Arab people facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Arab
عربal-ʿarab

Philip the Arab Zenobia John of Damascus Fairuz Gamal Abdel Nasser Manal al-Sharif Ibn Khaldun Ralph Nader Carlos Ghosn
Total population
approx. 450 million
Regions with significant populations
Pan-Arab States	430,754,575
Brazil	12,000,000
France	6,000,000
Argentina	3,500,000
United States	3,500,000
Iran	700,000 - 2,000,000
Israel	1,500,000
Mexico	1,100,000
Languages
Arabic, Modern South Arabian
Religion
Predominantly Islam; largest minority: Christianity; other religions

The Arabs (Arabic: العرب ʻarab) are an ethnic widespread in the Middle East and North Africa. Arabic is one of the Semitic languages, which is also the name of the ethnic family which they belong to.

Who is an Arab

There are three points which decide whether someone is considered Arab or not:

• Political: whether they live in a country which is a member of the Arab League (or the Arab World); this definition covers more than 450 million people.
• Linguistic: whether their main language is Arabic; this definition covers more than 423 million people.
• Genealogical: whether they can trace their ancestry back to the people who first lived on the Arabian Peninsula.

There are many people who can be called Arabs by these points, but who do not think of themselves as Arab. Examples include the original Egyptians (Coptics) and the Syriacs (Aramaics/Assyrians). Although they live in countries like Syria or Egypt which is part of the Arab League and speak the official language-Arabic, they are different cultural groups. They have their own languages, culture, identity and churches, such as the Coptic Church and the Syriac Catholic and Orthodox churches. Even though many have assimilated to Arab society, they have their own heritage that spans 3,000 years.

Traditional genealogy

In Islamic and Jewish tradition, Arabs are a Semitic people who trace their ancestry from Ishmael, a son of the ancient patriarch Abraham and Hagar. Medieval Arab genealogists separate the Arabs into two groups: the "original Arabs" of South Arabia, descending from Qahtan (identified with the biblical Joktan) and the "Arabized Arabs" (musta`ribah) of North Arabia, descending from Adnan who is descended from Ishmael.

Religion

Most Arabs today follow the religion of Islam, whose greatest prophet is Muhammad. Christianity makes up the largest religious minority - most of the Christians that do consider themselves Arabs belong to the Greek Orthodox Church with smaller numbers of Roman Catholics.

While Coptic and Maronite Catholic Christians are native Arabic-speakers, many reject the Arab pan-ethnicity, but are still considered Arab by outsider sources.

There are some small communities practicing Judaism and polytheism (the worship of many gods). Yazidis are sometimes counted as Arabs.

Images for kids

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  The Namara inscription, an Arabic epitaph of Imru' al-Qais, son of "Amr, king of all the Arabs", inscribed in Nabataean script. Basalt, dated in 7 Kislul, 223, viz. 7 December 328 CE. Found at Nimreh in the Hauran (Southern Syria).

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  Traditional Qahtanite genealogy

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  Nabataean trade routes in Pre-Islamic Arabia.

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  Assyrian relief depicting battle with camel riders, from Kalhu (Nimrud) Central Palace, Tiglath Pileser III, 728 BCE, British Museum

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  Arab soldier (Old Persian cuneiform: 𐎠𐎼𐎲𐎠𐎹, Arabāya) of the Achaemenid army, circa 480 BCE. Xerxes I tomb relief.

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  Life-size bronze bust sculpture of historian Ibn Khaldun.

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  Façade of Al Khazneh in Petra, Jordan, built by the Nabateans.

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  The ruins of Palmyra. The Palmyrenes were a mix of Arabs, Amorites and Arameans.

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  Fragment of a wall painting showing a Kindite king, 1st century CE

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  The Near East in 565, showing the Lakhmids and their neighbors

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  Tombstone of Muhammad (Left), Abu Bakr and Umar (right), Medina, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

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  The Great Mosque of Kairouan in Kairouan, Tunisia was founded in 670 by the Arab general Uqba ibn Nafi; it is the oldest mosque in the Maghreb and represents an architectural testimony of the Arab conquest of North Africa

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  The Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, built in 715, is one of the oldest, largest and best preserved mosques in the world

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  The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, constructed during the reign of Abd al Malik

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  Mustansiriya University in Baghdad

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  Scholars at an Abbasid library in Baghdad. Maqamat of al-Hariri Illustration, 123.

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  Harun al-Rashid receiving a delegation sent by Charlemagne

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  Al-Azhar Mosque, commissioned by the Fatimid Caliph Al-Mu'izz for the newly established capital city of Cairo in 969

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  Arabesque pattern behind hunters on ivory plaque, 11th–12th century, Egypt

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  Soldiers of the Arab Army in the Arabian Desert carrying the Flag of the Arab Revolt

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  A map of the Arab world

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  The Near East in 565, showing the Ghassanids, Lakhmids, Kinda and Hejaz

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  Arab tribes before the spread of Islam

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  Post-card of Emir Mejhem ibn Meheid, chief of the Anaza tribe near Aleppo with his sons after being decorated with the Croix de Légion d'honneur on 20 September 1920

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  Old Bedouin man and his wife in Egypt, 1918

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  Commander and Amir of Mascara, Banu Hilal

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  Population density of the Arab world in 2008.

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  Syrian immigrants in New York City, as depicted in 1895

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  Amel Bent, a French-born Maghrebi pop singer

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  The Arab American National Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, the United States of America

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  Bas-relief: Nemesis, Allāt and the dedicator

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  The holiest place in Islam, the Kaaba in Al-Haram Mosque, is located in Mecca, the Hejazi region of Saudi Arabia

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  A Greek Orthodox Church during a snow storm in Amman, Jordan

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  An Abbasid-era Arabic manuscript

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  Arabic calligraphy

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  Aladdin flying away with two people, from the Arabian Nights, c. 1900

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  A giraffe from the Kitāb al-Ḥayawān (Book of the Animals), an important scientific treatise by the 9th century Arab writer Al-Jahiz.

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  The Qur'an is one of the most influential examples of Arabic literature

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  Illustration from Kitab al-Aghani (Book of Songs), by Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani. The 14th-century historian Ibn Khaldun called the Book of Songs the register of the Arabs.

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  Self portrait of renowned Lebanese poet/writer Khalil Gibran

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  A large plate of Mezes in Petra, Jordan

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  Mosaic and arabesque on a wall of the Myrtle court in Alhambra, Granada.

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  Arabic miniature depicting Al-Harith from Maqamat of al-Hariri

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  The Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba, built by Abd al Rahman I in 987

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  Umm Kulthum was an internationally famous Egyptian singer.

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  Al-Lat was the god of Arabs before Islam; It was found in Ta'if

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  Averroes, founder of the Averroism school of philosophy, was influential in the rise of secular thought in Western Europe.

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  Ibn Arabi, one of the most celebrated mystic-philosophers in Islamic history.

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  Hevelius's Selenographia, showing Alhazen [sic] representing reason, and Galileo representing the senses. Alhazen has been described as the "world's first true scientist".

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  Albategnius's Kitāb az-Zīj was one of the most influential books in medieval astronomy

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  The Tabula Rogeriana, drawn by al-Idrisi for Roger II of Sicily in 1154, is one of the most advanced ancient world maps. Modern consolidation, created from the 70 double-page spreads of the original atlas.

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  Henna tattoo in Morocco