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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 and Tayy. Christians make up 5.5% of the population of the Middle East.[17] A sizeable share of those are Arab Christians proper, and affiliated populations of Copts and Maronites. In Lebanon, Christians number about 39% of the population.[114] In Syria, Christians make up 10% of the population.[115] In West Bank and in Gaza Strip, Christians make up 8% and 0.7% of the populations, respectively.[49][50] In Egypt, Coptic Christians number about 10% of the population. In Iraq, Christians constitute 0.1% of the population.[116] In Israel, Arab Christians constitute 2.1% (roughly 9% of the Arab population).[117] Arab Christians make up 8% of the population of Jordan.[118] Most North and South American Arabs are Christian,[119] as are about half of Arabs in Australia who come particularly from Lebanon, Syria and Israel. One well known member of this religious and ethnic community is Saint Abo, martyr and the patron saint of Tbilisi, Georgia.[120] 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 yes, in many other villages with holy Christian sites. Judaism Main articles: Jewish tribes of Arabia and Arab Jews The Jewish tribes of Arabia were Arabian tribes professing the Jewish faith that inhabited the Arabian Peninsula before and during the advent of Islam. It is not always clear whether they were originally Israelite in ancestry, genealogically Arab tribes that converted to Judaism, or a mixture of both. In Islamic tradition the Jewish tribes of the Hejaz were seen as the offspring of the ancient Israelites.[121] According to Muslim sources, they spoke a language other than Arabic, which Al-Tabari claims was Persian. This implies they were connected to the major Jewish center in Babylon.[122] Certain Jewish traditions records the existence of nomadic tribes such as the Rechabites that converted to Judaism in antiquity. The tribes collapsed with the rise of Islam, with many either converting or fleeing the Arab peninsula. Some of those tribes are thought to have merged into Yemenite Jewish community, while others, like the residents of Yatta consider themselves Islamized descendants of Khaybar, a Jewish tribe of Arabia. Prior to the massive Sephardic emigrations to the Middle East in the 16th and 17th centuries, the Jewish communities of what are today Syria, Iraq, Israel, Lebanon, Egypt and Yemen were known by other Jewish communities as Musta'arabi Jews or "like Arabs". Also, prior to the emergence of the term Mizrahi, the term "Arab Jews" was sometimes used to describe Jews living in the Arab world.[citation needed] From the late 1940s to the early 1960s, following the creation of the state of Israel, most of descendants of these Jews fled or were expelled from their countries of birth and now live in Israel, France or elsewhere. The few remaining Jews in the Arab countries reside mostly in Morocco and Tunisia. Modern Jews from Arab countries – mainly Mizrahi Jews, Yemenite Jews and Maghrebi Jews – are today usually not categorized as Arab, though there is still some debate on whether or not the term "Arabs" can be applied to them. Sociologist Sammy Smooha stated "This ("Arab Jews") term does not hold water. It is absolutely not a parallel to 'Arab Christian'".[123] Those who dispute the historicity of the term make the claim that Middle Eastern Jews are similar to Kurds, Assyrians, Berbers and other ancient Middle Eastern groups, who lived among the Arab societies as distinct minority groups with distinct identity and therefore are not categorized as Arabs. On the other hand, others gives examples of periods where the term "Arab-Jews" was applied in one form or another. Sociologist Philip Mendes asserts that before the anti-Jewish actions of the 1930s and 1940s, overall Iraqi Jews "viewed themselves as Arabs of the Jewish faith, rather than as a separate race or nationality".[citation needed] Culture "Bayad plays the oud to the lady", Arabicmanuscript for Qissat Bayad wa Reyad tale from late 12th century Arab culture is a term that draws together the common themes and overtones found in the Arab countries, especially those of the Middle-Eastern countries. This region's distinct religion, art, and food are some of the fundamental features that define Arab culture. Art Arabic Art includes a wide range or artistic components, it can be Arabic miniature, calligraphy or Arabesque. Architecture Arab Architecture has a deep diverse history, it dates to the dawn of the history in pre-Islamic Arabia. Each of it phases largely an extension of the earlier phase, it left also heavy impact on the architecture of other nations. Music Arabic music is the music of Arab people or countries, especially those centered on the Arabian Peninsula. The world of Arab music has long been dominated by Cairo, a cultural center, though musical innovation and regional styles abound from Morocco to Saudi Arabia. Beirut has, in recent years, also become a major center of Arabic music. Classical Arab music is extremely popular across the population, especially a small number of superstars known throughout the Arab world. Qatabanian era musical scene, 1st century AD Regional styles of popular music include Algerian raï, Moroccan gnawa, Kuwaiti sawt, Egyptian el gil and Arabesque-pop music in Turkey. Most historians agree that distinct forms of music existed in the Arabian peninsula in the pre-Islamic period between the 5th and 7th century AD. Arab poets of that time—called shu`ara' al-Jahiliyah (شعراء الجاهلية) or "Jahili poets", meaning "the poets of the period of ignorance"—recited poems with a high note. Tradition believes that Jinns revealed poems to poets, and music to musicians. The choir of the time was a pedagogic facility where educated poets recited poems. Singing was thought not the work of intellectuals, and was instead entrusted to women who learned to play instruments of the time, such as the drum, oud, or rebab, and perform the songs while respecting the poetic metre. Literature Main article: Arabic literature Self portrait of renown Lebanese poet/writer Khalil Gibran There is a small remnant of pre-Islamic poetry, but Arabic literature predominantly emerges in the Middle Ages, during the Golden Age of Islam. Literary Arabic is derived from Classical Arabic, based on the language of the Qu'ran as it was analyzed by Arabic grammarians beginning in the 8th century. A large portion of Arabic literature prior to 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 or love poem had a long history being at times tender and chaste and at other times rather explicit. In the Sufi tradition the love poem would take on a wider, mystical and religious importance. Arabic epic literature was much less common than poetry, and presumably originates in oral tradition, written down from the 14th century or so. Maqama or rhymed prose is intermediate between poetry and prose, and also between fiction and non-fiction. Maqama 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. Arabic literature and culture declined significantly after the 13th century, to the benefit of Turkish and Persian. Ahlem Mosteghanemi in 2009. She is one of the most renowned Arab female writers 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—and works like One Thousand and One Nights. In contrast, a modernist movement began by translating Western modernist works—primarily novels—into Arabic. A tradition of modern Arabic poetry was established by writers such as Francis Marrash, Ahmad Shawqi and Hafiz Ibrahim. Iraqi poet Badr Shakir al-Sayyab is considered to be the originator of free verse in Arabic poetry. Genetics Y-Chromosome Haplogroup E1b1b is the most frequent haplogroup in Western Arabs (Maghrebis) while haplogroup J is the most frequent haplogroup in Eastern Arabs (Mashriq).[124] The paternal ancestry found across all Arabic countries is Haplogroup J1, especially its major subclade J-P58, the haplogroup that spread with Arabic conquest in the 7th century. It was found that Haplogroup J1 occur at high frequencies among the Arabic-speaking populations of the Middle East and is the prevalent Y-chromosome lineage within the Near East. Haplogroup J1e (J-P58) is also associated with a Semitic linguistic common denominator, with the YCAII 22-22 allele state is closely associated with J1e.[125] J-P58 subclade of J1 is the single paternal lineage originating in the Near East of high frequency in Bedouins 70%, Yemenis 68%, Jordanians 55%, 55% of Palestinian Arabs, 48% of Omani People 34% of Tunisians, 35% of Algerians[126][127][128] , and its precipitations drop in frequency as one moves away from Saudi Arabia and the Near East. J-P58 include all the J1-CMH haplotypes and is YCAII=22-22 motif, both are found in Arabs and J1-Cohanim (Y-chromosomal Aaron).[129][130] The motif YCAII=22-22 characterize a monophyletic clad found in Arabs but less frequent in Ethiopian J1 and rare in Europe and Caucasus.[131][132] It has now been resolved that the Arabic clade J1-P58, L147.1 (the major clad of P58 and still the major clade of J1) include all CMH haplotypes and is YCAII=22-22 (both specific to Arabs and J1-Cohanim) was the J1 clade that spread far and wide by the Islamic conquest.[133] Both Qahtanite and Adnanite Arabs are J1-P58 haplogroup since the Arabs of North Africa like Algeria (known to have Qahtanite lineage from the Arab conquest and Adnanite lineage from Bani Hilal and bani Sulaim migration to North Africa in the 10th century by the Fatimides, yet only E of the Berber and J1 are found in Arabs of North Africa and this J1 is marked by CMH and the motif YCAII=22-22. The J2 in Algerian Arabs is minor 3% and is of the rare J2-M67 of Chechnya, rarely found in other Arabic countries and non existent in Arabian Peninsula and Yemen.[134][135] The Arab conquest appears to have had a dramatic influence on the East and South Mediterranean coasts. The presence of Arab Y chromosome lineages in the Middle East suggests that most have experienced substantial gene flow from the Arabian peninsula.[136] Maternal Chromosome The Maternal ancestral lineages of Arabic countries are very diverse. The original Historical Maternal ancestral Haplogroups of the Near East were Mt (Maternal) L3 Haplogroup and Mt HV1 haplogroup that are still high in Yemen, while in Greater Syria there is a European Maternal gene flow. In the Arabic West the dominant Maternal lineage is the rare Scandinavian Europpean U8 haplogroup probably came with the Vandals when escaped from Spain from the Visigoths.[137][138][139] Other Chromosomes Many of the pronounced genetic deficiencies in Arabs (causing genetic disorders specific to Arabs) are located on HLA segment on chromosome 6. This same segment mutations are also markers of Arabs in Genealogical and forensic profiling tests and studies. Such studies as: Arab population data on the PCR-based loci: HLA [140] HLA polymorphism in Saudi.[141] Other mixed DNA studies on Arabic populations |
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