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Arabization is the gradual transformation of an area into one that speaks Arabic and is part of the Arab culture. It can also mean the replacement or displacement of a native population with Arabs, although this rarely happened in ancient times, as there weren't nearly sufficient numbers of original Arabs to replace or displace existing populations.
Arabization in history There were significant pre-Islamic Arab migrations out of the Arabian Peninsula (see: Ghassanids, Nabataeans); however, full Arabization of the Middle East took place after the coming of Islam. It should be noted that the Arabs were not the first Semitic peoples who migrated out of the peninsula (see: Aramaeans, Canaanites, Akkadians). After the rise of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula, Arab culture and language spread through trade with African states, conquest, and intermarriage of the local population with the Arabs. Countries and territories that are traditionally thought to have gone through Arabization include Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, Iraq, and the Sudan. Also, though Yemen is traditionally held to be the homeland of Arabs, most of the population did not speak Arabic (but instead South Semitic languages) prior to the spread of Islam. The peninsular Arabic language became common among these areas; dialects also formed. Today, an Arab from the Levant finds the Arabic of a North African almost incomprehensible. Modern Standard Arabic functions as something of a dachsprache, allowing speakers of disparate dialects to communicate. The influence of Arabic has also been profound in many other countries whose cultures have been influenced by Islam. Arabic is a major source of vocabulary for languages as diverse as Berber, Kurdish, Farsi, Swahili, Urdu, spoken Hindi, Turkish, Malay, and Indonesian, as well as other languages in countries where these languages are spoken. For example the Arabic word for book /kita:b/ is used in all the languages listed, apart from Malay and Indonesian (where it specifically means "religious book"). Some famous noble Adnanite] Arab families from this group are: Aldosari, Alharbi, Almaleek, Bani khaled, Bani kolab, etc. Cultural context The term "Arabised-Arabs" has historically been used to signify Arabs who are descendants of Adnan, the son of Ishmael and grandson of Abraham. Iraq In part of the Al-Anfal Campaign, Saddam Hussein's Iraqi Ba'athist regime drove hundreds of thousands of Kurdish, Assyrians, and Turkmen families out of their homes in Kirkuk after a Kurdish revolt, and gave their homes to Arab-speaking oil field workers as well as to other non-Kurdish people whom Saddam moved from southern Iraq to the city. This violent campaign of Arabization was an attempt to transform the historically multi-ethnic city of Kirkuk, with a strong Kurdish majority according to the Ba'athist regime's own official census, into an Arab city. Kurdish families were left with no homes after being evicted forcefully by Saddam's Iraqi soldiers, and therefore had to migrate to refugee camps. After the fall of Saddam's regime, many Kurdish families came back to Kirkuk. Sudan In the Sudan, the Sudanese government has actively promoted a campaign to arabize the native Black African population by force. The Darfur, Southern Sudan and Nuba Mountains have been historically black African regions which have been attacked mercilessly by Sudanese Arab militias and government forces in order to either eradicate, assimilate, or neutralize the Black influence in the state and change the character of Sudan to one that is non-black and wholly Arabic in ethnicity as well as language. See also External articles | ||||||||
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