Arab culture

In early civilizations, the term Arab referred only to a nomadic population of animal herders from a specific region of the Middle East. Over the centuries, as the Islamic religion spread, so did the reach of Arabic peoples. In the twenty-first century, millions of individuals in more than thirty countries speak the language and are considered Arab people. Arab culture developed from deep roots in religion and tradition that still cross over into every aspect of their lives. This includes the music and art they enjoy, the buildings in which they live, work, and pray, to the ways they dress, eat, and interact with one another. The vast and varied geographic reach of Arab culture adds local flavor to each country’s unique set of cultural norms and values.

Background

Prior to the spread of Islam, the term Arabic was used to describe people living on the Arabian Peninsula, where Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, and other nations are today. The term Arab meant “inhabitant of the desert” and was synonymous with a nomadic existence. Early Arab people were mostly animal herders who moved their camels, goats, or sheep through the harsh Arabian Desert. Other Arab people lived in the region’s early trading centers.

In the seventh century, Islam was founded in the region and began to spread throughout the Arabian Peninsula. By the eighth century, the religion had spread throughout the Middle East, northern Africa, and into Asia and Spain. Islam’s sacred text, the Quran, was written in the Arabic language, and the number of Arabic speakers grew along with the religion. In addition to a common religion and language, Arabic cultural traditions included a deep respect for the pastoral way of life. Arabic culture was adopted extensively throughout the regions where Islam spread and integrated among local traditions.

In the twentieth century, Arab values and traditions began to modernize, largely due to the growth of industry, the influence of Western civilization, and the movements toward urbanization and away from family-based tribal communities. During this time, increasing numbers of Arab people moved from smaller villages to cities and towns. This afforded them greater opportunities in education and employment. However, many Arab people remained in isolated villages and maintained traditional cultural values. Those moving into the cities shifted to identifying themselves by nationality rather than by tribe and kinship. Those in smaller communities maintained their historical tribal connections.

In today’s world, the term Arabic includes a diverse assortment of populations from a wide geographic area that includes the Mauritanian region of Africa, southwestern Iran, the Maghreb region of northern Africa, and the Arabian Peninsula, as well as the countries of Egypt, Sudan, Iraq, and Syria. Because this group of people is so highly diverse and there is such extensive regional variation, identifying one culture solely as “Arab” is an impossible task. Arab is not a race but a cultural term describing those who speak Arabic.

Overview

With the Arabic-speaking world encompassing such a diverse region, the Arab culture also demonstrates an extensive range of styles and elements, though most are firmly based in Islamic religious traditions, or represent a combination of religious and local traditions. The Arab culture features three distinct types: urban culture, rural culture, and the pastoral nomadic culture, each having its own set of values and social mores. The most common aspects of the Arab cultures can be seen in their religions, languages, and expressions, the culture of Arab women, traditional clothing, food, music, art, and architecture.

Religion and Arab culture

Before the rise of Islam, Judaism and Christianity were the dominant religions in the Arabian Peninsula. These monotheistic religions all developed in the Middle East and share common values involving respect for others and performing charitable actions and good works. In the Islamic faith, believers are required to pray in Arabic. Between 80 and 90 percent of individuals living in Arabic-speaking countries identify as Muslim in the twenty-first century.

Language and Arab culture

The Arabic language was a Semitic language that evolved from Nabataean Aramaic about the fourth century CE. Arabic is very similar to both Hebrew and Aramaic. It features twenty-eight letters, just two more than the English alphabet’s twenty-six letters. However, unlike English, Arabic is written from right to left and always in cursive script. There are three major forms of Arabic: Modern Standard Arabic, Qur’anic Arabic (also called Classical Arabic), and Colloquial Arabic. Modern Standard Arabic, or MSA, is the official modern language of Arab speakers, and is widely used within governments, universities and schools, workplaces, and the media. Additionally, each region and country has its own colloquial version of the language, often very different from traditional MSA. There are eight major dialectal groups of the language, including Egyptian, Hassaniya, Maghrebi, and Mesopotamian, among others.

Arabic is the official language of more than twenty countries, and it is an official co-language or spoken in many more countries. In those countries, Arabic was a minority language. All of these countries also have secondary official languages, as well as a multitude of Indigenous languages spoken within the region. More than 422 million people are estimated to speak Arabic, ranking the language as the fifth most spoken in the world.

Arabic culture for women

Whether or not they are Muslim, many Arabic women living in these countries hold to beliefs and values ascribed to the religion. In more traditional societies, such as Saudi Arabia, this may include covering their bodies and sometimes faces with special clothing as a sign of modesty and respect. Some also choose to limit social interactions to family members or other women only. Arab culture includes keeping family as the cornerstone of life, with maternal figures held in great esteem. Many Arab women maintain a traditional role as the caretaker of their family and household.

Arabic women can earn money outside of the home and have the right to keep everything they earn without contributing to the financial management of the household. In Arabic culture, it is the husband’s responsibility to provide the family with needs such as a home, food, and clothing. Arabic women also have the right to a dowry, which includes money and other valuables, so they can maintain financial freedom after marriage.

Cultural representations of self and others

Arab people attribute great significance to body language and use a variety of body language signals to communicate. These include hand movements, head movements, sounds like tongue clicking, and holding the body in specific ways. These types of signals can be used to communicate pleasure as well as dissatisfaction or to communicate a feeling or impression. For example, looking at the clock during a visit from an Arabic friend or while attending a meeting in an Arabic country implies to the clock-watcher’s guest or colleague that they are not worth the time being spent and thus it is considered disrespectful and insulting.

Personal space proximity is much smaller for Arab people than other global groups, like Americans, for example. This group prefers to be closer when speaking to others than is considered comfortable in Western cultures. Eye contact is also different for Arab and Western cultures. Wherein eye contact that is prolonged makes Americans uncomfortable, in Arab-speaking regions, it is seen as showing interest, and is often used to gauge the truthfulness in intention.

Both men and women hug and kiss each cheek in greetings and goodbyes. This includes close friends, acquaintances, and business colleagues. In traditional Arab cultures, this may only include individuals of the same sex, as social interaction between unrelated or unmarried males and females is generally avoided. In more liberal Arab cultures, those of the opposite sex will greet each other similarly, though this is much less common. In business, Arab people prefer to build trust and respect by establishing a relationship to determine if they are willing to work with the individuals they are engaging.

As for elders and individuals in positions of authority, Arab people treat these individuals with deference and the utmost respect. In the Arab culture, it is considered disrespectful to criticize, mock, or shout at older adults or authority figures.

Cultural traditions in clothing

Many Arab men dress in traditional robes, though globalization has seen an increase in Arabic men wearing Western suits and casual clothes. Some Arab men wear a traditional head covering called a keffiyeh, although the cultural use of the garment varies. Those who wear it display pride in their cultural identities or convey other messages by wearing different colors or styles of the head scarf.

Traditional Muslim values require women to cover all limbs to maintain modesty. This may include wearing a headscarf or hijab, which could include a face-covering veil. However, this style is not required of all Arab people or Muslims; it is required only of those women who follow traditional directives. These fashion choices are based less on a desire to be fashionable and more on religious foundation and cultural background.

Cultural traditions in food

Muslim Arab people are restricted by Islamic principles from eating pork or imbibing alcohol. Some Arabic societies will use their hands in addition to utensils for eating, while others only use tableware and rarely touch the food with their hands. Those who use their hands usually use their thumb and pointer finger on their right hand to pick up food. Because Arab people live across the world, their traditional food varies by location. However, many Arab people break their fast during Ramadan with dates, rice dishes like biryani, and lentil dishes.

Cultural traditions in art and music

The arts of the Arab world include a vast selection of elements and artistic traditions, including those representing the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim faiths, and cultures as different as Mesopotamian, Egyptian, and Asian. The art coming from modern Arab cultures includes both traditional works, like sculptures, textiles, and metalwork, as well as more modern media, like photography and installation art.

Arab music developed with the earliest Arab civilizations, and became quite sophisticated in the Middle Ages when the art and science of music flourished under the support of the royal courts of Spain and the Middle East. As Islam spread from the Arabian Peninsula into other regions, popular Arab musical forms changed, adding elements from other cultures in areas like Mesopotamia and Byzantium. During the Crusades, continued globalization of cultures spread Arabic music into Europe. This music strongly influenced Islamic mysticism as ancient religious orders believed music and dance to be essential to spiritual transcendence. In Arab culture, belly dancing is closely associated with music and remains an important part of many social gatherings, such as weddings and births. Belly dancing is associated with fertility and femininity, and the dance is a celebration.

Architecture as a cultural backdrop

Arab architecture is known for its diversity as it encompasses influences from Christianity, Islam, and other regional religions. It also includes intricate and elaborate elements borrowed from the range of cultures within the Arab world. Early architectural influences included fortifications for cities and buildings to protect the inhabitants from outside invaders. Of note, the Arabic-speaking region included three of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World: the Hanging Gardens of Babylon (Iraq), the Great Pyramid of Giza (Egypt), and the Lighthouse of Alexandria (Egypt).

When Judaism and Christianity ruled the region, supporters of these religions built elaborate churches and temples in which to worship. During the expansion of the Arab-Islamic Empire, the region’s architecture also expanded to include exquisitely-appointed and intricately-developed structures that expressed devotion to Allah. Of the first structures built, the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, is the oldest-surviving and best-known monument to Arab architecture. It is distinctly representative of the Islamic architectural style, and includes rich decoration like marble, metal plaque-work, and intricate tile mosaics. It is built on a site rooted in both Judaic and Islamic traditions. The Dome and the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, Syria, represent the traditional Islamic architectural style combined with elements of Christian architectural style, such as columns and arches, domes, and tile mosaics.

Arab architecture also features elements rooted in Byzantine architecture, Persian architecture—as represented by the Mughal palaces and the ornate Taj Mahal in India—and Ottoman architecture—as featured in the slim minarets of the Selimiye Mosque in Turkey. Of the region’s secular architecture, the Alhambra in Spain is one of the most well-known globally. Constructed in the late ninth century, the fortress includes exquisite ornamental features like decorative carvings and geometric stalactite designs, which is a recurrent feature in Islamic architectural style.

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