Arabs
Arab people, also known as Arabic people, Arabs (Arabic: عرب, ʿarab) Arabian people and Arabians, are a panethnic group[14]primarily inhabiting Western Asia, North Africa, and parts of the Horn of Africa. Their language is Arabic which is of the Afroasiatic family and traditionally Hamito-Semitic. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic or cultural grounds,[15] with tribal affiliations and intra-tribal relationships playing an important part of Arab identity.[16] Most however have direct or partial ancestral relation to the nomadic indigenous inhabitants of the Arabian peninsula, Northeast Africa and the Syrian desert, known as Qahtanite, Adnaniteand Berber Arabs. After the genesis of Islam in the mid-7th century, most Arabs have been Muslims,[17] spreading the Arab people,Arabic language and culture as far as North Africa and Central Asia.
The word "Arab" has had several different, but overlapping, meanings over the centuries (and sometimes even today). In addition to including all ethnically Arab and Arabized people of the world (with language tending to be the acid test), it has also at times been used exclusively for bedouin (Arab nomads [although a related word, "`a-RAB," with the Arabic letter "alif" in the second syllable, once was sometimes used when this specific meaning was intended] and their now almost entirely settled descendants). It is sometimes used that way colloquially even today in some places. Townspeople once were sometimes called "sons of the Arabs." As in the case of other ethnicities or nations, people identify themselves (or are identified by others) as "Arabs" to varying degrees. This may not be one's primary identity (it tends to compete with country, religion, sect, etc.), and whether it is emphasized may depend upon one's audience. If the diverse Arab pan-ethnicity is regarded as a single ethnic group, then it constitutes one of the world's largest after Han Chinese.
The word "Arab" has had several different, but overlapping, meanings over the centuries (and sometimes even today). In addition to including all ethnically Arab and Arabized people of the world (with language tending to be the acid test), it has also at times been used exclusively for bedouin (Arab nomads [although a related word, "`a-RAB," with the Arabic letter "alif" in the second syllable, once was sometimes used when this specific meaning was intended] and their now almost entirely settled descendants). It is sometimes used that way colloquially even today in some places. Townspeople once were sometimes called "sons of the Arabs." As in the case of other ethnicities or nations, people identify themselves (or are identified by others) as "Arabs" to varying degrees. This may not be one's primary identity (it tends to compete with country, religion, sect, etc.), and whether it is emphasized may depend upon one's audience. If the diverse Arab pan-ethnicity is regarded as a single ethnic group, then it constitutes one of the world's largest after Han Chinese.