Arab

The Arabs (Arabic: عرب ʻarab) are an originally Arabian ethnicity widespread in the Middle East and North Africa.

Religions

Before the coming of Islam, most Arabs followed a religion featuring the worship of a number of deities, including Hubal, Wadd, Al-Lat, Manat, and Uzza, while some tribes had converted to Christianity or Judaism, and a few individuals, the hanifs, had apparently rejected polytheism in favor of a vague monotheism. With the expansion of Islam, the majority of Arabs rapidly became Muslim, and the pre-Islamic polytheistic traditions disappeared.

Related Topics:
Islam - Hubal - Wadd - Al-Lat - Manat - Uzza - Hanif - Polytheism - Monotheism

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At present, most Arabs are Muslims. Sunni Islam dominates in most areas, overwhelmingly so in North Africa; Shia Islam is prevalent in Bahrain, southern Iraq and adjacent parts of Saudi Arabia, northern Yemen, and southern Lebanon, as well as parts of Syria. The tiny Druze community, belonging to a secretive offshoot of Islam, is usually considered Arab, but sometimes considered an ethnicity in its own right.

Related Topics:
Muslim - Sunni Islam - Shia Islam - Bahrain - Iraq - Saudi Arabia - Yemen - Lebanon - Syria - Druze

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Reliable estimates of the number of Arab Christians, which in any case depends on the definition of "Arab" used, are rare. According to Fargues 1998, "Today Christians only make up 9.2 per cent of the population of the Near East. In Lebanon, where they have undoubtedly lost their position as the majority, they number little more than 40 per cent, in Syria they are about 6.4 per cent, in the Palestinian territories the figure is 3.8 per cent, and in Israel 2.1 per cent. In Egypt they constitute 5.9 per cent of the population, and in Iraq presumably 2.9 per cent." Most North and South American Arabs (about two-thirds) are Arab Christians, particularly from Syria, Palestine, and Lebanon.

Related Topics:
Christian - North - South America - Arab Christians - Syria - Palestine - Lebanon

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Arabic-speaking Jews (mainly Mizrahi and Sephardi) are usually not considered Arab. The few remaining Jews in the Arab world live mostly in Morocco. Most Arabic speaking-Jews left their homes between the 1940s and the 1960s, following the creation of the state of Israel, and are now concentrated principally in Israel and France (see Jewish exodus from Arab lands.)

Related Topics:
Mizrahi - Sephardi - Israel - France - Jewish exodus from Arab lands

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