Difference between revisions of "Arab" - New World Encyclopedia

From New World Encyclopedia
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==History==
 
==History==
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In the history of the world, no cultural or linguistic group looms larger than Semitic peoples. Originating from the Arabian peninsula, the Semitic people are responsible for teh first civilizations, three major world relgions, and a set of cultural practices that have been more globalized or universalized than any other peoples, including the Chinese and Europeans.  
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In the history of the world, no cultural or linguistic group looms larger than Semitic peoples. Originating from the [[Arabian Peninsula]], the Semitic people are responsible for the first civilizations, three major world {religion|relgions]], and a set of cultural practices that have been more globalized or universalized than any other peoples, including the Chinese and Europeans.  
  
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  Semitic people erupt on the world stage three times: with the growth of Semitic civilizations in Mesopotamia four thousand years ago, the spread of Christianity and Judaism two thousand years ago, and finally, the explosion of Islam fifteen hundred years ago—this last eruption of Semitic culture would produce the major world religion and social system of the modern period.
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Semitic people erupted on the world stage three times: with the growth of Semitic civilizations in Mesopotamia four thousand years ago, the spread of Christianity and Judaism two thousand years ago, and finally, the explosion of Islam fifteen hundred years ago.
  
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The Semitic people have their beginnings in the Arabian peninsula; but the most influential Semitic cultures and civilizations of the early period attributed to them sprang from those who left the Arabian peninsula for [[Mesopotamia]], [[Palestine]], and [[Africa]].
  
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The Land    All Semitic people have their beginnings in the Arabian peninsula; but the great Semitic cultures and civilizations of the early period belong to emigrants, all those who left the Arabian peninsula for Mesopotamia, Palestine, and Africa. It is a great irony of history, then, that the most influential of Semitic cultures would not come from an emigrant people, but from Semites living in the very heart of their origin place.  
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Also called the Himyarites or the Yemenites, the [[Sabaeans]] had from a very early period adopted a sedentary way of life in the relatively lush climate of southern Arabia. Eventually, the south came under the control of city-states ruled by priest-kings called mukkarib whose functions may have been very similar to the earliest kings of Sumer and Akkad. By the first millenium AD, however, these priest-kings had largely given way to a secular monarchy, the malik.  
  
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  The Arabian peninsula is probably the last place one would nominate as a cradle of the most influential of human cultures, for it is a harsh and demanding place to live. As a land mass, it is separated from its parent continent, Africa, and from Asia by the Red Sea in the west and the Persian Gulf in the east. Although it is surrounded on three sides by water, there are no good harbors, save for Aden, and both the Red Sea and Persian Gulf can be treacherous. The overwhelming geographical aspect of the Arabian peninsula is water, or rather the lack of water.  
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The four most powerful city-states of the south were Saba' (whence the name, Sabaeans), Hadramawt, Qataban, and Ma'in, all located in the southwest of the Arabian peninsula, the area with the heaviest rainfall in all of Arabia. Although the south never formed a political or ethnic unity, the most powerful of all these city-states was Saba', which slowly expanded its political influence to include all the major kingdoms of the south by 300 C.E..  
  
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  The Arabian peninsula can be divided into two distinct climactic and geographical zones. In the south is an area along the coast of the Arabian Sea that gets regular rain and has an astonishing variety of plant life. This is the Arabia of our mythology, the Arabia of wealth, tropical plants, cities, frankincense and myrrh. From a very early period, the south of Arabia was heavily populated by sedentary populations living in cities and relying on agriculture. Many of these civilizations were very wealthy and powerful, and Semitic peoples in Africa largely owe their origin to these privileged southerners.  
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For much of its history, the area around Saba', Hadramawt, Qataban, and Ma'in was a center of incredible wealth legendary all throughout the [[Fertile Crescent]] and northern[[ Africa]]. It was an area of exotic plants, spices and luxury items that gained high prices in commerce all throughout the [[Mediterranean]] and [[Asia]]. Its most lucrative export was [[Frankincense|frankincense]], which in ancient times grew only in Hadramawt and in the Sabaean colony of [[Somalia]] in Africa.  
  
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  Northern Arabia—that is, all of Arabia north of the southern coast, is one of the most inhospitable places on earth. To the east is a vast desert—one of the largest continuous areas of sand in the world—bordered by arid steppes in the west. The western portion of northern Arabia consists of mountains and steppes. Across this vast land, there are no rivers to connect peoples together. While the people in the south have historically lived close together and in constant contact, the people in the north live far apart and in relative isolation.  
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The Sabaeans, however, lived on two major two trade routes: one was the ocean-trading route between Africa and [[India]]. The harbors of the southwest were centers of commerce with these two continents and the luxury items, such as spices, imported from these countries. But the Sabaean region also lay at the southern terminus of land-based trade routes up and down the coast of the Arabian peninsula. Goods would travel down this land-route to be exported to Africa or India and goods from Africa and India would travel north on this land-route. All along this trade route grew major trading cities and the wealth of the south filtered north into these cities. It was in one such Arabian city, [[Mecca]], that [[Islam]] would later begin.  
  
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The most forbidding part of northern Arabia is the expanse of sand desert on the eastern side. There is little or no precipitation and so no support for agriculture—the only substantial flora in eastern Arabia is the date palm, a plant magnificently adapted to an arid climate. This area throughout almost all of human history has been inhabited by nomadic, pastoralist Arabs called Bedouins who lived in small, tightly-knit tribal groups. The western coast is slightly less forbidding and the Arabs that settled there lived in sedentary and larger tribal groups.  
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However, by the seventh century AD, the south had fallen into political disarray. While it had been isolated from invasion by both the ocean and a forbidding wall of moutains, it came to the interest of several competing forces, both political and cultural. The region underwent pressures by Judaizing and Christianizing forces and would finally be invaded in 520 C.E. by the [[Christianity|Christian]] state of [Ethiopia]]. It was into this wealthy but politically anarchic area that Islam would spread from the north a century later.
  
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These two regions, the south and the north, were homes to two entirely separate Semitic peoples: the Sabaeans in the south and the Arabs in the north.
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The Arabs of the north were ethnically one people but were composed of two culturally opposite groups: nomadic and sedentary Arabs. The harshness of the environment forced on the people a nomadic, tribal existence. Agriculture was out of the question; instead, the nomadic Arabs, called [[Bedouin|Bedouins]], were pastoralists and moved their herds from place to place in search of scarce resources and water. They lived in small, tightly-knit hereditary tribes.  
  
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Sedentary Arabs were themselves Bedouin who had settled the oases that surround the periphery of the Arabian desert. Because the oases represented a concentration of scarce resources, the control of these areas were the result of military campaigns and this control was regularly threatened.
  
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The Sabaeans    Also called the Himyarites or the Yemenites, the Sabaeans had from a very early period adopted a sedentary way of life in the relatively lush climate of southern Arabia. Eventually, the south came under the control of city-states ruled by priest-kings called mukkarib whose functions may have been very similar to the earliest kings of Sumer and Akkad. By the first millenium AD, however, these priest-kings had largely given way to a secular monarchy, the malik.  
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Since the oases were both at the periphery of Bedouin migrations and represented scarce resources, the Bedouin were unable to seize possession of these areas until more powerful political rivals, such as Mesopotamia and the Sabaeans, had become weaker or more diffuse. It was not until the first millenium B.C.E. that the many of the major sedentary Arab settlements were established, so by the time of Islam, the culture of sedentary Arabs was still very close to that of their nomadic cousins.  
  
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  The four most powerful city-states of the south were Saba' (whence the name, Sabaeans), Hadramawt, Qataban, and Ma'in, all located in the southwest of the Arabian peninsula, the area with the heaviest rainfall in all of Arabia. Although the south never formed a political or ethnic unity, the most powerful of all these city-states was Saba', which slowly expanded its political influence to include all the major kingdoms of the south by 300 C.E..  
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The settlements also lay on the trade route that connected Africa and India with the Mediterranean world through southern Arabia. The power and prosperity of the sedentary Arabs largely derived from their position as intermediaries in this trade.  
  
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  For much of its history, the area around Saba', Hadramawt, Qataban, and Ma'in was a center of incredible wealth legendary all throughout the Fertile Crescent and northern Africa. It was an area of exotic plants, spices and luxury items that gained high prices in commerce all throughout the Mediterranean and Asia. Its most lucrative export was frankincense, which in ancient times grew only in Hadramawt and in the Sabaean colony of Somalia in Africa.  
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There were three distinct historical periods for pre-Islamic sedentary Arabs. The first period began with the decline of the [[Ancient Greece|Greek]] [[Seleucids]] in the Middle East and the decline in power of the southern Sabaeans.
  
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  The Sabaeans, however, lived on two major two trade routes: one was the ocean-trading route between Africa and India. The harbors of the southwest were centers of commerce with these two continents and the luxury items, such as spices, imported from these countries. But the Sabaean region also lay at the southern terminus of land-based trade routes up and down the coast of the Arabian peninsula. Goods would travel down this land-route to be exported to Africa or India and goods from Africa and India would travel north on this land-route.  
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The second period began with the expansion of Roman, and then Byzantine, and then Sabaean power and was the period of client-states. During this period, Arab cities found themselves as client and tributary states to three major world powers: the Byzantine empire in the north, the Persians in the east, and the southern Arabic kingdom of Himyar (the Sabaeans). During this period, both [[Christianity]] and [[Judaism]] spread rapidly among the Arabs.  
  
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  This latter trade route had tremendous consequences for the Arabs in the north and the subsequent history of Islam. For all along this trade route grew major trading cities and the wealth of the south filtered north into these cities. It was in one such Arabian city, Mecca, that Islam would begin.
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The third period was concentrated in inner Arabia, particularly the city of Mecca. This was the period of the efflorescence of Bedouin culture and military power. The Bedouins not only became a military power in their own right, they also closely allied themselves with the central Arabian cities, such as [[Medina|Yathrib]] and Mecca. This was the period when classical Arabic, or al-Arabiyya, became the language of Arabic culture and poetry. This period saw the diffusion of Bedouin values, such as the value of muru'a, or manliness, and the widespread diffusion of Bedouin narratives and poetry.  
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  However, by the seventh century AD, the south had fallen into political disarray. While it had been isolated from invasion by both the ocean and a forbidding wall of moutains, it came to the interest of several competing forces, both political and cultural. The region underwent pressures by Judaizing and Christianizing forces and would finally be invaded in 520 C.E. by the Christian state of Ethiopia. It was into this wealthy but politically anarchic area that Islam would spread from the north a century later. 
 
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The Arabs    The Arabs of the north were ethnically one people but were composed of two culturally opposite groups: nomadic and sedentary Arabs. The harshness of the environment forced on Arabs a nomadic, tribal existence. Agriculture was out of the question; instead, the nomadic Arabs, called Bedouins, were pastoralists and moved their herds from place to place in search of scarce resources and water. They lived in small, tightly-knit hereditary tribes.
 
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  Sedentary Arabs were themselves Bedouin who had settled the oases that surround the periphery of the Arabian desert—many of these settlements were very recent. Because the oases represented a concentration of scarce resources, the control of these areas were the result of military campaigns and this control was regularly threatened.
 
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  Since the oases were both at the periphery of Bedouin migrations and represented scarce resources, the Bedouin were unable to seize possession of these areas until more powerful political rivals, such as Mesopotamia and the Sabaeans, had become weaker or more diffuse. It really was not until the first millenium B.C.E. that the many of the major sedentary Arab settlements were established. So by the time of Islam, the culture of sedentary Arabs was still very close to that of their nomadic cousins.
 
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  The settlements also lay on the trade route that connected Africa and India with the Mediterranean world through southern Arabia. The power and prosperity of the sedentary Arabs largely derived from their position as intermediaries in this trade.
 
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  There are three distinct hisorical periods for pre-Islamic sedentary Arabs. The first period begins with the decline of the Greek Seleucids in the Middle East and the decline in power of the southern Sabaeans; the Arabs penetrate as far north as Petra and as far south as Najran, taking advantage of the military vacuum in both these areas. As the Arabs begin to approach the Mediterranean iself, they run into Rome going in the opposite direction.
 
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  The expansion of Roman, and then Byzantine, and then Sabaean power begins the second period of pre-Islamic Arabia: the period of client-states. During this period, Arab cities found themselves as client and tributary states to three major world powers: the Byzantine empire in the north, the Persians in the east, and the southern Arabic kingdom of Himyar (the Sabaeans). During this period, both Christianity and Judaism spread rapidly among the Arabs. Some cities, such as Yathrib, become Judaized cities while a large number become Christian—either Monophysite Christianity of Africa and Syria or the eastern Christianity of Byzantium. No matter what its origin, however, the Arabs experienced Christianity as a Semitic religion. Still, even among non-Christian and non-Judaized Arabs, both Judaism and Christianity had very fully penetrated Arabic culture by the beginning of the third period of pre-Islamic history.
 
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  The third period was concentrated in inner Arabia, particularly the city of Mecca. This was the period of the efflorescence of Bedouin culture and military power. The Bedouins not only became a military power in their own right, they also closely allied themselves with the central Arabian cities, such as Yathrib and Mecca. This was the period when classical Arabic, or al-Arabiyya, became the language of Arabic culture and poetry. This period saw the diffusion of Bedouin values, such as the value of muru'a, or manliness, and the widespread diffusion of Bedouin narratives and poetry.  
 
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  The most important of these Bedouin achievements, however, was the conquest of Mecca by the tribe of the Quraysh around 500 C.E. Mecca had already become a religious center of Arabic culture as its name suggests—one possible derivation of the name, "Mecca," is the word, "makorba," or "temple." The religion of the pre-Islamic Arabs was a mixture of Bedouin polytheism, Judaism, and a little bit of Christianity. The pre-Islamic Arabs worshipped three goddesses, al-Lat, al-Uzza, and Manat, who were all daughters of one god, Allah—this one god was probably derived from the monotheistic religions of Judaism and Christianity. Mecca was the center of this religion with its Ka'ba, or "Cube," which served as the temple for the religion.
 
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  This third period, however, would end dramatically with the reassertion of Semitic power and culture over the area of western Asia and Mesopotamia. This last period of Semitic history would be its greatest and turn it into what is perhaps the most significant culture of human history. It is a historical shift that can be dated and placed with extreme precision—for this last stage in Arabic history begins with one person: Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah.  <ref>Hooker, Richard; "Pre-Islamic Arabic Culture" [http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/ISLAM/PRE.HTM]</ref>
 
  
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The religion of the pre-Islamic Arabs was a mixture of Bedouin [[Polytheism|polytheism]], Judaism, and Christianity. The pre-Islamic Arabs worshipped three goddesses, al-Lat, al-Uzza, and Manat, who were all daughters of one god, Allah. Mecca was the center of this religion with its Ka'ba, or "Cube," which served as the temple for the religion. <ref>Hooker, Richard; "Pre-Islamic Arabic Culture" [http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/ISLAM/PRE.HTM]</ref>
  
 
==Religions==
 
==Religions==
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[[Jew]]s 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". <ref>http://www.labyrinth.net.au/~ajds/mendes_refugees.htm</ref> 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. Between the late 1940s and 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 also immigrated to France where they form the largest Jewish community, outnumbering Ashkenazi Jews, or European Jews, but relatively few to the United States.
 
[[Jew]]s 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". <ref>http://www.labyrinth.net.au/~ajds/mendes_refugees.htm</ref> 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. Between the late 1940s and 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 also immigrated to France where they form the largest Jewish community, outnumbering Ashkenazi Jews, or European Jews, but relatively few to the United States.
  
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==Culture==
  
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==Traditional genealogy==
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===Religion===
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Medieval Arab genealogists divided the Arabs into three groups:
 
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*the "ancient Arabs", tribes that had vanished or been destroyed, such as 'Ad and Thamud; they are often alluded to in the [[Qur'an]] as examples of God's power to destroy wicked peoples.
 
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*the "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'').
 
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*The "Arabized Arabs" (''musta`ribah'') of North Arabia, descending from Adnan.
 
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The Arabic language spoken today in classical Quranic form was the result of a mix between the original Arabic of Qahtan and northern Arabic which shares a great deal with northern Semitic languages from the Levant. The Arabs take a great pride in their language and its survival as a usable and comprehensible language over thousands of years.
 
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In Jewish and Christian traditions the Ishmaelites were described as an "Arabian people" at least by the time of Josephus, which became standard centuries prior to Islam (in which the term ''Hagarenes'', a pun on the Arabic ''muhajir'' and the name of [[Hagar]], was commonly used). 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]].
 
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==Arabia==
 
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==Arab Diaspora==
 
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==Arab Language==
 
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==Arab Culture and Religion==
 
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==Pan-Arabism==
 
  
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==Culture==  
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===Language===
 
Most Muslims abide by laws of what is and what is not allowed in food consumption. They are followed because they are scriptural law, but also because they promote a healthier lifestyle. These dietary laws, or Halel, include what is called "chewing oats". Halel states that an animal must use a "cud" to chew and digest it's food for it's meat to be fit for human consumption. This is the main reason why they do not eat pork. The Ijma law allows the conscience to be the leading factor for choosing the proper diet.<ref>http://members.ift.org/NR/rdonlyres/520D409F-032A-4E20-BDB5-8253EEF004C2/0/crfsfsv2n3p111127ms20030025.pdf</ref>
 
Most Muslims abide by laws of what is and what is not allowed in food consumption. They are followed because they are scriptural law, but also because they promote a healthier lifestyle. These dietary laws, or Halel, include what is called "chewing oats". Halel states that an animal must use a "cud" to chew and digest it's food for it's meat to be fit for human consumption. This is the main reason why they do not eat pork. The Ijma law allows the conscience to be the leading factor for choosing the proper diet.<ref>http://members.ift.org/NR/rdonlyres/520D409F-032A-4E20-BDB5-8253EEF004C2/0/crfsfsv2n3p111127ms20030025.pdf</ref>
 
The main components of the Mulsim "food" laws are said to be based on a healthier diet as opposed to some of the Kafir laws being more ritual.
 
The main components of the Mulsim "food" laws are said to be based on a healthier diet as opposed to some of the Kafir laws being more ritual.

Revision as of 23:55, 27 December 2006

Arabs
(عرب)
File:Arabs2.PNG
Total population
c. 250-300 million
Regions with significant populations
Arab world:
Middle East - 110 million
Africa - 150 million (North Africa)
Europe
United States - 3.5 million
Brazil - 12 million
Turkey - 3 million
Latin America
Australia and New Zealand
Languages
Arabic
Religions
Predominantly Muslim. There are also some adherents of Christianity, Druze, Judaism, Samaritan, Yazidi or others.
Related ethnic groups
Mizrahi Jews, Sephardi Jews, Canaanites, other Semitic groups

The term Arab (Arabic: عربʻarab) generally refers to those persons who speak Arabic as their native tongue. A semitic people, Arabs form the majority of the populations of Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.

The Arab world should not be confused with the term "Middle East", which is a strategic designation birthed during the days of the British Empire, which encompasses such non-Arab countries as Israel, Iran, Turkey, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

An overwhelming majority of Arabs are Muslim, members of the faith founded by the Prophet Muhammad in the seventh century. There are also Arab-speaking Jews and Christians throughout the Middle East. However, though Arab history is closely intertwined with Muslim history, there are significant non-Muslim communities in the Arab world. As well, many Muslims are from non-Arab countries such as Turkey, Pakistan, Indonesia and many sub-Saharan African countries. There are also large Arab and non-Arab Muslim communities in North America. [1]

Geographically, the Arab world is defined as extending from the Persian Gulf to the Atlantic Ocean, from Iraq and the Gulf states in the east to Morocco's Atlantic coast in the west. From north to south, the Arab world extends from Syria to Sudan.

There are several ways to be considered an Arab. One is by lineage, considered to be "pure Arab", which can be traced as far back as Noah through his son Shem. Another group, considered to be "Arabized-Arabs", come from North African or Middle Eastern countries outside the Arabic Peninsula. This group includes anyone who speaks Arabic, follows Arabic traditions, and is loyal to Arabic politics.

There are estimated to be 250 million people living in the seventeen independent Arab nations that make up the Arab world. (There are twenty-two nations holding membership in the Arab League, though they are not all independent.)

Origin

File:Palestijnse familie rond 1900 .jpg
Palestinian Family in 1900s

The Arabs of the Arabian Peninsula, the area between Asia and Africa, commonly believe that they are descendants of Shem, the son of Noah.

Keeping the surname is an important part of Arabic culture as some lineages can be traced far back to ancient times. Some Arabs claim they can trace their lineage directly back to Noah and Adam. In addition to Noah and Shem, some of the first known Arabs are those who came from Petra, the Nabataean capital (today, Petra is an archaeological site in Jordan, lying in a basin among the mountains which form the eastern flank of Wadi Araba).

Other Arabs are known as "Arabised-Arabs", including those who came from some parts of Mesopotamia, the Levant, Berber lands, Moors, Egypt, The Sudan, and other African Arabs.

Arab-origin is divided into two major groups:

  • "Pure origin": They are the Arabs known as Qahtanite who are traditionally considered to be direct descendants of Noah through his son Shem, through his sons Aram and Arfakhshaath. Famous noble Qahtanite Arab families from this group can be recognised in the modern days from their surnames such as : Alqahtani, Alharbi, Alzahrani, Alghamedey, aws and khazraj (Alansari or Ansar), Aldosari, Alkhoza'a, Morra, Alojman, etc. Arab genealogies usually ascribe the origins of the Qahtanites to the South Arabians who built up one of the oldest centers of civilization in the Near East beginning around 800 B.C.E. These groups did not speak one of the early forms of Arabic or its predecessors, however they did speak such South Semitic languages as Sabaic, Minaic, Qatabanic, and Hadramitic.[2]
  • "Arabised Arabs": The term "Arabised-Arabs" can be used in three different cases:
  1. It is used for defining the Arabs who are traditionally considered to be descendants of Abraham through his son Ishmael through his son Adnan, and they are known as Adnanite; Abraham took his Egyptian wife Hagar or (Hajar) and his son Ishmael to Mecca. Ishmael was raised by his mother Hagar and one noble Arab family who left from Yemen and settled in Mecca after the drought in Yemen at that time. Ishmael learned the Arabic language and he spoke it fluently during his life, thus the main reason for calling this group Arabised. It is believed also that the Prophet of Islam Muhammad is descended of Adnanite Arab. Some famous noble Adnanite Arab families from this group are: Alanazi, Altamimi, Almaleek, Bani khaled, Bani kolab, Bani Hashim, etc.
  2. The term Arabised-Arabs is also used for defining the Arabs who spoke other Afro-Asiatic languages. They are Arabic speakers and are regarded as Arabs in contemporary times.
  3. The same term al-Musta'ribah or "Arabised-Arabs" is also used for the "Mixed Arabs", between "Pure Arabs" and the Arabs from South Arabia.

Defining an "Arab"

The term 'Arab' has had a wide variety of uses over the centuries. Throughout history, the Arabian Peninsula has been traditionally called 'Arabia.' This was particularly true during Greek, Roman, Persian, and Byzantine eras. At times Roman historians would refer to Arab rulers as "King of the Arabs." The use of this term has often proven confusing to the modern historian whose definition of 'Arab' is colored by recent history. [5]

Modern Arab nationalism is a product of 19th and 20th century transformations. Prior to this time, most Arab-speakers identified themselves with a particular family or tribe. Prior to the 20th century, the term Arab designated the bedouin, tribal-based society of the Arabian desert, which is the birthplace of the Arabic language. [3]

On its formation in 1946, the Arab League defined an "Arab" as follows;

"An Arab is 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."

Similarly, according to Habib Hassan Touma, a Palestinian composer, "An 'Arab', in the modern sense of the word, is one who is a national of an Arab state, has command of the Arabic language, and possesses a fundamental knowledge of Arabian tradition, that is, of the manners, customs, and political and social systems of the culture."

The 14th century Islamic scholar Ibn Khaldun, did not use the word Arab to refer to the Arab people as defined by any of those definitions; but only to those continuing to live a bedouin (nomadic) life, this definition is still used by many Arabs today.[4]

These are the varied definitions commonly accepted in determining "Arab" status:

  1. Islamic tradition: The Qur'an does not define who is an Arab, but there is a verse in the Qur'an stating "there is no difference between an Arab or Ajam (meaning a non-Arab speaker), only by their god-fearingness." The prophet Muhammad also noted that an Arab is anyone who speaks Arabic.
  2. Ethnic identity: someone who considers him or herself to be an Arab (regardless of racial or ethnic origin) and is recognized as such by others.
  3. Race: While the term "Arab" does not refer to a particular race, the majority of Arabs are categorized as Semites, though Arabs include Caucasians, Africans, and Middle Easterners, with ancestral origins in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. The intermarriage of Arab seamen and their agents as far back as the 1st Century [5] has left few 'pure' Arabs, racially. "Black" Arabs are Sudanese, Ethiopian and Somalian Arabs, and Arabs from Southern Egypt who are considered Africans. "Caucasian" Arabs are Arabs native to Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Tunisia, Algeria and Libya among others, though they are considered by many as Middle-Easterners, or Semites.
  4. Linguistic: someone whose first language is Arabic (including any of its varieties); this definition covers more than 250 million people. Arabic belongs to the Semitic family of languages.
  5. Genealogical: someone who can trace his or her ancestry back to the original inhabitants of the Arabian Peninsula or the Syrian Desert.

"Arab Jews" is a term occasionally used for Mizrahim Jews originating in Arab lands. Because of political tensions stemming from the Arab-Israeli conflict, few Mizrahim now identify themselves as "Arabs" or "Arab Jews". At present the term is mainly used by official and journalistic sources in the Arab world, but it has been reclaimed by some Mizrahi activists.

Local Yemenite Jewish traditions trace the earliest settlement of Jews in this region back to the time of King Solomon. There are numerous legends placing Jews in ancient Yemen sent by King Solomon, the Queen of Sheba and even the Prophet Jeremiah. These "Yemeni Jews" are also Jews of Arab-origin.

History

In the history of the world, no cultural or linguistic group looms larger than Semitic peoples. Originating from the Arabian Peninsula, the Semitic people are responsible for the first civilizations, three major world {religion|relgions]], and a set of cultural practices that have been more globalized or universalized than any other peoples, including the Chinese and Europeans.

Semitic people erupted on the world stage three times: with the growth of Semitic civilizations in Mesopotamia four thousand years ago, the spread of Christianity and Judaism two thousand years ago, and finally, the explosion of Islam fifteen hundred years ago.

The Semitic people have their beginnings in the Arabian peninsula; but the most influential Semitic cultures and civilizations of the early period attributed to them sprang from those who left the Arabian peninsula for Mesopotamia, Palestine, and Africa.

Also called the Himyarites or the Yemenites, the Sabaeans had from a very early period adopted a sedentary way of life in the relatively lush climate of southern Arabia. Eventually, the south came under the control of city-states ruled by priest-kings called mukkarib whose functions may have been very similar to the earliest kings of Sumer and Akkad. By the first millenium AD, however, these priest-kings had largely given way to a secular monarchy, the malik.

The four most powerful city-states of the south were Saba' (whence the name, Sabaeans), Hadramawt, Qataban, and Ma'in, all located in the southwest of the Arabian peninsula, the area with the heaviest rainfall in all of Arabia. Although the south never formed a political or ethnic unity, the most powerful of all these city-states was Saba', which slowly expanded its political influence to include all the major kingdoms of the south by 300 C.E.

For much of its history, the area around Saba', Hadramawt, Qataban, and Ma'in was a center of incredible wealth legendary all throughout the Fertile Crescent and northernAfrica. It was an area of exotic plants, spices and luxury items that gained high prices in commerce all throughout the Mediterranean and Asia. Its most lucrative export was frankincense, which in ancient times grew only in Hadramawt and in the Sabaean colony of Somalia in Africa.

The Sabaeans, however, lived on two major two trade routes: one was the ocean-trading route between Africa and India. The harbors of the southwest were centers of commerce with these two continents and the luxury items, such as spices, imported from these countries. But the Sabaean region also lay at the southern terminus of land-based trade routes up and down the coast of the Arabian peninsula. Goods would travel down this land-route to be exported to Africa or India and goods from Africa and India would travel north on this land-route. All along this trade route grew major trading cities and the wealth of the south filtered north into these cities. It was in one such Arabian city, Mecca, that Islam would later begin.

However, by the seventh century AD, the south had fallen into political disarray. While it had been isolated from invasion by both the ocean and a forbidding wall of moutains, it came to the interest of several competing forces, both political and cultural. The region underwent pressures by Judaizing and Christianizing forces and would finally be invaded in 520 C.E. by the Christian state of [Ethiopia]]. It was into this wealthy but politically anarchic area that Islam would spread from the north a century later.

The Arabs of the north were ethnically one people but were composed of two culturally opposite groups: nomadic and sedentary Arabs. The harshness of the environment forced on the people a nomadic, tribal existence. Agriculture was out of the question; instead, the nomadic Arabs, called Bedouins, were pastoralists and moved their herds from place to place in search of scarce resources and water. They lived in small, tightly-knit hereditary tribes.

Sedentary Arabs were themselves Bedouin who had settled the oases that surround the periphery of the Arabian desert. Because the oases represented a concentration of scarce resources, the control of these areas were the result of military campaigns and this control was regularly threatened.

Since the oases were both at the periphery of Bedouin migrations and represented scarce resources, the Bedouin were unable to seize possession of these areas until more powerful political rivals, such as Mesopotamia and the Sabaeans, had become weaker or more diffuse. It was not until the first millenium B.C.E. that the many of the major sedentary Arab settlements were established, so by the time of Islam, the culture of sedentary Arabs was still very close to that of their nomadic cousins.

The settlements also lay on the trade route that connected Africa and India with the Mediterranean world through southern Arabia. The power and prosperity of the sedentary Arabs largely derived from their position as intermediaries in this trade.

There were three distinct historical periods for pre-Islamic sedentary Arabs. The first period began with the decline of the Greek Seleucids in the Middle East and the decline in power of the southern Sabaeans.

The second period began with the expansion of Roman, and then Byzantine, and then Sabaean power and was the period of client-states. During this period, Arab cities found themselves as client and tributary states to three major world powers: the Byzantine empire in the north, the Persians in the east, and the southern Arabic kingdom of Himyar (the Sabaeans). During this period, both Christianity and Judaism spread rapidly among the Arabs.

The third period was concentrated in inner Arabia, particularly the city of Mecca. This was the period of the efflorescence of Bedouin culture and military power. The Bedouins not only became a military power in their own right, they also closely allied themselves with the central Arabian cities, such as Yathrib and Mecca. This was the period when classical Arabic, or al-Arabiyya, became the language of Arabic culture and poetry. This period saw the diffusion of Bedouin values, such as the value of muru'a, or manliness, and the widespread diffusion of Bedouin narratives and poetry.

The religion of the pre-Islamic Arabs was a mixture of Bedouin polytheism, Judaism, and Christianity. The pre-Islamic Arabs worshipped three goddesses, al-Lat, al-Uzza, and Manat, who were all daughters of one god, Allah. Mecca was the center of this religion with its Ka'ba, or "Cube," which served as the temple for the religion. [6]

Religions

The Arabs are mainly Muslim with sizeable Christian followers, and some Arab Jews. Arab Muslims are Sunni, Shiite, Ibadhite, Alawite, Ismaili or Druze. The Druze faith is sometimes considered as a religion apart. Arab Christians follow generally one of the following Eastern Churches: Coptic, Maronite, Greek Orthodox, Greek Catholic, or Chaldean.

Before the coming of Islam, most Arabs followed a religion featuring the worship of a number of deities, including Hubal, Wadd, Al-Lat, Manat, and Uzza, while some tribes had converted to Christianity or Judaism, and 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. With the coversion of the Himyarite kings to Judaism in the late 4th century, the elites of the other prominent Arab kingdom, the Kindites, being Himyirite vassals, appear to have converted (at least partly) to Judaism too. With the expansion of Islam, the majority of Arabs rapidly became Muslims, and the pre-Islamic polytheistic traditions disappeared.

At present, most Arabs are Muslim. Sunni Islam dominates in most areas, overwhelmingly so in North Africa; Shia Islam is prevalent in Bahrain, southern Iraq and adjacent parts of Saudi Arabia, southern Lebanon, parts of Syria, and northern Yemen. The tiny Druze community, belonging to a secretive offshoot of Islam, is usually considered Arab, but sometimes considered an ethnicity in its own right.

Reliable estimates of the number of Arab Christians, which in any case depends on the definition of "Arab" used, vary. Today Christians only make up 9.2% of the population of the Near East. In Lebanon they now number about 39% of the population [7], in Syria they make up about 10 to 15%, in the Palestinian territories the figure is 3.8%, and in Israel Arab Christians constitute 2.1% (or roughly 10% of the Israeli Arab population). In Egypt, they constitute 5.9% of the population, and in Iraq they presumably comprise 2.9% of the populace. Most North and South American and Australian Arabs (about two-thirds) are Arab Christians, particularly from Syria, the Palestinian territories, and Lebanon.

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". [8] 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. Between the late 1940s and 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 also immigrated to France where they form the largest Jewish community, outnumbering Ashkenazi Jews, or European Jews, but relatively few to the United States.

Culture

Religion

Language

Most Muslims abide by laws of what is and what is not allowed in food consumption. They are followed because they are scriptural law, but also because they promote a healthier lifestyle. These dietary laws, or Halel, include what is called "chewing oats". Halel states that an animal must use a "cud" to chew and digest it's food for it's meat to be fit for human consumption. This is the main reason why they do not eat pork. The Ijma law allows the conscience to be the leading factor for choosing the proper diet.[9] The main components of the Mulsim "food" laws are said to be based on a healthier diet as opposed to some of the Kafir laws being more ritual.

Other distinct characteristics of Arab nations are that they resist globalization of Western countries. This has caused more problems and crisis for the developing countries and are not condusive to world trade. Also Arab countries often compete with each other, rather than cooperate. The current circumstances of Arab or Islamic countries are not favorable for an Arabic or Islamic form of economic integration. Arab countries are in a great need to cooperate, build up trust and alliances with each other to achieve some synergistic effects and to be able to create some economic balance in the global arena. Without socio-economic integration between Arab countries there is no interdependant relationship between Western and Arab countries.[10]

Under Shari'a, or Islamic law, women are accorded a role inferior to that of men, and are therefore discriminated against with regard to personal rights and freedoms. As Middle East expert Daniel Pipes explains: "In the Islamic view...female sexuality is thought of as being so powerful that it constitutes a real danger to society." Therefore, unrestrained females constitute "the most dangerous challenge facing males trying to carry out God's commands." In combination, females' "desires and their irresistible attractiveness give women a power over men which rivals God's." [11] Although not a mandate, the Qur'an does state in the Hadith, or "tradition of Mohammed," that women should be veiled (Bukhari, v1, bk 8, sunnah 395).

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Tamari, Steve: Center for Contemporary Arab Studies [1]
  2. ↑ Nebes, Norbert, "Epigraphic South Arabian," in von Uhlig, Siegbert, Encyclopaedia Aethiopica (Wiesbaden:Harrassowitz Verlag, 2005), pps.335.
  3. ↑ Tamari, Steve: Center for Contemporary Arab Studies [2]
  4. ↑ Versteegh, Kees 1997 "Arabic in the Pre-Islamic Period", Arab World [3]
  5. ↑ Basil Davidson, The Lost Cities of Africa, p. 178
  6. ↑ Hooker, Richard; "Pre-Islamic Arabic Culture" [4]
  7. ↑ https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/le.html#People
  8. ↑ http://www.labyrinth.net.au/~ajds/mendes_refugees.htm
  9. ↑ http://members.ift.org/NR/rdonlyres/520D409F-032A-4E20-BDB5-8253EEF004C2/0/crfsfsv2n3p111127ms20030025.pdf
  10. ↑ http://www.smi.uib.no/pao/zineldin.html
  11. ↑ Daniel Pipes, "In the Path of God: Islam and Political Power", (NY: Basic Books, 1983), p. 177.

References and 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, Uitgeverij Peeters en Departement Oosterse Studies, 2001 ISBN 9-068-31939-6
  • Field, Michael, Inside the Arab world Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 1995 ISBN 0-674-45520-7 OCLC: 30625231
  • Blumenfeld, Laura, Revenge: a story of hope New York, Simon & Schuster, 2002 ISBN 0-684-85316-7 OCLC: 48761752
  • Barakat, Halim Isber, The Arab world: society, culture, and state, Berkeley, CA, University of California Press, 1993, ISBN 0-520-07907-8 ISBN 0-520-08427-6 OCLC: 26300272
  • Lexicon Universal Encycopedia, USA, 1989, ISBN 0-717-22025-7

External links

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