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An 'Arab' () is a member of a complexly defined
ethnic group who
identifies as such on the basis of one or more of either
genealogical, political, or
linguistic grounds.
The
Arabic language and
culture began to spread in the
Middle East in the
2nd century with genealogically
Arab Christians such as the
Ghassanids,
Lakhmids, and
Banu Judham, and even earlier
Arab Jewish tribes. Widespread proliferation of Arab language, culture and identity in the Middle East and
North Africa, however, did not begin until after the advent of
Islam in the
7th century and the ensuing
Arab Muslim expansion. The
early conquests of successive
Islamic Arab empires resulted in the
Arabization and
cultural assimilation of the region's other Non Arab Semitic and non Semitic peoples, often but not always with their
Islamization. Islamized but non-Arabized peoples form part of the
Muslim World not the traditionally secular
Arab World. With the rise of
Arab nationalism, the label ''Arab'' expanded beyond a pure geneaological definition to come to be associated with Arabized populations of countries in North Africa and the Middle East. Definitions of ''Arab'' based on this latter theory are contested by many.
Defining who is an Arab
The definition of an Arab is heavily disputed. It is usually defined independent of
religious identity. It pre-dates the rise of
Islam, with historically attested
Arab Christian kingdoms and
Arab Jewish tribes. The earliest documented use of the word "Arab" as defining a group of people dates from the
9th century BC.
[1] Islamized but non-Arabized peoples, and therefore the majority of world Muslims, do not form part of the traditionally secular
Arab World, but comprise what is the geographically larger and diverse
Muslim World.
In the modern era, defining who is an Arab is done on the grounds of one or more of the following three criteria:
★
Genealogical: someone who can trace his or her ancestry to the
tribes of Arabia - the original inhabitants of the
Arabian Peninsula - and the
Syrian Desert. This definition covers fewer self-identified Arabs than not, and was the definition used in
medieval times, for example by
Ibn Khaldun.
★
Linguistic: someone whose
first language, and by extension cultural expression, is
Arabic, including any of its
varieties. This definition covers more than 250 million people. Certain groups that fulfill this criteria, such as many
Egyptians, reject this definition on the basis of genealogy.
★
Political: in the modern
nationalist era, any person who is a
citizen of a country where
Arabic is either the
national language or one of the
official languages, or a citizen of a country which may simply be a member of the
Arab League and thus having Arabic as an official government language, even if not used by the majority of the population. This definition would cover over 300 million people. It may be the most contested definition as it is the most simplistic one. It would exclude the entire
Arab diaspora, but include not only those genealogically Arabs (
Gulf Arabs and others, such as
Bedouins, where they may exist) and those Arabized-Arab-identified (such as most
Palestinians), but also include Arabized non-Arab-identified groups (such as many
Lebanese) and even non-Arabized
indigenous ethnicities which may be non-Arabic-speaking, monolignually or otherwise (such as the
Berbers in Morocco,
Kurds in Iraq, or the
Somali majority of Arab League member
Somalia).
The relative importance of these three factors is estimated differently by different groups and frequently disputed. Some combine aspects of each definition, as done by
Habib Hassan Touma,
[1] 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.
Some groups who meet some of these criteria, however, still do not identify as Arab due to genealogy or traditional pre-Arab ethnic identity, or more recently,
nationality. In particular, the native people of
North Africa, the
Berbers and the
Egyptians, in addition to being genealogically non-Arab, were also not traditionally
Semitic-speaking peoples until the introduction and generalized shift to monolingual
Arabic usage. The
Berber and
Egyptian languages (not to be confused with
Egyptian Arabic), however, are two language branches that along with
Semitic languages (such as
Arabic,
Aramaic and
Hebrew),
Chadic languages and
Cushitic languages come together to form the
Afro-Asiatic language family. Thus, North Africans, especially those who still use their indigenous non-Semitic languages, such as the
Berber language, more strongly identify as non-Arab. In the case of Berber speakers, they would identify as
Berbers, and many
Egyptians, whether Muslim or
Coptic, identify only as Egyptians.
[2] (See
Egypt#Identity for more information).
Costumes of Arab men, fourth to sixth century.
Few people consider themselves Arab based on the political definition without the linguistic one; thus few
Kurds and
Berbers identify as Arab. But some do, for instance some Berbers also consider themselves Arab (v. e.g. Gellner, Ernest and Micaud, Charles, Eds. Arabs and Berbers: from tribe to nation in North Africa. Lexington: Lexington Books, 1972). Some religious minorities within the Middle East and North Africa who have Arabic or any of its varieties as their primary community language, such as Egyptian
Copts
[3] are not likely to self-identify as Arabs, even when the majority of their respective compatriots share the same ancestral origin but at some stage in history adopted Islam.
The
Arab League at its formation in
1946 defined ''Arab'' as "a person whose language is Arabic, who lives in an Arabic speaking country, who is in sympathy with the aspirations of the Arabic speaking peoples".
The relation of '' and '' is complicated further by the notion of "lost Arabs" '' mentioned in the Qur'an as punished for their disbelief. All contemporary Arabs were considered as descended from two ancestors,
Qahtan and
Adnan. Qahtan was related to the "lost Arabs", and the
Southern Arabs were identified as of his lineage, regarded as the "real Arabs", ''. The Northern Arabs, including the tribes of Mecca, were considered the descendants of Adnan, in Islamic tradition traced back to
Ismail son of
Abraham, said to have been Arabized later.
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
Himyarite language described by
Al-Hamdani (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 Arabic.
During the
Muslim conquests of the
seventh and
eighth 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 language (the language of the
Qur'an) through
conversion and
cultural assimilation. Many groups became known as "Arabs" through this process of
Arabization rather than through descent. Thus, over time, the term ''Arab'' came to carry a broader meaning than the original ethnic term: ''cultural'' Arab vs. ''ethnic'' Arab. Some native people in
Sudan,
Morocco and
Algeria (
Berbers) and in other regions became Arabized.
Arab nationalism declares that Arabs are united in a shared history, culture and language. Arab nationalists believe that Arab identity encompasses more than outward physical characteristics,
race or
religion. A related ideology,
Pan-Arabism, calls for all Arab lands to be united as one
state. Arab nationalism has often competed for existence with regional and ethnic nationalisms in the Middle East, such as Lebanese and Egyptian.
Origins & History
Ancient origins
Early Semites built civilizations in Mesopotamia and Syria, but slowly lost their political domination of the
Near East due to internal turmoil and constant attacks by new nomadic Semitic and non-Semitic groups. The
Arameans,
Akkadians,
Assyrians,
Canaanites,
Babylonians,
Phoenicians,
Philistines,
Amorites,
Sabaeans and
Minaeans spoke closely related Semitic languages. These groups often overlapped and mixed racial lines, as did
Indo-European groups.
[4] Attacks climaxed with the arrival of the Medians to east Mesopotamia and the incorporation of the
Neo Babylonians. Although the Semites lost political control, the Aramaic language remained the lingua Franca of Mesopotamia and Syria. Eventually, Aramaic lost its day-to-day use with the defeat of the Persians and the arrival of the Hellenic armies around 330BC.
The
Hebrew Bible occasionally refers to ''`Arvi'' 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. Its earliest attested use referring to the neighboring nomadic groups.
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 BC
Hasaean inscriptions of eastern Saudi Arabia, the 6th century BC
Lihyanite texts of southeastern Saudi Arabia and the
Thamudic texts found throughout Arabia and the
Sinai (not in reality connected with
Thamud).
The
Nabateans moved into territory vacated by the
Edomites -- Semites who settled the region centuries before them. The Nabateans were nomadic newcomers who wrote in a vernacular Aramiac that evolved into modern Arabic and modern Arabic script around the 4th century. This process included
Safaitic inscriptions (beginning in the 1st century BC) and the many Arabic personal names in
Nabataean inscriptions in Aramaic. From about the 2nd century BC, a few inscriptions from Qaryat al-Faw (near
Sulayyil) reveal a dialect which is no longer considered "proto-Arabic", but pre-classical Arabic.
Qahtani migrations to the North
In
Sassanid times,
Arabia Petraea was a border province between the Roman and Persian empires, and from the early centuries AD was increasingly affected by
South Arabian influence, notably with the
Ghassanids migrating north from the 3rd century.
The
Ghassanids,
Lakhmids and
Kindites were the last major migration of non-muslims out of Yemen to the north.
★ The
Ghassanids revived the Semitic presence in the then Hellenized
Syria. They mainly settled the
Hauran region and spread to modern
Lebanon, Palestine and Jordan. The Ghassanids held Syria until engulfed by the expansion of
Islam.
Greeks and Romans referred to all the nomadic population of the desert in the Near East as Arabi. The Greeks called Yemen "
Arabia Felix".
[2], 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.
[3]
★ The
Lakhmids settled the mid Tigris region around their capital
Al-hira they ended up allying with the
Sassanid against the
Ghassanids and the
Byzantine Empire. The Lakhmids contested control of the Central Arabian tribes with the
Kindites with the Lakhmids eventualy destroying
Kinda in 540 after the fall of their main ally
Himyar. The Sassanids dissolved the Lakhmid kingdom in 602.
★ 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 Qaryat al-Faw) in Central Arabia. They ruled much of the Northern/Central Arabian peninsula until the fall of the Himyarites in 525AD.
Early Islamic Arabization
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 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 '', the language of the Arabs. The term ''
'' has the same root and refers to a particularly clear and correct mode of speech. The plural noun '' refers to the
Bedouin tribes of the desert who resisted Muhammad, for example in ayat
9.97, '' "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 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 , "language of the Arabs", denoted the uncontaminated language of the Bedouins.
Syria/Iraq, 7th century
The arrival of Islam united the Arab tribes, who flooded into the strongly Semitic Greater
Syria and
Iraq. Within years, the major garrison towns developed into the major cities of Syria and Iraq. The local population, which shared a close linguistic and genetic ancestry with Qahtani and Adnani Muslims were quickly Arabized.
North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula, 7th century
The
Phoenicians and later the
Carthaginians dominated North African and Iberian shores for more than 8 centuries until they were suppressed by the
Romans and the later
Vandal invasion. Inland, the nomadic Berbers allied with Arab Muslims in invading Spain. The Arab tribes mainly settled the old Phoenician and Carthagenian towns, while the Berbers remained dominant inland. Inland north Africa remained partly Arabized until the 11th century, wheras the Iberian Peninsula, particularly its southern part, remained heavily Arabized, until the expulsion of the Moriscos in the 17th Century.
Medieval times
Ibn Khaldun's ''
Muqaddima'' distinguishes between sedentary Muslims who used be nomadic Arabs and the 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
Egyptians,
Spaniards and
Yemenis.
[4] The Christians of Italy and the Crusaders preferred the term Saraceans for all the Arabs and Muslims of that time.
[5] The Christians of Iberia used the term
Moor to describe all the Arabs and Muslims of that time.
[6]
Arabs of Central Asia
Most Arabs of Central Asia are fully assimilated with local populations, and call themselves the same as locals (e.g.
Kazakhs,
Tajiks,
Uzbeks).
[5] In order to notice their Arab origin they have a special term:
Sayyid or
Siddiqui.
[6]
Banu Hilal in North Africa, 1046AD
The
Banu Hilal was an Arabian tribal confederation, organized by the
Fatimids. They struck in
Libya, reducing the
Zenata Berbers (a clan that claimed Yemeni ancestry from pre-Islamic periods) and small coastal towns, and Arabizing the
Sanhaja berber confederation. The Banu Hilal eventually Settled modern (Morocco and Algeria) and subdued Arabized the Sanhaja by the time of
Ibn Khaldun.
Banu Sulaym in North Africa, 1049AD
The
Banu Sulyam is another Bedouin tribal confederation from
Nejd which followed through the trials of
Banu Hilal and helped them defeat the
Zirids in the
battle of Gabis in 1052AD, and finally took
Kairuan in 1057Ad. The Banu Sulaym mainly settled and completely Arabized Libya.
Banu Kanz Nubia/Sudan, 11th-14th century
A branch of the
Rabia' tribe settled in north Sudan and slowly Arabized the
Makurian kingdom in modern
Sudan until 1315 AD when the
Banu Kanz inherited the kingdom of
Makuria and paved the way for the Arabization of the Sudan, that was completed by the arrival of the
Jaali and
Juhayna Arab tribes.
Repopulating crusade struck towns, 12th century
After the defeat of the
Crusades, the
Ayubids repopulated the reconquered towns with Arabs mainly from their southern provinces of modern Yemen and
Asir in modern
Saudi Arabia.
Banu Hassan Mauritania 1644-1674AD
The Banu Maqil is a Yemeni nomadic tribe that settled in Tunisia in the 13th century. The
Banu Hassan a
Maqil branch moved into the
Sanhaja region in whats today the Western Sahara and Mauritania, they fought a thirty years war on the side of the
Lamtuna Arabized Berbers who claimed
Himyarite ancestry (from the early Islamic invasions) defeating the Sanhaja berbers and Arabizing Mauritania.
Tribal genealogy
Medieval Arab
genealogists divided Arabs into three groups:
★ "ancient Arabs", tribes that had vanished or been destroyed, such as
'Ad and
Thamud, often mentioned in the
Qur'an as examples of God's power to destroy wicked peoples.
★ "Pure Arabs" of South Arabia, descending from
Qahtan. The
Qahtanites (Qahtanis) are said to have migrated the land of
Yemen following the destruction of the
Ma'rib Dam (''sadd Ma'rib'').
★ The "Arabized Arabs" (''musta`ribah'') of center and North Arabia, descending from
Ishmael son of
Abraham.
The
Arabic language spoken today in classical Quranic form evolved as a mix between the original Arabic of Qahtan and northern Arabic which shares a great deal with northern Semitic languages from the
Levant. Arabs take great pride in their language and its survival as a usable and comprehensible language over thousands of years.
Jewish and Christian tradition described the
Ishmaelites as an "Arabian people" at least by the time of Joseph, which became standard centuries before Islam. The term ''Hagarenes'' was commonly used; it is a pun on the Arabic ''
muhajir'' and the name
Hagar. Efforts to reconcile the Biblical and Arab genealogies later led to conflicting attempts to trace Adnan to
Ishmael (Ismail), the eldest son of
Abraham and
Hagar.
Joktan was identified with Qahtan, probably due to his biblical identification as the ancestor of Hazarmaveth (
Hadramawt) and
Sheba, although these links are based on biblical guesses.
Religions
Arab Muslims are
Shi'a,
Sunni or
Ibadhite. The
Druze faith is usually considered separate. The self-identified
Arab Christians follow generally
Eastern Churches such as
Greek Orthodox,
Greek Catholic.
Before the coming of
Islam, most Arabs followed a religion with a number of deities, including
Hubal,
Wadd,
Allāt,
Manat, and
Uzza. Some tribes had converted to Christianity or Judaism. A few individuals, the ''
hanifs'', had apparently rejected
polytheism in favor of a vague
monotheism. The most prominent Arab Christian kingdoms were the
Ghassanid and
Lakhmid kingdoms. When
Himyarite kings 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, most Arabs rapidly became Muslim, and polytheistic traditions disappeared.
Today,
Sunni Islam dominates in most areas, overwhelmingly so in North Africa.
Shia Islam is dominant in
Iraq,
Bahrain,
Kuwait, eastern
Saudi Arabia,
Lebanon, northern
Syria, the al-Batinah region in
Oman and northern
Yemen. The tiny
Druze community follow a secretive faith particularly similar to Shia Islam, and are also Arab.
Estimates of the number of
Arab Christians vary, and depend on the definition of "Arab", as with the number of all Arabs, especially Muslim Arabs. Christians make up 9.2% of the population of the Near East.
[7]
In Lebanon they number about 39% of the population,
[8] in Syria 10% to 15%. In
Palestine before the creation of
Israel estimates ranged as high as 20%, but is now 3.8% due to mass emigration. In
Israel Arab Christians constitute 2.1% (roughly 10% of the
Palestinian Arab population). In
Egypt, they constitute 10% to 20%, and do not identify as Arabs. Most
North and
South American Arabs are Christian, as are about half of Arabs in
Australia who come particularly from
Lebanon,
Syria, the
Palestinian territories,.
Jews from Arab countries – mainly
Mizrahi Jews and
Yemenite Jews – are today usually not categorised as Arab. 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".
[9] Prior to the emergence of the term ''Mizrahi'', the term "
Arab Jews" (''Yehudim ‘Áravim'', יהודים ערבים) was sometimes used to describe Jews of the
Arab world. The term is rarely used today. The few remaining Jews in the Arab countries reside mostly in
Morocco and
Tunisia. From the late 1940s to the early 1960s, following the creation of the state of
Israel, most of these Jews left or were expelled from their countries of birth and are now mostly concentrated in Israel. Some immigrated to
France, where they form the largest Jewish community, outnumbering
European Jews, but relatively few to the
United States. See
Jewish exodus from Arab lands.
See also
Sources
★ Touma, Habib Hassan. ''The Music of the Arabs''. Portland, Oregon: Amadeus P, 1996. ISBN 0-931340-88-8.
★ 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)
[7]
★
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Robert Appleton Company, 1907, Online Edition, K. Night 2003: article Arabia
★ https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/le.html#People
★ History of Arabic language, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
[8]. Retrieved Feb.17, 2006
★ The Arabic language, National Institute for Technology and Liberal Education web page (2006)
[9]. Retrieved Jun. 14, 2006.
★ Ankerl, Guy. ''Coexisting Contemporary Civilizations: Arabo-Muslim, Bharati, Chinese, and Western. Geneva: INUPRESS, 2000. ISBN 2881550045.
★ Hooker, Richard. "Pre-Islamic Arabic Culture." WSU Web Site. 6 June 1999. Washington State University. 5 July 2006
.
★ Owen, Roger. "State Power and Politics in the Making of the Modern Middle East 3rd Ed" Page 57 ISBN 0-415-29714-1
References and notes
1. 1996, p.xviii
2. Sacred Language, Ordinary People: Dilemmas of Culture and Politics in Egypt, , Niloofar, Haeri, Palgrave Macmillan, 2003, ISBN 0-312-23897-5
3. Abadeer: "We are proud of our Egyptian identity and do not accept to be Arabs. Elaph. April 12, 2007.
4. Journal of Semitic Studies Volume 52, Number 1
5. Arabic As a Minority Language By Jonathan Owens, pg. 184
6. Arabic As a Minority Language By Jonathan Owens, pg. 182
7. ''Christian Communities in the Middle East'', , , , Oxford University Press, , ISBN 0-19-829388-7
8. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/le.html#People
9. http://www.labyrinth.net.au/~ajds/mendes_refugees.htm
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