Editing Arab world (section)

==History==
{{main|History of the Arabs}}
{{see also|History of the Middle East}}

===Early history===
{{further|Pre-Islamic Arabia|Arabization}}
[[File:Great Mosque of Kairouan Panorama - Grande Mosquée de Kairouan Panorama.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|The [[Mosque of Uqba|Great Mosque of Kairouan]] (also called the Mosque of Uqba) was founded in 670 by the Arab general and conqueror Uqba ibn Nafi.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sm0BfUKwct0C&q=kairouan+oldest+mosques+arab+world&pg=PA248 |title=Hans Kung, ''Tracing the Way: Spiritual Dimensions of the World Religions'', éd. Continuum International Publishing Group, 2006, p. 248 |date=31 August 2006 |access-date=17 October 2011|isbn=9780826494238 |last1=Küng |first1=Hans |publisher=A&C Black }}</ref> The [[Mosque of Uqba|Great Mosque of Kairouan]] is located in the historic city of [[Kairouan]] in [[Tunisia]].]]

The [[Arabs]] historically originate as a [[Central Semitic languages|Central Semitic]] group in the northern [[Arabian Peninsula]], the [[Southern Levant]] and the [[Syrian Desert]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=al-Jallad |first1=Ahmad |title=Ancient Levantine Arabic: A Reconstruction Based on the Earliest Sources and the Modern Dialects |year=2012 |publisher=ProQuest LLC |isbn=9781267445070 |url=https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED547427}}</ref> Arab [[Tribes of Arabia|tribes]] and federations included the [[Nabataeans]], [[Tanukhids]], [[Salihids]], [[Ghassanids]].

Arab expansion is due to the [[early Muslim conquests]] of the 7th and 8th centuries. [[Iraq]] was [[Muslim conquest of Persia|conquered]] in 633, [[Levant]] (modern Syria, Israel, Palestine, Jordan and Lebanon) was [[Muslim conquest of the Levant|conquered]] between 636 and 640 CE. [[History of Muslim Egypt|Egypt]] was [[Arab conquest of Egypt|conquered]] in 639, and gradually Arabized during the medieval period. A distinctively [[Egyptian Arabic]] language emerged by the 16th century. The [[Maghreb]] was also [[Muslim conquest of the Maghreb|conquered]] in the 7th century, and gradually Arabized under the [[Fatimids]].
Islam [[Islamization of the Sudan region|was brought]] to [[Sudan]] from Egypt during the 8th to 11th centuries. The culture of Sudan today depends on the tribe, some have a pure Nubian, [[Beja people|Beja]], or Arabic culture and some have a mixture of Arab and [[Nubian people|Nubian]] elements.<ref>Bechtold, Peter R (1991). "More Turbulence in Sudan" in ''Sudan: State and Society in Crisis''. ed. John Voll ([[Westview Press]] (Boulder)) p. 1.</ref>

===Ottoman and colonial rule===
The Arab [[Abbasid Caliphate]] fell to the [[Mongol invasions]] in the 13th century. Egypt, the Levant and Hejaz also came under the Turkish [[Mamluk Sultanate (Cairo)|Mamluk Sultanate]].

By 1570, the Turkish [[Ottoman Empire]] controlled most of the Arab world. However, [[Morocco]] remained under the rule of the [[Zenata]] [[Wattasid dynasty]], which was succeeded by the [[Saadi dynasty]] in the 16th to 17th centuries. The [[Ajuran Sultanate]] also held sway in the southern part of the Horn region.

The sentiment of [[Arab nationalism]] arose in the second half of the 19th century along with other [[Rise of nationalism under the Ottoman Empire|nationalisms within the declining Ottoman Empire]].
[[File:Ibrahim_Pasha_During_his_Final_Years.jpg|alt=Ibrahim Pasha During his Final Years|thumb|252x252px|[[Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt]], leader of the [[Egyptian Army]] in the [[Egyptian–Ottoman War (1831–1833)|Egyptian Ottoman War]]]]
When the Ottoman Empire collapsed as a result of [[World War I]], much of the Arab world came to be controlled by the European colonial empires: [[Mandatory Palestine]], [[Mandatory Iraq]], [[British protectorate of Egypt]], [[French protectorate of Morocco]], [[Italian Libya]], [[French occupation of Tunisia|French Tunisia]], [[French colonization of Algeria|French Algeria]], [[Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon]] and the so-called [[Trucial States]], a British protectorate formed by the sheikhdoms on the former "Pirate Coast".

These Arab states only gained their independence during or after [[World War II]]: the [[Republic of Lebanon]] in 1943, the [[Syrian Arab Republic]] and the [[Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan]] in 1946, the [[Kingdom of Libya]] in 1951, the [[Kingdom of Egypt]] in 1952, the [[Kingdom of Morocco]] and [[Tunisia]] in 1956, the [[Republic of Iraq]] in 1958, the [[Somali Republic]] in 1960, [[Algeria]] in 1962, and the [[United Arab Emirates]] in 1971.

By contrast, [[Saudi Arabia]] had fragmented with the fall of the Ottoman Empire, and was [[Unification of Saudi Arabia|unified]] under [[Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia]] by 1932.

The [[Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen]] also seceded directly from the Ottoman Empire in 1918. [[Oman]], apart from brief intermittent Persian and Portuguese rule, has been self-governing since the 8th century.

===Rise of Arab nationalism===
{{further|Islam and modernity|Arab Cold War}}
[[File:Nasser,_Arif_and_Ben_Bella.jpg|alt=Three important men walking alongside each other.|right|thumb|Egyptian president [[Gamal Abdel Nasser]] (center) receiving Algerian president [[Ahmed Ben Bella]] (right) and Iraqi president [[Abdul Salam Arif|Abdel Salam Arif]] (left) for the [[1964 Arab League summit (Alexandria)|Arab League summit]] in Alexandria, September 1964.]]
The Arab League was formed in 1945 to represent the interests of the Arabs, and especially to pursue the political unification of the Arab world, a project known as [[Pan-Arabism]].<ref name="encyclopedia1" /><ref name="encyclopedia2" />
There were some short-lived attempts at such unification in the mid-20th century, notably the [[United Arab Republic]] of 1958 to 1961.
The Arab League's main goal is to unify politically the Arab populations so defined. Its permanent headquarters are located in [[Cairo]]. However, it was moved temporarily to [[Tunis]] during the 1980s, after Egypt was expelled for signing the [[Camp David Accords (1978)]].

Pan-Arabism has mostly been abandoned as an ideology since the 1980s, and was replaced by [[Pan-Islamism]] on one hand, and individual nationalisms on the other.

===Modern conflicts===
{{main|List of modern conflicts in the Middle East}}

====Unification of Saudi Arabia====
The [[unification of Saudi Arabia]] was a 30-year-long military and political campaign, by which the various [[tribe]]s, [[sheikhdom]]s, and [[emirate]]s of most of the [[Arabian Peninsula]] were conquered by the [[House of Saud]], or ''Al Saud'', between 1902 and 1932, when the modern-day [[Saudi Arabia|Kingdom of Saudi Arabia]] was proclaimed. Carried out under the charismatic [[Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia|Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud]], this process created what is sometimes referred to as the ''Third Saudi State'', to differentiate it from the [[First Saudi State|first]] and [[Second Saudi State|second]] states that existed under the Al Saud clan.

The Al-Saud had been in exile in [[Ottoman Iraq]] since 1893 following the disintegration of the Second Saudi State and the rise of [[Emirate of Ha'il|Jebel Shammar]] under the [[Rashidi dynasty|Al Rashid]] clan. In 1902, Ibn Saud recaptured [[Riyadh]], the Al Saud dynasty's former capital. He went on to subdue the rest of [[Nejd]], [[Al-Ahsa Oasis|Al-Hasa]], [[Jebel Shammar]], [[Asir]], and [[Hejaz]] (location of the [[Islam|Muslim]] holy cities of [[Mecca]] and [[Medina]]) between 1913 and 1926. The resultant polity was named the [[Kingdom of Nejd and Hejaz]] from 1927 until it was further consolidated with Al-Hasa and [[Qatif]] into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932.

====Arab–Israeli conflict====
{{further|Arab–Israeli conflict}}
[[File:Egyptianbridge.jpg|alt=Egyptianbridge|thumb|240x240px|Egyptian vehicles crossing the [[Suez Canal]] on October 7, 1973, during the [[Yom Kippur War]]]]
The establishment of the [[Israel|State of Israel]] in 1948 has given rise to the [[Arab–Israeli conflict]], one of the major [[ongoing conflicts|unresolved geopolitical conflicts]].

The Arab states in changing alliances were involved in a number of wars with Israel and its western allies between 1948 and 1973, including the [[1948 Arab–Israeli War]], the 1956 [[Suez Crisis]], the [[Six-Day War]] of 1967, and the [[Yom Kippur War]] of 1973.
An [[Egypt–Israel peace treaty]] was signed in 1979.

====Iran–Iraq War====
{{Main|Iran–Iraq War}}
[[File:Operation Chelcheragh (8).gif|thumb|The [[Iran–Iraq War]] (1980–1988) killed more than 500,000 people before a UN-brokered ceasefire ended it]]
The [[Iran–Iraq War]] (also known as the First Gulf War and by various other names) was an armed conflict between the armed forces of Iraq and Iran, lasting from September 1980 to August 1988, making it the second longest conventional war of the 20th century. It was initially referred to in English as the "Gulf War" prior to the "Gulf War" of 1990.

The war began when Iraq invaded Iran, launching a simultaneous invasion by air and land into Iranian territory on 22 September 1980 following a long history of border disputes, and fears of Shia Islam insurgency among Iraq's long-suppressed Shia majority influenced by the Iranian Revolution. Iraq was also aiming to replace Iran as the dominant Persian Gulf state. Although Iraq hoped to take advantage of the revolutionary chaos in Iran (see [[Iranian Revolution]], 1979) and attacked without formal warning, they made only limited progress into Iran and were quickly repelled by the Iranians who regained virtually all lost territory by June 1982. For the next six years, Iran was on the offensive.

====Lebanese Civil War====
{{main|Lebanese Civil War}}
The [[Lebanese Civil War]] was a multifaceted civil war in Lebanon, lasting from 1975 to 1990 and resulting in an estimated 120,000 fatalities. Another one million people (a quarter of the population) were wounded,{{citation needed|date=January 2016}} and today approximately 76,000 people remain displaced within Lebanon. There was also a mass exodus of almost one million people from Lebanon.

====Western Sahara conflict====
{{main|Western Sahara conflict}}
The [[Western Sahara War]] was an armed struggle between the Sahrawi Polisario Front and Morocco between 1975 and 1991, being the most significant phase of the Western Sahara conflict. The conflict erupted after the withdrawal of Spain from the Spanish Sahara in accordance with the Madrid Accords, by which it transferred administrative control of the territory to Morocco and Mauritania, but not the sovereignty. In 1975, Moroccan government organized the Green March of some 350,000 Moroccan citizens, escorted by around 20,000 troops, who entered Western Sahara, trying to establish Moroccan presence.

While at first met with just minor resistance by the Polisario, Morocco later engaged a long period of guerilla warfare with the Sahrawi nationalists. During the late 1970s, the Polisario Front, desiring to establish an independent state in the territory, successively fought both Mauritania and Morocco. In 1979, Mauritania withdrew from the conflict after signing a peace treaty with the Polisario. The war continued in low intensity throughout the 1980s, though Morocco made several attempts to take the upper hand in 1989–1991. A cease-fire agreement was finally reached between the Polisario Front and Morocco in September 1991.

====North Yemen Civil War====
{{main|North Yemen Civil War}}
The [[North Yemen Civil War]] was fought in North Yemen between royalists of the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen and factions of the Yemen Arab Republic from 1962 to 1970. The war began with a coup d'état carried out by the republican leader, Abdullah as-Sallal, which dethroned the newly crowned Imam al-Badr and declared Yemen a republic under his presidency. The Imam escaped to the Saudi Arabian border and rallied popular support.

====Somali Civil War====
{{main|Somali Civil War}}
The [[Somali Civil War]] is an ongoing civil war taking place in [[Somalia]]. It began in 1991, when a coalition of clan-based armed opposition groups ousted the nation's long-standing military government.

Various factions began competing for influence in the power vacuum that followed, which precipitated an aborted UN peacekeeping attempt in the mid-1990s. A period of decentralization ensued, characterized by a return to customary and religious law in many areas as well as the establishment of autonomous regional governments in the northern part of the country. The early 2000s saw the creation of fledgling interim federal administrations, culminating in the establishment of the [[Transitional Federal Government]] (TFG) in 2004.<ref name="Eanbkois2"/>

In 2006, the TFG, assisted by Ethiopian troops, assumed control of most of the nation's southern conflict zones from the newly formed [[Islamic Courts Union]] (ICU). The ICU splintered into more radical groups, notably [[Al-Shabaab (militant group)|Al-Shabaab]], which have since been fighting the Somali government and its [[AMISOM]] allies for control of the region. In 2011, a coordinated military operation between the Somali military and multinational forces began, which is believed to represent one of the final stages in the war's Islamist insurgency.<ref name="Eanbkois2">{{cite news|url=https://www.voanews.com/a/east-african-nations-back-kenyan-offensive-in-somalia-132374053/147039.html|publisher=Voice of America|title=E. African Nations Back Kenyan Offensive in Somalia|first=Peter|last=Heinlein|date=22 October 2011|access-date=23 October 2011}}</ref>

====Arab Spring====
{{Main|Arab Spring|Libyan Civil War|Syrian civil war}}
[[File:Budaiya highway protest 08.JPG|thumb|[[2011 Bahraini uprising]]]]
The [[Arab Spring|popular protests throughout the Arab world]] of late 2010 to the present have been directed against authoritarian leadership and associated [[political corruption]], paired with demands for more democratic rights. The two most violent and prolonged conflicts in the aftermath of the Arab Spring are the Libyan Civil War and Syrian Civil War.

===Petroleum===
[[File:Oil and Gas Infrastructure Persian Gulf (large).gif|thumb|[[Petroleum|Oil]] and [[Natural gas|gas]] pipelines and fields]]
While the Arab world had been of limited interest to the European colonial powers, the [[British Empire]] being mostly interested in the [[Suez Canal]] as a route to [[British India]], the economic and geopolitical situation changed dramatically after the discovery of large [[petroleum]] deposits in the 1930s, coupled with the vastly increased demand for petroleum in the west as a result of the [[Second Industrial Revolution]].

The [[Persian Gulf]] is particularly well-endowed with this strategic [[raw material]]: five Persian Gulf states, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the UAE, Kuwait, and Qatar, are among the top ten petroleum or gas exporters worldwide. In Africa, Algeria (10th world) and Libya are important gas exporters. Bahrain, Egypt, Tunisia, and Sudan all have smaller but significant reserves. Where present, these have had significant effects on regional politics, often enabling [[rentier state]]s, leading to economic disparities between oil-rich and oil-poor countries, and, particularly in the more sparsely populated states of the Persian Gulf and Libya, triggering extensive labor immigration. It is believed that the Arab world holds approximately 46% of the world's total proven oil reserves and a quarter of the world's natural-gas reserves.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.economist.com/news/special-report/21580630-even-rich-arab-countries-cannot-squander-their-resources-indefinitely-haves-and|title=The haves and the have-nots|newspaper=The Economist}}</ref>

[[Islamism]] and [[Pan-Islamism]] were on the rise during the 1980s. The [[Hezbollah]], a militant Islamic party in [[Lebanon]], was founded in 1982.
[[Islamic terrorism]] became a problem in the Arab world in the 1970s to 1980s. While the [[Muslim Brotherhood]] had been active in Egypt since 1928, their militant actions were limited to assassination attempts on political leaders.

===Recent history===
[[File:SaddamStatue.jpg|thumb|The toppling of [[Saddam Hussein]]'s statue in [[Firdos Square]] in [[Baghdad]] shortly after the American [[2003 invasion of Iraq|invasion of Iraq]] in 2003]]
[[File:Destroyed house in the south of Sanaa 12-6-2015-3.jpg|thumb|[[Saudi Arabian–led intervention in Yemen|Saudi Arabian-led airstrikes]] in [[Yemen]], June 2015]]
Today, Arab states are characterized by their [[autocratic ruler]]s and [[Democracy in the Middle East|lack of democratic control]]. The 2016 ''[[Democracy Index]]'' classifies [[Lebanon]], [[Iraq]] and [[Palestine]] as "hybrid regimes", [[Tunisia]] as a "flawed democracy" and all other Arab states as "authoritarian regimes". Similarly, the 2011 [[Freedom House]] report classifies the [[Comoros]] and [[Mauritania]] as "[[Electoral democracy|electoral democracies]]",<ref>{{cite web|url=http://freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=22&year=2008 |title=Freedom House Country Report |publisher=Freedomhouse.org |date=10 May 2004 |access-date=13 February 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110510005050/http://freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=22&year=2008 |archive-date=10 May 2011 }}</ref> [[Lebanon]], [[Kuwait]] and [[Morocco]] as "partly free", and all other Arab states as "not free".

The invasion of Kuwait by Iraq forces, led to the 1990–91 [[Gulf War|Persian Gulf War]]. [[Egypt]], [[Syria]] and [[Saudi Arabia]] joined a multinational coalition that opposed Iraq. Displays of support for Iraq by [[Jordan]] and [[Palestine]] resulted in strained relations between many of the Arab states. After the war, a so-called "Damascus Declaration" formalized an alliance for future joint Arab defensive actions between Egypt, Syria, and the GCC states.<ref>Egypt's Bid for Arab Leadership: Implications for U.S. Policy, By Gregory L. Aftandilian, Published by Council on Foreign Relations, 1993, {{ISBN|0-87609-146-X}}, pages 6–8</ref>

A chain of events leading to the destabilization of the authoritarian regimes established during the 1950s throughout the Arab world became apparent during the early years of the 21st century. The [[2003 invasion of Iraq|2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq]] led to the collapse of the [[Baathist]] regime and ultimate [[execution of Saddam Hussein]].

A growing class of young, educated, secular citizens with access to modern media such as [[Al Jazeera Arabic|Al Jazeera]] (since 1996) and communicating via the [[internet]] began to form a third force besides the classical dichotomy of Pan-Arabism vs. Pan-Islamism that had dominated the second half of the 20th century. These citizens wish for reform in their country's religious institutions.<ref>Boms, Nir Tuvia and Hussein Aboubakr.  [https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/13/1/28/htm "Religions."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221116161759/https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/13/1/28/htm |date=16 November 2022 }} ''MDPI''.  2022.  20 January 2022.</ref>

In Syria, the [[Damascus Spring]] of 2000 to 2001 heralded the possibility of democratic change, but the Baathist regime managed to suppress the movement.

In 2003, the [[Egyptian Movement for Change]], popularly known as ''Kefaya'', was launched to oppose the [[Mubarak regime]] and to establish democratic reforms and greater [[civil liberties]] in Egypt.