group of peoples. The Arab world consists of 20 countries in North Africa and the Middle East with a population of about 430 million people. The language is Arabic (Semitic language group), the overwhelming religion is Islam.

A complicated Arab history

The history of the Arab world is so multifaceted and confusing that historians still express their versions.
For the first time, the Arabs are mentioned by the most ancient sources - the Assyrian and Babylonian chronicles. Much is said about the Arab people in the Bible. The pages of Holy Scripture report the appearance in Palestine of tribes of shepherds from the southern oases. These tribes became known as Ibri, which means "crossed the river." Arabs consider Arabia their homeland. The island of the Arabs - Jazirat al-Arab - is washed by the Red Sea and the Aden, Persian, Ottoman gulfs. However, if among historians there is a dispute about the origin of the Arabs, then it is still difficult for them to indicate a specific place. For this reason, the history of the origin of the Arabs is presented in the form of several territorial zones:

1. The ancient Arabian region, which does not coincide with the borders of the modern peninsula. This zone includes eastern Syria and Jordan.
2. The territory of Syria, Palestine, Lebanon and Jordan.
3. Iraq, Egypt, Libya, North Sudan.
4. Mauritanian zone (Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania, Western Sahara).

Arab occupations

Among the Arabs, according to the type of employment, they distinguish nomads, farmers And townspeople. The nomads of central and northern Arabia raised sheep, cattle and camels. The nomadic tribes of the Arabs were not isolated, so they were located mainly surrounded by economically developed regions. Arab farmers work tirelessly on their lands, as a good harvest will feed the family and make it possible to make a reserve. Southern plantations grow grain, fruits, vegetables, and even cotton. A typical urban way of life reigns in Sanaa, Cairo, Beirut. Dubai, Abu Dhabi are luxurious cities where tourists tend to get to enjoy the magnificence of the Arab state. Arabs work in factories, drive cars about their business, and children go to school. Ordinary city dwellers. The tragic events in Syrian Aleppo are known to the whole world. Here, the once flourishing city is turned into a pile of stones and ruins.

Arabic culture

Arab culture reached its peak in the period from the 8th to the 11th century. Arabs became the founders of mathematical science, medicine, architecture, philosophy and poetry. Ibn Al-Haytham devoted his life to the exact sciences: mathematics, astronomy, physics and optics. He first illuminated the structure of the human eye. In astronomy, the Arab scientist Mohammed ibn Ahmed al-Biruni became famous. The medical encyclopedia was provided to the world by the author of the monograph "The Canon of Medicine", the famous Ibn Sina (Avicenna). The famous fairy tales "A Thousand and One Nights" are known all over the world.

The customs and traditions of the Arabs in the modern world

Arabs honor their traditions. When a man meets a woman, he always speaks first. The salutation of two men goes like this: both touch their cheeks to each other, and then clapping alternately on the backs. Slowly relate to time not only in everyday life, but also at business meetings. A philosophical attitude to life underlies this type of behavior. Arabs do not tolerate fuss, spontaneity, running around and hassle. However, they make their decisions deliberately, following a predetermined system. A calm, cool attitude to what is happening does not mean at all that the Arab is the same in temperament. The freedom-loving great-grandson of militant ancestors, he can momentarily become enraged and become a daring opponent. Arab revenge is not without reason called blood. To protect their desecrated honor or loved ones, the Arabs are not afraid to grab weapons and join the battle. Honor for an Arab is sacred!

Family Arabic way

Visiting an Arab family, you will be quite comfortable. The host will meet you with cordiality, seat you at the table and offer aromatic coffee. In the Muslim world, it is customary to respect the interlocutor, to try to make his stay in a strange house as comfortable as possible. The family in the Arab world is the first life value. The family includes a large number of relatives, in addition to spouses and their heirs. The power of a man in the family is undeniable, he is a protector, breadwinner, master.

ancient arabs

arabia caliphate arab community islam

The Bible knows the Arabs as a nomadic tribe of Semitic origin, and also as descendants of Ishmael. They were called Zavedey.

The ancient Semitic tribes, from which the ancient Arab people subsequently developed, already in the 2nd millennium BC. occupied the territory of the Arabian Peninsula. The first Arab state formations arose on the northern border of Arabia, as well as in Central Arabia (the Kindite kingdom, the states of the Lakhmids and Hassanids).

By the 5th-6th centuries, Arab tribes made up the majority of the population of the Arabian Peninsula. In the first half of the 7th century, with the emergence of Islam, the Arab conquests began, as a result of which the Caliphate was created, which occupied vast territories from India to the Atlantic Ocean and from Central Asia to the central Sahara.

The Arabs were famous as excellent doctors and mathematicians.

Arab Caliphate 632-750

In North Africa, the population, who spoke Semitic-Hamitic languages ​​close to Arabic, was relatively quickly Arabized, adopting the language, religion (Islam) and many elements of the culture of the conquerors. At the same time, the reverse process of assimilation by the Arabs of some elements of the culture of the conquered peoples took place. The peculiar Arab culture that developed as a result of these processes had a great influence on world culture.

The Arab caliphate by the 10th century, as a result of the resistance of the conquered peoples and the growth of feudal separatism, broke up into separate parts.

In the 16th century, the Arab countries of Western Asia (except for a significant part of the Arabian Peninsula) and North Africa (with the exception of Morocco) became part of the Ottoman Empire.

Beginning in the 19th century, Arab lands were subjected to colonial conquests and became colonies and protectorates of Great Britain, France, Italy, and Spain. To date, all of them (with the exception of Western Sahara) are independent states.

Flavius ​​Josephus repeatedly mentions the Arabs (starting from the era of the patriarchs): “Meanwhile, Judah, also one of the sons of Jacob, saw Arab merchants from the tribe of Ishmael, who were carrying spices and other Syrian goods to Egypt from Gilead, and gave, in view of the absence of Reubil, to the brothers advice is to pull Joseph out and sell him to the Arabs, because in this way Joseph will die in a foreign land among foreigners, and they themselves will not stain their hands with his blood.

Arabs- a group of peoples, a meta-ethnic community. In Asia, Arabs make up the majority of the population of Bahrain (Bahrainis), Jordan (Jordans), Iraq (Iraqis), Yemen (Yemenis), Qatar (Qataris), Kuwait (Kuwaitis), Lebanon (Lebanese), United Arab Emirates (UAE; Arabs of the United Arab Emirates), Oman (Omanis), Saudi Arabia (Saudi), Syria (Syrians); in Africa - Algeria (Algerians), Western Sahara (Moors), Egypt (Egyptians), Libya (Libyans), Mauritania (Moors), Morocco (Moroccans), Sudan (Sudanese), Tunisia (Tunisians). Palestinians live in Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and other countries; Arabs also live in Turkey, Iran, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Indonesia and other countries. There are Arab emigrants in Western Europe (2500 thousand people), North and South America (1200 thousand people), West and South Africa, Australia, etc. The total number is 199 million people, of which 70 million people are in Asia; Africa has 125.2 million people.

Arabic language of the West Semitic group of the Afroasian family.

Arabs- the most numerous people on Earth who speak the Semitic language. In addition to Arabic, the Semitic (Semitic-Hamitic) group of languages ​​includes Hebrew, Sabaean (the ancient language of South Arabia), Phoenician, Amorite, Aramaic, Amharic (Ethiopian) and some others. According to one of the existing theories, in ancient times the ancestors of modern Semites lived in those places where the lifeless sands of the world's greatest Sahara desert now spread, and then, in the 5th-6th millennium BC, they moved to the Arabian Peninsula.

The word “Arabs” comes from the common Semitic root [`RB], which means “dry, arid, desert”. Therefore, the Arabs are “hermits, inhabitants of the desert”. It is curious that the Arabs themselves began to call themselves that only in the 7th century AD, when, during the conquests and the creation of the caliphate, the tribes living on the Arabian Peninsula, faced with other peoples, faced the need to acquire their own name, which allowed them to realize their commonality and oppose other peoples. Prior to this, the main thing for every Arab was belonging to his tribe and clan, and the name “Arabs” was used mainly by neighboring peoples.

The Arabs, of course, also have a mythological version of their origin, according to which they are the descendants of Isma "il (the biblical Ishmael) and Qahtan (Yoktan), the sons of Ibrahim (the forefather of Abraham). Further, the genealogical chain goes back to Sam (Sim, the progenitor of all Semitic peoples ), his father Nuh (Noah) and the first man Adam. In the Middle Ages, it was very popular among the Arabs to compile genealogies that reflected both real and mythical family relationships. By the way, today many Arabs know the entire “chain” of their ancestors - up to to Adam!

The Arabs who inhabited the Arabian Peninsula belonged to the group of Semitic peoples, as well as the Assyrians, Phoenicians, and Jews. Most Arabs by the beginning of the 7th century. remained nomads, or Bedouins (desert dwellers), who bred camels, goats, and sheep. And only some of them were engaged in agriculture, mainly in the south of the Arabian Peninsula.

The most developed agricultural region was Yemen (happy in Arabic) in the southwest of the peninsula, where there were fertile lands, rich tropical vegetation, dates, grapes, and fruit trees grew. Here was the once flourishing Kingdom of Sheba, the ruler of which, according to the Old Testament, was the guest of King Solomon.

In the middle of the peninsula, the vast plateau of Nejd had no rivers. Water sources were wells or, at times, dry channels carrying streams of rainwater. It was the world of Bedouin nomads. Only on the western coast and in the middle of the plateau, where most of the wells were located, were there settlements, arable land and orchards.

The way of life of the population of the Hijaz (border) of the western coastal strip along the Arabian Gulf was different. Here lay the road from Yemen to Egypt, Syria and the Euphrates, which made it possible for the development of local, foreign and transit trade. On the territory of the Hijaz, there were several ancient trading cities of Marib, Sana, Nejran, Main.

Among them, Mecca stood out as a transit trade center on the caravan route from Yemen to Syria. For the first time, Mecca as Makoraba was mentioned by Ptolemy (II century). Mecca, however, was not only a major trading center. It was the cult center of many Arab tribes.

In the center of Mecca stood a cubic-shaped temple, the Kaaba (cube), in the wall of which was a sacred black stone, which was worshiped. In the temple itself there were images of pagan deities of many Arab tribes. The Kaaba was a place of pilgrimage. Mecca and its environs were considered reserved and sacred.

The great winter fair coincided with the time of the pilgrimage. The steppe Arabs brought in cattle and exchanged it for Syrian handicrafts. The solemn holiday of spring was celebrated annually. Military clashes and raids stopped for 4 months. The Arabs were mostly pagans.

Different regions of Arabia believed in different gods. The god of the Morning Star and the god of the moon were especially revered. Women's astral deities were honored. And at the same time, many pagan tribes had an idea of ​​a certain supreme deity, who was called Allah (God, Arabic Alilah, Syrian Alaha).

Thus, the Quraysh tribe, to which the Prophet Muhammad belonged, believed that their supreme deity, Allah, was embodied in that sacred black stone that was embedded in the wall of the Kaaba temple.

Arab trade relations with neighboring countries contributed to the penetration of Christianity and Judaism into Arabia, the first two monotheistic religions in the history of civilization. Judaism was brought to Arabia by Jewish merchants, immigrants from Palestine, who fled from the oppression of the Romans. Christianity became known to the Arabs from merchants, monks, priests from Byzantium and Ethiopia.

Thus, the spiritual prerequisites for the emergence of a new monotheistic religion were formed, both based on the beliefs of the Arabs and offered by Judaism and Christianity. The spiritual and political basis for uniting the Arabs was the new religion of Islam.

By the beginning of the 7th century in Arabia, especially in Mecca, Hanifism, a spiritual and religious teaching aimed at finding a new single God and borrowing some common ideas of Christianity and Judaism, became widely spread. One of the Hanif-preachers was Muhammad (570-632), a merchant from Mecca.

And a number of other coastal states. There is also a small Arab population in Israel. The Arab world has almost 130 million people, of which 116 million are Arabs.

Many peoples were Arabized through the adoption of the Arabic language and Arabic culture. For almost all of them, Arabization went through Islam, the main religion of the Arab world.

The Arabs are divided into three main groups: Bedouin pastoralists engaged in breeding sheep, goats or camels, peasant farmers and urban dwellers.

The Arab world also includes a number of non-Arab minorities, such as Berbers and Tuaregs, Kurds in Iraq, Jews, Armenians, and some peoples of the geographic region of Sudan. Copts - Christians of Egypt, also speak Arabic, but consider themselves primordially pre-Arab Egyptians.

Major populations

The majority of the Bedouins live in Arabia and the neighboring desert regions of Jordan, Syria and Iraq, while some Bedouins live in Egypt and the northern Sahara. Their number is from 4 to 5 million. The Bedouins lead a strictly tribal and nomadic lifestyle. The tribe and each of its parts is headed by a sheikh, who is considered senior in wisdom and experience. The Bedouin are mainly engaged in camel breeding and sheep and goat breeding.

There are both Christians and Shia Muslims among the Bedouin, but the majority belong nominally to either Wahhabi Muslims or Sunni Muslims. The Bedouins are not as religious as the Muslims of villages and cities, but at the same time they regularly perform the five daily prayers prescribed by Islam. Because most Bedouins are illiterate, they cannot read the Qur'an themselves and must rely on the oral transmission of religious ideas. Together with many residents of villages and cities, they share a belief in the evil eye and evil spirits as the cause of illness and misfortune, as well as in the healing and protective powers of the tombs of various Muslim saints.

About 70% of Arabs live in villages and are peasants. Most Arab peasants have a deeply developed sense of belonging to their village, the inhabitants of which usually help each other in case of an external threat. They are also united by religious holidays or funerals. But most of the time, the villagers are divided into separate groups.

Arab cities are commercial, industrial, administrative and religious centers. Some of them are in many ways similar to European metropolitan areas with large buildings, wide streets and busy car traffic. The traditional Arab city, and those old districts of modern cities that still exist, are characterized by narrow streets and closely built houses, often with shops and workshops on the ground floors.

Story

Historical evidence from Mesopotamia begins to separate the Arabs from their other Semitic neighbors no earlier than the first millennium BC. At that time, the Arabs of southern Arabia had already established flourishing cities and kingdoms, such as Saba at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula. Western Arabia in the era of Christianity was inhabited by townspeople and nomads who spoke Arabic and considered their origins to go back to the biblical patriarchs (usually to Ismail, see also Hagar), and in the city of Mecca they worshiped idols in a temple, first built, presumably, by Abraham .

And a hundred years after the death of Muhammad, the territory of Islam spread already from Spain through North Africa and southwestern Asia to the borders of India. The spread of Islam provided the Arabs with a network of useful contacts for them, and together with dependent peoples - Christians, Jews, Persians, etc. - they built one of the greatest civilizations.

, Qatar , Kuwait , Lebanon , UAE , Oman , Saudi Arabia , Syria
Region of residence: Asia

ARABS, al-Arab (self-name), a group of peoples, a meta-ethnic community. In Asia, Arabs make up the majority of the population of Bahrain (Bahraini Arabs), Jordan (Jordanian Arabs), Iraq (Iraqi Arabs), Yemen (Yemeni Arabs), Qatar (Qatari Arabs), Kuwait (Kuwaiti Arabs), Lebanon (Lebanese Arabs), United Arab Emirates (UAE; United Arab Emirates Arabs), Oman (Omani Arabs), Saudi Arabia (Saudi Arabian Arabs), Syria (Syrian Arabs); in Africa - Algeria (Algerian Arabs), Western Sahara (Moors), Egypt (Egyptian Arabs), Libya (Libyan Arabs), Mauritania (Moors), Morocco (Moroccan Arabs), Sudan (Sudanese Arabs), Tunisia (Tunisian Arabs). There are Palestinian Arabs in Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and other countries; Arabs also live in Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Indonesia and other countries. There are Arab emigrants in Western Europe, North and South America, West and South Africa, Australia, and others. The total number is about 167 million people, of which over 56 million people live in Asia; in Africa over 107 million people. They belong mainly to the Indo-Mediterranean race of the large Caucasoid race. Arabic belongs to the southern subgroup of the West Semitic group of the Afroasian family. Literary Arabic, common among all Arabs, has dialect variants (Iraqi Arabic, Yemeni Arabic, etc.). Modern colloquial Arabic dialects fall into the following major groups: Arabian, Yemeni, Iraqi, Syro-Lebanese, Egyptian, Sudanese, Maghreb, Hasaniya, Shuva, etc. Representatives of ethno-confessional communities (Sabians, etc.) ) in parts of Syria and Iraq. Some of the Arabs of the South Arabian coast speak the small languages ​​of the southern peripheral subgroup of the Semitic group of the Afroasian family: Shahri, Bothari, Harsusi in Oman, Mahra and Socotrians in Yemen. Writing on the Arabic graphic basis.

The bulk of the Arabs profess Islam. Sunnis predominate; there are Shiites of different persuasions: in Iran (where they make up the vast majority), Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Kuwait, Bahrain, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, etc., including Druzes and Nusayris; Ibadis (in the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf and North Africa). Among the Christian Arabs are the Copts of Egypt, the Maronites and the Orthodox of Lebanon, the Melkites (Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, etc.), etc.

The ancestors of the Arabs are the tribes of the Arabian Peninsula, who in the 2nd half of the 2nd millennium BC. e. after the domestication of the camel, the economic and cultural type of nomadic camel breeders (Bedouins) began to take shape. The first North Arab states of the 1st millennium BC. e. - 1st millennium AD e. - Palmyra (Tadmor), Nabatea, Likhyan, Gassan, Lakhm and Kinda tribal associations of Central Arabia - did not consolidate the tribes of Arabia into a single ethnic group. This happened with the advent of Islam and the creation of the Arab Caliphate (7th century). With the beginning of the Arab conquests (1st third of the 7th century), the ethnonym Arabs turns into the self-name of the Arabian tribes that made up the medieval Arab people. The collapse of the Ottoman Empire (late 19th - early 20th centuries), the liberation struggle of the Arabs against the European colonial powers in the 20th century. led to the political liberation of the Arab world, the consolidation of the Arab nation.

Most of the Arabs are fellahic peasants, engaged in arable farming, nomadic pastoralism, horticulture and horticulture. The basis of the tribal organization is the lineage, which has a common ancestor in the male line and is associated with the customs of mutual assistance, blood feud and endogamy (patrilateral orthocousin marriage is preferred). Several such groups make up a subdivision of a tribe or the tribe itself, led by a leader. The kinship system is mainly of the Arabic type. The traditional dwelling of nomads and semi-nomads is a quadrangular tent made of black (usually goat) wool, sometimes made of tarpaulin, settled Arabs - a frame-pillar dwelling. The houses of peasants and townspeople belong to various variants of the Mediterranean type (one-story rectangular house with a courtyard). Depending on the area, adobe buildings, stone fortress houses, huts made of mats, etc. are built. Religious and secular architecture (monuments of Damascus, Baghdad, Cairo, Cordoba, etc.) and the arts and crafts of the Arabs had a great influence on world culture . The clothes of the population of South Arabia are characterized by over-skirts (foot) and headbands, for the interior of the peninsula - sleeveless cloaks (aba), long-sleeved shirts, head scarves. The difference between men's and women's clothing often lies in the finish and the way it is worn. Rings, earrings, bracelets and anklets, cufflinks, and other jewelry are often the only personal possessions of women. The Bedouins practice tattooing and painting of the face, hands, feet and body. Many Muslim women cover their faces with veils, masks or veils. Modern Arab clothing is a combination of Arab and other oriental (Iranian, Turkish, etc.) and European elements.

The usual Bedouin food is camel milk, unleavened wheat, barley, millet or corn cakes, dates. The settled Arabs - porridge from various cereals, goat's milk, sheep's cheese, herbs, vegetables, etc.; occasionally meat depending on the country and season. Many Muslim Arabs observe the food prescriptions of Islam (fasting in the month of Ramadan, a ban on alcoholic beverages and pork).

The folklore of the Arabs is rich, which became the source of classical Arabic poetry and is closely connected with musical creativity. The main musical instruments are a tambourine, drums, a lute, a two-stringed or one-stringed bowed rebab (a prototype of a violin), etc.

The development of industry in the Arab countries, the settling of nomads, the growth in the number of agricultural and urban workers are destroying the remnants of tribal and patriarchal-feudal relations.

In contact with

Arabs speak Arabic and use the Arabic script. The number of Arabs is about 350 million people. More than 90% of Arabs profess Islam, part - Christianity.

Story

In biblical times

In biblical times, the Arabs were called Zebedee.

"Then Jonathan turned against the Arabs, who are called Zebedee, struck them down and took their prey"

“When they had withdrawn nine stadia from there, heading against Timothy, the Arabs attacked them, not less than five thousand and five hundred horsemen. The battle was fierce, and when those who were with Judah, with the help of God, won the victory, the defeated Arab nomads asked Judah for peace, promising to deliver livestock to them and to be useful to them in other ways.

- 2 Macc 12:10-11

In the Brockhaus Bible Encyclopedia (M., 1999):

"The Bible knows the Arabs as a nomadic tribe of Semitic origin, and also as descendants of Ishmael" (p. 47).

Flavius ​​Josephus repeatedly mentions the Arabs (starting from the era of the patriarchs):

“Meanwhile, Judah, also one of the sons of Jacob, saw Arab merchants from the tribe of Ishmael, who were carrying spices and other Syrian goods to Egypt from Gilead, and, in view of the absence of Reubil, advised the brothers to pull Joseph out and sell him to the Arabs, because such In this way, Joseph will die in a foreign land among foreigners, and they themselves will not stain their hands with his blood.

Jewish antiquities, book. 2.3:3

IV-XX centuries

The ancient Semitic tribes, from which the ancient Arab people subsequently developed, occupied the territory of the Arabian Peninsula. The first Arab state formations arose on the northern border of Arabia, as well as in Central Arabia (the Kindite kingdom, the states of the Lakhmids and Hassanids).

By the 5th-6th centuries. Arab tribes made up the majority of the population of the Arabian Peninsula. In the first half of the 7th c. with the advent of Islam, the Arab conquests began, as a result of which the Caliphate was created, which occupied vast territories from India to the Atlantic Ocean and from Central Asia to the central Sahara. Arab scientists were famous as excellent doctors and mathematicians.

In North Africa, the population that spoke Semitic-Hamitic languages ​​close to Arabic was relatively quickly Arabized, adopting the language and many elements of the culture of the conquerors.

At the same time, the reverse process of assimilation by the Arabs of some elements of the culture of the conquered peoples took place, in particular, in the countries of the Transcaucasus, such as Lazika, Kartli and Armenia; as well as in Central Asia (Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, eastern Turkmenistan), Spain, Portugal, Sicily, southern Italy and Pakistani India.

Arab caliphate to the X century. as a result of the resistance of the conquered peoples and the growth of feudal separatism, it broke up into separate parts.

In the XVI century. the Arab countries of Western Asia (except for a significant part of the Arabian Peninsula) and North Africa (with the exception of Morocco) became part of.

Since the 19th century Arab lands were subjected to colonial conquests and became colonies and protectorates of Great Britain, France, Italy, and Spain.

To date, all of them (with the exception of Western Sahara and) are independent states.

Places of residence

The largest number of Arabs live in Asia and Africa.

In Africa: Mauritanians (Mauritania), Saharans (Western Sahara), Moroccans (Morocco), Algerians (Algeria), Tunisians (Tunisia), Libyans (Libya), Sudanese (Sudanese), Egyptians (Egypt), Shuva (Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Sudan).

In Asia: Palestinian Arabs (live in Palestine, refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and other countries), Israeli Arabs (Israel), Lebanese (Lebanon), Jordanians (Jordan), Syrians (Syria), Iraqis (Iraq), Ahwazi ( Iran), Kuwaitis (Kuwait), Bahrainis (Bahrain), Emiratis (UAE), Yemenis (Yemen), Qataris (Qatar), Omanis (Oman), Saudis (Saudi Arabia).

Arabs also live in Turkey (en:Arabs in Turkey), Uzbekistan, Afghanistan (Afghan Arabs), Indonesia (en:Arab Indonesians), India (en:Arab (Gujarat), Chaush) and Pakistan (en:Arabs in Pakistan, en :Iraqi biradri), Singapore (en:Arab Singaporean), the Philippines (en:Arab settlement in the Philippines) and other countries.

There are Arab emigrants in Western Europe, North and South America, West and South Africa, Australia, etc.

Ethnic Arabs of Central Asia Central Asian Arabs are settled in small groups among Uzbeks, Tajiks and Turkmens, gradually being assimilated by them; the bulk live in the Bukhara and Samarkand regions of Uzbekistan.

They speak the language of the country of residence, but the Tajikized Mesopotamian Arabic dialect has been partially preserved. They consider themselves descendants of the tribes resettled in Central Asia by Timur; linguistic and anthropological data indicate that they moved to the right bank of the Amu Darya from Northern Afghanistan.

The number is steadily declining: 21,793 people. in 1939, 8 thousand in 1959, about 4 thousand in 1970.

In addition, they distinguish their ancestral origin of the Khoja (Persian master, lord). In addition to the Arabs themselves, Islam was also spread by sedentary Turkic-speaking Muslims who converted to Islam before the nomadic Turks.

In addition, persons from other Turkic tribes were attributed to the “Khoja” clan for their excellent knowledge of Islam, which indicates the origin of the “Khoja” not as a tribal formation, but rather as a mixed tribal and caste formation, which also had as one of its many ancestors Arabs. At the same time, along with the Khodja, there is the class of seyid (Arabic ‘lord, master’).

Representatives of this class trace their genealogy to Khazret Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad. The Sayyids are descended from Hussein, the son of Khazret Ali and the daughter of Muhammad Fatima.

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