetry. A ghazal may be understood as a ...

'' or love poem had a long history being at times tender and chaste and at other times rather explicit. In the

Sufi Sufism ( ar, ''aṣ-ṣūfiyya''), also known as Tasawwuf ( ''at-taṣawwuf''), is a mystic body of religious practice, found mainly within Sunni Islam but also within Shia Islam, which is characterized by a focus on Islamic spirituality, ...

tradition the love poem would take on a wider, mystical and religious importance.

Arabic epic literature Arabic epic literature encompasses epic poetry and epic fantasy in Arabic literature. Virtually all societies have developed Folklore, folk tales encompassing tales of heroes. Although many of these are legends, many are based on real events and ...

was much less common than poetry, and presumably originates in oral tradition, written down from the 14th century or so.

Maqama ''Maqāmah'' (مقامة, pl. ''maqāmāt'', مقامات, literally "assemblies") are an (originally) Arabic prosimetric literary genre which alternates the Arabic rhymed prose known as '' Saj‘'' with intervals of poetry in which rhetorical ...

or rhymed prose is intermediate between poetry and prose, and also between fiction and non-fiction.

was an incredibly popular form of Arabic literature, being one of the few forms which continued to be written during the decline of Arabic in the 17th and 18th centuries. Khalil Gibran - Autorretrato con musa, c

Khalil Gibran - Autorretrato con musa, c

Arabic literature and culture declined significantly after the 13th century, to the benefit of

and Persian. A modern revival took place beginning in the 19th century, alongside resistance against Ottoman rule. The literary revival is known as '' al-Nahda'' in Arabic, and was centered in Egypt and Lebanon. Two distinct trends can be found in the ''nahda'' period of revival. The first was a neo-classical movement which sought to rediscover the literary traditions of the past, and was influenced by traditional literary genres—such as the ''

maqama ''Maqāmah'' (مقامة, pl. ''maqāmāt'', مقامات, literally "assemblies") are an (originally) Arabic prosimetric literary genre which alternates the Arabic rhymed prose known as '' Saj‘'' with intervals of poetry in which rhetorical ...

''—and works like ''

One Thousand and One Nights ''One Thousand and One Nights'' ( ar, أَلْفُ لَيْلَةٍ وَلَيْلَةٌ, italic=yes, ) is a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as the ''Arabian ...

''. In contrast, a modernist movement began by translating Western modernist works—primarily novels—into Arabic. A tradition of

modern Arabic poetry Arabic poetry ( ar, الشعر العربي ''ash-shi‘ru al-‘Arabīyyu'') is the earliest form of Arabic literature. Present knowledge of poetry in Arabic dates from the 6th century, but oral poetry is believed to predate that. Arabic poetry ...

was established by writers such as

Francis Marrash Francis bin Fathallah bin Nasrallah Marrash (Arabic: , ; 1835,. 1836,. or 1837 – 1873 or 1874), also known as Francis al-Marrash or Francis Marrash al-Halabi, was a Syrian scholar, publicist, writer and poet of the Nahda or the Arab Renaissance, ...

, Ahmad Shawqi and

Hafiz Ibrahim Hafez Ibrahim ( ar, حافظ إبراهيم, ; 1871–1932) was a well known Egyptian poet of the early 20th century. He was dubbed the "Poet of the Nile", and sometimes the "Poet of the People", for his political commitment to the poor. His p ...

. Iraqi poet

Badr Shakir al-Sayyab Badr Shakir al Sayyab ( ar, بدر شاكر السياب) (December 24, 1926 in Jaykur, near Basra – December 24, 1964 in Kuwait) was a leading Iraqi poet, well known throughout the Arab world and one of the most influential Arab poets of all ti ...

is considered to be the originator of free verse in

Arabic poetry Arabic poetry ( ar, الشعر العربي ''ash-shi‘ru al-‘Arabīyyu'') is the earliest form of Arabic literature. Present knowledge of poetry in Arabic dates from the 6th century, but oral poetry is believed to predate that. Arabic poetry ...

Gastronomy

Arabic cuisine Arab cuisine ( ar, المطبخ العربي) is the cuisine of the Arabs, defined as the various regional cuisines spanning the Arab world, from the Maghreb to the Fertile Crescent and the Arabian Peninsula. These cuisines are centuries old an ...

is the cuisine of the Arab people. The cuisines are often centuries old and reflect the culture of great trading in spices, herbs, and foods. The three main regions, also known as the Maghreb, the Mashriq, and the Khaleej have many similarities, but also many unique traditions. These kitchens have been influenced by the climate, cultivating possibilities, as well as trading possibilities. The kitchens of the Maghreb and Levant are relatively young kitchens which were developed over the past centuries. The kitchen from the Khaleej region is a very old kitchen. The kitchens can be divided into the urban and rural kitchens. Arab cuisine mostly follows one of three culinary traditions – from the Maghreb, the Levant or Eastern Arabia. In the Maghreb countries ( Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya) traditional main meals are tajines or dishes using couscous. In the Levant (

, Jordan, Lebanon and

) main meals usually start with mezze – small dishes of dips and other items which are eaten with bread. This is typically followed by skewers of grilled lamb or chicken. Gulf cuisine, tends to be more highly spiced with more use of rice. Sometimes a lamb is roasted and served whole. One will find the following items in most dishes;

cinnamon Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several tree species from the genus ''Cinnamomum''. Cinnamon is used mainly as an aromatic condiment and flavouring additive in a wide variety of cuisines, sweet and savoury dishes, breakfa ...

, fish (in coastal areas),

garlic Garlic (''Allium sativum'') is a species of bulbous flowering plant in the genus ''Allium''. Its close relatives include the onion, shallot, leek, chive, Allium fistulosum, Welsh onion and Allium chinense, Chinese onion. It is native to South A ...

, lamb (or veal), mild to hot sauces, mint, onion, rice, saffron,

sesame Sesame ( or ; ''Sesamum indicum'') is a flowering plant in the genus ''Sesamum'', also called benne. Numerous wild relatives occur in Africa and a smaller number in India. It is widely naturalized in tropical regions around the world and is cu ...

, yogurt, spices due to heavy trading between the two regions. Tea, thyme (or oregano), turmeric, a variety of fruits (primarily citrus) and vegetables such as cucumbers, eggplants, lettuce, tomato, Capsicum annuum, green pepper, green beans, zucchini and parsley.

Art

Arabic art takes on many forms, though it is jewelry, textiles and architecture that are the most well-known. It is generally split up by different eras, among them being History of the Arabic alphabet, early Arabic, early medieval, late medieval, Arabic, late Arabic, and finally, current Arabic. One thing to remember is that many times a particular style from one era may continue into the next with few changes, while some have a drastic transformation. This may seem like a strange grouping of art mediums, but they are all closely related. Arabischer Maler um 1335 003

Arabic writing is done from right to left, and was generally written in dark inks, with certain things embellished with special colored inks (red, green, gold). In early Arabic and Early Middle Ages, early Medieval, writing was typically done on parchment made of animal skin. The ink showed up very well on it, and occasionally the parchment was dyed a separate color and brighter ink was used (this was only for special projects). The name given to the form of writing in early times was called Kufic script. Arabic miniatures ( Arabic: الْمُنَمْنَمَات الْعَرَبِيَّة, ''Al-Munamnamāt al-ʿArabīyah'') are small paintings on paper, usually book or manuscript illustrations but also sometimes separate artworks that occupy entire pages. The earliest example dates from around 690 AD, with a flourishing of the art from between 1000 and 1200 AD in the Abbasid Caliphate, Abbasid caliphate. The art form went through several stages of evolution while witnessing the fall and rise of several Caliphate, Islamic caliphates. Arab miniaturists absorbed Chinese art, Chinese and Persian art, Persian influences brought by the Mongol invasion of the Middle East, Mongol destructions, and at last, got totally assimilated and subsequently disappeared due to the Ottoman Empire, Ottoman occupation of the Arab world. Nearly all forms of Islamic miniatures (Persian miniatures, Ottoman miniatures and Mughal miniatures) owe their existences to Arabic miniatures, as Arab patrons were the first to demand the production of illuminated manuscripts in the Caliphate, it wasn't until the 14th century that the artistic skill reached the non-Arab regions of the Caliphate.''La Peinture arabe'' Despite the considerable changes in Arabic miniature style and technique, even during their last decades, the early Umayyad Arab influence could still be noticed. Arabic miniature artists include Ismail al-Jazari, who illustrated his own ''Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices,''al-Jazari, ''The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices: Kitáb fí ma'rifat al-hiyal al-handasiyya'', transl. & anno. Donald Hill, Donald R. Hill. (1973), Springer Science+Business Media. and the Abbasid artist, Yahya ibn Mahmud al-Wasiti, Yahya Al-Wasiti, who probably lived in Baghdad in the late Abbasid era (12th to 13th-centuries), was one of the pre-eminent exponents of the Baghdad school. In 1236-1237, he is known to have transcribed and illustrated the book, ''Maqamat Badi' az-Zaman al-Hamadhani, Maqamat'' (also known as the ''Assemblies'' or the ''Sessions''), a series of anecdotes of social satire written by Al-Hariri of Basra. The narrative concerns the travels of a middle-aged man as he uses his charm and eloquence to swindle his way across the Arabic world. With most surviving Arabic manuscripts in western museums, Arabic miniatures occupy very little space in modern Arab culture. Arabesque is a form of artistic decoration consisting of "surface decorations based on rhythmic linear patterns of scrolling and interlacing foliage, tendrils" or plain lines, often combined with other elements. Another definition is "Foliate ornament, typically using leaves, derived from stylised half-palmettes, which were combined with spiralling stems". It usually consists of a single design which can be 'tiled' or seamlessly repeated as many times as desired.

Architecture

Arabic Architecture has a deep diverse history, it dates to the dawn of the history in pre-Islamic Arabia and includes various styles from the Nabataean architecture to the old yet still used architecture in various regions of the Arab world. Each of it phases largely an extension of the earlier phase, it left also heavy impact on the Islamic architecture, architecture of other nations. Arab Architecture also encompasses a wide range of both secular and religious styles from the History of Islam, foundation of Islam to the present day. Some parts of its religious architectures raised by Muslim Arabs were influenced by cultures of Roman architecture, Roman, Byzantine architecture, Byzantine, Persian architecture, Persian and cultures of other lands which the Early Muslim conquests, Arab conquered in the 7th and 8th centuries.Krautheimer, Richard
Early Christian and Byzantine Architecture
Yale University Press Pelican History of Art, Penguin Books Ltd., 1965, p. 285. In Sicily, Arab-Norman culture#Norman-Arab-Byzantine architecture, Arab-Norman architecture combined Occidental features, such as the Classical pillars and friezes, with typical Arabic decorations and calligraphy. The principal Islamic architectural types are: the Mosque, the Tomb, the Palace and the Fort. From these four types, the vocabulary of Islamic architecture is derived and used for other buildings such as public baths, fountains and domestic architecture.Copplestone, p.149

Music

Arabic music, while independent and flourishing in the 2010s, has a long history of interaction with many other regional musical styles and genres. It is an amalgam of the music of the Arab people in the

and the music of all the peoples that make up the Arab world today. Pre-Islamic Arab music was similar to that of Ancient Middle Eastern music. Most historians agree that there existed distinct forms of music in the Arabian peninsula in the pre-Islamic period between the 5th and 7th century CE. Arabic poetry, Arab poets of that "Jahili poets", meaning "the poets of the period of ignorance"—used to recite poems with a high notes. It was believed that Genie, Jinns revealed poems to poets and music to musicians. By the 11th century, al-Andalus, Islamic Iberia had become a center for the manufacture of instruments. These goods spread gradually throughout France, influencing French troubadours, and eventually reaching the rest of Europe. The English words lute, rebec, and naqareh, naker are derived from Arabic oud, Rebab, rabab, and naqareh. Umm Kulthum4

A number of musical instruments used in classical music are believed to have been derived from Arabic musical instruments: the lute was derived from the ''Oud'', the rebec (ancestor of violin) from the ''Maghreb rebab'', the guitar from ''qitara'', which in turn was derived from the Persian Tar (lute), Tar, naqareh, naker from ''naqareh'', adufe from ''Daf, al-duff'', alboka from ''al-buq'', Naffir, anafil from ''al-nafir'', exabeba from ''al-shabbaba'' (flute), atabal (bass drum) from ''al-tabl'', atambal from ''al-tinbal'', the Balaban (instrument), balaban, the castanet from ''kasatan'', Tuna (music), sonajas de azófar from ''sunuj al-sufr'', the Bore (wind instruments), conical bore wind instruments, the xelami from the ''sulami'' or ''fistula'' (flute or Organ pipe, musical pipe), the shawm and dulzaina from the Reed (instrument), reed instruments ''zamr'' and ''Zurna, al-zurna'', the Galician gaita, gaita from the ''Rhaita, ghaita'', rackett from ''iraqya'' or ''iraqiyya'', Violin, geige (violin) from ''ghichak'', and the theorbo from the ''tarab''. During the 1950s and the 1960s, Arabic music began to take on a more Western tone – artists Umm Kulthum, Abdel Halim Hafez, and Shadia along with composers Mohammed Abdel Wahab, Mohamed Abd al-Wahab and Baligh Hamdi pioneered the use of western instruments in Egyptian music. By the 1970s several other singers had followed suit and a strand of Arabic pop was born. Arabic pop usually consists of Western styled songs with Arabic instruments and lyrics. Melodies are often a mix between Eastern and Western. Beginning in the mid-1980s, Lydia Canaan, musical Innovator, pioneer widely regarded as the first rock star of the Middle EastO'Connor, Tom
"Lydia Canaan One Step Closer to Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame"
, ''The Daily Star (Lebanon), The Daily Star'', Beirut, 27 April 2016.

Spirituality

Religion in pre-Islamic Arabia, Arab polytheism was the dominant religion in pre-Islamic Arabia. Deity, Gods and goddesses, including Hubal and the goddesses al-Lat, al-Lāt, Al-'Uzzá and Manāt, were worshipped at local shrines, such as the Kaaba in Mecca, whilst Arabs in the south, in what is today's Yemen, worshipped various gods, some of which represented the Sun or Moon. Different theories Religion in pre-Islamic Arabia#Mecca, have been proposed regarding the role of Allah in Meccan religion. Many of the physical descriptions of the pre-Islamic gods are traced to Cult image, idols, especially near the Kaaba, which is said to have contained up to 360 of them. Until about the fourth century, almost all Arabs practised polytheistic religions. Although significant Judaism, Jewish and Christian minorities developed, polytheism remained the dominant belief system in pre-Islamic Arabia. The religious beliefs and practices of the nomadic bedouin were distinct from those of the settled tribes of towns such as Mecca. Nomadic religious belief systems and practices are believed to have included fetishism, totemism and veneration of the dead but were connected principally with immediate concerns and problems and did not consider larger Philosophy, philosophical questions such as the afterlife. Settled urban Arabs, on the other hand, are thought to have believed in a more complex Pantheon (religion), pantheon of deities. While the Meccans and the other settled inhabitants of the

worshipped their gods at permanent shrines in towns and oases, the bedouin practised their religion on the move.

Philosophy

The philosophical thought in the Arab world is heavily influenced by Islamic Philosophy. Schools of Islamic thought include Avicennism and Averroism. The first great Arab thinker in the Islamic tradition is widely regarded to be al-Kindi (801–873 A.D.), a Neo-Platonic philosopher, mathematician and scientist who lived in Kufa and Baghdad (modern day Iraq). After being appointed by the Abbasid Caliphs to translate Greeks, Greek scientific and philosophical texts into Arabic, he wrote a number of original treatises of his own on a range of subjects, from metaphysics and ethics to mathematics and pharmacology. Much of his Philosophy, philosophical output focuses on Theology, theological subjects such as the nature of God, the soul and Prophecy, prophetic knowledge. Doctrines of the Arabic philosophers of the 9th–12th century who influenced medieval Scholasticism in Europe. The Arabic tradition combines Aristotelianism and Neoplatonism with other ideas introduced through

. Influential thinkers include the non-Arabs al-Farabi and Avicenna. The Arabic philosophic literature was translated into Hebrew and Latin, this contributed to the development of modern European philosophy. The Arabic tradition was developed by Moses Maimonides and

Science

Science in the medieval Islamic world, Islamic science underwent considerable development during the 8th to 13th centuries CE, a source of knowledge that later spread throughout Europe and greatly influenced both medical practice and education. The language of recorded science was Arabic. Scientific treatises were composed by thinkers originating from across the Muslim world. These accomplishments occurred after Muhammad united the

and the spread of Islam beyond the Arabian peninsula. Albategnius

Within a century after Muhammed's death (632 CE), an empire ruled by Arabs was established. It encompassed a large part of the planet, stretching from southern Europe to North Africa to Central Asia and on to India. In 711 CE, Arab Muslims invaded southern Spain; al-Andalus was a center of Arabic scientific accomplishment. Soon after, Sicily too joined the greater islamic world. Another center emerged in Baghdad from the

, who ruled part of the Muslim world, Islamic world during a historic period later characterized as the "Islamic Golden Age, Golden Age" (∼750 to 1258 CE). TabulaRogeriana_upside-down

This era can be identified as the years between 692 and 945,Marshall Hodgson, ''The Venture of Islam; Conscience and History in a World Civilisation Vol 1''. The University of Chicago, 1974, pg. 234. and ended when the caliphate was marginalized by local Muslim rulers in Baghdad – its traditional seat of power. From 945 onward until the Sack of Baghdad, sacking of Baghdad by the Mongol invasions, Mongols in 1258, the Caliph continued on as a figurehead, with power devolving more to local amirs.Marshall Hodgson, ''The Venture of Islam; Conscience and History in a World Civilisation Vol 1''. The University of Chicago, 1974, pg. 233. The pious scholars of Islam, men and women collectively known as the ulama, were the most influential element of society in the fields of Sharia law, speculative thought and theology. Arabic scientific achievement is not as yet fully understood, but is very large. These achievements encompass a wide range of subject areas, especially Mathematics in medieval Islam, mathematics, Astronomy in medieval Islam, astronomy, and Medicine in medieval Islam, medicine. Other subjects of scientific inquiry included Physics in medieval Islam, physics, Alchemy and chemistry in medieval Islam, alchemy and chemistry, Cosmology in medieval Islam, cosmology, Medieval Islamic ophthalmology, ophthalmology, Geography and cartography in medieval Islam, geography and cartography, Sociology in medieval Islam, sociology, and Psychology in medieval Islam, psychology. Al-Battani (c. 858 – 929; born Harran, Bilad al-Sham) was an Arab astronomer, astrologer and mathematician of the Islamic Golden Age. His work is considered instrumental in the development of science and astronomy. One of Al-Battani's best-known achievements in astronomy was the determination of the solar year as being 365 days, 5 hours, 46 minutes and 24 seconds which is only 2 minutes and 22 seconds off. In Islamic mathematics, mathematics, al-Battānī produced a number of Trigonometry, trigonometrical relationships: ::

\tan a = \frac

\sec a = \sqrt

He also solved the equation sin ''x'' = ''a'' cos ''x'' discovering the formula: ::

\sin x = \frac

He gives other trigonometric formulae for right-angled triangles such as: ::

b \sin (A) = a \sin (90^\circ - A)

Al-Battānī used Habash al-Hasib al-Marwazi, al-Marwazi's idea of Trigonometric function, tangents ("shadows") to develop equations for calculating tangents and cotangents, compiling tables of them. He also discovered the reciprocal functions of secant and cosecant, and produced the first table of cosecants, which he referred to as a "table of shadows" (in reference to the shadow of a gnomon), for each degree from 1° to 90°. Using these trigonometrical relationships, Al-Battānī created an equation for finding the qibla, which Muslims must face in each of the five prayers they practice every day. The equation he created did not give accurate directions, as it did not take into account the fact that Earth is a sphere. The relationship Al-Battānī used was fairly precise when a person is in Mecca, or close to Mecca, but resulted in more and more inaccurate results as one gets more distant from Mecca. However, it was still a widely used method at the time. The equation is as follows:

\alpha=\arctan\frac

Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) used experimentation to obtain the results in his ''Book of Optics'' (1021), an important development in the history of scientific method, history of the scientific method. He combined observations, experiments and Rationality, rational arguments to support his intromission theory of visual perception, vision, in which Ray (optics), rays of light are emitted from objects rather than from the eyes. He used similar arguments to show that the ancient Emission theory (vision), emission theory of vision supported by Ptolemy and Euclid (in which the eyes emit the rays of light used for seeing), and the ancient intromission theory supported by Aristotle (where objects emit physical particles to the eyes), were both wrong. Al-Zahrawi, regarded by many as the greatest surgeon of the middle ages. His surgical treatise "Al-Tasrif, De chirurgia" is the first illustrated surgical guide ever written. It remained the primary source for surgical procedures and instruments in Europe for the next 500 years. The book helped lay the foundation to establish surgery as a scientific discipline independent from medicine, earning al-Zahrawi his name as one of the founders of this field. Other notable Arabic contributions include among other things: the pioneering of organic chemistry by Jābir ibn Hayyān, establishing the science of cryptology and cryptanalysis by al-Kindi, the development of analytic geometry by Ibn al-Haytham, the discovery of the pulmonary circulation by Ibn al-Nafis, the discovery of the itch mite parasite by Ibn Zuhr, the first use of irrational numbers as an algebraic objects by Abū Kāmil, the first use of the positional decimal fractions by Abu'l-Hasan al-Uqlidisi, al-Uqlidisi, the development of the Arabic numerals and an early History of mathematical notation, algebraic symbolism in the Maghreb, the Thabit number and amicable numbers#Thābit ibn Qurra theorem, Thābit theorem by Thābit ibn Qurra, the discovery of several new List of trigonometric identities, trigonometric identities by Ibn Yunus and al-Battani, the mathematical proof for Ceva's theorem by Yusuf al-Mu'taman ibn Hud, Ibn Hűd, the first accurate Lunar theory, lunar model by Ibn al-Shatir, the invention of the torquetum by Jabir ibn Aflah, the invention of the universal astrolabe and the equatorium by al-Zarqali, the first description of the crankshaft by al-Jazari, the anticipation of the inertia concept by Averroes, the discovery of the Reaction (physics), physical reaction by Avempace, the identification of more than 200 new plants by Ibn al-Baitar the Arab Agricultural Revolution, and the Tabula Rogeriana, which was the most accurate world map in pre-modern times by al-Idrisi.Bacharach, 2006, p. 140. The birth of the University institution can be traced to this development, as several universities and educational institutions of the Arab world such as the University of Al Quaraouiyine, Al Azhar University, and University of Ez-Zitouna, Al Zaytuna University are considered to be the oldest in the world. Founded by Fatima al-Fihri, Fatima al Fihri in 859 as a mosque, the University of Al Quaraouiyine in Fez, Morocco, Fez is the oldest existing, continually operating and the first Academic degree, degree awarding educational institution in the world according to UNESCO and Guinness World Records and is sometimes referred to as the oldest university. There are many scientific Influence of Arabic on other languages, Arabic loanwords in Western European languages, including :wikt:English terms derived from Arabic, English, mostly via Old French. This includes List of Arabic star names, traditional star names such as Aldebaran, scientific terms like '':wikt:alchemy, alchemy'' (whence also '':wikt:chemistry, chemistry''), '':wikt:algebra, algebra'', '':wikt:algorithm, algorithm'', '':wikt:alcohol, alcohol'', '':wikt:alkali, alkali'', '':wikt:cipher, cipher'', '':wikt:zenith, zenith'', etc. Under Ottoman rule, cultural life and science in the Arab world declined. In the 20th and 21st centuries, Arabs who have won important science prizes include Ahmed Zewail and Elias Corey (Nobel Prize), Michael DeBakey and Alim Louis Benabid, Alim Benabid (Lasker Award), Omar M. Yaghi (Wolf Prize), Huda Zoghbi (Shaw Prize), Zaha Hadid (Pritzker Prize), and Michael Atiyah (both Fields Medal and Abel Prize). Rachid Yazami was one of the co-inventors of the lithium-ion battery, and Tony Fadell was important in the development of the iPod and the iPhone.

Wedding and marriage

Arabic weddings have changed greatly in the past 100 years. Original traditional Arabic weddings are supposed to be very similar to modern-day

weddings and rural weddings, and they are in some cases unique from one region to another, even within the same Arab world, country. The practice of Marriage, marrying of relatives is a common feature of Arab culture. In the Arab world today between 40% and 50% of all marriages are consanguineous or between close family members, though these figures may vary among Arab nations. In Egypt, around 40% of the population Cousin marriage, marry a cousin. A 1992 survey in Jordan found that 32% were married to a first cousin; a further 17.3% were married to more distant relatives. 67% of marriages in Saudi Arabia are between close relatives as are 54% of all marriages in Kuwait, whereas 18% of all Lebanon, Lebanese were between blood relatives. Due to the actions of Muhammad and the Rightly Guided Caliphs, marriage between cousins is explicitly allowed in

and the Quran, Qur'an itself does not discourage or forbid the practice.Surah, Surah chapter 4, verse 23 Nevertheless, opinions vary on whether the phenomenon should be seen as exclusively based on Islamic practices as a 1992 study among Arabs in Jordan did not show significant differences between Arab Christians, Christian Arabs or Arab Muslims, Muslim Arabs when comparing the occurrence of consanguinity.

Genetics

References

Notes

Citations

Sources

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Touma, Habib Hassan. ''The Music of the Arabs''. Portland, Oregon: Amadeus P, 1996. . * Lipinski, Edward. ''Semitic Languages: Outlines of a Comparative Grammar'', 2nd ed., Orientalia Lovanensia Analecta: Leuven 2001 * Kees Versteegh, ''The Arabic Language'', Edinburgh University Press (1997)
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Robert Appleton Company, 1907, Online Edition, K. Night 2003: article Arabia

1894), Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd. * The Arabic language, National Institute for Technology and Liberal Education web page (2006) * * Hooker, Richard. "Pre-Islamic Arabic Culture." WSU Web Site. 6 June 1999. Washington State University. * Owen, Roger. "State Power and Politics in the Making of the Modern Middle East 3rd Ed" Page 57 *

External links

www.LasPortal.org

ArabCultureFund AFAC
{{Authority control Arabs, Tribes of Arabia, Afroasiatic peoples Ancient peoples of the Near East Arab Ethnic groups in Africa Ethnic groups in North Africa Ethnic groups in the Arab world Ethnic groups in the Middle East Muslim communities in Africa Muslim communities in Asia