What was the population of late Pre-Islamic Arabia and the population of Arabic speakers before Islam?What...
How to prepare vegetables for a sandwich that can last for several days in a fridge?
How do I add a variable to this curl command?
What is the purpose of easy combat scenarios that don't need resource expenditure?
How to properly claim credit for peer review?
How to satisfy a player character's curiosity about another player character?
Why is this code uniquely decodable?
How would an AI self awareness kill switch work?
Is it a fallacy if someone claims they need an explanation for every word of your argument to the point where they don't understand common terms?
c++ How can I make an algorithm for finding variations of a set without repetition (i.e. n elements, choose k)?
Why didn't Eru and/or the Valar intervene when Sauron corrupted Númenor?
How to acknowledge an embarrassing job interview, now that I work directly with the interviewer?
What is better: yes / no radio, or simple checkbox?
Connecting top and bottom of adjacent circles
If I delete my router's history can my ISP still provide it to my parents?
How to add multiple differently colored borders around a node?
Do authors have to be politically correct in article-writing?
What to do when being responsible for data protection in your lab, yet advice is ignored?
Table enclosed in curly brackets
Why can I easily sing or whistle a tune I've just heard, but not as easily reproduce it on an instrument?
Where is this triangular-shaped space station from?
Do my Windows system binaries contain sensitive information?
What's the rationale behind the objections to these measures against human trafficking?
Can luacode be used in the preamble of a standalone-type document?
Finding ratio of the area of triangles
What was the population of late Pre-Islamic Arabia and the population of Arabic speakers before Islam?
What was the religion of the Arabic people before conversion to Islam?What was the structure of religious beliefs among the Arabic peoples before conversion to Islam?How prevalent was pork in Arabia before Arabs conversion to Islam?What is the origin of the Arabs in pre-Islamic Yemen and Arabia?What was the population within the Aurelian Walls of Rome during it's peak?What was the population of Indian subcontinent in 1000 AD?How popular was Arabic in Syria before Islamic conquest?What was the population of the Roman empire around 210 AD?Why did the father of algebra speak Arabic instead of Persian?Why didn't the linguistic split overlap with the religion split in Prussian Silesia?
The Arab tribes were spread out widely, and the land of Arabia was not as viable to live on as the Fertile Crescent, so I would expect the population to be lower. But, how much in an estimated range was the population exactly before Islam and its conquests according to historians?
As a related question, how many people spoke Arabic at the time in and outside of Arabia?
As a follow up question, how much of a role did the population play in the ability of the Arabs to conquer what they did?
middle-ages language population arabia
asked 7 hours ago
The ZThe Z
23417
add a comment |
The Arab tribes were spread out widely, and the land of Arabia was not as viable to live on as the Fertile Crescent, so I would expect the population to be lower. But, how much in an estimated range was the population exactly before Islam and its conquests according to historians?
As a related question, how many people spoke Arabic at the time in and outside of Arabia?
As a follow up question, how much of a role did the population play in the ability of the Arabs to conquer what they did?
middle-ages language population arabia
asked 7 hours ago
The ZThe Z
23417
Note that a lot of the Arab populations taking part in the Islamic conquests were not from Arabia, but from neighboring places like Syria, Mesopotamia etc. Only the core groups of Arabs were from the region around Medina, a lot more joined with them when they started having success.
– Denis Nardin
5 hours ago
1
@Denis Nardin. Arabs from outside Arabia?
– John Dee
4 hours ago
1
@JohnDee Yes, or at least people culturally Arabs (speaking the Arabic language, and tracing their lineages more or less reliably through the same "ancestors" as the people living in Arabia). I did not think this was a controversial thing, it's not like the desert had custom checkpoints
– Denis Nardin
3 hours ago
1
@JohnDee From Kennedy's The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphate "In southern Iraq,Arabs lived in the deserts along the lower Euphrates and colonized a few towns,like Ḥīra along the fringes of the alluvial plains.Further north, Arab nomads were found in the area between the Tigris and the Euphrates known as the Jazīra or “Island",a vast expanse of sparse grazing which could support a considerable population of pastoralists.On the western,Syrian edge of the desert [...] many Arabs had become more or less integrated into the Byzantine state and mingled with non-Arabic-speaking groups"
– Denis Nardin
3 hours ago
@Denis Nardin. So you mean on the fringes of the Arabian desert. Anyways, your explanation about joining him after successes seems to be from the koran. The consolidation of Arabia had more to do with events in the prior century and Persian conquest.
– John Dee
2 hours ago
add a comment |
The Arab tribes were spread out widely, and the land of Arabia was not as viable to live on as the Fertile Crescent, so I would expect the population to be lower. But, how much in an estimated range was the population exactly before Islam and its conquests according to historians?
As a related question, how many people spoke Arabic at the time in and outside of Arabia?
As a follow up question, how much of a role did the population play in the ability of the Arabs to conquer what they did?
middle-ages language population arabia
asked 7 hours ago
The ZThe Z
23417
The Arab tribes were spread out widely, and the land of Arabia was not as viable to live on as the Fertile Crescent, so I would expect the population to be lower. But, how much in an estimated range was the population exactly before Islam and its conquests according to historians?
As a related question, how many people spoke Arabic at the time in and outside of Arabia?
As a follow up question, how much of a role did the population play in the ability of the Arabs to conquer what they did?
middle-ages language population arabia
middle-ages language population arabia
asked 7 hours ago
The ZThe Z
23417
asked 7 hours ago
The ZThe Z
23417
edited 3 hours ago
The Z
asked 7 hours ago
The ZThe Z
23417
asked 7 hours ago
The ZThe Z
23417
asked 7 hours ago
The ZThe Z
23417
23417
Note that a lot of the Arab populations taking part in the Islamic conquests were not from Arabia, but from neighboring places like Syria, Mesopotamia etc. Only the core groups of Arabs were from the region around Medina, a lot more joined with them when they started having success.
– Denis Nardin
5 hours ago
1
@Denis Nardin. Arabs from outside Arabia?
– John Dee
4 hours ago
1
@JohnDee Yes, or at least people culturally Arabs (speaking the Arabic language, and tracing their lineages more or less reliably through the same "ancestors" as the people living in Arabia). I did not think this was a controversial thing, it's not like the desert had custom checkpoints
– Denis Nardin
3 hours ago
1
@JohnDee From Kennedy's The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphate "In southern Iraq,Arabs lived in the deserts along the lower Euphrates and colonized a few towns,like Ḥīra along the fringes of the alluvial plains.Further north, Arab nomads were found in the area between the Tigris and the Euphrates known as the Jazīra or “Island",a vast expanse of sparse grazing which could support a considerable population of pastoralists.On the western,Syrian edge of the desert [...] many Arabs had become more or less integrated into the Byzantine state and mingled with non-Arabic-speaking groups"
– Denis Nardin
3 hours ago
@Denis Nardin. So you mean on the fringes of the Arabian desert. Anyways, your explanation about joining him after successes seems to be from the koran. The consolidation of Arabia had more to do with events in the prior century and Persian conquest.
– John Dee
2 hours ago
add a comment |
Note that a lot of the Arab populations taking part in the Islamic conquests were not from Arabia, but from neighboring places like Syria, Mesopotamia etc. Only the core groups of Arabs were from the region around Medina, a lot more joined with them when they started having success.
– Denis Nardin
5 hours ago
1
@Denis Nardin. Arabs from outside Arabia?
– John Dee
4 hours ago
1
@JohnDee Yes, or at least people culturally Arabs (speaking the Arabic language, and tracing their lineages more or less reliably through the same "ancestors" as the people living in Arabia). I did not think this was a controversial thing, it's not like the desert had custom checkpoints
– Denis Nardin
3 hours ago
1
@JohnDee From Kennedy's The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphate "In southern Iraq,Arabs lived in the deserts along the lower Euphrates and colonized a few towns,like Ḥīra along the fringes of the alluvial plains.Further north, Arab nomads were found in the area between the Tigris and the Euphrates known as the Jazīra or “Island",a vast expanse of sparse grazing which could support a considerable population of pastoralists.On the western,Syrian edge of the desert [...] many Arabs had become more or less integrated into the Byzantine state and mingled with non-Arabic-speaking groups"
– Denis Nardin
3 hours ago
@Denis Nardin. So you mean on the fringes of the Arabian desert. Anyways, your explanation about joining him after successes seems to be from the koran. The consolidation of Arabia had more to do with events in the prior century and Persian conquest.
– John Dee
2 hours ago
Note that a lot of the Arab populations taking part in the Islamic conquests were not from Arabia, but from neighboring places like Syria, Mesopotamia etc. Only the core groups of Arabs were from the region around Medina, a lot more joined with them when they started having success.
– Denis Nardin
5 hours ago
Note that a lot of the Arab populations taking part in the Islamic conquests were not from Arabia, but from neighboring places like Syria, Mesopotamia etc. Only the core groups of Arabs were from the region around Medina, a lot more joined with them when they started having success.
– Denis Nardin
5 hours ago
1
1
@Denis Nardin. Arabs from outside Arabia?
– John Dee
4 hours ago
@Denis Nardin. Arabs from outside Arabia?
– John Dee
4 hours ago
1
1
@JohnDee Yes, or at least people culturally Arabs (speaking the Arabic language, and tracing their lineages more or less reliably through the same "ancestors" as the people living in Arabia). I did not think this was a controversial thing, it's not like the desert had custom checkpoints
– Denis Nardin
3 hours ago
@JohnDee Yes, or at least people culturally Arabs (speaking the Arabic language, and tracing their lineages more or less reliably through the same "ancestors" as the people living in Arabia). I did not think this was a controversial thing, it's not like the desert had custom checkpoints
– Denis Nardin
3 hours ago
1
1
@JohnDee From Kennedy's The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphate "In southern Iraq,Arabs lived in the deserts along the lower Euphrates and colonized a few towns,like Ḥīra along the fringes of the alluvial plains.Further north, Arab nomads were found in the area between the Tigris and the Euphrates known as the Jazīra or “Island",a vast expanse of sparse grazing which could support a considerable population of pastoralists.On the western,Syrian edge of the desert [...] many Arabs had become more or less integrated into the Byzantine state and mingled with non-Arabic-speaking groups"
– Denis Nardin
3 hours ago
@JohnDee From Kennedy's The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphate "In southern Iraq,Arabs lived in the deserts along the lower Euphrates and colonized a few towns,like Ḥīra along the fringes of the alluvial plains.Further north, Arab nomads were found in the area between the Tigris and the Euphrates known as the Jazīra or “Island",a vast expanse of sparse grazing which could support a considerable population of pastoralists.On the western,Syrian edge of the desert [...] many Arabs had become more or less integrated into the Byzantine state and mingled with non-Arabic-speaking groups"
– Denis Nardin
3 hours ago
@Denis Nardin. So you mean on the fringes of the Arabian desert. Anyways, your explanation about joining him after successes seems to be from the koran. The consolidation of Arabia had more to do with events in the prior century and Persian conquest.
– John Dee
2 hours ago
@Denis Nardin. So you mean on the fringes of the Arabian desert. Anyways, your explanation about joining him after successes seems to be from the koran. The consolidation of Arabia had more to do with events in the prior century and Persian conquest.
– John Dee
2 hours ago
add a comment |
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
According to Colin McEvedy and Richard Jones, at the beginning of the Christian era it was about 2 million, and in the next 2 pairs of centuries it geometrically rose to about 2 2/3 million, then nearly 4. It had climbed to a high of about five and a quarter million around the time of Muhammad, a high-water mark that was receded from a bit to about 4.5 million within the first two Islamic centuries, not to be reached again until the Modern Era.
For this entire period, about half of this amount they place in The Yemen, the balance of the other half in the interior, and only trivial numbers on the Gulf coast and Oman. However, large amounts of the half in Yemen would not have spoken Arabic, but rather an assortment of related South Arabian (Semitic) languages.
For the region, these weren't gigantic numbers, but they were very respectable, and it was probably rather a lot for them. On population alone the Arabian peninsula was in the same league as the contemporaneous existing power centers in the boundaries of what today are Turkey and Persia*. McEvedy and Jones' text speculates that the high numbers likely put strain on the resources of this relatively poorly-resourced area, and that might partially explain its seemingly sudden foreign adventurism.
In Colin's excellent New Pengiun Atlas of Medieval History, he points out that the relatively easy victories the early Islamic armies had in the region may have been a reflection of the inhabitants not having a lot of fondness for the Greeks and Persians who had been fighting over their territory for centuries. Exploring this idea further, its worth noting that even if the locals didn't necessarily speak Arabic, Arabic is a Afroasiatic language, and such languages at the time were the language of the common people across the Levant and north Africa. So there was certainly at least some level of cultural affinity with Arabs that there would not have been with Greeks and Persians (both speaking Indo-European languages).
Pre-Islamic distribution of Afroasiatic language families
Image taken from Expansion of Afroasiatic Languages video on Youtube, based "loosely" on the work of Harold Flemming.
Distribution of Semitic Languages in the Ancient world
* - The boundaries of modern Turkey at that time they put at around 6 million, and Iran at about 5.
answered 4 hours ago
T.E.D.♦T.E.D.
75.4k10168308
I can't quite read the key, what is the population of Arabic in the last image? I read 150m but that can't be right.
– The Z
1 hour ago
@TheZ - If you click the link on the title, you can get access to larger versions of the image. That being said, I'm not going to bother, because I was unable to find an exact date to go with this image (I'm not sure it even properly has one), and without that any population number you derive from it is going to be useless. I really only included it to demonstrate how closely related the native languages of the region were. (Hebrew and Arabic are actually closer related than what is spoken in Yemen!) Looking at it again, I think the numbers might be for modern native speakers.
– T.E.D.♦
1 hour ago
You are right. I was hoping for a reliable source about Arabic speakers at that time, but I don't expect I will find it. Anyway, good answer.
– The Z
1 hour ago
@T.E.D. The map is mixing languages that have no current native speakers like Ge'ez and languages that have no ancient speakers like Maltese. And who knows which version of Hebrew, Aramaic, etc this is.
– Hasse1987
11 mins ago
add a comment |
Your Answer
StackExchange.ready(function() {
var channelOptions = {
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "324"
};
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);
StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
createEditor();
});
}
else {
createEditor();
}
});
function createEditor() {
StackExchange.prepareEditor({
heartbeatType: 'answer',
autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
convertImagesToLinks: false,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: null,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader: {
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
},
noCode: true, onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
});
}
});
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fhistory.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f51390%2fwhat-was-the-population-of-late-pre-islamic-arabia-and-the-population-of-arabic%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
According to Colin McEvedy and Richard Jones, at the beginning of the Christian era it was about 2 million, and in the next 2 pairs of centuries it geometrically rose to about 2 2/3 million, then nearly 4. It had climbed to a high of about five and a quarter million around the time of Muhammad, a high-water mark that was receded from a bit to about 4.5 million within the first two Islamic centuries, not to be reached again until the Modern Era.
For this entire period, about half of this amount they place in The Yemen, the balance of the other half in the interior, and only trivial numbers on the Gulf coast and Oman. However, large amounts of the half in Yemen would not have spoken Arabic, but rather an assortment of related South Arabian (Semitic) languages.
For the region, these weren't gigantic numbers, but they were very respectable, and it was probably rather a lot for them. On population alone the Arabian peninsula was in the same league as the contemporaneous existing power centers in the boundaries of what today are Turkey and Persia*. McEvedy and Jones' text speculates that the high numbers likely put strain on the resources of this relatively poorly-resourced area, and that might partially explain its seemingly sudden foreign adventurism.
In Colin's excellent New Pengiun Atlas of Medieval History, he points out that the relatively easy victories the early Islamic armies had in the region may have been a reflection of the inhabitants not having a lot of fondness for the Greeks and Persians who had been fighting over their territory for centuries. Exploring this idea further, its worth noting that even if the locals didn't necessarily speak Arabic, Arabic is a Afroasiatic language, and such languages at the time were the language of the common people across the Levant and north Africa. So there was certainly at least some level of cultural affinity with Arabs that there would not have been with Greeks and Persians (both speaking Indo-European languages).
Pre-Islamic distribution of Afroasiatic language families
Image taken from Expansion of Afroasiatic Languages video on Youtube, based "loosely" on the work of Harold Flemming.
Distribution of Semitic Languages in the Ancient world
* - The boundaries of modern Turkey at that time they put at around 6 million, and Iran at about 5.
answered 4 hours ago
T.E.D.♦T.E.D.
75.4k10168308
I can't quite read the key, what is the population of Arabic in the last image? I read 150m but that can't be right.
– The Z
1 hour ago
@TheZ - If you click the link on the title, you can get access to larger versions of the image. That being said, I'm not going to bother, because I was unable to find an exact date to go with this image (I'm not sure it even properly has one), and without that any population number you derive from it is going to be useless. I really only included it to demonstrate how closely related the native languages of the region were. (Hebrew and Arabic are actually closer related than what is spoken in Yemen!) Looking at it again, I think the numbers might be for modern native speakers.
– T.E.D.♦
1 hour ago
You are right. I was hoping for a reliable source about Arabic speakers at that time, but I don't expect I will find it. Anyway, good answer.
– The Z
1 hour ago
@T.E.D. The map is mixing languages that have no current native speakers like Ge'ez and languages that have no ancient speakers like Maltese. And who knows which version of Hebrew, Aramaic, etc this is.
– Hasse1987
11 mins ago
add a comment |
According to Colin McEvedy and Richard Jones, at the beginning of the Christian era it was about 2 million, and in the next 2 pairs of centuries it geometrically rose to about 2 2/3 million, then nearly 4. It had climbed to a high of about five and a quarter million around the time of Muhammad, a high-water mark that was receded from a bit to about 4.5 million within the first two Islamic centuries, not to be reached again until the Modern Era.
For this entire period, about half of this amount they place in The Yemen, the balance of the other half in the interior, and only trivial numbers on the Gulf coast and Oman. However, large amounts of the half in Yemen would not have spoken Arabic, but rather an assortment of related South Arabian (Semitic) languages.
For the region, these weren't gigantic numbers, but they were very respectable, and it was probably rather a lot for them. On population alone the Arabian peninsula was in the same league as the contemporaneous existing power centers in the boundaries of what today are Turkey and Persia*. McEvedy and Jones' text speculates that the high numbers likely put strain on the resources of this relatively poorly-resourced area, and that might partially explain its seemingly sudden foreign adventurism.
In Colin's excellent New Pengiun Atlas of Medieval History, he points out that the relatively easy victories the early Islamic armies had in the region may have been a reflection of the inhabitants not having a lot of fondness for the Greeks and Persians who had been fighting over their territory for centuries. Exploring this idea further, its worth noting that even if the locals didn't necessarily speak Arabic, Arabic is a Afroasiatic language, and such languages at the time were the language of the common people across the Levant and north Africa. So there was certainly at least some level of cultural affinity with Arabs that there would not have been with Greeks and Persians (both speaking Indo-European languages).
Pre-Islamic distribution of Afroasiatic language families
Image taken from Expansion of Afroasiatic Languages video on Youtube, based "loosely" on the work of Harold Flemming.
Distribution of Semitic Languages in the Ancient world
* - The boundaries of modern Turkey at that time they put at around 6 million, and Iran at about 5.
answered 4 hours ago
T.E.D.♦T.E.D.
75.4k10168308
I can't quite read the key, what is the population of Arabic in the last image? I read 150m but that can't be right.
– The Z
1 hour ago
@TheZ - If you click the link on the title, you can get access to larger versions of the image. That being said, I'm not going to bother, because I was unable to find an exact date to go with this image (I'm not sure it even properly has one), and without that any population number you derive from it is going to be useless. I really only included it to demonstrate how closely related the native languages of the region were. (Hebrew and Arabic are actually closer related than what is spoken in Yemen!) Looking at it again, I think the numbers might be for modern native speakers.
– T.E.D.♦
1 hour ago
You are right. I was hoping for a reliable source about Arabic speakers at that time, but I don't expect I will find it. Anyway, good answer.
– The Z
1 hour ago
@T.E.D. The map is mixing languages that have no current native speakers like Ge'ez and languages that have no ancient speakers like Maltese. And who knows which version of Hebrew, Aramaic, etc this is.
– Hasse1987
11 mins ago
add a comment |
According to Colin McEvedy and Richard Jones, at the beginning of the Christian era it was about 2 million, and in the next 2 pairs of centuries it geometrically rose to about 2 2/3 million, then nearly 4. It had climbed to a high of about five and a quarter million around the time of Muhammad, a high-water mark that was receded from a bit to about 4.5 million within the first two Islamic centuries, not to be reached again until the Modern Era.
For this entire period, about half of this amount they place in The Yemen, the balance of the other half in the interior, and only trivial numbers on the Gulf coast and Oman. However, large amounts of the half in Yemen would not have spoken Arabic, but rather an assortment of related South Arabian (Semitic) languages.
For the region, these weren't gigantic numbers, but they were very respectable, and it was probably rather a lot for them. On population alone the Arabian peninsula was in the same league as the contemporaneous existing power centers in the boundaries of what today are Turkey and Persia*. McEvedy and Jones' text speculates that the high numbers likely put strain on the resources of this relatively poorly-resourced area, and that might partially explain its seemingly sudden foreign adventurism.
In Colin's excellent New Pengiun Atlas of Medieval History, he points out that the relatively easy victories the early Islamic armies had in the region may have been a reflection of the inhabitants not having a lot of fondness for the Greeks and Persians who had been fighting over their territory for centuries. Exploring this idea further, its worth noting that even if the locals didn't necessarily speak Arabic, Arabic is a Afroasiatic language, and such languages at the time were the language of the common people across the Levant and north Africa. So there was certainly at least some level of cultural affinity with Arabs that there would not have been with Greeks and Persians (both speaking Indo-European languages).
Pre-Islamic distribution of Afroasiatic language families
Image taken from Expansion of Afroasiatic Languages video on Youtube, based "loosely" on the work of Harold Flemming.
Distribution of Semitic Languages in the Ancient world
* - The boundaries of modern Turkey at that time they put at around 6 million, and Iran at about 5.
answered 4 hours ago
T.E.D.♦T.E.D.
75.4k10168308
According to Colin McEvedy and Richard Jones, at the beginning of the Christian era it was about 2 million, and in the next 2 pairs of centuries it geometrically rose to about 2 2/3 million, then nearly 4. It had climbed to a high of about five and a quarter million around the time of Muhammad, a high-water mark that was receded from a bit to about 4.5 million within the first two Islamic centuries, not to be reached again until the Modern Era.
For this entire period, about half of this amount they place in The Yemen, the balance of the other half in the interior, and only trivial numbers on the Gulf coast and Oman. However, large amounts of the half in Yemen would not have spoken Arabic, but rather an assortment of related South Arabian (Semitic) languages.
For the region, these weren't gigantic numbers, but they were very respectable, and it was probably rather a lot for them. On population alone the Arabian peninsula was in the same league as the contemporaneous existing power centers in the boundaries of what today are Turkey and Persia*. McEvedy and Jones' text speculates that the high numbers likely put strain on the resources of this relatively poorly-resourced area, and that might partially explain its seemingly sudden foreign adventurism.
In Colin's excellent New Pengiun Atlas of Medieval History, he points out that the relatively easy victories the early Islamic armies had in the region may have been a reflection of the inhabitants not having a lot of fondness for the Greeks and Persians who had been fighting over their territory for centuries. Exploring this idea further, its worth noting that even if the locals didn't necessarily speak Arabic, Arabic is a Afroasiatic language, and such languages at the time were the language of the common people across the Levant and north Africa. So there was certainly at least some level of cultural affinity with Arabs that there would not have been with Greeks and Persians (both speaking Indo-European languages).
Pre-Islamic distribution of Afroasiatic language families
Image taken from Expansion of Afroasiatic Languages video on Youtube, based "loosely" on the work of Harold Flemming.
Distribution of Semitic Languages in the Ancient world
* - The boundaries of modern Turkey at that time they put at around 6 million, and Iran at about 5.
answered 4 hours ago
T.E.D.♦T.E.D.
75.4k10168308
edited 1 hour ago
answered 4 hours ago
T.E.D.♦T.E.D.
75.4k10168308
answered 4 hours ago
T.E.D.♦T.E.D.
75.4k10168308
answered 4 hours ago
T.E.D.♦T.E.D.
75.4k10168308
75.4k10168308
I can't quite read the key, what is the population of Arabic in the last image? I read 150m but that can't be right.
– The Z
1 hour ago
@TheZ - If you click the link on the title, you can get access to larger versions of the image. That being said, I'm not going to bother, because I was unable to find an exact date to go with this image (I'm not sure it even properly has one), and without that any population number you derive from it is going to be useless. I really only included it to demonstrate how closely related the native languages of the region were. (Hebrew and Arabic are actually closer related than what is spoken in Yemen!) Looking at it again, I think the numbers might be for modern native speakers.
– T.E.D.♦
1 hour ago
You are right. I was hoping for a reliable source about Arabic speakers at that time, but I don't expect I will find it. Anyway, good answer.
– The Z
1 hour ago
@T.E.D. The map is mixing languages that have no current native speakers like Ge'ez and languages that have no ancient speakers like Maltese. And who knows which version of Hebrew, Aramaic, etc this is.
– Hasse1987
11 mins ago
add a comment |
I can't quite read the key, what is the population of Arabic in the last image? I read 150m but that can't be right.
– The Z
1 hour ago
@TheZ - If you click the link on the title, you can get access to larger versions of the image. That being said, I'm not going to bother, because I was unable to find an exact date to go with this image (I'm not sure it even properly has one), and without that any population number you derive from it is going to be useless. I really only included it to demonstrate how closely related the native languages of the region were. (Hebrew and Arabic are actually closer related than what is spoken in Yemen!) Looking at it again, I think the numbers might be for modern native speakers.
– T.E.D.♦
1 hour ago
You are right. I was hoping for a reliable source about Arabic speakers at that time, but I don't expect I will find it. Anyway, good answer.
– The Z
1 hour ago
@T.E.D. The map is mixing languages that have no current native speakers like Ge'ez and languages that have no ancient speakers like Maltese. And who knows which version of Hebrew, Aramaic, etc this is.
– Hasse1987
11 mins ago
I can't quite read the key, what is the population of Arabic in the last image? I read 150m but that can't be right.
– The Z
1 hour ago
I can't quite read the key, what is the population of Arabic in the last image? I read 150m but that can't be right.
– The Z
1 hour ago
@TheZ - If you click the link on the title, you can get access to larger versions of the image. That being said, I'm not going to bother, because I was unable to find an exact date to go with this image (I'm not sure it even properly has one), and without that any population number you derive from it is going to be useless. I really only included it to demonstrate how closely related the native languages of the region were. (Hebrew and Arabic are actually closer related than what is spoken in Yemen!) Looking at it again, I think the numbers might be for modern native speakers.
– T.E.D.♦
1 hour ago
@TheZ - If you click the link on the title, you can get access to larger versions of the image. That being said, I'm not going to bother, because I was unable to find an exact date to go with this image (I'm not sure it even properly has one), and without that any population number you derive from it is going to be useless. I really only included it to demonstrate how closely related the native languages of the region were. (Hebrew and Arabic are actually closer related than what is spoken in Yemen!) Looking at it again, I think the numbers might be for modern native speakers.
– T.E.D.♦
1 hour ago
You are right. I was hoping for a reliable source about Arabic speakers at that time, but I don't expect I will find it. Anyway, good answer.
– The Z
1 hour ago
You are right. I was hoping for a reliable source about Arabic speakers at that time, but I don't expect I will find it. Anyway, good answer.
– The Z
1 hour ago
@T.E.D. The map is mixing languages that have no current native speakers like Ge'ez and languages that have no ancient speakers like Maltese. And who knows which version of Hebrew, Aramaic, etc this is.
– Hasse1987
11 mins ago
@T.E.D. The map is mixing languages that have no current native speakers like Ge'ez and languages that have no ancient speakers like Maltese. And who knows which version of Hebrew, Aramaic, etc this is.
– Hasse1987
11 mins ago
add a comment |
Thanks for contributing an answer to History Stack Exchange!
- Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!
But avoid …
- Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.
- Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.
To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fhistory.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f51390%2fwhat-was-the-population-of-late-pre-islamic-arabia-and-the-population-of-arabic%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Note that a lot of the Arab populations taking part in the Islamic conquests were not from Arabia, but from neighboring places like Syria, Mesopotamia etc. Only the core groups of Arabs were from the region around Medina, a lot more joined with them when they started having success.
– Denis Nardin
5 hours ago
1
@Denis Nardin. Arabs from outside Arabia?
– John Dee
4 hours ago
1
@JohnDee Yes, or at least people culturally Arabs (speaking the Arabic language, and tracing their lineages more or less reliably through the same "ancestors" as the people living in Arabia). I did not think this was a controversial thing, it's not like the desert had custom checkpoints
– Denis Nardin
3 hours ago
1
@JohnDee From Kennedy's The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphate "In southern Iraq,Arabs lived in the deserts along the lower Euphrates and colonized a few towns,like Ḥīra along the fringes of the alluvial plains.Further north, Arab nomads were found in the area between the Tigris and the Euphrates known as the Jazīra or “Island",a vast expanse of sparse grazing which could support a considerable population of pastoralists.On the western,Syrian edge of the desert [...] many Arabs had become more or less integrated into the Byzantine state and mingled with non-Arabic-speaking groups"
– Denis Nardin
3 hours ago
@Denis Nardin. So you mean on the fringes of the Arabian desert. Anyways, your explanation about joining him after successes seems to be from the koran. The consolidation of Arabia had more to do with events in the prior century and Persian conquest.
– John Dee
2 hours ago