'Arabization' is the gradual transformation of an area into one that speaks
Arabic and is part of the
Arab culture. It can also mean the replacement or
displacement of a
native population with Arabs.
Pre-Islamic Arabization
It should be noted that the Muslims were not the first
Semitic peoples who migrated out of the peninsula (see:
Aramaeans,
Canaanites ,
Akkadians who branched into the Northern Semitic civilizations
Assyrians,
Phoenicians,
Babylonians,
Hebrews,
Amorites )
[1] part of
Qahtan the origin of the Arabs. However, pre Islamic Modern
Arabic script groups are mainly the
Ghassanids,
Nabataeans, while the
Kindites used the South Arabian
Musnad Script.
Post-Islamic Arabization
Early Islamic Arabization
Syria/Iraq 7th century
After Islam the Arab tribes unified under the banner of Islam and flooded into the strongly Semitic Greater
Syria and Iraq, within few years the major garrison towns developed into the major cities of Syria and Iraq. The local population which shared a very close Semitic linguistic/genetic ancestry with the Qahtani and Adnani Muslims and were quickly Arabized.
North Africa and Iberia 7th century
Neither North Africa nor the Iberian Peninsula were strangers to Semitic culture, the
Phoenicians and later the
Carthaginians dominated the North African and Iberian shores for more than 8 centuries until they were suppressed by the
Romans and the following
Vandal and Visigothic invasion. In the Inland the Nomadic Berbers allied themselves with the Arab muslims and joined them in invading Spain, during this period the Arab tribes mainly settled the old
Phoenician/
Carthaginian towns while the Berbers remained the dominant group inland. The Inland North Africa remained partly Arabized until the 11th century. The Iberian Peninsula, on the other hand, remained Arabized, particularly in the south, until the XVI century.
Medieval Arabization
Banu Hilal in North Africa 1046Ad
The
Banu Hilal, an Arabian tribal confedaration organized by the Fatimids in Egypt, struck first in
Libya reducing the
Zenata berbers (a berber clan that claimed Yemeni ancestry from pre-Islamic periods) to the 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 Sulaym another Bedouin tribal confederation from
Nejd followed through the trials of
Banu Hilal and helped them defeat the
Zirids in the
battle of Gabis 1052Ad, and finally taking
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 Southern Egypt and slowly Arabized the
Makurian kingdom in modern
Sudan until 1315Ad 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
Ayyubids repopulated the reconquered towns with Arabs mainly from their Southern provinces of what is today
Yemen and
Asir in modern
Saudi Arabia.
Banu Hassan Mauritania 1644-1674AD
The Banu Ma'qil 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.
In general After the rise of
Islam in the Arabian Peninsula, Arab culture and language spread through trade with
African states, conquest, and
intermarriage of the local population with the Arabs.
Countries and territories that are traditionally thought to have gone through Arabization include
Spain and
Portugal (until 1492),
Morocco,
Algeria,
Tunisia,
Libya,
Egypt,
Lebanon,
Syria,
Jordan,
Palestine,
Iraq and the
Sudan. Also, though
Yemen is traditionally held to be the homeland of Arabs, most
[1] of the population did not speak Arabic (but instead
South Semitic languages) prior to the spread of Islam.
The peninsular Arabic language became common among these areas;
dialects also formed. Today, an Arab from the
Levant finds the Arabic of a
North African almost incomprehensible.
Modern Standard Arabic functions as something of a
dachsprache, allowing speakers of disparate dialects to communicate.
The influence of Arabic has also been profound in many other countries whose cultures have been influenced by Islam. Arabic is a major source of vocabulary for languages as diverse as
Spanish,
Berber,
Kurdish,
Persian,
Somali,
Swahili,
Urdu, spoken
Hindi,
Turkish,
Malay, and
Indonesian, as well as other languages in countries where these languages are spoken. For example the Arabic word for book /kita:b/ is used in all the languages listed, apart from Malay and Indonesian (where it specifically means "religious book") and Spanish (which uses the Latin-derived "libro").
Cultural context
The term "Arabised-Arabs" has historically been used to signify Arabs who are descendants of Adnan, the son of
Ishmael and grandson of
Abraham.
Modern times
Iraq
In part of the
Al-Anfal Campaign,
Saddam Hussein's
Iraqi Ba'athist regime drove hundreds of thousands of
Kurdish,
Assyrian,
[2][3][4] and
Turkmen[5] families out of their homes in
Kirkuk after a Kurdish
revolt, and gave their homes to Arab-speaking
oil field workers as well as to other non-Kurdish people whom Saddam moved from southern Iraq to the city. This violent campaign of Arabization was an attempt to transform the historically multi-ethnic city of Kirkuk into an Arab city. Kurdish families were left with no homes after being evicted forcefully by Saddam's Iraqi soldiers, and therefore had to migrate to refugee camps. After the fall of Saddam's regime, many Kurdish families came back to Kirkuk.
Sudan
In Sudan, the majority of citizens are blacks of various faiths who do not self-identify as Arab. In 1983, the Muslim, Arabized Government of Sudan, which came to power in a military coup, imposed
sharia law upon the largely Christian South. The result was a civil war that raged for 21 years. In other parts of the country, the
Nuba for years have been subjected to an aggressive government campaign of Arabization. The government systematically has uprooted many from their lands, and by 2001, forcibly had removed 60,000 Nuba children from their parents to so-called "peace camps" to be Arabized.
The mostly Muslim Nubians in the North face imminent displacement from their lands as the regime of Sudanese president
Omar Hassan al-Bashir completes the last of three dams along the Nile. Opponents of the dam charge that the government already has sold the land to Egyptian and other Arab interests in the wake of the signing between Egypt and Sudan of the
Four Freedoms Agreement in 2004, giving Egyptian nationals the right freely to travel, live, work and own land in Sudan.
In the West,
Janjaweed militia, who self-identify as Arab, have been in conflict with the sedentary, largely Muslim populations of the
Darfur region, who do not. The Janjaweed widely are thought to be armed and supported by the Arab government, and there is some evidence of on-the-ground involvement of Sudanese military in the Janjaweed's
genocidal campaign against Darfurians. The Sudanese government, while it has admitted to bombing "rebel" villages, has denied any collusion with Janjaweed. To date, at least 200,000 persons have been killed in the conflict, with some estimates as high as 400,000, and 2.5 million displaced.
See also
★
Arabic alphabet and the
History of the Arabic alphabet
★
Arabic language
★
Cultural genocide
★
Eurabia
★
Qahtanite
External articles
★
How can you define an Arab?
References
1. Nebes, Norbert, "Epigraphic South Arabian," in von Uhlig, Siegbert, ''Encyclopaedia Aethiopica'' (Wiesbaden:Harrassowitz Verlag, 2005), pps.335.
2. http://hrw.org/reports/1993/iraqanfal/ANFAL11.htm
3. http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/PARLMENT/hansArt.nsf/V3Key/LC19930914036
4. http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200203/cmselect/cmintdev/444/444ap06.htm
5. http://www.puk.org/web/htm/news/knwsline/nws/16nov02.html
العربية
中国
Français
Deutsch
Ελληνική
हिन्दी
Italiano
日本語
Português
Русский
Español
