Ahwaz اهواز الاحواز
—  city  —
White bridge and the city
Location of Ahwaz
Ahwaz
Coordinates: 31°19′13″N 48°40′09″E / 31.32028°N 48.66917°E / 31.32028; 48.66917Coordinates: 31°19′13″N 48°40′09″E / 31.32028°N 48.66917°E / 31.32028; 48.66917
Country	Iran
Province	Khuzestan
County	Ahvaz
Bakhsh	Central
Government
• Mayor	Saeed Mombeini
Elevation	17 m (52 ft)
Population (2008)
• Total	1,425,891
Time zone	IRST (UTC+3:30)
• Summer (DST)	IRDT (UTC+4:30)

Ahwaz (Persian: اهواز‎, Arabic:الاحواز, also Romanized as Ahwāz is a city in and the capital of Khuzestan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 1,425,891, in 212,097 families.^[1]

Ahwaz is built on the banks of the Karun River and is situated in the middle of Khūzestān Province. The city has an average elevation of 20 meters above sea level.

Etymology[link]

The Dehkhoda Dictionary specifically defines the Market of the Khuzis", where "Suq" is Persian word "chahar-suy/sugh" for market,^{[citation needed]} and "Ahvaz" is a plural (اسم جمع) of the form "af'āl" (افعال) of the word "Huz", or more precisely, the root "ha wa za" ( َحَـوَز ), which itself comes from the Persian Huz, from Achaemenid inscriptions from where the term first appears. Thus, which refers to the non-Arabic original inhabitants of Khūzestān. The word Houz or khouzh are the same as it means Raw sugar usually produced locally from sugar cane field north of ahwaz up to shoush where the people of Khouzistan were known for this raw sugar produce since Elamite period. The addition of A in many old Persian names were a clear indication of its origin like Hurmazd or Ahuramazda. The language of Khouzi is non-arabic and is one of the oldest dialect still being used in and around Ahwaz. The Arabs were migrants from old ages when the entire Iraq belonged to the Persia and their culture is much persianised rather than looking like present day arabs of the Persian Gulf states.

The name of the region appears in medieval Syriac sources as ܒܝܬ ܗܘܙܝܐ Beṯ Huzáyé, literally meaning "land of the Huzis".^[2]

The term "Huz", meanwhile, is the Old Persian rendition of Suz (Susa-Susiana), the native Elamite name of the region. Old Persian commonly changed the initial "s" in a foreign word into an "h," most famously, in its rendition of the name the river and the people Sindh/Sindhi into Hind/Hindi, which was then Hellenized into Indus, whence India.^{[citation needed]}

Location and roads[link]

Ahvaz located 120 km north-east of Abadan and is accessible via following routes in addition of a single runway airport:

• Tehran-Khorramshahr national railway
• Ahvaz-Abadan expressway (145 km)
• Ahvaz-Andimeshk (152 km) expressway
• Ahvaz-Bandar Imam Khomeini freeway (175 km).

Ahvaz being the largest city in the province consists of two distinctive districts: the newer part of Ahvaz, the administrative and industrial center, has been built on the right bank of the Karun while residential areas are found in the old section of the city, on the left bank.

Climate[link]

Ahvaz has a desert climate (Köppen climate classification BWh) with long, extremely hot summers and mild, short winters. Summertime temperatures routinely exceed 50 degrees Celsius with many sandstorms and duststorms common during the summer period while in winters the minimum temperature could fall around -5 degrees Celsius with snow also present. The average annual rainfall is around 230 mm.

In 2011, the World Health Organization ranked Ahvaz as the world's most air-polluted city^[4].

History[link]

For a more comprehensive historical treatment of the area, see the history section of Khūzestān Province.

Ancient history[link]

Ahvaz is the anagram of "Avaz" and "Avaja" which appear in Darius's epigraph. This word appears in Naqsh-Rostam inscription as "Khaja" or "Khooja" too.^{[citation needed]}

First named Ōhrmazd-Ardašēr (Persian: هرمزداردشیر) (Roamn Hormizdartazir^[5]) it was built near the beginning of the Sassanid dynasty on what historians believe to have been the site of the old city of Taryana, a notable city under the Persian Achaemenid dynasty. It was founded either by Ardashir I in 230 (cf. Encyclopædia Iranica, al-Muqaddasi, et al.) or (according to the Middle Persian Šahrestānīhā ī Ērānšahr) by his grandson Hormizd I; the town's name either combined Ardashir's name with the Zoroastrian name for God, Ōhrmazd or Hormizd's name with that of his grandfather. It became the seat of the province, and was also referred to as Hūmšēr. During the Sassanid era, an irrigation system and several dams were constructed, and the city prospered. Examples of Sassanid-era dams are Band-e Bala-rud, Band-e Mizan, Band-e Borj Ayar and Band-e Khak. The city replaced Susa, the ancient capital of Susiana, as the capital of what was then called Khuzestān. The Gond-e-Shapour ruins were around the northern area of Ahwaz till 15 years ago when the regime of Iran destroyed most of its remains. Arabs did not come to this part just after invasion of Islam. That is a false statement while a great number of other arabic tribes did come to the area after the invasion.

The city had two sections; the nobles of the city lived in one part while the other was inhabited by merchants.^[6] When the Arabs invaded the area in 640, the part of the city home to the nobility was demolished but the Hūj-ī-stānwāčār "Market of Khūz State", the merchant area, remained intact. The city was therefore renamed Sūq al-Ahwāz, "Market of the Khuz", a semi-literal translation of the Persian name of this quarter - Ahwāz being the Arabic broken plural of Hûz, taken from the ancient Persian term for the native Elamite peoples, Hūja (remaining in medieval khūzīg "of the Khuzh" and modern Khuzestān "Khuz State", as noted by Dehkhoda dictionary.

Medieval history[link]

During the Umayyad and Abbasid eras, Ahvaz flourished as a center for the cultivation of sugarcane and as the home of many well-known scholars. It is discussed by such respected medieval historians and geographers as ibn Hawqal, Tabari, Istakhri, al-Muqaddasi, Ya'qubi, Masudi, and Mostowfi Qazvini. Nearby stood the Academy of Gundishapur, where the modern-day teaching hospital is said to have been first established.

Ahvaz was devastated in the bloody Mongol invasions of the 13th and 14th centuries. Ahvaz subsequently declined into a mere village. The dam and irrigation channels, no longer maintained, eroded and finally collapsed early in the 19th century. During this time Ahvaz was primarily inhabited by original Khuzhis (Persians) and a small number of Sabians while majority of Migrant arabs had fled the city some stay. Some minor cultivation continued, while all evidence of sugarcane plantations is still going on in Haft Teppe area in north of Ahwaz, although ruins of sugarcane mills from the medieval era remained in existence.^[7] in Shoush and Shoushtar several remains of water mills are still remains..

Modern history[link]

The seat of the province has for the most of its history been in the northern reaches of the land, first at Susa (Shush) and then at Shushtar. During a short spell in the Sasanian era, the capital of the province was moved to its geographical center, where the river town of Hormuz-Ardashir (modern Ahvaz). However, later in the Sasanian time and throughout the Islamic era, the provincial seat returned and stayed at Shushtar, until the late Qajar period. With the increase in the international sea commerce arriving on the shores of Khuzestan, Ahvaz became a more suitable location for the provincial capital. The River Karun is navigable all the way to Ahvaz (above which, the Karun flows through rapids). The town was thus refurbished by the order of the Qajar king, Naser al-Din Shah and renamed after him, Nâseri. Shushtar quickly declined, while Ahvaz/Nâseri prospered to the present day.

In the 19th century, "Ahvaz was no more than a small borough inhabited mainly by Sha'ab Arabs and a few Sabeans (1,500 to 2,000 inhabitants according to Ainsworth in 1835; 700 according to Curzon in 1890)."^[8]

In the 1880s, under Qajar rule, the Karun River was dredged and re-opened to commerce. A newly-built railway crossed the Karun at Ahvaz. The city again became a commercial crossroads, linking river and rail traffic. The construction of the Suez Canal further stimulated trade. A port city was built near the old village of Ahvaz, and named Bandar-e-Naseri in honor of Nassereddin Shah Qajar.

Oil was found near Ahvaz in the early 20th century, and the city once again grew and prospered as a result of this newfound wealth. From 1897-1925, Sheikh Khaz'al controlled this area and the name was changed to Nâseri. Afterwards, during the Pahlavi period, it resumed its old name, Ahvaz. The government of the Khūzestān Province was transferred there from Shûshtar in 1926. The trans-Iranian railroad reached Ahvaz in 1929 and by the World War II, Ahvaz had become the principal built-up area of interior of Khūzestān. Professional segregation remained well marked between various groups in that period still feebly integrated: Persians, sub-groupings of Persians and Arabs. Natives of the Isfahan region held an important place in retail trade, owners of cafes and hotels and as craftsmen.^[9]

Iraq attempted to annex Khūzestān and Ahvaz in 1980, resulting in the Iran–Iraq War (1980–1988). Ahvaz was close to the front lines and suffered badly during the war.

Iraq had pressed its claims to Khūzestān in part because many of the inhabitants of the area spoke Arabic rather than Persian, the dominant language in Iran. Iraq had hoped to exacerbate ethnic tensions and win over popular support for the invaders. Most accounts say that the Iranian Arab inhabitants resisted the Iraqis rather than welcome them as liberators. However, some Iranian Arabs claim that as a minority they face discrimination from the central government; they agitate for the right to preserve their cultural and linguistic distinction and more provincial autonomy. See Politics of Khūzestān.

During the year 2005 the city witnessed a series of bomb explosions. Many government sources relate these events to developments in Iraq, accusing foreign governments of organising and funding Arab separatist groups.

Contemporary Ahvaz[link]

In 1989, the Foolad Ahvaz steel facility was built close to the town. This company is best known for its company-sponsored football club, Foolad F.C., which was the chart-topper for Iran's Premier Football League in 2005. Ahvaz is also home to another IPL football team, Esteghlal Ahvaz F.C..

Transportation[link]

• Ahvaz is accessible via freeways to Isfahan and Shiraz, and roadways to Tehran.
• A metro urban railway system is being built by the Ahvaz urban railway. It will be a 23 km underground line with 24 stations.
• The airport is served by Iran Asseman Airlines (Dubai, Kuwait, Tehran, flying on Boeing 727-200s or Fokker F100s), Caspian Airlines (Dubai, by MD-80), Iran Air (Isfahan, Kuwait, Tehran, by Boeing 727-200 or Fokker 100), Iran Air Tours (Isfahan, Mashad, Shiraz, Tehran, by MD-80), Kish Air (Tehran, by MD-80), and Saha Air (Tehran, by Boeing 707-300).

Colleges and universities[link]

Ahvaz is also known for its universities as well as its role in commerce and industry. Ahvaz institutes of higher learning include:

• Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences
• Petroleum University of Technology
• Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz
• Islamic Azad University Ahvaz Science and Research center (Persian)

Some famous Ahvazis[link]

Soon after the founding of the modern University of Jondishapur, Dr. Tal'at Basāri was appointed vice chancellor of the university, the first woman to reach such a post in any university in Iran.^[10]

Malileh Farshid: One of Iran's first and youngest female architects. She designed the Ahvaz Sports Complex. Her wish was to have it ready for Ahvaz to host the 1984 Summer Olympics.^[10]

• Sousan S. Altaie, PHD Scientific Policy Advisor, OIVD CDRH, FDA
• Ezzat Negahban, Patriarch of modern Iranian archaeology.
• Mehrangiz Kar, Human rights activist.
• Ahmad Mahmoud, Novelist.
• Hamid Dabashi, Intellectual historian, cultural and literary critic
• Mehrzad Boroujerdi, PhD International Relations, Professor of Political Science and Director of the Middle Eastern Studies Program at Syracuse University
• Patrick Monahan, British comedian.
• Parviz Abnar, Iranian Sound recordist.
• Mohammad-Reza Eskandari, Iran's former minister of Agriculture
• Abu Nuwas, figure in Arabic poetry.
• Ali Shamkhani, Iranian Minister of Defense (1997–2005)
• Amirreza Amirbakhtiar, Political activist .
• Hossein Kaebi, national football player
• Hamid Zangeneh, economist, author, and activist.
• Jalal Kameli Mofrad, national football player
• Hamed Haddadi, NBA basketball player
• Mohammad Mousavi Ney soloist
• Ali ibn Abbas al-Majusi, physician
• Naubakht, astronomer
• Trita Parsi, President and founder of the National Iranian American Council
• Manuchehr Shahrokhi, Professor of Finance, California State University; Editor, Global Finance Journal, Executive Director, Global Finance Association-Conference
• Mehdi Yarrahi, singer
• Dr. Omid ali Karam zade, professor of mathematics science. He is pioneer of mathematics in Iran and one of the best mathematician all around the world.(پدر علم ریاضی ایران و چهره ماندگار ایران )

Gallery[link]

• 

  Ahvaz Bridge over Karun River at night.

• Molanasq.jpg

  Rumi statue located in the front of the faculty of letters and humanities of the Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz.

• 

  A mosque in Ahvaz

See also[link]

• Mandaeism, Mandaic language
• Khūzestān Province
• Politics of Khūzestān
• Gundeshapur
• Susa
• Elam
• Choqa Zanbil
• History of Iran
• Takhti Stadium (Ahvaz)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Ahvaz Municipal Office (Persian)
• Union of Iranian Southern Universities (Persian)
• Foolad Ahvaz Football Club (Persian)
• Ahvaz Bazaar Directory (Persian)

v t e Khuzestan Province Capital Ahvaz Counties (A-K) and Cities Abadan County Abadan Arvandkenar Ahvaz County Ahvaz Hamidiyeh Andika County Qaleh-ye Khvajeh Andimeshk County Andimeshk Hoseyniyeh Bagh-e Malek County Bagh-e Malek Qaleh Tall Seydun Bavi County Mollasani Sheybani Veys Behbahan County Behbahan Aghajari Sardasht Dasht-e Azadegan County Susangerd Bostan Dezful County Dezful Dezab Mianrud Safiabad Saland Gotvand County Gotvand Jannat Makan Haftgel County Haftgel Hendijan County Hendijan Zahreh Hoveyzeh County Hoveyzeh Rafi Izeh County Izeh Dehdez Khorramshahr County Khorramshahr Minushahr Moqavemat Counties (L-Z) and Cities Lali County Lali Mahshahr County Bandar-e Mahshahr Bandar-e Emam Khomeyni Chamran Masjed Soleyman County Masjed Soleyman Omidiyeh County Omidiyeh Jayezan Ramhormoz County Ramhormoz Ramshir County Ramshir Shadegan County Shadegan Shush County Shush Alvan Horr Shushtar County Shushtar Sights Abadan's museum Gundishapur Acropole of Shush Apadana in Susa Arjan castle, Behbahan Asak ancient city, Hendijan Chagadom tappe fire temple Chogha Mish Proto-Elamite site Chogha Zanbil Dav o Dokhtar castle, Ramhormoz Dez Dam Eshkaft-e Salman Gargar bridge, Shushtar Haft Tepe Hoor-al-azim lagoon Imamzadeh Roudband, Dezful Imamzadeh Sabz-e-ghaba, Dezful Karkheh dam Khorramshahr mosque, Battle of Khorramshahr Kul-e Farah lake of Karkheh dam Lake of Karun Lali bridge Meyangaran lagoon Rangooni's mosque Salasel castle, Shushtar Shadegan lagoon Shevi waterfall, Dezful Shush-Daniel Shushtar Historical Hydraulic System Shushtar Watermills Susa Shush Castle Taryana Tobiron valley, Dezful Tomb of Daniel, Shush White bridge, Ahvaz Ya'qub-i Laith's tomb, Dezful

Arab
العرب al-ʿarab

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 280,000,000  France 3,500,000[2]  Argentina 1,300,000–3,300,000[3][4]  United States 2,466,874[5]  Iran 700,000 – 2,000,000[6]  Israel 1,500,000  Mexico 1,100,000[7]  Spain 800,000[8]  Turkey 500,000[9]  Brazil 164,000[10]
Languages
Arabic, Modern South Arabian,[11][12] varieties of Arabic
Religion
Predominantly Islam; largest minority: Christianity; other religions
Related ethnic groups
Jews, other Afro-Asiatic groups

Arab people, also known as Arabs (Arabic: عرب‎, ʿarab), are a panethnicity^[13] primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds,^[14] with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing an important part of Arab identity.^[15]

The word "Arab" has had several different, but overlapping, meanings over the centuries (and sometimes even today). In addition to including all 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.

Etymology[link]

The earliest documented use of the word "Arab" to refer to a people appears in the Monolith Inscription, an Akkadian language record of the 9th century BC Assyrian Conquest of Syria (Arabs had formed part of a coalition of forces opposed to Assyria).^[16] Listed among the booty captured by the army of king Shalmaneser III of Assyria in the Battle of Qarqar are 1000 camels of "Gi-in-di-bu'u the ar-ba-a-a" or "[the man] Gindibu belonging to the ʕarab" (ar-ba-a-a being an adjectival nisba of the noun ʕarab).^[16]

The most popular Arab account holds that the word 'Arab' came from an eponymous father called Yarab, who was supposedly the first to speak Arabic. Al-Hamdani had another view; he states that Arabs were called GhArab (West in Semitic) by Mesopotamians because Arabs resided to the west of Mesopotamia; the term was then corrupted into Arab. Yet another view is held by Al-Masudi that the word Arabs was initially applied to the Ishmaelites of the "Arabah" valley.

The root of the word has many meanings in Semitic languages including "west/sunset," "desert," "mingle," "merchant," "raven" and are "comprehensible" with all of these having varying degrees of relevance to the emergence of the name. It is also possible that some forms were metathetical from ʿ-B-R "moving around" (Arabic ʿ-B-R "traverse"), and hence, it is alleged, "nomadic."

Identity[link]

Arab identity is defined independently of religious identity, and pre-dates the rise of Islam, with historically attested Arab Christian kingdoms and Arab Jewish tribes. Today, however, most Arabs are Muslim, with a minority adhering to other faiths, largely Christianity. Arabs are generally Sunni, Shia, or Ismaili Muslims, but currently, 7.1 percent to 10 percent of Arabs are Arab Christians.^[17] This figure does not include Christian ethnic groups such as Assyrians, Syriacs and those designated as Arameans or Phoenicians.

The early Arabs were the tribes of Northern Arabia speaking proto Arabic dialects. Although since early days other people became Arabs through an Arabization process that could mean intermarriage with Arabs, adopting the Arabic language and culture, or both. For example, the Ghassanids and the Lakhmids which originated from Southern Semitic speaking Yemen made a major contribution in the creation of the Arabic language. The same process happened all over the Arab world after the spread of Islam by the mixing of Arabs with several other peoples. The Arab cultures went through a mixing process. Therefore every Arab country has cultural specificities which constitute a cultural mix which also originate in local novelties achieved after the arabization took place. However, all Arab countries do also share a common culture in most Aspects: Arts (music, literature, poetry, calligraphy...), Cultural products (Handicrafts, carpets, henne, bronze carving...), Social behaviour and relations (Hospitality, codes of conduct among friends and family...), Customs and superstitions, Some dishes (Shorba, Mloukhia), Traditional clothing, Architecture...

Muslim but non-Arab people, who are about 80 percent of the world's Muslim population, do not form part of the Arab world, but instead comprise what is the geographically larger, and more diverse, Muslim World.

Arabs have historically been racially classified as white/Caucasian^[18][19] and, since 1997, by the U.S. Census as well.^[20][21]

Arabic, the main unifying feature among Arabs, is a Semitic language originating in Arabia. From there it spread to a variety of distinct peoples across most of West Asia and North Africa,^[22] resulting in their acculturation and eventual denomination as Arabs. Arabization, a culturo-linguistic shift, was often, though not always, in conjunction with Islamization, a religious shift.

With the rise of Islam in the 7th century, and as the language of the Qur'an, Arabic became the lingua franca of the Islamic world. (See Anwar G. Chegne, "Arabic: Its Significance and Place in Arab-Muslim Society," Middle East Journal 19 (Autumn 1965), pp. 447–470. It was in this period that Arabic language and culture was widely disseminated with the early Islamic expansion, both through conquest and cultural contact.^[23]

Arabic culture and language, however, began a more limited diffusion before the Islamic age, first spreading in West Asia beginning in the 2nd century, as Arab Christians such as the Ghassanids, Lakhmids and Banu Judham began migrating north from Arabia into the Syrian Desert, south western Iraq and the Levant.^[24][25]

In the modern era, defining who is an Arab is done on the grounds of one or more of the following two criteria:

Distribution of Arabic as sole official language (green) and one of several official or national languages (blue).

• Genealogical: someone who can trace his or her ancestry to the tribes of Arabia – the original inhabitants of the Arabian Peninsula – and the Syrian Desert. This was the definition used in medieval times, for example by Ibn Khaldun, but has decreased in importance over time, as a portion of those of Arab ancestry lost their links with their ancestors' motherland. In the modern era, however, DNA tests have at times proved reliable in identifying those of Arab genealogical descent. For example, it has been found that the frequency of the "Arab marker" Haplogroup J1 collapses suddenly at the borders of Arabic speaking countries.^[26]
• Linguistic: someone whose first language, and by extension cultural expression, is Arabic, including any of its varieties. This definition covers more than 300 million people. Certain groups that fulfill this criterion reject this definition on the basis of non-Arab ancestry; such an example may be seen in the way that Egyptians identified themselves in the early 20th century.^[27][28]

The relative importance of these factors is estimated differently by different groups and frequently disputed. Some combine aspects of each definition, as done by Palestinian Habib Hassan Touma,^[29] who defines an Arab "in the modern sense of the word", as "one who is a national of an Arab state, has command of the Arabic language, and possesses a fundamental knowledge of Arab tradition, that is, of the manners, customs, and political and social systems of the culture." Most people who consider themselves Arab do so based on the overlap of the political and linguistic definitions. Few people consider themselves Arab based on the political definition without also having Arabic as a first or primary language. Thus Kurds, the Assyrian Christians and Mandeans of Iraq and its surrounds (who primarily speak Mesopotamian Aramaic), Armenians, Shabak, Turcoman, Circassians and Baluch do not identify as Arab, and some Berbers have also rejected the label.^[30] Some other ethno-religious minorities within Western Asia and North Africa who do speak Arabic as their primary community language also do not identify with the Arab identity, most notably the Syriac Christian communities such as Maronites of Syria and Lebanon and the Copts of Egypt.

The Arab League, a regional organization of countries intended to encompass the Arab world, defines an Arab as:

An Arab is a person whose language is Arabic, who lives in an Arabic-speaking country, and who is in sympathy with the aspirations of the Arabic-speaking peoples.^[31]

The relation of ʿarab and ʾaʿrāb is complicated further by the notion of "lost Arabs" al-ʿArab al-ba'ida mentioned in the Qur'an as punished for their disbelief. All contemporary Arabs were considered as descended from two ancestors, Qahtan and Adnan.

Versteegh (1997) is uncertain whether to ascribe this distinction to the memory of a real difference of origin of the two groups, but it is certain that the difference was strongly felt in early Islamic times. Even in Islamic Spain there was enmity between the Qays of the northern and the Kalb of the southern group. The so-called Sabaean or Himyarite language described by Abū Muhammad al-Hasan al-Hamdānī (died 946) appears to be a special case of language contact between the two groups, an originally north Arabic dialect spoken in the south, and influenced by Old South Arabian.^{[citation needed][dubious – discuss]}

During the Muslim conquests of the 7th and 8th centuries, the Arabs forged an Arab Empire (under the Rashidun and Umayyads, and later the Abbasids) whose borders touched southern France in the west, China in the east, Asia Minor in the north, and the Sudan in the south. This was one of the largest land empires in history. In much of this area, the Arabs spread Islam and the Arabic culture, Science, and Language (the language of the Qur'an) through conversion and cultural assimilation.

Two references valuable for understanding the political significance of Arab identity: Michael C. Hudson, Arab Politics: The Search for Legitimacy (Yale University Press, 1977), especially Chs. 2 and 3; and Michael N. Barnett, Dialogues in Arab Politics: Negotiations in Regional Order (Columbia University Press, 1998).

Arab population[link]

A Bedouin in Saudi Arabia

The table below shows the number of Arab people, including expatriates and some groups that may not be identified as Arabs.

Arab states

Flag	Country	Total Population	% Arabs	Notes
	Egypt	82,079,636[32]	90%[33]	The classification as Arab is only cultural as Egyptians are not ethnically Arabs nor do they consider themselves as such.	[34][35]
	Sudan	45,047,502	70%[36]
	Algeria	35,423,000	80%[37]	Classification as arab is cultural[38], not ethnic. although almost all Algerians are Berber in origin (not Arab)[39].
	Morocco	32,381,000	66%[40]	The high level of mixing between Arabs and Berbers makes differentiating between the two ethnicities in Morocco difficult. This figure includes Arabs of Berber descent.
	Saudi Arabia	26,246,000	90%[41]
	Iraq	31,467,000	75%-80%[42]
	Yemen	24,256,000	100%[43]
	Syria	22,505,000	90%[44]
	Tunisia	10,374,000	98%[45]	Almost all of Tunisia's citizenry has Arab and Berber background. Because of the high degree of assimilation Tunisians are often referred to as Arab-Berber.[46]
	Libya	6,546,000	97%[47]	Almost all of Libya's citizenry has Arab and Berber background. Because of the high degree of assimilation Libyans are often referred to as Arab-Berber.[48]
	Jordan	6,472,000	98%[49]
	Lebanon	4,255,000	95%[50]
	Palestinian territories	4,225,710	90%	Gaza Strip: 1,657,155, 100% Palestinian Arab,[51] West Bank: 2,568,555, 83% Palestinian Arab and other[52]
	Israel	1,500,000	20.5%[53]
	Kuwait	3,030,000	80%[54]
	UAE	4,707,000	19%[55]	Less than 20% of the population in the Emirates are citizens, the majority are foreign workers and expatriates. Those holding Emirati citizenship are overwhelmingly Arab.
	Oman	3,090,150	81%[56]
	Mauritania	3,343,000	80%[43]	The majority of Mauritania's population are ethnic Moors, an ethnicity with a mix of Arab and Berber ancestry, with a smaller Black African ancestry. Moors make up 80% of the population in Mauritania, the remaining 20% are members of a number of Black African ethnic groups.[43][dubious – discuss]
	Qatar	1,508,000	55%[41]	The native population is a minority in Qatar, making up 20% of the population. The native population is ethnically Arab. An additional 35% of the population is made up of Arabs, mostly Egyptian and Palestinian workers. The remaining population is made up of other foreign workers.[41]
	Bahrain	1,234,571	51.4%[57]	46.0% of the Bahrain's population are native Bahrainis. Bahrainis are ethnically Arabs.[58] 5.4% are Other Arabs (inc. GCC)[57]

Arab diaspora[link]

The Arab diaspora is a global diaspora distributed across many continents.

Arab diaspora

Flag	Country	Number of Arabs	Total Population	% Arabs	Notes
	Brazil	6,000,000	191,241,714	3.0%	[59]
	Canada	470,000	34,190,000	1.4%	[60]
	France	3,500,000	65,073,482	5.4%	[61]
	United States		311,965,000
	Netherlands	418,000	17,196,000	2.5%
	Argentina	1,336,000	40,482,000	3.3%	[62]
	Italy		60,234,000
	Australia		21,885,016
	United Kingdom		61,113,205
	Turkey		78,785,548
	Mexico		111,211,789
	Chile	700,000	16,928,873	4.2%	[63]
	South Africa		26,814,843[citation needed]
	Germany		82,060,000
	Ecuador		13,625,000
	Russia		142,008,838
–	Total		–	–

According to the International Organization for Migration, there are 13 million first-generation Arab migrants in the world, of which 5.8 reside in Arab countries. Arab expatriates contribute to the circulation of financial and human capital in the region and thus significantly promote regional development.^{[citation needed]} In 2009 Arab countries received a total of 35.1 billion USD in remittance in-flows and remittances sent to Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon from other Arab countries are 40 to 190 per cent higher than trade revenues between these and other Arab countries.^[64]

Central Asia and Caucasus

In 1728, a Russian officer described a group of Sunni Arab nomads who populated the Caspian shores of Mughan (in present-day Azerbaijan) and spoke a mixed Turkic-Arabic language.^[65] It is believed that these groups migrated to the Caucasus in the 16th century.^[66] The 1888 edition of Encyclopædia Britannica also mentioned a certain number of Arabs populating the Baku Governorate of the Russian Empire.^[67] They retained an Arabic dialect at least into the mid-19th century,^[68] but since then have fully assimilated with the neighbouring Azeris and Tats. Today in Azerbaijan alone, there are nearly 30 settlements still holding the name Arab (for example, Arabgadim, Arabojaghy, Arab-Yengija, etc.).

From the time of the Arab conquest of the Caucasus, continuous small-scale Arab migration from various parts of the Arab world was observed in Dagestan influencing and shaping the culture of the local peoples. Up until the mid-20th century, there were still individuals in Dagestan who claimed Arabic to be their native language, with the majority of them living in the village of Darvag to the north-west of Derbent. The latest of these accounts dates to the 1930s.^[66] Most Arab communities in southern Dagestan underwent linguistic Turkicisation, thus nowadays Darvag is a majority-Azeri village.^[69][70]

According to the History of Ibn Khaldun, the Arabs that were once in Central Asia have been either killed or have fled the Tatar invasion of the region, leaving only the locals .^[71] However, today many people in Central Asia identify as Arabs. Most Arabs of Central Asia are fully integrated into local populations, and sometimes call themselves the same as locals (for example, Tajiks, Uzbeks) but they use special titles to show their Arabic origin such as Sayyid, Khoja or Siddiqui.^[72]

Iranian Arab communities are also found in Khuzestan Province.

South Asia

There are only two communities with the self-identity Arab in South Asia, the Chaush of the Deccan region and the Chavuse of Gujerat,^[73][74] who are by and large descended of Hadhrami migrants who settled in these two regions in the 18th Centuries. However, both these communities no longer speak Arabic, although with the Chaush, there has been re-immigration to the Gulf States, and re-adoption of Arabic by these immigrants.^[75] In South Asia, claiming Arab ancestry is considered prestigious, and many communities have origin myths with claim to an Arab ancestry. Examples include the Mappilla of Karela, Labbai of Tamil Nadu and Kokan of Maharashtra. These communities all allege an Arab ancestry, but none speak Arabic and follow the customs and traditions of the Hindu majority.^[76] Among Muslims of North India and Pakistan, there are groups who claim the status of Sayyid, have origin myths that allege descent from the Prophet Mohammmad. None of these Sayyid families speak Arabic or follow Arab customs or traditions.^[77]

History[link]

Pre-Islamic[link]

Semitic origin[link]

There is a consensus that the Semitic peoples originated from Arabian peninsula,^[78] deriving^{[clarification needed]} the entire population of Mesopotamia from population movements out of Jazirat al-Arab ("island of the Arabs") – an area between the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, with Hadramawt its southern perimeter, extending northward up to the area just east of the Dead Sea (Jordan).^[79] It should be pointed out that these settlers were not Arabs or Arabic speakers. Early non Arab Semitic peoples from the Ancient Near East, such as the Arameans, Akkadians (Assyrians and Babylonians), Amorites, Israelites, Eblaites, Ugarites and Canaanites, built civilizations in Mesopotamia and the Levant; genetically, they often interlapped and mixed.^[80] Slowly, however, they lost their political domination of the Near East due to internal turmoil and attacks by non-Semitic peoples. Although the Semites eventually lost political control of Western Asia to the Persian Empire, the Aramaic language remained the lingua franca of Assyria, Mesopotamia and the Levant. Aramaic itself was replaced by Greek as Western Asia's prestige language following the conquest of Alexander III of Macedon, though it survives to this day among Assyrian (aka Chaldo-Assyrian) Christians and Mandeans in Iraq, northeast Syria, southeast Turkey and northwest Iran.

Early history[link]

The first written attestation of the ethnonym "Arab" occurs in an Assyrian inscription of 853 BCE, 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 Ancient North Arabian dialects. In fact several different ethnonyms are found in Assyrian texts that are conventionally translated "Arab": Arabi, Arubu, Aribi and Urbi. Many of the Qedarite queens were also described as queens of the aribi. The Hebrew Bible occasionally refers to Aravi peoples (or variants thereof), translated as "Arab" or "Arabian." The scope of the term at that early stage is unclear, but it seems to have referred to various desert-dwelling Semitic tribes in the Syrian Desert and Arabia.^{[citation needed]} Arab tribes came into conflict with the Assyrians during the reign of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal, and he records military victories against the powerful Qedar tribe among others.

Arab family of Ramallah, early 1900s

Medieval Arab genealogists divided Arabs into three groups:

• "Ancient Arabs", tribes that had vanished or been destroyed, such as ʿĀd and Thamud, often mentioned in the Qur'an as examples of God's power to destroy those who did not believe and follow their prophets and messengers.
• "Pure Arabs" of South Arabia, descending from Qahtan. The Qahtanites (Qahtanis) are said to have migrated from the land of Yemen following the destruction of the Ma'rib Dam (sadd Ma'rib).
• The "Arabized Arabs" (musta`ribah) of center and North Arabia, descending from Ishmael, the elder son of Abraham. The Book of Genesis narrates that God promised Hagar to beget from Ishmael twelve princes and turn him to a great nation.^{(Genesis 17:20)} The Book of Jubilees, in the other hand, claims that the sons of Ishmael intermingled with the 6 sons of Keturah, from Abraham, and their descendants were called Arabs and Ishmaelites:

  Book of Jubilees 20:13 And Ishmael and his sons, and the sons of Keturah and their sons, went together and dwelt from Paran to the entering in of Babylon in all the land which is towards the East facing the desert. And these mingled with each other, and their name was called Arabs, and Ishmaelites.

Ibn Khaldun's Muqaddima distinguishes between sedentary Muslims who used to be nomadic Arabs and the Bedouin nomadic Arabs of the desert. He used the term "formerly-nomadic" Arabs and refers to sedentary Muslims by the region or city they lived in, as in Egyptians, Spaniards and Yemenis.^[81] The Christians of Italy and the Crusaders preferred the term Saracens for all the Arabs and Muslims of that time.^[82] The Christians of Iberia used the term Moor to describe all the Arabs and Muslims of that time. Muslims of Medina referred to the nomadic tribes of the deserts as the A'raab, and considered themselves sedentary, but were aware of their close racial bonds. The term "A'raab' mirrors the term Assyrians used to describe the closely related nomads they defeated in Syria.

The Qur'an does not use the word ʿarab, only the nisba adjective ʿarabiy. The Qur'an calls itself ʿarabiy, "Arabic", and Mubin, "clear". The two qualities are connected for example in ayat 43.2–3, "By the clear Book: We have made it an Arabic recitation in order that you may understand". The Qur'an became regarded as the prime example of the al-ʿarabiyya, the language of the Arabs. The term ʾiʿrāb has the same root and refers to a particularly clear and correct mode of speech. The plural noun ʾaʿrāb refers to the Bedouin tribes of the desert who resisted Muhammad, for example in ayat 9.97, alʾaʿrābu ʾašaddu kufrān wa nifāqān "the Bedouin are the worst in disbelief and hypocrisy".

Based on this, in early Islamic terminology, ʿarabiy referred to the language, and ʾaʿrāb to the Arab Bedouins, carrying a negative connotation due to the Qur'anic verdict just cited. But after the Islamic conquest of the 8th century, the language of the nomadic Arabs became regarded as the most pure by the grammarians following Abi Ishaq, and the term kalam al-ʿArab, "language of the Arabs", denoted the uncontaminated language of the Bedouins.

Classical kingdoms[link]

Facade of Al Khazneh in Petra, Jordan, built by the Nabateans

Proto-Arabic, or Ancient North Arabian, texts give a clearer picture of the Arabs' emergence. The earliest are written in variants of epigraphic south Arabian musnad script, including the 8th century BCE Hasaean inscriptions of eastern Saudi Arabia, the 6th century BCE Lihyanite texts of southeastern Saudi Arabia and the Thamudic texts found throughout Arabia and the Sinai (not in reality connected with Thamud).

The Nabataeans were nomadic newcomers^{[83][dubious – discuss]} who moved into territory vacated by the Edomites – Semites who settled the region centuries before them. Their early inscriptions were in Aramaic, but gradually switched to Arabic, and since they had writing, it was they who made the first inscriptions in Arabic. The Nabataean Alphabet was adopted by Arabs to the south, and evolved into modern Arabic script around the 4th century. This is attested by Safaitic inscriptions (beginning in the 1st century BCE) and the many Arabic personal names in Nabataean inscriptions. From about the 2nd century BCE, a few inscriptions from Qaryat al-Faw (near Sulayyil) reveal a dialect which is no longer considered "proto-Arabic", but pre-classical Arabic. Five Syriac inscriptions mentioning Arabs have been found at Sumatar Harabesi, one of which has been dated to the 2nd century CE.

Late kingdoms[link]

The Ghassanids, Lakhmids and Kindites were the last major migration of non-Muslims out of Yemen to the north.

• The Ghassanids increased the Semitic presence in the then Hellenized Syria, the majority of Semites were Aramaic peoples. They mainly settled in the Hauran region and spread to modern Lebanon, Palestine and East Jordan.

Greeks and Romans referred to all the nomadic population of the desert in the Near East as Arabi. The Romans called Yemen "Arabia Felix".^[84] The Romans called the vassal nomadic states within the Roman Empire "Arabia Petraea" after the city of Petra, and called unconquered deserts bordering the empire to the south and east Arabia Magna.

• The Lakhmids as a dynasty inherited their power from the Tanukhids, the mid Tigris region around their capital Al-Hira they ended up allying with the Sassanid against the Ghassanids and the Byzantine Empire. The Lakhmids contested control of the Central Arabian tribes with the Kindites with the Lakhmids eventually destroying Kinda in 540 after the fall of their main ally Himyar. The Persians Sassanids dissolved the Lakhmid dynasty in 602, being under puppet kings, then under their direct control.^[85]
• The Kindites migrated from Yemen along with the Ghassanids and Lakhmids, but were turned back in Bahrain by the Abdul Qais Rabi'a tribe. They returned to Yemen and allied themselves with the Himyarites who installed them as a vassal kingdom that ruled Central Arbia from "Qaryah Dhat Kahl" (the present-day called Qaryat al-Faw) in Central Arabia. They ruled much of the Northern/Central Arabian peninsula, till they were destroyed by the Lakhmid king Al-Mundhir, and his son 'Amr

Islamic[link]

Arab Caliphate[link]

Age of the Caliphs

  Expansion under Muhammad, 622–632/A.H. 1–11

  Expansion during the Rashidun Caliphate, 632–661/A.H. 11–40

  Expansion during the Umayyad Caliphate, 661–750/A.H. 40–129

Rashidun Era (632-661)

After the death of Prophet Muhammad in 632, Rashidun armies launched campaigns of conquest, establishing the Caliphate, or Islamic Empire, one of the largest empires in history. It was larger and lasted longer than the previous Arab empires of Queen Mawia or the Palmyrene Empire which was predominantly Syriac rather than Arab. The Rashidun state was a completely new state and not a mere imitation of the earlier Arab kingdoms such as the Himyarite, Lakhmids or Ghassanids, although it benefited greatly from their art, administration and architecture.

Umayyad Era (661-750)

The Mosque of Uqba also known as the Great Mosque of Kairouan was founded in 670 by the Arab general Uqba ibn Nafi ; it is the oldest mosque in the Arab Maghrib^[86] and represents an architectural testimony of the Arab conquest of North Africa, city of Kairouan, Tunisia.

View of the Alhambra from the Mirador de San Nicolás in the Albaycin of Granada.

In 661 Caliphate turned to the hands of the Umayyad dynasty, Damascus was established as the Muslim capital. They were proud of their Arab ancestry and sponsored the poetry and culture of pre-Islamic Arabia. They established garrison towns at Ramla, ar-Raqqah, Basra, Kufa, Mosul and Samarra, all of which developed into major cities.^[87]

Caliph Abd al-Malik established Arabic as the Caliphate's official language in 686.^[88] This reform greatly influenced the conquered non-Arab peoples and fueled the Arabization of the region. However, the Arabs' higher status among non-Arab Muslim converts and the latter's obligation to pay heavy taxes caused resentment. Caliph Umar II strove to resolve the conflict when he came to power in 717. He rectified the situation, demanding that all Muslims be treated as equals, but his intended reforms did not take effect as he died after only three years of rule. By now, discontent with the Umayyads swept the region and an uprising occurred in which the Abbasids came to power and moved the capital to Baghdad.

Umayyads expanded their Empire westwards capturing North Africa from the Byzantines. Prior to the Arab conquest, North Africa was inhibited by various people including Punics, Vandals and Greeks. It was not until the 11th century that the Maghreb saw a large influx of ethnic Arabs. Starting with the 11th century, the Arab bedouin Banu Hilal tribes migrated to the West. Having been sent by the Fatimids to punish the Berber Zirids for abandoning Shiism, they travelled westwards. The Banu Hilal quickly defeated the Zirids and deeply weakened the neighboring Hammadids. Their influx was a major factor in the Arabization of the Maghreb, Although Berbers would rule the region until the 16th century (under such powerful dynasties as the Almoravids, the Almohads, Hafsids, etc.), the arrival of these tribes would eventually help to Arabize much of it ethnically in addition to the linguistic and political impact on the none-Arabs there. With the collapse of the Umayyad state in 1031 AD, Islamic Spain was divided into small kingdoms.

Abbassid Era (750-1513)

Abbasids let a revolt against the Umayyads and defeated them in the Battle of the Zab effectively ending their rule in all part of the Empire except Al-Andalus. The Abbasids descendants of Muhammad's uncle Abbas, but unlike the Ummayads, they had the support of non-Arab subjects of the Umayyads.^[87] where Umayyads treated non-Arabs in contempt. Abbasids ruled for 200 years before they lost their central control when Wilayas began to fracture, afterwards in the 1190s there was a revival for their power which was put to end by the Mongols who conquered Baghdad and killed the Caliph, members of the Abbasid royal family escaped the massacre and resorted to Cairo, which fractured from the Abbasid rule two years earlier, the Mamluk generals were taking the political side of the kingdom while Abbasid Caliphs were engaged in civil activities and continued patronizing science, arts and literature.

• Fractured Entities:
• Fatimids
• Ayyubid dynasty

Ottoman Caliphate[link]

Arabs were ruled by Ottoman sultans from 1513 to 1918. Ottomans defeated the Mamluk Sultanate in Cairo, and ended the Abbasid Caliphate when they choose to bear the title of Caliph. Arabs did not feel the change of administration because Ottomans modeled their rule after the previous Arab administration systems.^{[citation needed]} After World War I when the Ottoman Empire was overthrown by the British Empire, former Ottoman colonies were divided up between the British and French as Mandates.

Modern[link]

Arabs in modern times live in the Arab world, which comprises 22 countries. They are all modern states and became significant as distinct political entities after the fall of the Ottoman Empire.^{[citation needed]}

Religion[link]

Arab Muslims are generally Sunni or Shia, one exception being the Ibadis, who predominate in Oman and can be found as small minorities in Algeria and Libya (mostly Berbers). Arab Christians generally follow Eastern Churches such as the Coptic Orthodox, Greek Orthodox and Greek Catholic churches and the Maronite church and others. In Iraq most Christians are Assyrians rather than Arabs, and follow the Assyrian Church of the East, Syriac Orthodox and Chaldean Church.^[89][90] The Greek Catholic churches and Maronite church are under the Pope of Rome, and a part of the larger worldwide Catholic Church. There are also Arab communities consisting of Druze and Baha'is.^[91][92]

The Kaaba, located in Mecca (Saudi Arabia) is the center of Islam. It is where the able Muslims from all over the world travel to, in order to perform Umrah and Hajj

Before the coming of Islam, most Arabs followed a pagan religion with a number of deities, including Hubal,^[93] Wadd, Allāt,^[94] Manat, and Uzza. A few individuals, the hanifs, had apparently rejected polytheism in favor of monotheism unaffiliated with any particular religion. Some tribes had converted to Christianity or Judaism. The most prominent Arab Christian kingdoms were the Ghassanid and Lakhmid kingdoms.^[95] When the Himyarite king converted to Judaism in the late 4th century,^[96] the elites of the other prominent Arab kingdom, the Kindites, being Himyirite vassals, apparently also converted (at least partly). With the expansion of Islam, polytheistic Arabs were rapidly Islamized, and polytheistic traditions gradually disappeared.^[97][98]

Today, Sunni Islam dominates in most areas, overwhelmingly so in North Africa. Shia Islam is dominant in southern Iraq and Lebanon. Substantial Shi'a populations exist in Saudi Arabia,^[99] Kuwait, northern Syria, the al-Batinah region in Oman, and in northern Yemen. The Druze community, concentrated in Lebanon, Israel, and Syria. Many Druze claim independence from other major religions in the area and consider their religion more of a philosophy. Their books of worship are called Kitab Al Hikma (Epistles of Wisdom). They believe in reincarnation and pray to five messengers from God.