Arabic Culture

The Arabic culture is one of the oldest cultures among the world. The origin of this culture is as old as the times of Prophet Abraham. Arabic language, which is the basis of this culture, is spoken in 22 countries which ranges from Mauritania and Morocco in the west and Arabic Peninsula and Iraq in the east. The area covered is about five and a quarter million square miles.

Previously, Arabs were considered as nomadic people living in the desert. Their culture came into prominence with the arrival of Prophet Mohammed in 622 AD. The Arab people still constitute only a little less than five percent of world population.

Arab people are predominantly Muslim. They are followers of Prophet Mohammed and follow the holy book of Qur’an.

One of the significant components of Arab culture is its literature. Arabic literature started to develop after the introduction of Islam in 7tth Century. The holy book of Qur’an has a lasting influence on Arabic Literature. The stories of Thousand and One Nights written Arabic is world famous and is still popular.

Another component of Arab culture is its music. Essentially, Arab music is based on melody and rhythm. The main difference between Western musical scale and Arabic scales is that there are many in-between notes that are used in Arabic music. These notes are called quarter tones. But, intonation of these notes is slightly different in different regions like Egypt, Turkey, Syria and Iraq. The music is sung using many musical instruments peculiar to the region.

Any description of Arabic culture would not be complete without mentioning something about Arabian food. Originally, Arabs living in Arabian Peninsula used prepare their food mainly using dates, wheat, barley, rice and meat as well as on a yogurt product which is called leben. But, modern day Arab cooking has been influenced by different cuisines which are prevalent over the whole Arab world from spread from Morocco to Iraq. There are different variants of Arab cuisine like Lebanese, Egyptian and others. These cuisines have been influenced by cuisines of India, Turkey, Berber and other countries. A typical meal in any Arab gulf country would consist of lots of rice along with food preparations using lamb or chicken or both as separate item, with various stewed vegetables. The food is generally heavily spiced and uses tomato sauce. Food is generally served in a big platter, which is shared by everybody. Tea and Coffee are two popular beverages in the Arab world.

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 16th, 2008 at 5:14 am and is filed under Arabic Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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