Arabs
عَرَبٌ (Arabic) ʿarabun | |
|---|---|
| Total population | |
c. 400 million[1][2] to 420+ million[3][4]
 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 Arab League | |
| 350,000,000[5][6] | |
 Brazil | 15 to 21 million Arabs and descendants of Arabs[7][8] |
 France | 4-7 million[9] to 5.5[10] million people of North African (Arab or Berber) descent[11] |
 Turkey | 1,630,000–4,000,000[12][13] |
 Germany |
|
 Indonesia |
|
 Argentina | 3,500,000 of Arab and partial Arab ancestry[17] |
 United States | 3,700,000[18] |
 Israel | 1,700,000[19] |
 Venezuela | 1,600,000[20] |
 Colombia | 1,500,000[21] |
 Iran | 1,500,000[22] |
 Chad | 1,689,168 (est.)[23] |
 Spain | 1,350,000[24][25] |
 Chile | 800,000[26][27][28] |
 Canada | 750,925[29] |
 Italy | 680,000[30] |
 Mexico | 600,000[31] |
 United Kingdom | 500,000[32] |
 Australia | 500,000[33] |
 Netherlands | 480,000–613,800[34] |
 Ivory Coast | 300,000[35] |
 Honduras | 280,000[36] |
 Niger | 150,000 (2006)[37] |
 El Salvador | More than 100,000[38][39][40][41][42] |
 Ecuador | 97,000[43] |
 Uruguay | 75,000[31] |
 Tanzania | 70,000[44] |
 Kenya | 59,021 (2019)[45] |
| Languages | |
| Arabic | |
| Religion | |
| |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Afro-Arabs, Jews, Samaritans and other Afro-Asiatic speakers[46][47][48][49][50][51] | |
a Arab ethnicity should not be confused with non-Arab ethnicities that are also native to the Arab world. But there are instances in which some non-Arab ethnicities native to the Arab world simultaneously identify as Arab and another non-Arab ethnicity through either cultural assimilation (partial/incomplete Arabization within certain communities), or as a pan-ethnic identity,[51] as well as partially Arabized communities. | |
The Arabs (singular Arab /ˈær.əb/;[52] singular Arabic: عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: arabīyun, Arabic pronunciation: [ˈʕarabiːjun], plural Arabic: عَرَب, DIN 31635: ʿarab, Arabic pronunciation: [ˈʕarab] (
listen)), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group[a] mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and the Western Indian Ocean islands (including the Comoros).[63] An Arab diaspora is established around the world in significant numbers, in the Americas, Western Europe, Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkey, India and Iran.[64][65][66][67][68]
In modern usage, the term "Arabs" tends to refer to those whose native language is Arabic and identify as such. In a source that compares Arabs in Europe to other socioethnic groups, Arabs are referred to as a socioethnic group.[69] This contrasts with the narrower traditional definition, which referred to the descendants of the Tribes of the Arabian Peninsula.[70] Islam started in Arabia, Arabic is the language of Islamic scripture, and most Arabs are Muslims. However, only about 20% of Muslims are Arabs.[71]
The first mention of Arabs appeared in the mid-9th century BCE, as a tribal people in Eastern and Southern Syria and the northern Arabian Peninsula.[72] The Arabs appear to have been under the vassalage of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911–612 BCE), as well as the succeeding Neo-Babylonian (626–539 BCE), Achaemenid (539–332 BCE), Seleucid and Parthian empires.[73] The Nabataeans, are an Arab people, who formed their Kingdom near Petra in the 3rd century BCE. Arab tribes, most notably the Ghassanids and Lakhmids, began to in the Southern Syrian Desert from the mid 3rd century CE onward, during the mid to later stages of the Roman and Sasanian empires.[74]
Before the expansion of the Rashidun Caliphate (632–661 C.E.), "Arab" referred to any of the largely nomadic and settled Arabic-speaking people from the Arabian Peninsula, Syrian Desert and Lower Mesopotamia, with some even reaching what is now northern Iraq.[75] Since the influence of Pan-Arabism 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, Arabic tribes and the Arabic language throughout the region during the early Muslim conquests of the 7th and 8th centuries. These cultural and demographic influences resulted in the subsequent Arabisation of the indigenous populations.[76][77]
The Arabs forged the Rashidun (632–661), Umayyad (661–750), Abbasid (750–1517) and the Fatimid (901–1071) caliphates, whose borders reached Southern France in the west, China in the east, Anatolia in the north and the Sudan in the south. This was one of the largest land empires in history.[78] In the early 20th century, the First World War signalled the end of the Ottoman Empire, which had ruled much of the Arab world since conquering the Mamluk Sultanate in 1517.[79] The end culminated in the 1922 defeat and dissolution of the empire and the partition of its territories, forming the modern Arab states.[80] Following the adoption of the Alexandria Protocol in 1944, the Arab League was founded on 22 March 1945.[81] The Charter of the Arab League endorsed the principle of an Arab homeland whilst respecting the individual sovereignty of its member states.[82]
Today, Arabs primarily inhabit the 22 member states of the Arab League. The Arab world stretches around 13 million km2, 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. People of non-Arab ethnicities associated with non-Arabic languages also live in these countries, sometimes as a majority. These include Somalis, Kurds, Berbers, the Afar people, Nubians and others. Beyond the boundaries of the League of Arab States, Arabs can also be found in the global diaspora.[64] The ties that bind Arabs are ethnic, linguistic, cultural, historical, identical, nationalist, geographical and political.[83] The Arabs have their own customs, language, architecture, art, literature, music, dance, media, cuisine, dress, society, sports and mythology.[84]
Arabs are a diverse group in terms of religious affiliations and practices. In the pre-Islamic era, most Arabs followed polytheistic religions. Some tribes had adopted Christianity or Judaism and a few individuals, the hanifs, apparently observed another form of monotheism.[85] Today, about 93% of Arabs are adherents of Islam[86] and there are sizable Christian minorities.[87] Arab Muslims primarily belong to the Sunni, Shiite, Ibadi and Alawite denominations. Arab Christians generally follow one of the Eastern Christian Churches, such as those within the Oriental Orthodox churches, Eastern Catholic churches, or Eastern Protestant churches.[88] There also exist small numbers of Arab Jews 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. Christian minorities in Arab-majority states may also not consider themselves Arab, such as Copts and Assyrians. Other smaller minority religions also exist, such as the Druze, Zoroastrianism and the Baháʼí Faith.
Arabs have greatly influenced and contributed to diverse fields, notably the arts and architecture, language, philosophy, mythology, ethics, literature, politics, business, music, dance, cinema, medicine, science and technology in ancient and modern history.[89]
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 (9th century BCE). The Monoliths used the term to refer to Bedouins of the Arabian Peninsula under King Gindibu, who fought as part of a coalition opposed to Assyria.[90] 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 "Gi-in-di-bu'u the ar-ba-a-a" or "[the man] Gindibu belonging to the Arabs" (ar-ba-a-a being an adjectival nisba of the noun ʿarab).[90]
The related word ʾaʿrāb is used to refer to Bedouins today, in contrast to ʿarab which refers to Arabs in general.[91] Both terms are mentioned around 40 times in pre-Islamic Sabaean 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.[92]
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, which refers to Imru' al-Qays ibn 'Amr as 'King of all the Arabs'.[93][94] Herodotus refers to the Arabs in the Sinai, southern Palestine, and the frankincense region (Southern Arabia). Other Ancient-Greek historians like Agatharchides, Diodorus Siculus and Strabo mention Arabs living in Mesopotamia (along the Euphrates), in Egypt (the Sinai and the Red Sea), southern Jordan (the Nabataeans), the Syrian steppe and in eastern Arabia (the people of Gerrha). Inscriptions dating to the 6th century BCE in Yemen include the term 'Arab'.[95]
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 ʿ-B-R, 'moving around' (Arabic: ʿ-B-R, 'traverse') and hence, it is alleged, 'nomadic'.[96]
History[]
Antiquity[]
| Historical Arab states and dynasties |
|---|
 |
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 (Arabic: سَـبَـأ, romanized: Saba',[97] possibly Sheba),[98] and the coastal areas of Eastern Arabia were controlled by the Parthian and Sassanians from 300 BCE.
Origins and early history[]
According to Arab-Islamic-Jewish traditions, Ishmael was father of the Arabs, to be the ancestor of the Ishmaelites.
- Both Judaism and Islam see him as the ancestor of Arab peoples.[99]
- 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.
- Genesis 17:20[100]
- Zeep, Ira G. (2000). A Muslim primer: beginner's guide to Islam, Volume 2. University of Arkansas Press. p. 5. ISBN 978-1-55728-595-9.
- 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.[101]
- "Zayd ibn Amr" was another Pre-Islamic figure who refused idolatry and preached monotheism, claiming it was the original belief of their [Arabs] father Ishmael.[102]
- The tribes of Central West Arabia called themselves the "people of Abraham and the offspring of Ishmael."[103]
- Gibb, Hamilton A. R., and J. H. Kramers. 1965. Shorter Encyclopedia of Islam. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. pp. 191–98
- Maalouf, Tony. Arabs in the Shadow of Israel: The Unfolding of God's Prophetic Plan for Ishmael's Line. Kregel Academic. ISBN 978-0-8254-9363-8.
- Urbain, Olivier (2008). Music and Conflict Transformation: Harmonies and Dissonances in Geopolitics. I.B.Tauris. ISBN 978-1-84511-528-9.</ref>
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 Qarqar. 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.
Old Arabic diverges from Central Semitic by the beginning of the 1st millennium BCE.[citation needed]
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" (mustaʿribah) 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.[104] The Book of Jubilees 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
