Editing Arabs (section)

=== Language ===
{{main|Arabic}}
[[File:Learning_Arabic_calligraphy.jpg|thumb|[[Arabic calligraphy]] is the artistic practice of writing Arabic script in a decorative and stylized manner.]]
[[Arabic]] is a [[Semitic language]] of the [[Afroasiatic languages|Afro-Asiatic family]].<ref>{{Cite news|title=Al-Jallad. The earliest stages of Arabic and its linguistic classification (Routledge Handbook of Arabic Linguistics, forthcoming)|via=Academia.edu|url=https://www.academia.edu/18470301|access-date=27 October 2016 |last1=Al-Jallad |first1=Ahmad }}</ref> The first evidence for the emergence of the language appears in military accounts from 853 BCE. Today it has developed widely used as a ''[[lingua franca]]'' for more than 500 million people. It is also a [[Liturgy#Islam|liturgical]] language for 1.7 billion [[Muslims]].<ref name="pewmuslim422">{{Cite web|date=27 January 2011|title=Executive Summary|url=http://www.pewforum.org/2011/01/27/the-future-of-the-global-muslim-population|access-date=22 December 2011|website=Future of the Global Muslim Population|publisher=Pew Research Center}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=27 January 2011|title=Table: Muslim Population by Country|work=Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project|publisher=Features.pewforum.org|url=http://features.pewforum.org/muslim-population/?sort=Pop2030|access-date=18 May 2014}}</ref> Arabic is one of six [[official languages of the United Nations]],<ref>{{Cite news|title=UN official languages|publisher=United Nations|url=https://www.un.org/en/sections/about-un/official-languages/|access-date=18 October 2015}}</ref> and is revered in [[Islam]] as the language of the [[Quran]].<ref name="pewmuslim422" /><ref>{{Cite web|date=27 January 2011|title=Table: Muslim Population by Country &#124; Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project|url=http://features.pewforum.org/muslim-population/?sort=Pop2030|access-date=18 May 2014|publisher=Features.pewforum.org}}</ref>

Arabic has two main registers. [[Classical Arabic]] is the form of the [[Arabic]] language used in literary texts from [[Umayyad Caliphate|Umayyad]] and Abbasid times (7th to 9th centuries). It is based on the medieval dialects of [[Tribes of Arabia|Arab tribes]]. [[Modern Standard Arabic]] (MSA) is the direct descendant used today throughout the Arab world in writing and in formal speaking, for example, prepared speeches, some radio broadcasts, and non-entertainment content,{{sfn|Bin-Muqbil|2006|p=14}} while the [[Lexis (linguistics)|lexis]] and [[Stylistics (linguistics)|stylistics]] of [[Modern Standard Arabic]] are different from [[Classical Arabic]]. There are also various regional dialects of colloquial spoken Arabic that both vary greatly from both each other and from the formal written and spoken forms of Arabic.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Arabs facts, information, pictures – articles about Arabs|url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences-and-law/anthropology-and-archaeology/people/arabs|access-date=18 December 2017|website=Encyclopedia.com}}</ref>