rom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia "Arab" and "Arabs" redirect here.

For other uses, see Arab (disambiguation). Arabs

Al-Arab Arab infobox.jpg Philip the Arab John of Damascus Al-Kindi Al-Khansa Faisal I of Iraq Gamal Abdel Nasser Asmahan May Ziade Total population approx. 300 million[1] Regions with significant populations Arab League Argentina 280,000,000

1,300,0003,300,000[2][3] 2,466,874[4]

United States France Iran

1,500,0002,000,000[5][6]

700,000 2,000,000[7]

Israel 1,500,000 Mexico 1,100,000[8]

Spain 800,000[9] Turkey Australia 500,000[10] 375,000[11]

Brazil 164,000[12] Languages Arabic, Modern South Arabian,[13][14] varieties of Arabic

Religion

Predominantly Islam Largest minority: Christianity; other religions

Related ethnic groups Other Semitic peoples and various Afro-Asiatic peoples

Abdul Rahman bin Faisal last ruler of the Second Saudi State. Arab people, also known as Arabs (Arabic: , arab) and Arabians, are a panethnic group[15] primarily inhabiting Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds,[16] with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing an important part of Arab identity.[17] Most however have direct or partial ancestral relation to the nomadic indigenous inhabitants of the Arabian peninsula and the Syrian desert, known as Qahtanite and Adnanite Arabs. After the genesis of Islam in the mid-7th century, most Arabs have been Muslim,[18] spreading the Arab people, Arab language and culture with the Islamic conquests as far as Europe, North Africa and Central Asia.

The word "Arab" has had several different, but overlapping, meanings over the centuries (and sometimes even today). In addition to including all ethnically Arab and Arabized people of the world (with language tending to be the acid test), it has also at times been used exclusively for bedouin (Arab nomads [although a related word, "`a-RAB," with the Arabic letter "alif" in the second syllable, once was sometimes used when this specific meaning was intended] and their now almost entirely settled descendants). It is sometimes used that way colloquially even today in some places. Townspeople once were sometimes called "sons of the Arabs." As in the case of other ethnicities or nations, people identify themselves (or are identified by others) as "Arabs" to varying degrees. This may not be one's primary identity (it tends to compete with country, religion, sect, etc.), and whether it is emphasized may depend upon one's audience. If the diverse Arab pan-ethnicity is regarded as a single ethnic group, then it constitutes one of the world's largest after Han Chinese.