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al-Arab al-Ariba

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Last updated: September 23rd, 2025 at 3:22 pm · Est. Reading Time: 4 minutes

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Definition and Etymology

The term al-ʿArab al-ʿĀriba (العرب العاربة), usually translated as “the pure Arabs” or “the original Arabs,” appears in early Islamic genealogical traditions to describe tribes believed to be the indigenous inhabitants of Arabia. 1 The adjective ʿāriba derives from the root ʿ-r-b (ع-ر-ب), which is associated with eloquence and Arabness, and thus implies an inherent, authentic Arab identity. 2 In contrast, Islamic sources also refer to al-ʿArab al-Mustaʿriba (العرب المستعربة) — the “Arabized Arabs” — who were considered later adopters of Arabic language and culture. 3

Traditional Classification of the Arabs

Classical genealogists such as Ibn al-Kalbī, al-Masʿūdī, and Ibn Ḥazm divided the Arabs into three categories. 4 The first were al-ʿArab al-Bāʾida (العرب البائدة), or the “Extinct Arabs,” who included legendary peoples such as ʿĀd, Thamūd, Ṭasm, and Jadīs, believed to have vanished long before Islam. 5 The second were al-ʿArab al-ʿĀriba (العرب العاربة), regarded as the “Pure Arabs” and identified as the descendants of Qaḥṭān. 6 The third category was al-ʿArab al-Mustaʿriba (العرب المستعربة), the “Arabized Arabs,” understood as the descendants of Ismāʿīl ibn Ibrāhīm, who had settled in Arabia and gradually assimilated into Arabic language and culture. 7 This tripartite classification was more than simple genealogy; it reflected socio-political constructs and identity-making processes in the formative centuries of Islamic historiography. 8

Qaḥṭān and the South Arabian Lineage

The Qaḥṭānī lineage became the cornerstone of the idea of the “pure Arabs”. 9 Qaḥṭān (قحطان) was often equated by Muslim historians with the biblical Joktan of Genesis, a connection that served to link Arab genealogies with broader Abrahamic traditions. 10 [ His homeland was believed to be Yemen and the highlands of South Arabia, a region that became central to the narrative of Arab origins. 11 Major tribal confederations traced back to al-ʿArab al-ʿĀriba include Ḥimyar, Kalb, Ḥaḍramawt, Kinda, Ṭayy, Lakhm, Judhām, Madhḥij, Aws, and Khazraj. These tribes played significant roles both in pre-Islamic polities such as the Ḥimyarite and Kindite kingdoms and in the early Islamic period, most notably with the Ansar of Medina (Aws and Khazraj). 12

Language and Identity

While genealogical traditions claim the Qaḥṭānīs as the “original Arabs,” modern scholarship points to a more complex linguistic and cultural picture. 13 South Arabian inscriptions in Sabaic, Qatabanic, Minaic, and Ḥaḍramitic belong to a linguistic family distinct from Old Arabic. In epigraphic sources, the term “Arab” (ʾʿrb, ʿrb) appears primarily in reference to nomadic groups in northern and central Arabia, not to the settled populations of the South. 14 This suggests that the concept of “Arabness” was historically fluid, shifting over time from a limited linguistic designation in antiquity to a broader ethnic and cultural identity shaped by Islamic-era genealogy. 15

Historiographical Significance

The category of al-ʿArab al-ʿĀriba functioned as both an ethnographic and ideological construct in early Islamic thought. 16 It served to assert the antiquity and nobility of southern Arab lineages, to provide ancestral legitimacy to major tribes that took part in the Islamic conquests, and to distinguish between those who were considered native Arabs and those who were said to have become Arabized over time. 17 Later historians, such as Ibn Khaldūn, criticized these genealogical claims as speculative, yet they remained influential in shaping Arab self-perceptions and cultural identity across centuries. 18

Modern Scholarly Perspectives

Modern historians and epigraphists — among them Christian Robin, Ahmed al-Jallad, and Michael Macdonald — caution against taking genealogical traditions at face value. 19 Their work highlights the linguistic diversity of ancient Arabia, the political motives that underpinned genealogical constructions in the Islamic period, and the likely mythological character of figures such as Qaḥṭān. 20 As such, al-ʿArab al-ʿĀriba is best understood not as a historical ethnos but as a historiographical construct produced within the intellectual and political frameworks of early Islam 21

Further Reading

https://historyofislam.org/sources-of-advent-of-islam

EndNotes

  1. Werner Caskel, and Gert Strenziok, Ğamharat an-Nasab. (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1966), 1:10.
  2. Al-Mas`ūdī, `Alī ibn al-Ḥusayn, and Abū al-Qāsim Pāyandah, Murūj al-Dhahab (Tihrān: Shirkat-i Intishār-i `Ilmī va Farhangī, 1991), 5:70–72.
  3. ‘Alī ibn Aḥmad Ibn Ḥazm, and ’Abd al-Salam Muhammad Harun, Jamharat Ansab al-’arab Li-Ibn Muhammad ’Ali ibn sa’aid ibn Hazm al-Andalusi; Tahqiq wa-Ta’liq ’Abd al-Salam Muhammad Harun (Qahirah: dar al-Ma’arif, 2010), 5–7.
  4. Patricia Crone, The Nativist Prophets of Early Islamic Iran (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 101.
  5. G. R. Hawting, The Idea of Idolatry and the Emergence of Islam (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 22–24.
  6. Patricia Crone, The Nativist Prophets of Early Islamic Iran: Rural Revolt and Local Zoroastrianism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014), 102.
  7. Schiettecatte, Jérémie. “2013 – Les Préludes de l’islam. Ruptures et Continuités des Civilisations du Proche-Orient, de l’Afrique Orientale, de l’Arabie et de l’Inde à la Veille de l’Islam.” Academia.edu. November 29, 2024. https://www.academia.edu/3154681/2013_Les_pr%C3%A9ludes_de_l_islam_Ruptures_et_continuit%C3%A9s_des_civilisations_du_Proche_Orient_de_l_Afrique_orientale_de_l_Arabie_et_de_l_Inde_%C3%A0_la_veille_de_l_Islam.
  8. Ibn Khaldūn, Kitāb al-ʿIbar, ed. M. Quatremère (Paris, 1867), 2:201.
  9. Montgomery Watt, Muhammad at Medina (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1956), 11.
  10. Ahmad Al-Jallad, The religion and rituals of the nomads of pre-Islamic Arabia: A reconstruction based on the Safaitic inscriptions (Leiden ; Boston: Brill, 2022) 13-15.
  11. Denmark Copenhagen, Arabian archaeology and epigraphy (Oxford: Munksgaard, Blackwell, 1990), 28.
  12. Robert Hoyland, Arabia and the Arabs: From the Bronze Age to the Coming of Islam (London: Routledge, 2001), 231–33.
  13. Werner Caskel, and Gert Strenziok, Ğamharat an-Nasab (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1966), 1:20.
  14. Hodgson, The Venture of Islam (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974), 1:153.
  15. MASUDI, Meadows of Gold (TAYLOR & FRANCIS, 2015), 1:75.
  16. Ibn Khaldūn, Muqaddimah, trans. Franz Rosenthal (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1967), 2:282.
  17. Robin, Christian Julien. “La guerre en Arabie au IIIe siècle de l’ère chrétienne, d’après les faits d’armes d’un prince Ḥimyarite.” Syria 100 (2023): 211–81. https://doi.org/10.4000/syria.15420.
  18. Patricia Crone, The Nativist Prophets of Early Islamic Iran: Rural Revolt and Local Zoroastrianism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014), 103.
  19. Ahmad Al-Jallad, The religion and rituals of the nomads of pre-Islamic Arabia: A reconstruction based on the Safaitic inscriptions (Leiden ; Boston: Brill, 2022), 22.
  20. Ahmad Al-Jallad, The religion and rituals of the nomads of pre-Islamic Arabia: A reconstruction based on the Safaitic inscriptions (Leiden ; Boston: Brill, 2022) 13-15.
  21. Robert Hoyland, Arabia and the Arabs: From the Bronze Age to the Coming of Islam (London: Routledge, 2001), 231–33.
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