Arabieren

Arabieren zijn oorspronkelijk de nomadische Semitische inwoners van het Arabisch Schiereiland (Arabië), die het Arabisch als taal hebben.^[1] Door de verspreiding van de islam is de Arabisch-sprekende populatie en hun cultuur verspreid over 22 landen, waarvan 12 in Zuidwest-Azië en 10 in Noord-Afrika, en bedraagt circa 450 miljoen mensen.^[bron?] Deze 'Arabische Wereld' kent vele nationaliteiten, vormen en gezichten, en er zijn vele verschillende dialecten binnen de Arabische taal. Iemand kan zich als Arabier identificeren op grond van zijn etnische afkomst, zijn moedertaal of het land waarin hij woont.

Arabieren woonden oorspronkelijk op het Arabisch schiereiland dat bestaat uit het hedendaagse Saoedi-Arabië, de Verenigde Arabische Emiraten, Koeweit, Jemen en Oman en verder ook een deel van de landen Jordanië en Irak. Later heeft de Arabische taal en cultuur zich door islamitische veroveringen verspreid over andere delen van het Midden-Oosten en Noord-Afrika voor het Arabische rijk. De meeste volkeren van dit gebied waren slechts zijdelings verwant aan de Arabieren, maar werden in latere tijden gearabiseerd.^[2]

↑ Arabieren brittannica.com. Gearchiveerd op 8 november 2021.
↑ Bernard Ellis Lewis; Buntzie Ellis Churchill (2008). Islam: The Religion and the People. Pearson Prentice Hall. p. 137. At the time of the Prophet's birth and mission, the Arabic language was more or less confined to Arabia, a land of deserts, sprinkled with oases. Surrounding it on land on every side were the two rival empires of Persia and Byzantium. The countries of what now make up the Arab world were divided between the two of them—Iraq under Persian rule, Syria, Palestine, and North Africa part of the Byzantine Empire. They spoke a variety of different languages and were for the most part Christians, with some Jewish minorities. Their Arabization and Islamization took place with the vast expansion of Islam in the decades and centuries following the death of the Prophet in 632 CE. The Aramaic language, once dominant in the Fertile Crescent, survives in only a few remote villages and in the rituals of the Eastern churches. Coptic, the language of Christian Egypt before the Arab conquest, has been entirely replaced by Arabic except in the church liturgy. Some earlier languages have survived, notably Kurdish in Southwest Asia and Berber in North Africa, but Arabic, in one form or another, has in effect become the language of everyday speech as well as of government, commerce, and culture in what has come to be known as "the Arab world.

[1] Arabieren brittannica.com. Gearchiveerd op 8 november 2021.

[2] Bernard Ellis Lewis; Buntzie Ellis Churchill (2008). Islam: The Religion and the People. Pearson Prentice Hall. p. 137. At the time of the Prophet's birth and mission, the Arabic language was more or less confined to Arabia, a land of deserts, sprinkled with oases. Surrounding it on land on every side were the two rival empires of Persia and Byzantium. The countries of what now make up the Arab world were divided between the two of them—Iraq under Persian rule, Syria, Palestine, and North Africa part of the Byzantine Empire. They spoke a variety of different languages and were for the most part Christians, with some Jewish minorities. Their Arabization and Islamization took place with the vast expansion of Islam in the decades and centuries following the death of the Prophet in 632 CE. The Aramaic language, once dominant in the Fertile Crescent, survives in only a few remote villages and in the rituals of the Eastern churches. Coptic, the language of Christian Egypt before the Arab conquest, has been entirely replaced by Arabic except in the church liturgy. Some earlier languages have survived, notably Kurdish in Southwest Asia and Berber in North Africa, but Arabic, in one form or another, has in effect become the language of everyday speech as well as of government, commerce, and culture in what has come to be known as "the Arab world.

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