Everything about The Arab World totally explained
The
Arab world (
Arabic: العالم العربي; Transliteration: al-`alam al-`arabi) is a term to define all of the Arabic-speaking countries stretching from the
Atlantic Ocean in the west to the
Arabian Sea in the east, and from the
Mediterranean Sea in the north to the
Horn of Africa and the
Indian Ocean in the southeast. It consists of 22 countries and territories with a combined population of some 325 million people spanning two continents.
Language, politics, and religion
The
Arabic language forms a unifying feature of the Arab World. Though different areas use
local dialects of Arabic, all share in the use of the standard classical language (see
diglossia). This contrasts with the situation in the wider
Islamic World, where Arabic retains its cultural prestige primarily as the language of religion and of theological scholarship, but the populace generally don't speak
Arabic languages.
The linguistic and political denotation inherent in the term "
Arab" is generally dominant over
genealogical considerations. Thus, individuals with little or no direct ancestry from the
Arabian Peninsula could identify as, or be considered to be, Arabs partially by virtue of their
mother tongue (see
Who is an Arab?). However, this definition is disputed by many peoples of non-Arab origins; thus
Egyptians for example may or may not identify as Arabs (see
Egypt#Identity).
The
Arab League, a political organization intended to encompass the Arab World, defines as Arab,
The Arab League's main goal is to unify politically the Arab populations so defined. Its permanent headquarters are located in
Cairo. However, it was moved temporarily to
Tunis during the 1980s, after Egypt was expelled due to the
Camp David Accords (1978).
The majority of people in the Arab World adhere to
Islam and the religion has official status in most countries.
Shariah law exists partially in the legal system in some countries, especially in the
Arabian peninsula, while others are
secular. The majority of the Arab countries adhere to Sunni Islam.
Iraq, however, is a
Shia majority country (65%), while Lebanon, Yemen, Kuwait, and Bahrain have large Shia minorities. In
Saudi Arabia, the eastern province Al-Hasa region has Shia minority and the southern province city Najran has Ismalia Shiite minority too.
Ibadi Islam is practised in
Oman and Ibadis make up 75% population of the country.
There are sizable numbers of
Christians, living primarily in
Lebanon,
Egypt,
Palestine,
Iraq,
Jordan,
Sudan, and
Syria. Formerly, there were significant minorities of
Arab Jews throughout the Arab World; however, the establishment of the state of
Israel prompted their subsequent mass
emigration and
expulsion within a few decades. Today small Jewish communities remain, ranging anywhere from ten in Bahrain to 7,000 in
Morocco and more than 1,000 in
Tunisia. Overall,
Arabs make up less than one quarter of the world's 1.4 billion
Muslims, a group sometimes referred to as the
Islamic world.
Some Arab countries have substantial reserves of petroleum. The Gulf is particularly well-furnished: four Gulf states, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, and Qatar, are among the top ten oil or gas exporters worldwide. In addition, Algeria, Libya, Iraq, Bahrain, Morocco, Western Sahara, and Sudan all have smaller but significant reserves. Where present, these have had significant effects on regional politics, often enabling
rentier states, leading to economic disparities between oil-rich and oil-poor countries, and, particularly in the more sparsely populated states of the Gulf and Libya, triggering extensive labor immigration.
According to
UNESCO, the average rate of
adult literacy (ages 15 and older) in this region is 66%, and this is one of the lowest rates in the world. In Mauritania, Morocco, and Yemen, the rate is lower than the average, at barely over 50 %. On the other hand,
Lebanon,
Palestine and
Jordan record a high adult literacy rate of over 90%. The average rate of adult literacy shows steady improvement, and the absolute number of adult illiterates fell from 64 million to around 58 million between 1990 and 2000-2004. Overall, the gender disparity in adult literacy is high in this region, and of the illiteracy rate, women account for two-thirds, with only 69 literate women for every 100 literate men. The average GPI (Gender Parity Index) for adult literacy is 0.72, and gender disparity can be observed in Egypt, Morocco, and Yemen. Above all, the GPI of Yemen is only 0.46 in a 53% adult literacy rate .
Literacy rate is higher among the youth than adults. Youth literacy rate (ages 15-24) in the Arab region increased from 63.9 to 76.3 % from 1990 to 2002. The average rate of GCC States
(External Link
) was 94 %, followed by
the Maghreb at 83.2% and the
Mashriq at 73.6 %. However, more than one third of youth remain illiterate in the Arab LDCs (Comoros, Djibouti, Mauritania, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen) .In 2004, the regional average of youth literacy is 89.9% for male and 80.1 % for female
(External Link).
The average population growth rate in Arab countries is 2.3%.
The
United Nations published an
Arab human development report in 2002, 2003 and 2004. These reports, written by researchers from the Arab world, address some sensitive issues in the development of Arab countries: women empowerment, availability of education and information among others.
Non-Arab peoples in the Arab World
Within the most common definition of the Arab World, there are substantial populations that are not Arab either by ancestral, ethnic or linguistic affiliation, and who often or generally don't consider themselves Arab as such. Many if not most of these populations actually resided in the area before the arrival of Arabs from the Arabian Peninsula during the spread of Islam when the Arabization of local peoples might have first taken place. Certain populations have expressed resentment towards the term "Arab World," and believe that their national and political rights have been unjustly brushed aside by modern governments' focus on
Pan-Arabism and promoting an Arab identity. In some cases this has led to severe conflicts between the
ethnic nationalism of these groups and the
Arab nationalism promoted by governments lead by Arab identifying leaders, which sometimes amounted to denying the existence of or forcibly suppressing non-Arab minorities within their borders.
In
North Africa most of the population is of
Berber descent (as opposed to current ethnic identification) as the number of Arabs who settled in North Africa was very small (about 200,000). However, a distinct majority now self-identifies as Arab. Berber and Arab identity in these countries is generally defined by primary language use rather than ancestry. In
Morocco,
Berber speakers form over 35% of the total population; in Algeria, they represent about 20% of the population, more than half in the eastern region of
Kabylie. In Libya, they form about 4% of the population, mainly near the Tunisian border.
There are much smaller isolated Berber communities in
Tunisia,
Mauritania, and even one oasis in
Egypt. The nomadic
Tuareg people whose traditional areas straddle the borders of several countries in the
Sahara desert, are also of Berber origins. Government worries about ethnic separatism, and condescending attitudes towards the mainly rural Berber-speaking areas, led to the Berber communities being denied full linguistic and cultural rights; in Algeria, for example, Berber chairs at universities were closed, and Berber singers were occasionally banned from singing in their own language, although an official Berber radio station continued to operate throughout. These problems have to some extent been redressed in later years in Morocco and Algeria; both have started teaching Berber languages in schools and universities, and Algeria has amended its constitution to declare Berber a fundamental aspect of Algerian identity (along with Islam and Arabness).
In the northern regions of
Iraq (15-20%) and
Syria (5-10%) live the
Kurds, a mountain people who speak
Kurdish, a language closely related to
Persian, but not directly to
Arabic, except insofar as like Persian, it has absorbed Arabic vocabulary. The nationalist aspiration for self-rule or for a state of
Kurdistan has created conflict between Kurdish minorities and their governments.
In
Eritrea, most are not of Arab origin, except the
Rashaida Arabs, but of either
Semitic origin (The
Tigrinya Habesha people) or
Cushitic origin. The people of
Semitic origin are said to be descendants of ancient
South Arabian people who migrated to
Eritrea 3000 or so years ago. They are to some extent culturally influenced by the Arabs, just like the
Egyptians,
Somali, and
North Africans.
Somalia is a Muslim country, but many
Somalis don't recognize themselves as Arab despite centuries-old ties to
Arabia. Although
Somalia joined the
Arab League in 1974 and Arabic is spoken by many Somalis in commerce, religion and education, the country's official language is
Somali. The population is also predominantly comprised of
ethnic Somalis (over 85%) with a significant Arab community (
Benadiri).
Egypt's largest ethnic group is the
Egyptians who today speak
Egyptian Arabic. However, because Egyptians are of non-Arab ancestry, many don't identify as Arabs (
Egypt#Identity).
Djibouti, whose demographics are approximately 60%
Somali and 35%
Afar, is in a similar position. Arabic is one of the official languages, 94% of its population is Muslim, and Djibouti has a close proximity on the
Red Sea and
Arabia, and 5% of the population is Yemeni Arab.
Other examples of non-Arab peoples originating in what is often labeled the Arab World include the
Turkmen of Iraq,
Assyrians and
Jews (most of whom
fled to
Israel after its creation in 1948). Since most
Arab League states are products of colonialism, their borders rarely reflect distinct ethnic or geographic boundaries. Thus, many peripheral states of the Arab World have border-straddling minorities of non-Arab peoples. This is the case with
Iranians in Iraq (most of whom fled in the
Iraq-Iran War).
Many Arab countries in the Persian Gulf have sizable (10 - 30%) non-Arab populations, usually of a temporary nature, at least in theory. Iraq, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Oman has a sizeable
Persian speaking minority. The same countries also have Hindi-Urdu speakers and Filipinos as sizable minority. Balochi speakers are a good size minority in Oman. Countries like Bahrain, UAE, Oman and Kuwait have significant non-Muslim / non-Arab minorities (10 - 20%) like Hindus and Christians from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and the Philippines.
Many countries bordering the core Arab world like
Chad, Israel, Turkey, Iran, and
Mali have sizable Arab minorities.
States & Territories
Palestine, as administered by the
Palestinian Authority, is recognized as a state by over 100
(External Link) countries in addition to being a full-fledged member of the Arab League and many other international organizations. However, the UN, Israel, USA, and the EU don't recognize the
State of Palestine as an operational state, referring instead to the
Palestinian Territories, under which name the Palestinian Authority sits as an observer member of the UN.
The territory of
Western Sahara is disputed between
Morocco and the
Polisario Front, which declared independence and a government-in-exile, the
Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), following the withdrawal of Spanish forces. SADR, although having won support from many sub-Saharan African countries and full membership in the
African Union, isn't recognized by the
Arab League. Generally, there hasn't been international support or recognition for the Moroccan annexation, nor for the establishment of an independent state. The Western powers and the
UN support a negotiated settlement between the parties, and many if not most countries maintain a careful diplomatic ambiguity with respect to each parties' claims, pending a final settlement.
While
Djibouti,
Somalia and the
Comoros are all member states of the Arab League and many of their inhabitants speak
Arabic, Arabic isn't the primary language in these countries. The predominate language in Somalia and Djibouti is
Somali, which is a part of the larger
Afro-Asiatic family of languages that also includes Arabic and
Hebrew. Similarly, while the
Maltese language is closely related to
Tunisian Arabic, the people of
Malta don't use standard Arabic nor do they consider themselves Arab.
Chad,
Eritrea, and
Israel all recognize standard Arabic as an
official language, but none of them are members of the Arab League, though
Eritrea is an observer in the Arab League.
Mali and
Senegal, West African countries which are neither a part of the Arab League nor the Arab world, recognize
Hassaniya (the Arabic dialect of their
Berber minorities) as a
national language. Likewise, Egypt recognizes the
Masri variant of its own
Arabic, but doesn't accord it similarly official status.
Different
forms of government are represented in the Arab World: Some of the countries are
monarchies: Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The other Arab countries are all
republics. With the exception of Lebanon, and recently Mauritania, democratic elections throughout the Arab World are generally viewed as compromised, due to outright vote rigging, intimidation of opposition parties, and severe restraints on civil liberties and political dissent.
After
World War II, the movement known as
Pan-Arabism sought to unite all Arabic-speaking countries into one political entity. Only
Syria,
Iraq,
Egypt,
Tunisia,
Libya and
North Yemen attempted the short-lived unification. Historical divisions, competing local nationalisms, and geographical sprawl were major reasons for the failure of Pan-Arabism.
Arab Nationalism was another strong force in the region which peaked during the mid 20th century and was professed by many leaders in Egypt, Algeria, Libya, Syria, and Iraq.
Arab Nationalist leaders included
Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt,
Ahmed Ben Bella of Algeria,
Michel Aflaq,
Salah al-Din al-Bitar,
Zaki al-Arsuzi,
Constantin Zureiq,
Shukri al-Kuwatli,
Hafez al-Assad and
Bashar al-Assad of Syria,
Saddam Hussein and
Ahmad Hassan al-Bakr of Iraq,
Muammar al-Gaddafi of Libya,
Habib Bourguiba of Tunisia,
Mehdi Ben Barka of Morocco, and
Shakib Arslan of Lebanon. The various Arab states maintain close ties but national identities have been strengthened by the political realities of the past 60 years, making a single Arab nationalistic state less and less feasible. Moreover, the upsurge in political Islam and led to a greater emphasis on pan-Islamic identity amongst many Arab Muslims. As such, Arab nationalists who once opposed Islamic movements now pander to them for political survival.
(External Link)
Modern Boundaries
Many of the modern borders of the Arab World were drawn by
European imperial powers during the 19th and early 20th century. However, some of the larger states (in particular
Egypt and
Syria) have historically maintained geographically definable boundaries, on which some of the modern states are roughly based. The 14th century Egyptian historian
Al-Maqrizi, for instance, defines Egypt's boundaries as extending from the
Mediterranean in the north to lower
Nubia in the south; and between the
Red Sea in the east and the oases of the Western/
Libyan desert. The modern borders of Egypt, therefore, are not a creation of European powers, and are at least in part based on historically definable entities which are in turn based on certain cultural and ethnic identifications.
At other times, kings, '
emirs' or '
sheiks' were placed as semi-autonomous rulers over the newly created
nation states, usually chosen by the same imperial powers that for some drew the new borders, for services rendered to European powers like
the British Empire for example
Sherif Hussein ibn Ali. Many African States didn't attain independence until the 1960s from France after bloody insurgencies for their freedom. These struggles were settled by the imperial powers approving the form of independence given, so as a consequence almost all of these borders have remained. Some of these borders were agreed upon without consultation of those individuals that had served the colonial interests of Britain or France. One such agreement solely between Britain and France (to the exclusion of
Sherif Hussein ibn Ali), signed in total secrecy until
Lenin released the full text, was the
Sykes-Picot Agreement. Another influential document written without the consensus of the local population was the
Balfour Declaration.
As former director of the Israeli intelligence agency
Mossad, Efraim Halevy, now a director at the Hebrew University said,
The borders, which if you look on the maps of the middle-east are very straight lines, were drawn by British and French draftsmen who sat with maps and drew the lines of the frontiers with rulers. If the ruler for some reason or other moved on the map, because of some person's hand shaking, then the frontier moved (with the hand). |
He went on to give an example,
There was a famous story about a British consul, a lady named Gertrude Bell who drew the map between Iraq and Jordan, using transparent paper. She turned to talk to somebody and as she was turning the paper moved and the ruler moved and that added considerable territory to the (new) Jordanians |
Historian Jim Crow, of
Newcastle University, has said:
Without that imperial carve-up, Iraq wouldn't be in the state it's in today...Gertrude Bell was one of two or three Britons who were instrumental in the creation of the Arab states in the Middle East that were favourable to Britain. |
Modern Economies
As of 2006, the Arab World accounts for two-fifth of the gross domestic product and three-fifth of the trade of the wider
Muslim World.
The Arab states are mostly, although not exclusively, developing economies and derive their export revenues from oil and gas, or the sale of other raw materials. Recent years have seen significant economic growth in the Arab World, due largely to an increase in oil and gas prices, which tripled between 2001 and 2006, but also due to efforts by some states to diversify their economic base. Industrial production has risen, for example the amount of steel produced between 2004 and 2005 rose from 8.4 to 19 million tonnes. (Source: Opening speech of Mahmoud Khoudri,
Algeria's Industry Minister, at the 37th General Assembly of the Iron & Steel Arab Union, Algiers, May 2006). However even 19 million tons pa still only represents 1.7% of global steel production, and remains inferior to the production of countries like
Brazil. (source: www.worldsteel.org).
The main economic organisations in the Arab World are the
Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), comprising the states in the Gulf, and the Union of the Arab Maghreb (UMA), made up of North African States. The GCC has achieved some success in financial and monetary terms, including plans to establish a common currency in the Gulf region. Since its foundation in 1989, the UMA's most significant accomplishment has been the establishment of a 7000 km highway crossing North Africa from
Mauritania to
Libya's border with
Egypt. The central stretch of the highway, expected to be completed in 2010, will cross
Morocco,
Algeria and
Tunisia. In recent years a new term has been coined to define a greater economic region: the MENA region (standing for Middle East and North Africa) is becoming increasingly popular, especially with support from the current US administration.
Saudi Arabia remains the top Arab economy in terms of total GDP. It is Asia's eleventh largest economy, followed by
Egypt and
Algeria, which were also the second and third largest economies in Africa (after
South Africa), in 2006. In terms of GDP per capita,
Qatar is the richest developing country in the world. (Source: CIA
World Factbook, GDP by country classification)
Geography
The Arab World stretches across more than 12.9 million square kilometers (5 million square miles) of
North Africa and the part of North-East Africa and South-West Asia called the
Middle East. The
Asian part of the Arab world is called the
Mashreq. The North African part of the Arab World to the west of Egypt and Sudan is known as the
Maghreb.
Its total area is the size of the entire Spanish-speaking Western Hemisphere (12.9 million km²), larger than
Europe (10.4 million km²),
Canada (10 million km²),
China (9.6 million km²), the
United States (9.6 million km²),
Brazil (8.7 million km²). Only
Russia – at 17 million km², the largest country in the world – and arguably Anglophone
North America (eighteen million square kilometers) are larger geocultural units.
The term "Arab" often connotes the Middle East, but the larger (and more populous) part of the Arab World is North Africa. Its eight million square kilometers include the two largest countries of the African continent,
Sudan (2.5 million km²) in the southeast of the region and
Algeria (2.4 million km²) in the center, each about three-quarters the size of
India, or about one-and-a-half times the size of
Alaska, the largest state in the United States. The largest country in the Arab Middle East is
Saudi Arabia (2 million km²).
At the other extreme, the smallest autonomous mainland Arab country in North Africa and the Middle East is
Lebanon (10,452 km²), and the smallest island Arab country is
Bahrain (665 km²).
Notably, every Arab country borders a sea or ocean, with the exception of the Arab region of northern Chad.
Historical boundaries
The political borders of the Arab World have wandered, leaving Arab minorities in non-Arab countries of the
Sahel and the
Horn of Africa as well as in the Middle Eastern countries of
Turkey and
Iran, and also leaving non-Arab minorities in Arab countries. However, the basic geography of sea, desert, and mountain provide the enduring natural boundaries for this region.
The Arab World straddles two continents,
Africa and Asia, and is oriented mainly along an east-west axis, dividing it into African and Asian areas.
Arab Africa
Arab Africa—or more commonly Arab North Africa, though this is redundant—is roughly a long trapezoid, narrower at the top, that comprises the entire northern third of the continent. It is surrounded by water on three sides (west, north, and east) and desert or desert scrubland on the fourth (south).
In the west, it's bounded by the shores of the
Atlantic Ocean. From northeast to southwest,
Morocco,
Western Sahara (
annexed and
occupied by Morocco), and
Mauritania make up the roughly 2,000 kilometers of Arab Atlantic coastline. The southwestern sweep of the coast is gentle but substantial, such that Mauritania's capital,
Nouakchott (18°N, 16°W), is far enough west to share longitude with
Iceland (13-22°W). Nouakchott is the westernmost capital of the Arab World and the third-westernmost in Africa, and sits on the Atlantic fringe of the southwestern Sahara. Next south along the coast from Mauritania is
Senegal, whose abrupt border belies the gradient in culture from Arab to Negroid African that historically characterizes this part of
West Africa.
Arab Africa's boundary to the north is again a continental boundary, the
Mediterranean Sea. This boundary begins in the west with the narrow
Strait of Gibraltar, the thirteen kilometer wide channel that connects the Mediterranean with the Atlantic to the west, and separates Morocco from
Spain to the north. East along the coast from Morocco are Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya, followed by Egypt, which forms the region's (and the continent's) northeastern corner. The coast turns briefly but sharply south at Tunisia, slopes more gently southeastward through the Libyan capital of
Tripoli, and bumps north through Libya's second city,
Benghazi, before turning straight east again through Egypt's second city,
Alexandria, at the mouth of the Nile. Along with the spine of
Italy to its north, Tunisia thus marks the junction of western and eastern Mediterranean, and a cultural transition as well: west of Tunisia begins the region of the Arab World known as the
Maghreb.
Historically the 4,000-kilometer Mediterranean boundary has fluttered. Population centers north of it in
Europe have invited contact and Arab exploration—mostly friendly, though sometimes not. Islands and peninsulas near the Arab coast have changed hands. The islands of
Sicily and
Malta lie just a hundred kilometers east of the Tunisian city of
Carthage, which has been a point of contact with Europe since its founding in the first millennium B.C.E.; both Sicily and Malta at times have been part of the Arab World. Just across the Strait of Gibraltar from Morocco, regions of the Iberian peninsula were part of the Arab World throughout the
Middle Ages, extending the northern boundary at times to the foothills of the
Pyrenees and leaving a substantial mark on local and wider European and Western culture.
The northern boundary of the African Arab World has also fluttered briefly in the other direction, first through the
Crusades and later through the imperial involvement of
France,
Britain,
Spain, and Italy. Another visitor from northern shores,
Turkey, controlled the east of the region for centuries, though not as a colonizer. Spain still maintains two small enclaves,
Ceuta and
Melilla, along the otherwise Moroccan coast. Overall this wave has ebbed, though like the Arab expansion north it has left its mark. The proximity of North Africa to Europe has always encouraged interaction, and this continues with Arab immigration to Europe and European interest in the Arab countries today. However, population centers and the physical fact of the sea keeps this boundary of the Arab World settled on the Mediterranean coastline.
To the east, the
Red Sea defines the boundary between
Africa and
Asia, and thus also between Arab Africa and the Arab Middle East. This sea is a long and narrow waterway with a northwest tilt, stretching 2,300 kilometers from
Egypt's
Sinai peninsula southeast to the
Bab-el-Mandeb strait between
Djibouti in Africa and
Yemen in Arabia but on average just 150 kilometers wide. Though the sea is navigable along its length, historically much contact between Arab Africa and the Arab Middle East has been either overland across the Sinai or by sea across the Mediterranean or the narrow Bab al Mendeb strait. From northwest to southeast, Egypt,
Sudan, and
Eritrea form the African coastline, with Djibouti marking Bab al Mendeb's African shore.
Further eastward along the coast from Djibouti is
Somalia. The Somali coast makes a 90-degree turn and heads northeast, mirroring a bend in the coast of Yemen across the water to the north and defining the south coast of the Gulf of Aden. The Somali coast then takes a hairpin turn back southwest to complete the
Horn of Africa. For six months of the year,
monsoon winds blow up from mostly arid Somalia, past Arabia and over the small Yemeni archipelago of
Socotra, to rain on
India. They then switch directions and blow back. Hence the eastern boundary of the Horn has historically been a gateway for maritime trade and cultural exchange with both
East Africa and the subcontinent. The trade winds also help explain the presence of the Comoros islands, an Arab-African country, off the coast of
Mozambique, near
Madagascar in the
Indian Ocean, the southernmost part of the Arab World.
The southern boundary of Arab North Africa is the stripe of scrubland known as the
Sahel, that crosses the continent south of the Sahara, dipping further south in Sudan in the east.
Arabia and the Arab Middle East
The Asian or Middle Eastern Arab World comprises the
Arabian Peninsula,
Bilad al-Sham or the
Levant, and Iraq, more broadly or narrowly defined. The peninsula is roughly a tilted rectangle that leans back against the slope of northeast Africa, the long axis pointing toward Turkey and Europe.
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