I noticed many think that whoever comes from the Middle East is Arab. I'm from the Middle East and I do not consider myself an Arab. Iraqis think of themselves as Chaldeans, Syrians consider themselves Assyrians, Lebanese think of themselves as Maronites, and Egyptians consider themselves as Copts. Coincidentally all of these peoples I mentioned are Christian.

Now Arab can mean many things. If you speak Arabic and share its culture, your an Arab. If you are part of the Middle East, your an Arab. However in the sense of ethnicity how many people in the Middle East are Arab? I mean we all look alike going from dark brown skin to light olive oil skin so who are the 'true Arabs?' The best answer I got is that most of the Arabs today are what is today the Arabian peninsula: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, and the United Arab Emirates.

People say the term 'Arab' is a modern term for what was then referred to as 'Bedhouins,' which were desert nomads. Anyone have any thoughts on this? Because most I've talked to think the Middle East is all Arab because of the language and what we look like.

yeah just because u speak arabic and have arabic culture doesn't mean your ethnicity is arabs. The truest of arabs actually are yemenis and hijazis. even many saudi could not be considered true arabs esepcailly in the northern areas because they have mixed with assyrians, iraqis and jordianians over the centuries. places like UAE qatar have mixed with iranians and indians.

Yes and the full name of North Korea is Democratic Republic of Korea because they are pure democratic

As for lakhmid and Ghassanid:

First, these were insignificant small settlements among Bedouins that some of the Arab nationalists have find in some obscure so called history text and try to make exaggerate posts all over the internet trying to show Arabs have a history that goes before 7^th century

Second, they were not in Iraq as in Mesopotamia they were in the desert south of Fertile Crescent AKA Arabia

Third, they don�t have much to do with the Afro-Semites who lived in the southwestern Arabian peninsula AKA what is today is referred to as Arabs

In the same way that someone from France can look Spanish and vice versa - it's easily possible but still, in general, french and Spanish people are distinguishable from each other.

Hello To You All

Well I will give my take in this argument since I read a lot about the early history of Arabs and I have a good knowledge in genealogy.

First and Mr Hani wont like it at all Arabs existed as a considerable force in Mesopotamia and Syria since the 1^st century BC, Remember Zanobia the Arab Queen that defeated the Persians? As for the Lakhmids their existence is a fact since they allied themselves with the Persians since they ruled the area known today as Al-Muthanna in southern Iraq. Ptolomy in his Geography mentioned their existence and the Arab cites like Petra and Hira are a testimony to their importance and finally did you ever hear of Philip the Arab?

Second and this is a fact that most minority nationalist, especially the maronites, won�t like is that Arabs DO make the majority of the population in all Arab counties except the Maghreb (Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco). More than 50% of Syria�s are settled Arab tribes and more than 20% others trace their ancestry to one of the great Arab tribes especially the Druz and most of the Orthodox Christian population there. In Lebanon, most of the assyrian maronites emigrated after the crusades and catholic Christian Arab tribes (like Al-Khazen family for instance) moved there under pressure from the majority orthodox population who always were loyal to Muslim rulers. As for Iraq my friend Ahmad the Fighter (I hope that no harm comes to him and may things get better in Iraq) has more knowledge. The reason for that is simple. A very common misconception is that Arabia never had much population and it was always an empty waste land, well this is true for the total size of Arabia but not true for the available resources. Those resources were limited and the large number of people contesting for the little that existed means turbulent years and either victory or migration. And thus we find that all Semitic peoples emigrated from Arabia whenever sources were scarce and the strong tribes stay, the first to emigrate were the Akkadian, followed by the Canaanite, the Amorites, the Assyrians etc. The last people to emerge from Arabia and the ones that had the power there were the Arabs. And they did emigrate, at small waves initially and then by the Christian era large waves started coming. First there were the Qahtani tribes of Azd from which the Lakhmid and Ghassanids trace their ancestry. Then there were the Adnani tribes like Tamim, Bakr and Taghlub. In the last 150 years before Islam Arabia was so turbulent that some historians mention more than 1200 battles known as �the Day of the Arabs� between various tribes mostly on grazing and pastor land as well as water. The reason was the population explosion that happened and the shifting climates that lead to droughts. Arab tribes soon clashed with Byzantine and Persian empires and in the first years of Islam, they united to defeat the Persians in Dhi-Qar and they infiltrated deep into Iraq and even reached present day Mosul and Khuzestan and settled there before Islam came and quickly converted to the new religion. With the advancement of Islam large numbers of Byzantines chose exile rather than live under Islamic rule (including many Christian Arabs) and the vacuum was filled with new immigrants from the peninsula as well as many nobles from the former Sassanid Empire. Throughout the ages, the Arab population was largely safe from famines, plagues and wars that plagued the Middle East and by the 16^th century and the Pax Ottomana (I don�t know if the word is correct) Bedouins formed the majority of the population and many of them started resettling after peace was restored and they now formed a majority. Same thing but a different story in Egypt where Copts are definitely not Arab although they are immersed in Arab culture (strong tribal traditions, turbans and many social behaviors particular to Arabs and not previously know to exist before among Copts) so as a considerable number Muslim descendents of Coptic converts especially in Upper Egypt region. Most Egyptians are from the Lower Egypt which was settled by three huge waves of Arab tribes (7^th century, 11^th century and 14^th century) which came to replace the ever shrinking population there in addition to other small but significant emigrations up to the 19^th century.

My third point is Who is an Arab? An Arab means a guy immersed in Arab culture and tradition, a guy who is Arabized, with all due respect Copts cannot define themselves away from Arab culture since the live and think in the Arab and many gave important contributions to Arab culture and thought (Wadee Filasteen, Salamah Musa and many others) not in the Archaic Coptic language which few outside the church know it. Many of the Syrian and Iraqi leaders of Arab nationalism were ironically Kurds, Turks and Assyrians, Khalil Mardam Bey was Turk, Hosni Al-Zaeem was a Kurd and Michel Aflaq was Assyrian I think they all chose Arab culture as their nationality rather than confine themselves in regional or religious identities that give them little space for expression.

Thank You

Al-Jassas ibn Murrah  

You are taking about an area larger than Europe. Of course they will be variations.

The Gulfs hagve a lot of African , iranian and S Asian influence.

I think Al-Jassas covered what i was going to write here infact even better ,

Save it for the tavern or another place.