text:
Arab world
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Not to be confused with Muslim world or Arab League.
Arab world
Area
13,132,327 km2 (5,070,420 sq mi)[1]
Population
423,000,000[2]
Population density
29.839/km2 (70.37/sq mi)[3]
GDP (PPP)
$2.501 trillion[4]
GDP per capita
$6,647[5]
Demonym
Arab
Countries
22 states[show]
Algeria
Bahrain
Comoros
Djibouti
Egypt
Iraq
Jordan
Kuwait
Lebanon
Libya
Mauritania
Morocco
Oman
Palestine
Qatar
Saudi Arabia
Somalia
Sudan
Tunisia
United Arab Emirates
Yemen
Syria
Dependencies
Arab League[6]
Time zones
UTC+0 to UTC+4
Internet TLD
.asia, .africa
Largest cities
Major Cities of Arab world
List[show]
Cairo
Baghdad
Riyadh
Khartoum
Amman
Alexandria
Kuwait City
Casablanca
Jeddah
This article contains Arabic text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols.
The Arab world (Arabic: العالم العربي al-ʿālam al-ʿarabī; formally: Arab homeland, الوطن العربي al-waṭan al-ʿarabī),[7][8][9] also known as the Arab nation (الأمة العربية al-ummah al-ʿarabīyyah) or the Arab states,[10] currently consists of the 22 Arab countries of the Arab League.[6] These Arab states occupy an area 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.[6] The contemporary Arab world has a combined population of around 422 million inhabitants, over half of whom are under 25 years of age.[11]
In the Middle Ages, the Arab world was synonymous with the historic Arab empires and caliphates. Arab nationalism arose in the second half of the 19th century along with other nationalist movements within the Ottoman Empire. 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.[12][13]
Contents
1 Definition
1.1 Standard territorial definition
1.1.1 Member states of the Arab League
1.2 Ancillary linguistic definition
2 States
3 Demographics
3.1 Religion
3.2 Education
3.3 Gender equality
3.4 Largest cities in the Arab world
4 History
4.1 Early history
4.2 Ottoman and colonial rule
4.3 Rise of Arab nationalism
4.4 Modern conflicts
4.4.1 Unification of Saudi Arabia
4.4.2 Arab–Israeli conflict
4.4.3 Iraq–Iran War
4.4.4 Lebanese Civil War
4.4.5 Western Sahara conflict
4.4.6 North Yemen Civil War
4.4.7 Somali Civil War
4.4.8 Arab Spring
4.5 Petroleum
4.6 Recent history
5 States and territories
5.1 Forms of government
5.2 Modern boundaries
5.3 Modern economies
6 Geography
6.1 Historical boundaries
6.1.1 Arab Africa
6.1.2 Arab Middle East
7 See also
8 Notes
8.1 General
8.2 Sources
9 References
10 Further reading
11 External links
Definition
The linguistic and political denotation inherent in the term Arab is generally dominant over genealogical considerations. In Arab states, Modern Standard Arabic is the only language used by the government. The language of an individual nation is called Darija, which means "everyday/colloquial language."[14] Darija shares the majority of its vocabulary with standard Arabic, but it also significantly borrows from Berber (Tamazight) substrates,[15] as well as extensively from French, the language of the historical colonial occupier of the Maghreb. Darija is spoken and, to various extents, mutually understood in the Maghreb countries, especially Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, but it is unintelligible to speakers of other Arabic dialects, mainly for those in Egypt and the Middle East.[16]
Standard territorial definition
Main article: Arab League
Although no globally accepted definition of the Arab world exists,[6] all countries that are members of the Arab League are generally acknowledged as being part of the Arab world.[6][17]
The Arab League is a regional organisation that aims (among other things) to consider in a general way the affairs and interests of the Arab countries and sets out the following definition of an Arab:
An Arab is a person whose language is Arabic, who lives in an Arabic country, and who is in sympathy with the aspirations of the Arabic people.[18]
This standard territorial definition is sometimes seen to be inappropriate[19] or problematic,[20] and may be supplemented with certain additional elements (see ancillary linguistic definition below).[21]
Member states of the Arab League
Main article: Member states of the Arab League
Algeria (Arabic: الجزائر al-Jazā’ir) (Tamazight is the other official language, French is used in education, daily life and business)
Bahrain (Arabic: البحرين al-Baḥrayn)
Comoros (Arabic: جزر القمر Juzur al-Qamar) (Comorian and French are the other official languages)
Djibouti (Arabic: جيبوتي Jībūtī) (French is the other official language)
Egypt (Arabic: مصر Miṣr)
Iraq (Arabic: العراق al-‘Irāq) (Kurdish is the other official language (minority))
Jordan (Arabic: الأردن al-Urdun)
Kuwait (Arabic: الكويت al-Kuwayt)
Lebanon (Arabic: لبنان Lubnān) (French has a special status)
Libya (Arabic: ليبيا Lībyā)
Mauritania (Arabic: موريتانيا Mūrītānyā)
Morocco (Arabic: المغرب al-Maghrib) (Tamazight is the other official language, French is used in education, daily life and business)
Oman (Arabic: عمان ‘Umān)
Palestine (Arabic: فلسطين Filasṭīn)
Qatar (Arabic: قطر Qaṭar)
Saudi Arabia (Arabic: المملكة العربية السعودية al-Mamlakah al-‘Arabīyah as-Sa‘ūdīyah)
Somalia (Arabic: الصومال aṣ-Ṣūmāl) (Somali is the other official language)
Sudan (Arabic: السودان as-Sūdān) (English is the other official language (minority))
Syria (Arabic: سوريا Sūryā)
Tunisia (Arabic: تونس Tūnis) (French is used in education, daily life and business)
United Arab Emirates (Arabic: الإمارات العربيّة المتّحدة al-Imārāt al-‘Arabīyah al-Muttaḥidah)
Yemen (Arabic: اليمن al-Yaman)
Ancillary linguistic definition
Main article: Arabic language
As an alternative to,[22] or in combination with,[6] the standard territorial definition, the Arab world may be defined as consisting of peoples and states united to at least some degree by Arabic language, culture or geographic contiguity,[23] or those states or territories in which the majority of the population speaks Arabic, and thus may also include populations of the Arab diaspora.[6]
When an ancillary linguistic definition is used in combination with the standard territorial definition, various parameters may be applied[clarification needed] to determine whether a state or territory should be included in this alternative definition of the Arab world. These parameters may be applied[clarification needed] to the states and territories of the Arab League (which constitute the Arab world under the standard definition) and to other states and territories. Typical parameters that may be applied include: whether Arabic is widely spoken; whether Arabic is an official or national language; or whether an Arabic cognate language is widely spoken.
While Arabic dialects are spoken in a number of Arab League states, Literary Arabic is official in all of them. Several states have declared Arabic to be an official or national language, although Arabic is today not as widely spoken there. As members of the Arab League, however, they are considered part of the Arab world under the standard territorial definition.
Somalia has two official languages today, Arabic and Somali, both of which belong to the larger Afro-Asiatic language family. Although Arabic is widely spoken by many people in the north and urban areas in the south, Somali is the most widely used language, and contains many Arabic loan words.[24]
Similarly, Djibouti has two official languages, Arabic and French. It also has several formally recognized national languages; besides Somali, many people speak Afar, which is also an Afro-Asiatic language. The majority of the population speaks Somali and Afar, although Arabic is also widely used for trade and other activities.[25]
Comoros has three official languages: Arabic, Comorian and French. Comorian is the most widely spoken language, with Arabic having a religious significance, and French being associated with the educational system.
Chad, Eritrea[26] and Israel all recognize Arabic as an official language, but none of them is a member-state of the Arab League, although both Chad and Eritrea are observer states of the League (with possible future membership) and have large populations of Arabic speakers.
Israel is not part of the Arab world. By some definitions,[21][27] Arab citizens of Israel may concurrently be considered a constituent part of the Arab world.
Iran has about 1.5 million Arabic speakers.[28] Iranian Arabs are mainly found in Ahvaz, a southwestern region in the Khuzestan Province; others inhabit the Bushehr and Hormozgan provinces and the city of Qom. Mali and Senegal recognize Hassaniya, the Arabic dialect of the Moorish ethnic minority, as a national language.[29] Greece and Cyprus also recognize Cypriot Maronite Arabic under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Additionally, Malta, though not part of the Arab world, has as its official language Maltese. The language is grammatically akin to Maghrebi Arabic.
States
Country
Area (Rank)
Area (km2)[Note 1]
Area (sq mi)
Area (% of Total)
Area (Notes)
Population[30]
(2016)
Pop (World rank)
Density (rank)
Density (/km2)
Density (/mi2)
Algeria 1 2,381,741 919,595 18.1% Largest country in Africa and in the Arab world. 40,606,052 34 17 16 41
Bahrain 22 758 293 0.005% 1,425,171 155 1 1,646 4,263
Comoros 21 2,235 863 0.01% 795,601 163 4 309 800
Djibouti 16 23,200 9,000 0.1% 942,333 159 15 37 96
Egypt 6 1,002,000 387,000 7.6% Excluding the Hala'ib Triangle (20,580 km2/7,950 sq mi). 95,688,681 16 9 100 259
Iraq 10 435,244 168,049 3.3% 37,202,572 40 12 70 181
Jordan 14 89,342 34,495 0.7% 9,455,802 106 11 71 184
Kuwait 17 17,818 6,880 0.1% 4,052,584 134 5 200 518
Lebanon 19 10,452 4,036 0.08% 6,006,668 125 3 404 1,046
Libya 4 1,759,540 679,360 11.4% 6,293,253 103 21 3.6 9.3
Mauritania 5 1,025,520 395,960 7.8% 4,301,018 138 22 3.2 8.3
Morocco 9 446,550 172,410 3.3% including Western Sahara (266,000 km2/103,000 sq mi). 35,276,786 35 10 80 207
Oman 11 309,500 119,500 2.4% 4,424,762 139 20 9.2 24
Palestine 20 27,000 10,000 0.05% 4,790,705 126 2 687 1,779
Qatar 18 11,586 4,473 0.08% 2,569,804 149 6 154 399
Saudi Arabia 2 2,149,690 830,000 16.4% Largest country in the Middle East. 32,275,687 45 19 13 34
Somalia 7 637,657 246,201 5.0% Longest Coastline in Africa and the Arab League. 14,317,996 80 18 14 36
Sudan 3 1,861,484 718,723 14.2% Formerly the largest country in Africa. 39,578,828 39 16 16 41
Syria 12 185,180 71,500 1.4% Including the part of the Golan Heights (1,200 km2/460 sq mi) currently occupied by Israel. 18,430,453 55 7 118 306
Tunisia 13 163,610 63,170 1.2% 11,403,248 77 13 65 168
United Arab Emirates 15 83,600 32,300 0.6% 9,269,612 93 8 99 256
Yemen 8 527,968 203,850 4.0% 27,584,213 49 14 45 117
Arab League total # 13,130,695 5,069,790 # # 406,691,829
Demographics
Main article: Demographics of the Arab League
In the Arab world, Modern Standard Arabic, derived from Classical Arabic (symptomatic of Arabic diglossia), serves as an official language in the Arab League states, and Arabic dialects are used as lingua franca. Various indigenous languages are also spoken, which predate the spread of the Arabic language. This contrasts with the situation in the wider Islamic world, where, in contiguous Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan, the Perso-Arabic script is used and Arabic is the primary liturgical language, but the tongue is not official at the state level or spoken as a vernacular.
Arabs constitute around one quarter of the 1.5 billion Muslims in the Islamic world.[31]
Religion
The majority of people in the Arab world adhere to Islam, and the religion has official status in most countries. Shariah law exists partially in the legal system in some countries (especially in the Arabian peninsula), while others are legislatively secular. The majority of the Arab countries adhere to Sunni Islam. Iraq and Bahrain, however, are Shia majority countries, while Lebanon, Yemen, and Kuwait have large Shia minorities. In Saudi Arabia, Ismailite pockets are also found in the eastern Al-Hasa region and the southern city of Najran. Ibadi Islam is practiced in Oman, where Ibadis constitute around 75% of Muslims.
There are also some Christian adherents in the Arab world, particularly in Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, and Palestine. Coptic, Maronite and Assyrian Christian[disambiguation needed] enclaves exist in the Nile Valley, Levant and northern Iraq respectively. There are also numbers of Assyrian, Armenian, Syriac-Aramean and Arab Christians throughout Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, many of which have diminished due to various regional conflicts.
Smaller ethno-religious minorities across the Arab League include the Yezidis, Yarsan and Shabaks (mainly in Iraq), the Druzes (mainly in Syria and also in Lebanon, Jordan) and Mandaeans (in Iraq). Formerly, there were significant minorities of Jews throughout the Arab World. However, the Arab–Israeli conflict prompted their mass exodus between 1948–72. Today small Jewish communities remain, ranging anywhere from just 10 in Bahrain, to more than 1,000 in Tunisia and some 3,000 in Morocco.
Historically, slavery in the Muslim world developed out of pre-Islamic practices of slavery in the Arab world.[32][33]
Education
According to UNESCO, the average rate of adult literacy (ages 15 and older) in this region is 76.9%. In Mauritania and Yemen, the rate is lower than the average, at barely over 50%. On the other hand, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and Jordan record a high adult literacy rate of over 90%.[citation needed] The average rate of adult literacy shows steady improvement, and the absolute number of adult illiterates fell from 64 million to around 58 million between 1990 and 2000-2004. Overall, the gender disparity in adult literacy is high in this region, and of the illiteracy rate, women account for two-thirds, with only 69 literate women for every 100 literate men. The average GPI (Gender Parity Index) for adult literacy is 0.72, and gender disparity can be observed in Egypt, Morocco, and Yemen. Above all, the GPI of Yemen is only 0.46 in a 53% adult literacy rate.[34] According to a UN survey, in the Arab world, the average person reads four pages a year and one new title is published each year for every 12,000 people.[35] The Arab Thought Foundation reports that just above 8% of people in Arab countries aspire to get an education.[35]
Literacy rate is higher among the youth than adults. Youth literacy rate (ages 15–24) in the Arab region increased from 63.9 to 76.3% from 1990 to 2002. The average rate of GCC States *Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC)
Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC) was 94%, followed by the Maghreb at 83.2% and the Mashriq at 73.6%.
The United Nations published an Arab human development report in 2002, 2003 and 2004. These reports, written by researchers from the Arab world, address some sensitive issues in the development of Arab countries: women empowerment, availability of education and information among others.
Gender equality
Women in the Arab world are still denied equality of opportunity, although their disenfranchisement is a critical factor crippling the Arab nations' quest to return to the first rank of global leaders in commerce, learning and culture, according to a United Nations-sponsored report in 2008.[36]
Largest cities in the Arab world
Main article: List of largest cities in the Arab world
Table of largest cities in the Arab world by official city propers:[37]
Rank
Country
City
Population
Founding date
Image
1 Egypt Cairo 16,225,000 969 AD
2 Iraq Baghdad 6,960,000 762 AD
3 Saudi Arabia Riyadh 6,030,000 100–200 AD
4 Sudan Khartoum 5,345,000 1821 AD
5 Jordan Amman 4,995,000 1948 AD
6 Egypt Alexandria 4,870,000 331 BC
7 Kuwait Kuwait City 4,660,000 1613 AD
8 Morocco Casablanca 4,370,000 768 AD
9 Saudi Arabia Jeddah 3,875,000 600 BC
10 United Arab Emirates Dubai 3,805,000 7000 BC
History
Early history
Further information: Arabization
The Great Mosque of Kairouan (also called the Mosque of Uqba), was founded in 670 by the Arab general and conqueror Uqba ibn Nafi.[38] The Great Mosque of Kairouan is located in the historic city of Kairouan in Tunisia.
The Arabs historically originate as a Central Semitic group in the Arabian peninsula. Their expansion beyond Arabia and the Syrian desert is due to the Muslim conquests of the 7th and 8th centuries. Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) was conquered in 633, Levant (modern Syria, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon and tine) between 636 and 640 CE.
Egypt was conquered in 639, and gradually Arabized during the medieval period. A distinctively Egyptian Arabic language emerged by the 16th century.
The Maghreb was also conquered in the 7th century, and gradually Arabized under the Fatimids. Islam was brought to Sudan from Egypt during the 8th to 11th centuries.
The culture of Sudan today depends on the tribe, some have a pure Nubian, Beja, or Arabic culture and some have a mixture of Arab and Nubian elements.[39]
Ottoman and colonial rule
The Arab Abbasid Caliphate fell to the Mongol invasions in the 13th century. Egypt, the Levant and Hejaz also came under the Turkish Mamluk Sultanate.
By 1570, the Turkish Ottoman Empire controlled most of the Arab world. However, Morocco remained under the rule of the Zenata Wattasid dynasty, which was succeeded by the Saadi dynasty in the 16th to 17th centuries. The Ajuran Sultanate also held sway in the southern part of the Horn region.
The sentiment of Arab nationalism arose in the second half of the 19th century along with other nationalisms within the declining Ottoman Empire.
When the Ottoman Empire collapsed as a result of World War I, much of the Arab world came to be controlled by the European colonial empires: Mandatory Palestine, Mandatory Iraq, British protectorate of Egypt, French protectorate of Morocco, Italian Libya, French Tunisia, French Algeria, French Mandate of Syria and Lebanon and the so-called Trucial States, a British protectorate formed by the sheikhdoms on the former "Pirate Coast".
These Arab states only gained their independence during or after World War II: the Republic of Lebanon in 1943, the Syrian Arab Republic and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in 1946, the Kingdom of Libya in 1951, the Kingdom of Egypt in 1952, the Kingdom of Morocco and Tunisia in 1956, the Republic of Iraq in 1958, the Somali Republic in 1960, Algeria in 1962, and the United Arab Emirates in 1971.
By contrast, Saudi Arabia had fragmented with the fall of the Ottoman Empire, and was unified under Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia by 1932.
The Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen also seceded directly from the Ottoman Empire in 1918. Oman, apart from brief intermittent Persian and Portuguese rule has, been self-governing since the 8th century.
Rise of Arab nationalism
Further information: Islam and modernity and Arab Cold War
The Arab League was formed in 1945 to represent the interests of the Arabs, and especially to pursue the political unification of the Arab world, a project known as Pan-Arabism.[12][13] There were some short-lived attempts at such unification in the mid-20th century, notably the United Arab Republic of 1958 to 1961. The Arab League's main goal is to unify politically the Arab populations so defined. Its permanent headquarters are located in Cairo. However, it was moved temporarily to Tunis during the 1980s, after Egypt was expelled for signing the Camp David Accords (1978).
Pan-Arabism has mostly been abandoned as an ideology since the 1980s, and was replaced by Pan-Islamism on one hand, and individual nationalisms on the other.
Modern conflicts
Main article: List of modern conflicts in the Middle East
Unification of Saudi Arabia
The unification of Saudi Arabia was a 30-year-long military and political campaign, by which the various tribes, sheikhdoms, and emirates of most of the Arabian Peninsula were conquered by the House of Saud, or Al Saud, between 1902 and 1932, when the modern-day Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was proclaimed. Carried out under the charismatic Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud, this process created what is sometimes referred to as the Third Saudi State, to differentiate it from the first and second states that existed under the Al Saud clan.
The Al-Saud had been in exile in Ottoman Iraq since 1893 following the disintegration of the Second Saudi State and the rise of Jebel Shammar under the Al Rashid clan. In 1902, Ibn Saud recaptured Riyadh, the Al Saud dynasty's former capital. He went on to subdue the rest of Nejd, Al-Hasa, Jebel Shammar, Asir, and Hejaz (location of the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina) between 1913 and 1926. The resultant polity was named the Kingdom of Nejd and Hejaz from 1927 until it was further consolidated with Al-Hasa and Qatif into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932.
Arab–Israeli conflict
Further information: Arab–Israeli conflict
The establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 has given rise to the Arab–Israeli conflict, one of the major unresolved geopolitical conflicts.
The Arab states in changing alliances were involved in a number of wars with Israel and its western allies between 1948 and 1973, including the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, the 1956 Suez Crisis, the Six-Day War of 1967, and the Yom Kippur War of 1973. An Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty was signed in 1979.
Iraq–Iran War
Main article: Iran–Iraq War
The Iran–Iraq War (also known as the First Gulf War and by various other names) was an armed conflict between the armed forces of Iraq and Iran, lasting from September 1980 to August 1988, making it the second longest conventional war of the 20th century. It was initially referred to in English as the "Gulf War" prior to the "Gulf War" of 1990.
The war began when Iraq invaded Iran, launching a simultaneous invasion by air and land into Iranian territory on 22 September 1980 following a long history of border disputes, and fears of Shia Islam insurgency among Iraq's long-suppressed Shia majority influenced by the Iranian Revolution. Iraq was also aiming to replace Iran as the dominant Persian Gulf state. Although Iraq hoped to take advantage of the revolutionary chaos in Iran (see Iranian Revolution, 1979) and attacked without formal warning, they made only limited progress into Iran and were quickly repelled by the Iranians who regained virtually all lost territory by June 1982. For the next six years, Iran was on the offensive.
Lebanese Civil War
Main article: Lebanese Civil War
The Lebanese Civil War was a multifaceted civil war in Lebanon, lasting from 1975 to 1990 and resulting in an estimated 120,000 fatalities. Another one million people (a quarter of the population) were wounded,[citation needed] and today approximately 76,000 people remain displaced within Lebanon. There was also a mass exodus of almost one million people from Lebanon.
Western Sahara conflict
Main article: Western Sahara conflict
The Western Sahara War was an armed struggle between the Sahrawi Polisario Front and Morocco between 1975 and 1991, being the most significant phase of the Western Sahara conflict. The conflict erupted after the withdrawal of Spain from the Spanish Sahara in accordance with the Madrid Accords, by which it transferred administrative control of the territory to Morocco and Mauritania, but not the sovereignty. In 1975, Moroccan government organized the Green March of some 350,000 Moroccan citizens, escorted by around 20,000 troops, who entered Western Sahara, trying to establish Moroccan presence. While at first met with just minor resistance by the Polisario, Morocco later engaged a long period of guerilla warfare with the Sahrawi nationalists. During the late 1970s, the Polisario Front, desiring to establish an independent state in the territory, successively fought both Mauritania and Morocco. In 1979, Mauritania withdrew from the conflict after signing a peace treaty with the Polisario. The war continued in low intensity throughout the 1980s, though Morocco made several attempts to take the upper hand in 1989-1991. A cease-fire agreement was finally reached between the Polisario Front and Morocco in September 1991.
North Yemen Civil War
Main article: North Yemen Civil War
The North Yemen Civil War was fought in North Yemen between royalists of the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen and factions of the Yemen Arab Republic from 1962 to 1970. The war began with a coup d'état carried out by the republican leader, Abdullah as-Sallal, which dethroned the newly crowned Imam al-Badr and declared Yemen a republic under his presidency. The Imam escaped to the Saudi Arabian border and rallied popular support.
Somali Civil War
Main article: Somali Civil War
The Somali Civil War is an ongoing civil war taking place in Somalia. It began in 1991, when a coalition of clan-based armed opposition groups ousted the nation's long-standing military government.
Various factions began competing for influence in the power vacuum that followed, which precipitated an aborted UN peacekeeping attempt in the mid-1990s. A period of decentralization ensued, characterized by a return to customary and religious law in many areas as well as the establishment of autonomous regional governments in the northern part of the country. The early 2000s saw the creation of fledgling interim federal administrations, culminating in the establishment of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) in 2004. In 2006, the TFG, assisted by Ethiopian troops, assumed control of most of the nation's southern conflict zones from the newly formed Islamic Courts Union (ICU). The ICU subsequently splintered into more radical groups, notably Al-Shabaab, which have since been fighting the Somali government and its AMISOM allies for control of the region. In 2011, a coordinated military operation between the Somali military and multinational forces began, which is believed to represent one of the final stages in the war's Islamist insurgency.[40]
Arab Spring
Main articles: Arab Spring, Libyan Civil War, and Syrian Civil War
The popular protests throughout the Arab world of late 2010 to the present have been directed against authoritarian leadership and associated political corruption, paired with demands for more democratic rights. The two most violent and prolonged conflicts in the aftermath of the Arab Spring are the Libyan Civil War and Syrian Civil War.
Petroleum
While the Arab world had been of limited interest to the European colonial powers, the British Empire being mostly interested in the Suez Canal as a route to British India, the economic and geopolitical situation changed dramatically after the discovery of large petroleum deposits in the 1930s, coupled with the vastly increased demand for petroleum in the west as a result of the Second Industrial Revolution.
The Persian Gulf is particularly well-endowed with this strategic raw material: five Persian Gulf states, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the UAE, Kuwait, and Qatar, are among the top ten petroleum or gas exporters worldwide. In Africa, Algeria (10th world) and Libya are important gas exporters. In addition Bahrain, Egypt, Tunisia, and Sudan all have smaller but significant reserves. Where present, these have had significant effects on regional politics, often enabling rentier states, leading to economic disparities between oil-rich and oil-poor countries, and, particularly in the more sparsely populated states of the Persian Gulf and Libya, triggering extensive labor immigration. It is believed that the Arab world holds approximately 46% of the world’s total proven oil reserves and a quarter of the world's natural-gas reserves.[41]
Islamism and Pan-Islamism were on the rise during the 1980s. The Hezbollah, a militant Islamic party in Lebanon, was founded in 1982. Islamic terrorism became a problem in the Arab world in the 1970s to 1980s. While the Muslim Brotherhood had been active in Egypt since 1928, their militant actions were limited to assassination attempts on political leaders.
Recent history
Today, Arab states are characterized by their autocratic rulers and lack of democratic control. The 2016 Democracy Index classifies Lebanon, Iraq and Palestine as "hybrid regimes", Tunisia as a "flawed democracy" and all other Arab states as "authoritarian regimes". Similarly, the 2011 Freedom House report classifies Comoros and Mauritania as "electoral democracies",[42] Lebanon, Kuwait and Morocco as "partly free", and all other Arab states as "not free".
The invasion of Kuwait by Iraq forces, led to the 1990–91 Persian Gulf War. Egypt, Syria and Saudi Arabia joined a multinational coalition that opposed Iraq. Displays of support for Iraq by Jordan and Palestine resulted in strained relations between many of the Arab states. After the war, a so-called "Damascus Declaration" formalized an alliance for future joint Arab defensive actions between Egypt, Syria, and the GCC states.[43]
A chain of events leading to the destabilization of the authoritarian regimes established during the 1950s throughout the Arab world became apparent during the early years of the 21st century. The 2003 invasion of Iraq led to the collapse of the Baathist regime and ultimate execution of Saddam Hussein.
A growing class of young, educated, secular citizens with access to modern media such as Al Jazeera (since 1996) and communicating via the internet began to form a third force besides the classical dichotomy of Pan-Arabism vs. Pan-Islamism that had dominated the second half of the 20th century.
In Syria, the Damascus Spring of 2000 to 2001 heralded the possibility of democratic change, but the Baathist regime managed to suppress the movement.
In 2003, the Egyptian Movement for Change, popularly known as Kefaya, was launched to oppose the Mubarak regime and to establish democratic reforms and greater civil liberties in Egypt.
States and territories
For the states and territories constituting the Arab world, see definition above.
Forms of government
Different forms of government are represented in the Arab World: Some of the countries are monarchies: Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The other Arab countries are all republics. With the exception of Lebanon, Tunisia, Palestine, and recently Mauritania, democratic elections throughout the Arab World are generally viewed as compromised, due to outright vote rigging, intimidation of opposition parties, and severe restraints on civil liberties and political dissent.
After World War II, Pan-Arabism sought to unite all Arabic-speaking countries into one political entity. Only Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Sudan, Tunisia, Libya and North Yemen considered the short-lived unification of the United Arab Republic. Historical divisions, competing local nationalisms, and geographical sprawl were major reasons for the failure of Pan-Arabism. Arab Nationalism was another strong force in the region which peaked during the mid-20th century and was professed by many leaders in Egypt, Algeria, Libya, Syria, and Iraq. Arab Nationalist leaders of this period included Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, Ahmed Ben Bella of Algeria, Michel Aflaq, Salah al-Din al-Bitar, Zaki al-Arsuzi, Constantin Zureiq and Shukri al-Kuwatli of Syria, Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr of Iraq, Habib Bourguiba of Tunisia, Mehdi Ben Barka of Morocco, and Shakib Arslan of Lebanon.
Later and current Arab Nationalist leaders include Muammar al-Gaddafi of Libya, Hafez al-Assad and Bashar al-Assad of Syria. The diverse Arab states generally maintained close ties but distinct national identities developed and strengthened with the social, historical and political realities of the past 60 years. This has made the idea of a pan-Arab nation-state increasingly less feasible and likely. Additionally, an upsurge in political Islam has since led to a greater emphasis on pan-Islamic rather than pan-Arab identity amongst some Arab Muslims. Arab nationalists who once opposed Islamic movements as a threat to their power, now deal with them differently for reasons of political reality.[44]
Modern boundaries
Many of the modern borders of the Arab World were drawn by European imperial powers during the 19th and early 20th century. However, some of the larger states (in particular Egypt and Syria) have historically maintained geographically definable boundaries, on which some of the modern states are roughly based. The 14th-century Egyptian historian Al-Maqrizi, for instance, defines Egypt's boundaries as extending from the Mediterranean in the north to lower Nubia in the south; and between the Red Sea in the east and the oases of the Western/Libyan desert. The modern borders of Egypt, therefore, are not a creation of European powers, and are at least in part based on historically definable entities which are in turn based on certain cultural and ethnic identifications.
At other times, kings, emirs or sheikhs were placed as semi-autonomous rulers over the newly created nation states, usually chosen by the same imperial powers that for some drew the new borders, for services rendered to European powers like the British Empire, e.g. Sherif Hussein ibn Ali. Many African states did not attain independence until the 1960s from France after bloody insurgencies for their freedom. These struggles were settled by the imperial powers approving the form of independence given, so as a consequence almost all of these borders have remained. Some of these borders were agreed upon without consultation of those individuals that had served the colonial interests of Britain or France. One such agreement solely between Britain and France (to the exclusion of Sherif Hussein ibn Ali), signed in total secrecy until Lenin released the full text, was the Sykes-Picot Agreement. Another influential document written without the consensus of the local population was the Balfour Declaration.
As former director of the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, Efraim Halevy, now a director at the Hebrew University said,
“ The borders, which if you look on the maps of the middle-east are very straight lines, were drawn by British and French draftsmen who sat with maps and drew the lines of the frontiers with rulers. If the ruler for some reason or other moved on the map, because of some person's hand shaking, then the frontier moved (with the hand).[45] ”
He went on to give an example,
“ There was a famous story about a British consul, a lady named Gertrude Bell who drew the map between Iraq and Jordan, using transparent paper. She turned to talk to somebody and as she was turning the paper moved and the ruler moved and that added considerable territory to the (new) Jordanians.[45] ”
Historian Jim Crow, of Newcastle University, has said:
“ Without that imperial carve-up, Iraq would not be in the state it is in today...Gertrude Bell was one of two or three Britons who were instrumental in the creation of the Arab states in the Middle East that were favourable to Britain.[46] ”
Modern economies
As of 2006, the Arab World accounts for two-fifths of the gross domestic product and three-fifths of the trade of the wider Muslim World[citation needed].
The Arab states are mostly, although not exclusively, developing economies and derive their export revenues from oil and gas, or the sale of other raw materials. Recent years have seen significant economic growth in the Arab World, due largely to an increase in oil and gas prices, which tripled between 2001 and 2006, but also due to efforts by some states to diversify their economic base. Industrial production has risen, for example the amount of steel produced between 2004 and 2005 rose from 8.4 to 19 million tonnes. (Source: Opening speech of Mahmoud Khoudri, Algeria's Industry Minister, at the 37th General Assembly of the Iron & Steel Arab Union, Algiers, May 2006). However even 19 million tons pa still only represents 1.7% of global steel production, and remains inferior to the production of countries like Brazil.[47]
The main economic organisations in the Arab World are the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), comprising the states in the Persian Gulf, and the Union of the Arab Maghreb (UMA), made up of North African States. The GCC has achieved some success in financial and monetary terms, including plans to establish a common currency in the Persian Gulf region. Since its foundation in 1989, the UMA's most significant accomplishment has been the establishment of a 7000 km highway crossing North Africa from Mauritania to Libya's border with Egypt. The central stretch of the highway, expected to be completed in 2010, will cross Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. In recent years a new term has been coined to define a greater economic region: the MENA region (standing for Middle East and North Africa) is becoming increasingly popular, especially with support from the current US administration.
As of August 2009 it was reported that Saudi Arabia is the strongest Arab economy according to World Bank.[48]
Saudi Arabia remains the top Arab economy in terms of total GDP. It is Asia's eleventh largest economy, followed by Egypt and Algeria, which were also the second and third largest economies in Africa (after South Africa), in 2006. In terms of GDP per capita, Qatar is the richest developing country in the world.[49]
The total GDP of all Arab countries in 1999 was US$531.2 billion.[50] By grouping all the latest GDP figures, the total Arab world GDP is estimated to be worth at least $2.8 trillion in 2011.[51] This is only smaller than the GDP of US, China, Japan and Germany.
Geography
The Arab World stretches across more than 13,000,000 square kilometres (5,000,000 sq mi) of North Africa and the part of North-East Africa and South-West Asia. The Asian part of the Arab world is called the Mashriq. Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya and often Mauritania are the Maghreb or Maghrib, while Egypt and Sudan are referred to as Nile Valley, Egypt is a transcontinental country by virtue of the Sinai Peninsula, which is in Asia.
The Maghreb (Western Arab world)
The term "Arab" often connotes the Middle East, but the larger (and more populous) part of the Arab World is North Africa. Its eight million square kilometers include two of the largest countries of the African continent, Algeria (2.4 million km2) in the center of the region and Sudan (1.9 million km2) in the southeast. Algeria is about three-quarters the size of India, or about one-and-a-half times the size of Alaska, the largest state in the United States. The largest country in the Arab Middle East is Saudi Arabia (2 million km2).
At the other extreme, the smallest autonomous mainland Arab country in North Africa and the Middle East is Lebanon (10,452 km2), and the smallest island Arab country is Bahrain (665 km2).
Notably, every Arab country borders a sea or ocean, with the exception of the Arab region of northern Chad, which is completely landlocked. Iraq is actually nearly landlocked, as it has only a very narrow access to the Persian Gulf.
Historical boundaries
The political borders of the Arab world have wandered, leaving Arab minorities in non-Arab countries of the Sahel and the Horn of Africa as well as in the Middle Eastern countries of Cyprus, Turkey and Iran, and also leaving non-Arab minorities in Arab countries. However, the basic geography of sea, desert and mountain provides the enduring natural boundaries for this region.
Abbasid caliphate (750 - 1258 CE)
The Arab world straddles two continents, Africa and Asia. It is mainly oriented along an east-west axis.
Arab Africa
Arab Africa comprises the entire northern third of the continent. It is surrounded by water on three sides (west, north, and east) and desert or desert scrubland on the fourth (south).
In the west, it is bounded by the shores of the Atlantic Ocean. From northeast to southwest, Morocco, Western Sahara (mostly unilaterally annexed by Morocco), and Mauritania make up the roughly 2,000 kilometers of Arab Atlantic coastline. The southwestern sweep of the coast is gentle but substantial, such that Mauritania's capital, Nouakchott (18°N, 16°W), is far enough west to share longitude with Iceland (13–22°W). Nouakchott is the westernmost capital of the Arab World and the third-westernmost in Africa, and sits on the Atlantic fringe of the southwestern Sahara. Next south along the coast from Mauritania is Senegal, whose abrupt border belies the gradient in culture from Arab to indigenous African that historically characterizes this part of West Africa.
Arab Africa's boundary to the north is again a continental boundary, the Mediterranean Sea. This boundary begins in the west with the narrow Strait of Gibraltar, the thirteen kilometer wide channel that connects the Mediterranean with the Atlantic to the west, and separates Morocco from Spain to the north. East along the coast from Morocco are Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya, followed by Egypt, which forms the region's (and the continent's) northeastern corner. The coast turns briefly but sharply south at Tunisia, slopes more gently southeastward through the Libyan capital of Tripoli, and bumps north through Libya's second city, Benghazi, before turning straight east again through Egypt's second city, Alexandria, at the mouth of the Nile. Along with the spine of Italy to its north, Tunisia thus marks the junction of western and eastern Mediterranean, and a cultural transition as well: west of Egypt begins the region of the Arab World known as the Maghreb include (Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and Mauritania).
Historically the 4,000-kilometer Mediterranean boundary has fluttered. Population centers north of it in Europe have invited contact and Arab exploration—mostly friendly, though sometimes not. Islands and peninsulas near the Arab coast have changed hands. The islands of Sicily and Malta lie just a hundred kilometers east of the Tunisian city of Carthage, which has been a point of contact with Europe since its founding in the first millennium BCE; both Sicily and Malta at times have been part of the Arab World. Just across the Strait of Gibraltar from Morocco, regions of the Iberian peninsula were part of the Arab World throughout the Middle Ages, extending the northern boundary at times to the foothills of the Pyrenees and leaving a substantial mark on local and wider European and Western culture.
The northern boundary of the African Arab world has also fluttered briefly in the other direction, first through the Crusades and later through the imperial involvement of France, Britain, Spain, and Italy. Another visitor from northern shores, Turkey, controlled the east of the region for centuries, though not as a colonizer. Spain still maintains two small enclaves, Ceuta and Melilla (called "Morocco Espanol"), along the otherwise Moroccan coast. Overall this wave has ebbed, though like the Arab expansion north it has left its mark. The proximity of North Africa to Europe has always encouraged interaction, and this continues with Arab immigration to Europe and European interest in the Arab countries today. However, population centers and the physical fact of the sea keeps this boundary of the Arab World settled on the Mediterranean coastline.
To the east, the Red Sea defines the boundary between Africa and Asia, and thus also between Arab Africa and the Arab Middle East. This sea is a long and narrow waterway with a northwest tilt, stretching 2,300 kilometers from Egypt's Sinai peninsula southeast to the Bab-el-Mandeb strait between Djibouti in Africa and Yemen in Arabia but on average just 150 kilometers wide. Though the sea is navigable along its length, historically much contact between Arab Africa and the Arab Middle East has been either overland across the Sinai or by sea across the Mediterranean or the narrow Bab al Mendeb strait. From northwest to southeast, Egypt, Sudan, and Eritrea form the African coastline, with Djibouti marking Bab al Mendeb's African shore.
Southeast along the coast from Djibouti is Somalia, but the Somali coast soon makes a 90-degree turn and heads northeast, mirroring a bend in the coast of Yemen across the water to the north and defining the south coast of the Gulf of Aden. The Somali coast then takes a hairpin turn back southwest to complete the horn of Africa. For six months of the year the monsoon winds blow from up equatorial Somalia, past Arabia and over the small Yemeni archipelago of Socotra, to rain on India; they then switch directions and blow back. Hence the east- and especially southeast-coast boundary of Arab Africa has historically been a gateway for maritime trade and cultural exchange with both East Africa and the subcontinent. The trade winds also help explain the presence of the Comoros islands, an Arab-African country, off the coast of Mozambique, near Madagascar in the Indian Ocean, the southernmost part of the Arab World.
The southern boundary of Arab North Africa is the strip of scrubland known as the Sahel that crosses the continent south of the Sahara.
Arab Middle East
The West Asian Arab region comprises the Arabian Peninsula, most of the Levant (excluding Cyprus and Israel), most of Mesopotamia (excluding parts of Turkey and Iran) and the Persian Gulf region. The peninsula is roughly a tilted rectangle that leans back against the slope of northeast Africa, the long axis pointing toward Turkey and Europe.
See also
Arab world portal
Middle East portal
Muslim world
AIDA - International Association of Arabic Dialectology
Afro-Arab
Arab diaspora
Arabic influence on the Spanish language
Arabic literature
English exonyms of Arabic speaking places
Islamic empire
List of Arabic neighborhoods in the Western world.
List of countries where Arabic is an official language
List of Arab companies
List of tallest buildings in the Arab League
MENA
Notes
General
Jump up ^ 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.
Sources
Jump up ^ "Arab World - Surface area". indexmundi.com.
Jump up ^ "World Arabic Language Day | United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization". unesco.org.
Jump up ^ "Population density (people per sq. km of land area) | Data". data.worldbank.org.
Jump up ^ "GDP (current US$) | Data". data.worldbank.org.
Jump up ^ "GNI per capita, Atlas method (current US$) | Data". data.worldbank.org.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g 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."
Jump up ^ Khan, Zafarul-Islam. "The Arab World – an Arab perspective". milligazette.com.
Jump up ^ Phillips, Christopher (12 November 2012). "Everyday Arab Identity: The Daily Reproduction of the Arab World". Routledge.
Jump up ^ Mellor, Noha; Rinnawi, Khalil; Dajani, Nabil; Ayish, Muhammad I. (20 May 2013). "Arab Media: Globalization and Emerging Media Industries". John Wiley & Sons.
Jump up ^ "Majority and Minorities in the Arab World: The Lack of a Unifying Narrative". Jerusalem Center For Public Affairs.
Jump up ^ "World Arabic Language Day". UNESCO. 18 December 2012. Retrieved 12 February 2014.
^ Jump up to: a b "Arab League Sends Delegation to Iraq". Encyclopedia.com. 8 October 2005. Retrieved 13 February 2011.
^ Jump up to: a b "Arab League Warns of Civil War in Iraq". Encyclopedia.com. 8 October 2005. Retrieved 13 February 2011.
Jump up ^ Wehr, Hans: Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic (2011); Harrell, Richard S.: Dictionary of Moroccan Arabic (1966)
Jump up ^ Tilmatine Mohand, Substrat et convergences: Le berbére et l'arabe nord-africain (1999), in Estudios de dialectologia norteaafricana y andalusi 4, pp 99–119
Jump up ^ "Arabic, Moroccan Spoken".
Jump up ^ Benjamin Hätinger, The League of Arab States, (GRIN Verlag: 2009), p.2.
Jump up ^ Dwight Fletcher Reynolds, Arab folklore: a handbook, (Greenwood Press: 2007), p.1.
Jump up ^ Baumann: 8
Jump up ^ Deng: 405
^ Jump up to: a b Kronholm: 14
Jump up ^ Rejwan: 52
Jump up ^ Sullivan and Ismael: ix
Jump up ^ Diana Briton Putman, Mohamood Cabdi Noor, The Somalis: their history and culture, (Center for Applied Linguistics: 1993), p.15.
Jump up ^ Colin Legum, Africa contemporary record: annual survey and documents, Volume 13, (Africana Pub. Co.: 1985), p.B-116.
Jump up ^ "Eritrea". The World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency. Retrieved 28 February 2013.
Jump up ^ Rinnawi: xvi
Jump up ^ "Middle East – Iran". The World Factbook. Archived from the original on 3 February 2012. Retrieved 24 October 2013.
Jump up ^ "Hassaniyya - A language of Mauritania". Ethnologue.com. Retrieved 17 October 2011.
Jump up ^ "World Population Prospects: The 2017 Revision". ESA.UN.org (custom data acquired via website). United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. Retrieved 10 September 2017.
Jump up ^ "How Many Muslims Are There in the World?". About.com Religion & Spirituality.
Jump up ^ Lewis 1994, Ch.1
Jump up ^ Bernard Lewis, Race and Color in Islam, Harper and Yuow, 1970, quote on page 38. The brackets are displayed by Lewis.
Jump up ^ "Regional overview: Arab States" (PDF). UNESCO. 2007. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
^ Jump up to: a b RIA Novosti (11 November 2008). "Average Arab reads 4 pages a year". Retrieved 16 August 2010.
Jump up ^ Gender equality in Arab world critical for progress and prosperity, UN report warns Archived 6 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine., E-joussour (21 October 2008)
Jump up ^ "Demographia World Urban Areas" (PDF). Demographia. Retrieved 20 July 2017.
Jump up ^ Hans Kung, ''Tracing the Way: Spiritual Dimensions of the World Religions'', éd. Continuum International Publishing Group, 2006, p. 248. Books.google.fr. 31 August 2006. Retrieved 17 October 2011.
Jump up ^ Bechtold, Peter R (1991). "More Turbulence in Sudan" in Sudan: State and Society in Crisis. ed. John Voll (Westview Press (Boulder)) p. 1.
Jump up ^ Heinlein, Peter (22 October 2011). "E. African Nations Back Kenyan Offensive in Somalia". Voice of America. Retrieved 23 October 2011.
Jump up ^ "The haves and the have-nots" – via The Economist.
Jump up ^ "Freedom House Country Report". Freedomhouse.org. 10 May 2004. Archived from the original on 10 May 2011. Retrieved 13 February 2011.
Jump up ^ Egypt's Bid for Arab Leadership: Implications for U.S. Policy, By Gregory L. Aftandilian, Published by Council on Foreign Relations, 1993, ISBN 0-87609-146-X, pages 6–8
Jump up ^ "Arab Nationalism: Mistaken Identity by Martin Kramer". Archived from the original on 25 October 2009.
^ Jump up to: a b [1] Archived 6 December 2010 at the Wayback Machine.
Jump up ^ "Internet Archive Wayback Machine". 3 January 2016. Archived from the original on 7 March 2003.
Jump up ^ "World Steel Association - Home". Worldsteel.org. Retrieved 17 October 2011.
Jump up ^ World Bank: Saudi Arabia, strongest Arab economy Archived 30 November 2009 at the Wayback Machine.
Jump up ^ CIA World Factbook, GDP by country classification
Jump up ^ Lewis, Bernard (2004). The Crisis of Islam. New York City: Random House. p. 116. ISBN 978-0-8129-6785-2.
Jump up ^ http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/05/05/147980.html
References
Baumann, Andrea (2006). Influences of culture on the styles of business behaviour between Western and Arab managers. Norderstedt, Germany: GRIN. ISBN 978-3-638-86642-2. External link in |publisher= (help)
Deng, Francis Mading (1995). War of visions: Conflict of identities in the Sudan. Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution. ISBN 0-8157-1794-6.
Frishkopf, Michael (2010). "Introduction: Music and media in the Arab world and Music and media in the Arab world as music and media in the Arab world: A metadiscourse". In Frishkopf, Michael. Music and media in the Arab world. Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press. ISBN 978-977-416-293-0.
Hourani, Albert Habib (1991). A History of the Arab Peoples. Cambridge, Mass.: Warner Books. ISBN 978-0-674-39565-7.
Kronholm, Tryggve (1993). "Arab culture: Reality or fiction?". In Palva, Heikki; Vikør, Knut S. The Middle East: Unity and diversity: Papers from the second Nordic conference on Middle Eastern studies. Nordic proceedings in Asian studies. 5. Copenhagen: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies. ISBN 87-87062-24-0.
Reader, John (1997). Africa: A Biography of the Continent. New York: Vintage. ISBN 978-0-679-40979-3.
Rejwan, Nissim (1974). Nasserist ideology: its exponents and critics. New York: Halsted Press. ISBN 0-470-71628-2.
Rinnawi, Khalil (2006). Instant nationalism: McArabism, al-Jazeera and transnational media in the Arab world. Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America. ISBN 978-0-7618-3439-7.
Sullivan, Earl L.; Ismael, Jacqueline S., eds. (1991). "Preface". The contemporary study of the Arab world. Edmonton, Alberta: The University of Alberta Press. ISBN 0-88864-211-3.
Saint-Prot, Charles (2003). French Policy toward the Arab World. AbuDhabi: Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research. ISBN 978-9948-00-336-6.
Further reading
Ajl, Max. Imperialism and Class in the Arab World (September 2016), Monthly Review
Ayalon, Amy (1987). Language and change in the Arab Middle East: the evolution of modern political discourse Studies in Middle Eastern history. Oxford University Press US. ISBN 978-0-19-504140-8.
Hourani, Albert (1983). Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age, 1798-1939. Rev., with a new preface. Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge University Press. x, 406 p. ISBN 0-521-27423-0 pbk.
Tausch, Arno. A Look at International Survey Data About Arab Opinion (31 January 2014). "A look at recent (2013) international survey data about Arab opinion," Middle East Review of International Affairs, Vol. 17, No. 3 (Fall 2013), 57-74. Available at SSRN or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2388627 here
Tausch, Arno (2015). The political algebra of global value change: General models and implications for the Muslim world, with Almas Heshmati and Hichem Karoui (1st ed.). Nova Science Publishers, New York. ISBN 978-1-62948-899-8.
External links
Arab League Online
INFOSAMAK - Arab world
ArabLand.com—Directories of all Arab World countries
Araboo.com—Arab World Directory
Arab Countries information
WinArab—Arab Articles
Carboun Information and resources relating to energy, environment, and sustainability in the Arab World
Arab world travel guide from Wikivoyage
hide
v
t
e
Semitic topics
Peoples
Adnanites
Algerians
Amhara people
Amorites
Arab diaspora
Arabs
Arabs in India
Arabs in Turkey
Arameans
Argobba people
Arma people
Assyrian people
Bahrani people
Bedouin
Chaldeans
Chaush
Egyptians
Emiratis
Gurage people
Habesha people
Hadhrami people
Harari people
Hyksos
Iranian Arabs
Iraqis
Ishmaelites
Israelis
Israeli Arabs
Israeli Jews
Israelites
Jewish diaspora
Jews
Jordanians
Lebanese people
Maronites
Libyans
Mandaeans
Marsh Arabs
Mauritanians
Mhallami
Moors
Moroccans
Nabataeans
Omanis
Palestinians
Qahtanite
Qataris
Sabians
Samaritans
Saracen
Soqotri
Sudanese people
Syrian people
Tigrayan people
Tigre people
Tunisians
Yemenis
Politics
Algerian nationalism
Arab nationalism
Arab socialism
Assyrian nationalism
Canaanism
Egyptian nationalism
Iraqi nationalism
Jewish political movements
Bundism
Zionism
Jewish religious movements
Lebanese nationalism
Phoenicianism
Libyan nationalism
Palestinian nationalism
Pan-Arabism
Pan-Islamism
Syrian nationalism
Tunisian nationalism
Origins
Generations of Noah
Genetic studies on Jews
Haplogroup IJ
Haplogroup IJK
Haplogroup J-M172
Haplogroup J-M267
Haplogroup J (Y-DNA)
Shem
Y-chromosomal Aaron
Y-DNA haplogroups in populations of the Near East
History
Abbasid Caliphate
Akkadian Empire
Amorites
Ancient Semitic-speaking peoples
Arabization
Aram Rehob
Aram-Damascus
Aram-Naharaim
Assyria
Babylonia
Bit Adini
Canaan
Carthage
Chaldea
Davidic line
Edom
Fatimid Caliphate
Ghassanids
Hasmonean dynasty
Herodian kingdom
Herodian Tetrarchy
Himyarite Kingdom
Judaization
Kindah
Kingdom of Aksum
Kingdom of Awsan
Kingdom of Israel (Samaria)
Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy)
Kingdom of Judah
Lakhmids
Lihyan
Midian
Minaeans
Moab
Nabataeans
Neo-Assyrian Empire
Neo-Babylonian Empire
Paddan Aram
Palmyrene Empire
Phoenicia
Qataban
Qedarite
Rashidun Caliphate
Sabaeans
Solomonic dynasty
Thamud
Umayyad Caliphate
Zagwe dynasty
ʿĀd
Countries
Algeria
Arab world
Bahrain
Comoros
Djibouti
Egypt
Eritrea
Ethiopia
Iraq
Israel
Jordan
Lebanon
Libya
Mauritania
Palestinian territories1
Qatar
Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic1 (Western Sahara)
Saudi Arabia
Somalia
Sudan
Syria
Tunisia
United Arab Emirates
Yemen
Flags and
coats of arms
Algeria
Arab flags
Aramean-Syriac flag
Assyria
Bahrain
Cedrus libani
The Coromos
Crescent
Djibouti
Egypt
Eritrea
Ethiopia (emblem)
Ethiopia (flag)
Hamsa
Iraq
Israel (emblem)
Israel (flag)
Janbiya
Jordan
Khanjar
Kuwait
Lebanon
Libya
Lion of Judah
Mauritania
Menorah (Temple)
Morocco
Oman
Palestine
Pan-Arab colors
Qatar
Saudi Arabia
Scimitar
Shamash
Star of David
Sudan
Syria
Takbir
Tanit
Tunesia
United Arab Emirates
Yemen
Zulfiqar
Studies
Arabist
Assyriology
Hebraist
Semitic languages
Semitic Museum
Semitic studies
Syriac studies
Religions
Abrahamic religions
Ancient Canaanite religion
Ancient Mesopotamian religion
Ancient Semitic religion
Babylonian religion
Christianity
Druze religion
Islam
Judaism
Mandaeism
pre-Islamic Arabia
Samaritan religion
Semitic neopaganism
Organizations
Arab European League
Arab League
Assyrian Universal Alliance
World Council of Arameans (Syriacs)
World Zionist Congress
1 Is a state with limited international recognition
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Arab_world&oldid=855877473"
Categories:
Arab world
Country classifications
Cultural regions
Horn of Africa
Middle East
North Africa
Western Asia
Arabic language
Historical regions
Hidden categories:
Webarchive template wayback links
Wikipedia pages under 30-500 editing restriction
Pages using deprecated image syntax
Articles containing Arabic-language text
Wikipedia articles needing clarification from June 2015
All articles with links needing disambiguation
Articles with links needing disambiguation from June 2017
All articles with unsourced statements
Articles with unsourced statements from January 2014
Articles with unsourced statements from January 2016
Articles with unsourced statements from November 2007
CS1 errors: external links
Use dmy dates from July 2011
Navigation menu
Personal tools
Not logged in
Talk
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Namespaces
Article
Talk
Variants
Views
Read
View source
View history
More
Search
Navigation
Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikipedia store
Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page
Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page
Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version
In other projects
Wikimedia Commons
Languages
العربية
ܐܪܡܝܐ
Asturianu
বাংলা
Bân-lâm-gú
Беларуская
Български
Bosanski
Català
Čeština
Cymraeg
Dansk
Deutsch
Diné bizaad
Eesti
Español
Esperanto
Euskara
فارسی
Français
Gagauz
Galego
한국어
Հայերեն
हिन्दी
Hrvatski
Bahasa Indonesia
Italiano
עברית
Basa Jawa
ქართული
Kongo
Latina
Latviešu
Lietuvių
Magyar
മലയാളം
मराठी
مصرى
Bahasa Melayu
Nederlands
日本語
Norsk
Norsk nynorsk
Occitan
ਪੰਜਾਬੀ
Polski
Português
Română
Русский
Scots
Shqip
සිංහල
Simple English
Slovenščina
Словѣньскъ / ⰔⰎⰑⰂⰡⰐⰠⰔⰍⰟ
Soomaaliga
کوردی
Српски / srpski
Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски
Basa Sunda
Suomi
Svenska
ไทย
Türkçe
Українська
اردو
ئۇيغۇرچە / Uyghurche
Tiếng Việt
Walon
ייִדיש
粵語
中文
64 more
Edit links
This page was last edited on 21 August 2018, at 12:29 (UTC).
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Cookie statement
Mobile view
Enable previews

values: mw-page-base noprint

values: mw-head-base noprint

values: This article is extended-confirmed protected

values: firstHeading firstHeading en

values: siteSub noprint

attrs: class href

values: mw-jump-link #mw-head

values: mw-jump-link #p-search

attrs: role class

values:
note
hatnote navigation-not-searchable

value: p

value: caption

values: A map of the Arab world, based on the standard territorial definition of the Arab world, which comprises the 22 states of the Arab League.

value: td

attrs: colspan style

value: tr

value: th

value: sup

values: list-style: none none; margin-left: 0px; text-align: left; white-space: nowrap; font-size: 105%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: inherit; display: none;

values:
NavFrame collapsed
border: none; padding: 0;
NavFrame1

values: List of largest cities in the Arab world

values: font-size: 105%; background: transparent; text-align: left;

values: list-style: none none; margin-left: 0px; text-align: left; font-size: 105%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: inherit; display: none;

values:
NavFrame collapsed
border: none; padding: 0;
NavFrame2

values:
mbox-text plainlist
vertical-align:middle; font-size:95%;

values: background-color:#f9f9f9;border:1px solid #aaa;color:#000;width: 22em;

values:
/wiki/Arabic_language
mw-redirect
Arabic language

values: Rise of nationalism under the Ottoman Empire

values: checkbox button toctogglecheckbox toctogglecheckbox display:none

values:
/wiki/Arab_people
mw-redirect
Arab people

values:
/wiki/Regional_organisation
mw-redirect
Regional organisation

values:
/wiki/Kurdish_language
mw-redirect
Kurdish language

values: width:33.33%; text-align:left; vertical-align:top; font-weight:normal;

values: The text near this tag may need clarification or removal of jargon. (June 2015)

values:
noprint Inline-Template
margin-left:0.1em; white-space:nowrap;

values:
/wiki/Arabic_dialects
mw-redirect
Arabic dialects

values:
/wiki/Literary_Arabic
mw-redirect
Literary Arabic

values: List of countries where Arabic is an official language

values:
/wiki/Cypriot_Maronite_Arabic
mw-redirect
Cypriot Maronite Arabic

values: European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages

values:
headerSort
0
columnheader button
Sort ascending

values:
/wiki/Islamic_world
mw-redirect
Islamic world

values:
/wiki/Perso-Arabic_script
mw-redirect
Perso-Arabic script

values:
/wiki/Arabian_peninsula
mw-redirect
Arabian peninsula

values:
/wiki/Coptic_Church
mw-redirect
Coptic Church

values:
/wiki/Assyrian_Christian
mw-redirect
Assyrian Christian

values:
/wiki/Jewish_exodus_from_Arab_countries
mw-redirect
Jewish exodus from Arab countries

values:
/wiki/Adult_literacy
mw-redirect
Adult literacy

values: This claim needs references to reliable sources. (January 2014)

values:
noprint Inline-Template Template-Fact
white-space:nowrap;

values: Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC)

values:
/wiki/Arab_human_development_report
mw-redirect
Arab human development report

values: Haifa street, as seen from the medical city hospital across the tigres.jpg

values:
/wiki/Mosque_of_Uqba
mw-redirect
Mosque of Uqba

values:
/wiki/Syrian_desert
mw-redirect
Syrian desert

values:
/wiki/Muslim_conquests
mw-redirect
Muslim conquests

values:
/wiki/History_of_Muslim_Egypt
mw-redirect
History of Muslim Egypt

values:
/wiki/Nubian_people
mw-redirect
Nubian people

values:
/wiki/Mongol_invasions
mw-redirect
Mongol invasions

values:
/wiki/British_protectorate_of_Egypt
mw-redirect
British protectorate of Egypt

values:
/wiki/French_protectorate_of_Morocco
mw-redirect
French protectorate of Morocco

values:
/wiki/French_occupation_of_Tunisia
mw-redirect
French occupation of Tunisia

values:
/wiki/French_colonization_of_Algeria
mw-redirect
French colonization of Algeria

values:
/wiki/Republic_of_Lebanon
mw-redirect
Republic of Lebanon

values:
/wiki/Syrian_Arab_Republic
mw-redirect
Syrian Arab Republic

values:
/wiki/Hashemite_Kingdom_of_Jordan
mw-redirect
Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

values:
/wiki/Kingdom_of_Morocco
mw-redirect
Kingdom of Morocco

values:
/wiki/Republic_of_Iraq
mw-redirect
Republic of Iraq

values:
/wiki/Ibn_Saud_of_Saudi_Arabia
mw-redirect
Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia

values:
/wiki/Camp_David_Accords_(1978)
mw-redirect
Camp David Accords (1978)

values: List of modern conflicts in the Middle East

values:
/wiki/First_Saudi_State
mw-redirect
First Saudi State

values:
/wiki/Second_Saudi_State
mw-redirect
Second Saudi State

values:
/wiki/Emirate_of_Ha%27il
mw-redirect
Emirate of Ha'il

values:
/wiki/Jebel_Shammar
mw-redirect
Jebel Shammar

values:
/wiki/Kingdom_of_Nejd_and_Hejaz
mw-redirect
Kingdom of Nejd and Hejaz

values:
/wiki/Ongoing_conflicts
mw-redirect
Ongoing conflicts

values: This claim needs references to reliable sources. (January 2016)

values:
/wiki/Transitional_Federal_Government
mw-redirect
Transitional Federal Government

values:
/wiki/Libyan_Civil_War
mw-redirect
Libyan Civil War

values:
/wiki/British_India
mw-redirect
British India

values:
/wiki/Autocratic_ruler
mw-redirect
Autocratic ruler

values:
/wiki/Electoral_democracy
mw-redirect
Electoral democracy

values:
/wiki/Egyptian_Movement_for_Change
mw-redirect
Egyptian Movement for Change

values:
/wiki/Mubarak_regime
mw-redirect
Mubarak regime

values:
/wiki/Arab_Nationalism
mw-redirect
Arab Nationalism

values:
/wiki/Shukri_al-Kuwatli
mw-redirect
Shukri al-Kuwatli

values:
/wiki/Muammar_al-Gaddafi
mw-redirect
Muammar al-Gaddafi

values:
/wiki/Libyan_desert
mw-redirect
Libyan desert

values:
/wiki/The_British_Empire
mw-redirect
The British Empire

values:
/wiki/Sherif_Hussein_ibn_Ali
mw-redirect
Sherif Hussein ibn Ali

values:
/wiki/Sykes-Picot_Agreement
mw-redirect
Sykes-Picot Agreement

values:
/wiki/Balfour_Declaration_of_1917
mw-redirect
Balfour Declaration of 1917

values: width: 20px; vertical-align: top; border: none; color: #B2B7F2; font-size: 40px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: .6em; text-align: left; padding: 10px 10px;

values: vertical-align: top; border: none; padding: 4px 10px;

values: width: 20px; vertical-align: bottom; border: none; color: #B2B7F2; font-size: 40px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: .6em; text-align: right; padding: 10px 10px;

values: margin:auto; border-collapse: collapse; border: none; background-color: transparent; width: auto;

values:
/wiki/Muslim_World
mw-redirect
Muslim World

values: This claim needs references to reliable sources. (November 2007)

values:
/wiki/Gulf_Cooperation_Council_(GCC)
mw-redirect
Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)

values:
/wiki/Nile_Valley
mw-redirect
Nile Valley

values:
/wiki/Transcontinental_country
mw-redirect
Transcontinental country

values:
/wiki/Abbasid_caliphate
mw-redirect
Abbasid caliphate

values:
/wiki/Sinai_peninsula
mw-redirect
Sinai peninsula

values: display:table-cell;padding:0.2em 0.2em 0.2em 0.3em;vertical-align:middle

values: margin:0.5em 0 0.5em 1em;border:solid #aaa 1px

values: AIDA - International Association of Arabic Dialectology

values: Arabic influence on the Spanish language

values: English exonyms of Arabic speaking places

values:
/wiki/Islamic_empire
mw-redirect
Islamic empire

values: List of tallest buildings in the Arab League

values: -moz-column-width: 25em; -webkit-column-width: 25em; column-width: 25em;

values:
reflist mw-references-wrap
list-style-type: decimal;

values:
nofollow
https://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/DataQuery/
external text

values: United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs

values:
nofollow
external text
http://www.e-joussour.net/en/node/1511

values:
nofollow
external text
http://www.sundayherald.com/31563

values:
nofollow
external text
http://www.worldsteel.org

values:
nofollow
external text
http://www.infoprod.co.il/article/2/283

values:
/wiki/World_Factbook
mw-redirect
World Factbook

values: -moz-column-width: 30em; -webkit-column-width: 30em; column-width: 30em; list-style-type: decimal;

values:
nofollow
http://www.grin.com/en/
external text

values:
/wiki/The_Brookings_Institution
mw-redirect
The Brookings Institution

values:
/wiki/University_of_Alberta_Press
mw-redirect
University of Alberta Press

values:
/wiki/Oxford_University_Press_US
mw-redirect
Oxford University Press US

values:
nofollow
external text
https://ssrn.com/abstract=2388627

values:
nofollow
external text
http://www.arableagueonline.org

values:
nofollow
http://www.araboo.com/
external text

values:
nofollow
http://www.winarab.net/
external text

values:
nofollow
external text
http://www.carboun.com

values:
/wiki/Habesha_people
mw-redirect
Habesha people

values:
/wiki/Syrian_people
mw-redirect
Syrian people

values: Y-DNA haplogroups in populations of the Near East

values: nowraplinks hlist collapsible autocollapse navbox-inner mw-collapsible mw-made-collapsible

values: Category:Webarchive template wayback links

values: Category:Wikipedia pages under 30-500 editing restriction

values: Category:Pages using deprecated image syntax

values: Category:Articles containing Arabic-language text

values: Category:Wikipedia articles needing clarification from June 2015

values: Category:All articles with links needing disambiguation

values: Category:Articles with links needing disambiguation from June 2017

values: Category:All articles with unsourced statements

values: Category:Articles with unsourced statements from January 2014

values: Category:Articles with unsourced statements from January 2016

values: Category:Articles with unsourced statements from November 2007

values: Discussion about edits from this IP address [ctrl-alt-n]

values: A list of edits made from this IP address [ctrl-alt-y]

values: You are encouraged to create an account and log in; however, it is not mandatory

values: You're encouraged to log in; however, it's not mandatory. [ctrl-alt-o]

values:
/wiki/Arab_world
View the content page [ctrl-alt-c]
c

values: Discussion about the content page [ctrl-alt-t]

values: p-namespaces navigation vectorTabs p-namespaces-label

values:
p-variants
navigation
vectorMenu emptyPortlet
p-variants-label

values:
This page is protected.
You can view its source [ctrl-alt-e]

values: Past revisions of this page [ctrl-alt-h]

values: p-views navigation vectorTabs p-views-label

values:
p-cactions
navigation
vectorMenu emptyPortlet
p-cactions-label

values:
mw-wiki-logo
/wiki/Main_Page
Visit the main page

values:
/wiki/Main_Page
Visit the main page [ctrl-alt-z]
z

values: Featured content – the best of Wikipedia

values: Find background information on current events

values:
/wiki/Special:Random
Load a random article [ctrl-alt-x]
x

values: A list of recent changes in the wiki [ctrl-alt-r]

values: portal navigation p-wikibase-otherprojects p-wikibase-otherprojects-label

values: الوطن العربي – Arabic

values: ܥܠܡܐ ܥܪܒܝܐ – Aramaic

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-arc
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-ast
display: none;

values: আরব বিশ্ব – Bangla

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-bn
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-zh-min-nan
display: none;

values: Арабскі свет – Belarusian

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-be
display: none;

values: Арабски свят – Bulgarian

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-bg
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-bs
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-ca
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-cs
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-cy
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-da
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-de
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-nv
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-et
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-eo
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-eu
display: none;

values: جهان عرب – Persian

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-fa
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-fr
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-gag
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-gl
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-ko
display: none;

values: Արաբական աշխարհ – Armenian

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-hy
display: none;

values: अरब देश – Hindi

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-hr
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-it
display: none;

values: ארצות ערב – Hebrew

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-he
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-jv
display: none;

values: არაბული სამყარო – Georgian

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-ka
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-kg
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-la
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-lv
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-lt
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-hu
display: none;

values: അറബ് ലോകം – Malayalam

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-ml
display: none;

values: अरब राष्ट्रे – Marathi

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-mr
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-arz
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-nl
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-ja
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-no
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-nn
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-oc
display: none;

values: ਅਰਬ ਜਗਤ – Punjabi

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-pa
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-pl
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-ro
display: none;

values: Арабский мир – Russian

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-sco
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-sq
display: none;

values: අරාබි ලොව – Sinhala

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-si
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-simple
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-sl
display: none;

values: Аравьскꙑ странꙑ – Church Slavic

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-cu
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-so
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-ckb
display: none;

values: Арапски свет – Serbian

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-sr
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-sh
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-su
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-fi
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-sv
display: none;

values: โลกอาหรับ – Thai

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-th
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-tr
display: none;

values: Арабський світ – Ukrainian

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-uk
display: none;

values: عرب ممالک – Urdu

values: ئەرەب ئەللىرى – Uyghur

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-ug
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-vi
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-wa
display: none;

values: אראבישע לענדער – Yiddish

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-yi
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-zh-yue
display: none;

values: All languages (initial selection from common choices by you and others)

values: mediawiki ltr sitedir-ltr mw-hide-empty-elt ns-0 ns-subject page-Arab_world rootpage-Arab_world skin-vector action-view