Misplaced Pages

Demographics of the Arab world

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
(Redirected from Ethnic groups of North Africa)

This article possibly contains original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations. Statements consisting only of original research should be removed. (August 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
Find sources: "Demographics of the Arab world" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (August 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
Part of a series on the
Arab world
Political Issues
Weapons of mass destruction
Geography
Regions
Deserts
Governance
Institutions
Unity
Arab leaders
Ideology

Attempts at political union
Organizational unions
Foreign relations
Multilateral
Bilateral
Military
Joint defence
Economy
Transportation
Railways
Bridges
Culture
Media
Arab Capital of Culture
Sport
Demographics
Religion
Ethnicities
Lifestyles
Language


Population density of the Arab countries

The Arab world consists of the 22 members of the Arab League. As of 2023, the combined population of all the Arab states was around 473 million people.

The most populous Arab state is Egypt, the North African nation with a population of 109 million residents. Comoros, the Indian Ocean nation is the least populated, with around 821,625 inhabitants. The largest city in the Arab World is Cairo, Egypt.

Population growth

The population of the Arab world as estimated in 2023 was about 473 million inhabitants, but no exact figures of the annual population growth, fertility rate, or mortality rate are known to exist.

Over 59 percent of the Arab population is concentrated in urban areas and the number is expected to reach 68 percent by 2050.

The overwhelming majority of the Arab citizens are Muslims, with Christians being the largest minority group. The Arab countries host several holy cities and other religiously significant locations, including Alexandria, Mecca, Medina, Kirkuk, Arbil, and Baghdad. Sunni Muslims constitute vast majority of the Arab world's residents. However, Shi'a make up the slight majority in areas of Iraq, and Bahrain.

Christianity is the second largest religion, with over 20 million Christians in “total” living in countries such as Lebanon, Egypt, Iraq, Bahrain, Syria, Kuwait and Jordan. There are smaller Jewish populations living mainly in the western part of the Arab world. Places such as: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Morocco, Iraq, Tunisia, Syria, and Yemen all have Jewish populations. However, most Arab Jews emigrated from the Arab states to Israel after its founding in 1948: Other minor religions such as Druze religion, the Baháʼí Faith, Mandeanism, Yazdanism, Zoroastrianism, Shabak religion and Yarsan are practiced on a much smaller scale.


The holiest place in Islam, the Kaaba, is located in Saudi Arabia.

Arab countries by religion (percentage of population, as of 2010)

N Country Muslims Christians Others
_  Arab League State.: 96% 3% 1%
1  Algeria 97.9% <1% 2%
2  Bahrain 70.3% 14.5% 15.2%
3  Comoros 98.3% <1% <1%
4  Djibouti 96.9% 2.3% <1%
5  Egypt 94.9% 5.1% 0%
6  Iraq 99% <1% <1%
7  Jordan 97.2% 2.2% <1%
8  Kuwait 74.1% 14.3% 11.6%
9  Lebanon 61.3% 38% <1%
10  Libya 96.6% 2.7% <1%
11  Mauritania 99.1% <1% <1%
12  Morocco 99.9% 0% 0%
13  Oman 85.9% 6.5% 7.6%
14  Qatar 67.7% 13.8% 17.5%
15  Palestine 97.6% 2.4% 0%
16  Saudi Arabia 93% 4.4% 2.6%
17  Somalia 99.8% <1% <1%
18  Sudan 90.7% 5.4% 3.9%
19  Syria 92.8% 5.2% 2%
20  Tunisia 99.5% <1% <1%
21  United Arab Emirates 76.9% 12.6% 11.5%
22  Yemen 99.1% <1% <1%

Languages

This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

In general, Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) is the official language in the Arab world, but additional languages are often used in the daily lives of some citizens. Arabs, however, don't natively speak MSA but their native varieties of Arabic, which are grouped based on shared features into Peninsular, Mesopotamian, Levantine, Egyptian, and Maghrebi. Currently, three major non-Arabic languages are widely used: Kurdish (in northern Iraq and parts of Syria), Berber (in North Africa), and Somali (in the Horn of Africa).

There are several minority languages that are still spoken today, such as Afar, Armenian, Hebrew, Nubian, Persian, Aramaic, and Turkish. Twenty percent of the Arab population natively speak a non-Arabic language, most commonly, Somali, Berber and Kurdish languages.

Populations

Many Arab countries in the Persian Gulf have sizable (10–30%) non-Arab populations. Iraq, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Oman have a Persian speaking minority. The same countries also have Hindi-Urdu speakers and Filipinos as sizable minority. Balochi speakers are a good size minority in Oman. Additionally, countries like Bahrain, UAE, Oman and Kuwait have significant non-Arab and non-Muslim minorities (10–20%) like Hindus and Christians from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and the Philippines.

Many non-Arab countries bordering the Arab states have large Arab populations, such as in Chad, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Turkey.

The table below shows the distribution of populations in the Arab world and Palestine, as well as the official language(s) within the various Arab states.

Arab state Population % Arabs Official language(s) Notes
 Algeria 44,903,225 85% Arabic official language with Berber The Mixing between Arabs and Berbers in Algeria makes it difficult to trace the roots of many people. The percentage mentioned also includes people with Berber roots and identify themselves as Arabs.
 Bahrain 1,733,100 51% Arabic official language
 Comoros 780,971 0.1% Arabic co-official language with Comorian and French
 Djibouti 810,179 4% Arabic co-official language with French It is estimated that there are about 37,000 Arabs in Djibouti.
 Egypt 102,069,001 90% Arabic official language
 Iraq 46,081,677 75–80% Arabic co-official language with Kurdish
 Jordan 10,255,045 98% Arabic official language
 Kuwait 4,268,873 59.2% Arabic official language
 Lebanon 6,810,123 95% Arabic official language
 Libya 6,244,174 97% Arabic official language
 Mauritania 3,516,806 80% Arabic official language The majority of the population of Mauritania belong to the Moors or "Moroccans". These are a mixture of Arabs and Africans to a lesser extent.
 Morocco 37,457,971 75% Arabic co-official language with Berber The Mixing between Arabs and Berbers in Morocco makes it difficult to trace the roots of many people. The percentage mentioned also includes people with Berber roots and identify themselves as Arabs.
 Oman 5,174,814 81% Arabic official language
State of Palestine Palestine 5,163,462 90% Arabic official language West Bank: 2,731,052 (83% Palestinian Arabs) Gaza Strip: 1,816,379 (100% Palestinian Arabs)
 Qatar 2,906,257 40% Arabic official language Qatari citizens are about 20% of the total population and they are mostly Arab Qahhah. About 20% of the remaining population is made of Arab immigrants, mostly Egyptians and Levantines. The rest are non-Arab foreign workers such as Indians and Pakistanis.
 Saudi Arabia 36,408,820 97% Arabic official language
 Somalia 17,597,511 0.3% Arabic co-official language with Somali It is estimated that there are about 30,000 Arabs in Somalia.
 Sudan 46,874,204 70% Arabic co-official language with English
 Syria 17,723,461 90% Arabic official language
 Tunisia 12,356,117 98% Arabic official language The Mixing between Arabs and Berbers in Tunisia makes it difficult to trace the roots of many people. The percentage mentioned also includes people with Berber roots and identify themselves as Arabs.
 United Arab Emirates 10,102,678 40% Arabic official language Less than 20% of the UAE's population are citizens and the majority are workers of foreigners.
 Yemen 30,168,998 98% Arabic official language

Armenians

Armenian refugees after the Hamidian massacres. A lot of them settled in Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and Egypt

The Arab world has between 400,000 and 500,000 Armenians inhabiting its geographical area. Armenians are largely concentrated in countries such as Lebanon (150,000 to 250,000) and Syria (100,000 to 150,000) as well as Palestine, and to a lesser degree Egypt and Iraq, but Armenians can also be found in countries like Qatar and the UAE. These Armenians are economic migrants from Lebanon and Syria.

Prior to World War I, there were some 2,000–3,000 Armenians in Palestine, mostly in Jerusalem. From 1915 and onward, thousands of Armenian genocide survivors from Cilicia (Adana Vilayet) found refuge, and settled in Palestine, increasing its Armenian population. In 1925, around 15,000 Armenians are believed to have lived in all of Palestine, with the majority in Jerusalem. During Mandatory Palestine period, the number of Armenians is estimated to have reached up to 20,000. However, the 1931 British census showed only 3,524 Armenians in all of Palestine.

A large number of Armenian monks are recorded to have settled in Jerusalem as early as the 4th century, after the uncovering of Christian holy places in the city. However, the first written records are from the 5th century. Jerusalem is thus considered the oldest living diaspora community outside the Armenian homeland. Nowadays, there are estimated 7500 living in the region of Historical Palestine.

Most Armenians are Christians mainly following the Orthodox Armenian Apostolic Church. The church has one of its two headquarters in Antelias, Lebanon, called The Catholicosate of the Great House of Cilicia (the other being in Armenia called Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin). There are also Armenian Catholics. The world headquarters of the Armenian Catholic Church is also located in Beirut, Lebanon (and historically in Bzoummar, Lebanon). There are also a minority Armenian Evangelical Protestants. The Middle East headquarters of the Armenian Evangelical Church is in Beirut called Union of the Armenian Evangelical Churches in the Near East.

Assyrians

Assyrians (also known as Chaldo-Assyrians) can be found in Iraq, north eastern Syria, and to a lesser degree north western Iran and south eastern Turkey. They are an ancient Semitic people who retain Aramaic as a spoken language. They are exclusively Christian and are descendants of the ancient pre Arab Assyrians/Mesopotamians. Almost all Christians in Iraq are ethnic Assyrians, where they number approximately 400,000. 500,000 are in Syria but are harder to identify, because they are often included in with the general Christian population and speak Arabic, however the Christians of the Tur Abdin and Al Hasakah regions in the north east are predominantly Assyrian.

Berbers

See also: Amazigh
The town of Aït Benhaddou is a typical desert Amazigh town; the Berbers (Amazigh) are the largest non-Arab ethnicity in the Arab world.

Berbers are an ethnic group indigenous to North Africa. They are distributed in an area stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Siwa Oasis in Egypt, and from the Mediterranean Sea to the Niger River. Historically, they spoke Berber languages, which together form the Berber branch of the Afro-Asiatic family. Since the Muslim conquest of North Africa in the seventh century, a large number of Berbers inhabiting the Maghreb have acquired different degrees of knowledge of varieties of Maghrebi Arabic.

Circassians

Circassians are a people who originate in the North Caucasus. They are predominantly Muslim, and can be found in Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon and Egypt in relatively small numbers.

Coptic Christians

Egyptian Coptic Christians are a religious group who do not usually identify themselves as Arabic and they follow the Coptic Orthodox Church. They place heavy emphasis on the Egyptian aspect of their identity and their Christian heritage. Their numbers are heavily disputed but are estimated to compromise roughly 5.35% of the Egyptian population. They are mainly followers of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, there are however a minority among them who are members of the Coptic Catholic Church, and an even smaller group who belong to the Coptic Evangelical Church. The Egyptian Coptic language, which is a late script that was developed in Roman Egypt, written in the Greek alphabet and descending from the late form of the Egyptian language of ancient Egypt, continues to be used as the liturgical language of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria.

Jews

Further information: Jewish tribes of Arabia and Arab Jews

The Jewish tribes of Arabia were Arabian tribes professing the Jewish faith that inhabited the Arabian Peninsula before and during the advent of Islam. It is not always clear whether they were originally Israelite in ancestry, genealogically Arab tribes that converted to Judaism, or a mixture of both. In Islamic tradition the Jewish tribes of the Hejaz were seen as the offspring of the ancient Israelites. According to Muslim sources, they spoke a language other than Arabic, which Al-Tabari claims was Persian. This implies they were connected to the major Jewish center in Babylon. Certain Jewish traditions records the existence of nomadic tribes such as the Rechabites that converted to Judaism in antiquity. The tribes collapsed with the rise of Islam, with many either converting or fleeing the Arab peninsula. Some of those tribes are thought to have merged into Yemenite Jewish community, while others, like the residents of Yatta consider themselves Islamized descendants of Khaybar, a Jewish tribe of Arabia.

Jews from Arab countries – included in the Mizrahi Jewish communities– are not categorized as, and do not consider themselves to be, Arabs, as Jews are a separate nation from Arabs, with different history and culture. However, sometimes the term Arab Jews is used to describe Jews from Arab countries, though the term is highly controversial. Sociologist Sammy Smooha stated "This ("Arab Jews") term does not hold water. It is absolutely not a parallel to 'Arab Christian'". Those who dispute the historicity of the term make the claim that Middle Eastern Jews are similar to Assyrians, Berbers, and other Middle Eastern groups who live in Arab societies as distinct minority groups with distinct identity and therefore are not categorized as Arabs.

Kurds

In the northern regions of Iraq (15-20%) and Syria (10%) live a group called the Kurds, an Indo-European ethnic group who speak Kurdish, a language closely related to Persian and using Persian alphabet, except in Turkey where Kurdish is written using a Latin alphabet orthography. The majority of Kurds are Sunni Muslim, others are Alevi Muslim, with Christian and Yarsan minorities. The nationalist aspiration for self-rule or for a state of Kurdistan has created conflict between Kurdish minorities and their governments in Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey.

Mandaeans

Mandaeans, sometimes also called Sabians, are a people found mainly in southern Iraq. Their numbers total no more than 70,000. They follow Mandaeism, a gnostic religion.

Mhallami

Mhallami are a tiny minority of unknown origins who have converted to Islam.

Nubians

See also: Nubians

Nubians, found in Northern Sudan and Southern Egypt, are a different ethnicity from their northern and southern neighbors in Egypt and Sudan, numbering 1.7 million in Sudan and Egypt. The Nubian people in Sudan inhabit the region between Wadi Halfa in the north and Al Dabbah in the south. The main Nubian groups from north to south are the Halfaweyen, Sikut (Sickkout), Mahas, and Danagla. They speak different dialects of the Nubian language.

Ancient Nubians were famous for their vast wealth, their trade between Central Africa and the lower Nile valley civilizations, including Egypt, their skill and precision with the bow, their 23-letter alphabet, the use of deadly poison on the heads of their arrows, their great military, their advanced civilization, and their century-long rule over the united upper and lower Egyptian kingdoms.

Roma

Roma are to be found in many parts of the Middle East and North Africa; their numbers are unknown. They speak their own language and may loosely follow the predominant religion of the country they live in.

Shabaks

Shabaks are mainly found in Iraq, they are either Muslim or follow native religions. They are also related to Kurds, but like the Yazidi, emphasise their separate identity.

Somalis

Somali and Arabic are the two official languages in Somalia, both of which belong to the Afro-Asiatic family. Article 3 of the constitution outlines the country's founding principles, establishing it as a Muslim state, and a member of the Arab and African nations. About 85% of local residents are ethnic Somalis, who have historically inhabited the northern part of the country. Many self-identify as Somali instead of Arab despite centuries-old ties to Arabia. There are also a number of Bravanese, Bantus, Bajunis, Ethiopians, Indians, Pakistanis, Persians, Britons and Italians.

Djibouti, whose demographics are approximately 60% Somali and 35% Afar, is in a similar position. Arabic is one of the official languages, 94% of the nation's population is Muslim, and its location on the Red Sea places it in close proximity to the Arabian Peninsula. Somali and Afar are also recognized national languages.

Turks

See also: Turks in the Arab world

The Arab world is home to sizeable populations of Turks throughout North Africa, the Levant, and the Arabian Peninsula.

There is a notable Turkish minority in Egypt; prior to the Egyptian revolution in 1919, the ruling and upper classes were mainly Turkish, or of Turkish descent (see Turks in Egypt), which was part of the heritage from the Ottoman rule of Egypt.

In the Levant the Turks are scattered throughout the region. In Iraq and Syria the Turkish minorities are commonly referred to as "Turkmen", "Turkman" and "Turcoman"; these terms have historically been used to designate Turkish speakers in Arab areas, or Sunni Muslims in Shiite areas. The majority of Iraqi Turkmen and Syrian Turkmen are the descendants of Ottoman Turkish settlers. and share close cultural and linguistic ties with Turkey, particularly the Anatolian region. In 2013 the Iraqi Ministry of Planning estimated that Iraqi Turkmen numbered 3 million out of the country's 34.7 million inhabitants (approximately 9% of the total population). Estimates of the Syrian Turkmen population range from several hundred thousand to 3.5 million. There is also Turkish minorities located in Jordan (Turks in Jordan) and Lebanon (Turks in Lebanon). In Lebanon, they live mainly in the villages of Aydamun and Kouachra in the Akkar District, as well as in Baalbek, Beirut, and Tripoli. The Lebanese Turks number approximately 80,000. However, there has also been a recent influx of Syrian Turkmen refugees (125,000 to 150,000 in 2015) who now outnumber the long establish Ottoman descended Turkish minority.

In the Arabian Peninsula, there are Turkish minorities who have lived in the region since the Ottoman era. The Turks live predominately in Saudi Arabia (see Turks in Saudi Arabia) and Yemen (see Turks in Yemen).

Yazidi

The Yazidi are a religious Kurdish community who represent an ancient religion that is linked to Zoroastrianism. They number 600,000 in Iraq and between 10,000 and 50,000 in Syria.

Modern identities

North Africans

See also: Sudan See also: Mauritania
Great Mosque of Kairouan, Tunisia

North Africans are the inhabitants of the North Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt). Maghrebis mostly speak Maghrebi Arabic, which is descended from Classical Arabic and has a marked Berber substratum, while Egyptians speak Egyptian Arabic which is mainly based on Coptic grammar rather than Classical Arabic.

In 647 AD (the year 27 of the Hijrah), the first Muslim expedition to Africa took place. By 700 AD, the area had been conquered and converted to the Islamic faith. We know little of the early Islamic town, but by the tenth century the area outside of the fortress was once more filled with houses: on the site of the Roman baths over twelve of these were excavated, with large courtyards surrounded by long, thin, rooms.

After ruling over Cairo, the Fatimids left the rule in Tunisia and parts of eastern Algeria to the Zirids (972–1148). The invasion of Tunisia which was known as Ifriqiya, was done by the Banu Hilal, an Arab tribe encouraged by the Fatimids to seize North Africa.

Genetics

Further information: Genetic studies on Arabs, Genetic history of the Middle East, and Genetic history of North Africa

Y chromosome

Listed here are the human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroups in main regions of the Arab world (Maghreb, Mashriq and Arabian peninsula).

Haplogroup n A B C DE E1a E1b1a E1b1b1 E1b1b1a E1b1b1a1 E1b1b1a1b E1b1b1a2 E1b1b1a3 E1b1b1a4 E1b1b1b E1b1b1c
Marker M33 M2 M35 M78 V12 V32 V13 V22 V65 M81 M34
Maghreb
Sahara/Mauritania 189 - 0.53 - - 5.29 6.88 - - - - - - - 55.56 11.11
Morocco 760 0.26 0.66 - - 2.76 3.29 4.21 0.79 0.26 - 0.26 1.84 3.68 67.37 0.66
Algeria 156 - - - - 0.64 5.13 0.64 1.92 0.64 - 0.64 1.28 1.92 44.23 1.28
Tunisia 601 - 0.17 - - 0.5 0.67 1.66 - - - - 3 3.16 50.73 1.16
Libya 83 - - - - - 38.55 - - - - 2.41 - 4.82 45.78 -
Machrik
Egypt 370 1.35 - - - 0.54 2.43 3.24 0.81 7.03 1.62 0.81 9.19 2.43 11.89 6.76
Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Syria, Iraq 2741 0.18 0.04 0.04 - 0.33 0.62 0.44 - - - 1.24 8.72 - 0.84 5.36
Arabian Peninsula 618 0.16 0.81 0.97 0.81 0.32 5.66 1.94 0.49 - - 0.32 2.43 - 0.16 5.66
Haplogroup
(continued)
F G H I J1 J2 K L N O P,R Q R1a1 R1b R1b1a R1b1b R2 T
Marker M89 M201 M69 M343 V88 M269 M70
Maghreb
Sahara/Mauritania - - - 13.23 - - - - - - - - - 6.88 0.53 - -
Morocco 0.26 0.66 - 0.13 6.32 1.32 0.53 - - - 0.26 - - - 0.92 3.55 - -
Algeria 3.85 - - - 21.79 2.49 0.64 - - - - 0.64 0.64 - 2.56 7.04 - -
Tunisia 2.66 0.17 - 0.17 26.64 6.83 0.33 - - - 0.33 - 0.5 - 1.83 0.33 - 1.16
Libya - 8 - - - - - - - - 2.41 - - - 6.02 - - -
Machrik
Egypt 1.08 5.68 - 0.54 20.81 6.75 0.27 0.81 - 0.27 0.54 0.27 2.16 - 2.97 2.97 0.54 6.22
Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Syria, Iraq 0.15 5.47 - 2.84 30.83 21.05 0.69 3.43 0.15 0.07 0.66 1.2 3.39 0.36 5.47 1.97 0.47 3.98
Arabian Peninsula 1.29 2.91 2.1 - 44.01 11.32 4.37 2.27 - 0.65 0.32 1.46 6.31 0.16 - 2.43 0.16 0.49

Comparison of the members

This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
Country Area (km) Population (2021) GDP PPP (in billions $) TFR
 Arab League 13,132,327 406,691,829 3,335.3
 Algeria 2,381,740 44,177,969 284.7 2.80 (2020)
 Bahrain 760 1,463,265 34.96 1.74 (2019 est)
 Comoros 2,235 821,625 0.911 4.3 (2012 est)
 Djibouti 23,200 1,105,557 2.505 2.8 (2010 est)
 Egypt 1,001,450 109,262,178 551.4 2.63 (2021 est)
 Iraq 438,317 43,533,592 249.4 3.6 (2018 est)
 Jordan 89,342 11,148,278 40.02 2.6 (2020 est)
 Kuwait 17,818 4,250,114 165.8 2.03 (2020 est)
 Lebanon 10,452 5,592,631 51.474 1.74 (2014 est)
 Libya 1,759,540 6,735,277 73.6 2.20 (2020 est)
 Mauritania 1,030,700 4,614,974 8.204 5.20 (2021)
 Morocco 710,850 37,076,584 180 1.87 (2020)
 Oman 309,500 4,520,471 94.86 2.66 (2020)
 Qatar 11,586 2,688,235 26.37 1.67 (2020 est)
 Saudi Arabia 2,149,690 35,950,396 927.8 1.92 (2018)
 Somalia 637,657 17,065,581 5.896 5.70 (2018 est)
 Sudan 1,861,484 45,657,202 89.97 4.49 (2012)
 Syria 185,180 21,324,367 107.6 3.0 (2012)
 Tunisia 163,610 12,262,946 108.4 1.86 (2020)
 United Arab Emirates 83,600 9,365,145 269.8 1.75 (2016 est)
 Yemen 527,968 32,981,641 61.63 4.4 (2013)

See also

References

  1. "Population, total - Arab World". World Bank Open Data.
  2. "Where are the largest cities in the Middle East?".
  3. "Northern Africa Cities by Population 2024".
  4. "Arab world - total population 2013-2023".
  5. "Demography". Arab Development Portal.
  6. "Urbanization and Sustainable Development in the Arab Region" (PDF). United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia.
  7. "The Global Religious Landscape: Muslims". Pew Research Center. 2012-12-18. ...the Middle East-North Africa region has an overwhelmingly Muslim population (93%)...
  8. "The Global Religious Landscape: Christians". Pew Research Center. 2012-12-18. ...Christians live as minorities in the Asia-Pacific region (7%) and the Middle East-North Africa region (4%)...
  9. "The World's Muslims: Unity and Diver" (PDF). Pew Research Center.
  10. "The Sunni-Shia divide: Where they live, what they believe and how they view each other". Pew Research Center.
  11. "Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries". jewishvirtuallibrary.org. Retrieved 20 August 2015.
  12. Castellino, Joshua; Cavanaugh, Kathleen A. (2013). "Religious Minorities". Minority Rights in the Middle East (Online edition, 26 September 2013 ed.). Oxford University Press.
  13. Weitz, Lev (2015-11-23). "Religious Minorities in the Modern Middle East". Foreign Policy Research Institute. Retrieved 2024-11-18.
  14. "Religious Composition by Country, 2010-2050". Pew Research Center. 2022-12-21.
  15. "World Bank Open Data".
  16. "Africa :: Algeria — The World Factbook – Central Intelligence Agency". 2019-09-12. Archived from the original on 2019-09-12. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
  17. ^ "Countries in the world by population (2021)". Worldometer.
  18. "Middle East :: Bahrain – The World Factbook – Central Intelligence Agency". 2019-09-12. Archived from the original on 2019-09-12. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
  19. "CIA World Factbook: Comoros". 26 July 2016.
  20. "Africa :: Comoros – The World Factbook – Central Intelligence Agency". 2019-09-12. Archived from the original on 2019-09-12. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
  21. "CIA World Factbook: Djibouti". 23 June 2014.
  22. "Ethnologue report for Djibouti". 2012-10-14. Archived from the original on 2012-10-14. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
  23. "Egypt Population (2017)". 11 May 2020.
  24. "Africa :: Egypt – The World Factbook – Central Intelligence Agency". 2019-09-30. Archived from the original on 2019-09-30. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
  25. "Egypt". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
  26. "CIA World Factbook: Iraq". 20 March 2014.
  27. "Middle East :: Iraq – The World Factbook – Central Intelligence Agency". 2019-09-12. Archived from the original on 2019-09-12. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
  28. "Middle East :: Jordan – The World Factbook – Central Intelligence Agency". 2019-09-12. Archived from the original on 2019-09-12. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
  29. "World Bank Open Data".
  30. "Middle East :: Kuwait – The World Factbook – Central Intelligence Agency". 2019-09-12. Archived from the original on 2019-09-12. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
  31. "Middle East :: Lebanon – The World Factbook – Central Intelligence Agency". 2019-09-12. Archived from the original on 2019-09-12. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
  32. "CIA World Factbook: Libya". 20 June 2014.
  33. "Africa :: Libya – The World Factbook – Central Intelligence Agency". 2019-09-12. Archived from the original on 2019-09-12. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
  34. "CIA World Factbook: Mauritania". 20 June 2014.
  35. "Africa :: Mauritania – The World Factbook – Central Intelligence Agency". 2019-09-12. Archived from the original on 2019-09-12. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
  36. "World Bank Open Data".
  37. "Africa :: Morocco – The World Factbook – Central Intelligence Agency". 2019-09-12. Archived from the original on 2019-09-12. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
  38. ^ "Middle East :: West Bank – The World Factbook – Central Intelligence Agency". 2019-07-06. Archived from the original on 2019-07-06. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
  39. ^ "Middle East :: Gaza Strip — The World Factbook – Central Intelligence Agency". 2019-09-16. Archived from the original on 2019-09-16. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
  40. "Middle East :: Qatar – The World Factbook – Central Intelligence Agency". 2019-09-12. Archived from the original on 2019-09-12. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
  41. "World Bank Open Data".
  42. "Middle East :: Saudi Arabia – The World Factbook – Central Intelligence Agency". 2019-09-12. Archived from the original on 2019-09-12. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
  43. "World Bank Open Data".
  44. "Africa :: Somalia – The World Factbook – Central Intelligence Agency". 2019-09-12. Archived from the original on 2019-09-12. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
  45. "World Bank Open Data".
  46. ^ "Africa :: Sudan – The World Factbook – Central Intelligence Agency". 2019-09-12. Archived from the original on 2019-09-12. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
  47. "World Bank Open Data".
  48. "Africa :: Tunisia – The World Factbook – Central Intelligence Agency". 2019-09-12. Archived from the original on 2019-09-12. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
  49. "CIA World Factbook: United Arab Emirates". 20 June 2014.
  50. "Middle East :: United Arab Emirates – The World Factbook – Central Intelligence Agency". 2019-09-12. Archived from the original on 2019-09-12. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
  51. "Middle East :: Yemen – The World Factbook – Central Intelligence Agency". 2019-09-19. Archived from the original on 2019-09-19. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
  52. ^ Der Matossian, Bedross (2011). "The Armenians of Palestine 1918–48". Journal of Palestine Studies. 41 (1): 25, 29–30. doi:10.1525/jps.2011.XLI.1.24. JSTOR 10.1525/jps.2011.XLI.1.24.
  53. Shemassian, Vahram (2012). "Armenian Genocide Survivors in the Holy Land at the End of World War I". Journal of the Society for Armenian Studies. 21: 247–77.
  54. Bremer, Joerg (2007). "Swan Song in the Holy Land: The Armenian Quarter in Jerusalem". In v. Voss, Huberta (ed.). Portraits of Hope: Armenians in the Contemporary World. Berghahn Books. p. 273. ISBN 9781845452575.
  55. Hewsen, Robert H. (2001). Armenia: A Historical Atlas. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 89. ISBN 978-0-226-33228-4.
  56. Grgearyan, Hakob; Hakobjanyan, Davit (1977). "Երուսաղեմ ". Soviet Armenian Encyclopedia Volume 3. pp. 641–642.
  57. Vaux, Bert (2002). "The Armenian Dialects of Jerusalem". In Ervine, Roberta R; Stone, Michael E.; Stone, Nira (eds.). The Armenians in Jerusalem and the Holy Land. Peeters Pub & Booksellers. p. 5. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.18.4523. Archived from the original on March 21, 2016.
  58. Tchilingirian, Hratch. "The Armenian Church: A Brief Introduction" (PDF). hygradaran. Armenian Church Library. p. 8. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 April 2019. According to Vatican sources, some 250,000 Armenians are members of the "Armenian Rite" of the Catholic Church (others put the number closer to 150,000) with communities in Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Turkey, Jerusalem and the US.
  59. "الأرمن في فلسطين | مركز المعلومات الوطني الفلسطيني".
  60. Benkato, Adam (2020). "Maghrebi Arabic". In Lucas, Christopher; Manfredi, Stefano (eds.). Arabic and Contact-Induced Change. Language Science Press. pp. 197–212.
  61. "Circassians". Encyclopedia.com.
  62. "Circassian Diaspora". Center for Circassian Studies.
  63. "Origin and Evolution of the Coptic Language". CopticChurch.net.
  64. ^ Gil, Moshe (1997). The origin of the Jews of Yathrib. BRILL. ISBN 9789004138827.
  65. Lowin, Shari (2010-10-01). "Khaybar". Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World. Brill. pp. 148–150. doi:10.1163/1878-9781_ejiw_com_0012910. Retrieved 2023-06-22 – via brillonline.com. Khaybar's Jews appear in Arab folklore as well. The Muḥamara family of the Arab village of Yutta, near Hebron, trace their descent to the Jews of Khaybar. Families in other nearby villages tell of similar lineages.
  66. Lee, Vered. (2008-05-18) Conference asks: Iraqi Israeli, Arab Jew or Mizrahi Jew? – Israel News | Haaretz Daily Newspaper. Haaretz.com. Retrieved on 2013-07-12.
  67. "The Time of the Kurds". Council on Foreign Relations.
  68. Mackenzie, J. M. (2022). The Oxford Handbook of Mandaean Studies. Oxford University Press.
  69. Bozkurt, Abdülbaki (2019). "The Historical Roots of the Mhallami Arabs in Turkey as a Subject of Debate" (PDF). Journal of International Social Research. 12 (62).
  70. Fonseca, I. (1996). Bury Me Standing: The Gypsies and Their Journey. Vintage. ISBN 9780679737438. Retrieved 20 August 2015.
  71. "Shabak in Iraq". Minority Rights Group.
  72. "Provisional Constitution". Federal Republic of Somalia. 1 August 2012. Article 5. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 25 March 2016.
  73. Central Intelligence Agency (2011). "Somalia". The World Factbook. Langley, Virginia: Central Intelligence Agency. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
  74. ^ Abdullahi, Mohamed Diriye (2001). Culture and customs of Somalia. Greenwood. pp. 8–11. ISBN 978-0-313-31333-2.
  75. David D. Laitin (1977). Politics, Language, and Thought. University of Chicago Press. p. 50. ISBN 0226467910.
  76. Gale Research Inc. (1984). Worldmark encyclopedia of the nations, Volume 2. Gale Research. p. 278.
  77. "Djibouti". CIA Factbook. 6 December 2023.
  78. Abdelrazek, Amal Talaat (2007), Contemporary Arab American women writers: hyphenated identities and border crossings, Cambria Press, p. 37, ISBN 978-1-934043-71-4, This interiorized rejection of things local and Arabic in part derives from the fact that the ruling and upper classes in the years before the revolution were mainly Turkish, or of Turkish descent, part of the heritage from the Ottoman rule in Egypt. If one was not really Western, but belonged to the elite, one was Turkish. Only the masses, the country folk, were quite simply Egyptian in the first place, and possibly Arabs secondarily.
  79. Peyrouse, Sebastien (2015), Turkmenistan: Strategies of Power, Dilemmas of Development, Routledge, p. 62, ISBN 978-0230115521
  80. Taylor, Scott (2004), Among the Others: Encounters with the Forgotten Turkmen of Iraq, Esprit de Corps, p. 31, ISBN 1-895896-26-6, The largest number of Turkmen immigrants followed the army of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent when he conquered all of Iraq in 1535. Throughout their reign, the Ottomans encouraged the settlement of immigrant Turkmen along the loosely formed boundary that divided Arab and Kurdish settlements in northern Iraq.
  81. Jawhar, Raber Tal'at (2010), "The Iraqi Turkmen Front", in Catusse, Myriam; Karam, Karam (eds.), Returning to Political Parties?, The Lebanese Center for Policy Studies, pp. 313–328, ISBN 978-1-886604-75-9, There's a strong conflict of opinions regarding the origins of Iraqi Turkmen, however, it is certain that they settled down during the Ottoman rule in the northwest of Mosul, whence they spread to eastern Baghdad. Once there, they became high ranked officers, experts, traders, and executives in residential agglomerations lined up along the vast, fertile plains, and mingled with Kurds, Assyrians, Arabs, and other confessions. With the creation of the new Iraqi state in 1921, Iraqi Turkmen managed to maintain their socioeconomic status.
  82. International Crisis Group (2008), Turkey and the Iraqi Kurds: Conflict or Cooperation?, International Crisis Group, archived from the original on 12 January 2011, Turkomans are descendents of Ottoman Empire-era soldiers, traders and civil servants... The 1957 census, Iraq's last reliable count before the overthrow of the monarchy in 1958, put the country's population at 6,300,000 and the Turkoman population at 567,000, about 9 per cent...Subsequent censuses, in 1967, 1977, 1987 and 1997, are all considered highly problematic, due to suspicions of regime manipulation.
  83. ^ The New York Times (2015). "Who Are the Turkmens of Syria?". The New York Times. In the context of Syria, though, the term is used somewhat differently, to refer mainly to people of Turkish heritage whose families migrated to Syria from Anatolia during the centuries of the Ottoman period — and thus would be closer kin to the Turks of Turkey than to the Turkmens of Central Asia...Q. How many are there? A. No reliable figures are available, and estimates on the number of Turkmens in Syria and nearby countries vary widely, from the hundreds of thousands up to 3 million or more.
  84. BBC (June 18, 2004). "Who's who in Iraq: Turkmen". Retrieved 2011-11-23. The predominantly Muslim Turkmen are an ethnic group with close cultural and linguistic ties to Anatolia in Turkey.
  85. Bassem, Wassim (2016). "Iraq's Turkmens call for independent province". Al-Monitor. Archived from the original on 2016-10-17. Retrieved 2016-10-17. Turkmens are a mix of Sunnis and Shiites and are the third-largest ethnicity in Iraq after Arabs and Kurds, numbering around 3 million out of the total population of about 34.7 million, according to 2013 data from the Iraqi Ministry of Planning.
  86. BBC (2015). "Who are the Turkmen in Syria?". BBC News. There are no reliable population figures, but they are estimated to number between about half a million and 3.5 million.
  87. Al-Akhbar. "Lebanese Turks Seek Political and Social Recognition". Archived from the original on 2018-06-20. Retrieved 2012-03-02.
  88. Ahmed, Yusra (2015), Syrian Turkmen refugees face double suffering in Lebanon, Zaman Al Wasl, retrieved 11 October 2016
  89. "Who are the Yazidis?". Washington Post.
  90. Andrea Glioti (18 October 2013). "Yazidis Benefit From Kurdish Gains in Northeast Syria". Al-Monitor. Archived from the original on 19 February 2014.
  91. Bishai, Wilson B. (1962). "Coptic Grammatical Influence on Egyptian Arabic". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 82 (3): 285–289. doi:10.2307/597639.
  92. E. Fentress, ed., Fouilles de Sétif 1977–1984 BAA supp. 5, Algiers, 114–151
  93. Stearns, Peter N.; Leonard Langer, William (2001). The Encyclopedia of World History: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern, Chronologically Arranged (6 ed.). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. pp. 129–131. ISBN 0-395-65237-5.
  94. "François Decret, Les invasions hilaliennes en Ifrîqiya – Clio – Voyage Culturel". www.clio.fr. Retrieved 2015-11-21.
  95. Bekada A, Fregel R, Cabrera VM, Larruga JM, Pestano J, et al. (2013) Introducing the Algerian Mitochondrial DNA and Y-Chromosome Profiles into the North African Landscape. PLoS ONE 8(2): e56775. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0056775
  96. "World Population Prospects 2022". United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. Retrieved July 17, 2022.
  97. "World Population Prospects 2022: Demographic indicators by region, subregion and country, annually for 1950-2100" (XSLX) ("Total Population, as of 1 July (thousands)"). United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. Retrieved July 17, 2022.
Arab League
Politics
Membership
Members
Observers
Candidates
Diplomacy
Life


Ethnicity
Concepts
Ethnology
Groups by region
Identity and
ethnogenesis
Multiethnic society
Ideology and
ethnic conflict
Related
Categories: