Arabization

Arabization during the early Caliphate

The earliest and most significant instance of "Arabization" was the first Muslim conquests of Muhammad and the subsequent Rashidun and Umayyad Caliphates. They built a Muslim Empire that grew well beyond the Arabian Peninsula, eventually reaching as far as Spain in the West and Central Asia to the East.

Eastern Arabia

Further information: Eastern Arabia, Bahrani people, and Dilmun civilization

The sedentary people of pre-Islamic Eastern Arabia were mostly Aramaic speakers and to some degree Persian speakers, while Syriac functioned as a liturgical language.^[7][8] According to Serjeant, the indigenous Bahrani people are the Arabized "descendants of converts from the original population of Christians (Aramaeans), Jews and ancient Persians (Majus) inhabiting the island and cultivated coastal provinces of Eastern Arabia at the time of the Arab conquest".^[9] In pre-Islamic times, the population of eastern Arabia consisted of partially Christianized Arabs, Aramean agriculturalists and, Persian-speaking Zoroastrians^[10].^[7][9]

Zorastarianism was one of the major religions of pre-Islamic eastern Arabia; the fire-worshippers of eastern Arabia were known as Majoos in pre-Islamic times.^[11]

Sasanian weaponry, 7th century.

North Africa and Iberia

Neither North Africa nor the Iberian Peninsula were strangers to Semitic culture: the Phoenicians and later the Carthaginians dominated parts of the North African and Iberian shores for more than eight centuries until they were suppressed by the Romans and by the following Vandal and Visigothic invasions, and the Berber incursions. After the Arab invasion of North Africa, The Berber tribes allied themselves with the Umayyad Arab Muslim armies in invading Spain. Later, in 743 AD, the Berbers defeated the Arab Umayyad armies and expelled them for most of West North Africa (al-Maghreb al-Aqsa) during the Berber Revolt, but not the territory of Ifriqiya which stayed Arab (East Algeria, Tunisia, and West-Libya). Centuries later some migrating Arab tribes settled in some plains while the Berbers remained the dominant group mainly in desert areas including mountains. The Inland North Africa remained exclusively Berber until the 11th century; the Iberian Peninsula, on the other hand, remained Arabized, particularly in the south, until the 16th century.

After finishing the establishment of the Arab city of Al Mahdiya in Tunisia and spreading the Islamic Shiite faith, some of the many Arab Fatimids left Tunisia and parts of eastern Algeria to the local Zirids (972–1148).^[12] The invasion of Ifriqiya by the Banu Hilal, a warlike Arab Bedouin tribe encouraged by the Fatimids of Egypt to seize North Africa, sent the region's urban and economic life into further decline.^[12] The Arab historian Ibn Khaldun wrote that the lands ravaged by Banu Hilal invaders had become completely arid desert.^[13][14]

While maternal ancestry lineages of Arab countries are highly diverse, in the paternal ancestry lineage Haplogroup J (Y-DNA) follows the history of Arab conquests.

Arabization in Islamic Iberia

After the Umayyad conquest of Hispania, under the Arab Muslim rule Iberia (al-Andalus) incorporated elements of Arabic language and culture. The Mozarabs were Iberian Christians who lived under Arab Islamic rule in Al-Andalus. Their descendants remained unconverted to Islam, but did however adopt elements of Arabic language and culture and dress. They were mostly Roman Catholics of the Visigothic or Mozarabic Rite. Most of the Mozarabs were descendants of Hispano–Gothic Christians and were primarily speakers of the Mozarabic language under Islamic rule. Many were also what the Arabist Mikel de Epalza calls "Neo-Mozarabs", that is Northern Europeans who had come to the Iberian Peninsula and picked up Arabic, thereby entering the Mozarabic community.

Besides Mozarabs, another group of people in Iberia eventually came to surpass the Mozarabs both in terms of population and Arabization. These were the Muladi or Muwalladun, most of whom were descendants of local Hispano-Basques and Visigoths who converted to Islam and adopted Arabic culture, dress, and language. By the 11th century, most of the population of al-Andalus was Muladi, with large minorities of other Muslims, Mozarabs, and Sephardic Jews. It was the Muladi, together with the Berber, Arab, and other (Saqaliba and Zanj) Muslims who became collectively termed in Christian Europe as "Moors".

The Andalusian Arabic language was spoken in Iberia during Islamic rule.

Arabization in Islamic Sicily, Malta, and Crete

A similar process of Arabization and Islamization occurred in the Emirate of Sicily (as-Siqilliyyah), Emirate of Crete (al-Iqritish), and Malta (al-Malta), albeit for a much shorter time span than al-Andalus. However, this resulted in the now defunct Sicilian Arabic language to develop, from which the modern Maltese language derives.

Arabization in Sudan

Map showing the late medieval migration of Arabs into Sudan

In the 12th century, the Arab Ja'alin tribe migrated into Nubia and Sudan and formerly occupied the country on both banks of the Nile from Khartoum to Abu Hamad. They trace their lineage to Abbas, uncle of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. They are of Arab origin, but now of mixed blood mostly with Northern Sudanese and Nubians.^[15][16] They were at one time subject to the Funj kings, but their position was in a measure independent. Johann Ludwig Burckhardt said that the true Ja'alin from the eastern desert of Sudan are exactly like the Bedouin of eastern Arabia.

In 1846, many Arab Rashaida migrated from Hejaz in present-day Saudi Arabia into what is now Eritrea and north-east Sudan after tribal warfare had broken out in their homeland. The Rashaida of Sudan and Eritrea live in close proximity with the Beja people. Large numbers of Bani Rasheed are also found on the Arabian Peninsula. They are related to the Banu Abs tribe.^[17] The Rashaida speak Hejazi Arabic.

In 1888, the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain claimed that the Arabic spoken in Sudan was "a pure but archaic Arabic". The pronunciation of certain letters was like Syrian and Khaleeji Arabic, and not like the Egyptian Arabic which is very different from both. In Sudanese Arabic, the g letter is being the pronunciation for Kaph and J letter is being the pronunciation for Jim.^[18]

Arabization in Sahel

Baggara belt

In Medieval times, the Baggara Arabs a grouping of Arab ethnic groups who speak Shuwa Arabic (which is one of the regional varieties of Arabic in Africa) migrated into Africa, mainly between Lake Chad and southern Kordofan.

Currently, they live in a belt stretching across Sudan, Chad, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, Central African Republic and South Sudan and numbering over six million people. Like other Arabic speaking tribes in the Sahara and the Sahel, Baggara tribes have origin ancestry from the Juhaynah Arab tribes who migrated directly from the Arabian peninsula or from other parts of north Africa. ^[19]

Arabic is an official language of Chad and Sudan as well as a national language in Niger, Mali, Senegal and South Sudan. In addition, Arabic dialects are spoken of minorities in Nigeria, Cameroon and Central African Republic.

Arabization in Algeria, Morocco, Libya, and Tunisia

Arabization means introduction of Arabic education and an increased usage of Arabic where French was used before. Governments in North African countries have long promoted Arabization as a nationalist platform. Both Literary Arabic and Dārija are on the rise.

After the Evian Accords, while trying to build an independent and unified nation state, the Algerian government under Ahmed Ben Bella’s rule began a policy of “Arabization”. Indeed, due to the lasting and deep colonization, French was the major administrative and academic language in Algeria, even more than in neighbor countries. The unification and research of a true Algerian identity was to be found in language and religion, as stated in the 1963 constitution : “La langue arabe est la langue nationale et officielle de l’État.” (Arabic is the official state language) and “L'islam est la religion de l'État [...]” (Islam is the state religion) and confirmed in 1969, 1976, 1989, 1996 and 2018. In 1964 the first practical measure was the Arabization of primary education and the introduction of religious education, the state relying on Egyptian teachers – belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood and thus religious^[20] – due to its lack of literary Arabic-speakers. In 1968, during the Houari Boumediene regime, Arabization was extended, and a law^[21] tried to enforce the use of Arabic for civil servants, but again, the major role played by French was only diminished. Many laws followed, trying to ban French, Algerian Arabic and Berber from schools, administrative acts and street signs, but this revived Berber opposition to the state and created a distinction between those educated in Arabic and those in French, the latter still being favored by elites. The whole policy was not efficient, French had kept its importance^[22] and Berber opposition was growing, contributing to the 1988 October Riots. Some Berber groups (such as the Kabyle people) felt that their ancestral culture and language were threatened and that Arabic was given more focus at the expense of their own identity. After the Algerian Civil War, the government tried to enforce even more the use of Arabic,^[23] but the relative effect of this policy after 1998 (the limit fixed for complete Arabization) forced the heads of state to make concessions toward Berber languages, recognising it in 2002^[24] as another national language that will be promoted. But because of the unicity of literary Arabic, which gives an advantage to it over divided Berber languages, Arabization is still an objective for the state, for example with laws on civil and administrative procedures.^[25]

Arabization in Iraq

Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party had aggressive Arabization policies involving driving out many pre-Arab and non-Arab races – mainly Kurds, Assyrians, Yezidis, Shabaks, Armenians, Turcomans, Kawliya, Circassians and Mandeans – replacing them with Arab families. This policy drove out 500,000 people in the years 1991-2003. The Baathists also pressured many of these ethnic groups to identify as Arabs, and restrictions were imposed upon their languages, cultural expression and right to self-identification. The Anfal campaign destroyed many Kurdish, Assyrian and other ethnic minority villages and enclaves, and their inhabitants were often forcibly relocated to large cities in the hope that they would be Arabized.

Arabization in Islamic State of Iraq and Levant campaign

While formally committed to Islamism and polyethnicity, the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) has frequently targeted non-Arab groups such as such as Kurds, Assyrians, Armenians, Turcomans, Shabaks and Yezidis.^[26][27] It has often been claimed that these (ISIL) campaigns were a part of an organized Arabization plan.^[26][27] A Kurdish official in Iraqi Kurdistan claimed that in particular the ISIL campaign in Sinjar was a textbook case of Arabization.^[28]

It has been suggested in academia that modern Islamism in general and the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) in particular would be motivated and driven by a desire to reinforce Arab cultural dominion over the religion of Islam.^[29]

Arabization in Mauritania

Mauritania is an ethnically-mixed country that is economically and politically dominated by those who identify as Arabs and/or Arabic-speaking Berbers. About 30% of the population is considered "Black African", and other 40% are Arabized Blacks and they suffer high levels of discrimination.^[30][30] Recent Black Mauritanian protesters have complained of "comprehensive Arabization" of the country.^[31]

Arabization in Sudan

Arab Janjaweed tribes have been accused of killing hundreds of thousands of non-Arab Sudanese in a 2004/05 genocide in Darfur.

Sudan is an ethnically-mixed country that is economically and politically dominated by the society of central northern Sudan, where many strongly identify as Arabs and Muslims. The population in southern Sudan consists mostly of Christian and Animist Nilotic people. The Second Sudanese Civil War (1983–2005) is typically characterized as a conflict between these two groups of people. In the 2011 Southern Sudanese independence referendum, the latter voted for secession and became independent.

The unrelated War in Darfur was an uprising in the western Darfur region of Sudan, caused by oppression of Darfur's non-Arab Fur, Zaghawa and Masalit ethnic groups.^[32][33] The Sudanese government responded to the armed resistance by carrying out a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Darfur's non-Arabs. This resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians, in mass displacements and coercive migrations, and in the indictment of Sudan's president Omar al-Bashir for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court.^[34] Former US Secretary of State Colin Powell described the situation as a genocide or acts of genocide.^[35] The perpetrators were Sudanese military and police and the Janjaweed, a Sudanese militia group recruited mostly among arabized indigenous Africans and a small number of Bedouin of the northern Rizeigat.^{[36][37][38][39]}

Arabization in Syria

Since the independence of Syria in 1946, the ethnically diverse Rojava region in northern Syria suffered grave human rights violations, because all governments pursued a most brutal policy of Arabization.^[40] While all non-Arab ethnic groups within Syria, such as Assyrians, Armenians, Turcomans and Mhallami have faced pressure from Arab Nationalist policies to identify as Arabs, the most archaic of it was directed against the Kurds. In his report for the 12th session of the UN Human Rights Council titled Persecution and Discrimination against Kurdish Citizens in Syria, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights held:^[41] "Successive Syrian governments continued to adopt a policy of ethnic discrimination and national persecution against Kurds, completely depriving them of their national, democratic and human rights — an integral part of human existence. The government imposed ethnically-based programs, regulations and exclusionary measures on various aspects of Kurds’ lives — political, economic, social and cultural."

The Kurdish language was not officially recognized, it had no place in public schools and was outlawed at the workplace.^[40][41][42] Children as well as businesses could not be given Kurdish names.^[40][41] Books, music, videos and other material could not be published in Kurdish language.^[40][42] Expressions of Kurdish identity like songs and folk dances were outlawed^[41][42] and frequently prosecuted under a purpose-built criminal law against "weakening national sentiment".^[43] Celebrating the Nowruz holiday was often constrained.^[40][42]

In 1973 the Syrian authorities confiscated 750 square kilometers of fertile agricultural land in Al-Hasakah Governorate, which were owned and cultivated by tens of thousands of Kurdish citizens, and gave it to Arab families brought in from other provinces.^[41][44] In 2007 in another such scheme in Al-Hasakah governate, 6,000 square kilometers around Al-Malikiyah were granted to Arab families, while tens of thousands of Kurdish inhabitants of the villages concerned were evicted.^[41] These and other expropriations of ethnic Kurdish citizens followed a deliberate masterplan, called "Arab Belt initiative", attempting to depopulate the resource-rich Jazeera of its ethnic Kurdish inhabitants and settle ethnic Arabs there.^[40]

Historic reversions

The Reconquista in Spain is the most notable example for a historic reversion of Arabization. The process of Arabization and Islamization was reversed as the mostly Romance speaking Christian kingdoms in the north of the peninsula gradually re-conquered al-Andalus and re-Romanized and re-Christianized the region.

Reversions in modern times

In modern times, there have been various political developments to reverse the process of Arabization. Notable among these are:

• The 1929 introduction of the Latin Alphabet instead of the Arabic Abjad in Turkey as part of the Kemalist reforms.
• The 1948 founding of the non-Arab state of Israel in a previously Arab dominated area.^[45]
• The recent establishment of Kurdish-dominated polities in the Mesopotamia as Iraqi Kurdistan and multi-ethnic Democratic Federation of Northern Syria.^[46]
• Berberism, a Berber political-cultural movement of ethnic, geographic, or cultural nationalism present in Algeria, Morocco and broader North Africa including Mali. The Berberist movement is in opposition to Islamist-driven cultural Arabization and the pan-Arabist political ideology and also associated with secularism.
• There is a longstanding campaign in Iran to remove Arabic loanwords from the Persian language or even give up the Arabic Abjad for a different script, e.g. the Manichaean alphabet.
• Arabization of Malays was criticized by Sultan Ibrahim Ismail of Johor.^[47] He urged the retention of Malay culture instead of introducing Arab culture.^[48] He called on people to not mind unveiled women, mixed sex handshaking and to using Arabic words in place of Malay words.^[49] He suggested Saudi Arabia as a destination for those who wanted Arab culture.^[50][51] He said that he was going to adhere to Malay culture himself.^[52][53] Abdul Aziz Bari said that Islam and Arab culture are intertwined and criticized the Johor Sultan for what he said.^[54] Datuk Haris Kasim also criticized the Sultan for his remarks, he leads the Selangor Islamic Religious Department.^[55]