History UsefulNotes / ArabWorld

!!Asia
!!!Western Asia
* UsefulNotes/{{Palestine}} (UN observer state, de jure independent country, occupied by Israel)
->'''Proclaimed Capital''': Jerusalem
->'''Administrative Center''': Ramallah
->'''Largest City''': Gaza City

Strictly speaking, the Arab world consists of the majority (but not all) of the countries forming the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_League Arab League]], an intergovernmental organization meant to unify and represent Arab interests. All members of the League in UsefulNotes/TheMiddleEast and North Africa, plus UsefulNotes/{{Mauritania}}, which is geographically located in West Africa, are unanimously regarded as part of the Arab world. For economic and political reasons, the League also includes three African countries whose populations mainly speak other languages: UsefulNotes/{{Comoros}}, UsefulNotes/{{Djibouti}}, and UsefulNotes/{{Somalia}}. They adopt Arabic as an official language and attend the League's meetings in UsefulNotes/{{Cairo}}, but they are not popularly considered part of the Arab world because Arabic is not widely spoken there. Nevertheless, their inclusion into the Arab League means that they are usually listed in some publications, including here. The people of UsefulNotes/{{Malta}}, an European island country on the Mediterranean Sea, speak the descendant of an Arabic dialect, but the country has never been considered Arab since the Europeans reconquered it hundreds of years ago.

The Arab world is often divided into two big regions by the Arabs themselves: the Mashriq, meaning "East" (Egypt, Sudan, the Fertile Crescent minus Israel and the Arabian Peninsula), and the Maghreb, meaning "West" (consisting of the Western Sahara/Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, Morocco, Libya, Algeria, Tunisia and Mauritania).[[note]]The line that separates the Mashriqi and Maghrebi worlds is usually construed to be located somewhere in Egypt, a bit west of Alexandria.[[/note]] The Mashriq, specifically the Arabian Peninsula, is the cradle of Arabs and the Arabic language, whose standard register developed there.[[note]]Modern Standard Arabic is based on Classical Arabic, a highly antiquated language spoken in the peninsula during the 7th century CE, when Literature/TheQuran was composed.[[/note]] The Maghreb, meanwhile, is distinguished by its history as the homeland of the indigenous Berber people; most people there can trace their roots back to ethnic Berbers.

Historically, the Arab world was synonymous with the Arab empires and caliphates. Arab nationalism arose in the second half of the 19th century within the slowly-crumbling [[UsefulNotes/{{Turkey}} Ottoman Empire]] along with other nationalist movements. The Arab League was formed in 1945 to represent the interests of Arab people and especially to pursue the political unification of the Arab countries, a project known as Pan-Arabism. Pan-Arabism became incredibly popular among circles of the leftist Arab politicians who were wary of the influence of the UsefulNotes/UnitedStates and hostile to UsefulNotes/{{Israel}}. On the other hand, Arab monarchies which adjoin the Persian Gulf, chief among them Saudi Arabia, soundly rejected it, as they were more interested in keeping good relations and trading with the West (they are still averse to Israel, of course, but they are less vocal about it). The division continued after pan-Arabism shifted to pan-Islamism in the 1970s, and continues to serve as an underlying dividing point in the Arab world today, right next to the conflict with UsefulNotes/{{Iran}}.

The Arab world is often divided into two big regions by the Arabs themselves: the Mashriq, meaning "East" (Egypt, Sudan, the Fertile Crescent minus Israel and the Arabian Peninsula), and the Maghreb, meaning "West" (consisting of the [[UsefulNotes/ThatDryPatchOfLandUnrecognized Western Sahara]], Morocco, Libya, Algeria, Tunisia and Mauritania).[[note]]The line that separates the Mashriqi and Maghrebi worlds is usually construed to be located somewhere in Egypt, a bit west of Alexandria.[[/note]] The Mashriq, specifically the Arabian Peninsula, is the cradle of Arabs and the Arabic language, whose standard register developed there.[[note]]Modern Standard Arabic is based on Classical Arabic, a highly antiquated language spoken in the peninsula during the 7th century CE, when Literature/TheQuran was composed.[[/note]] The Maghreb, meanwhile, is distinguished by its history as the homeland of the indigenous Berber people; most people there can trace their roots back to ethnic Berbers.

!!!West Africa
* [[UsefulNotes/ThatDryPatchOfLandUnrecognized Western Sahara]] (de jure independent country, occupied by Morocco)
->'''Proclaimed Capital & Largest City''': Laayoune
-> '''Administrative Center''': Tifariti

Strictly speaking, the Arab world consists of the majority (but not all) of the countries forming the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_League Arab League]], an intergovernmental organization meant to unify Arab interests. All members of the League in UsefulNotes/TheMiddleEast and North Africa, plus UsefulNotes/{{Mauritania}}, which is geographically located in West Africa, are unanimously regarded as part of the Arab world. For economic and political reasons, the League also includes three African countries whose populations mainly speak other languages: UsefulNotes/{{Comoros}}, UsefulNotes/{{Djibouti}}, and UsefulNotes/{{Somalia}}. They adopt Arabic as an official language and attend the League's meetings in UsefulNotes/{{Cairo}}, but they are not popularly considered part of the Arab world because Arabic is not widely spoken there. Nevertheless, their inclusion into the Arab world means that they are usually listed in some publications, including here. The people of UsefulNotes/{{Malta}}, an European island country on the Mediterranean Sea, speak the descendant of an Arabic dialect, but the country has never been considered Arab since the Europeans reconquered it hundreds of years ago.

To describe the Arab world, one must first describe the Arabs themselves. The Arabs are, simply put, people who speak the Arabic language and adhere to Arab culture and traditions. Taken together, Arabs constitute the world's second largest ethnic group, after the Han Chinese. However, the Arabs are at the same also a heterogeneous people. Many Arabs prefer to identify themselves based on their local region first before a unified Arab identity, which is not surprising, considering the size of their population and settlement. The fact that there are many Arab countries is a testament to this.[[note]]Of course, [[DivideAndConquer political interference by European colonials]] was a major factor as well, but even leaving it out, many historians and ethnologists have argued that a unified state encompassing the ''entirety'' of the Arab world will simply not work, as the various short-lived all-encompassing caliphates could testify.[[/note]] Like the Han Chinese, the Arabs started out in a relatively small area of settlement and expanded it through conquest, intermarriage, and assimilation, transforming many other formerly unrelated ethnic groups in the Middle East and North Africa into Arabs.

To describe about the Arab world, one must first describe about the Arabs themselves. The Arabs are, simply put, people who speak the Arabic language and adhere to Arab culture and traditions. Taken together, Arabs constitute the world's second largest ethnic group, after the Han Chinese. However, the Arabs are at the same also a heterogeneous people. Many Arabs prefer to identify themselves based on their local region first before a unified Arab identity, which is not surprising, considering the size of their population and settlement. The fact that there are many Arab countries are a testament to this.[[note]]Of course, [[DivideAndConquer political interference by European colonials]] was a major factor as well, but even leaving it out, many historians and ethnologists have argued that a unified state encompassing the ''entirety'' of the Arab world will simply not work, as the various short-lived all-encompassing caliphates could testify.[[/note]] Like the Han Chinese, the Arabs started out in a relatively small area of settlement and expanded it through conquest, intermarriage, and assimilation, transforming many other formerly unrelated ethnic groups in the Middle East and North Africa into Arabs.

While the countries of the Arab world all speak Arabic, their dialects are NOT mutually intelligible. The Arabic language is an example of a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialect_continuum dialect continuum]], in that the closer two dialects are, the more likely they are mutually intelligible, and vice versa. There are somewhere around 25 dialects, many of which are very different to each other. In far-flung areas, the dialects are actually more divergent than different languages in Europe (e.g. Moroccan Arabic is utterly incomprehensible to Egyptians, much more than German is to the Dutch). The official unifying language of Arabs is a register called Modern Standard Arabic, but its usage lies in writing and official publications; it is ''never'' used for day-to-day communication, which can be a real pain for foreigners. The unofficial unifying language is Egyptian Arabic because of the country's reputation as an entertainment powerhouse; most Arabs understand the dialect thanks to the dozens of soap operas and films Egypt churn out every year.

The Arab world ('''Arabic:''' العالم العربي‎ al-ʿālam al-ʿarabī; formally the Arab Homeland, الوطن العربي al-waṭan al-ʿarabī), also known as the Arab Nation ('''Arabic:''' الأمة العربية al-ummah al-ʿarabīyyah), the Arabsphere or the Arab states, consists of the countries of the Arab League, formed of all the countries in North Africa, Mauritania in West Africa, Comoros, Djibouti and Somalia in East Africa, and the Fertile Crescent except UsefulNotes/{{Israel}} and Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. While UsefulNotes/{{Eritrea}}, UsefulNotes/{{Chad}} and Israel have Arabic as one of their official languages, they are not part of the Arab world.

The Arab world is often divided into two big regions by the Arabs themselves, the Maghreb (consisting of the [[UsefulNotes/ThatDryPatchOfLandUnrecognized Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic]], Morocco, Libya, Algeria, Tunisia and Mauritania) and Mashriq (Egypt, Sudan, the Fertile Crescent minus Israel and Arabian Peninsula). Historically, the Arab world was synonymous with the Arab empires and caliphates. Within the Ottoman Empire, Arab nationalism arose in the second half of the 19th century along with other nationalist movements, and the Arab League was formed in 1945 to represent the interests of Arab people and especially to pursue the political unification of the Arab countries, a project known as Pan-Arabism.

While the countries of the Arab world all speak Arabic, their dialects are NOT mutually intelligible, with Maghrebi Arabic sounding incomprehensible to other Arabic speakers due to French and Berber influence and loanwords. Languages other than Arabic are also spoken, such as the aforementioned French, Berber, Somali, Comorian and Kurdish. Also, not all Arabs are Muslim, with Egyptian Coptic Christians, Lebanese Maronite Christians, Arabian Hindus and others existing in the countries.

!!!East Africa

* UsefulNotes/{{Palestine}}
->'''Proclaimed Capital''': Jerusalem
->'''Administrative Center''': Ramallah
->'''Largest City''': Gaza City

->'''Capital & Largest City''': Riyadh

While the countries of the Arab world all speak Arabic, their dialects are NOT mutually intelligible, with Maghrebi Arabic sounding incomprehensible to other Arabic speakers due to French and Berber influence and loanwords. Languages other than Arabic are also spoken, such as the aforementioned French, Berber, Somali and Comorian. Also, not all Arabs are Muslim, with Egyptian Coptic Christians, Lebanese Maronite Christians, Arabian Hindus and others existing in the countries.

The Arab world is often divided into two big regions by the Arabs themselves, the Maghreb (consisting of the [[UsefulNotes/ThatDryPatchOfLandUnrecognized Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic]], Morocco, Libya, Algeria, Tunisia and Mauritania) and Mashriq (Egypt, Sudan, the Fertile Crescent minus Israel and Arabian Peninsula). Historically, the Arab world was synonymous with the Arab empires and caliphates. Arab nationalism arose in the second half of the 19th century along with other nationalist movements within the Ottoman Empire, and the Arab League was formed in 1945 to represent the interests of Arab people and especially to pursue the political unification of the Arab countries, a project known as Pan-Arabism.

While the countries of the Arab world all speak Arabic, their dialects are NOT mutually intelligible, with Maghrebi Arabic sounding incomprehensible to other Arabic speakers due to French and Berber influence and loanwords. Languages other than Arabic are also spoken, such as the aforementioned French, Berber, Somali and Comorian. Also, not all Arabs are Muslim, with Egyptian Coptic Christians, Lebanese Maronite Christians, Arabian Peninsula Hindus and others existing in the countries.

While the countries of the Arab world all speak Arabic, their dialects are NOT mutually intelligible, with Maghrebi Arabic sounding incomprehensible to other Arabic speakers due to French and Berber influence and loanwords. Languages other than Arabic are also spoken, such as the aforementioned French, Berber, Somali and Comorian. Also, not all Arabs are Muslim, with Egyptian Coptic Christians, Lebanese Maronite Christians and others existing in the countries.

* OurGryphonsAreDifferent

The Aran world is often divided into two big regions by the Arabs themselves, the Maghreb (consisting of the [[UsefulNotes/ThatDryPatchOfLandUnrecognized Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic]], Morocco, Libya, Algeria, Tunisia and Mauritania) and Mashriq (Egypt, Sudan, the Fertile Crescent minus Israel and Arabian Peninsula). Historically, the Arab world was synonymous with the Arab empires and caliphates. Arab nationalism arose in the second half of the 19th century along with other nationalist movements within the Ottoman Empire, and the Arab League was formed in 1945 to represent the interests of Arab people and especially to pursue the political unification of the Arab countries, a project known as Pan-Arabism.

The region is often divided into two big regions by the Arabs themselves, the Maghreb (consisting of the [[UsefulNotes/ThatDryPatchOfLandUnrecognized Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic]], Morocco, Libya, Algeria, Tunisia and Mauritania) and Mashriq (Egypt, Sudan, the Fertile Crescent minus Israel and Arabian Peninsula). Historically, the Arab world was synonymous with the Arab empires and caliphates. Arab nationalism arose in the second half of the 19th century along with other nationalist movements within the Ottoman Empire, and the Arab League was formed in 1945 to represent the interests of Arab people and especially to pursue the political unification of the Arab countries, a project known as Pan-Arabism.

While the countries of this region all speak Arabic, their dialects are NOT mutually intelligible, with Maghrebi Arabic sounding incomprehensible to other Arabic speakers due to French and Berber influence and loanwords. Languages other than Arabic are also spoken in the region, such as the aforementioned French, Berber, Somali and Comorian. Also, not all Arabs are Muslim, with Egyptian Coptic Christians, Lebanese Maronite Christians and others existing in the region.

* UsefulNotes/TheMiddleEast

* UsefulNotes/{{Egypt}} (part of both North Africa and Western Asia, though primarily located in North Africa)

The Arab world ('''Arabic:''' العالم العربي‎ al-ʿālam al-ʿarabī; formally the Arab Homeland, الوطن العربي al-waṭan al-ʿarabī), also known as the Arab Nation ('''Arabic:''' الأمة العربية al-ummah al-ʿarabīyyah), the Arabsphere or the Arab states, consists of the countries of the Arab League, formed of all the countries in North Africa, Mauritania in West Africa, the Comoros, Djibouti and Somalia in East Africa, and the Fertile Crescent except UsefulNotes/{{Israel}} and Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. While UsefulNotes/{{Eritrea}}, UsefulNotes/{{Chad}} and Israel have Arabic as one of their official languages, they are not part of the Arab world.

The Arab world ('''Arabic:''' العالم العربي‎ al-ʿālam al-ʿarabī; formally the Arab Homeland, الوطن العربي al-waṭan al-ʿarabī), also known as the Arab Nation ('''Arabic:''' الأمة العربية al-ummah al-ʿarabīyyah), the Arabsphere or the Arab states, consists of the countries of the Arab League, formed of all the countries in North Africa, Mauritania in West Africa, the Comoros, Djibouti and Somalia in East Africa, and the Fertile Crescent except UsefulNotes/{{Israel}} and Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. While UsefulNotes/{{Eritrea}}, UsefulNotes/{{Chad}} and Israel have Arabic as one of their official languages, they are not considered part of the Arab world.

While the countries of this region all speak Arabic, their dialects are NOT mutually intelligible, with Maghrebi Arabic sounding incomprehensible to other Arabic speakers due to French and Berber influence and loanwords. Languages other than Arabic are also spoken in the region, such as the aforementioned French, Berber, Somali and Comorian.

The region is often divided into two big regions by the Arabs themselves, the Maghreb (consisting of the [[UsefulNotes/ThatDryPatchOfLandUnrecognized Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic]], Morocco, Libya, Algeria, Tunisia and Mauritania) and Mashriq (Egypt, Sudan, the Fertile Crescent minus Israel and Arabian Peninsula). Historically, the Arab world was synonymous with the Arab empires and caliphates. Arab nationalism arose in the second half of the 19th century along with other nationalist movements within the Ottoman Empire, and the Arab League was formed in 1945 to represent the interests of Arab people and especially to pursue the political unification of the Arab countries; a project known as Pan-Arabism.

While the countries of this region do all speak Arabic, their dialects are NOT mutually intelligible, with Maghrebi Arabic sounding incomprehensible to other Arabic speakers due to French and Berber influence and loanwords. Languages other than Arabic are also spoken in the region, such as the aforementioned French, Berber, Somali and Comorian.