Arab world Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Arab world - Article Example (2007: p 364) Same is the case with the Arab world, which maintains its unique ethnographic identity, historical background, ancestry, cultural traits, social norms, moral values, religious beliefs and genealogy. The people speaking Arabic as their primary or first language are called the Arabs. â€Å"The Arab world†, Tamari views, â€Å"is not to be confused with the â€Å"Middle East,† a strategic designation developed during the heyday of the British Empire, which encompasses such non-Arab countries as Israel, Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. And though Arab history is intertwined with Muslim history, the Arab world does not correspond to the Muslim world.† (Quoted in ccas.georgetown.edu) At present, the total Arab population, inhabited in twenty three countries of the world, has been estimated to be about 325 million with 2.3% annual increase. (UNFPA 2007) The have been articulated divergent propositions regarding the origin and background of the Arabs. One school of thought declares that the Arabian Peninsula is the origin of the Arabs, and the Bedouin clans of that region are the forefathers of them, who had been living there far before the birth of Abraham in Babylonia. The first positive reference to the Arabian extant occurs in an inscription of the Assyrians, Shalmaneser III, who speaks of the capture of a thousand camels from Gindibu, the Arabia, in 854 B. C. (Landau, 1958: 11-21: quoted in bible.ca) In addition, It had mistakenly been considered that all Arabs are the descendents of Ismail (Ishmael) the elder son of Abraham. The basic source of this information is the Semitic religions and a large majority of the Abrahamic religions, including Jews, Christians and Muslims, view Ismail as the father of the Arabs. According to the Jewish sources, it was Ishmael, whose descendents were blessed and multiplied as a great nation: â €Å"God heard the boy (Ishmael) crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, "What is the