What is the name of the population in Arabic. Where do Arabs live: country, territory, culture and interesting facts

There are hundreds of nations all over the world. All of them are of different numbers, they all have their own special traditions, their own mentality. Many live in some separate territory of their own, as, for example, the peoples of Russia or Africa. And what is the name of the country where the Arabs live?

Arab League

This nation has a long history that dates back decades. Their ancestors lived in the Middle East and North Africa. At present, nothing much has changed. Arabs still live on their territory. There is the League of Arab States, which includes not one country where the Arabs live, but several located just on this territory. The largest of them:

• Saudi Arabia.
• Egypt.
• Algeria.
• Libya.
• Sudan.
• Morocco.

This organization includes twenty-two states where Arabs live, the total population of which exceeds 425 million people! For comparison, the population of the European Union is approximately 810 million people. Not a very big gap, is it? Especially when you consider that a mixed population lives in Europe: different peoples and nationalities. Arabs are one people.

Ancient world

Arabs live not only in Africa and the Middle East. More precisely, the first ancestors of this group of peoples (and the Arabs are precisely a group of peoples) settled on

And the first Arab states began to appear in the second half of the second millennium BC. Moreover, even then it was believed that where the Arabs live, in which country it is not so important, the state will be one of the most developed. Before them, Ancient Rome and the new Europe of the dark times were still very far away.

Modernity

Now, in the twenty-first century, a huge number of representatives of this people are settled around the world. For example, about 15 million 100 thousand people live in South America in total. And more specifically:

• in Brazil - 9 million people;
• in Argentina - 4.5 million people;
• in Venezuela - 1.5 million people.

In the aforementioned Europe, where the Arabs live, there are more than six and a half million representatives of this nation. Most of them are in France: almost six million. Even in Asia, there are a huge number of ethnic Arabs who are settled throughout the region.

Islam and Arabs

And, in general, this is not surprising. After all, around the beginning of the seventh century AD, a man whom all Muslims would later call the prophet Muhammad began to preach the religion of Islam. On this basis, the state of the Caliphate was created.

100 years after its founding, it has already stretched its borders from the coast of Spain to Southwest Asia. Title, if expressed modern terminology, the nation of this state was Arab. Arabic was the state language and Islam was the predominant religion.

It was as a result of such political and religious transformations that the Arabs appeared in Asia. But what is interesting: it is the Arab nation that makes up the majority of the population of such Asian countries where Arabs live, like:

• Bahrain.
• Jordan and Iraq.
• Yemen.
• Qatar and
• Syria.
• Lebanon.
• Yemen.

As before, the main religion of the Arabs is Islam. In Syria, Egypt and Libya there are a considerable number of supporters of the Christian religion. But Islam is not a single religion. Its followers are divided into at least two areas: the followers of the Islamic religion of the Sunni and Shiite persuasion.

The culture of this group of peoples is also quite interesting to study. We can say that the Arab culture is almost one of the most ancient in the world. When the Crusades began to gather in Europe, the first thing they did was go where the Arab peoples live. They were already among the developed countries.

But the world does not stand still. Some kind of micro-migrations of small peoples and nationalities are constantly taking place. In addition, according to many reputable scientists, humanity is now experiencing almost another one. So, who knows, perhaps in a couple of centuries the main place of residence of the Arabs will not be the Middle East and as it is now, but Australia, Europe or North America. Who knows, anything can happen.

Berbers

Interestingly, the Berbers are related to the Arabs. This is a people whose representatives profess predominantly the Islamic religion. The approximate number of Berbers, if we take into account the whole world, is approximately 25 million people, most of whom live in Algeria and Morocco: in total, about 20 million people are obtained - 10.7 million in Algeria and 9.2 million in Morocco. This people can be called one of the largest in North Africa.

In the northern part of Morocco, where Arabs and Berbers live, the Amatsirgs settled, in the southern part - shillu, Algerian Berbers - Kabyles, Tuareg and Shaouya. Tuareg live in the territories of such countries as:

• Niger.
• Burkina Faso.
• Mali.

The Berbers themselves do not call themselves that. This name was given to them by the Europeans when they heard their strange language. You can immediately draw an analogy with the barbarians, who have roughly the same situation.

Where do the Berbers live?

The Berbers speak both their national language and Arabic and French. The question arises: how do Berbers know French? The answer is simple: Algeria and part of Morocco were until recently the colonial possessions of France, and more than 1.2 million representatives of the Berber people live in the country itself. And the Berber language itself is divided into many dialects, which are spoken in different parts of the world.

A considerable number of Berbers live in the Canary Islands (900 thousand) and in Libya (260 thousand). What is most surprising, representatives of this people live even in Canada. About 10 thousand Berbers live in the United Kingdom.

Despite their kinship with the Arabs, the Berbers adhere to a different culture, which in some aspects is fundamentally different from the Arab. But there are also a number of similarities. In general, hospitality is held in high esteem among the Berbers. And the law of hospitality, as you know, is the main law of the East.

This people has different ideas about material values ​​than Europeans. The Berbers consider gold to be a diabolical metal, unlike silver. Much higher than gold, camels are valued. Yes, yes, camels. They are considered a sign of wealth and prosperity in the family.

(1) the indigenous people of the Middle East and North Africa who speak Arabic and identify with Arab culture; (2) Arabic-speaking desert nomads, Bedouins. The second meaning of the term is older, since for the first time the term Arabs began to be used to refer to the nomads of northern Arabia already in the 9th century. BC. The first meaning, which is broader, is more applicable to modern realities and corresponds to the practice of its use by the majority of Arabs.

The countries, the majority of whose population are Arabs in the broad sense, form in their unity what has come to be called today the Arab world. In northern Africa, these are Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Sudan, and Egypt; in western Asia, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq; in Arabia Saudi Arabia, Yemen 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.

However, the population of the Arab world does not share a common origin. Although the early history of Arab culture was linked to the Arabian Peninsula, over the centuries, many other 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. Arabs are as diverse in their physical characteristics as they are in ethnic origin. There is no Arabic "racial type". Some Arabs fit the stereotypical description of thin people with an "eagle nose", dark skin and black hair, but these features are not typical. Negroid Arabs are similar in appearance to sub-Saharan Africans, and light-skinned Maghreb Arabs are often physically almost indistinguishable from most Europeans.

The Arabs are divided into three main groups: Bedouin pastoralists engaged in breeding sheep, goats or camels, peasant farmers and urban dwellers. In addition, there are several small groups leading a different way of life. Some Arabs live in villages, farming for a few months of the year and migrating with their animals for the rest of the year. One such group is the Sudanese baggara pastoralists. Arabs of the swamps of the Tigris and Euphrates delta fishermen and hunters; The main occupation of the inhabitants of the coastal Arab villages, especially on the Red Sea, is sea fishing.

Having long served as an arena for mixing different cultures, trade and other contacts between three continents, the Arab world includes a number of non-Arab minorities. While many of them have been heavily influenced by Arabs, none of them consider themselves Arabs. Such minorities include the descendants of the pre-Arab peoples of northern Africa, such as the Berbers and Tuaregs, Kurds in Iraq who speak a language related to Persian, as well as Jews, Armenians and some peoples of the geographic region of Sudan. The Copts, the Christians of Egypt, also speak Arabic, but consider themselves to be the original pre-Arab Egyptians.

BEDOUIN HERDERS Most Bedouins live in Arabia and the neighboring desert areas of Jordan, Syria and Iraq, but some Bedouins who insist on their Arab origin live in Egypt and the northern Sahara. The exact number of Bedouins is unknown, since no serious attempts were made to conduct a census of these nomads. According to rough estimates, their number is from 4 to 5 million people.

The image of the Bedouin, often considered the most colorful figure among the Arabs, is largely romanticized by Europeans and other Arabs. Many see the Bedouins as the "purest" Arabs, up until the 20th century. who have kept the way of life of their ancestors unchanged. In reality, they, like most peoples, are subject to continuous external influences and changes in the course of their history.

Bedouin society. The Bedouin lead a strictly tribal lifestyle. The Bedouin tribe consists of several groups who consider themselves related by kinship through the male line and descended from a common male ancestor.

Tribes can have from a few hundred to fifty thousand members. Each tribal group is subdivided into small sub-groups with their own names, with their own common ancestors, and so on. down to a division of several families called "hamula" (hamulah). Some of the largest tribes have up to five or six levels of such subgroups. "Hamula" consists of a number of closely related families, it can be a group of brothers or cousins ​​with their families living together, grazing their livestock together and staying together when moving. The family is the smallest social unit, consisting of a man, his wife or wives, their children, and sometimes including the wives and children of the man's sons.

The organization of the Bedouin tribe is mobile. Its parts often bud off and unite again, from time to time strangers join the tribe. But at the same time, the very idea of ​​kinship remains unchanged, and genealogies are transformed through the invention of new kinship ties and in other ways in accordance with the changes taking place in the composition of the tribe or its divisions.

The tribe and each of its parts is headed by a sheikh, who is considered senior in wisdom and experience. In the largest divisions, the position of sheikh can be inherited in the circle of certain families. Shaykhs of all levels manage jointly with a council of adult males.

The Bedouin prefer marriages within the "hamula". Often these are related marriages, since all people of the same generation in the “khamul” are cousins ​​and cousins. Ideally, marriages are arranged by the parents of the young couple, and the "dowry" for the bride is provided by the groom's family. Despite these customs, Bedouin poetry is rich in stories of secret love and escapism with lovers.

economic life. Bedouins lead a nomadic lifestyle. In winter, when they fall light rain, "hamuls" constantly migrate with herds and flocks through the desert in search of water and pastures. Most of them follow a regular sequence in visiting certain wells and oases, i.e. plots of fertility in the lifeless expanses of the desert. In the completely dry summer time, the "hamuls" gather near the tribal wells, where the water supply is more reliable. Each tribe and its divisions are forced to defend their grazing lands, they often have to fight for the rights to land and water. Some Bedouin sheikhs own entire agricultural areas, receiving tribute from them in addition to their usual means of subsistence.

The Bedouins recognize two main activities camel breeding and sheep and goat breeding. The camel breeders consider themselves superior to the sheep breeders, and sometimes the latter sometimes pay tribute to the former. Sheep breeders often maintain close relations with the inhabitants of villages and cities, sometimes hiring themselves as shepherds. Camel breeders, who consider themselves the only true Arabs, try not to resort to this method of activity, seeing it as a humiliation of their dignity. For all Bedouins, the camel is a very valuable animal for both riding and transporting goods. This animal supplies Bedouin camel breeders with milk for food and wool for making cloth, and also serves as a valuable trade item.

Necessity forces the Bedouin to produce some of the necessary food themselves, but they usually consider such activities degrading and therefore enter into barter relations with the village and urban population, offering skins, wool, meat and milk in exchange for grain, dates, coffee and others. products, as well as factory fabrics (with which they supplement their own production), metal utensils, tools, firearms and ammunition. The Bedouin use little money.

Since all their belongings should easily fit on animals for frequent migrations, the Bedouins use very little furniture. Their tents are quickly dismantled and consist of wide panels of knitted sheep's wool, stacked on a frame of poles and poles.

Bedouin men. The Bedouin men take care of the animals and manage the migration operations. They love hunting and fighting various animals, reaching in this great art. They often find themselves involved in intertribal and internecine squabbles, not only related to issues of property (for example, water rights), but also to issues of honor. The Bedouins, like most other Arabs, are very sensitive to issues of honor and dignity; their infringement is considered a serious insult and can lead to bloodshed.

Cases of bloodshed are also associated with attacks on caravans and villages for the purpose of robbery or extortion of payment for so-called "protection". However, in Lately As planes and trucks replace camel caravans as the main form of transportation, and as Middle Eastern governments' police forces become more efficient, such raids and attacks become rarer.

The greatest pride of a Bedouin man is his horse. The famous Arabian horse, however, is used mainly for racing and light walks and never for hard work. It is poorly adapted to the conditions of the desert and serves mainly as an object of prestige, available only to those men who can afford this luxury.

Bedouin. Bedouin women are busy with household chores, sometimes taking care of sheep and goats, but most of the time they take care of children, weave material for tents and clothes, and take care of the kitchen. Although they are usually less segregated than the women of villages and cities, Bedouin women are carefully guarded against contact with strangers. As a rule, they live in a separate part of the family tent, denoted in Arabic by the word "harem", and must go there when strangers appear.

Food. The main product of the Bedouin daily diet is camel milk, fresh or after special fermentation. Dates, rice and products made from wheat flour or sorghum are an addition to it. Bedouins rarely eat meat, on the occasion of holidays and other special celebrations, for which they slaughter a sheep and roast it over an open fire. Their favorite hot drinks are tea and coffee.

Cloth. There is considerable regional variation in Bedouin clothing styles. For West Africa, men's outerwear with a hood "gellaba" and a dressing gown also with a hood "burnus" are typical. Further east, Bedouin men wear a long-skirted, nightgown-like robe "galabey", and over it a spacious open-front robe "aba", for those who are more in contact with the villages, a European-style jacket is more characteristic. Men wear a special headdress "keffiyeh", fixed on the head with a cord ring "agal". The aba and keffiyeh may be worn loosely draped or wrapped around the body and head for weather protection. Women wear dresses resembling "galabea" or dresses with a distinct bodice. In addition, they may wear loose trousers and a variety of jackets or different types of "aba". Women's hair is always covered with a scarf. Some Bedouin women may also wear a "haiq" a special face covering, and in other groups, when a stranger appears, women simply cover their faces with part of their headscarf.

Religion. Among the Bedouins there are both Christians and Shia Muslims, but the majority belong nominally to either Wahhabi 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.

ARAB PEASANTS About 70% of Arabs live in villages. Most of the villagers are farmers, called fellah in Arabic, but among them there are also masons, carpenters, blacksmiths, shepherds, fishermen, shopkeepers and people of other professions. Village houses of adobe brick or stone are built closely together without any clearly distinguishable plan. Around the houses are fields, orchards and vineyards. The degree of fertility of the land is different everywhere, but the lack of water is a ubiquitous phenomenon, so irrigation is required for survival. The big problem in the countryside is poverty, which is slowly yielding to the impact of modern social reforms and technological changes.

Rural economy. The most important crops grown in the villages are cereals, wheat and sorghum, with bread being the staple food. Wherever possible, vegetables are grown. Other important crops in various regions are dates in the desert oases, citrus fruits on the Lebanese coast, figs, grapes, olives, apricots, almonds and other fruits in the foothills and other areas where water is more abundant. In some regions, notably Egypt, cotton is an important cash crop.

Arab farmers use many ingenious ways to conserve and distribute their limited water supply. In some cases, they direct water from natural streams into a complex system of canals and sluices, through which they allocate water to eligible users. Water wheels can be used to lift water from one level to another. In recent years, dams have been built for large irrigation systems and hydroelectric power generation.

Part of the farmers, especially in the mountainous areas, are independent owners of the land, while the majority of the fellah are tenants who must give a significant part of the produced product to the owners of the land. Usually such landowners are townspeople, but some powerful Bedouin sheikhs are also large landowners. Some landowners give the peasants modern agricultural equipment, but most of them are quite conservative. Ownership of land by non-resident owners is a serious social problem in the Arab world, which many governments are trying to solve in different ways.

Villagers often maintain close relationships with the Bedouins and with the townspeople. Peasants exchange their products with them for services, goods or money. Some farmers are recent Bedouins and may have family ties to them. An even more important trend is the constant migration of farmers to the cities in search of better paid jobs. Some peasants move alternately between the countryside and the city, but the resident urban population includes many people who were born in the villages and maintain their ties with them. The active growth of school education, noted in the Arab villages in the 20th century, served as a factor in the increase in the desire of rural residents to live in the city.

rural society. Most of the farms in the Arab village consist of married couple and their children. Some households may also include sons' wives and their children. However, adult brothers and closely related cousins ​​and their families most often live nearby. As with the Bedouins, several families form a "hamula". Preference is given to marriages within the village. Muslim Arabs also marry inside the "hamula", i.e. between cousins ​​and cousins. Many Arab peasants are members of large tribal groups whose membership spans many different villages. Several of these tribes trace their origins to the Bedouins.

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. Most Over time, however, the villagers find themselves divided into separate factions, and there is little cooperation in most activities that concern the community as a whole.

URBAN ARAB 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. In the 20th century Arab cities have grown and changed, especially due to the influx of migrants from the countryside. However, in some of the smaller towns and in older areas of larger cities, the traditional type of city life can still be observed.

The old Arab city remains today almost the same in cities such as the capital of Yemen, Sanaa, and in a number of other small provincial centers. In large cities such as Aleppo in Syria, much of the old city remains, but modernity still prevails in them. In the Arab world metropolis of Cairo, the old city is surrounded by a dominant new one, and in Beirut (Lebanon) traces of the old city are completely erased.

Traditional city. 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. Such shops and workshops united by specialization form bazaars, called in Arabic "suk". In these bazaars, merchants and artisans display goods, often making them in small shops that open directly onto the street. The owner of the shop can invite the buyer to a thick sweet coffee, over a cup of which a leisurely trade is carried out about any product made of bronze or a hand-made carpet. Numerous food vendors in the bazaars sell a variety of spiced honey confectionery and spiced meat products.

There is no clear division between commercial and residential areas in an Arab city, although it is often clearly divided into neighborhoods, each of which serves communities of different ethnic origins, religions or trade specializations. The main public buildings are religious buildings and, sometimes, fortifications. Important social centers are coffee houses where men drink coffee, smoke, play different games and discuss the news.

Modern city. The new Arab cities are modeled on European ones, not only physically, but also in terms of municipal organization and institutions such as hospitals, museums, railways, bus services, radio and television stations, schools, universities and factories. Each city differs in the extent to which new forms have replaced the old ones, although old traditions are largely continued in new ones. New residential areas, for example, retain traditional small shops and coffee shops. There are very few suburban communities.

Urban social organization. In the traditional city, the system of municipal government did not go far beyond controlling markets and maintaining a kind of police force. The family and religion were at the center of the concerns and feelings of the townspeople, and not the city as a community. Family life did not differ in its image from rural life, except that there were great differences in the levels of wealth and social status.

In the 20th century this situation has changed. As before, the inhabitants of the modern Arab city cherish and identify with their families and religion, but now both of these feelings are forced to compete with loyalty to the state. Modeled after developed countries, the education system had a powerful impact on the middle and upper classes of the cities, who were largely interested in relaxing the demands placed on them by family and religion and in promoting the idea of ​​social equality between men and women.

The position of women. In the 20th century the position of Arab women, traditionally subordinate to men, has changed significantly, especially in large urban centers. Arab countries are rapidly expanding the number of schools for girls, in most Arab countries women have the right to vote, and access to professional activity becomes more and more open to them. Islam-permissible polygamy, the practice of which was once limited to a minority of Arabs, is becoming increasingly rare. Moreover, most Arab polygamists now have no more than two wives, and not at all harems, as depicted in the movies.

Today, however, even in the cities, many Muslim women go out to people wearing veils, which are a symbol of the fact that a woman needs to be protected from strangers. In recent years, due to the growth of fundamentalism in the Arab world, the number of such women is increasing, and even many European women who come to Arab and Islamic countries are forced to go out in Islamic clothing.

STORY The history of the Arabs is difficult to separate from the history of the Semitic-speaking peoples in general. Historical evidence from Mesopotamia begins to separate the Arabs from their other Semitic neighbors no earlier than the 1st 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. The northern regions of Arabia were inhabited mainly by Bedouin nomads, although in late pre-Christian and early Christian times, under Roman influence, two medium-sized trading kingdoms of Petra and Palmyra were established by a more settled minority in the north. The northern and southern Arabs were connected by trade routes through western Arabia. This region 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 (either to the son of Abraham Ishmael, or to the grandson of Noah Noktan), and in the city of Mecca they worshiped idols in the temple, for the first time presumably built by Abraham.

By the 56 centuries. AD northern and southern Arabian civilizations declined. However, at the beginning of the seventh century, a merchant from Mecca, Muhammad, had the insight to begin preaching revelations that served to create the religion and community of Islam. Under Muhammad and his successors, the caliphs, Islam swept the entire Middle East. 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. Although the Bedouin contributed to its initial spread to Syria and its neighboring regions, the ancestor of Islam was a city dweller, and further it was developed mainly by the literate people of the city. Despite the fact that many Arabians, by their migration to other regions, contributed to the spread of Islam, the initial stage was the acceptance of non-Arabian converts into the Arabian tribes, who were already familiar with the Arabic language during the process itself. Later, Arabic became the main language in the territories from Morocco to Iraq. Even those who remained Christian or Jewish in their religion adopted Arabic as their primary language. Thus, the majority of the population of this region gradually became Arabs in the broadest sense of the word.

The spread of Islam provided the Arabs with a network of useful contacts, and together with dependent peoples Christians, Jews, Persians, etc. they built one of the greatest civilizations known to the world. Period from 8 to 12 centuries. laid the foundation for a great mass of works of great Arabic literature in the form of poetry and prose, a brilliant tradition of art, elaborate and complex legal codes and philosophical treatises, a rich palette of geographical and historical research, as well as the great progress of science, especially in the field of astronomy, medicine and mathematics.

In the first centuries of its existence, the Arab empire was politically united under the rule of the caliphs, but by the middle of the tenth century its fragmentation began and it soon fell victim to the crusaders, Mongols and Turks. In the 16th century Ottoman Turks conquered the entire Arab world, dividing it into provinces of their empire. In the 19th century the British and French effectively took control of most of North Africa, while in Egypt and Syria a wave of demands for Arab independence was rising.

During the First World War, the British organized an uprising against the Ottoman Empire in Arabia. The Arabs assisted the British in the conquest of Syria and Palestine in the hope of gaining independence after the war, but instead fell under the complete control of the British and French. Arab demands for independence and unification resumed. European management stimulated modernization, but at the same time it resulted in the settlement of the French in the best lands of Algeria and European Jews in Palestine.

During and after World War II, all Arab peoples, with the exception of the Palestinians, eventually gained full independence, although the Algerians managed to do so only after eight years of war from 1954 to 1962. Since 1991, various agreements between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization began to be put into effect. (OOP); these agreements outline the arrangements for future Palestinian self-government.

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S. D. GOITEN JEWS AND ARABS -
THEIR RELATIONS DURING THE CENTURIES

THE TRUTH ABOUT THE COMMON ORIGIN OF THE JEWISH AND ARAB PEOPLES

Nine out of ten educated Americans or Europeans, if asked about the degree of affinity between Jews and Arabs, will surely answer: of course, both belong to the Semitic race.

What is known about the Semitic race? First, the word "Semitic" is a relatively recent invention. It was coined by a German scholar in 1781 to designate a group of closely related languages, of which Hebrew and Arabic were then the best known.

The close similarity between Hebrew, Arabic and Aramaic was recognized by Jewish scholars as early as the 10th century. In the XVI century. European scholars became aware of the languages ​​of Abyssinia (or Ethiopia, Kush in Biblical Hebrew) that belonged to the same group.

The term "Semitic" is, of course, derived from Shem (Shem), one of the three sons of Noah, the patriarch whose name is known to all biblical history about the Flood. However, this name is not consistent even with the facts given in the Bible.

For example, in the Bible, Hebrew is actually called Sefat Kna "an -" the language of Canaan ", because the Israelites knew very well that the inhabitants of Palestine spoke it even before the Israelite tribes conquered this country - this fact, by the way, is confirmed by archaeological testimonies.

But both Canaan and Cush, the progenitor of the Ethiopians, are considered in the Bible (and not without reason) as the descendants of Ham, another son of Noah, and not Shem. Therefore, according to the Bible, Hebrew must be a "Hamitic" language and not a "Semitic" language. So, we see that the term "Semitic" is formed artificially, only for the convenience of grouping languages ​​and has nothing to do with either the historical ties between the people who speak them, or their anthropological or racial origin.

However, unfortunately, in the XIX century. under the influence of the romantic approach to the concepts of language, nation and their "soil", the purely linguistic term "Semitic" began to mean something completely different: a race with very obvious physical, psychological and social characteristics.

Many books on the positive and negative (mostly negative, of course) properties of the Semitic race have been written by scholars who tend to generalize what they know (or think they know) about Arabic or Jewish literature or history, forgetting it is to ask oneself whether this Semitic race ever existed at all.

To give just one example, the famous scholar Ernest Renan described the Semites as an unimaginative, abstract-minded, desert-dwelling race—a claim that he believes is proven by the fact that the Semites had no developed mythology, while the Indo-Germanic peoples of Greece and The Indians, for example, had an inexhaustible supply of legends about the deeds and love affairs of their gods and heroes.

However, archaeological excavations have revealed to the world a very extensive mythological literature in Semitic languages ​​- not only in Babylon and Assyria, but also in the neighborhood of Palestine: in Ras Shamra (Northern Syria). As a matter of fact, numerous traces of mythology are found in the Bible, as well as in early Arabic literature, although in this regard there may be some differences between the Israelites, Arabs and several other peoples, on the one hand, and the people of Ras Shamra, on the other.

On the whole, the suggestion that peoples who speak a Semitic language have a common racial origin with distinctive physical and sociological characteristics is scientifically unfounded at all. The appearance of the ancient peoples who spoke Semitic languages ​​is known to us from their images, as well as from the burials unearthed by excavations: anthropologically they differed from each other as much as possible. The economic and social conditions of their lives differed even more. Common ideas in literature and religion are explained by long-term cultural integration.

The spread of any language is a very complex process that must be carefully studied in each individual case. The fact that Negroes in the United States speak and think exactly like other Americans does not prove that their ancestors and the English were once a single race. It is equally erroneous to make similar assumptions about many peoples known to have spoken or speak Semitic languages.

Generalizations do no good, and as the tragic misuse of the term "Semites" over the past eighty years has shown, such superficial, pseudo-scientific labels can even do great harm.

That is why, in discussing the common origin of Israelites and Arabs, we will not touch at all on the vague concept of the Semitic race.

While the pseudoscientific myth of the Semitic race has no real basis, there is much more to the popular notion that Jews and Arabs are close relatives, "cousins", because they are descended from the brothers Isaac (Yitzhak) and Ishmael (Ishmael) sons of Abraham. Of course, there is no evidence in the Bible that Ishmael was the forefather of the "Arabs".

Ishmael was obviously a very ancient tribe, which soon disappeared from history, and therefore the word "Ismaelites" began to be used already in the Bible as a general designation for herdsmen who lived in the desert, who engaged in raids or drove caravans, for example, the Midianites with whom Gideon fought were called Ishmaelites (Judg. 8:24).

Perhaps this also explains the strange fact that Joseph (Joseph) was apparently sold twice, both to the Midianites and to the Ishmaelites (but the word "Ismaelites" in this context is used not as a proper name, but as a common noun, see ch. : Gen. 37:25, 28, 36).

Thus, it is not surprising that when the Jews were constantly doing business with the Arabs during the Second Temple period (we have already mentioned the Nabataeans), the term "Ismaelites" extended to them, it was also used in early Christian and Talmudic literature.

The Arabs were called "cousins", dodanim (from dod - "uncle") of the Israelites in various ancient Jewish sources as a pun on the name of the Arab tribe of the Dedanyans mentioned in Isaiah (Yeshayahu), 21:13.

The Jewish conception of the Arabs as Ishmaelites and therefore descendants of Ishmael is taken from the Arabs themselves. At a later stage in the life of Muhammad, he made this statement cornerstone his new faith. The Koran (2:125) says that Ishmael (Ismael) helped his father Abraham (Ibrahim) turn the Kaaba in Mecca into a sanctuary of the true faith, which makes Abraham, the supposed biological progenitor of the Arabs, also the founder of Islam, their religion.

The idea that Jews and Arabs are "cousins" through Ishmael and Isaac, the sons of Abraham, was not traditional either in the Bible or among the ancient Arabs. But since it has been unconditionally accepted in all Jewish literature since the Second Temple, and also introduced by Muhammad into the very scripture of Islam, the concept of close relationship was recognized by both peoples throughout the long period of their symbiosis in Islamic times. As we shall see, this idea was not without foundation.

But before proceeding to a discussion of these foundations, two other scientific myths connected with the idea of ​​a Semitic race should be dispelled. I would not have taken the trouble to dispute these theories if they had not been proposed by two remarkable American scientists, eminent in their field. I am referring to Professor James A. Montgomery's Arabia and the Bible (Philadelphia, 1934) and Duncan Black MacDonald's The Jewish Literary Genius (Princeton University Press, 1933).

I have published a detailed review of these books under the title "An unfounded assertion of the Arab origin of Israel and its religion" ("Zion" Jerusalem, 1937), where I also discuss the work of Professor D.S. Margolius, published under the stamp of the Schweich Readings, - "Relations between Arabs and Israelites before the beginning of Islam" (London, 1924). These books bring

(1) the assumption that Arabia was common home Semites, who seized the surrounding fertile lands in successive waves; And

(2) that the Israelites were only an Arab tribe; the written tradition of the Jews, even their religious ideas, are characterized as Arabic.

Since I do not believe in the existence of a Semitic race, it is of course unnecessary for me to delve into the question of the common homeland of its various branches.

The question of where the ancient Babylonians, Assyrians, Arameans, Phoenicians and various other peoples who spoke Semitic languages ​​came from is up to experts in ancient history Middle East. However, as far as I understand, the theory of successive migrations of Semitic peoples emanating from the Arabian Peninsula, although it is repeated in school textbooks, is not supported by a single historical document; this is just a hypothesis built on a false analogy with the conquest of the Middle East by Muslim Arabs.

But since the named event was unique, analogies cannot be based on it. There is ancient evidence of the appearance of Arab tribes on the edge of the desert or the forced settlement of cultivated lands by clans from Northern Arabia. As an example of the latter, we can mention the transfer of the Arabs by the Assyrian king to Samaria in Palestine after his defeat of the kingdom of Israel. Under these circumstances, it seems very unlikely that a much more significant event - the successive conquests of vast territories of Babylonia, Assyria or Phenicia by tribes that came from the Arabian Peninsula - remained unrecorded.

But I would like to confine myself to discussing the second theory, which is best described as the "pan-Arab approach" to Jewish history and Jewish thought. This approach has a very ancient origin. The great Jewish commentators of the Bible and the Talmud in the Middle Ages freely used the Arabic language and even Arabic institutions and realities.

They were followed by modern biblical research, initiated by Dutch and other Protestant scholars in the 18th century. This trend reached its peak in the second half of the 19th century, when it became fashionable to describe the ancient Jews as Bedouins, as they appear either in ancient Arabic literature or in the notes of modern travelers in Arabia, such as Burckhardt or Doughty.

In this connection, two great names should be mentioned: Wellhausen, a famous scholar, an authority in the field of biblical criticism and Jewish history, who wrote no less than seven books on the ancient Arabs, both pre-Islamic and early Islamic times. He did this, as he himself once remarked, in order to establish "a wild stem, a rootstock upon which a twig of Israelite prophecy was grafted," suggesting that the ancient Arabs might provide the best illustration of Israel's life before it was exposed to the monotheistic religion. A similar position was taken by the Scotsman Robertson-Smith, whose very titles of books, Kinship and Marriage in Ancient Arabia (1885) and Lectures on the Religion of the Semites (mind you, not on "religions"!) show the direction of his thoughts.

Hugo Winkler, the German scholar who, more than anyone, is responsible for spreading the idea of ​​successive Semitic invasions from Arabia, sternly criticizes the work of Wellhausen and Robertson-Smith. He points out (and in this he follows the eminent Arab historian Ibn Khaldun, whom we have already mentioned) that the Bedouins have always been dependent on the neighboring civilization; therefore, it is unscientific to depict the life of Israel, which was determined by the civilization of the ancient East, in accordance with the customs and beliefs of the Arab tribes of the era of Muhammad or modern times, when they were surrounded by completely different civilizations. But it hardly needs to be pointed out that Winkler himself considered the Israelites to be a Bedouin tribe that came out of the Arabian desert.

In the years following the First World War, no significant discoveries were made regarding the relationship between ancient Israel and Arabia. But the Arabs themselves emerged from protracted obscurity and suddenly became an object of Western attention thanks to the events of the war and post-war period and thanks to a whole stream of books on the subject, some of which were very high level. Suffice it to mention such names as Lawrence, Philby, Bertram Thomas or Alois Musil (a Czech scientist whose works were published in America after the war - in English translation). It was the revival of Arabia and its newfound importance that led to what I would call a "pan-Arab approach" to the Bible and Israel's ancient history.

What about the theory that sees the Israelis as an Arab tribe that came out of the Arabian desert, and the Israelite religion as a creation of the Arab mind? This theory is nothing but a series of misunderstandings. The sooner we deal with it, the easier it will be able to determine the true commonality of the origins of the Jews and Arabs.

Jews, as far as is known from specific historical sources, say, from the era of the Judges and later, were completely agricultural people, their whole life, both secular and religious, was focused on agriculture. But we are convinced that the organization of the Israelis in tribal associations betrays the Bedouin origin. This is the first misconception. Grouping by tribes, that is, by associations that consider themselves bound by blood ties or an alliance, is characteristic not only of the Bedouins and not even only of the nomads; today it is found even in such a country as Yemen, with its intensively developing agriculture, and it existed there thousands of years ago, as evidenced by Sabaean and other South Arabian inscriptions. Therefore, tribal organization is not evidence of a Bedouin origin.

Stories about the patriarchs who traveled between Bethel, Hebron, Beersheba and other cities are another favorite theme of pan-Arabists. Abraham, they say, is a typical Arab sheikh. Here we have a second error. There is a very considerable difference between the semi-nomadic pastoralists who raise sheep and cows and, like the patriarchs, wander after them, and at times farm within the settled area (as reported in the Book of Genesis), and the Bedouins who breed camels. After all, "badw" in Arabic means "those who are outside," and the Bedouins are those who live on the distant outskirts, in the desert, where only camels can be bred.

There is not a single mention in the Bible that the Jews were ever Bedouin camel herders or that they came from Arabia. It would seem that one can object to this, they say, the Pentateuch itself teaches us that the Israelite religion was born in the desert, and biblical prophets considered the Israelites' time in the wilderness to be ideal. But this is the third mistake.

The stay of the Israelites in the desert in the Bible is everywhere described as a short interval between a long stay in Egypt and the conquest (or reconquest) of Canaan, as a test for a people unaccustomed to life in the desert. This was the time of God's favor to Israel, because the Israelites followed Him into the wilderness, into the land unsown (Jeremiah 2:2), "a land of great drought" (Hosea 13:5), into the most unbearable situation for the agricultural people.

Of course, in refutation of this, one can say that the emphatic statements of the Pentateuch and the prophets reflect later views and that inferences about the origin of the Israelite people should rely on Biblical evidence hidden deep in the context. However, it is the contextual data obtained from a comparison of Arabic and biblical literature that shows how different the origin of these peoples must have been.

Arabic classical literature, like the Bible, was almost entirely created in a sedentary environment - mainly in Iraq and Syria, by authors who came from families that had lived in cities for many generations, or, on the contrary, were not Arabs at all; but every page of these works betrays their origin from the inhabitants of the Arabian desert. Dictionary, metaphors, comparisons, the very theme of their poetry is replete with references to life in the tents of Arabian camel shepherds. You will not find anything like this in the Bible, where everything breathes the aroma of the Palestinian land and reflects the life of farmers and shepherds.

In fact, the "pan-Arab" theory did not find many supporters among serious biblical scholars. I would like to point out that in latest review current state of biblical research, The Old Testament and Modern Study: A Generation of Discovery and Research (Oxford, 1951) or in the last comprehensive textbook on the history of Israel (Martin Noth. Geschichte Israels. one reference to the alleged Arabian origin of the Israelites. As we shall see, the great similarity between Israelis and Arabs must be explained in another way.

The ancient Israelites, as they appear in the Bible, and the original Arabs, as far as we can determine their nature through the medium of early Muslim literature, show a very marked similarity that makes them related to each other and distinguishes them from the great civilizations that surrounded them and influenced them. There were very obvious common features in the social traditions and ethical approaches of these two peoples. These common features can best be described as primitive democracy.

Against the background of the civilizations of the ancient East, which crystallized mainly in the powerful kingdoms of Mesopotamia, Egypt and Asia Minor in confrontation with the neighboring early medieval civilizations of Byzantium and Sasanian Iran, the Israelites and Arabs represent a type of society characterized by the absence of privileged castes and classes, the absence of forced obedience to strong power, the presence of unregulated, but nonetheless very influential institutions for the formation and expression of public opinion, freedom of speech and high respect for human life, dignity and freedom.

Primitive democracies of various types existed in different parts of the world, including Mesopotamia. In addition, it must be borne in mind that the ancient East, as it appears to us in the light of ever new discoveries, was very diverse, not only from a linguistic or ethical point of view, but also in its social organization.

But one thing is certain: only the Israelis and the Arabs retained their primitive democracy and the moral position it engendered at a decisive hour in their history: when both peoples became the bearers of religions that were destined to guide the development of a huge part of humanity.

There is no need to go into details. Among the Israelis and among the Arabs, as well as throughout the world, there were rich and happy people. on the contrary, the poor and the unfortunate. But neither in Israel nor in the Arab countries privileged classes were not distinguished from others by law, as is done, for example, in the otherwise progressive "Laws of Hammurabi", where the castes amelum and mushkenum are designated, which are usually translated as "lord" and "peasant".

Even the "talion law" itself, which requires "life for life" regardless of the social status of the murderer and victim, implies that everyone is equal before the law, "wealth and poverty are accidental and transient; but the life of one person cannot be of greater value than life another "(John Garstrang. Solomon" s Heritage. London, 1934, p. 200).

What about slavery? This is a very important point, since both Jews and Arabs owned slaves, and the verbs "to be a slave" and "to serve" denote in the languages ​​of both nations the relationship between man and God. Ernest Renan especially emphasizes this detail, contrasting the allegedly slavish spirit of the Semites with the love of freedom that prevails among the Indo-Europeans.

Unfortunately, Renan's concept, refuted seventy years ago by Robertson-Smith, still clouds the minds of scientists and non-specialists. When Professor Mordechai Kaplan, in The Future of the American Jew, insistently discusses the new American concept of God as opposed to the concept of the Eastern despot who demands slavish obedience, he echoes the old Renan.

Slavery in the ancient East is a very complex topic. But if we turn to the status of slaves in Israel and Arabia, it turns out that there were quite comparable and consonant institutions. The slaves here were not unfortunate working cattle, as on American plantations, or Roman latifundia, or Athenian potteries - they were members of the household, sometimes with a more independent status than sons or younger brothers.

Eliezer, Abraham's servant, is a good example of this status. He is described as "the son of the house" and is supposed to inherit his master's property in the absence of a natural heir (Gen. 15:3); when a son was born, he looked after him like an elder brother (24:3 et al.).

Similar relationships are reported in ancient Arabic sources, as well as in the reports of well-informed, trustworthy travelers in Arabia, such as Doughty. Freya Stark in her book south gate Arabia" says that

"each boy is given a slave of his own age, and they grow up together as good friends."

This practice, which existed in ancient Arabia, is copied in modern South Africa, where, of course, official slavery does not exist.

It should be noted that the Israelite prophets often expressed dissatisfaction with the treatment of the poor, widows, orphans or strangers, but in their Scriptures there is not a single mention of ill-treatment of slaves, and in a famous passage from the Book of Job (31:13-15) a slave is recognized as the same human rights as its owner. Family attachment to a Jewish slave the best way expressed in the 10th century accepted in Italy. establishing that the master can read the memorial prayer Kaddish over the body of his slave - and in fact it is usually read only over the closest relatives.

Thus, when an Arab or Jew prays:

"I am your servant, the son of your maid" (Ps. 116:16),

He wants to say:

"I am the closest member of your house"

The concept of "son" (very common in Jewish sources, but extremely rare in Arabic) was avoided in prayer as an allusion to reproduction and sexual relations.

When Moses was given the honorific title "Servant of the Lord", it was understood in the sense described in Numbers (12:7):

"my servant Moses, faithful in all my house",

It meant the one who knows all the desires of his master and faithfully serves him.

Conclusions: the institution of slavery, which existed among the Jews and Arabs, as well as in neighboring civilizations, took on a special character among these two peoples, which can be explained by close relations between them.

A similar conclusion can also be drawn about the status of women. This much-discussed topic is even more complex than the issue of slavery. Here there are notable differences between Jews and Arabs, but also some notable similarities.

A very characteristic example of this similarity is a certain form of women's participation in public life. Both in Israel and in ancient Arabia (partly in modern Arabia too), women, although they did not take a direct part in public discussions and decisions, expressed public opinion in poems or similar statements, which were sometimes perceived as inspiration from above. The women of ancient Arabia were famous not only for their funeral songs and laudatory hymns, but especially for their poetic satires, which in many ways performed the functions of the modern press.

It is said that Muhammad, diligently avoiding bloodshed among the population, which, as he believed, could be defeated in another way, was twice forced to order the execution of such satirical ladies, who posed an obvious danger even to such a powerful person as the head of the new Muslim state.

This explains why King Saul was so upset when the "dancers" in their triumphal hymns attributed - or, as the Bible says, "given away" - to David the destruction of ten thousand enemies, and to him, the king, only thousands;

Or why Barak refused to go to war against Sisra unless Dvorah accompanied him. The biting satires of the woman judge, partly included later in the so-called "Song of Deborah" (Judg., 5), were the most effective means for activating apathetic tribes. The prophetesses advised or terrified the people right up to the very end of the period of ancient prophecy in Israel, as far as can be judged from the example of the prophetess Hulda, who was under King Hosea (Yoshiyahu), and the soothsayer Noadiah, who, obviously, caused a lot of trouble to Nehemiah (Nehemiah), the governor of Judah in ancient Persian times, although he was an energetic and even cruel person (Neh. 6:14).

Modern Jewish women from Yemen, whose reaction to public life takes the form of poetic (mostly satirical) statements, undoubtedly follow local tradition, which they also brought with them to Israel. Here they compose poetry, in Arabic, of course, on such unexpected topics as canned food, or female soldiers, or, most amusingly, the general election.

I called the Arab and Israeli democracies primitive because they did not create fixed and permanent public institutions representing the state, as in Athens or the United States. However, they were no less effective. When Gideon said:

"I will not control you... The Lord will control you",

He expressed the position of Israel. Even such a bad king as Ahab, by all accounts, could not get rid of the enemy, bypassing the usual judicial procedure, which shows famous history with Naboth (Navot). When the Jewish kings Hezekiah

(Yechizkiyahu) and Hosea (Yoshiyahu) wished to carry out reforms, they were forced to consult with the people and conclude formal agreements with them. At the end of his reign, Nehemiah (Nehemiah), who was officially considered the viceroy of the Persian king, did the same. In the same way, as we have already seen, the Arab community functioned in pre-Islamic times, in which there was no ruler. During the first centuries of Islam, when the Arab element still predominated, the caliphate had a decidedly democratic character. The incessant internecine warfare that led to the fall of the "Arab Kingdom" also testifies to the indomitable spirit of independence that was characteristic of the ancient Arabs, as well as the ancient Jews.

In addition to these main characteristics common to both peoples, there are many specific features that indicate a close relationship between them. I would like to give just one example. A very important concept in the religion of the ancient Israelites was the position of the "God of the Fathers": the nameless God was revered by the family or clan, because He appeared and helped their ancestors. Thus, the Bible speaks of the "God of Abraham," "the God of Isaac," and so on. This notion, which became so essential to the Israelite religion, has an exact parallel in the gods of the fathers, mentioned centuries later in the inscriptions of the Nabataeans, who, as we have seen, were originally an Arab people.

Where does this great resemblance come from, one may ask? It would be risky to associate it with similar economic conditions, since Israel was an entirely agricultural nation whose ancestors were mostly semi-nomadic in the region of ancient civilizations, while Northern Arabia was reputed to be the home of the Bedouins and merchants. It seems that the answer to this question should be sought in the original generic resemblance mentioned in the Bible.

According to the Book of Genesis (21:20-21, 25:1-6, 12-18), Abraham, the progenitor of Israel, was not only the father of Ishmael, but also the ancestor of the Midians, and many other tribes that lived in Northern Arabia, and even Sheba, a tribe very likely associated with the ancient country of Sheba (Sabaea) in South Arabia. The book of Genesis reports that Abraham sent his sons to the countries of the East, giving them gifts, and Isaac, thus, remained the sole heir of the land of Canaan.

These messages appear to mean the following:

(a) The Israelites felt they were closely related to the tribes of northern Arabia and even southern Arabia.

(b) The separation of these tribes from the Abrahamic family is seen as follows: Abraham and his people migrated from Mesopotamia to Palestine (obviously, some terrible catastrophe occurred there; as we know from the history of Zionism, a simple word"go" - see: Genesis 12:1 - rarely enough to cause migration).

In Palestine at that time there was no place to "settle". Some branches of the Abrahamites, such as Lot and Esau-Edom, advanced into the arable land east and south of Palestine, while others, the Ishmaelite and Midianite tribes, followed the great caravan route that led east and south from Beersheba, to Arabian Peninsula.

There they mingled with other peoples - just as it happened repeatedly with the Jews - and turned into typical merchants and steppe robbers, as they are depicted in the Bible. Obviously, the domestication of the camel is a very important achievement at the end of the 2nd millennium BC. - created a separate Arab people.

Of course, we do not have any historical facts about these population movements. But no other migrations are compatible with the tradition preserved in the Bible; and they help to explain the striking similarities between the Israelites and the Arabs, which are an indisputable fact.

The Arabs call Arabia their homeland - Jazirat al-Arab, that is, the “Island of the Arabs”.

Indeed, from the west, the Arabian Peninsula is washed by the waters of the Red Sea, from the south - by the Gulf of Aden, from the east - by the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf. The rugged Syrian Desert stretches to the north. Naturally, with such geographical location the ancient Arabs felt isolated, that is, "living on an island."

Speaking about the origin of the Arabs, they usually single out historical and ethnographic areas that have their own characteristics. The allocation of these areas is based on the specifics of socio-economic, cultural and ethnic development. The Arabian historical and ethnographic region is considered to be the cradle of the Arab world, the borders of which by no means coincide with the modern states of the Arabian Peninsula. This includes, for example, the eastern regions of Syria and Jordan. The second historical and ethnographic zone (or region) includes the rest of Syria, Jordan, as well as Lebanon and Palestine. Iraq is considered a separate historical and ethnographic zone. Egypt, Northern Sudan and Libya are united into one zone. And finally, the Maghrebino-Mauritanian zone, which includes the countries of the Maghreb - Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, as well as Mauritania and Western Sahara. This division is by no means universally recognized, since the border regions, as a rule, have features characteristic of both neighboring zones.

Economic activity

The agricultural culture of Arabia developed quite early, although only some parts of the peninsula were suitable for land use. These are, first of all, those territories on which the state of Yemen is now located, as well as some parts of the coast and oases. St. Petersburg orientalist O. Bolshakov believes that "in terms of the intensity of agriculture, Yemen can be put on a par with such ancient civilizations as Mesopotamia and Egypt." The physical and geographical conditions of Arabia predetermined the division of the population into two groups - settled farmers and nomadic pastoralists. There was no clear division of the inhabitants of Arabia into settled and nomads, because there were various types of mixed economy, relations between which were maintained not only through the exchange of goods, but also through family ties.

In the last quarter of the II millennium BC. the cattle breeders of the Syrian desert had a domesticated dromedary camel (dromedary). The number of camels was still small, but this already allowed part of the tribes to move on to a truly nomadic way of life. This circumstance forced pastoralists to lead a more mobile lifestyle and carry out many kilometers of transitions to remote areas, for example, from Syria to Mesopotamia, directly through the desert.

First state formations

On the territory of modern Yemen, several states arose, which in the 4th century AD. were united by one of them - the Himyarite kingdom. The South Arabian society of antiquity is characterized by the same features that are inherent in other societies of the Ancient East: a slave-owning system was born here, on which the wealth of the ruling class was based. The state carried out the construction and repair of large irrigation systems, without which it was impossible to develop agriculture. The population of the cities was mainly represented by artisans who skillfully made high-quality products, including agricultural implements, weapons, household utensils, leather goods, fabrics, and decorations from sea shells. Gold was mined in Yemen, and fragrant resins were also collected, including frankincense, myrrh. Later, the interest of Christians in this product constantly stimulated transit trade, due to which the interchange of goods between the Arabian Arabs and the population of the Christian regions of the Middle East expanded.

With the conquest of the Himyarite kingdom at the end of the 6th century by Sasanian Iran, horses appeared in Arabia. It was during this period that the state fell into decline, which affected primarily the urban population.

As for the nomads, such collisions affected them to a lesser extent. The life of the nomads was determined by the tribal structure, where there were dominant and subordinate tribes. Within the tribe, relations were regulated depending on the degree of kinship. The material existence of the tribe depended solely on the harvest in the oases, where there were cultivated plots of land and wells, as well as on the offspring of the herds. The main factor influencing the patriarchal life of the nomads, in addition to the attacks of unfriendly tribes, were natural disasters - drought, epidemics and earthquakes, which are mentioned by Arab legends.

The nomads of central and northern Arabia have long been raising sheep, cattle, and camels. Characteristically, the nomadic world of Arabia was surrounded by economically more developed regions, so there is no need to talk about the cultural isolation of Arabia. In particular, this is evidenced by the excavation data. For example, in the construction of dams and reservoirs, the inhabitants of southern Arabia used cement mortar, which was invented in Syria around 1200 BC. The presence of links that existed between the inhabitants of the Mediterranean coast and southern Arabia as early as the 10th century BC confirms the story of the trip of the ruler of Saba (“Queen of Sheba”) to King Solomon.

Advance of Semites from Arabia

Approximately in the III millennium BC. Arabian Semites began to settle in Mesopotamia and Syria. Already from the middle of the 1st millennium BC. began an intensive movement of Arabs outside the "Jazirat al-Arab". However, those Arabian tribes that appeared in Mesopotamia in the 3rd-2nd millennium BC were soon assimilated by the Akkadians living there. Later, in the XIII century BC, a new advancement of the Semitic tribes began, who spoke Aramaic dialects. Already in the 7th-6th centuries BC. Aramaic becomes spoken language Syria, displacing Akkadian.

ancient Arabians

Back to top new era significant masses of Arabs moved to Mesopotamia, settled in southern Palestine and the Sinai Peninsula. Some tribes even managed to create state formations. So, the Nabataeans founded their kingdom on the border of Arabia and Palestine, which lasted until the 2nd century AD. Along the lower reaches of the Euphrates, the Lakhmid state arose, but its rulers were forced to recognize vassal dependence on the Persian Sassanids. The Arabs who settled in Syria, Transjordan and southern Palestine united in the 6th century under the rule of representatives of the Ghassanid tribe. They also had to recognize themselves as vassals of the stronger Byzantium. It is characteristic that both the Lakhmid state (in 602) and the Ghassanid state (in 582) were destroyed by their own overlords, who feared the strengthening and growing independence of their vassals. Nevertheless, the presence of Arab tribes in the Syrian-Palestinian region was a factor that subsequently contributed to softening the new, more massive invasion of the Arabs. Then they began to penetrate into Egypt. Thus, the city of Koptos in Upper Egypt, even before the Muslim conquest, was half inhabited by Arabs.

Naturally, the newcomers quickly joined the local customs. Caravan trade allowed them to maintain ties with kindred tribes and clans within the Arabian Peninsula, which gradually contributed to the convergence of urban and nomadic cultures.

Prerequisites for the unification of the Arabs

In the tribes living near the borders of Palestine, Syria and Mesopotamia, the process of decomposition of primitive communal relations developed faster than among the population of the interior regions of Arabia. In the 5th-7th centuries, there was an underdevelopment internal organization tribes, which, in combination with the remnants of the maternal account and polyandry, testified that, due to the specifics of the nomadic economy, the decomposition of the tribal system in Central and Northern Arabia developed more slowly than in neighboring regions of Western Asia.

Periodically, kindred tribes united in unions. Sometimes there was a fragmentation of tribes or their absorption by strong tribes. Over time, it became obvious that large formations are more viable. It was in tribal unions or confederations of tribes that the preconditions for the emergence of a class society began to take shape. The process of its formation was accompanied by the creation of primitive state formations. As early as the 2nd-6th centuries, large tribal unions began to take shape (Mazhidj, Kinda, Maad, etc.), but none of them could become the core of a single pan-Arab state. The prerequisite for the political unification of Arabia was the desire of the tribal elite to secure the right to land, livestock and income from caravan trade. An additional factor was the need to join forces to resist external expansion. As we have already pointed out, at the turn of the 6th-7th centuries, the Persians captured Yemen and liquidated the Lakhmid state, which was in vassal dependence. As a result, in the south and north, Arabia was under the threat of absorption by the Persian state. Naturally, the situation had a negative impact on Arabian trade. The merchants of a number of Arabian cities suffered significant material damage. The only way out of this situation could be the unification of kindred tribes.

The Hejaz region, located in the west of the Arabian Peninsula, became the center of the unification of the Arabs. This area has long been famous for its relatively developed agriculture, handicrafts, but most importantly - trade. The local cities - Mecca, Yasrib (later Medina), Taif - had strong contacts with the surrounding tribes of nomads who visited them, exchanging their goods for the products of urban artisans.

However, the religious situation prevented the unification of the Arabian tribes. The ancient Arabs were pagans. Each tribe revered its patron god, although some of them can be considered pan-Arab - Allah, al-Uzza, al-Lat. Even in the first centuries in Arabia it was known about Judaism and Christianity. Moreover, in Yemen, these two religions have practically supplanted pagan cults. On the eve of the Persian conquest, Yemenite-Jews fought with Yemenite-Christians, while the Jews focused on Sasanian Persia (which subsequently facilitated the conquest of the Himyarite kingdom by the Persians), and Christians - on Byzantium. Under these conditions, its own form of Arabian monotheism arose, which (especially at an early stage) to a large extent, but in a peculiar way, reflected some of the postulates of Judaism and Christianity. Its adherents - hanifs - became carriers of the idea of ​​a single god. In turn, this form of monotheism set the stage for the emergence of Islam.

The religious beliefs of the Arabs of the pre-Islamic period are a conglomeration of various beliefs, among which were female and male deities, the veneration of stones, springs, trees, various spirits, genies and shaitans, who were intermediaries between people and gods, was also widespread. Naturally, the absence of clear dogmatic ideas opened up wide opportunities for the ideas of more developed religions to penetrate into this amorphous worldview and contributed to religious and philosophical reflections.

By that time, writing began to become more and more widespread, which subsequently played a huge role in the formation of medieval Arab culture, and at the stage of the birth of Islam contributed to the accumulation and transmission of information. The need for this was colossal, as evidenced by the practice of oral memorization and reproduction of ancient genealogies, historical chronicles, poetic narratives, common among the Arabs.

As noted by the St. Petersburg scholar A. Khalidov, "most likely, the language was formed as a result of a long development based on the selection of different dialectal forms and their artistic comprehension" . In the end, it was the use of the same language of poetry that became one of the most important factors that contributed to the formation of the Arab community. Naturally, the process of mastering the Arabic language did not occur at the same time. This process took place most quickly in those areas where residents spoke related languages Semitic group. In other areas, this process took several centuries, but a number of peoples, once under the rule of the Arab Caliphate, managed to maintain their linguistic independence.

Arab caliphs

Abu Bakr and Omar

Omar Ibn Khattab

Caliph Ali

Harun ar Rashid

Abd ar Rahman I

Arab Caliphate

The Arab caliphate is a theocratic state headed by a caliph. The core of the Caliphate arose on the Arabian Peninsula after the advent of Islam at the beginning of the 7th century. It was formed as a result of military campaigns in the middle of the 7th - beginning of the 9th century. and conquest (with subsequent Islamization) of the peoples of the countries of the Near and Middle East, North Africa and South Africa. Western Europe.

Abbasids, the second great dynasty of Arab caliphs

Caliphate conquests

Trade in the Caliphate

Arabic dirhams

• In c.6 c. Arabia lost a number of territories - trade was disrupted.

• Unification became necessary.

• The unification of the Arabs was helped by the new religion of Islam.

• Its founder, Mohammed, was born around 570 in a poor family. He married his former mistress and became a merchant.

Islam

The science

Arab army

applied arts

Bedouins

Bedouin tribes: At the head - the leader The custom of blood feuds Military clashes over pastures At the end of the VI century. - Arab trade disrupted.

The conquests of the Arabs - VII - n. 8th century A huge Arab state was formed - the Arab Caliphate, the capital of Damascus.

The heyday of the Baghdad caliphate - the years of the reign of Harun ar-Rashid (768-809).

In 732, as the chroniclers testified, the 400,000-strong army of the Arabs crossed the Pyrenees and invaded Gaul. Later studies lead to the conclusion that the Arabs could have from 30 to 50 thousand warriors.

Not without the help of the Aquitaine and Burgundian nobility, who opposed the process of centralization in the kingdom of the Franks, the Arab army of Abd el-Rahman moved across Western Gaul, reached the center of Aquitaine, occupied Poitiers and headed for Tours. Here, on the old Roman road, at the crossing of the Vienne River, the Arabs were met by a 30,000-strong army of Franks, led by the mayor of the Carolingian family Pepin Karl, who had been the de facto ruler of the Frankish state since 715.

Even at the beginning of his reign, the Frankish state consisted of three long-separated parts: Neustria, Austrasia and Burgundy. Royal power was purely nominal. This was not slow to take advantage of the enemies of the Franks. The Saxons invaded the Rhine regions, the Avars invaded Bavaria, and the Arab conquerors moved across the Pyrenees to the Laura River.

Karl had to pave his way to power with weapons in his hands. After the death of his father in 714, he was thrown into prison along with his stepmother Plektruda, from where he was able to escape the following year. By that time, he was already a fairly well-known military leader of the Franks of Austrasia, where he was popular among free peasants and medium landowners. They became his main support in the internecine struggle for power in the Frankish state.

Having established himself in Austrasia, Karl Pepin began to strengthen his position on the lands of the Franks by force of arms and diplomacy. After a bitter confrontation with his opponents, in 715 he became the major of the Frankish state and ruled it on behalf of the infant king Theodoric IV. Having established itself in royal throne, Charles began a series of military campaigns outside of Austrasia.

Charles, having gained the upper hand in battles over the feudal lords who tried to challenge his supreme power, in 719 won a brilliant victory over the Neustrians, led by one of his opponents, Major Ragenfrid, whose ally was the ruler of Aquitaine, Count Ed. At the Battle of Sausson, the Frankish ruler put the enemy army to flight. Having extradited Ragenfried, Count Ed managed to conclude a temporary peace with Charles. Soon the Franks occupied the cities of Paris and Orleans.

Then Karl remembered his sworn enemy - his stepmother Plectrude, who had her own large army. Starting a war with her, Karl forced his stepmother to surrender to him the rich and well-fortified city of Cologne on the banks of the Rhine.

In 725 and 728, Major Karl Pepin made two large military campaigns against the Bavarians and eventually subjugated them. This was followed by campaigns in Alemannia and Aquitaine, in Thuringia and Frisia ...

The basis of the combat power of the Frankish army until the battle of Poitiers was the infantry, which consisted of free peasants. At that time, all the men of the kingdom who were able to bear arms were liable for military service.

Organizationally, the Frankish army was divided into hundreds, or, in other words, into such a number of peasant households that in wartime could field one hundred foot soldiers in the militia. Peasant communities themselves regulated military service. Each Frankish warrior was armed and equipped at his own expense. The quality of weapons was checked at the reviews, which were conducted by the king or, on his behalf, military leaders-counts. If the warrior's weapon was in an unsatisfactory condition, then he was punished. There is a known case when the king killed a warrior during one of these reviews for the poor maintenance of personal weapons.

The national weapon of the Franks was the "francisca" - an ax with one or two blades, to which a rope was tied. The Franks deftly threw axes at the enemy at close range. For close hand-to-hand combat, they used swords. In addition to Francis and swords, the Franks were also armed with short spears - angons with teeth on a long and sharp tip. The teeth of the angon had the opposite direction and therefore it was very difficult to remove it from the wound. In battle, the warrior first threw angon, which pierced the enemy's shield, and then stepped on the shaft of the spear, thereby pulling back the shield and hitting the enemy with a heavy sword. Many warriors had bows and arrows, which were sometimes saturated with poison.

The only defensive armament of the Frankish warrior in the time of Karl Pepin was a shield of a round or oval shape. Only rich warriors had helmets and chain mail, since metal products cost a lot of money. Part of the armament of the Frankish army was military booty.

In European history, the Frankish commander Karl Pepin became famous primarily for his successful wars against the Arab conquerors, for which he received the nickname "Martell", which means "hammer".

In 720, the Arabs crossed the Pyrenees and invaded what is now France. The Arab army took the well-fortified Narbonne by storm and laid siege to the large city of Toulouse. Count Ed was defeated, and he had to seek refuge in Austrasia with the remnants of his army.

Very soon, the Arab cavalry appeared on the fields of Septimania and Burgundy and even reached the left bank of the Rhone River, entering the lands of the Franks. So on the fields of Western Europe, for the first time, a major clash matured between the Muslim and christianity. The Arab commanders, having crossed the Pyrenees, had big conquest plans in Europe.

We must pay tribute to Karl - he immediately understood the danger of the Arab invasion. After all, the Moorish Arabs by that time had managed to conquer almost all the Spanish regions. Their troops were constantly replenished with new forces that came through the Strait of Gibraltar from the Maghreb - North Africa, from the territory of modern Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. Arab commanders were famous for their martial arts, and their warriors were excellent riders and archers. The Arab army was partially staffed by North African Berber nomads, for which in Spain the Arabs were called Moors.

Karl Pepin, having interrupted the military campaign in the upper reaches of the Danube, in 732 gathered a large militia of Austrasians, Neustrians and Rhine tribes. By that time, the Arabs had already plundered the city of Bordeaux, captured the fortress city of Poitiers and moved towards Tours.

The Frankish commander resolutely moved towards the Arab army, trying to prevent its appearance in front of the fortress walls of Tours. He already knew that the Arabs were commanded by the experienced Abd el-Rahman and that his army was much superior to the militia of the Franks, which, according to the same European chroniclers, numbered only 30 thousand soldiers.

At the point where the old Roman road crossed the river Vienne, across which a bridge had been built, the Franks and their allies barred the Arab army from reaching Tours. Nearby was the city of Poitiers, after which the battle was named, which took place on October 4, 732 and lasted several days: according to Arabic chronicles - two, according to Christian ones - seven days.

Knowing that the enemy army was dominated by light cavalry and many archers, Major Karl Pepin decided to give the Arabs, who adhered to active offensive tactics on the fields of Europe, a defensive battle. Moreover, the hilly terrain made it difficult for large masses of cavalry to operate. The Frankish army was built for the battle between the rivers Clen and Vienne, which, with their banks, well covered his flanks. The basis of the battle formation was the infantry, built in a dense phalanx. The cavalry, heavily armed in a knightly manner, was stationed on the flanks. The right flank was commanded by Count Ed.

Usually, the Franks lined up for battle in dense battle formations, a kind of phalanx, but without proper support for the flanks and rear, trying to solve everything with one blow, a general breakthrough or a swift attack. They, like the Arabs, had a well-developed mutual assistance based on family ties.

Approaching the river Vienne, the Arab army, not immediately getting involved in the battle, spread their camp not far from the Franks. Abd el-Rahman immediately realized that the enemy was in a very strong position and it was impossible to cover him with light cavalry from the flanks. The Arabs did not dare to attack the enemy for several days, waiting for an opportunity to strike. Karl Pepin did not move, patiently waiting for an enemy attack.

In the end, the Arab leader decided to start the battle and built his army in a fighting, dissected order. It consisted of battle lines familiar to the Arabs: horse archers composed the "Morning of the Barking Dog", then came the "Day of Help", "Evening of Shock", "Al-Ansari" and "Al-Mugadzheri". The reserve of the Arabs, intended for the development of victory, was under the personal command of Abd el-Rahman and was called the "Banner of the Prophet."

The battle of Poitiers began with the shelling of the Frankish phalanx by Arab horse archers, to which the enemy responded with crossbows and longbows. After that, the Arab cavalry attacked the positions of the Franks. The Frankish infantry successfully repulsed attack after attack, the enemy's light cavalry could not break through their dense formation.

A Spanish chronicler contemporary with the Battle of Poitiers wrote that the Franks "stood close together, as far as the eye could see, like an immovable and icy wall, and fought fiercely, hitting the Arabs with swords."

After the Frankish infantry repulsed all the attacks of the Arabs, which, line by line, rolled back to their original positions in some disorder, Karl Pepin immediately ordered the knightly cavalry, which was still inactive, to launch a counterattack in the direction of the enemy camp located behind the right flank of the combat formation of the Arab army .

Meanwhile, the Frankish knights, led by Ed of Aquitaine, launched two ramming attacks from the flanks, overturning the light cavalry that opposed them, rushed to the Arab camp and captured it. The Arabs, demoralized by the news of the death of their leader, could not hold back the onslaught of the enemy and fled from the battlefield. The Franks pursued them and inflicted considerable damage. This ended the battle near Poitiers.

This battle had extremely important consequences. The victory of Majordom Karl Pepin put an end to the further advancement of the Arabs in Europe. After the defeat at Poitiers, the Arab army, hiding behind detachments of light cavalry, left French territory and, without further combat losses, went through the mountains to Spain.

But before the Arabs finally left the south of modern France, Karl Pepin inflicted another defeat on the Berre River south of the city of Narbonne. True, this battle was not among the decisive ones.

The victory over the Arabs glorified the commander of the Franks. Since then, they began to call him Karl Martell (i.e., war hammer).

Usually little is said about this, but the battle of Poitiers is also known for being one of the first battles when numerous heavy knightly cavalry entered the battlefield. It was she who, with her blow, provided the Franks with a complete victory over the Arabs. Now not only riders, but also horses were covered with metal armor.

After the battle of Poitiers, Charles Martel won several more great victories, conquering Burgundy and regions in southern France, up to Marseilles.

Charles Martell significantly strengthened the military power of the Frankish kingdom. However, he stood only at the origins of the true historical greatness of the state of the Franks, which will be created by his grandson Charlemagne, who reached the highest power and became the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.

Arab army

Hamdanid army X - XI centuries.

Late Fatimid army (11th century)

Ghaznavid army (late 10th - early 11th centuries): Ghaznavid palace guard. Karakhanid equestrian warrior in full dress. Indian mounted mercenary.

ancient arabia

City of Petra

The cistern of the Genies in Petra, with a hole at the bottom

Monument of the Serpent in Petra

Obelisk (top) next to the altar (bottom), Petra

Nabataean sundial from Hegra (Museum of the Ancient East, Archaeological Museum of Istanbul

Literature during the Caliphate

Thousand and One Nights

Islamic script

Applied art of the Arabs

Bronze candlestick with silver inlay. 1238. Master Daoud ibn Salam from Mosul. Museum decorative arts. Paris.

Glass vessel with enamel painting. Syria. 1300. British Museum. London.

Dish with luster painting. Egypt. 11th c. Museum of Islamic Art. Cairo.

Sculptural ceiling in the Khirbet al-Mafjar castle. 8th c. jordan

Jug with the name of Caliph al-Aziz Billah. Rhinestone. 10th c. Treasury of San Marco. Venice.

Arabic architecture

Architecture at Almoravids and Almohads

The Almohad tower and the Renaissance style bell section merge into one harmonious whole at La Giralda Campanile, Seville

Almoravides invaded al-Andalus from North Africa in 1086 and united the taifas under their rule. They developed their own architecture, but very few examples of it survived, due to the next invasion, by the now Almohads, who imposed Islamic ultra-orthodoxy and destroyed almost every significant Almoravid building, including Madina al-Zahra and other caliphate structures. Their art was extremely austere and simple, and they used brick as their main building material. In a literal sense, their only external decoration, the "sebka", is based on a grid of rhombuses. The Almohads also used palm-pattern ornaments, but these were little more than a simplification of the much more luxuriant Almoravid palms. As time went on, the art became a little more decorative. The most famous example of Almohad architecture is the Giralda, the former minaret of the mosque of Seville. Considered a Mudejar style, but this style is absorbed into the Almohad aesthetic here, the Santa Maria la Blanca synagogue in Toledo is a rare example of the architectural collaboration of the three cultures of medieval Spain.

Umayyad dynasty

dome of the rock

Umayyad Grand Mosque, Syria, Damascus (705-712)

Mosque Tunisia XIII century.

Arab invasion of Byzantium

Arab-Byzantine Wars

the entire period of the Arab-Byzantine wars can be divided (roughly) into 3 parts:
I. Weakening of Byzantium, offensive of the Arabs (634-717)
II. Period of relative calm (718 - middle of the 9th century)
III. Counteroffensive of Byzantium (late 9th century - 1069)

Main events:

634-639 - Arab conquest of Syria and Palestine with Jerusalem;
639-642 - campaign of Amr ibn al-As to Egypt. The Arabs conquered this populous and fertile country;
647-648 - Construction of the Arab fleet. Capture of Tripolitania and Cyprus by the Arabs;
684-678 - First siege of Constantinople by the Arabs. Ended unsuccessfully;
698 - the capture of the African Exarchate (belonging to Byzantium) by the Arabs;
717-718 - Second siege of Constantinople by the Arabs. It ended unsuccessfully. Arab expansion in Asia Minor was halted;
IX-X centuries - Arabs capture the southern Italian territories of Byzantium (the island of Sicily);
X century - Byzantium goes on a counteroffensive and conquers part of Syria from the Arabs, and in particular such an important outpost as Antioch. The Byzantine army at that time even put Jerusalem in immediate danger. The Arab Sultanate of Aleppo recognized itself as a Byzantine vassal. At that time, Crete and Cyprus were also reconquered.

Rise of the Caliphate of Baghdad under Haroun-ar-Rashid

Arabic culture

Caliphate of Baghdad

Architecture of Baghdad

In Baghdad, there was a kind of intellectual center of the Islamic Golden Age - the House of Wisdom. It included a huge library, a huge number of translators and scribes worked in it. The best scientists of their time gathered in the House. thanks to the accumulated works of Pythagoras, Aristotle, Plato, Hippocrates, Euclid, Galen, research was carried out in the field of the humanities, Islam, astronomy and mathematics, medicine and chemistry, alchemy, zoology and geography.
This greatest treasury of the best works of antiquity and modernity was destroyed in 1258. It, along with other libraries in Baghdad, was destroyed by the Mongol troops after the capture of the city. Books were thrown into the river, and the water remained colored with their ink for many months ...
Almost everyone has heard about the burned-out Library of Alexandria, but for some reason, few people remember the lost House of Wisdom...

Fortress Tower Talisman in Baghdad.

Necropolis Shakhi Zinda

The emergence of the Shakhi-Zindan memorial on the slope of the Afrasiab hill is associated with the name of Kusam ibn Abbas, the cousin of the Prophet Muhammad. It is known that he participated in the first campaigns of the Arabs in Maverannahr. According to legend, Kusam was mortally wounded near the walls of Samarkand and took refuge underground, where he continues to live. Hence the name of the memorial Shakhi-Zindan, which means "The Living King". By the X-XI centuries. the martyr of the faith Kusam ibn Abbas acquired the status of an Islamic saint, the patron saint of Samarkand, and in the XII-XV centuries. Along the path leading to his mausoleums and funeral mosques, their exquisite beauty, as it were, denies death.

On the northern outskirts of Samarkand, on the edge of the Afrasiab hill, among the vast ancient cemetery, there are groups of mausoleums, among which most famous in use is a tomb attributed to Kussam, son of Abbas, cousin of the Prophet Muhammad. According to Arabic sources, Kussam came to Samarkand in 676. According to some sources, he was killed, according to others, he died of natural causes; according to some reports, he died not even in Samarkand, but in Merv. The imaginary or real grave of Kussam under his Abbasid relatives (VIII century), perhaps not without their participation, became the object of the Muslim cult. Among the people, Kussam became known as Shah-i Zinda - "The Living King". According to legend, Kussam left the earthly world alive and continues to live in the “other world”. Hence the nickname "The Living King".

Mausoleum of Zimurrud Khatun in Baghdad

Conquest of Spain

At the end of the 7th century AD. Arabs after long wars expelled the Byzantines from North Africa. Once the land of Africa was a battlefield between Rome and Carthage, it gave the world such great generals as Jugurtha and Masinissa, and now it has passed into the hands of Muslims, albeit with difficulty. After this conquest, the Arabs set out to conquer Spain.

They were driven to this not only by the love of conquest and the dream of expanding the Islamic State. The locals of North Africa - the Berber tribes - were very brave, warlike, violent and temperamental. The Arabs feared that after some time of calm, the Berbers would set out to avenge the defeats, raise an uprising and then the Arabs would miss the victory. Therefore, the Arabs, having aroused interest among the Berbers in the conquest of Spain, wanted to distract them from this and extinguish their thirst for bloodshed and revenge by war. As Ibn Khaldun notes, it is not surprising that the Muslim army, which was the first to cross the Jabalitarik Strait and entered Spanish soil, could be said to have consisted entirely of Berbers.

From ancient history it is known that the main inhabitants of Spain were the Celts, Iberians and Ligors. The peninsula was divided into territories that once belonged to Phenicia, Carthage and Rome. After the conquest of Spain, the Carthaginians built the majestic city of Carthage here. Around 200 BC. in the Punic Wars, Rome defeated Carthage, took possession of these fertile lands, and up to the B century AD. dominated these lands. At this time, from Spain, which was considered the most important and flourishing place of the empire, came such great thinkers as Seneca, Lucan, Marsial and such famous emperors as Trajan, Marcus Aurelius and Theodosius.

Just as the prosperity of Rome created the conditions for the progress of Spain, so the fall of this city led to the decline of Spain. The peninsula once again became the scene of battles. At the beginning of the B century, the tribes of the Vandals, Alans and Suebi, who destroyed Rome and France, also devastated Spain. However, soon the tribes of the Goths expelled them from the peninsula and took possession of Spain. From the YOU century until the attack of the Arabs, the Goths were the dominant force in Spain.

Soon the Goths mixed with the local population - the Latin peoples, and adopted the Latin language and Christianity. It is known that before the XNUMXth century, the Goths prevailed among the Christian population of Spain. When the Arabs expelled them towards the Asturian mountains, the Goths, thanks to mixing with the local population, were again able to maintain their superiority. For example, among the Christian population of Spain, it was considered pride to be a descendant of the Goths and to bear the nickname "son of the Goths."

A little earlier, before the conquest of the Arabs, the nobility of the Goths and the Latin peoples united and created an aristocratic government. This association, engaged in the oppression of the oppressed masses, has gained the hatred of the people. And it is natural that this state, built on money and wealth, could not be strong and could not adequately defend itself from the enemy.

Also, the appointment of the ruler by election led to eternal strife and enmity for power between the nobility. This enmity and wars eventually hastened the weakening of the Gothic state.

General strife, internal wars, people's dissatisfaction with the local government and for this reason a weak rebuff to the Arabs, the lack of loyalty and the spirit of self-sacrifice in the army, and other reasons ensured an easy victory for the Muslims. It even came to the point that because of the above reasons, the Andalusian ruler Julian and the Bishop of Seville were not afraid to help the Arabs.

In 711, Musa ibn Nasir, who was the governor of North Africa under the rule of the Umayyad caliph Walid ibn Abdulmelik, sent a 12,000-strong army formed from Berbers to conquer Spain. The army was led by a Berber Muslim Tarig ibn Ziyad. The Muslims crossed the Jabalut-tarig strait, which got its name from the name of this famous commander Tariq, and entered the Iberian Peninsula. The richness of this land, its pure air, delightful nature and its mysterious cities so impressed the army of the conquerors that in a letter to the caliph, Tarig wrote: “These places are similar to Syria in terms of air purity, similar to Yemen in temperate climate, similar to India in vegetation and incense, similar to China in fertility and abundance of crops, in accessibility of ports similar to Adena.
The Arabs, who spent half a century conquering the coastline of North Africa and met with fierce resistance from the Berbers, expected to face a similar situation when they conquered Spain. However, contrary to expectations, Spain was conquered in a short time, in just a few months. The Muslims defeated the Goths in the first battle. In this battle they were assisted by the Bishop of Seville. As a result, having broken the resistance of the Goths, the coastal zone passed into the hands of the Muslims.

Seeing the success of Tarig ibn Ziyad, Mussa ibn Nasir gathered an army consisting of 12 thousand Arabs and 8 thousand Berbers and moved to Spain in order to be a partner in success.

Throughout its journey, the Muslim army can be said not to have met a single serious resistance. The people dissatisfied with the government and the nobility, torn by strife, voluntarily submitted to the conquerors, and even sometimes joined them. Such major cities in Spain as Cordoba, Malaga, Granada, Toledo surrendered without resistance. In the city of Toledo, which was the capital, 25 valuable crowns of Gothic rulers, decorated with various precious stones, fell into the hands of Muslims. The wife of the Gothic king Rodrigue was captured and the son of Musa ibn Nasir married her.

In the eyes of the Arabs, the Spaniards were on a par with the populations of Syria and Egypt. The laws observed in the conquered countries were also enforced here. The conquerors did not touch the property and temples of the local population, local customs and orders remained the same as before. The Spaniards were allowed to turn to their judges in contentious matters, to obey the decisions of their own courts. In return for all this, the population was obliged to pay a meager tax (jizya) for those times. The amount of tax for the nobility and the rich was set at the limit of one dinar (15 francs), and for the poor half a dinar. That is why the poor, driven to despair by the oppression of local rulers and countless dues, voluntarily surrendered to Muslims, and even by converting to Islam, were exempted from taxes. Despite the fact that in some places there were isolated cases of resistance, they were quickly suppressed.

As historians write, after the conquest of Spain, Musa ibn Nasir intended to reach Constantinople (present-day Istanbul; at that time Constantinople was the capital of the great Byzantine Empire), passing through France and Germany. However, the caliph called him to Damascus and the plan remained unfinished. If Moussa could carry out his intention, could conquer Europe, then at present the divided peoples would be under the flag of a single religion. Along with this, Europe would be able to avoid medieval darkness and medieval, terrible tragedies.

Everyone knows that when Europe groaned in the clutches of ignorance, fratricide, epidemics, senseless crusades, the Inquisition, Spain under the rule of the Arabs flourished, lived a comfortable life and was at the peak of its development. Spain shone in the darkness. Spain created excellent conditions for the development of science, culture, and this it owes to Islam.

In order to determine the role of the Arabs in the political, economic and cultural life of Spain, it would be more appropriate to consider the ratio of their total number.

As mentioned above, the first Muslim army that entered the Iberian Peninsula consisted of Arabs and
Berbers. Subsequent military units consisted of representatives of the population of Syria. It is known from history that in the early Middle Ages in Spain, the leadership of science and culture belonged to the Arabs, and the Berbers were subordinate to them. The Arabs were considered the highest stratum of the population (ashraf), and the Berbers and the local population were considered a secondary and tertiary stratum of the population. Interestingly, even when the Berber dynasties were able to gain power in Spain, the Arabs managed to maintain their dominance.

As for the total number of Arabs, there is no exact data on this matter. One can only assume that after the Emirate of Cordoba seceded from Arab emirate, the Arabs isolated themselves from other countries. However, due to the rapid growth and emigration from North Africa, the Berbers increased in number and gained supremacy in power.
Muslims mixed with the local Christian population of Spain. According to historians, in the very first years of the conquest of Spain, the Arabs married 30,000 Christian women and brought them into their harem (the harem in the Sibyl fortress, nicknamed the "girls' room", is a historical monument). In addition, at the beginning of the conquest, some of the nobility, in order to show their devotion to the Arabs, annually sent 100 Christian girls to the Caliph's palace. Among the women with whom the Arabs entered into marriage were girls from Latin, Iberian, Greek, Gothic and other tribes. It is clear that as a result of such mass mixing, a new generation arose in a few decades, radically different from the conquerors of the 700s.

From 711 (the date of the conquest of Spain) to 756, this area was subject to the Umayyad Caliphate. An emir appointed by the Umayyad caliph ruled over this territory. In 756, Spain seceded from the Caliphate and became independent. It became known as the Caliphate of Cordoba, whose capital was the city of Cordoba.

After 300 years had elapsed since the reign of the Arabs in Spain, their magnificent and glorious star began to fade. The strife that engulfed the Cordoba caliphate shook the power of the state. At this time, Christians living in the north took advantage of this chance and began to attack in order to take revenge.

The struggle of Christians for the return of the lands conquered by the Arabs (in Spanish: reconquista) intensified in the 10th century. In the Asturian region, where the Christians expelled from the Spanish lands concentrated, the Kingdom of Lyon and Castile arose. In the middle of the 11th century, both these kingdoms united. At the same time, the Navarrese, Catalan and Aragonese states, having united, created a new Aragonese kingdom. At the end of the 11th century, a Portuguese county arose in the west of the Iberian Peninsula. Soon this county also turned into a kingdom. Thus, at the end of the XNUMXth century, serious Christian rivals of the Caliphate of Cordoba began to appear on the Spanish map.

In 1085, as a result of a powerful attack, the northerners captured the city of Toledo. The leader of the northerners was the king of Castile and Leon, Alphonse VI. The Spanish Muslims, seeing that they could not resist on their own, asked the Berbers of North Africa for help. The al-Murabit dynasty, having established itself in Tunisia and Morocco, entered Spain and tried to resurrect the Caliphate of Cordoba. Al-Murabits in 1086 defeated Alphonse VI, and were temporarily able to stop the movement of the reconquista. In just half a century, they lost to a new dynasty that entered the political arena - al-Muwahhids. Having seized power in North Africa, the al-Muwahhids attacked Spain and subjugated the Muslim regions. However, this state was unable to properly resist the Christians. Despite the fact that they decorated their palaces with such prominent personalities as Ibn Tufeil, Ibn Rushd, the al-Muwahhids became helpless before the reconquista. In 1212, near the town of Las Navas de Tolosa, the united Christian army defeated them, and the al-Muwahhid dynasty was forced to leave Spain.

The Spanish kings, who did not get along with each other, put aside the enmity, and united against the Arabs. The reconquista movement directed against the Muslims involved the combined forces of the Castilian, Aragonese, Navarre and Portuguese kingdoms. In 1236, the Muslims lost Cordoba, in 1248 Seville, in 1229-35 the Balearic Islands, in 1238 Valencia. Capturing the city of Cadiz in 1262, the Spaniards reached the shores of the Atlantic Ocean.

Only the Emirate of Grenada remained in the hands of the Muslims. At the end of the 13th century, Ibn al-Ahmar, nicknamed Muhammad al-Ghalib, who was from the Nasrid dynasty, retreated to the city of Granada, and fortified the fortress of Alhambra (al-Hamra) here. He was able to maintain his relative independence, subject to the payment of tribute to the King of Castile. In the palace of the Grenada emirs, who were able to defend their independence for two centuries, such thinkers as Ibn Khaldun and Ibn al-Khatib served.
In 1469, King Ferdinand II of Aragon married Queen Isabella of Castile. The Aragonese-Castilian kingdom united all of Spain. The Grenada emirs refused to pay tribute to them. In 1492, Grenada fell to a powerful onslaught of the Spaniards. The last Muslim fort in the Iberian Peninsula was captured. And with this, all of Spain was conquered from the Arabs and the reconquista movement ended with the victory of the Christians.

The Muslims gave up Grenada on the condition that their religion, language and property be inviolable. However,
soon Ferdinand II broke his promise, and a wave of mass persecution and oppression began against the Muslims. At first they were forced to accept Christianity. Those who did not want to accept Christianity were brought to the terrible court of the Inquisition. Those who changed religion in order to escape torture soon realized that they had been deceived. The Inquisition declared the new Christians to be insincere and dubious, and began to burn them at the stake. At the instigation of the church leadership, hundreds of thousands of Muslims were killed: old people, young people, women, men. A monk of the Dominican order Belida offered to destroy all Muslims, young and old. He said that one should not show mercy even to those who converted to Christianity, because their sincerity is in question: “If we do not know what is in their hearts, then we must kill them so that the Lord God will draw them to his own judgment” . The priests liked the proposal of this monk, but the Spanish government, fearing the Muslim states, did not approve this proposal.

In 1610, the Spanish government demanded that all Muslims leave the country. The Arabs, who remained in a hopeless situation, began to move. Within a few months, more than a million Muslims left Spain. From 1492 to 1610, as a result of massacres directed against Muslims and their emigration, the population of Spain decreased to three million people. Worst of all, Muslims leaving the country were attacked by local residents, as a result of which many Muslims were killed. The monk Belida happily reported that three-quarters of the Muslims who migrated died on the way. The mentioned monk himself personally participated in the murder of one hundred thousand people who were part of the 140 thousandth caravan of Muslims heading towards Africa. Truly, the bloody crimes committed in Spain against the Muslims leave the night of St. Bartholomew in the shade.

The Arabs, having entered Spain, which was very far from culture, raised it to the highest point of civilization, and ruled here for eight centuries. With the departure of the Arabs, Spain underwent a terrible decline and long time could not remedy this decline. Having expelled the Arabs, Spain lost highly developed agriculture, trade and art, science and literature, as well as three million people of science and culture. Once the population of Cordoba was one million people, and now only 300 thousand people live here. Under Muslim rule, the population of the city of Toledo was 200 thousand people, and now less than 50 thousand people live here. Thus, it is safe to say that despite the fact that the Spaniards defeated the Arabs in the war, abandoning the great Islamic civilization, they plunged themselves into the abyss of ignorance and backwardness.

(The article used the book of Gustave le Bon "Islam and Arab Civilization")

Arab capture of Khorezm

The first Arab raids on Khorezm date back to the 7th century. In 712, Khorezm was conquered by the Arab commander Kuteiba ibn Muslim, who inflicted cruel reprisals on the Khorezmian aristocracy. Kuteiba brought down especially cruel repressions on the scientists of Khorezm. As he writes in the Chronicle past generations al-Biruni, “and by all means scattered and destroyed Kuteyb all who knew the writing of the Khorezmians, who kept their traditions, all the scientists that were among them, so that all this was covered with darkness and there is no true knowledge about what was known from their history before the establishment of Islam by the Arabs.

Arab sources say almost nothing about Khorezm in the following decades. On the other hand, it is known from Chinese sources that Khorezmshah Shaushafar in 751 sent an embassy to China, which at that time was at war with the Arabs. During this period, a short-term political unification of Khorezm and Khazaria took place. Nothing is known about the circumstances of the restoration of Arab sovereignty over Khorezm. In any case, only at the very end of the VIII century. the grandson of Shaushafar takes the Arabic name of Abdallah and mints the names of the Arab governors on his coins.

In the 10th century, a new flowering of urban life in Khorezm began. Arab sources paint a picture of the exceptional economic activity of Khorezm in the 10th century, with the surrounding steppes of Turkmenistan and western Kazakhstan, as well as the Volga region - Khazaria and Bulgaria, and the vast Slavic world of Eastern Europe becoming the arena for the activities of Khorezm merchants. The growth of the role of trade with Eastern Europe put forward the city of Urgench (now Kunya-Urgench) [specify], which became the natural center of this trade, to the first place in Khorezm. In 995, the last Afrigid, Abu-Abdallah Muhammad, was captured and killed by the emir of Urgench, Mamun ibn-Muhammad. Khorezm was united under the rule of Urgench.

Khorezm in this era was a city of high learning. Natives of Khorezm were such outstanding scientists as Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi, Ibn Iraq, Abu Reihan al-Biruni, al-Chagmini.

In 1017, Khorezm was subordinated to Sultan Mahmud Gaznevi, and in 1043 it was conquered by the Seljuk Turks.

Arabshahid dynasty

The real name of this country since ancient times was Khorezm. The khanate was founded by nomadic Uzbek tribes who captured Khorezm in 1511, under the leadership of the sultans Ilbars and Balbars, descendants of Yadigar Khan. They belonged to the Genghisid branch, descended from Arab-shah-ibn-Pilade, a descendant of Shiban in the 9th generation, so the dynasty is usually called Arabshahids. Shiban in turn was the fifth son of Jochi.

The Arabshahids, as a rule, were at enmity with another branch of the Shibanids, who at the same time settled in Maverannahr after the captures of Shaibani Khan; the Uzbeks, who occupied Khorezm in 1511, did not participate in the campaigns of Shaibani Khan.

The Arabshahids adhered to steppe traditions, dividing the khanate into estates according to the number of men (sultans) in the dynasty. The supreme ruler, the Khan, was the eldest in the family and chosen by the council of sultans. During almost the entire 16th century, Urgench was the capital. Khiva became the residence of the khan for the first time in 1557-58. (for one year) and only during the reign of Arab-Mohammed-Khan (1603-1622) Khiva became the capital. In the 16th century, the khanate included, in addition to Khorezm, oases in the north of Khorasan and Turkmen tribes in the sands of Kara-Kum. The possessions of the sultans often included areas in both Khorezm and Khorasan. Until the beginning of the 17th century, the khanate was a loose confederation of virtually independent sultanates, under the nominal authority of the khan.

Already before the arrival of the Uzbeks, Khorezm lost its cultural significance because of the destruction caused by Timur in the 1380s. A significant settled population survived only in the southern part of the country. Much of the formerly irrigated land, especially in the north, was abandoned and urban culture was in decline. The economic weakness of the khanate was reflected by the fact that it did not have its own money and Bukhara coins were used until the end of the 18th century. Under such conditions, the Uzbeks were able to maintain their nomadic way of life longer than their southern neighbors. They were the military class in the khanate, and the settled Sarts (descendants of the local Tajik population) were taxpayers. The authority of the khan and the sultans depended on the military support of the Uzbek tribes; to reduce this dependency, the khans often hired Turkmens, resulting in the role of Turkmens in political life The khanate grew and they began to settle in Khorezm. Relations between the khanate and the Sheibanids in Bukhara were generally hostile, the Arabshahids often allied with Safavid Iran against their Uzbek neighbors and on three occasions; in 1538, 1593 and 1595-1598. The khanate was occupied by the Sheibanids. By the end of the 16th century, after a series of internal wars in which most of the Arabshahids were killed, the system of dividing the khanate between the sultans was abolished. Shortly thereafter, in early XVII century, Iran occupied the lands of the Khanate in Khorasan.

The reigns of the famous historian khan Abu-l-Gazi (1643-1663) and his son and successor Anush Khan were periods of relative political stability and economic progress. Large-scale irrigation works were undertaken, and new irrigated lands were divided among the Uzbek tribes; who became more and more sedentary. However, the country was still poor, and the khans filled their empty treasury with booty from predatory raids against their neighbors. From that time until the middle of the 19th century, the country was, in the words of historians, a "predatory state."

Culture in Spain during the Caliphate

Alhambra - the pearl of Arabic art

Tiles from the Alhambra. 14th century National Archaeological Museum, Madrid.

Arab harems

The Eastern harem is the secret dream of men and the personified curse of women, the focus of sensual pleasures and the exquisite boredom of beautiful concubines languishing in it. All this is nothing more than a myth created by the talent of novelists. A real harem is more pragmatic and sophisticated, like everything that was an integral part of the life and life of the Arab people.

The traditional harem (from the Arabic "haram" - forbidden) is, first of all, female half Muslim home. Only the head of the family and his sons had access to the harem. For everyone else, this part of the Arab home is a strict taboo. This taboo was observed so strictly and zealously that the Turkish chronicler Dursun Bey wrote: "If the sun were a man, then even he would be forbidden to look into the harem." Harem - the realm of luxury and lost hopes ...

Haram - Forbidden Territory
In early Islamic times, the traditional inhabitants of the harem were the wives and daughters of the head of the family and his sons. Depending on the wealth of the Arab, slaves could live in the harem, whose main task was the harem economy and all the hard work associated with it.

The institution of concubines appeared much later, during the time of the Caliphates and their conquests, when the number beautiful women became an indicator of wealth and power, and the law introduced by the prophet Muhammad, which did not allow having more than four wives, significantly limited the possibilities of polygamy.

In order to cross the threshold of the seraglio, the slave went through a kind of initiation ceremony. In addition to checking for innocence, the girl had to convert to Islam without fail.

Entering the harem was in many ways reminiscent of being tonsured as a nun, where instead of selfless service to God, no less selfless service to the master was instilled. Candidates for concubines, like God's brides, were forced to break all ties with the outside world, received new names and learned to live in humility. In later harems, wives were absent as such. The main source of a privileged position was the attention of the Sultan and childbearing. Showing attention to one of the concubines, the owner of the harem elevated her to the rank of a temporary wife. This situation was most often shaky and could change at any moment depending on the mood of the master. The most reliable way to gain a foothold in the status of a wife was the birth of a boy. A concubine who gave her master a son acquired the status of mistress.

Only the head of the family and his sons had access to the harem. For everyone else, this part of the Arab home is a strict taboo. This taboo was observed so strictly and zealously that the Turkish chronicler Dursun Bey wrote: "If the sun were a man, then even he would be forbidden to look into the harem."

In addition to the old proven slaves, eunuchs followed the concubines. Translated from Greek, "eunuch" means "guardian of the bed." They got into the harem exclusively in the form of guards, so to speak, to maintain order.

The content of the article

ARAB,(1) the indigenous people of the Middle East and North Africa who speak Arabic and identify with Arab culture; (2) Arabic-speaking desert nomads, Bedouins. The second meaning of the term is older, since for the first time the term Arabs began to be used to refer to the nomads of northern Arabia already in the 9th century. BC. The first meaning, which is broader, is more applicable to modern realities and corresponds to the practice of its use by the majority of Arabs.

The countries, the majority of whose population are Arabs in the broad sense, form in their unity what has come to be called today the Arab world. In northern Africa, these are Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Sudan, and Egypt; in western Asia, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq; in Arabia - Saudi Arabia, Yemen 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.

However, the population of the Arab world does not share a common origin. Although the early history of Arab culture was linked to the Arabian Peninsula, over the centuries, many other 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. Arabs are as diverse in their physical characteristics as they are in ethnic origin. There is no Arabic "racial type". Some Arabs fit the stereotypical description of thin people with an "eagle nose", dark skin and black hair, but these features are not typical. Negroid Arabs are similar in appearance to sub-Saharan Africans, and light-skinned Maghreb Arabs are often physically almost indistinguishable from most Europeans.

The Arabs are divided into three main groups: Bedouin pastoralists engaged in breeding sheep, goats or camels, peasant farmers and urban dwellers. In addition, there are several small groups leading a different way of life. Some Arabs live in villages, farming for a few months of the year and migrating with their animals for the rest of the year. One such group is the Sudanese baggara pastoralists. The Arabs of the swamps of the Tigris and Euphrates deltas are fishermen and hunters; The main occupation of the inhabitants of the coastal Arab villages, especially on the Red Sea, is sea fishing.

Having long served as an arena for mixing different cultures, trade and other contacts between three continents, the Arab world includes a number of non-Arab minorities. While many of them have been heavily influenced by Arabs, none of them consider themselves Arabs. Such minorities include the descendants of the pre-Arab peoples of northern Africa, such as the Berbers and Tuaregs, Kurds in Iraq who speak a language related to Persian, as well as Jews, Armenians and some peoples of the geographic region of Sudan. The Copts, the Christians of Egypt, also speak Arabic, but consider themselves to be the original pre-Arab Egyptians.

BEDOUIN HERDERS

Most Bedouins live in Arabia and the neighboring desert areas of Jordan, Syria and Iraq, but some Bedouins who insist on their Arab origin live in Egypt and the northern Sahara. The exact number of Bedouins is unknown, since no serious attempts were made to conduct a census of these nomads. According to rough estimates, their number is from 4 to 5 million people.

The image of the Bedouin, often considered the most colorful figure among the Arabs, is largely romanticized by Europeans and other Arabs. Many see the Bedouins as the "purest" Arabs, up until the 20th century. who have kept the way of life of their ancestors unchanged. In reality, they, like most peoples, are subject to continuous external influences and changes in the course of their history.

Bedouin society.

The Bedouin lead a strictly tribal lifestyle. The Bedouin tribe consists of several groups who consider themselves related by kinship through the male line and descended from a common male ancestor.

Tribes can have from a few hundred to fifty thousand members. Each tribal group is subdivided into small sub-groups with their own names, with their own common ancestors, and so on. down to a division of several families called "hamula" (hamulah). Some of the largest tribes have up to five or six levels of such subgroups. "Hamula" consists of a number of closely related families, it can be a group of brothers or cousins ​​with their families living together, grazing their livestock together and staying together when moving. The family is the smallest social unit, consisting of a man, his wife or wives, their children, and sometimes including the wives and children of the man's sons.

The organization of the Bedouin tribe is mobile. Its parts often bud off and unite again, from time to time strangers join the tribe. But at the same time, the very idea of ​​kinship remains unchanged, and genealogies are transformed through the invention of new kinship ties and in other ways in accordance with the changes taking place in the composition of the tribe or its divisions.

The tribe and each of its parts is headed by a sheikh, who is considered senior in wisdom and experience. In the largest divisions, the position of sheikh can be inherited in the circle of certain families. Shaykhs of all levels manage jointly with a council of adult males.

The Bedouin prefer marriages within the "hamula". Often these are related marriages, since all people of the same generation in the “khamul” are cousins ​​and cousins. Ideally, marriages are arranged by the parents of the young couple, and the "dowry" for the bride is provided by the groom's family. Despite these customs, Bedouin poetry is rich in stories of secret love and escapism with lovers.

economic life.

Bedouins lead a nomadic lifestyle. In winter, when light rains fall, "hamuls" constantly migrate with herds and flocks through the desert in search of water and pastures. Most of them follow a regular sequence in visiting certain wells and oases, i.e. plots of fertility in the lifeless expanses of the desert. In the completely dry summer time, the "hamuls" gather near the tribal wells, where the water supply is more reliable. Each tribe and its divisions are forced to defend their grazing lands, they often have to fight for the rights to land and water. Some Bedouin sheikhs own entire agricultural areas, receiving tribute from them in addition to their usual means of subsistence.

The Bedouins recognize two main activities - camel breeding and sheep and goat breeding. The camel breeders consider themselves superior to the sheep breeders, and sometimes the latter sometimes pay tribute to the former. Sheep breeders often maintain close relations with the inhabitants of villages and cities, sometimes hiring themselves as shepherds. Camel breeders, who consider themselves the only true Arabs, try not to resort to this method of activity, seeing it as a humiliation of their dignity. For all Bedouins, the camel is a very valuable animal both for riding and for transporting goods. This animal supplies Bedouin camel breeders with milk for food and wool for making cloth, and also serves as a valuable trade item.

Necessity forces the Bedouin to produce some of the necessary food themselves, but they usually consider such activities degrading and therefore enter into barter relations with the village and urban population, offering skins, wool, meat and milk in exchange for grain, dates, coffee and others. products, as well as factory fabrics (with which they supplement their own production), metal utensils, tools, firearms and ammunition. The Bedouin use little money.

Since all their belongings should easily fit on animals for frequent migrations, the Bedouins use very little furniture. Their tents are quickly dismantled and consist of wide panels of knitted sheep's wool, stacked on a frame of poles and poles.

Bedouin men.

The Bedouin men take care of the animals and manage the migration operations. They love hunting and fighting various animals, achieving great skill in this. They often find themselves involved in intertribal and internecine squabbles, not only related to issues of property (for example, water rights), but also to issues of honor. The Bedouins, like most other Arabs, are very sensitive to issues of honor and dignity; their infringement is considered a serious insult and can lead to bloodshed.

Cases of bloodshed are also associated with attacks on caravans and villages for the purpose of robbery or extortion of payment for so-called "protection". More recently, however, as planes and trucks have replaced camel caravans as the main form of transportation, and as the police forces of Middle Eastern governments have become more efficient, such raids and attacks are becoming rarer.

The greatest pride of a Bedouin man is his horse. The famous Arabian horse, however, is used mainly for racing and light walks and never for hard work. It is poorly adapted to the conditions of the desert and serves mainly as an object of prestige, available only to those men who can afford this luxury.

Bedouin.

Bedouin women are busy with household chores, sometimes taking care of sheep and goats, but most of the time they take care of children, weave material for tents and clothes, and take care of the kitchen. Although they are usually less segregated than the women of villages and cities, Bedouin women are carefully guarded against contact with strangers. As a rule, they live in a separate part of the family tent, denoted in Arabic by the word "harem", and must go there when strangers appear.

Food.

The main product of the Bedouin daily diet is camel milk, fresh or after special fermentation. Dates, rice and products made from wheat flour or sorghum are an addition to it. Bedouins rarely eat meat, on the occasion of holidays and other special celebrations, for which they slaughter a sheep and roast it over an open fire. Their favorite hot drinks are tea and coffee.

Cloth.

There is considerable regional variation in Bedouin clothing styles. For West Africa, men's outerwear with a hood - "gellaba" and a robe also with a hood - "burnus" are typical. Further east, the Bedouin men wear a long-skimmed, nightgown-like robe, the “galabey”, and over it a spacious robe, open in front, “aba”, for those who are more in contact with the villages, a European-style jacket is more characteristic. Men wear a special headdress - "kufiya", fixed on the head with a cord ring - "agalem". The aba and keffiyeh may be worn loosely draped or wrapped around the body and head for weather protection. Women wear dresses resembling "galabea" or dresses with a distinct bodice. In addition, they may wear loose trousers and a variety of jackets or different types of "aba". Women's hair is always covered with a scarf. Some Bedouin women may also wear a “haiq” - a special face covering, and in other groups, when an unfamiliar man appears, women simply cover their faces with part of their headscarf.

Religion.

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.

ARAB PEASANTS

About 70% of Arabs live in villages. Most of the villagers are farmers, called fellah in Arabic, but there are also masons, carpenters, blacksmiths, shepherds, fishermen, shopkeepers and people of other professions among them. Village houses of adobe brick or stone are built closely together without any clearly distinguishable plan. Around the houses are fields, orchards and vineyards. The degree of soil fertility is different everywhere, but the lack of water is a ubiquitous phenomenon, so irrigation is required for survival. The big problem in the countryside is poverty, which is slowly yielding to the impact of modern social reforms and technological changes.

Rural economy.

The most important crops grown in the villages are cereals - wheat and sorghum, bread is the staple food. Wherever possible, vegetables are grown. Other important crops in various regions are dates in the desert oases, citrus fruits on the Lebanese coast, figs, grapes, olives, apricots, almonds and other fruits in the foothills and other areas where water is more abundant. In some regions, notably Egypt, cotton is an important cash crop.

Arab farmers use many ingenious ways to conserve and distribute their limited water supply. In some cases, they direct water from natural streams into a complex system of canals and sluices, through which they allocate water to eligible users. Water wheels can be used to lift water from one level to another. In recent years, dams have been built for large irrigation systems and hydroelectric power generation.

Part of the farmers, especially in the mountainous areas, are independent owners of the land, while the majority of the fellah are tenants who must give a significant part of the produced product to the owners of the land. Usually such landowners are townspeople, but some powerful Bedouin sheikhs are also large landowners. Some landowners give the peasants modern agricultural equipment, but most of them are quite conservative. Ownership of land by non-resident owners is a serious social problem in the Arab world, which many governments are trying to solve in different ways.

Villagers often maintain close relationships with the Bedouins and with the townspeople. Peasants exchange their products with them for services, goods or money. Some farmers are recent Bedouins and may have family ties to them. An even more important trend is the constant migration of farmers to the cities in search of better paid jobs. Some peasants move alternately between the countryside and the city, but the resident urban population includes many people who were born in the villages and maintain their ties with them. The active growth of school education, noted in the Arab villages in the 20th century, served as a factor in the increase in the desire of rural residents to live in the city.

rural society.

Most of the households in the Arab village consists of a married couple and their children. Some households may also include sons' wives and their children. However, adult brothers and closely related cousins ​​and their families most often live nearby. As with the Bedouins, several families form a "hamula". Preference is given to marriages within the village. Muslim Arabs also marry inside the "hamula", i.e. between cousins ​​and cousins. Many Arab peasants are members of large tribal groups whose membership spans many different villages. Several of these tribes trace their origins to the Bedouins.

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. Most of the time, however, the villagers are divided into separate factions, and there is little cooperation in most activities that concern the community as a whole.

URBAN ARAB

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. In the 20th century Arab cities have grown and changed, especially due to the influx of migrants from the countryside. However, in some of the smaller towns and in older areas of larger cities, the traditional type of city life can still be observed.

The old Arab city remains today almost the same in cities such as the capital of Yemen, Sanaa, and in a number of other small provincial centers. In large cities such as Aleppo in Syria, much of the old city remains, but modernity still prevails in them. In the Arab world metropolis of Cairo, the old city is surrounded by a dominant new one, and in Beirut (Lebanon) traces of the old city are completely erased.

Traditional city.

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. Such shops and workshops united by specialization form bazaars, called in Arabic "suk". In these bazaars, merchants and artisans display goods, often making them in small shops that open directly onto the street. The owner of the shop can invite the buyer to a thick sweet coffee, over a cup of which a leisurely trade is carried out about any product made of bronze or a hand-made carpet. Numerous food vendors in the bazaars sell a variety of spiced honey confectionery and spiced meat products.

There is no clear division between commercial and residential areas in an Arab city, although it is often clearly divided into neighborhoods, each of which serves communities of different ethnic origins, religions or trade specializations. The main public buildings are religious buildings and, sometimes, fortifications. Important social centers are coffee houses where men drink coffee, smoke, play different games and discuss the news.

Modern city.

The new Arab cities are modeled on European ones not only physically but also in terms of municipal organization and institutions such as hospitals, museums, railways, bus services, radio and television stations, schools, universities and factories. Each city differs in the extent to which new forms have replaced the old ones, although old traditions are largely continued in new ones. New residential areas, for example, retain traditional small shops and coffee shops. There are very few suburban communities.

Urban social organization.

In the traditional city, the system of municipal government did not go far beyond controlling markets and maintaining a kind of police force. The family and religion were at the center of the concerns and feelings of the townspeople, and not the city as a community. Family life did not differ in its image from rural life, except that there were great differences in the levels of wealth and social status.

In the 20th century this situation has changed. As before, the inhabitants of the modern Arab city cherish and identify with their families and religion, but now both of these feelings are forced to compete with loyalty to the state. Modeled after developed countries, the education system had a powerful impact on the middle and upper classes of the cities, who were largely interested in relaxing the demands placed on them by family and religion and in promoting the idea of ​​social equality between men and women.

The position of women.

In the 20th century the position of Arab women, traditionally subordinate to men, has changed significantly, especially in large urban centers. The Arab countries are rapidly expanding the number of schools for girls, in most Arab countries women have the right to vote, and access to professional activities is becoming more open for them. Islam-permissible polygamy, the practice of which was once limited to a minority of Arabs, is becoming increasingly rare. Moreover, most Arab polygamists now have no more than two wives, and not at all harems, as depicted in the movies.

Today, however, even in the cities, many Muslim women go out to people wearing veils, which are a symbol of the fact that a woman needs to be protected from strangers. In recent years, due to the growth of fundamentalism in the Arab world, the number of such women is increasing, and even many European women who come to Arab and Islamic countries are forced to go out in Islamic clothing.

STORY

The history of the Arabs is difficult to separate from the history of the Semitic-speaking peoples in general. Historical evidence from Mesopotamia begins to separate the Arabs from their other Semitic neighbors no earlier than the 1st 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. The northern regions of Arabia were inhabited mainly by Bedouin nomads, although in late pre-Christian and early Christian times, under Roman influence, two medium-sized trading kingdoms, Petra and Palmyra, were established by the more settled minority of the north. The northern and southern Arabs were connected by trade routes through western Arabia. This region 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 (either to the son of Abraham - Ishmael, or to the grandson of Noah - Noktan), and in the city of Mecca they worshiped idols in the temple, for the first time presumably built by Abraham.

By the 5th–6th centuries AD northern and southern Arabian civilizations declined. However, at the beginning of the seventh century, a merchant from Mecca, Muhammad, had the insight to begin preaching revelations that served to create the religion and community of Islam. Under Muhammad and his successors, the caliphs, Islam swept the entire Middle East. 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. Although the Bedouin contributed to its initial spread to Syria and its neighboring regions, the ancestor of Islam was a city dweller, and further it was developed mainly by the literate people of the city. Despite the fact that many Arabians, by their migration to other regions, contributed to the spread of Islam, the initial stage was the acceptance of non-Arabian converts into the Arabian tribes, who were already familiar with the Arabic language during the process itself. Later, Arabic became the main language in the territories from Morocco to Iraq. Even those who remained Christian or Jewish in their religion adopted Arabic as their primary language. Thus, the majority of the population of this region gradually became Arabs in the broadest sense of the word.

The spread of Islam provided the Arabs with a network of useful contacts, and together with dependent peoples - Christians, Jews, Persians, etc. - they built one of the greatest civilizations known to the world. Period from 8 to 12 centuries. laid the foundation for a great body of great Arabic literature in the form of poetry and prose, a brilliant tradition of art, elaborate and complex legal codes and philosophical treatises, a rich palette of geographical and historical research, and great progress in science, especially in the fields of astronomy, medicine and mathematics .

In the first centuries of its existence, the Arab empire was politically united under the rule of the caliphs, but by the middle of the tenth century its fragmentation began and it soon fell victim to the crusaders, Mongols and Turks. In the 16th century Ottoman Turks conquered the entire Arab world, dividing it into provinces of their empire. In the 19th century the British and French effectively took control of most of North Africa, while in Egypt and Syria a wave of demands for Arab independence was rising.

During the First World War, the British organized an uprising against the Ottoman Empire in Arabia. The Arabs assisted the British in the conquest of Syria and Palestine in the hope of gaining independence after the war, but instead fell under the complete control of the British and French. Arab demands for independence and unification resumed. European management stimulated modernization, but at the same time it resulted in the settlement of the French in the best lands of Algeria and European Jews in Palestine.

During and after World War II, all Arab peoples, with the exception of the Palestinians, eventually gained full independence, although the Algerians managed to do so only after eight years of war from 1954 to 1962. Since 1991, various agreements between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization began to be put into effect. (OOP); these agreements outline the arrangements for future Palestinian self-government.