Arab people-Cedar Herald Index

The Arabs ( ʻarab) are an ethnic group 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. Genealogically, Arabs are those who can trace their ancestry back to the people who first lived on the Arabian Peninsula.

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.

Arab people

Minorities are the Iraqi Turkmens in some Arab countries. The Iraqi Turkmen people are often considered Arab, but they are an Turkic people ethnic group with their own language and culture. The same goes for Berbers (Amazigh) and Bedouins.

Arab people

There are many people who can be called Arabs by these points, but who do not think of themselves as Arab. Examples include modern 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.

Arab people

Traditional genealogy

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

Religion

Most Arabs today follow the religion of Islam, whose central 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).