There are five major ethnic groups in the contemporary Middle East: Arabs, Persians, Turks, Jews, and Kurds.
The story of the Turks has been told in the early stage, and here is the story of the Arabs.
Arabs were mainly found in the Arab countries of present-day West Asia and North Africa, with a total population of 400 million. The Palestinians in the current uproar of the Kazakh-Israeli conflict are Arabs, and the image of being bullied is always shown on the television news, and the Arabs in history have also been glorious, although not for a long time.
one, the legend of the origin of the Arabs
The Arabs are a people with a long history, and every nation in the world has ancient legends about its origins. Modern nationalism relies on these historical myths, which cannot be accurately verified, but are widely recognized, to shape the peoples in the modern sense.
According to the story of religious texts such as the Bible and the Qur'an, both the Arabs and the Israelites were descendants of Abraham (called Ibrahim in the Qur'an). Abraham was the ninth grandson of Shem and the tenth grandson of Noah.
According to legend, Abraham's wife, Sarah, who had never had children, persuaded Abraham to take her own maid, Hagar, as a concubine. Soon after Hagar gave birth to a son, Ismaili (Ishmael), the mother was more expensive than the son, and Hagar kept quarreling with Sarah. In desperation, Abraham took Hagar's mother and son to the Mecca Valley.
He went back to Palestine to live with Sarah, and when he returned home, he was very sad and asked God for a son, and the old Sara gave birth to a son, Ishaq, or Isaac. Isaac had two sons, Esau and Jacob (the Qur'anic is the white of the Elba), and Jacob later changed his name to Israel, the ancestors of the Israelites.
The Qur'an records that when Hagar and Ishmael first arrived in Mecca, they searched for water between the mountains of Saphat and Melwa, and God had mercy on them and released a spring near the Ka'ba, which was later called the Gurging Spring. To this day, Muslims who go to Mecca for the Hajj have to make seven treks between the two mountains of Safa and Marwa before drinking from the springs. When the Hums near Mecca found out, they came to exchange their cattle for the right to use the springs, and Hagar and her son settled down in Mecca. When Ishmael grew up, he married a daughter of the lord Hum, and their descendants were Arabs.
II. Historical Documents of the Arabs
1. In 853 BC, Arabs appeared in Assyrian literature.
2. In 530 BC, the Persian cuneiform script ** appeared in Alabia. Post-Greco-Roman historians refer to the people on the Arabian Peninsula as Arabs.
3. The Arabs have the meaning of desert in the Semitic language, and before the birth of Islam, the Arabs referred to the nomadic Bedouins of the peninsula.
III. The Faith of the Former Arabs
1. Before the birth of Islam, the Arabs believed in polytheism and fetishism, and there were religious affairs to worship in Mecca at that time. Judaism in Palestine and **religion in Rome did not take root among the Arabs.
2. The prosperity of the ** made Mecca a hub to Yemen, Syria and Najd. At that time there was a rumor in Mecca that a prophet was going to appear. The Quraish tribe of Mecca had a high status and held the keys to the Kaaba. In response to such rumors, Abu Sufyan, a key administrator of Mecca, from the Umayyad family, was particularly vigilant. He emphasized that preachers needed prophets to enlighten them religiously, but he was a man who approached God by idols and did not need prophets.
3. But many Meccans learned about the monotheistic idea that salvation was possible, which was attractive to many. In other words, Mecca at this time was ready to wait for the guidance of the prophet.
Fourth, the establishment of Islam
The Prophet Muhammad was born in the Hashemite family of the Quraish tribe in the city of Mecca, where he was fostered by his uncle when his parents died at a young age, and lived as a domestic servant.
Muhammad, 25, married a 40-year-old widow, Hedi, a well-known merchant and beauty in Mecca.
In the year Muhammad claimed to have received the divine revelation of Allah, founded Islam, began preaching and preaching, and soon had a group of followers.
In July, according to the Qur'an, Muhammad traveled from Mecca to Jerusalem one night, accompanied by angels, on a heavenly horse, and from there he "ascended the night" to see Allah. This is an important factor in Jerusalem's recognition as a holy city by Muslims.
In order to escape the Mecca polytheistic aristocracy (Subyan of the Umayyad family)** led the Muslims to Medina, where they founded the "Umah", a Muslim community based on a common faith. He also signed the "Medina Agreement" with the locals, and led the believers to conquer the east and west in ten years, and his power gradually grew.
Muhammad conquered Mecca and established the dominance of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula.
The tribes of the Arabian Peninsula adopted Islam and thus unified the Arabian Peninsula.
Muhammad died in Medina in June and was buried in the Prophet's Mosque in Medina.
Muhammad had three daughters and one boy, all of whom died young, with the exception of his daughter Fatima, who married Ali, the adopted son of the Prophet and his uncle, Ali, who was an important figure in Islam.
End of this article. In the next issue, we will tell the story of the Arabs - the four caliphs.
My gzh: Herodotus, a 40-year-old real estate man, is not panicked at all, like a tree at the door, the flowers are in full bloom, and the branches are luxuriant. As the Palestinian-Israeli conflict heats up, a special topic on the Middle East has been opened, and this is the twenty-third article. Let's use common sense to fend off the prejudices of the times.