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Arabs (Arabic: عرب, ʿarab) are a major panethnic group.[14] They primarily inhabit Western Asia, North Africa, parts of the Horn of Africa, and other areas in the Arab world. Arabic-speaking populations in general are a highly heterogeneous collection of peoples, with different ancestral origins and identities. The ties that bind the Arab peoples are a veneer of shared heritage by virtue of common linguistic, cultural, and political traditions. As such, Arab identity is based on one or more of genealogical, linguistic or cultural grounds,[15] although with competing identities often taking a more prominent role,[16] based on considerations including regional, national, clan, kin, sect, and tribe affiliations and relationships. If the Arab panethnicity is regarded as a single population, then it constitutes one of the world's largest groups after Han Chinese. The Arabian Peninsula itself was not entirely originally Arab. Arabization occurred in some parts of the Arabian Peninsula. For example, the language shift to Arabic displaced the indigenous South Semitic Old South Arabian languages of modern-day Yemen and southern Oman. These were the languages spoken in the civilisations of Sheba, Ubar, Magan, Dilmun, and Meluhha—which were spread via migrants from the Arabian peninsula, together with written script, in the 8th and 7th centuries BC to the Horn of Africa (Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, and Somalia). Name Further information: Arab (etymology) Originally, "Arabs" were synonymous with Arabians (inhabitants of the Arabian Peninsula), until the Arabisation of people with no Arabian ancestry, mostly during the Abbasid Caliphate. Therefore, all uses of the word "Arab" prior to the 6th century, and most of those prior to the 13th century AD refer specifically to Arabians. Later uses of the word "Arab" could refer to any individual whose familial ancestry corresponds to the wider linguistic and panethnic definitions of Arabs. The earliest documented use of the word "Arab" to refer to a people appears in the Monolith Inscription, an Akkadian language record of the 9th century BC Assyrian Conquest of Syria, which referred to Bedouins under King Gindibu who fought as part of a coalition opposed to the Assyrians.[17] Listed among the booty captured by the army of king Shalmaneser III of Assyria in the Battle of Qarqar are 1000 camels of "Gi-in-di-bu'u the ar-ba-a-a" or "[the man] Gindibu belonging to the ʕarab" (ar-ba-a-a being an adjectival nisba of the noun ʕarab[17]). ʕarab, with the Arabic letter "alif" in the second syllable, is still used today to describe Bedouins today, distinguishing them from ʕrab, used to describe non-Bedouin Arabic speakers. The most popular Arab account holds that the word Arab came from an eponymous father called Yarab, who was supposedly the first to speak Arabic. Al-Hamdani had another view; he states that Arabs were called Gharab (West in Semitic) 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 Arabs was initially applied to the Ishmaelites of the "Arabah" valley. In Biblical etymology, "Arab" (in Hebrew Arvi ) comes both from the desert origin of the Bedouins it originally described (Arava means wilderness) and/or from the concept of mixed people. (Arev-rav - a large group of mixed people.) The root a-r-b has several additional meanings in Semitic languages—including "west/sunset," "desert," "mingle," "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 ʿ-B-R "moving around" (Arabic ʿ-B-R "traverse"), and hence, it is alleged, "nomadic." Identity It has been suggested that this section be split into a new article titled Arab identity. (Discuss) Proposed since May 2014. Arab identity is defined independently of religious identity, and pre-dates the spread of Islam, with historically attested Arab Christian kingdoms and Arab Jewish tribes. Today, however, most Arabs are Muslim,[18][19] with a minority adhering to other faiths, largely Christianity, but also Druze and Baha'i. Arabs are generally Sunni, Shia or Sufi Muslims, but currently, 7.1 percent to 10 percent of Arabs are Arab Christians.[20] This figure includes only Christians whose primary community language is today a variety of Arabic, and who identify as Arab. Arab ethnic identity does not include Christian and other ethnic groups that retain non-Arabic languages and identities within the expanded Arab World. These include the Assyrians of Iraq and north east Syria, Armenians around the entire Near East, and Mandeans in Iraq—though many of these peoples speak Arabic as a first or second language. In addition, many Egyptian Copts and Lebanese Maronites espouse an Ancient Egyptian and Phoenician-Canaanite identity respectively, rather than an Arab one. A number of other peoples living in the Arab World are non-Arab, such as Berbers, Kurds, Turks, Iranians, Azeris, Circassians, Shabaks, Turcomans, Romani, Chechens, Mhallami, Sub-Saharan Africans, South Asians, Samaritans, and Jews. Today, the main unifying characteristic among Arabs is the Arabic language, a South Semitic language from the Afroasiatic language family. Modern Standard Arabic serves as the standardized and literary variety of Arabic used in writing, as well as in most formal speech, although it is not used in daily speech by the overwhelming majority of Arabs. Most Arabs who are functional in Modern Standard Arabic acquire it through education and use it solely for writing and formal settings. While various varieties of Arabic are spoken as vernaculars by each distinct Arab group, these varieties are often regarded as dialects rather than independent languages. Most of these dialects are mutually intelligible, although not all of them. This is particularly true between groups that have not learned Arabic properly. During the Bronze Age, Iron Age and Classical Era there was no Arab presence in the areas encompassed by modern Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Iran, North Africa, Asia Minor or Kuwait. The Arabs are first mentioned in the mid 9th century BC as a tribal people dwelling in the mid Arabian Peninsula subjugated by the north Mesopotamian based Assyrians. The Arabs appear to have remained largely under the vassalage of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911-605 BC), and then the succeeding Neo-Babylonian Empire (605-539 BC), Persian Achaemenid Empire (539-332 BC), Greek Macedonian/Seleucid Empire and Iranian Parthian Empires. Arab tribes, most notably the Ghassanids and Lakhmids begin to appear in the south Syrian deserts and southern Jordan from the mid 3rd century AD onwards, during the mid to later stages of the Roman Empire and Sassanid Empire. The Nabateans of Jordan appear to have been an Aramaic speaking ethnic mix of Canaanites, Arameans and Arabs. Thus, although a more limited diffusion of Arabic culture and language was felt in some areas by these migrant minority Arabs in pre-Islamic times through Arab Christian kingdoms and Arab Jewish tribes, it was only after the rise of Islam in the mid-7th century that Arab culture, people and language began their wholesale spread from the central Arabian Peninsula (including the Syrian desert) through conquest and trade. At the time of the Arab Muslim conquests of the 7th and 8th centuries AD, the population of Aramea and Phoenicia (modern Syria and Lebanon) was largely Aramean and Phoenician, with minorities of Greeks, Assyrians, Armenians and Romans also extant, as well as pre-Islamic Arabs in the south Syrian deserts. Israel-Palestine (ancient Israel, Judah and Samarra) and Jordan (ancient Moab, Edom and Ammon) were largely inhabited by native Jews, Samaritans, and other Canaanites, together with Arameans, Greeks and Nabateans. Egypt was largely populated by natives of Ancient Egyptian heritage together with a Greek minority, what had been Phoenician Carthage (modern Tunisia) by its mixed Phoenician-Berber population. A number of Germanic peoples such as the Vandals and Visigoths were also extant as rulers throughout North Africa (modern Libya, Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco) at this time. Arab cultures went through a mixing process. Therefore, every Arab country has cultural specificities that form a cultural mix that incorporates local novelties acquired after arabization. However, all Arab countries do also share a common culture in arts (music, literature, poetry, calligraphy...), cultural products (handicrafts, carpets, henne, bronze carving...), social behavior, and relations (hospitality, codes of conduct among friends and family...), customs and superstitions, some dishes (shorba, mloukhia), traditional clothing, and architecture. An overview of the different Arabic dialects Non-Arab Muslims, who are about 80 percent of the world's Muslim population, do not form part of the Arab world, but instead comprise what is the geographically larger, and more diverse, Muslim World. In the USA, Arabs are classified as white by the U.S. Census, and have been since before 1977.[21][22][23] Arabic, the main unifying feature among Arabs, is a Semitic language originating in Arabia. From there it spread to a variety of distinct peoples across most of West Asia and North Africa,[24] resulting in their acculturation and eventual denomination as Arabs. Arabization, a culturo-linguistic shift, was often, though not always, in conjunction with Islamization, a religious shift. With the rise of Islam in the 7th century, and as the language of the Qur'an, Arabic became the lingua franca of the Islamic world.[25] It was in this period that Arabic language and culture was widely disseminated with the early Islamic expansion, both through conquest and cultural contact.[26] Arabic culture and language, however, began a more limited diffusion before the Islamic age, first spreading in West Asia beginning in the 2nd century, as Arab Christians such as the Ghassanids, Lakhmids and Banu Judham began migrating north from Arabia into the Syrian Desert, south western Iraq and the Levant.[27][28] In the modern era, defining who is an Arab is done on the grounds of one or more of the following two criteria: Distribution of Arabic as sole official language (green) and one of several official or national languages (blue). Genealogical: someone who can trace his or her ancestry to the original inhabitants of the Arabian Peninsula and the Syrian Desert (tribes of Arabia). This was the definition used until medieval times, for example by Ibn Khaldun, but has decreased in importance over time, as a portion of those of Arab ancestry lost their links with their ancestors' motherland. In the modern era, however, DNA tests have at times proved reliable in identifying those of Arab genealogical descent. For example, it has been found that the frequency of the "Arab marker" Haplogroup J1 collapses suddenly at the borders of Arabic speaking countries.[29] Linguistic: someone whose first language, and by extension cultural expression, is Arabic, including any of its varieties. This definition covers some than 420 million people (2014 estimate). Certain groups that fulfill this criterion reject this definition on the basis of non-Arab ancestry; such an example may be seen in the way that Egyptians identified themselves in the early 20th century.[30][31] The relative importance of these factors is estimated differently by different groups and frequently disputed. Some combine aspects of each definition, as done by Palestinian Habib Hassan Touma,[32] who defines an Arab "in the modern sense of the word", as "one who is a national of an Arab state, has command of the Arabic language, and possesses a fundamental knowledge of Arab tradition, that is, of the manners, customs, and political and social systems of the culture." Most people who consider themselves Arab do so based on the overlap of the political and linguistic definitions. The Arab League, a regional organization of countries intended to encompass the Arab world, defines an Arab as: An Arab is a person whose language is Arabic, who lives in an Arabic-speaking country, and who is in sympathy with the aspirations of the Arabic-speaking peoples.[33] Schoolgirls in Gaza lining up for class, 2009 According to Sadek Jawad Sulaimanis the former Ambassador of Oman to the United States: The Arabs are defined by their culture, not by race; and their culture is defined by its essential twin constituents of Arabism and Islam. To most of the Arabs, Islam is their indigenous religion; to all of the Arabs, Islam is their indigenous civilization. The Arab identity, as such, is a culturally defined identity, which means being Arab is being someone whose mother culture, or dominant culture, is Arabism. Beyond that, he or she might be of any ancestry, of any religion or philosophical persuasion, and a citizen of any country in the world. Being Arab does not contradict with being non-Muslim or non-Semitic or not being a citizen of an Arab state.[34] The relation of ʿarab and ʾaʿrāb is complicated further by the notion of "lost Arabs" al-ʿArab al-ba'ida mentioned in the Qur'an as punished for their disbelief. All contemporary Arabs were considered as descended from two ancestors, Qahtan and Adnan. Versteegh (1997) is uncertain whether to ascribe this distinction to the memory of a real difference of origin of the two groups, but it is certain that the difference was strongly felt in early Islamic times. Even in Islamic Spain there was enmity between the Qays of the northern and the Kalb of the southern group. The so-called Sabaean or Himyarite language described by Abū Muhammad al-Hasan al-Hamdānī (died 946) appears to be a special case of language contact between the two groups, an originally north Arabic dialect spoken in the south, and influenced by Old South Arabian.[citation needed][dubious – discuss] During the Muslim conquests of the 7th and 8th centuries, the Arabs forged an Arab Empire (under the Rashidun and Umayyads, and later the Abbasids) whose borders touched southern France in the west, China in the east, Asia Minor in the north, and the Sudan in the south. This was one of the largest land empires in history. In much of this area, the Arabs spread Islam and the Arabic culture, science, and language (the language of the Qur'an) through conversion and cultural assimilation. Two references valuable for understanding the political significance of Arab identity: Michael C. Hudson, Arab Politics: The Search for Legitimacy (Yale University Press, 1977), especially Chs. 2 and 3; and Michael N. Barnett, Dialogues in Arab Politics: Negotiations in Regional Order (Columbia University Press, 1998). Subgroups While Pan-Arabism and Arab nationalism subsume all Arabic-speaking populations under the notion of "Arabs", there are numerous sub-divisions, not all of which necessarily identify as ethnically Arab. The Arabians form a strict subset of the ethnolinguistic group of "Arabs" discussed here. The name of Arab historically was synonymous with Bedouin. In some parts of the Arab World, the term Arab may still carry connotations of being Arabian, conflicting with the Pan-Arabist concept of ethnicity. Arabians are most prevalent in the Arabian Peninsula, but are also found in large numbers in Mesopotamia (Arab tribes in Iraq), the Levant and Sinai (Negev Bedouin, Tarabin bedouin), as well as North East Africa (Libya, South Tunisia) and the Sudan region. Arabian Peninsula 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: Pure Arabs or Qahtanian Arabs (العرب العاربة) from Yemen, taken to be descended from Ya‘rub bin Yashjub bin Qahtan. Arabized Arabs or ‘Adnani Arabs (العرب المستعربة), taken to be the descendants of Ishmael and the Jurhum tribe. This traditional division of the Arabs of Arabia may have arisen at the time of early Muslim factional infighting during the Umayyad Caliphate. Of the Arabian tribes that interacted with Muhammad, the most prominent was Banu Quraish. The Qur'aish sub-clan of Banu Hashim was the clan of Muhammad. During the period of Muslim conquests and the Golden Age of Islam, the political rulers of Islam were exclusively members of the Banu Quraish tribe. Iraq Further information: Arab tribes in Iraq The 150 Arab tribes in Iraq are grouped into federations (qabila), and divided into clans (fukhdh). The so-called Marsh Arabs of southern Iraq consist of numerous tribes, partly within the large Al-Muntafiq tribal alliance. Iranian Arabs form a 2% minority in Iran. The largest group are the Ahwazi Arabs, including Banu Kaab, Bani Turuf and the Musha'sha'iyyah sect . Smaller groups are the Khamseh nomads in Fars Province and the Arabs in Khorasan. Syria and Levant 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 Yaman trace their origin to South Arabia or Yemen; they include Banu Kalb, Kindah, Ghassanids, and Lakhmids.[35] Since the 1834 Arab revolt in Palestine, the Arabic-speaking population of Palestine has shed its formerly tribal structure and emerged as the Palestinian people, the same can be said about most of the inhabitants of the Levant who no longer determine their identity in tribal and clan lineages. Africa The Bedouin of western Egypt and eastern Libya are traditionally divided into Sa`ada and Murabtin, the Sa`ada group having higher social status. This may derive from a historical feudal system in which the Murabtin were vassals to the Sa`ada. With the Muslim conquest of North Africa and the Sudan region, amalgamated populations emerged, now sometimes summarized under the terms Arab-Berber, Arabized Berber and Afro-Arab. Egyptians are Arabic-speaking, but the question of their idenfitication as ethnically Arab has a long and complicated history of controversy. The Arabic-speaking population of the Maghreb (Libyans, Algerians, Moroccans, Tunisians) is loosely divided into Arab-Berber for people of mixed Arab-Berber descent who embrace an Arab identity, and Arabized Berber for people of predominantly North African ancestry who retain a regional identity. In Sudan, there are numerous Arab tribes, including the Shaigya, Ja'alin, Shukria, Rashaida, etc. in addition, there are Arabized or partially Arabized ethnic groups such as the Nubians, Copts, or Beja; they are sometimes united under the umbrella term of Sudanese Arabs. Arab slave trade in the Sudan region and West Africa created a clean division between Arabs and indigenous populations, and slavery in contemporary Africa substantially persists along these lines,[36] contributing to ethnic conflict in the region, such as the internal conflicts in Sudan, Northern Mali conflict, or the Islamist insurgency in Northern Nigeria. 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. According to the International Organization for Migration, there are 13 million first-generation Arab migrants in the world, of which 5.8 reside in Arab countries, yielding a total of about 7 million people in the Arab diaspora. Most of the Arab countries are predominantly the youth. "Over 40 percent of the region's population is under 15. Only 4 nations - Bahrain, Kuwait, UAE, and Qatar have an under 15 population less than 35 percent."[37] Arab world and Israel The table below shows the distribution of populations in the Arab world and Israel, as well as the official language(s) within the various Arab states. Country Population Official language(s) Notes Algeria 38,700,000[38] Arabic official language Bahrain 1,314,089[39] Arabic official language Comoros 766,865[40] Arabic co-official language with Comorian and French Djibouti 810,179[41] Arabic co-official language with French Egypt 86,895,099[42] Arabic official language Iraq 32,585,692[43] Arabic co-official language with Kurdish Israel 1,658,000 Arabic co-official language with Hebrew According to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics, the Arab population in 2013 was estimated at 1,658,000, representing 20.7% of the country's population.[44] Jordan 7,930,491[45] Arabic official language Kuwait 4,156,306[46] Arabic official language 60% of Kuwait's population is Arab (including Kuwaitis and Arab expatriates). Lebanon 5,882,562[47] Arabic official language Libya 6,244,174[48] Arabic official language Mauritania 3,516,806[49] Arabic official language Morocco 32,987,206[50] Arabic co-official language with Berber Oman 3,219,775[51] Arabic official language State of Palestine Palestine 4,225,710 Arabic official language Gaza Strip: 1,763,387, 100% Palestinian Arab,[52] West Bank: 2,676,740, 83% Palestinian Arab and other[53] Qatar 2,123,160[54] Arabic official language Saudi Arabia 27,345,986[55] Arabic official language Somalia 10,428,043[56] Arabic co-official language with Somali Sudan 35,482,233[57] Arabic co-official language with English Syria 17,951,639[58] Arabic official language Tunisia 10,937,521[59] Arabic official language United Arab Emirates 8,264,070[60] Arabic official language Yemen 26,052,966[61] Arabic official language Migration and diaspora Main article: Arab diaspora Arab diaspora Flag Country Number of Arabs Total Population % Arabs Notes Brazil Brazil 10,000,000 200,000,000 5% [62] France France 5,880,000 65,350,000 9% [63] Indonesia Indonesia 5,000,000 237,420,000 2.1% [3] Argentina Argentina 3,500,000 41,280,000 8.5% [64] United States United States 3,500,000 315,700,000 1.11% [4] Turkey Turkey 1,600,000 80,500,000 2.1% [65] Venezuela Venezuela 1,600,000 28,000,000 6% [6] Iran Iran 1,600,000 80,000,000 2.0% [66] Chad Chad 1,400,000 10,329,208 12.3% [67] Mexico Mexico 1,100,000 115,300,000 0.95% [68] Chile Chile 1,000,000 17,400,000 5.8% [69] Spain Spain 800,000 46,750,000 2.4% Italy Italy 760,000 60,920,000 1.2% Colombia Colombia 705,000 46,370,000 1.5% [70] United Kingdom United Kingdom 500,000 63,180,000 0.8% [71] Germany Germany 500,000 82,000,000 0.6% [72] Canada Canada 450,000 33,500,000 1.4% [73] Netherlands Netherlands 480,000 16,750,000 2.8% [74] Australia Australia 350,000 22,970,000 1.5% [75] Greece Greece 250,000 10,900,000 2.2% Syrian immigrants in New York City, as depicted in 1895 According to the International Organization for Migration, there are 13 million first-generation Arab migrants in the world, of which 5.8 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 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.[76] The 250,000 strong Lebanese community in West Africa is the largest non-African group in the region.[77][78] Arab traders have long operated in Southeast Asia and along the East Africa's Swahili coast. Zanzibar was once ruled by Omani Arabs.[79] Most of the prominent Indonesians, Malaysians, and Singaporeans of Arab descent are Hadhrami people with origins in southern Yemen in the Hadramawt coastal region.[80] Central Asia and Caucasus Further information: Arabs in the Caucasus, Emirate of Tbilisi, Emirate of Armenia and History of Arabs in Afghanistan In 1728, a Russian officer described a group of Sunni Arab nomads who populated the Caspian shores of Mughan (in present-day Azerbaijan) and spoke a mixed Turkic-Arabic language.[81] It is believed that these groups migrated to the Caucasus in the 16th century.[82] The 1888 edition of Encyclopædia Britannica also mentioned a certain number of Arabs populating the Baku Governorate of the Russian Empire.[83] They retained an Arabic dialect at least into the mid-19th century,[84] but since then have fully assimilated with the neighbouring Azeris and Tats. Today in Azerbaijan alone, there are nearly 30 settlements still holding the name Arab (for example, Arabgadim, Arabojaghy, Arab-Yengija, etc.). Lebanese–Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim has been ranked by Forbes as the second richest person in the world. From the time of the Arab conquest of the Caucasus, continuous small-scale Arab migration from various parts of the Arab world occurred in Dagestan, which influenced local culture. Until the mid-20th century, some individuals in Dagestan still claimed Arabic as their native language. 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.[82] Most Arab communities in southern Dagestan underwent linguistic Turkicisation, thus nowadays Darvag is a majority-Azeri village.[85][86] 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.[87] 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 Arabic origin such as Sayyid, Khoja or Siddiqui.[88] Iranian Arab communities are also found in Khuzestan Province. South Asia Further information: Ashraf, Caste system among South Asian Muslims and Arabs in Pakistan There are only two communities with the self-identity Arab in India, the Chaush of the Deccan region and the Chavuse of Gujerat,[89][90] who are by and large descended of Hadhrami migrants who settled in these two regions in the 18th Centuries. However, both these communities no longer speak Arabic, although with the Chaush, there has been re-immigration to the Gulf States, and re-adoption of Arabic by these immigrants.[91] In South Asia, claiming Arab ancestry is considered prestigious, and many communities have origin myths with claim to an Arab ancestry. Examples include the Mappilla of Kerala, Labbai of Tamil Nadu and Kokan of Maharashtra. These communities all allege an Arab ancestry, but none speak Arabic and follow the customs and traditions of the Hindu majority.[92] Among Muslims of North India and Pakistan there are groups who claim the status of Sayyid, have origin myths that allege descent from the Prophet Mohammmad. None of these Sayyid families speak Arabic or follow Arab customs or traditions.[93]Iraqi biradri can be considered as an Arab because the record of their ancestors who migrated from Iraq exists in historical documents. History Bronze statue of Dhamar Ali, King of the Himyarite dynasty, the 4th century AD Pre-Islamic Main article: Pre-Islamic Arabia Nabataean trade routes in Pre-Islamic Arabia Pre-Islamic Arabia refers to Arabic civilization in the Arabian Peninsula before 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. Semitic origin Assyrian horsemen pursue defeated Arabs Some theories put the origin of Semitic peoples in the Arabian Peninsula.[94][95] However, recent Bayesian analysis identified an origin for Proto-Semitic language in the Levant (modern Syria and Lebanon) around 3750 BC.[96] Early non-Arab Semitic peoples from the Ancient Near East, such as the Arameans, Akkadians (Assyrians and Babylonians), Amorites, Israelites, Eblaites, Ugarites and Canaanites, built civilizations in Mesopotamia, Eastern Arabia and the Levant; genetically, they often interlapped and mixed.[97] Slowly, however, they lost their political domination of the Near East due to internal turmoil and attacks by non-Semitic peoples. Although the Semites eventually lost political control of Western Asia to the Persian Empire, the Aramaic language remained the lingua franca of Assyria, Mesopotamia and the Levant. Aramaic itself was replaced by Greek as Western Asia's prestige language following the invasion of Alexander the Great, though it survives to this day among Assyrian Christians (a.k.a. Chaldo-Assyrians) and Mandeans in Iraq, northeast Syria, southeast Turkey and northwest Iran. Early history The first written attestation of the ethnonym "Arab" occurs in an 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 Karkar. Some of the names given in these texts are Aramaic, while others are the first attestations of Ancient North Arabian 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 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 Syrian Desert and Arabia.[citation needed] Arab tribes came into conflict with the Assyrians during the reign of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal, and he records military victories against the powerful Qedar tribe among others. 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, descending from Qahtan. The Qahtanites (Qahtanis) are said to have migrated from the land of Yemen following the destruction of the Ma'rib Dam (sadd Ma'rib). The "Arabized Arabs" (musta`ribah) of Central Arabia (Najd) and North Arabia, descending from Ishmael 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.(Genesis 17:20) The Book of Jubilees, in the other hand, claims that the sons of Ishmael intermingled with the 6 sons of Keturah, from Abraham, and their descendants were called Arabs and Ishmaelites: And Ishmael and his sons, and the sons of Keturah and their sons, went together and dwelt from Paran to the entering in of Babylon in all the land towards the East facing the desert. And these mingled with each other, and their name was called Arabs, and Ishmaelites. —Book of Jubilees 20:13 Ibn Khaldun's Muqaddima distinguishes between sedentary Arabian 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.[98] The Christians of Italy and the Crusaders preferred the term Saracens for all the Arabs and Muslims of that time.[99] The Christians of Iberia used the term Moor 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 ʿarab, only the nisba adjective ʿarabiy. The Qur'an calls itself ʿarabiy, "Arabic", and Mubin, "clear". The two qualities are connected for example in ayat 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 al-ʿarabiyya, 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 ʾaʿrāb refers to the Bedouin tribes of the desert who resisted Muhammad, for example in ayat 9.97, alʾaʿrābu ʾašaddu kufrān wa nifāqān "the Bedouin are the worst in disbelief and hypocrisy". Based on this, in early Islamic terminology, ʿarabiy referred to the language, and ʾaʿrāb to the Arab Bedouins, carrying a negative connotation due to the Qur'anic verdict just cited. But after the Islamic conquest of the 8th century, the language of the nomadic Arabs became regarded as the most pure by the grammarians following Abi Ishaq, and the term kalam al-ʿArab, "language of the Arabs", denoted the uncontaminated language of the Bedouins. Classical kingdoms Main articles: Palmyra and Nabateans Facade of Al Khazneh in Petra, Jordan, built by the Nabateans Proto-Arabic, or Ancient North Arabian, texts give a clearer picture of the Arabs' emergence. The earliest are written in variants of epigraphic south Arabian musnad script, including the 8th century BCE Hasaean inscriptions of eastern Saudi Arabia, the 6th century BCE Lihyanite texts of southeastern Saudi Arabia and the Thamudic texts found throughout Arabia and the Sinai (not in reality connected with Thamud). The Nabataeans were nomadic newcomers[citation needed] 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 was adopted by Arabs to the south, and evolved into modern Arabic script around the 4th century. This is attested by Safaitic 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 (near Sulayyil) 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. Late kingdoms Further information: Lakhmids, Ghassanids and Kindites The Ghassanids, Lakhmids and Kindites were the last major migration of non-Muslims out of Yemen to the north. The Ghassanids increased the Semitic presence in the then Hellenized Syria, the majority of Semites were Aramaic peoples. They mainly settled in the Hauran region and spread to modern Lebanon, Palestine and East Jordan. Greeks and Romans referred to all the nomadic population of the desert in the Near East as Arabi. The Romans called Yemen "Arabia Felix".[100] The Romans called the vassal nomadic states within the Roman Empire "Arabia Petraea" after the city of Petra, and called unconquered deserts bordering the empire to the south and east Arabia Magna. 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 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.[101] 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 Arbia from "Qaryah Dhat Kahl" (the present-day called Qaryat al-Faw) in Central Arabia. They ruled much of the Northern/Central Arabian peninsula, until they were destroyed by the Lakhmid king Al-Mundhir, and his son 'Amr Islamic Further information: Muslim conquests Arab Caliphate Age of the Caliphs Expansion under Muhammad, 622–632/A.H. 1–11 Expansion during the Rashidun Caliphate, 632–661/A.H. 11–40 Expansion during the Umayyad Caliphate, 661–750/A.H. 40–129 Rashidun Era (632-661) Main article: Rashidun Caliphate 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. It was larger and lasted longer than the previous Arab empires of Queen Mawia or the Palmyrene Empire, which was predominantly Syriac rather than Arab. The Rashidun state was a completely new state and not a mere imitation of the earlier Arab kingdoms such as the Himyarite, Lakhmids or Ghassanids, although it benefited greatly from their art, administration and architecture. Umayyad Era (661-750) Main article: Umayyad Caliphate See also: Abbadid, Taifa, Nasrid, Zengid dynasty and Ikhshidid dynasty The Great Mosque of Kairouan in Kairouan, Tunisia was founded in 670 by the Arab general Uqba ibn Nafi; it is the oldest mosque in the Maghreb[102] and represents an architectural testimony of the Arab conquest of North Africa View of the Alhambra from the Mirador de San Nicolás in the Albaycin of Granada In 661 the Caliphate fell into the hands of the Umayyad dynasty and Damascus was established as the Muslim capital. They were proud of their Arab ancestry and sponsored the poetry and culture of pre-Islamic Arabia. They established garrison towns at Ramla, ar-Raqqah, Basra, Kufa, Mosul and Samarra, all of which developed into major cities.[103] Caliph Abd al-Malik established Arabic as the Caliphate's official language in 686.[104] This reform greatly influenced the conquered non-Arab peoples and fueled the Arabization 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 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 came to power and moved the capital to Baghdad. Umayyads expanded their Empire westwards capturing North Africa from the Byzantines. Prior to the Arab conquest, North Africa was inhibited by various people including Punics, Vandals and Greeks. 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 to punish the Berber Zirids for abandoning Shias, they travelled westwards. The Banu Hilal quickly defeated the Zirids and deeply weakened the neighboring Hammadids. 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 Almohads, Hafsids, etc.), the arrival of these tribes eventually helped Arabize much of it ethnically, in addition to the linguistic and political impact local non-Arabs. With the collapse of the Umayyad state in 1031 AD, Islamic Spain was divided into small kingdoms. Abbassid Era (750-1513) Main article: Abbasid Caliphate The Abbasids led a revolt against the Umayyads and defeated them in the Battle of the Zab effectively ending their rule in all part of the Empire except Al-Andalus. The Abbasids were descendants of Muhammad's uncle Abbas, but unlike the Umayyads they had the support of non-Arab subjects of the Umayyads.[103] The Abbasids ruled for 200 years before they lost their central control when Wilayas began to fracture; afterwards, in the 1190s, there was a revival of their power, which was ended by the Mongols, who conquered Baghdad and killed the Caliph. 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. Golden Age of Islam Medieval Arab mechanical manuscript 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 to the newly founded city Baghdad. The Abbassids 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" (Arabic: بيت الحكمة) in Baghdad. Rival Muslim 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.[105] Ottoman Caliphate Main articles: Ottoman Empire and Ottoman Caliphate Arab family of Ramallah, Jerusalem District in early 1900s Arabs were ruled by Ottoman sultans from 1513 to 1918. Ottomans defeated the Mamluk Sultanate in Cairo, and ended the Abbasid Caliphate when they assumed the title of Caliph. Arabs did not feel the change of administration because the Ottomans modeled their rule after the previous Arab administration systems.[citation needed] After World War I when the Ottoman Empire was invaded by the British Empire, former Ottoman territories were divided up between the British and French as League of Nations mandates. Modern Arabs in modern times live in the Arab world, which comprises 22 countries in the Middle East, North Africa, and parts of the Horn of Africa. 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). Religion Main articles: Arabian mythology, Arab Muslims and Arab Christians Arab Muslims are mostly Sunni with a minority of Shia, one exception being the Ibadis, who predominate in Oman and can be found as small minorities in Algeria and Libya (mostly Berbers). There are also a minority of Ahmadi Muslims.[106] Arab Christians generally follow Eastern Churches such as the Greek Orthodox and Greek Catholic churches, though a minority of Protestant Church followers also exists; The Copts and the Maronites, who are often associated with Arab people as well, follow the Coptic Church and Maronite Church accordingly. In Iraq most Christians are Assyrians rather than Arabs, and follow the Assyrian Church of the East, Syriac Orthodox and Chaldean Church.[107] The Greek Catholic church and Maronite church are under the Pope of Rome, and a part of the larger worldwide Catholic Church. There are also Arab communities consisting of Druze and Baha'is.[108][109] Christianity was the most common religion throughout all these regions at this time, although Judaism, Mandeanism, Sabianism, Manicheanism, Mithraism, Zoroastrianism, and remnants of Mesopotamian religion, Canaanite religion, Greco-Roman religion and Egyptian religion could still also be found. Linguistically, the major Semitic language prior to the Arab conquest was Aramaic, spoken in various forms. The Kaaba, located in Mecca (Saudi Arabia) is the center of Islam. It is where able Muslims from all over the world come to perform Umrah and Hajj Ancient times Before the coming of Islam, most Arabs followed a pagan religion with a number of deities, including Hubal,[110] Wadd, Allāt,[111] Manat, and Uzza. A few individuals, the hanifs, 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 and Lakhmid kingdoms.[112] When the Himyarite king converted to Judaism in the late 4th century,[113] 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.[114][115] Islam Today, Sunni Islam dominates in most areas, overwhelmingly so in North Africa and the Horn of Africa. Shia Islam is dominant among the Arab population in Bahrain and Iraq. Substantial Shia populations exist in Lebanon, Yemen, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia,[116] northern Syria and the al-Batinah region in Oman. There are small numbers of Ibadi and non-denominational Muslims too.[106] Druze faith The Druze community is concentrated in Lebanon, Syria, Israel and Jordan. Many Druze 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 (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. Christianity Isaac of Nineveh, an Assyrian bishop and theologian, 7th century Further information: Arab Christians In pre-Islamic Arabia, Christianity had a prominent presence among several Arab communities, including the Bahrani people of Eastern Arabia, the Christian community of Najran, in parts of Yemen, and among certain northern Arabian tribes such as the Ghassanids, Lakhmids, Taghlib, Banu Amela, Banu Judham, 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."[117] Christians make up 5.5% of the population of the Middle East.[20] 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.[47] In Syria, Christians make up 10% of the population.[58] In West Bank and in Gaza Strip, Christians make up 8% and 0.7% of the populations, respectively.[52][53] In Egypt, Coptic Christians number about 10% of the population. In Iraq, Christians constitute 0.1% of the population.[118] In Israel, Arab Christians constitute 2.1% (roughly 9% of the Arab population).[119] Arab Christians make up 8% of the population of Jordan.[120] Most North and South American Arabs are Christian,[121] as are about half of Arabs in Australia 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.[122] Arab Christians are living also in a holy Christian cities such as Nazareth, Bethlehem and the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem and many other villages with holy Christian sites. |
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