Arabs - online puzzles

Arabs

The Arabs (Arabic: عَرَب, DIN 31635: ʿarab, Arabic pronunciation: [ˈʕa.rab] (listen)), also known as the Arab people (Arabic: الشعب العربي), are an ethnic group who identify with each other on the basis of language, culture, history and ancestry, mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia and North Africa. An Arab diaspora also exists, most notably in the Americas, Western Europe, Turkey and Iran.The first written reference to Arabs is in Assyrian texts from the 9th century BC, where they appear inhabiting present-day Levant, Arabia and Mesopotamia. Throughout the ancient Near East, Arabs spanned several kingdoms and empires. From the late 4th millennium BC to 538 BC, Dilmun and Gerrha were important ancient Arab civilizations that facilitated trade between Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, and the Mediterranean. Thamud, on the other hand, was a nomadic tribe. Later, the Qedarites consolidated into kingdom, stretching from Lower Egypt's till Southern Levant in the east, covering much of southern Palestine, the Sinai, and the Negev. From 1200 BC to 275 AD, there were powerful kingdoms in Arabia including Saba, Lihyan, M'ain, Qataban, Hadhramaut, and Awsan, with notable features such as the Marib Dam and the Arab Queen of Sheba, and later dominated by the Himyarites.During the Classical antiquity, the Arab Nabataeans established their Kingdom with Petra as the capital in 300 BC, by 271 BC, the Palmyrene Empire led by the Queen Zenobia, her realm extended from Ancyra, central Anatolia, to Upper Egypt. There were also the Itureans, Arabs that inhabited the Beqaa Valley, Southern Lebanon, the Anti-Lebanon mountains in Syria and northern Palestine. In addition, the Osroene and Hatran kingdoms were ruling over Edessa and northern Iraq. In 164 BC, the Sasanians recognized the Arabs as Arbayistan, meaning "land of the Arabs," as they were part of Adiabene in upper Mesopotamia. The Emesene known to have ruled by 46 BC from Arethusa and later from Emesa, Syria. During late antiquity, the Tanukhids, Salihids, Lakhmids, Kinda, and Ghassanids were predominantly Christian in faith in the Levant, Mesopotamia and Arabia.In the Middle Ages, the Arabs spread massively and forged the Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid, and Fatimid empires, whose borders reached southern France in the west, China in the east, Anatolia in the north, to South Sudan, forming one of the largest land empires in history. In the early 20th century, the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I led to its dissolution and the subsequent partitioning of territories, which formed some of the modern Arab states in the Mashriq. Following the adoption of the Alexandria Protocol in 1944 led to the establishment of the Arab League on 22 March 1945, with its Charter endorsing the principle of a "unified Arab homeland".Arabs share a common bond based on ethnicity, language, culture, history, identity, nationalism, geography, unity and politics. Additionally, their own customs, literature, music, dance, media, food, clothing, society, sports, architecture, art and mythology. Arabs have significantly influenced and contributed to human progress in many fields, including science, technology, philosophy, ethics, literature, politics, business, art, music, comedy, theatre, cinema, architecture, food, medicine, and religion. Religiously, Arabs are diverse, in the pre-Islamic, most Arabs followed polytheistic religions, while some tribes adopted Judaism or Christianity and a few individuals, known as the hanifs, apparently observed another form of monotheism. Presently around 93% of Arabs are Muslims, while the remaining consists mainly of Arab Christians, and Arab communities of Druze and Baháʼís.