Arab

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.

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.
• "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. [7]

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.

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.

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 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 religions, 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 emergence 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 throughout the Fertile Crescent and northernAfrica. It was an area of exotic plants, spices and luxury items that gained high prices in commerce 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 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 that 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 as well as of the southern Sabaeans.

The second period began with the expansion of Roman, 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.

Religions

The majority of Arabs are Muslim with sizeable followers of both Christianity and Judaism. 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.

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 , 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 categorized 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". 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.

Language

Arabic is the largest member of the family of Semitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family (South Central Semitic) and is closely related to Hebrew]], Amharic, and Aramaic. It is spoken throughout the Arab world and is widely studied and known throughout the Islamic world. Classical Arabic has been a literary language since at least the 6th century and is the liturgical language of Islam. Because of its liturgical role, Arabic has lent many words to other Islamic languages, akin to the role Latin has in Western European languages. During the Middle Ages Arabic was also a major vehicle of culture, especially in science, mathematics and philosophy, with the result that many European languages have also borrowed numerous words from it. The Arabic script is written from right to left.

"Colloquial Arabic" is a collective term for the spoken languages or dialects of people throughout the Arab world, which can differ radically from the literary language. The main dialectal division is between the North African dialects and those of the Middle East, followed by that between sedentary dialects and the much more conservative Bedouin dialects. Speakers of some of these dialects are unable to converse with speakers of another dialect of Arabic; in particular, while Middle Easterners can generally understand one another, they often have trouble understanding North Africans (although the converse is not true, due to the popularity of Middle Eastern, especially Egyptian, films and other media).

The Arabic alphabet derives from the Aramaic script (Nabataean), to which it bears a loose resemblance like that of Coptic or Cyrillic script to Greek script. Traditionally, there were several differences between the Western (North African) and Middle Eastern version of the alphabet. After the definitive fixing of the Arabic script around 786, by Khalil ibn Ahmad al Farahidi, many styles were developed, both for the writing down of the Qur'an and other books, and for inscriptions on monuments as decoration.

Arabic calligraphy has not fallen out of use as in the Western world, and is still considered by Arabs as a major art form; calligraphers are held in great esteem. Being cursive by nature, unlike the Latin alphabet, Arabic script is used to write down a verse of the Qur'an, a Hadith, or simply a proverb, in a spectacular composition.

Culture

The lack of a clear separation between religious doctrine and social life is a pattern that still characterizes much of the Arab world. The Prophet Muhammad's life and his comments are constantly referred to in judging the conduct of both private individuals and public officials and rulers. Civil codes governing public affairs have been established in many modern Arab states, but Islamic canon law, the Sharia, remains of great importance, especially in domestic matters such as marrige, divorce and inheritance.

The honor of the family is of major concern to each family member, and the obligations and responsibilities of kinship are not easily ignored. Hospitality and generosity to guests is a source of pride, and the chastity of women and obedience of children are matters of concern to all kinspeople as well as to husbands and wives. Help from kinsfolk in any crisis remains an expectation at all levels of Arab society.

Throughout the Arab world, urban women in the past were encouraged to remain in the home as much as possible. The wearing of veils and concealing outer garments was much admired and considered virtuous behavior for women. Although vestiges of this outlook remain in parts of the Arab world, such behavior is no longer universally practiced by Arab women.

The flowing robes, capes and head-cloths traditionally regarded as male dress are still worn in many of the Arab lands. Many men, however wear Western style clothing.

Music

Music is a very vital aspect in the Arab life. In ancient nomadic encampments music emphasized every event in man's life, embellished social meetings, incited the warriors, encouraged the desert traveler, and exhorted the pilgrims to the black stone of the Ka'bah (in Mecca), a holy shrine even in pre-Islamic times. In the markets of the Arabs, particularly the fair at the western Arabian town of 'Ukaz, competitions of poetry and musical performances were held periodically, attracting the most distinguished poet-musicians. In the belief of the Mazdak sect (a dualistic Persianreligion related to Manichaeanism, a Gnostic religion), music was considered as one of the four spiritual powers. In the king's entourage musicians occupied high rank. [8]

Arabic music has been influenced by many varying cultures, such as Ancient Greek, Persian, Turkish, Indian, African (such as Berber & Swahili) and as well as European. As in other art and science fields, the Arabs translated and developed Greek texts and works of music and mastered the music theory of the Greeks. The common style that developed is usually called 'Islamic' or 'Arab', though in fact it transcends religious, ethnic, geographical, and linguistic boundaries," and it has been suggested that it be called the "Near East style" (from Morocco to India).

The world of modern Arabic music has long been dominated by musical trends that have emerged from Cairo, Egypt. The city is generally considered a cultural center in the Arab world. Innovations in popular music via the influence of other regional styles have also abounded from Morocco to Saudi Arabia. In recent years, Beirut has become a major center, dictating trends in the development of Arabic pop music. Other regional styles that have enjoyed popular music status throughout the Arab world include the Algerian raï, the Moroccan Gnawa, the Kuwaiti sawt, the Egyptian el gil and Turkish Arabesque-pop music.

Arabic religious music includes Christian and Islamic music. However, Islamic music, including the singing of Qur'an readings, is structurally equivalent to Arabic secular music, while Christian Arab music has been influenced by Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Anglican, Coptic, and Maronite church music.

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
• Lane, Edward William, Arabic English Lexicon, 1893, 2003 reprint: ISBN 8-120-60107-6
• Versteegh, Kees, The Arabic Language, New York, Columbia University Press, 1997 ISBN 0-231-11152-5
• Mumisa, Michael, Introducing Arabic, New Delhi, Goodword Books 2003 ISBN 8-178-98211-0 OCLC: 55516783

External links

• - News from Arabic countries viewed December 26, 2006
• - Business news from Arab countries viewed December 26, 2006
• - Arabia in ancient history, with a discussion of the ancient usage of the word Arab viewed December 26, 2006
• - Resource on Arab Culture and Civilization viewed December 26, 2006
• - Arab World Directory viewed December 26, 2006
• - The Catholic Encyclopedia Online Edition, K. Night 2003: article Arabia viewed December 26, 2006
• - Lebanon viewed December 26, 2006
• - History of Arabic Language Retrieved Feb.17, 2006
• - "Pre-Islamic Arabic Culture" Washington State University website viewed December 26, 2006
• - The Arabic language, National Institute for Technology and Liberal Education web page (2006) viewed December 26, 2006

In Arabic Script:

• - Arab Lineage Tree; viewed December 26, 2006
• - Harthi.org viewed December 26, 2006

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