Arabization  

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Arabization or Arabisation (Template:Lang-ar Template:Transl) describes either the conquest of a non-Arab area and growing Arab influence on non-Arab populations, causing their gradual adoption of the Arabic language and/or their incorporation of Arab culture and Arab identity.Template:Citation needed The religion of Islam and the associated Islamist (government and society ordered in accordance with laws prescribed by Islam) socio-political order, with their central Quran text written in Arabic language and tailored for Arab culture, had a central role in Arabization, which usually went hand in hand with Islamization of conquered lands. Generally, elements of Arabian origin were combined in various forms with elements from conquered civilizations and ultimately denominated "Arab". Arabization also continued in modern times, most prominently being enforced by the Arab nationalist regimes of Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Mauritania, Algeria and Libya with policies which include expanding colonial Arab settlements, expulsion of non-Arab minorities and enforcement of Arab identity and culture upon non-Arab populations, in particular by means of not permitting autochthonous mother tongues other than Arabic in education. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, citing local witnesses, also claims that the aggressive persecution of non-Arab minorities by the terror group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant is forced Arabization.

After the rise of Islam in the Hejaz, the Arabic culture and language were spread outside the Arabian peninsula through conquest, trade and intermarriages between members of the non-Arab local population and the peninsular Arabs. The Arabic language began to serve as a lingua franca in these areas and dialects were formed. Although Yemen is traditionally held to be the homeland of the Arabs, most of the Yemeni population in fact did not speak Arabic prior to the spread of Islam, but instead South Semitic languages. The influence of Arabic has also been profound in many other countries, whose cultures have been influenced by Islam. Arabic was a major source of vocabulary for various languages. This process reached its zenith in the 10th to the 14th centuries, the high point of Arab culture, and although many of Arabic words have since fallen out of use, many still remain.

Early Arab expansion in the Near East

Template:Unreferenced section After Alexander the Great, the Nabataean kingdom emerged and ruled a region extending from north of Arabia to the south of Syria. Nabateans were an amalgam of both Arabian and Aramean tribes, the former originating from the Arabian peninsula, who came under the influence of the earlier Aramaic culture, the neighbouring Hebrew culture of the Hasmonean kingdom, as well as the Hellenistic cultures in the region (especially with the Christianization of Nabateans in 3rd and 4th centurues). The pre-modern Arabic language was created by Nabateans, who developed the Nabataean alphabet which became the basis of modern Arabic script. The Nabataean language, under heavy Arab influence, amalgamated into the Arabic language.

The Arab Ghassanids were the last major non-Islamic Semitic migration northward out of Yemen in late classic era. They were Greek Orthodox Christian, and clients of the Byzantine Empire. They arrived in Byzantine Syria which had a largely Aramean population. They initially settled in the Hauran region, eventually spreading to modern Lebanon, Palestine and Jordan, briefly securing governorship of parts of Syria and Transjordan away from the Nabataeans.

The Arab Lakhmid Kingdom was founded by the Lakhum tribe that emigrated from Yemen in the 2nd century and ruled by the Banu Lakhm, hence the name given it. They adopted the religion of the Church of the East, founded in Assyria/Asōristān, opposed to the Ghassanids Greek Orthodox Christianity, and were clients of the Sasanian Empire.

The Byzantines and Sasanians used the Ghassanids and Lakhmids to fight proxy wars in Arabia against each other.

See also




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Arabization" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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