The Arab World (Arabic: العالم العربي; Transliteration: al-`alam al-`arabi) refers to Arabic-speaking countries stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the east, and from the Mediterranean Sea in the north to the Horn of Africa and the Indian Ocean in the southeast. It consists of 24 countries and territories with a combined population of 325 million people straddling two continents.
Contents [hide]1 Language, politics, religion and people 1.1 Non-Arab people in the Arab World 2 States and disputed territories 2.1 Modern Boundaries 2.2 Modern Economies 3 Geography 3.1 Historical boundaries 3.1.1 Arab Africa 3.1.2 Arabia and the Arab Middle East 4 References 5 See also 6 External links
[edit] Language, politics, religion and peopleThe Arabic language forms a unifying feature of the Arab World. Though different areas use local dialects of Arabic, all share in the use of the standard classical language (see diglossia). This contrasts with the situation in the wider Islamic World, where Arabic retains its cultural prestige primarily as the language of religion and of theological scholarship, but the populace generally do not speak the Arabic language.
The linguistic and political denotation inherent in the term "Arab" is generally dominant over genealogical considerations. Thus, individuals with little or no direct ancestry from the Arabian Peninsula could identify as, or be considered to be, Arabs partially by virtue of their mother tongue (see Who is an Arab?). However, this definition is disputed by many peoples of non-Arab origins; thus Egyptians for example may or may not identify as Arabs (see Egypt#Identity), but Egyptians enriched the Arabic language.
The Arab League, a political organization intended to encompass the Arab World, defines as Arab,
“ a person whose language is Arabic, who lives in an Arabic speaking country, who is the citizen of an Arab country, whose father is an Arab, and who is in sympathy with the aspirations of the Arabic speaking peoples. ”
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 due to the Camp David Accords (1978).
The majority of people in the Arab World adhere to Islam and the religion has official status in most countries. Shariah law exists partially in the legal system in some countries, especially in the Arabian peninsula, while others are secular. The majority of the Arab countries adhere to Sunni Islam. Iraq, however, is a Shia majority country (65%), while Lebanon, Yemen, Kuwait, and Bahrain have large Shia minorities. In Saudi Arabia, the eastern province Al-Hasa region has Shia minority and the southern province city Najran has Ismalia Shiite minority too. Ibadi Islam is practised in Oman and Ibadis make up 75% population of the country.
There are sizable numbers of Christians, living primarily in Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Palestine and Sudan. Formerly, there were significant minorities of Arab Jews throughout the Arab World; however, the establishment of the state of Israel prompted their subsequent mass emigration and expulsion within a few decades. Today small Jewish communities remain, ranging anywhere from ten in Bahrain to 7,000 in Morocco and more than 1,000 in Tunisia. Overall, Arabs make up less than one quarter of the world's 1.4 billion Muslims, a group sometimes referred to as the Islamic world.
Some Arab countries have substantial reserves of petroleum. The Persian Gulf is particularly well-furnished: four Persian Gulf states, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, and Qatar, are among the top ten oil or gas exporters worldwide. In addition, Algeria, Libya, Iraq, Bahrain, Morocco, Western Sahara, and Sudan all have smaller but significant reserves. Where present, these have had significant effects on regional politics, often enabling rentier states, 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.
According to UNESCO, the average rate of adult literacy (ages 15 and older) in this region is 66%, and this is one of the lowest rates in the world.[citation needed] In Mauritania, Morocco, and Yemen, the rate is lower than the average, at barely over 50 %. On the other hand, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and Jordan record a high adult literacy rate of over 90%. The average rate of adult literacy shows steady improvement, and the absolute number of adult illiterates fell from 64 million to around 58 million between 1990 and 2000-2004. Overall, the gender disparity in adult literacy is high in this region, and of the illiteracy rate, women account for two-thirds, with only 69 literate women for every 100 literate men. The average GPI (Gender Parity Index) for adult literacy is 0.72, and gender disparity can be observed in Egypt, Morocco, and Yemen. Above all, the GPI of Yemen is only 0.46 in a 53% adult literacy rate [1]PDF (374 KiB).
Literacy rate is higher among the youth than adults. Youth literacy rate (ages 15-24) in the Arab region increased from 63.9 to 76.3 % from 1990 to 2002. The average rate of GCC States [2] was 94 %, followed by the Maghreb at 83.2% and the Mashriq at 73.6 %. However, more than one third of youth remain illiterate in the Arab LDCs (Comoros, Djibouti, Mauritania, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen) [3]PDF (158 KiB).In 2004, the regional average of youth literacy is 89.9% for male and 80.1 % for female [4].
The average population growth rate in Arab countries is 2.3%.
