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ARABS

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Originally appearing in Volume V02, Page 287 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ARABS , the name given to that See also:

branch of the Semitic See also:race which from the earliest historic times inhabited the. See also:south-western portion of the Arabian See also:peninsula. The name, to-See also:day the collective See also:term for the overwhelming See also:majority of the surviving Semitic peoples, was originally restricted to the See also:nomad tribes who ranged the See also:north of the peninsula See also:east of See also:Palestine and the Syro-Arabian See also:desert. In this narrow sense " Arab " is used in the See also:Assyrian See also:inscriptions, in the Old Testament and in the Minaean inscriptions. Before the See also:Christian era it had come to include all the inhabitants of the peninsula. This, it is suggested, may have been due to the fact that the " Arabs " i See also:Lord See also:Cromer in See also:Egypt, No. 1, 1905, p. 2. were the See also:chief See also:people near the See also:Greek and See also:Roman colonies in See also:Syria and See also:Mesopotamia. Classical writers use the term both in its See also:local and See also:general sense. The Arabs to-day occupy, besides See also:Arabia, a See also:part of Mesopotamia, the western shores of the lied See also:Sea, the eastern See also:coast of the See also:Persian Gulf and the north of See also:Africa. The finest type of the race is found in south Arabia among the Ariba Arabs, among the mountaineers of See also:Hadramut and See also:Yemen and among the Bedouin tribes roaming over the interior of central and See also:northern Arabia. The Arabs of the coasts and those of Mesopotamia are hybrids, showing See also:Turkish, See also:Negroid and Hamitic crossings.

The people of Syria and Palestine are hybrids of Arab, Phoenician and Jewish descent. The theory that See also:

early Arab settlements were made on the east coast of Africa as far as See also:Sofala south of the See also:Zambezi, is without See also:foundation; the earliest Arab See also:settlement on the east coast of Africa that can be proved is Magadoxo (See also:Mukdishu) in the loth See also:century, and the ruined cities of Mashonaiand, once supposed to be the remains of Arab settlements, are now known to be of See also:medieval See also:African origin. On the East African coast-lands Arab See also:influence is still considerable. Traces of the Arab type are met with in See also:Asia See also:Minor, the See also:Caucasus, western See also:Persia and See also:India, while the influence of the Arab See also:language and See also:civilization is found in See also:Europe (See also:Malta and See also:Spain), See also:China and Central Asia. The Arabs are at once the most See also:ancient as they in many ways are the purest surviving type of the true Semite. Certainly See also:Ethnology. the inhabitants of Yemen are not, and in historic times never were, pure Semites. Somali and other elements, generally described under the collective racial name of Hamitic, are clearly traceable; but the inland Arabs still See also:present the nearest approach to the See also:primitive Semitic type. The origin of the Arab race can only be a See also:matter of conjecture. From the remotest historic times it has been divided into two branches, which from their See also:geographical position it is simplest to See also:call the North Arabians and the South Arabians. Arabic and Jewish tradition trace the descent of the latter from Joktan (Arabic Kahtan) son of See also:Heber, of the former from See also:Ishmael. The South Arabians—the older branch--were settled in the south-western part of the peninsula centuries before the uprise of the Ishmaelites. These latter include not only Ishmael's See also:direct descendants through the twelve princes (Gen. See also:xxv.

16), but the Edomites, Moabites, See also:

Ammonites, Midianites and other tribes. This ancient and undoubted See also:division of the Arab race —roughly represented to-day by the universally adopted See also:classification into Arabs proper and Bedouin Arabs (see See also:BEDOUINS)—has caused much dispute among ethnologists. All authorities agree in declaring the race to be Semitic in the broadest ethnological signification of that term, but some thought they saw in this division of the race an indication of a dual origin. They asserted that the purer branch of the Arab See also:family was represented by the sedentary Arabs who were of Hamitic (Biblical Cushite), i.e. African ancestry, and that the nomad Arabs were Arabs only by See also:adoption, and were nearer akin to the true Semite as sons of Ishmael. Many arguments were adduced in support of this theory. (I) The unquestioned division in remote historic times of the Arab race, and the See also:im- memorial hostility between the two branches. (2) The concur- rence of pre-Islamitic literature and records in representing the first settlement of the " pure " Arab as made in the extreme south-western part of the peninsula, near See also:Aden. (3) The use of Himyar, " dusky " or " red " (suggesting African See also:affinities), as the name sometimes for the ruling class, sometimes for the entire people. (4) The African affinities of the Himyaritic language. (5) The resemblance of the See also:grammar of the Arabic now spoken by the " pure " Arabs, where it differs from that of the North, to the Abyssinian grammar. (6) The marked resemblance of the pre-Islamitic institutions of Yemen and its allied provinces—its monarchies, courts, armies and serfs—to the See also:historical Africo-See also:Egyptian type and even to See also:modern Abys- sinia.

(7) The physique of the " pure " Arab, the shape and See also:

size of the See also:head, the slenderness of the See also:lower limbs, all suggesting an African rather than an See also:Asiatic origin. (8) The habits of the people, viz. their sedentary rather than nomad occupations, their fondness for See also:village See also:life, for dancing, See also:music and society, their cultivation of the See also:soil, having more in See also:common with African life than with that of the western Asiatic See also:continent. (q) The extreme facility of See also:marriage which exists in all classes of the See also:southern Arabs with the African races, the fecundity of such unions and the slightness or even See also:total See also:absence of any See also:caste feeling between the dusky " pure " Arab and the still darker African, pointing to a community of origin. And further arguments were found in the characteristics of the Bedouins, their See also:pastoral and nomad tendencies; the peculiarities of their See also:idiom allied to the See also:Hebrew; their strong See also:clan feeling, their continued resistance to anything like See also:regal See also:power or centralized organization. Such, briefly, were the more important arguments; but latterly ethnologists are inclined to agree that there is little really to be said for the African ancestry theory and that the Arab race had its beginning in the deserts of south Arabia, that in See also:short the true Arabs are See also:aborigines. Mahommedans call the centuries before the See also:Prophet's See also:birth wagt-el jahiliya, " the See also:time of See also:ignorance," but the fact is that the Arab See also:world has in some respects never since reached so high a level as it had in those days which it suits Moslems to paint in dreary See also:colours. See also:Writing was a See also:fine See also:art and See also:poetry flourished. Eloquence was an accomplishment all strove to acquire, and each See also:year there were assemblies, lasting sometimes a See also:month, which were devoted to contests of skill among the orators and poets, to listen to whose friendly rivalry tribesmen journeyed See also:long distances. Last, that surest See also:index of a people's civilization —the treatment of women—contrasted very favourably with their position under the See also:Koran. See also:Women had rights and were respected. The See also:veil and the See also:harem See also:system were unknown before See also:Mahomet. According to See also:Noldeke the Nabataean inscriptions and coins show that women held a high social position in northern Arabia, owning large estates and trading independently.

See also:

Polyandry and See also:polygamy, it is true, were practised, but the right of See also:divorce belonged to the woman as well as the See also:man. Two kinds of marriage were celebrated. One was a purely See also:personal See also:con-See also:tract, with no witnesses, the wife not leaving her See also:home or passing under marital authority. The other was a formal marriage, the woman becoming subject to her See also:husband by See also:purchase or See also:capture. Even See also:captive women were not kept in See also:slavery. Arabic See also:wealth and culture had indeed thus early reached a See also:stage which justified See also:Professor See also:Robertson See also:Smith in writing, " In this See also:period the name of Arab was associated to Western writers with ideas of effeminate indolence and peaceful opulence . . . the See also:golden See also:age of Yemen." But long before Mahomet's time this early Arab predominance was at an end, possibly due in See also:great measure to the loss of the See also:caravan See also:trade through the increase of See also:shipping. The See also:abandonment of great cities and the ruin of many tribes contributed to the apparent nationalization of the Arab peoples. Though the traditional See also:jealousy and hostility of the two branches, the Yemenites and Maadites or Ishmaelites, remained, the Arab world had attained by the levelling See also:process of common misfortune the superficial unity it presents to-day. The nation thus formed, never a nation in the strict sense of the word, was distinctively and thoroughly Semitic in See also:character and language, and has remained unchanged to the present day. The sporadic brilliancy of the ancient Arab kingdoms gave See also:place to a social and See also:political lethargy, the continuation of which for many centuries made the uprise of Saracenic empires seem a See also:miracle to a world ignorant of the Arab past. The Arab race up to Mahomet's day had been in the See also:main See also:pagan.

Monotheism, if it ever prevailed, early gave place to See also:

sun and See also:star See also:worship, or See also:simple See also:idolatry. Professor Robertson Smith suggests that See also:totemism was the earliest See also:form of Arabian idolatry, and that each tribe had its sacred See also:animal. This he supports by the fact that some tribal names were derived from those of animals, and that animal-worship was not unknown in Arabia. What seems certain is that Arab See also:religion was of a complex hybrid nature, not much to be wondered at when one remembers that Arabia was the See also:asylum of many religious refugees, Zoroastrians, See also:Jews, Christians. In the later pre-Islamitic times See also:spirits, or jinns, as they were called, of which each tribe or family had its own, were worshipped, and there was but a vague See also:idea of a Supreme Being. Images of the jinns to the number of 36o, one for each day of the lunar year, were collected in the See also:temple at See also:Mecca, the chief seat of their worship. That worship was of a sanguinary nature. Human See also:sacrifice was fairly frequent. Under the See also:guise of religion See also:female See also:infanticide was a common practice. At Mecca the great See also:object of worship was a See also:plain See also:black See also:stone, and to it pilgrimages were made from every part of Arabia. This stone was so sacred to the Arabs that even Mahomet dared not dispense with it, and it remains the central object of sanctity in the Ka'ba to-day. The temples of the See also:Sabaeans and the Minaeans were built east of their cities, a fact suggesting sun-worship, yet this is not believed to have been the cult of the Minaeans.

Common to both was the worship of See also:

Attar, the male Ashtoreth. With the See also:appearance of Mahomet the Arabs took anew a place in the world's See also:history. Physically the Arabs are one of the strongest and noblest races of the world. See also:Baron de Larrey, surgeon-general to Physique. See also:Napoleon on his expedition to Egypt and Syria, writes: " Their See also:physical structure is in all respects more perfect than that of Europeans; their See also:organs of sense exquisitely acute, their size above the See also:average of men in general, their figure robust and elegant, their See also:colour See also:brown; their intelligence proportionate to their physical perfection and without doubt See also:superior, other things being equal, to that of other nations." The typical Arab See also:face is of an See also:oval form, lean-featured; the eyes a brilliant black, deep-set under bushy eyebrows; See also:nose aquiline, forehead straight but not high. In See also:body the Arab is See also:muscular and long-limbed, but lean. De-formed individuals or dwarfs are rare among Arabs; nor, except leprosy, which is common, does any disease seem to be hereditary among them. They often suffer from ophthalmia, though not in the virulent Egyptian form. They are scrupulously clean in their persons, and take See also:special care of their See also:teeth, which are generally See also:white and even. Simple and abstemious in their habits, they often reach an extreme yet healthy old age; nor is it common among them for the faculties of the mind to give way sooner than those of the body. Thus, physically, they yield to few races, if any, of mankind; mentally, they surpass most, and are only kept back in the character. See also:march of progress by the remarkable defect of or- ganizing power'and incapacity for combined See also:action. Lax and imperfect as are their forms of See also:government, it is with impatience that even these are See also:borne; of the four caliphs who alone reigned—if reign theirs could be called—in Arabia proper, three died a violent See also:death; and of the Wahhabi princes, the most genuine representatives in later times of pure Arab See also:rule, almost all have met the same See also:fate.

The Arab face, which is not unkindly, but never smiling, expresses that dignity and gravity which are typical of the race. While the Arab is always polite, See also:

good-natured, manly and brave, he is also revengeful, cruel, untruthful and superstitious. Of the Arab nature Burck- See also:hardt (other authorities, e.g. See also:Barth and See also:Rohlfs, are far less com- plimentary) wrote: " The Arab displays his manly character when he defends his See also:guest at the peril of his own life, and submits to the reverses of See also:fortune, to disappointment and See also:distress, with the most patient resignation. He is distinguished from a Turk by the virtues of pity and gratitude. The Turk is cruel, the Arab of a more See also:kind See also:temper; he pities and supports the wretched, and never forgets the generosity shown to him even by an enemy." The Arab will See also:lie and cheat and swear false oaths, but once his word is pledged he may be trusted to the last. There are some oaths such as Wallah (by See also:Allah) which mean nothing, but such an See also:oath as the threefold one with wa, bi and to as particles of See also:swearing the meanest thief will not break. In temper, or at least in the manifestation of it, the Arab is studiously See also:calm; and he rarely so much as raises his See also:voice in a dispute. But this outward tranquillity covers feelings alike keen and permanent; and the remembrance of a rash jest or injurious word, uttered 285 years before, leads only too often to that See also:blood-revenge which is a sacred See also:duty everywhere in Arabia. There exist, however, marked tribal or almost semi-See also:national diversities of character among the Arabs. Thus, the inhabitants of See also:Hejaz are noted for See also:courtesy and blamed for fickleness; those of See also:Nejd are distinguished by their stern tenacity and dignity of deportment; the nations of Yemen are See also:gentle and pliant, but revengeful; those of See also:Hasa and See also:Oman cheerful and fond of See also:sport, though at the same time turbulent and unsteady. Anything approaching to a See also:game is rare in Nejd, and in the Hejaz religion and the yearly occurrence of the See also:pilgrim ceremonies almost exclude all public' diversions; but in Yemen the well-known game of the " jerid," or See also:palm-stick, with dances and music is not rare.

In Oman such amusements are still more frequent. Again in Yemen and Oman, See also:

coffee-houses, where people resort for conversation, and where public recitals, songs and other amusements are indulged in, stand open all day; while nothing of the sort is tolerated in Nejd. So too the ceremonies of See also:circumcision or marriage are occasions of gaiety and pastime on the coast, but not in the central provinces. An Arab See also:town, or even village, except it be the merest See also:hamlet, is invariably walled See also:round; but seldom is a stronger material than dried See also:earth used; the walls are occasionally flanked by towers of like construction. A dry ditch See also:Manners and often surrounds the whole. The streets are irregular customs. and seldom parallel. The Arab, indeed, lacks an See also:eye for the straight. The Arab See also:carpenter cannot form a right See also:angle; an Arab servant cannot place a See also:cloth square on a table. The Ka'ba at Mecca has none of its sides or angles equal. The houses are of one or two storeys, rarely of three, with See also:flat mud See also:roofs, little windows and no See also:external See also:ornament. If the town be large, the expansion of one or two streets becomes a See also:market-place, where are ranged a few shops of eatables, drugs, coffee, cottons or other goods.

Many of these shops are kept by women. The chief See also:

mosque is always near the market-place; so is also the See also:governor's See also:residence, which, except in size and in being more or less fortified Arab See also:fashion, does not differ from a private See also:house. Drainage is unthought of; but the extreme dryness of the See also:air obviates the inconvenience and disease that under other skies could not fail to ensue, and which in the damper climates of the coast make themselves seriously See also:felt. But the streets are roughly swept every day, each householder taking care of the roadway that lies before his own See also:door. Whitewash and colour are occasionally used in Yemen, Hejaz and Oman; elsewhere a See also:light ochre tint, the colour of the sun-dried bricks, predominates, and gives an Arab town the appearance at a distance of a large dust-heap in the centre of the See also:bright See also:green See also:ring of gardens and palm-groves. Baked bricks are unknown in Arabia, and stone buildings are rare, especially in Nejd. Palm branches and the like, See also:woven in wattles, form the dwellings. of the poorer classes in the southern districts. Many Arab towns possess See also:watch-towers, like huge round factory chimneys in appearance, built of sun-dried bricks, and varying in height from 5o to too ft. or even more. Indeed, two of these constructions at the town of Birkat-el-Mauj, in Oman, are said to be each of 170 ft. in height, and that of Nezwah, in the same See also:province, is reckoned at too; but these are of stone. The See also:principal feature in the interior of an Arab house is the "kahwah " or coffee-See also:room. It is a large apartment spread with mats, and sometimes furnished with carpets and a few cushions. At one end is a small See also:furnace or fireplace for preparing coffee.

In this room the men congregate; here guests are received, and even lodged; women rarely enter it, except at times when strangers are unlikely to be present. Some of these apartments are very spacious and supported by pillars; one See also:

wall is usually built transversely to the See also:compass direction of the Ka'ba; it serves to facilitate the performance of See also:prayer by those who may happen to be in the kahwah at the appointed times. The other rooms are ordinarily small. The Arabs are proverbially hospitable. A stranger's arrival is often the occasion of an amicable dispute among the wealthier inhabitants as to who shall have the See also:privilege of receiving him. Arab See also:cookery is of the simplest. Roughly-ground See also:wheat cooked with See also:butter; See also:bread in thin cakes, prepared on a heated See also:iron See also:plate or against the walls of an open See also:oven; a few vegetables, generally of the leguminous kinds; boiled mutton or See also:camel's flesh, among the wealthy; See also:dates and fruits—this is the menu of an See also:ordinary See also:meal. See also:Rice is eaten by the See also:rich and See also:fish is common on the coasts. See also:Tea, introduced only a few decades back, is now largely drank. A See also:food of which the Arabs are fond is locusts boiled in See also:salt and See also:water and then dried in the sun. They See also:taste like stale shrimps, but there is a great See also:sale for them. Spices are freely employed; butter much too largely for a See also:European taste.

After eating, the hands are always washed, See also:

soap or the ashes of an alkaline plant being used. A covered censer with burning See also:incense is then passed round, and each guest perfumes his hands, face, and sometimes his clothes; this censer serves also on first receptions and whenever special See also:honour is intended. In Yemen and Oman scented water often does duty for it. Coffee, without See also:milk or See also:sugar, but flavoured with an aromatic See also:seed brought from India, is served to all. This, too, is done on the occasion of a first welcome, when the cups often make two or three successive rounds; but, in fact, coffee is made and drunk at any time, as frequently as the See also:desire for it may suggest itself; and each time fresh grains are sifted, roasted, pounded and boiled—a very laborious process, and one that requires in the better sort of establishments a special servant or slave for the See also:work. Arabs generally make but one solid meal a day—that of supper, soon after sunset. Even then they do not eat much, gluttony being rare among them, and even daintiness esteemed disgraceful. See also:Wine, like other fermented drinks, is prohibited by the Koran, and is, in fact, very rarely taken, though the inhabitants of the mountains of Oman are said to indulge in it. On the coast spirits of the worst quality are sometimes procured; See also:opium and See also:hashish are sparingly indulged in. On the other See also:hand, wherever Wahhabiism has See also:left freedom of action, See also:tobacco-smoking prevails; short pipes of See also:clay, long pipes with large open See also:bowls, or most frequently the water-See also:pipe or " narghileh," being used. The tobacco smoked is generally strong and is either brought from the neighbourhood of See also:Bagdad or grown in the See also:country itself. The strongest quality is that of Oman; the See also:leaf is broad and coarse, and retains its green colour even when dried; a few whiffs have been known to produce See also:absolute stupor.

The aversion of the See also:

Wahhabis to tobacco is well known; they entitle it " mukhzi " or " the shameful," and its use is punished with blows, as the public use of wine would be elsewhere. In See also:dress much variety prevails. The loose See also:cotton drawers girded at the See also:waist, which in hot climates do duty for See also:trousers, Uress. are not often worn, even by the upper classes, in Nejd or Yemama, where a kind of See also:silk dressing-See also:gown is thrown over the long See also:shirt; frequently, too, a brown or black cloak distinguishes the wealthier See also:citizen; his head-dress is a handkerchief fastened round the head by a See also:band. But in Hejaz, Yemen and Oman, turbans are by no means uncommon; the ordinary colour is white; they are worn over one or more See also:skull-caps. Trousers also form part of the dress in the two former of these districts; and a voluminous See also:sash, in which a See also:dagger or an inkstand is See also:stuck, is wrapped round the waist. The poorer folk, however, and the villagers often content themselves with a broad piece of cloth round the loins, and another across the shoulders. In Oman trousers are rare, but over the shirt a long gown, of See also:peculiar and somewhat See also:close-fitting cut, dyed yellow, is often worn. The women in these provinces commonly put on loose drawers and some add veils to their head-dresses; they are over-fond of ornaments (See also:gold and See also:silver); their See also:hair is generally arranged in a long See also:plait See also:hanging down behind. All men allow their beards and moustaches full growth, though this is usually scanty. Most Arabs shave their heads, and indeed all, strictly speaking, ought by See also:Mahommedan See also:custom to do so. An Arab seldom or never dyes his hair. Sandals are worn more often than shoes; none but the very poorest go barefoot.

Slavery is still, as of old times, a recognized institution through-out Arabia; and an illicit See also:

traffic in blacks is carried on along the coasts of the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. The Slavery. slaves themselves were obtained chiefly from the east African coast districts down as far as See also:Zanzibar, but this source of See also:supply was practically closed by the end of the 19th century. Slaves are usually employed in Arabia as herdsmen or as domestic servants, rarely in agricultural work; they also form a considerable portion of the bodyguards with which Eastern greatness loves to surround itself. Like their countrymen elsewhere, they readily embrace the religion of their masters and become zealous Mahommedans. Arab custom enfranchises a slave who has accepted See also:Islam at the end of seven years of bondage, and when that period has arrived, the See also:master, instead of exacting from his slave the See also:price of freedom, generally, on giving him his See also:liberty, adds the requisite means for supporting himself and a family in comfort. Further, on every important occasion, such as a birth, circumcision, a marriage or a death, one or more of the See also:household slaves are sure of acquiring their freedom. Hence Arabia has a considerable See also:free black See also:population; and these again, by inter-marriage with the whites around, have filled the See also:land with a See also:mulatto breed of every shade, till, in the eastern and southern provinces especially, a white skin is almost an exception. In Arabia no See also:prejudice exists against See also:negro alliances; no social or political See also:line separates the African from the Arab. A negro may become a sheik, a kadi, an See also:amir, or whatever his See also:industry and his talents may render him capable of being. This is particularly so in Nejd, Yemen and Hadramut; in the Hejaz and the north a faint line of demarcation may be observed between the races. The Arabs are good soldiers but poor generals. Personal courage, wonderful endurance of privation, fixity of purpose, and a contempt of death are qualities common to Military almost every race, tribe and clan that compose the qualities.

Arab nation. In skirmishing and harassing they have few equals, while at close quarters they have often shown them-selves capable of maintaining, armed with swords and spears alone, a desperate struggle against guns and bayonets, neither giving nor receiving See also:

quarter. Nor are they wholly ignorant of See also:tactics, their armies, when engaged in See also:regular See also:war, being divided into centre and wings,-with skirmishers in front and a reserve behind, often screened at the outset of the engagement by the camels of the expedition. These animals, kneeling and ranged in long parallel rows, form a sort of entrenchment, from behind which the soldiers of the main body See also:fire their matchlocks, while the front divisions, opening out, See also:act on either flank of the enemy. This arrangement of troops may be traced in Arab records as far back as the 5th century, and was often exemplified during the Wahhabi See also:wars. Arab women are scarcely less distinguished for their bravery than the men. Records of armed heroines occur frequently in the See also:chronicles or myths of the pre-Islamitic time; and in See also:authentic history the See also:Battle of the Camel, 656 A.D., where Ayesha, the wife of Mahomet, headed the See also:charge, is only the first of a number of instances in which Arab See also:amazons have taken, See also:sword in hand, no inconsiderable See also:share in the wars and victories of Islam. Even now it is the custom for an Arab force to be always accompanied by some courageous See also:maiden, who, mounted on a blackened camel, leads the onslaught, singing verses of encouragement for her own, of insult for the opposing tribe. Round her See also:litter the fiercest of the battle rages, and her capture or death is the See also:signal of utter rout; it is hers also to head the See also:triumph after the victory of her clan. There is little See also:education, in the European sense of the word, in Arabia. Among the Bedouins there are no See also:schools, and few, even of the most elementary character, in the towns Edacadon. or villages. Where they exist, little beyond the See also:mechanical See also:reading of the Koran, and the equally mechanical learning of it by rote, is taught.

On the other hand, Arab male-See also:

children, brought up from early years among the grown-up men of the house or See also:tent, learn more from their own parents and at home than is common in other countries; reading and writing are in most instances thus acquired, or rather transmitted; besides such general principles of grammar and eloquence, often of poetry and history, as the elders themselves may be able to impart. To this family schooling too are due the good manners, politeness, and self-See also:restraint that early distinguish Arab children. In the very few instances where a public school of a higher class exists, writing, grammar and See also:rhetoric sum up its teachings. See also:Law and See also:theology, in the narrow sense that both these words have in the Islamitic system, are explained in afternoon lectures given in most mosques; and some verses of the Koran, with one of the accepted commentaries, that of See also:Baidawi for example, form the basis of the instruction. Great See also:attention is paid to accuracy of grammar and purity of diction throughout Arabia; yet something of a See also:dialectic difference may be observed in the various districts. The purest Arabic, that which is as nearly as possible identical in the choice of words and in its inflections with the language of the Koran, is spoken in Nejd, and the best again of that in the province of See also:Sutler. Next in purity comes the Arabic of Shammar. Throughout the Hejaz in general, the language, though extremely elegant, is not equally correct; in el-Hasa, Bahrein and Oman it is decidedly influenced by the See also:foreign See also:element called Nabataean. In Yemen, as in other southern districts of the peninsula, Arabic merges insensibly into the Himyaritic or African See also:dialect of Hadramut and Mahra.

End of Article: ARABS

Additional information and Comments

There are many superstitions about Arabs in ancient and recent centuries e.g. perfect physical structure.This is just a joke,many diseases and defects are well known in Arabs since early times especially syphilis and their manner of conduct suggests strongly a defeciency complex not dignity . As they were a nomadic people they also play a role of robbers not only of neighbours but for any thing they can steal.There ancient history includes nothing but wars and invasions under the name of pride and elogance.This is reflected completely in their culture esp. after Muhammed by adopting the theory of chosen people,sons of Ishmael but a correct study of this myth explains that they are outcasted men.Study of their mythology,holy book,poetry etc. shows they add nothing to human civilizations and all achievements attributed to Arabs in the Middle Ages are done by Persians or Assyrians or Egyptians.We must look to Arab culture specially religion as a combination of Jewish,Yemen,and Hindu cultures with Egyptian ,Mesoptamian effects.Nowadays,terrorism is a substitute of robbery and high minerates is a substitute of defeciency complex.
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