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arabs

n. ''Arab''

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Arabs

Arabs (, ‘arab) are a panethnicity of peoples native to the Arab world. They primarily inhabit Western Asia, North Africa, and parts of the Horn of Africa and East Africa.

Before the spread of Islam, Arab referred to any of the largely nomadic ancient Semitic-speaking peoples inhabiting the northern and central Arabian Peninsula. In modern usage Arab refers to a heterogeneous collection of Arabic-speaking peoples in Western Asia and North Africa. The ties that bind Arabs are linguistic, cultural, political, and ethnic, with Arabized Arabs displaying genetic admixture from the Arabian peninsula as well as indigenous elements. As such, Arab identity is based on one or more of genealogical, linguistic or cultural grounds, although with competing identities often taking a more prominent role, based on considerations including regional, national, clan, kin, sect, and tribe affiliations and relationships. Not all people who could be considered Arab identify as such. If the Arab pan-ethnicity is regarded as a single population, then it constitutes the world's second largest group of people after the Han Chinese.

The Arabian Peninsula itself was not entirely Arab linguistically or culturally before the spread of Islam. Arabization occurred in the southern and eastern regions of the peninsula. For example, the language shift to Arabic displaced the distinct Old South Arabian languages from what is now modern-day Yemen and southern Oman. These were the languages spoken in the civilizations of Sheba, Magan, and Dilmun.

Usage examples of "arabs".

The moderate Arabs, who claimed to understand Saddam as only brother Arabs could, reinforced this stance by advising the United States that Saddam was just bluffing, urged the administration to steer clear of the dispute and let them handle it.

In particular, the Arabs praised him for his creation of a powerful arsenal of ballistic missiles and WMD, which they hoped would allow Baghdad to champion Arab causes against Israel.

Although we should not be blase about the prospects for any of the moderate Arabs, the state that we must be most concerned about is Jordan, which is dependent on exports of Iraqi oil and Iraqi imports of Jordanian goods.

Indeed, as for many Arabs, until only the last few decades, the United States was little more than a strange name of a distant land for most Iraqis.

Out of ancient Sumer came Abraham, the father of Jews and Arabs, the founder of Judaism, the first monotheist.

Although the Mongol conquest was brief, it was terrible, and it broke the power of the Islamic Arabs, paving the way for the rise of the Turkish empires, first of the Seljuks and later of the Ottomans, who would rule Iraq for nearly four hundred years, until the First World War.

Soon after the end of the Revolutionary War, American merchantmen began venturing into the Indian Ocean to trade with the Arabs of the southern Arabian peninsula.

But the Saudis were rich and cooperative, and unlike the Persian Iranians, they were Arabs whom the United States hoped could prevail upon their Arab brothers.

On the Iraqi military in the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, see Pollack, Arabs at War, pp.

In addition, Saddam adopted the cause of a negotiated settlement between Israel and the Arabs, supporting virtually every effort toward peace during the 1980s, although it is clear that this was only a tactical move intended to secure the American support he needed.

For a description of the military operations in the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, see Pollack, Arabs at War, pp.

In so doing, they created an ecological catastrophe and destroyed the way of life of several hundred thousand Marsh Arabs who had made their homes among the rushes and reeds for more than a millennium.

Entire groups of people, such as the Marsh Arabs, were denied ration cards to try to starve them into submission.

Saddam believes himself destined to be the new leader of the Arabs, and he makes it apparent that this role will be a political-military role, meaning that he will achieve this position through some combination of conquest and acclaim.

Saddam has recognized that the worse the violence between Arabs and Israelis, the more isolated the United States is in the Arab world and the more popular support he garners.