Guides and Directories of UAE in Dubai Directory

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Arabs, name originally applied to the Semitic peoples of the Arabian peninsula; now used also for populations of countries whose primary language is Arabic, e.g., Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Syria, and Yemen. Socially, Arabs are divided into the settled fellahin (villagers) and the nomadic Bedouin. The invasions of Muslims from Arabia in the 6th and 7th cent. diffused the Arabic language and Islam, the Arabic religion. At its peak the Arab empire extended from the Atlantic Ocean across North Africa and the Middle East to central Asia. A great Arab civilization emerged in which education, literature, philosophy, medicine, mathematics, and science were highly developed. The waves of Arab conquest across the East and into Europe widened the scope of their civilization and contributed greatly to world development. In Europe the Arab conquests were particularly important in Sicily, from the 9th to late 11th cent., and in Spain, in the civilization of the Moors. Christian scholars in those two lands gained much from Islamic knowledge, and scholasticism and the beginnings of modern Western science were derived in part from the Arabs. The Arabs also introduced Europe to the Greek philosophers, whose writings they had already translated into Arabic. The emergence of the Seljuk Turks in the 11th cent. and of the Ottoman Turks in the 13th cent. ended the specifically Arab dominance in Islam, though Muslim culture still remained on the old Arab foundations. In the 20th cent., Arab leaders have attempted to unite the Arab-speaking world into an Arab nation. Since 1945 most Arab countries have joined the Arab League; its purpose being to consider matters of common interest. The original charter members were Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Transjordan (now Jordan), Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen. The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was granted full membership in 1976. Other current members include Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea (pending in 1999), Kuwait, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Somalia, Sudan, Tunisia, and the United Arab Emirates. With 22 member states in the Arab League by the mid-1990s, attempts to forge a unity among the Arabs have continued. Several of these countries control two thirds of the worlds oil reserves and are members of OPEC. The Arab Common Market was established in 1965 and is open to all Arab League members. The common market agreement provides for the eventual abolition of customs duties on natural resources and agricultural products, free movement of capital and labor among member countries, and coordination of economic development. Since 1948 disputes with the state of Israel have resulted in Arab-Israeli Wars. In 2002 the league for the first time offered Israel normal relations with Arab countries if it met certain conditions, but many of those conditions were not acceptable to Israel. For many years, closer political unity among members was hampered by a division between pro-Western member countries and neutralist or pro-Soviet ones; more recently the division has been between militant Islamic fundamentalists and Arab moderates. The league ultimately supported Iraq in the Iran-Iraq War (1980–88) but was divided over the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990. In 1993 the league issued a statement condemning all forms of terrorism.

 

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