Arabs

I

Introduction

Arabs, name given to the ancient and present-day inhabitants of the Arabian Peninsula, and often applied to the peoples closely allied to them in ancestry, language, religion, and culture. Presently more than 200 million Arabs are living mainly in 21 countries; they constitute the overwhelming majority of the population in Saudi Arabia, Syria, Yemen, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt, and the nations of North Africa. The Arabic language is the main symbol of cultural unity among these people, but the religion of Islam provides another common bond for the majority of Arabs. Language and religion are united in the Koran, the sacred scripture of Islam.

II

History

Arabia was the site of a flourishing civilization long before the Christian era. In the centuries following the death of the prophet Muhammad in ad 632, Arab influence spread throughout the Middle East, to parts of Europe, particularly Sicily and Spain, to sub-Saharan Africa, to the subcontinent of India, and to Madagascar and the Malay Archipelago. The cultural and scientific contributions of the Arabs to Western civilization during the Middle Ages was highly significant, especially in astronomy, mathematics, medicine, and philosophy.

III

Modern Arabs

During the past two centuries of rapid global change, hundreds of years of cultural unity have been disrupted, and the Arabs, led by the people of Egypt and Morocco, have moved more and more into separate national traditions.

A

Religion

The Islamic religion, which originated in the western Arabian Peninsula in the 7th century, predominates in most Arab nations. Forms of both major divisions of Islam—the Sunni and the various Shiite sects—can be found in the Arab countries. Almost everywhere, nationalism, which emerged in the late 19th century, is an important force. Nationalists sometimes use the Islamic religious tradition as an ideological tool to justify the power of the ruling class.