In this short article, you will understand clearly and objectively why Arabic is not an ethnicity, but a language.
Culture | Arabic Language
The word “Arab” (or “nomads” according to its etymological root) is a cultural and linguistic term. Refers to those who have Arabic as their "mother tongue".
Arabs are united by culture and history, however, they do not constitute an ethnic group.
Some have blue eyes and red hair, while others are darker. Most Arabs are Muslims (that is, they follow Islam), but there are also millions of Christian Arabs and thousands of Jewish Arabs, just as there are American Muslims, Christians and Jews. This complex composition formed what became known as "The Arab World", which includes 22 countries from the Middle East and North Africa: Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros Islands, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Morocco, Mauritania, Oman, Palestine and occupied territories, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen. Iran (formerly Persia) and Turkey are not Arab countries, and their main languages are Farsi and Turkish, respectively. Arab countries have a rich diversity of ethnic, linguistic and religious communities, including Kurds, Armenians, Berbers, among others. There are more than 400 million Arabs in the world (2020 statistics).
There are an estimated 1.9 billion Muslims in the world. The Organization of Islamic Countries has 55 member states. The ten countries with the largest Muslim population are: Indonesia (231 million), Pakistan (212 million), Bangladesh (153 million), India (200 million), Turkey (74 million), Iran (82.5 million), Egypt (85 million), Nigeria (95 million). Of these countries, only Egypt is an Arab country.
"Most Arabs are Muslims, but most Muslims are not Arabs"
The Middle East is a rather vague term, as it is not always used to describe its territory. It generally includes Arab countries from eastern Egypt to the Persian Gulf, as well as ancient Palestine and Iran. Sometimes Turkey is considered part of the Middle East, sometimes part of Europe. Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh are generally described as South Asia. Arab Americans are Americans of Arab descent. There are Americans with roots in every Arab country, but most originate from Lebanon, Syria and Palestine. There are also important communities in Egypt, Yemen and Iraq. The first immigrants arrived at the end of the 19th century. A second wave of immigration began after World War II and still continues. The largest communities live in the Detroit area.
Arabic Language
The Arabic language was divided into “Southern Arabic” and “Northern Arabic”. The first was composed of 29 letters, capital letters when written in stone and bronze inscriptions, lower case letters in documents written on wood and palm tree stems. It could be written either from right to left or from left to right, however, over time, the first option became the only possible one and it continued that way until the beginning of Islam. Northern Arabic was made up of 28 letters and was identified, with variations in form and orthographic practice, in North and Central Arabia, including in communities in Babylon.
In addition to this branch, other forms were used, among which the first was cuneiform, used in Failaka and Bahrain during the second millennium before the Christian Era. However, the most applicable was Aramaic, present in northwest and eastern Arabia throughout the Persian period and later used by all authorities located in the vicinity of the Syrian desert. It is interesting to note that the success of the Nabataeans [1] led to the dissemination of a version of Aramaic everywhere and, despite Roman rule in 106 AD, its use lasted for a few centuries. Later, the Arab tribes, those linked to the Roman and Persian empires, inserted Aramaic into their language. In this way, the Nabataean language with 22 letters gradually transformed into what we know today as the Arabic language. Out of curiosity, I bring a quote from the writer and journalist Dr. Zafarul-Islam Khan:
Arabic is the main surviving language of the Semitic family. It is spoken in the Arab East and the Arab West, popularly known as the Middle East and North Africa, as well as in East and West Africa. It is the fourth most popular language in the world after English, French and Spanish. Arabic is the official language of the members of the League of Arab States (Arab League), which currently covers 23 countries from Oman in the Arabian Sea to Morocco and Mauritania in the Atlantic (KHAN, 2015, p. 4).
Quote:
[1] SMITH, Sylvia. “The Nabataeans inhabited the north of the Arabian Peninsula and the south of the Levant between the 4th century BC and 106 AD and ruled their empire from the city of Petra, in present-day Jordan, but made Hegra, today known as Mada'in Saleh, into Al -Ula, its second capital. Its characteristic of independent civilization ended after being conquered by the Roman emperor Trajan.” BBC NEWS, 2019.
Sources:
Rethinking Schools
World Population Review. Muslim Population By Country 2021.
Author: Vanessa Chamma
Graduated in Arabic Literature and bachelor's in international relations
Researcher and Author
Lines of Research: History, Middle East, Geopolitics.
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