The Arabs, also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and the Western Indian Ocean islands. An Arab diaspora is established around the world in significant numbers, in the Americas, Western Europe, Indonesia, Turkey, and Iran.
Saracen was a term used by Christian writers in Europe during the Middle Ages to refer to Muslims, primarily of Arab origin, but also of Turkic and Persian/Iranic origin. The term's meaning evolved during its history of usage; in the early centuries of the Christian era, Greek and Latin writings used the term to refer to the people who lived in the desert areas in and near the Roman province of Arabia Petraea, as well as in Arabia Deserta. During the Early Middle Ages in Europe, the term came to be associated with the tribes of Arabia. The oldest-known source mentioning "Saracens" in relation to Islam dates back to the 7th century; it was found in Doctrina Jacobi, a Christian Greek-language commentary that discussed, among other things, the Muslim conquest of the Levant that occurred after the establishment of the Rashidun Caliphate following the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.
The Arabian Peninsula or simply Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate. At 3,237,500 km2 (1,250,000 sq mi), the Arabian Peninsula is the largest peninsula in the world.
The Nabataeans, also Nabateans, were an ancient Arab people who inhabited northern Arabia and the southern Levant. Their settlements—most prominently the assumed capital city of Raqmu —gave the name Nabatene to the Arabian borderland that stretched from the Euphrates to the Red Sea.
Charles Montagu Doughty was an English poet, writer, explorer, adventurer and traveller, best known for his two-volume 1888 travel book Travels in Arabia Deserta.
Arabia Petraea or Petrea, also known as Rome's Arabian Province or simply Arabia, was a frontier province of the Roman Empire beginning in the 2nd century. It consisted of the former Nabataean Kingdom in Jordan, southern Levant, the Sinai Peninsula and northwestern Arabian Peninsula. Its capital was Petra. It was bordered on the north by Syria, on the west by Iudaea and Aegyptus, and on the south and east by the rest of Arabia, known as Arabia Deserta and Arabia Felix.
Arabia Felix was the Latin name previously used by geographers to describe South Arabia, or what is now Yemen.
South Arabia is a historical region that consists of the southern region of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia, mainly centered in what is now the Republic of Yemen, yet it has also historically included Najran, Jizan, and 'Asir, which are presently in Saudi Arabia, and the Dhofar of present-day Oman.
Mavia, was an Arab warrior-queen, who ruled over the Tanukhids, a confederation of semi-nomadic Arabs, in southern Syria, in the latter half of the fourth century. She led her troops in a rebellion against late Roman rule, riding at the head of her army into Phoenicia and Palestine. After she reached the frontiers of Egypt and repeatedly defeated the Roman army, the Romans finally made a truce with her on conditions she stipulated. The Romans later called upon her for assistance when being attacked by the Goths, to which she responded by sending a force of cavalry.
The Desert of Paran or Wilderness of Paran, is a location mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. It is one of the places where the Israelites spent part of their 40 years of wandering after the Exodus, and was also a home to Ishmael, and a place of refuge for David.
Pre-Islamic Arabia refers to the Arabian Peninsula prior to the emergence of Islam in 610 CE.
The Limes Arabicus was a desert frontier of the Roman Empire, running north from its start in the province of Arabia Petraea. It ran northeast from the Gulf of Aqaba for about 1,500 kilometers (930 mi) at its greatest extent, reaching northern Syria and forming part of the wider Roman limes system. It had several forts and watchtowers.
Gaius Aelius Gallus was a Roman prefect of Egypt from 26 to 24 BC. He is primarily known for a disastrous expedition he undertook to Arabia Felix under orders of Augustus.
The Nabataean Kingdom, also named Nabatea, was a political state of the Arab Nabataeans during classical antiquity.
Nonnosus was an ambassador sent by the Byzantine emperor Justinian I to the king of the Axumites around 530 CE. He wrote an account of that visit, now lost, that was read and summarized by Byzantine patriarch Photius in Codex 3 of his Bibliotheca. Per that summary, Nonnosus entered Ethiopia through the Red Sea port city of Adulis and journeyed overland to Axum. He described seeing a herd of 5000 elephants in the vicinity of Aua, between Adulis and Axum. Nonnosus' father Abraham had been an ambassador to the Arabs, and his uncle, also named Nonnosus, had been sent on an embassy by the emperor Anastasius I.
Philip the Arab was one of the few 3rd-century Roman emperors sympathetic to Christians, although his relationship with Christianity is obscure and controversial. Philip was born in Auranitis, an Arab district east of the Sea of Galilee. The urban and Hellenized centers of the region were Christianized in the early years of the 3rd century via major Christian centers at Bosra and Edessa, but there is little evidence of Christian presence in the small villages of the region in this period, such as Philip's birthplace at Philippopolis. Philip served as praetorian prefect, commander of the Praetorian Guard, from 242; he was made emperor in 244. In 249, after a brief civil war, he was killed at the hands of his successor, Decius.
The Roman presence in the Arabian Peninsula had its foundations in the expansion of the empire under Augustus, and continued until the Arab conquests of Eastern Roman territory from the 620s onward.
Al-Mushannaf is a village in southern Syria, administratively part of the al-Suwayda Governorate, located northeast of al-Suwayda. Nearby localities include Tarba to the north, Shahba and Salkhad to the northwest, Qanawat to the west and al-Kafr to the southwest. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), al-Mushannaf had a population of 2,581 in the 2004 census. The town is also the administrative center of the al-Mushannaf nahiyah of the al-Suwayda District consisting of 14 villages with a combined population of 17,134.
The recorded history of the Arabs begins in the mid-ninth century BC, which is the earliest known attestation of the Old Arabic language. The Arabs appear to have been under the vassalage of the Neo-Babylonian Empire; they went from the Arabian Peninsula to Mauritania. Tradition holds that Arabs descend from Ishmael, the son of Abraham. The Syrian Desert is the home of the first attested "Arab" groups, as well other Arab groups that spread in the land and existed for millennia.
