The Arabs (Arabic: عرب ʻarab) are a large and heterogenous ethnic group found throughout the Middle East and North Africa, originating in the Arabian Peninsula of southwest Asia. Arab - Who is an Arab?. The definition of who an Arab is has several aspects: Ethnic identity: someone who considers himself to be an Arab (regardless of racial or ethnic origin) and is recognized as such by others. Linguistic: someone whose first language is Arabic (including any of its varieties); this d ...

Including:

• Arab - Who is an Arab?
• Arab - Religions
• Arab - History
• Arab - Traditional genealogy
• Arab - Etymology

Read more here: » Arab: Encyclopedia - Arab

The definition of who an Arab is has several aspects: Ethnic identity: someone who considers himself to be an Arab (regardless of racial or ethnic origin) and is recognized as such by others. Linguistic: someone whose first language is Arabic (including any of its varieties); this definition covers more than 200 million people. Arabic belongs to the Semitic family of languages. Genealogical: someone who can trace his or her ancestry back to the original inhabitants of the Arabian Peninsula. Political: ...

See also:

Arab, Arab - Who is an Arab?, Arab - Religions, Arab - History, Arab - Traditional genealogy, Arab - Etymology

Read more here: » Arab: Encyclopedia II - Arab - Who is an Arab?

Medieval Arab genealogists divided the Arabs into three groups: the "ancient Arabs", tribes that had been destroyed or vanished, such as Ad and Thamud; they are often alluded to in the Qur'an as examples of God's power to destroy wicked peoples. 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). The Qahtanite Arabs were responsible for the ancient civilizations of Yemen, notably ...

See also:

Arab, Arab - Who is an Arab?, Arab - Religions, Arab - History, Arab - Traditional genealogy, Arab - Etymology

Read more here: » Arab: Encyclopedia II - Arab - Traditional genealogy

The first written attestation of the ethnonym "Arab" occurs in an Assyrian inscription of 853 BC, where Shalmaneser III lists a King Gindibu of mâtu arbâi (Arab land) as among the people he defeated at the Battle of Karkar. Some of the names given in these texts are Aramaic, while others are the first attestations of Proto-Arabic dialects. The Hebrew Bible likewise refers occasionally to peoples called `Arvi (or variants thereof), translated as "Arab" or "Arabian". The scope of the Hebrew term at this early stage is unclear, ...

See also:

Arab, Arab - Who is an Arab?, Arab - Religions, Arab - History, Arab - Traditional genealogy, Arab - Etymology

Read more here: » Arab: Encyclopedia II - Arab - History

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 expansion of Islam, the majority of Arabs rapidly became Muslim, and the pre-Islamic po ...

See also:

Arab, Arab - Who is an Arab?, Arab - Religions, Arab - History, Arab - Traditional genealogy, Arab - Etymology

Read more here: » Arab: Encyclopedia II - Arab - Religions