Arab world
The Arab world (Arabic: العالم العربي al-ʿālam al-ʿarabī ) consists of the Arabic-speaking states and populations in North Africa, Western Asia and elsewhere.[1]
The standard definition of the Arab world comprises the 22 states and territories of the Arab League stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the east, and from the Mediterranean Sea in the north to the Horn of Africa and the Indian Ocean in the southeast.[1] It has a combined population of around 340 million people, with over half under 25 years of age.[2]
The term "Arab world" is usually rejected by those living in the region who do not consider themselves Arabs, like non-Semitic people such as the Berbers and Kurds, as it implies the entire region is Arab in its identity, population, and origin, whereas the original homeland of the Arabs is the Arabian Peninsula. The term is also rejected by some indigenous Semitic minorities such as the Ashkenazim, Sephardim, Mizrahim, Chaldeans, Assyrians, and Syriacs, as they pre-date Arabs in places such as Iraq, Palestine, and Syria. Coptic Egyptians and other Egyptians also define themselves as Egyptian and not Arab.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_world
Arab people
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| Distribution of Arabic as sole official language (green) and one of several official or national languages (blue). |
The word "Arab" has had several different, but overlapping, meanings over the centuries (and sometimes even today). In addition to including all 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.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_people
Arabic Proverb
Friend
¶ Any wise enemy is better than an ignorant friend.
Notes
Arab world
[1]^ Source, unless otherwise specified: Demographic Yearbook—Table 3: Population by sex, rate of population increase, surface area and density (PDF). United Nations Statistics Division. 2008. Retrieved 24 September 2010
Entries in this table giving figures other than the figures given in this source are bracketed by asterisks () in the Notes field, and the rationale for the figure used are explained in the associated Note.
[1]^ a b c d e f Frishkopf: 61: "No universally accepted definition of 'the Arab world' exists, but it is generally assumed to include the twenty-two countries belonging to the Arab League that have a combined population of about 280 million (Seib 2005, 604). For the purposes of this introduction, this territorial definition is combined with a linguistic one (use of the Arabic language, or its recognition as critical to identity), and thereby extended into multiple diasporas, especially the Americas, Europe, Southeast Asia, West Africa, and Australia."
[2]^ Arab World Ministries
[3]^ a b "Arab League Sends Delegation to Iraq". Encyclopedia.com. 8 October 2005. Retrieved 13 February 2011.
[4]^ a b "Arab League Warns of Civil War in Iraq". Encyclopedia.com. 8 October 2005. Retrieved 13 February 2011.
Arab people
[14]^ "Ghazi Tadmouri - Abstract". Hgm2011.org. 2011-03-15. Archived from the original on 26 July 2011. Retrieved 2011-07-18.
[15]^ Francis Mading Deng War of visions: conflict of identities in the Sudan, Brookings Institution Press, 1995, ISBN 0-8157-1793-8 p. 405
[16]^ Nicholas S. Hopkins, Saad Eddin Ibrahim eds., Arab society: class, gender, power, and development, American University in Cairo Press, 1997, p.6
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_world
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_people
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