The Arabic alphabet probably originated at some time in the 4th century ce, but the earliest extant Arabic writing is a trilingual inscription—Greek-Syriac-Arabic—of 512 ce.

The spread of the Arabic language occurred as a result of various nomadic tribes traveling out of the Arabic Peninsula. The inter-marriage between Arabs and native people groups further spread the language as well as give rise to further Arabic dialects.

To be an Arab, like an American, is a cultural trait rather than racial. The Arab world includes Muslims, Christians and Jews. Any person who adopts the Arabic language is typically called an Arab. Arabic is the official and the original language of the Qur’an, the Islamic holy book.

The Arab family is the dominant social institution through which persons inherit their religion, social class, and identity. The family is often thought of as a patriarchal, hierarchical pyramid (as far as age and sex are concerned) and what befell one member is thought to bring honor or shame to the entire family.

Lebanon

four wives

The term “Middle East” may have originated in the 1850s in the British India Office. However, it became more widely known when American naval strategist Alfred Thayer Mahan used the term in 1902 to “designate the area between Arabia and India”.

Arabs are first mentioned in Biblical and Assyrian texts of the ninth to fifth centuries BC where they appear as nomadic pastoralists inhabiting the Syrian Desert. Proto-Arabs are presumed to have originated from what is now modern-day Hejaz and Najd in Saudi Arabia.

San Marino