Tribes of Arabia
The tribes of Arabia have inhabited the Arabian Peninsula for thousands of years and traditionally trace their ancestry to one of two forefathers: Adnan, whose descendants originate from West Arabia, North Arabia, East Arabia, and Central Arabia; or Qahtan, whose descendants originate from South Arabia. Further, it is held in the Abrahamic religions—particularly Islam—that the Arab people are descended from Abraham through his son Ishmael.
From the 7th century onward, concurrent with the spread of Islam, many of these tribes' members began migrating and settling in the various regions that were subdued during the early Muslim conquests, including the Levant, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Khuzestan, the Maghreb, and Sudan. This phenomenon triggered a process of Arabization that significantly influenced demographic shifts across most of West Asia and North Africa, culminating in the growth of the Arab population far beyond the Arabian Peninsula.
Today, these regions collectively comprise what is known as the Arab world, excluding Khuzestan, which, although home to a considerable Arab minority, is part of the Iranian world. The Arab tribes' migrations played a vital role in ethnically, culturally, linguistically, and genetically Arabizing these regions' populations.File:خريطة قبائل الجزيرة العربية لمستشرق أنجليزي قبل مئة سنة وضعها المستشرق هارولد ديكسون.jpg|thumb|332x332px|A map published by the British academic Harold Dixon during World War I, showing the presence of the Arab tribes in West Asia, 1914
Genealogical tradition
The general consensus among 14th-century Arab genealogists is that Arabs are of three kinds:- Al-Arab al-Ba'ida, "The Extinct Arabs", were an ancient group of tribes in pre-Islamic Arabia that included the ‘Ād, the Thamud, the Tasm and the Jadis, thelaq, and others. The Jadis and the Tasm are said to have been exterminated by genocide. The Quran says that the disappearance of the 'Ad and Thamud came about due to their decadence. Recent archaeological excavations have uncovered inscriptions that reference 'Iram, once a major city of the 'Aad.
- Al-Arab al-Ariba, "The Pure Arabs", came from Qahtanite Arabs.
- Al-Arab al-Mustarabah, “The Arabized Arabs”, also known as the Adnanite Arabs, were the progeny of Ismail, the firstborn son of the patriarch Abraham.
The Hawazin tribe and the Quraysh tribe are considered ‘Adnani Arabs. Much of the lineage provided before Ma'ad relies on biblical genealogy, so questions persist concerning the accuracy of this segment of Adnanite Arab genealogy. Adnanites are believed to be the descendants of Ishmael through Adnan but the traditional Adnanite lineage does not match the biblical line exactly. According to Arab tradition, the Adnanites are called Arabised because it is believed that Ishmael spoke Aramaic and Egyptian then learnt Arabic from a Qahtanite Yemeni woman that he married. Therefore, the Adnanites are descendants of Abraham. Modern historiography "unveiled the lack of inner coherence of this genealogical system and demonstrated that it finds insufficient matching evidence".
Pre-Islamic history
Earliest known activity
The tribes of Arabia were engaged in nomadic herding and agriculture by around 6000 BCE. By about 1200 BCE, a complex network of settlements and camps was established. Kingdoms in the southern region of Arabia began to form and flourish. The earliest Arab tribes emerged from Bedouins. A major source of income for these people was the taxation of caravans, as well as tributes collected from non-Bedouin settlements. They also earned income by transporting goods and people in caravans pulled by domesticated camels across the desert. Scarcity of water and of permanent pastoral land required them to move constantly.Identities, settlements, and languages
The Nabataeans and Qedarites were Arabian tribes on the edges of the fertile Crescent who expanded into the Southern Levant by the 5th century BCE, causing the displacement of Edomites. Their inscriptions were predominantly in Aramaic, but it's assumed their native spoken language was a variant of Old Arabic, one of many Ancient North Arabian languages, which is attested in inscriptions as early as the 1st century, the same period in which the Nabataean alphabet slowly evolved into the Arabic script by the 6th century. This is attested by Safaitic inscriptions and the many Arabic personal names in other Nabataean inscriptions. From about the 2nd century BCE, a few inscriptions from Qaryat al-Faw reveal a dialect no longer considered proto-Arabic, but pre-classical Arabic. Five Syriac inscriptions mentioning Arabs have been found at Sumatar Harabesi, one of which dates to the 2nd century CE.The Ghassanids, Lakhmids and Kindites were the last major migration of pre-Islamic Arabs out of Yemen to the north. The Ghassanids increased the Arabian presence in the Syria, They mainly settled in the Hauran region and spread to modern-day Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, and Jordan.
Interaction with Jewish tribes
Around the 4th century CE, there developed a dominant Jewish presence in pre-Islamic Arabia, with many Jewish clans and tribes settling around the Red Sea coast. At the mid to the end of the fourth century, the Himyarite Kingdom adopted Judaism, thus spreading it in the region even further. The German Orientalist Ferdinand Wüstenfeld believed that the Jews established a state in northern Hejaz. The Quran details early encounters between early Muslim tribes and Jewish tribes in major cities in western Arabia, with some clans like Banu Qurayza and Banu Nadir being described as having a seat of power in the region.Rise of Islam and the Arab conquests
Following the early Muslim conquests in the 7th and 8th centuries, the tribes of Arabia begun migrating beyond the Arabian Peninsula in large numbers into different lands and regions across the Middle East and North Africa.West Asia
Migrations into the Levant
On the eve of the Rashidun Caliphate's conquest of the Levant, 634 AD, Syria's population mainly spoke Aramaic; Greek was the official language of administration. Arabization and Islamization of Syria began in the 7th century, and it took several centuries for Islam, the Arab identity, and language to spread; the Arabs of the caliphate did not attempt to spread their language or religion in the early periods of the conquest, and formed an isolated aristocracy. The Arabs of the caliphate accommodated many new tribes in isolated areas to avoid conflict with the locals; caliph Uthman ordered his governor, Muawiyah I, to settle the new tribes away from the original population. Syrians who belonged to Monophysitic denominations welcomed the peninsular Arabs as liberators.Migrations into Mesopotamia
The migration of Arab tribes to Mesopotamia began in the seventh century, and by the late 20th century constituted about three quarters of the population of Iraq. A large Arab migration to Mesopotamia followed the Muslim conquest of Mesopotamia in 634, which saw an increase in the culture and ideals of the Bedouins in the region. The second Arab tribal migration to northern Mesopotamia was in the 10th century when the Banu Numayr migrated there.Migrations into Persia
After the Arab conquest of Persia in the 7th century, many Arab tribes settled in different parts of Iran, notably Khorasan and Ahwaz, it is the Arab tribes of Khuzestan that have retained their identity in language and culture to the present day while other Arabs especially in Khorasan were slowly Persianised. Khorasani Arabs were mainly contingent from Nejdi tribes such as Banu Tamim.There was a great influx of Arab tribes into Khuzestan from the 16th to the 19th century, including the migration of the Banu Ka'b and Banu Lam from the Arabian desert. Tribalism is a significant characteristic of Arab population in Khuzestan.
Subsequent Arab migrations into Iran, primarily across the Gulf, involved movements of Arabs from eastern Saudi Arabia and other Gulf States into the Hormozgan and Fars provinces after the 16th century. These include Sunni Huwala and Achomi people, who compromise of both fully Arab and mixed Arab-Persian families. The Arabs on the Iranian side of the Gulf tend to speak a dialect much closer to Gulf Arabic opposed to the Khuzestani Arabic which is closer to Iraqi Arabic.
North Africa
Migrations into Egypt
Ancient Bedouins and nomadic groups inhabited the Sinai Peninsula, located in Asia, ever since ancient times.Prior to the Muslim conquest of Egypt, Egypt was under Greek and Roman influence. Under the Umayyad Caliphate, Arabic became the official language in Egypt rather than Coptic or Greek. The caliphate also allowed the migration of Arab tribes to Egypt. The Fatimid era was the peak of Bedouin Arab tribal migrations to Egypt.