ancient arabs

arabia caliphate arab community islam

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

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

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

The Arabs were famous as excellent doctors and mathematicians.

Arab Caliphate 632-750

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 from the biblical story of 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. Economic and social conditions their lives were further apart. 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 when discussing common origin Israelis 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 not used as given name, but as a common noun, see: 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 true faith, which makes Abraham, the alleged 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 house 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 base, a rootstock on which a twig of Israelite prophecy was grafted," suggesting that the ancient Arabs might serve the best illustration the life of Israel before they were 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 to say about the theory that sees the Israelis as arab tribe that came out of the Arabian desert, and the Israeli 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.

The Jews, as far as we know from specific historical sources, say, from the era of the Judges and later, were a 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 could object to this, they say, the Pentateuch itself teaches us that the Israelite religion was born in the desert, and the biblical prophets considered the time spent by the Israelites 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 classic literature, like the Bible, was almost entirely created in a settled 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 the latest survey of the current state of biblical research, "The Old Testament and Modern Study: A Generation of Discovery and Research" (Oxford, 1951) or in the last comprehensive manual on the history of Israel (Martin Noth. Geschichte Israels. Goettingen, 1950 ), as far as I noticed, there is not a single 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. IN social traditions and the ethical approaches of these two peoples had very obvious common features. 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 nevertheless 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 on 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 the Jewish slave is best expressed in the 10th century Italian tradition. 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. And in Israel, and in ancient Arabia (partly in modern too), women, although they did not accept direct involvement 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 female judge, partly included later in the so-called "Song of Deborah" (Judges, 5), were the most effective tool to activate 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).

Contemporary Jewish women from Yemen, whose reaction to public life takes the form of poetic (mostly satirical) statements, undoubtedly following the 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 one general opinion, the king, like Ahab, could not get rid of the enemy, bypassing the usual judicial procedure, which is shown by the well-known story of 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 traits, which 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 kind of terrible disaster; as we know from the history of Zionism, the mere word "go" - see Genesis 12:1 - is 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 very important achievement end of the II 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 content of the article

ARAB,(1) indigenous people 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. small number Arab population also available 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 early history Arab culture was associated with 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 look alike appearance on Africans living in areas south of the Sahara, and light-skinned Maghreb Arabs often do not differ physically 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 lifestyle. 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 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 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 wool laid 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, Bedouin men wear a long-skirted, nightgown-like robe - “galabey”, and over it a spacious robe open in front - “aba”, for those who are more in contact with the villages, a jacket is more characteristic. European style. 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 curtain for the face, and in other groups, when they appear unknown man 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 last years dams are being 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 owners who do not live on it is a serious problem in the Arab world. social problem, 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 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 smaller towns and in older areas of larger cities one can still observe traditional type city ​​life.

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. Such major cities like Aleppo in Syria, much remains of the old city, 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 serving a different community. ethnic background, religion or trade specialization. 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 a traditional city, the system 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. Built from samples developed countries the educational 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 one 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 actually took control of for the most part North Africa, while in Egypt and Syria, a wave of demands for Arab independence was growing.

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.

Arabs - the indigenous population of Arabia - belong to the so-called Semitic group of peoples. In the 6th-7th centuries, they were divided into Arab townspeople and Bedouins.
The name "Bedouin" means in Arabic a person living in the steppe, and comes from the word "badiye", which means "steppe, desert."
The Bedouins were nomads. They were engaged in cattle breeding. The camel was the main animal in their household. The whole life of a Bedouin is connected with a camel from birth to death. The camel gave him milk, dairy products, meat. Camel wool was used to make clothes and dwellings - tents and tents. Sandals, saddles, harnesses, wineskins for storing water were made from camel skins and skins. The shoulder blades of a camel often served as a material for records among Arab townspeople, and dried dung was used as fuel.
The camel, on the other hand, was the main means of transportation, especially convenient in the desert, since it can not drink for up to twenty-five days in winter and more than five days in summer. It is no coincidence that there are still about a thousand names of a camel in the Arabic language, which characterize the most subtle shades in the color of wool and differences in age and purpose. The Arabs considered the camel a gift from Allah and sang it in their songs.
In addition to camels, the Bedouins raised sheep, goats and, to a lesser extent, horses.
In addition to raising livestock, worthy men occupations were considered raids on neighboring tribes for the sake of robbery and the removal of livestock. The life of a Bedouin, full of hardships and dangers, required constant struggle. Fight against thirst, cold, hunger, enemies. These conditions created strong, courageous and dexterous people who knew how to overcome difficulties and quickly find the right solution in case of danger. And it is not surprising that, living constantly as if in a state of siege, the Arabs considered courage to be the greatest virtue.
Hospitality was another Bedouin virtue. The same camel that the Bedouin sang, he was ready to generously slaughter to feed his hungry companions and his guest.

Bedouin (modern image).

As long as the guest was under the roof of the host, he was safe. However, when the guest, having said goodbye, drove off for a certain distance, the recent host could rob him or even kill him.
The basis of the Bedouin society was the tribal organization. Each tent represented a family of five to eight people. A group of tents made up a "hayy" or camp. All members of the haya
belonged to the same genus. Several clans made up a tribe. The head of the clan was "sheikh", which means "old man", usually the oldest member of the clan. The sheikh was chosen and he ruled based on personal experience, knowledge, authority and generosity.
Under the sheikh, there was something like a council of representatives of individual families.
It is clear that in such a society the most important thing was kinship by blood, connection with the tribe. In heavy natural conditions In the desert, a man without a family, without a tribe, was completely helpless and was in constant danger. The mutual connection and support of the members of the tribe was especially clearly manifested in the custom of blood feud. If a member of the clan killed his relative, then the rest of the members of the clan refused to support him. In the event of flight, he became an outcast, and anyone could kill him without fear of revenge. If the murder was committed outside the clan, then any member of the clan could pay for it with his life, and the whole clan protected each of its representatives. And vengeance was bound to follow. The death of the Bedouin did not frighten, but the fear that his blood would be shed in vain was frightening. The enmity caused by the custom of blood feud could last for decades.
Sometimes one tribe asked for protection from another. The tribes connected by such relations promised not to attack each other, to help each other. At the same time, a weak tribe had to bear more responsibilities and obey a stronger one. The same relationship could exist between individuals.
But one should not think that the life of the Bedouins proceeded in patriarchal simplicity, without internal complications and conflicts.
By the 6th-7th centuries, rich and poor stand out more and more sharply among them. The leaders of clans and tribes use power in their own interests. The pastures that belonged to the whole tribe gradually pass into the hands of the leaders. They exploit their poor compatriots. They have slaves and slaves who graze cattle, care for them and perform various household chores. Some families get richer, others get poorer.
Unable to explain to themselves the various phenomena of nature, the Bedouins endowed the objects around them with supernatural qualities. They deified trees, stones, wells, springs, caves and worshiped them. In addition, each tribe had its own deity.
One tribe had a deity made of dough, and when there was a famine year, the tribe ate it without a trace.
The deserts and gorges of the Bedouins were inhabited by spirits, the so-called jinn. These genies, according to the ideas of the Arabs, sometimes helped travelers, but they could destroy them if they were angry with something.
Many tribes of Arabia worshiped the moon, the sun, and the stars. But for all Arabs, the city of Mecca was a sacred place. Representatives of another group of the population of Arabia lived there - the city-Arabs.

Black stone.

The urban Arabs - the settled population of the "Island of the Arabs" - lived in a few oases where cities arose. The largest and most famous were Mecca, Yathrib, later called Medina, and Taif.
In Yathrib, and especially in Taif, the inhabitants were mainly engaged in agriculture and gardening. The main plant cultivated by the Arabs was the date palm. In the life of an Arab city dweller, a palm tree was as important as a camel for a Bedouin.
The fruits of the date palm were eaten fresh and dried in reserve. They also prepared an intoxicating drink - nabiz. Camels were fed with fruit bones, and various household items were made from trunks.
In addition to the date palm, grapes, apples, pomegranates, apricots, almonds, oranges, sugar cane, watermelons, and bananas grew in Arabia. Wheat and barley were grown in small quantities.
Mecca was significantly different from other cities of the peninsula. Located in a dry and unhealthy area, it arose from the very beginning as a holy city for all Arabs.
In Mecca there was a temple, the so-called Kaaba, which in Arabic means "cube". The name of the temple was due to its cubic shape. A sacred black stone was placed in the temple, which, according to legend, fell from the sky. The idols of almost all the tribes of Arabia were also kept there. Every Arab considered it his duty at least once in his life to visit the Kaaba and kiss the black stone. (Probably this stone is of meteoric origin.)
The area around the city was also considered sacred, and it was impossible to wage war on it. In the same place, in Mecca, there is also a sacred spring Zemzem. Pilgrims (people who come to venerate a shrine)

when visiting Mecca, they performed a number of rituals and made sacrifices to the gods.
Mecca was also of great importance as a trading point. For a long time, it has become a station on the “spice road”, through which goods went further north. The Meccans themselves annually sent a rich caravan of goods to Syria. Trade greatly enriched the inhabitants of Mecca. In 624, for example, a caravan was equipped, which consisted of a thousand camels and was estimated at 50,000 dinars, almost 400,000 rubles in our money. The Mecca area was considered sacred, and therefore safe. Therefore, Mecca also became the center of intra-Arabian trade.
Every year, during the holy months when war was forbidden, Arabs from all over the peninsula gathered in the city itself for the fair.
... Here is a Bedouin riding a camel. On his head is a white scarf, the corners of which hang down over his shoulders and back. The scarf is reinforced on top with an akal - a ring made of a rope made of willow

The caravan of Hadjievs (pilgrims) enters Mecca. (Snapshot of the 20th century.)
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Mecca. General form. In the center is a rectangular building of the Meccan mosque. In the courtyard of the mosque, the Kaaba, hung with a black veil, in which the Black Stone is located. (Drawing of the 18th century.)

puffer wool. On the shoulders of the Bedouin is a long black cloak, under which a white (gray from dust) shirt is visible. Bare feet. In his hand is a long bamboo spear. Behind the rider slowly and sedately paces another camel with skins and skins laden on it, and in front of it a small herd of sheep dusts with bleating and noise. The tents are scattered all around. People crowd in groups. A ram is being slaughtered behind one of the tents. Several people are watching nearby: how can you miss such an important event! Merchants laid out their goods right on the ground. One has colorful Yemeni fabrics. The other has Indian swords. A third offers dried dates. The fourth arranged pottery and various trifles needed in the nomad's household.
At the other end of the fair, a large crowd is listening to the poet. There are exclamations, exclamations of surprise and admiration for the poems.
Everything makes noise, talks, shouts, sings. The fair splashes in a narrow valley, bordered by gray cliffs.
And the bright Arabian sun mercilessly burns the rocks devoid of vegetation, and the steppe with sparse shrubs adjoining the valley, and people...

This is what these annual fairs looked like, at which representatives of all parts of the "Island of the Arabs" met.
Mecca and its shrines were in the hands of the Koreish tribe. The inhabitants of Mecca and other cities, like the Bedouins, had a tribal organization. However, in their environment, property inequality manifested itself much more sharply than among the Bedouins. The Meccan merchants had many more slaves than the Bedouins.
Not limited to the exploitation of slaves, rich merchants enslaved their relatives. This was usually done through loans. Wanting to participate in the trade, the poor borrowed money from the rich before leaving the caravan to Syria. When the caravan returned and all transactions were completed, the debtor was obliged to pay an amount much larger than that borrowed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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