title: Alexa Bliss

text: After a hiatus due to a legitimate injury, Bliss returned on March 11, 2015, episode of "NXT", where she defeated Carmella. The following week on "NXT", she defeated NXT Women's Champion Sasha Banks by countout in a non-title match, which led to Bliss being granted a title match against Banks on March 25 episode of "NXT", which she lost. Bliss had an altercation with Carmella backstage on April 29 episode of "NXT". After being slapped, Bliss was consoled by NXT Tag Team Champions Buddy Murphy and Wesley Blake who were standing in the background. On May 13 episode of "NXT", Bliss landed a Sparkle Splash and defeated Carmella after Blake and Murphy set up a distraction. On May 20 at , Bliss helped Blake and Murphy retain the NXT Tag Team Championship against Colin Cassady and Enzo Amore, forming an alliance with them and turning into a villainess character for the first time in her WWE career. On May 27 airing of "NXT", in a non-title tag team match against Elias Samson and Mike Rallis, Blake and Murphy were accompanied to the ring by Bliss, who has now changed the blue in her hair to red, as well as changed her ring attire to a red two-piece with matching name and markings to the Blake and Murphy ring gear. For this match Blake and Murphy won, and as an act of humiliation Bliss hit a Sparkle Splash to the incapacitated Elias. With the effects of Takeover: Unstoppable still fresh, Bliss had a singles match with Carmella on June 3 episode of "NXT". Starting with this match, "Opposite Ends Of The World" would be the theme track that was also used for Bliss to make her entrances, and she was accompanied by Blake and Murphy, who remained at the ring side for the duration of this match. Bliss won this encounter by securing a Roll-up and grabbing the second rope for additional leverage. On July 29 episode of "NXT", Bliss helped Blake and Murphy retain the NXT Tag Team Championship against The Vaudevillains (Aiden English and Simon Gotch) and slapped both English and Gotch after the match. The Vaudevillians were granted a rematch for the NXT Tag Team Championship against Blake and Murphy at on August 22, which they won after Blue Pants stopped Bliss from providing a distraction during the match. For this Takeover appearance, Bliss incorporated her signature skeleton gloves for the very first time on air. The interruptions at Brooklyn led to a match between the two, where Bliss would go on to defeat Blue Pants in a singles match on September 2 episode of "NXT". For this match she added her signature hand gesture to her entrance that she went on to use extensively for the next five years.


title: Alexa Bliss

text: Throughout October and November, Bliss was involved in a feud with Bayley over the NXT Women's Championship. On November 18 episode of "NXT", while cutting a promo about her upcoming main event match with Bayley, a referee came by to say that per William Regal, Blake and Murphy would be banned from ringside for this match. When it came time for Alexa's entrance, a brand new theme track, "Spiteful" was introduced for the first time. Bliss was unsuccessful at capturing the title as Bayley slapped bliss, then hit a Bayley-to-Belly Suplex to retain. On January 13, 2016, episode of "NXT", Bliss competed in a number one contender's battle royal, but lost. On May 18 episode of "NXT", Bliss and Blake abandoned Murphy, officially disbanding the trio. On May 25 episode of "NXT", Bliss competed in a triple threat match against Carmella and Nia Jax to determine the number one contender to Asuka's NXT Women's Championship, which was won by Jax.<ref name="NXT25/05/16"></ref> On July 6 episode of "NXT", in a match against Bayley, Bliss debuted the Goddess ring attire. The match ended when Bayley executed a Bayley-to-Belly Suplex and secured the pinfall victory. On August 17 episode of "NXT", Bliss competed in a tag team match along with Daria Berenato and Mandy Rose, in which they were defeated by Carmella, Liv Morgan and Nikki Glencross in what would be also her last match in NXT.<ref name="NXT 17/08/16"></ref>


title: Alexa Bliss

text: On July 19, Bliss was drafted to the SmackDown brand as part of the 2016 WWE draft. She made her main roster debut on July 26 episode of "SmackDown Live" in a segment involving the brand's women's division. Bliss achieved her first victory on the main roster by defeating Becky Lynch on August 9 episode of "SmackDown Live". On August 21 at SummerSlam, she teamed with Natalya and Nikki Bella in a winning effort against Lynch, Carmella and Naomi. On September 11 at Backlash, Bliss competed in a six-pack elimination challenge to determine the inaugural SmackDown Women's Champion, in which she was unsuccessful and was won by Becky Lynch.


title: Alexa Bliss

text: On September 13 episode of "SmackDown Live", Bliss won a fatal five-way match to earn a title match against Lynch at No Mercy on October 9. However, due to Lynch suffering a legitimate injury, the match was rescheduled for the November 8 episode of "SmackDown", where Lynch successfully defended the title against Bliss. Bliss participated in the Raw vs. SmackDown Women's elimination tag team match at Survivor Series on November 20, where her team lost the match. On December 4 at , Bliss defeated Lynch in a tables match to become the new SmackDown Women's Champion.


title: Alexa Bliss

text: On January 17, 2017, episode of "SmackDown Live", Bliss successfully defended her title against Lynch in a steel cage match following an interference by the returning Mickie James, who aligned herself with Bliss. On February 12, Bliss dropped the title to Naomi at Elimination Chamber. On February 21 episode of "SmackDown Live", Bliss defeated Lynch to capture the title for the second time after Naomi was forced to vacate the title due to injury, becoming the first two-time SmackDown Women's Champion. Bliss' partnership with Mickie James dissolved shortly after and the two would face off in a match on "SmackDown Live", with James defeating Bliss. On April 2, Bliss lost the title to Naomi in a six-pack challenge also involving Carmella, James, Lynch and Natalya at WrestleMania 33. Bliss and Naomi faced off in a rematch on April 4 episode of "SmackDown Live", where Bliss was once again defeated.


title: Alexa Bliss

text: On April 10, 2017, episode of "Raw", Bliss was drafted to the Raw brand as part of the Superstar Shake-up, confronting Raw Women's Champion Bayley. A week later, Bliss won a fatal four-way match to become the number one contender for the title. At Payback, on April 30, Bliss defeated Bayley to become the new Raw Women's Champion, becoming the first woman to win the Raw and SmackDown Women's Championships in the process. In a rematch between the two, which took place on June 4 at Extreme Rules, Bliss retained her title over Bayley in a kendo stick-on-a-pole match. Bliss then started a feud with Sasha Banks, whom she defeated on July 9 at Great Balls of Fire via count-out before losing the title to Banks on August 20 at SummerSlam, ending her reign at 112 days. She regained the title eight days later on "Raw".


title: Alexa Bliss

text: Bliss went on to defend her title on September 24 at No Mercy in a fatal five-way match against Bayley, Nia Jax, Emma, and Sasha Banks. Bliss was then confronted the following night on "Raw" by Mickie James due to remarks Bliss made about her. At , Bliss defeated James to retain the title, and did so again on October 30 episode of "Raw".


title: Alexa Bliss

text: On February 25, 2018, at Elimination Chamber, Bliss won the inaugural women's elimination chamber match, after she successfully retained her title. In parallel to her activities as a singles wrestler, she took a part of the Mixed Match Challenge tournament with Braun Strowman as her partner, and the duo was able to qualify to the semi-finals of the tournament, where they were defeated by the eventual winners Asuka and The Miz. On April 8 at WrestleMania 34, Bliss lost the title to Nia Jax, ending her reign at 223 days. On May 6 at Backlash, Bliss invoked her rematch clause and challenged Nia Jax for the title; however, she was unsuccessful and suffered a shoulder injury during the match.


title: Alexa Bliss

text: Shortly after losing the title, in mid-May, Bliss won a triple threat match against Bayley and Mickie James to earn a spot at the Money in the Bank ladder match, which she would go on to win at the event on June 17. That same night, Bliss cashed in her contract on Nia Jax and defeated her, after attacking both Jax and Ronda Rousey, winning the Raw Women's Championship for a third time. This made her the first woman, and third wrestler overall, to cash-in the Money in the Bank contract the same night after winning it. At Extreme Rules, Bliss retained the championship against Jax in the inaugural women's extreme rules match, thereby ending their feud. At SummerSlam, on August 19, Bliss lost the championship to Ronda Rousey, ending her reign at 63 days. She failed to regain the title in a rematch at Hell in a Cell the following month.


title: Alexa Bliss

text: In October, Bliss and Mickie James started a feud with WWE Hall of Famers Trish Stratus and Lita, which eventually led to the announcement of a tag team match between the two duos at WWE Evolution, the first ever all women's pay-per-view. Just three days before the event, however, on October 25, it was announced that Bliss was pulled off the match due to a concussion she suffered during her match with Ronda at Hell in a Cell and she was replaced by Alicia Fox. During that time, it was also revealed that Bliss would be taking time off from in-ring competition to heal from various injuries that she had sustained.


title: Alexa Bliss

text: A few weeks later, Bliss was announced as the team captain of Team Raw in a non-wrestling role for the traditional interbrand women's five-on-five tag team elimination match at the Survivor Series event, in which they were victorious. The following night, on November 18 episode of "Raw", Bliss was named the new head of the Raw women's division by Acting Raw General Manager Baron Corbin. In December, Bliss' role as well as those of other authority figures on Raw and SmackDown were removed after the McMahon family announced they were taking charge again.


title: Alexa Bliss

text: On January 7, 2019, episode of "Raw", Bliss debuted an interview segment titled A Moment of Bliss, where she interviewed various guests as the segment's host. At Royal Rumble on January 27, after a nearly five month in-ring hiatus, Bliss competed in her first women's Royal Rumble match, lasting 12 minutes and eliminating Ember Moon and Sonya Deville before she was eliminated by Bayley and Carmella. In April, Bliss hosted the WrestleMania 35 event. The following night on "Raw", Bliss defeated Bayley in her first singles match since her hiatus from in-ring competition in late 2018. At The Shield's Final Chapter event, Bliss teamed up with Lacey Evans to defeat Dana Brooke and Nikki Cross in a dark match. Shortly thereafter, Bliss was announced as a participant of the annual Money in the Bank ladder match at the namesake pay-per-view. However, she was not medically cleared to compete in time for the event and therefore removed from the match.


title: Alexa Bliss

text: In June, Bliss reignited her rivalry with Bayley after she won a triple threat match to become the number one contender for Bayley's SmackDown Women's Championship at Stomping Grounds, where Bliss failed to win the title from Bayley. Following the loss, in her first attempt at capturing the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship, Bliss teamed up with Nikki Cross to challenge The IIconics (Billie Kay and Peyton Royce), during which Bliss and Cross were unsuccessful. Bliss and Cross would challenge Bayley to a two-on-one handicap match at Extreme Rules, where Bayley once again retained the championship by pinning Bliss.


title: Alexa Bliss

text: On August 5 episode of "Raw", Bliss and Cross would win the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship from The IIconics in a fatal four-way tag team elimination match also involving The Kabuki Warriors (Asuka and Kairi Sane), and Fire and Desire (Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville). Bliss and Cross retained their titles against Fire and Desire at Clash of Champions. At the Hell in a Cell on October 6, they lost the titles to The Kabuki Warriors after Asuka spat green mist in Cross' face, thus turning them face in the process. This would be Bliss' first time as a face on the main roster. Although drafted separately instead of as a team during the 2019 Draft, Bliss and Cross remained on the Raw brand, but the team was then traded to the SmackDown brand. At Starrcade, Bliss and Cross competed in a fatal four-way tag team match for the Women's Tag Team Championship, but the match was won by defending champions The Kabuki Warriors. At the Royal Rumble on January 26, 2020, Bliss entered the namesake match at number 1, lasting 27 minutes and eliminating Kairi Sane, Mia Yim, and Chelsea Green, but was eliminated by Bianca Belair.


title: Alexa Bliss

text: Leading up to WrestleMania 36, Bliss and Cross reignited their feud with The Kabuki Warriors, as Bliss went on to defeat Asuka on March 27 episode of "SmackDown" to earn a match for the Women's Tag Team Championship at WrestleMania. At the event, the duo defeated The Kabuki Warriors to win the titles for a second time, becoming the first multi-time WWE Women's Tag Team Champions. On the following "SmackDown", they defeated them again in a rematch for their titles, and were subsequently challenged by Carmella and Dana Brooke, against whom they defended the titles on "SmackDown" two weeks later. On May 18 episode of "Raw", Bliss and Cross retained their titles against The IIconics via disqualification, after losing to them in a non-title match the week prior. On June 6 episode of "SmackDown", the duo lost their titles to the team of Bayley and Sasha Banks, making their reign end at 62 days yet again. At Backlash, Bliss and Cross were unsuccessful in regaining their titles in a triple threat tag team match also involving The IIconics, as Banks managed to roll up Bliss for the win.


title: Alexa Bliss

text: At The Horror Show at Extreme Rules, Bliss appeared during the cinematic match between Braun Strowman and Bray Wyatt. Wyatt used Bliss' image as Strowman had an affection for her. Bliss then became involved in the storyline between Strowman and Wyatt, as she was attacked by Wyatt's alter ego, The Fiend, on July 31 episode of "SmackDown". Bliss' involvement with The Fiend would continue in the coming months, with Bliss going into trance and using his finisher, Sister Abigail.


title: Alexa Bliss

text: As part of the 2020 Draft in October, both Bliss and The Fiend were drafted to the Raw brand. On October 26 episode of "Raw," while hosting "A Moment of Bliss" with special guest Randy Orton, a feud was set off that involved The Fiend as well. During the opening of that segment, Bliss was also given a new ring entrance theme song "The Fury". After the Fiend was written off television, Bliss then took over the feud with Orton, as she wanted him to face the repercussions of his actions at TLC.


title: Alexa Bliss

text: At Royal Rumble, she competed in the Women's Royal Rumble match, entering at number 27, but was eliminated by Rhea Ripley after about a minute in the ring. From January to March 2021, Bliss' appearance continually shifted darker as she began to constantly interfere in Orton's matches. This transformation ramped up for her scheduled intergender match against Orton at Fastlane. During the match, she attacked Orton with supernatural powers like making a lighting rig fall and almost land on him and launching a fireball at him. At the end, The Fiend made his return and attacked Orton, allowing Bliss to defeat Orton. At Wrestlemania 37, Bliss was in The Fiend's corner for his match with Orton, but eventually betrayed him by distracting him, allowing Orton to defeat him. On the following RAW, Bliss declared that The Fiend was her mentor, but now she no longer needed him. She then introduced her new friend, a demonic looking doll named Lilly.


title: Alexa Bliss

text: On May 31 episode of "Raw", Bliss would begin a feud with Shayna Baszler with Baszler claiming that Bliss was the reason why Baszler and Jax lost the WWE Women's Tag Team titles. A match between Baszler and Bliss would then be announced for Hell in a Cell. At the event, Bliss would defeat Baszler. Throughout the month of June, Bliss would take on an ever increasingly darker appearance, and for the June 21 episode of "Raw" it was announced that Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross would be in a Money in the Bank Qualifier tag team match against Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler. Bliss and Cross ended up securing the victory when Cross pinned Baszler with a cradle in the middle of the ring. This was the first team win for Bliss and Cross since the May 12, 2020 "Raw" taping (May 18 airing). On July 12 episode of Raw, Bliss would then begin a feud with Eva Marie. A match between Bliss and Marie was announced at SummerSlam on August 16 episode of "Raw". At the event, Bliss would defeat Marie. At Extreme Rules, Bliss failed to win the Raw Women's Championship from Charlotte Flair, and after the match, Flair would tear up Lilly. At Elimination Chamber, Bliss entered contendership Elimination Chamber match for Raw Women's Championship; eliminating Liv Morgan and then eliminated by Bianca Belair. On the May 9, 2022 episode of "Raw", Bliss made her return by defeating Sonya Deville after the latter's contract as a WWE official got terminated. During a six-woman tag team match on the July 18 episode of "Raw", Bliss won the 24/7 Championship for the first time by pinning Nikki A.S.H before immediately losing the title to Doudrop.


title: Alexa Bliss

text: On the October 31 episode of "Raw", Bliss and Asuka defeated Damage CTRL (Dakota Kai and Iyo Sky) to win WWE Women's Tag Team Championship. In a rematch at Crown Jewel, Bliss and Asuka lost the titles back to Kai and Sky due to an interference from Nikki Cross.


title: Alexa Bliss

text: Bliss began her career using a fairy gimmick, which saw her wearing a cheerleading uniform and blowing glitter during her entrance. In hindsight, she has spoken negatively about her early characterization and blamed her inexperience for creating it, noting that it was "a very unrelatable character" and "basically Tinker Bell in a wrestling ring". The glitter also would stick to her and her opponents, and would be hard to remove, resulting in it being banned by the WWE. She eventually altered her gimmick to that of a cruel, calculating, unhinged, bullying villain, taking inspiration from the comic book character Harley Quinn in personality, and appearance. This gimmick led to her breakthrough into the main event scene and turned her into one of the biggest female stars in WWE. Furthermore, she is known to sport ring gear inspired by pop culture icons such as Iron Man, The Riddler, and Freddy Krueger, among others.


title: Alexa Bliss

text: As her primary finisher, Bliss uses a diving barani flip from the top rope dubbed "Twisted Bliss", which originates from her background in gymnastics and was initially called the "Sparkle Splash". As an alternate finisher, she also employs a snap DDT known as the "Twisted DDT". During her alliance with "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt, she adopted his finishing move, a swinging reverse STO called "Sister Abigail".


title: Alexa Bliss

text: Bliss is a playable character in "WWE 2K17", "WWE 2K18", "WWE 2K19", "WWE 2K20", "WWE 2K22", and "WWE 2K Battlegrounds".


title: Alexa Bliss

text: On July 24, 2017, it was announced that Bliss would be joining the seventh season of "Total Divas". She is also a recurring guest on Xavier Woods' YouTube channel UpUpDownDown, where she goes by the nickname Miss Bliss. In November 2019, she defeated Cesaro, Rusev, and The Miz in the finals of a "Brawlhalla" tournament to win Cesaro's UpUpDownDown Championship, but she immediately lost the title to Tyler Breeze in "Saturday Night Slam Masters".


title: Alexa Bliss

text: In early 2020, Bliss appeared in the music video for a song by Bowling for Soup, having previously cited them as her favorite band.


title: Alexa Bliss

text: On June 23, 2020, Bliss confirmed her long rumored WWE podcast, which is titled "Uncool with Alexa Bliss" and debuted on September 22, 2020.


title: Alexa Bliss

text: On 2021, Bliss made a guest appearance on "Punky Brewster" as her wrestling persona alongside fellow professional wrestler Charlotte Flair.


title: Alexa Bliss

text: Kaufman has been an avid fan of Disney since the age of three, which she attributes to her family's annual trips to Walt Disney World despite their low income at the time. She enjoys cosplaying, which has inspired many of her wrestling outfits such as Freddy Krueger, Harley Quinn, Iron Man, The Riddler, Supergirl, and Chucky. She also supports her hometown, Columbus Blue Jackets. She has cited Trish Stratus and Rey Mysterio as her influences in wrestling.


title: Alexa Bliss

text: Kaufman was previously engaged to fellow professional wrestler Matthew Adams, better known by the ring name Buddy Murphy, and now known by the name Buddy Matthews. They ended their engagement in 2018, but remained friends. She had a pet pig named Larry-Steve, whom she shared with Adams, but the pig died on May 25, 2021.


title: Alexa Bliss

text: In February 2020, Kaufman began dating musician Ryan Cabrera. They got engaged on November 14. The couple were married on April 9, 2022, in Palm Desert, California, upon which she adopted her husband's last name Cabrera.


title: Tupolev Tu-160

text: The Tupolev Tu-160 (; NATO reporting name: Blackjack) is a supersonic, variable-sweep wing heavy strategic bomber designed by the Tupolev Design Bureau in the Soviet Union in the 1970s. It is the largest and heaviest Mach 2+ supersonic military aircraft ever built and second to the experimental XB-70 Valkyrie in overall length. As of 2022, it is the largest and heaviest combat aircraft, the fastest bomber in use and the largest and heaviest variable-sweep wing airplane ever flown.


title: Tupolev Tu-160

text: Entering service in 1987, the Tu-160 was the last strategic bomber designed for the Soviet Union. As of 2016, the Russian Air Force's Long Range Aviation branch had 16 aircraft in service. The Tu-160 active fleet has been undergoing upgrades to electronics systems since the early 2000s. The Tu-160M modernization program of existing models has begun with the first updated aircraft delivered in December 2014. In January 2022 the first serial built aircraft had its test flight, with two planned for delivery in 2022 from 10 on order. Plans include 50 new Tu-160M bombers and upgrading 16 existing aircraft


title: Tupolev Tu-160

text: The first competition for a supersonic strategic heavy bomber was launched in the Soviet Union in 1967. In 1972, the Soviet Union launched a new multi-mission bomber competition to create a new supersonic, variable-geometry ("swing-wing") heavy bomber with a maximum speed of Mach 2.3, in response to the US Air Force B-1 bomber project. The Tupolev design, named "Aircraft 160M", with a lengthened blended wing layout and incorporating some elements of the Tu-144, competed against the Myasishchev M-18 and the Sukhoi T-4 designs. Work on the new Soviet bomber continued despite an end to the B-1A and in the same year, the design was accepted by the government committee. The prototype was photographed by an airline passenger at a Zhukovsky Airfield in November 1981, about a month before the aircraft's first flight on 18 December 1981. Production was authorized in 1984, beginning at the Kazan Aircraft Production Association (KAPO).


title: Tupolev Tu-160

text: The first overhauled and partially modernized aircraft was accepted into Russian service after testing in July 2006. The aircraft reportedly received the capability to use conventional weapons but was not upgraded with new avionics as previously planned. The first modernized aircraft capable of carrying the new long-range Kh-555 conventional cruise missile was delivered to the Russian Air Force in April 2008; a follow-up contract for the modernization of three more aircraft is estimated to cost RUR3.4 billion (US$103 million).


title: Tupolev Tu-160

text: The modernization appeared to be split into two phases, first concentrating on life extension with some initial communication–navigation updates, followed by engine upgrades after 2016. In November 2014, a Tu-160 upgraded with new radar and avionics performed its first flight. The aircraft was delivered to the Russian Air Force as the Tu-160M model in December 2014. The phase I update was due to be completed by 2016, but industrial limitations may delay it to 2019 or beyond. Although Kuznetsov designed an NK-32M engine with improved reliability over the NK-32 engines, its successor company has struggled to deliver working units. Metallist-Samara JSC had not produced new engines for a decade when it was given a contract in 2011 to overhaul 26 of the existing engines, by two years later, only four were finished. Ownership and financial concerns hinder the prospects of a new production line; the firm insists it needs a minimum of 20 engines ordered per year but the government is only prepared to pay for 4–6 engines per year. A further improved engine has been bench tested and may enter production in 2016 or later. Deliveries started in 2020 and 5 aircraft have been equipped with the new engines as of August 2022.


title: Tupolev Tu-160

text: On 29 April 2015, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, on order of President Putin, announced Russia was resuming production of the Tu-160. In May 2015, TASS reported that the Russian Air Force would purchase at least 50 newly built Tu-160s and that the production of the aircraft would resume at KAPO. General Viktor Bondarev has said that development of the PAK DA will continue alongside resumption of production of the older model bomber.


title: Tupolev Tu-160

text: On 16 November 2017, a newly assembled Tu-160, built from an unfinished Tu-160 airframe, was unveiled during a roll-out ceremony at KAPO, signifying a restoration of certain production technologies such as electron-beam welding or titanium work reportedly lost after the termination of serial production in 1992. According to Dmitri Rogozin, the serial production of completely new airframes for the modernized Tu-160M2 should begin in 2019 with deliveries to the Russian Air Force in 2023. The aircraft, named "Petr Deinekin", after the first commanding officer of the Russian Air Force Gen. Pyotr Deynekin, performed its maiden flight in January 2018 and began flight testing the same month. It performed its first public flight on 25 January 2018, during President Vladimir Putin's visit to KAPO plant. The same day, a contract for ten upgraded Tu-160M2 bombers was signed. On 12 January 2022 a new serial produced from scratch Tu-160M had its first low altitude basic test flight. It is planned to deliver 2 newly built serial Tu-160M in 2022 with ramping up production until all 50 on order new aircraft are delivered.


title: Tupolev Tu-160

text: A demilitarized, commercial version of the Tu-160, named "Tu-160SK", was displayed at Asian Aerospace in Singapore in 1994 with a model of a small space vehicle named Burlak attached underneath the fuselage.


title: Tupolev Tu-160

text: In January 2018, Vladimir Putin, while visiting the KAPO plant, floated an idea of creating a civilian passenger supersonic transport version of Tu-160. Experts quoted by the news media were skeptical about the commercial and technological feasibility of such civilian conversion.


title: Tupolev Tu-160

text: The Tu-160 is a variable-geometry wing aircraft. The aircraft employs a fly-by-wire control system with a blended wing profile, and full-span slats are used on the leading edges, with double-slotted flaps on the trailing edges and cruciform tail. Titanium constitutes around 30% of the aircraft's empty weight, and the largest component (the swing wing hinge) weighs . The Tu-160 has a crew of four (pilot, co-pilot, bombardier, and defensive systems operator) in K-36LM ejection seats.


title: Tupolev Tu-160

text: The Tu-160 is powered by four Kuznetsov NK-32 afterburning turbofan engines, the most powerful ever fitted to a combat aircraft. Unlike the American B-1B Lancer, which reduced the original Mach 2+ requirement for the B-1A to achieve a smaller radar cross-section, the Tu-160 retains variable intake ramps, and is capable of reaching Mach 2.05 speed at altitude. The Tu-160 is equipped with a probe-and-drogue in-flight refueling system for extended-range missions, although it is rarely used. The Tu-160 has an internal fuel capacity of . In February 2008, Tu-160 bombers and Il-78 refueling tankers practiced air refueling during air combat exercise, as well as MiG-31, A-50 and other Russian combat aircraft.


title: Tupolev Tu-160

text: The aircraft carries a TsNPO Leninets "Obzor-K" (Survey, NATO: Clam Pipe) radar for tracking ground and air targets, and a separate "Sopka" Terrain-following radar. Although the Tu-160 was designed for reduced detectability to both radar and infrared signature, it is not a stealth aircraft. Nevertheless, Lt. Gen. Igor Khvorov claimed that Tu-160s managed to penetrate the US sector of the Arctic undetected on 25 April 2006, leading to a USAF investigation according to a Russian source.


title: Tupolev Tu-160

text: Weapons are carried in two internal bays, each capable of holding of free-fall weapons or a rotary launcher for nuclear missiles; additional missiles may also be carried externally. The aircraft's total weapons load capacity is . No defensive weapons are provided; the Tu-160 is the first post-World War II Soviet bomber to lack such defenses.


title: Tupolev Tu-160

text: As of 2020, the Russian Air Force is planning to arm the Tu-160 with new hypersonic missiles, in particular the Kh-47M2 Kinzhal.


title: Tupolev Tu-160

text: While similar in appearance to the American B-1 Lancer, the Tu-160 is a different class of combat aircraft; its primary role being a standoff missile platform (strategic missile carrier). The Tu-160 is also larger and faster than the B-1B and has a slightly greater combat range, though the B-1B has a larger combined payload with external payload. Another noticeable difference is that the B-1's colour scheme is usually subdued dark gray to reduce visibility; the Tu-160 is painted with anti-flash white, giving it the nickname among Russian airmen "White Swan".


title: Tupolev Tu-160

text: In April 1987, the Tu-160 entered operational service with the 184th Guards Heavy Bomber Regiment located at Pryluky, Ukrainian SSR. The regiment previously operating Tu-16 and Tu-22M3 strategic bombers became the first unit that received the Tu-160. Squadron deployments to Long Range Aviation began the same month, prior to the Tu-160's first public appearance in a parade in 1989. In 1989 and 1990, a total of 44 world speed flight records in its weight class were set. In January 1992, Boris Yeltsin decided to stop the Tu-160's serial production with 35 aircraft being built at the time. Russia has also unilaterally suspended flights of strategic aviation in remote regions of the world.


title: Tupolev Tu-160

text: A total of 19 Tu-160s were stationed inside the newly independent Ukraine during the dissolution of the Soviet Union. On 25 August 1991, the Ukrainian parliament decreed that the new nation would take control of all military units on its territory; a Defence Ministry was created that same day. By the mid-1990s, the Pryluky regiment had lost its value as a combat unit; 19 Tu-160s were effectively grounded due to a lack of technical support and spare parts. Ukraine considered the Tu-160s to be a bargaining chip in economic negotiations with Russia and of limited value from a military standpoint. Discussions over the Tu-160s were lengthy due to price disagreements. While Russian experts, who examined the aircraft at the Pryluky Air Base in 1993 and 1996, assessed their technical condition as good, the US$3 billion price proposed by Ukraine was considered by Russians as unacceptable. In April 1998, due to the stalled negotiations, Ukraine decided to commence scrapping the aircraft under the Nunn–Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction agreement. In November, the first Tu-160 was deconstructed at Pryluky.


title: Tupolev Tu-160

text: In April 1999, immediately after NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia, Russia resumed talks with Ukraine about strategic bombers, proposing to purchase eight Tu-160 and three Tu-95MS bombers manufactured in 1991 (those in the best technical condition), as well as 575 Kh-55SM cruise missiles. An agreement was reached and a US$285 million contract was signed, the value of which was deducted from Ukraine's debt for natural gas. On 20 October 1999, a group of Russian military experts went to Ukraine to prepare the aircraft for the flight to Engels-2 air base. The first two aircraft (a Tu-160 and a Tu-95MS) departed Pryluky on 5 November. During the following months, seven other Tu-160s flew to Engels-2, with the last two Tu-95MSs arriving on 21 February 2001.


title: Tupolev Tu-160

text: Along with the purchase of Ukrainian aircraft, Russia sought other ways of rebuilding the fleet at Engels-2. In June 1999, the Russian Defence Ministry and Kazan Aircraft Production Association signed a contract for a delivery of a single, almost complete bomber. The aircraft was the second aircraft in the eighth production batch and it arrived at Engels-2 on 10 September. It was commissioned into service on 5 May 2000 and named "Aleksandr Molodchiy". The unit operating the fleet from Engels-2 was the 121st Guards Heavy Bomber Regiment which was formed up in early 1992 and received six aircraft by 1994. By the end of February 2001, the fleet stood at 15 with the addition of the eight aircraft from Ukraine and the new-build. In 2002, Russian Defence Ministry and KAPO reached an agreement on modernization of the 15 aircraft.


title: Tupolev Tu-160

text: The Russia's Air Force fleet was reduced to 14 due to the crash of the Mikhail Gromov during flight trials of a replacement engine on 18 September 2003.


title: Tupolev Tu-160

text: On 22 April 2006, the then commander of the Long-Range Aviation Lieutenant General Igor Khvorov reported a pair of Tu-160 bombers flew undetected through a US-controlled sector during a military exercise in the Arctic.


title: Tupolev Tu-160

text: On 5 July 2006, a Tu-160 named "Valentin Bliznyuk" entered service with the Russian Air Force after completion of its overhaul, bringing the total number back to 15. Built in 1986, it previously served as a test aircraft at Tupolev Design Bureau. It was named after Valentin Bliznyuk, the chief designer of the Tu-160.


title: Tupolev Tu-160

text: On 17 August 2007, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia was resuming the strategic aviation flights stopped in 1991, sending its bombers on long-range patrols. On 14 September 2007, British and Norwegian fighters intercepted two Tu-160s in international airspace near the United Kingdom and Finland, as they were patrolling the North Atlantic. On 25 December 2007, two Tu-160s came close to Danish airspace and two Danish Air Force F-16s scrambled to intercept and identify them.


title: Tupolev Tu-160

text: On 11 September 2007, according to Russian government sources, a Tu-160 deployed a massive fuel-air explosive device, called Father of All Bombs, for its first field test. Some US military analysts expressed skepticism at the time that the weapon was actually delivered by a Tu-160.


title: Tupolev Tu-160

text: On 28 December 2007, a new Tu-160 named "Vitaly Kopylov" performed its first flight. The bomber joined the Russian Air Force on 29 April 2008, increasing the total number of aircraft in service to 16.


title: Tupolev Tu-160

text: In early 2008, Tu-160s bombers took part in an exercise with the Russian Navy in the Atlantic Ocean. Russia also planned that one new Tu-160 would be delivered every one to two years until the active inventory would reach 30 or more aircraft by 2025–2030.


title: Tupolev Tu-160

text: On 10 September 2008, two Tu-160s landed in Venezuela as part of military manoeuvres, announcing an unprecedented deployment to Russia's ally at a time of increasingly tense relations between Russia and the United States. The Russian Defence Ministry said "Vasily Senko" and "Aleksandr Molodchiy" were on a training mission. In a statement carried by Russian news agencies, it was reported that the aircraft would conduct training flights over neutral waters before returning to Russia. The aircraft were escorted by NATO fighters as they flew across the Atlantic Ocean.


title: Tupolev Tu-160

text: On 12 October 2008, Tu-160s were involved in the largest Russian strategic bomber exercise since 1984. A total of 12 bombers including Tu-160 and Tu-95 aircraft conducted a series of launches of their cruise missiles. Some bombers launched a full complement of missiles. It was the first time that a Tu-160 had ever fired a full complement of missiles.


title: Tupolev Tu-160

text: On 10 June 2010, two Tu-160s carried out a record-breaking 23-hour patrol with a planned flight range of . The bombers flew along the Russian borders and over neutral waters in the Arctic and Pacific Oceans.


title: Tupolev Tu-160

text: In August 2011, Russian media reported that only four of Russia's Air Force sixteen Tu-160s were flight worthy. By mid-2012 "Flight International" reported eleven were combat-ready and between 2011 and 2013 eleven were photographed in flight.


title: Tupolev Tu-160

text: On 1 November 2013, "Aleksandr Golovanov" and "Aleksandr Novikov" entered Colombian airspace on two different occasions without receiving previous clearance from the Colombian government. The aircraft were going from Venezuela to Nicaragua and headed for Managua. The Colombian government issued a letter of protest to the Russian government following the first violation. Two Colombian Air Force IAI Kfirs stationed at Barranquilla intercepted and escorted the two Tu-160s out of Colombian airspace after the second violation.


title: Tupolev Tu-160

text: On 17 November 2015, as part of the Russian military intervention in the Syrian Civil War, several Tu-160 and Tu-95MS long-range strategic bombers of the Russian Air Force carried out airstrikes at in Idlib and Aleppo provinces using the Kh-101 air-launched cruise missiles fired from the Mediterranean. In total, between 34 and 83 cruise missiles were fired, destroying 14 important targets. In addition, Tu-22M3 strategic bombers hit numerous claimed IS targets with unguided ammunition. This also marked the combat debut for the Tu-160 and Tu-95MS.


title: Tupolev Tu-160

text: In August 2018, a number of Russian military aircraft including two Tu-160, Tu-95MS strategic bombers and Il-78 aerial tankers were deployed for the first time to the Russian Far East as part of a long-range tactical flight exercise. The aircraft completed a 7,000 km non-stop flight from their home base in Saratov Oblast and landed at the Anadyr Airport, Chukotka. During the exercise, the crews practised combat use of cruise missiles at the Komi Test Range and performed flights with aerial refueling.


title: Tupolev Tu-160

text: In November 2018, a crew of a modernized Tu-160M test-fired a full complement of 12 Kh-101 cruise missiles at the Pemboi Test Range in the northeastern region of Komi Republic.


title: Tupolev Tu-160

text: On 10 December 2018, two Tu-160s accompanied by an An-124 cargo plane and an Il-62 passenger plane, landed at the Maiquetía airport in Venezuela.


title: Tupolev Tu-160

text: On 14 August 2019, two Tu-160s were again redeployed at the Anadyr Airport, Chukotka in the Russian Far East.


title: Tupolev Tu-160

text: On 23 October 2019, two Tu-160s accompanied by an An-124 cargo plane and an Il-62 passenger plane made a friendly visit to South Africa as part of strengthening ties between the two nations. The aircraft performed a 13 hours non-stop flight over the Caspian Sea, Arabian Sea, and Indian Ocean, covering distance with mid-air refueling and landed at Waterkloof Air Force Base in South Africa. It was the Tu-160's first visit to the African continent.


title: Tupolev Tu-160

text: On 2 February 2020, the modernized Tu-160M performed its first test flight at the airfield of the Kazan Aviation Plant named for I. Gorbunov. The flight took place at an altitude of 1,500 metres and lasted 34 minutes.


title: Tupolev Tu-160

text: On 19 September 2020, two Tu-160s set a world record for the range and duration of a non-stop flight for aircraft of this class. The pilots were in the air for more than 25 hours, covering over 20 thousand kilometers. The flight took place in airspace over the neutral waters of the central part of the Arctic and Pacific oceans and the Kara, Laptev, East Siberian, Chukchi, and Barent seas.


title: Tupolev Tu-160

text: On 11 November 2021, the Belarusian Defense Ministry announced that two Russian Tu-160s flew on a training mission over Belarus alongside Belarusian Air Force Sukhoi Su-30s.


title: Tupolev Tu-160

text: The aircraft was involved in the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. According to Ukrainian sources, on 6 March 2022, a Tu-160 along with a Tu-95MS strategic bomber launched eight cruise missiles, presumably the Kh-101, at the Havryshivka Vinnytsia International Airport from the Black Sea area.


title: Tupolev Tu-160

text: On 26 June 2022, spokesman of the Ukrainian Air Force Yurii Ihnat reported four to six Kh-101 cruise missiles were launched by Tu-160 and Tu-95MS strategic bombers at Kyiv from the Caspian Sea area. The aircraft reportedly flew from Astrakhan.


title: Tupolev Tu-160

text: In 2022, retired Air Chief Marshal Anoop Raha revealed in response to a question that India was interested in purchasing Tu-160 bombers from Russia. Reports have emerged that India is in talks with Russia to acquire 6 Tu-160 Blackjack bombers that will make India only country other than US, Russia and China to have operational strategic bombers.


title: Arabs

text: The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular , , , plural , , ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and the western Indian Ocean islands (including the Comoros). An Arab diaspora is also present around the world in significant numbers, most notably in the Americas, Western Europe, Turkey, Indonesia, and Iran. In modern usage, the term "Arab" tends to refer to those who both carry that ethnic identity and speak Arabic as their native language. This contrasts with the narrower traditional definition, which refers to the descendants of the tribes of Arabia. The religion of Islam was developed in Arabia, and Classical Arabic serves as the language of Islamic literature. 93 percent of Arabs are Muslims (the remainder consisted mostly of Arab Christians), while Arab Muslims are only 20 percent of the global Muslim population.


title: Arabs

text: The first mention of Arabs appeared in the mid-9th century BCE, as a tribal people in eastern and southern Syria and the northern Arabian Peninsula. The Arabs appear to have been under the vassalage of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, as well as the succeeding Neo-Babylonian, Achaemenid, Seleucid, and Parthian empires. The Nabataeans, an Arab people, ruled a kingdom near Petra (modern-day Jordan) in the 3rd century BCE. Arab tribes, most notably the Ghassanids and the Lakhmids, began to appear in the southern Syrian Desert from the mid-3rd century CE onward, during the middle to later stages of the Roman and Sassanid empires. Before the expansion of the Rashidun Caliphate, the term "Arab" referred to any of the both largely nomadic and settled Arabic-speaking people from the Arabian Peninsula, the Syrian Desert, and Lower Mesopotamia, with some even reaching what is now northern Iraq. Since the height of pan-Arabism in the 1950s and 1960s, "Arabs" has been taken to refer to a large number of people whose native regions became part of the Arab world due to the spread of Islam, which saw the expansion of Arab tribes and the Arabic language throughout during the early Muslim conquests of the 7th and 8th centuries. These cultural and demographic influences resulted in the subsequent Arabization of the indigenous populations.


title: Arabs

text: The Arabs forged the Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid, and Fatimid caliphates, whose borders at their zenith reached southern France in the west, China in the east, Anatolia in the north, and Sudan in the south, forming one of the largest land empires in history. In the early 20th century, World War I signalled the beginning of the end of the Ottoman Empire, a Turkish polity that had ruled much of the Arab world since its conquest of the Mamluk Sultanate in 1517. The Ottoman defeat in World War I culminated in the 1922 dissolution of the empire and the subsequent partitioning of Ottoman territories, which formed the modern Arab states. Following the adoption of the Alexandria Protocol in 1944, the Arab League was founded on 22 March 1945. The Charter of the Arab League endorsed the principle of a unified Arab homeland whilst respecting the individual sovereignty of its member states.


title: Arabs

text: Today, Arabs primarily inhabit the 22 member states of the Arab League. The Arab world stretches around , 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. People of non-Arab ethnicities associated with non-Arabic languages also live in these countries, sometimes as a majority; these include Somalis, Kurds, Berbers, the Afar people, Nubians, and various others. The ties that bind Arabs together are ethnic, linguistic, cultural, historical, identical, nationalist, geographical, and political. The Arabs have their own customs, language, literature, music, dance, media, cuisine, dress, society, sports, and mythology, as well as significant influence on Islamic architecture and Islamic art. Arabs have greatly influenced and contributed to diverse fields, notably architecture and the arts, language, Islamic philosophy, mythology, ethics, literature, politics, business, music, dance, cinema, medicine, science, and technology in ancient and modern history.


title: Arabs

text: Arabs are a diverse group in terms of religious affiliations and practices. In the pre-Islamic era, most Arabs followed polytheistic religions. However, some tribes had adopted Christianity or Judaism and a few individuals, known as the "hanifs", apparently observed another form of monotheism. Presently, there is a sizable Christian minority in the Arab world. Arab Muslims primarily belong to the Sunni, Shia, Ibadi, and Alawite denominations. Arab Christians generally follow Eastern Christianity, such as those within the Oriental Orthodox Churches, the Eastern Catholic Churches, or the Eastern Protestant Churches. There also exists a small numbers of Arab Jews still living in Arab countries, and a much larger population of Jews descended from Arab Jewish communities living in Israel and various Western countries, who may or may not consider themselves Arab today. Arabic-speaking Christian minorities in Arab-majority states may also not ethnically identify as Arabs, such as Copts and Assyrians. Other smaller minority religions also exist, such as the Druze and the Baháʼí Faith.


title: Arabs

text: The earliest documented use of the word "Arab" in reference to a people appears in the Kurkh Monoliths, an Akkadian-language record of the Assyrian conquest of Aram (9th century BCE). The Monoliths used the term to refer to Bedouins of the Arabian Peninsula under King Gindibu, who fought as part of a coalition opposed to Assyria. Listed among the booty captured by the army of the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III in the Battle of Qarqar (853 BCE) are 1000 camels of ""Gîndibuʾ" the "Arbâya"" or "[the man] Gindibu belonging to the "Arabs"" ("ar-ba-a-a" being an adjectival nisba of the noun "ʿarab").


title: Arabs

text: The related word "ʾaʿrāb" is used to refer to Bedouins today, in contrast to "ʿarab" which refers to Arabs in general. Both terms are mentioned around 40 times in pre-Islamic Sabaean inscriptions. The term "ʿarab" ('Arab') occurs also in the titles of the Himyarite kings from the time of 'Abu Karab Asad until MadiKarib Ya'fur. According to Sabaean grammar, the term "ʾaʿrāb" is derived from the term "ʿarab". The term is also mentioned in Quranic verses, referring to people who were living in Madina and it might be a south Arabian loanword into Quranic language.


title: Arabs

text: The oldest surviving indication of an Arab national identity is an inscription made in an archaic form of Arabic in 328 CE using the Nabataean alphabet, which refers to Imru' al-Qays ibn 'Amr as 'King of all the Arabs'. Herodotus refers to the Arabs in the Sinai, southern Palestine, and the frankincense region (Southern Arabia). Other Ancient-Greek historians like Agatharchides, Diodorus Siculus and Strabo mention Arabs living in Mesopotamia (along the Euphrates), in Egypt (the Sinai and the Red Sea), southern Jordan (the Nabataeans), the Syrian steppe and in eastern Arabia (the people of Gerrha). Inscriptions dating to the 6th century BCE in Yemen include the term 'Arab'.


title: Arabs

text: The most popular Arab account holds that the word "Arab" came from an eponymous father named Ya'rub, who was supposedly the first to speak Arabic. Abu Muhammad al-Hasan al-Hamdani had another view; he states that Arabs were called "gharab" ('westerners') by Mesopotamians because Bedouins originally resided to the west of Mesopotamia; the term was then corrupted into "arab".


title: Arabs

text: Yet another view is held by al-Masudi that the word "Arab" was initially applied to the Ishmaelites of the Arabah valley. In Biblical etymology, "Arab" (Hebrew: "arvi") comes from the desert origin of the Bedouins it originally described ("arava" means 'wilderness').


title: Arabs

text: The root "ʿ-r-b" has several additional meanings in Semitic languages—including 'west, sunset', 'desert', 'mingle', 'mixed', 'merchant' and 'raven'—and are "comprehensible" with all of these having varying degrees of relevance to the emergence of the name. It is also possible that some forms were metathetical from , 'moving around' (Arabic: , 'traverse') and hence, it is alleged, 'nomadic'.


title: Arabs

text: Pre-Islamic Arabia refers to the Arabian Peninsula prior to the rise of Islam in the 630s. The study of Pre-Islamic Arabia is important to Islamic studies as it provides the context for the development of Islam. Some of the settled communities in the Arabian Peninsula developed into distinctive civilizations. Sources for these civilizations are not extensive, and are limited to archaeological evidence, accounts written outside of Arabia, and Arab oral traditions later recorded by Islamic scholars. Among the most prominent civilizations was Dilmun, which arose around the 4th millennium BCE and lasted to 538 BCE, and Thamud, which arose around the 1st millennium BCE and lasted to about 300 CE. Additionally, from the beginning of the first millennium BCE, Southern Arabia was the home to a number of kingdoms, such as the Sabaean kingdom (, possibly Sheba), and the coastal areas of Eastern Arabia were controlled by the Parthian and Sassanians from 300 BCE.


title: Arabs

text: According to Arab-Islamic-Jewish traditions, Ishmael was father of the Arabs, to be the ancestor of the Ishmaelites.


title: Arabs

text: The first written attestation of the ethnonym "Arab" occurs in an Assyrian inscription of 853 BCE, where Shalmaneser III lists a King Gindibu of "mâtu arbâi" (Arab land) as among the people he defeated at the Battle of Qarqar. Some of the names given in these texts are Aramaic, while others are the first attestations of Ancient North Arabian dialects. In fact several different ethnonyms are found in Assyrian texts that are conventionally translated "Arab": "Arabi, Arubu, Aribi" and "Urbi". Many of the Qedarite queens were also described as queens of the "aribi". The Hebrew Bible occasionally refers to "Aravi" peoples (or variants thereof), translated as "Arab" or "Arabian". The scope of the term at that early stage is unclear, but it seems to have referred to various desert-dwelling Semitic tribes in the Syrian Desert and Arabia. Arab tribes came into conflict with the Assyrians during the reign of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal, and he records military victories against the powerful Qedar tribe among others.


title: Arabs

text: Assyrian and Babylonian Royal Inscriptions and North Arabian inscriptions from 9th to 6th century BCE, mention the king of Qedar as king of the Arabs and King of the Ishmaelites.


title: Arabs

text: Of the names of the sons of Ishmael the names "Nabat, Kedar, Abdeel, Dumah, Massa, and Teman" were mentioned in the Assyrian Royal Inscriptions as tribes of the Ishmaelites. Jesur was mentioned in Greek inscriptions in the 1st century BCE.


title: Arabs

text: Ibn Khaldun's "Muqaddima" distinguishes between sedentary Arab Muslims who used to be nomadic, and Bedouin nomadic Arabs of the desert. He used the term "formerly nomadic" Arabs and refers to sedentary Muslims by the region or city they lived in, as in Yemenis. The Christians of Italy and the Crusaders preferred the term Saracens for all the Arabs, Muslims. The Christians of Iberia used the term Moor to describe all the Arabs and Muslims of that time.


title: Arabs

text: Muslims of Medina referred to the nomadic tribes of the deserts as the A'raab, and considered themselves sedentary, but were aware of their close racial bonds. The term "A'raab" mirrors the term Assyrians used to describe the closely related nomads they defeated in Syria. The Qur'an does not use the word , only the nisba adjective . The Qur'an calls itself , "Arabic", and , "clear". The two qualities are connected for example in , "By the "clear" Book: We have made it an "Arabic" recitation in order that you may understand". The Qur'an became regarded as the prime example of the , the language of the Arabs. The term "ʾiʿrāb" has the same root and refers to a particularly clear and correct mode of speech. The plural noun refers to the Bedouin tribes of the desert who resisted Muhammad, for example in "at-Tawba" 97,


title: Arabs

text: Based on this, in early Islamic terminology, referred to the language, and to the Arab Bedouins, carrying a negative connotation due to the Qur'anic verdict just cited. But after the Islamic conquest of the eighth century, the language of the nomadic Arabs became regarded as the most pure by the grammarians following Abi Ishaq, and the term , "language of the Arabs", denoted the uncontaminated language of the Bedouins.


title: Arabs

text: Proto-Arabic, or Ancient North Arabian, texts give a clearer picture of the Arabs' emergence. The earliest are written in variants of epigraphic south Arabian "musnad" script, including the 8th century BCE Hasaean inscriptions of eastern Saudi Arabia, the 6th century BCE Lihyanite texts of southeastern Saudi Arabia and the Thamudic texts found throughout the Arabian Peninsula and Sinai (not in reality connected with Thamud).


title: Arabs

text: The Nabataeans were nomadic Arabs who moved into territory vacated by the Edomites – Semites who settled the region centuries before them. Their early inscriptions were in Aramaic, but gradually switched to Arabic, and since they had writing, it was they who made the first inscriptions in Arabic. The Nabataean alphabet was adopted by Arabs to the south, and evolved into modern Arabic script around the 4th century. This is attested by Safaitic inscriptions (beginning in the 1st century BCE) and the many Arabic personal names in Nabataean inscriptions. From about the 2nd century BCE, a few inscriptions from Qaryat al-Faw reveal a dialect no longer considered "proto-Arabic", but "pre-classical Arabic". Five Syriac inscriptions mentioning Arabs have been found at Sumatar Harabesi, one of which dates to the 2nd century CE.


title: Arabs

text: Arabs arrived in the Palmyra in the late first millennium BCE. The soldiers of the sheikh Zabdibel, who aided the Seleucids in the battle of Raphia (217 BCE), were described as Arabs; Zabdibel and his men were not actually identified as Palmyrenes in the texts, but the name "Zabdibel" is a Palmyrene name leading to the conclusion that the sheikh hailed from Palmyra. Palmyra was conquered by the Rashidun Caliphate after its 634 capture by the Arab general Khalid ibn al-Walid, who took the city on his way to Damascus; an 18-day march by his army through the Syrian Desert from Mesopotamia. By then Palmyra was limited to the Diocletian camp. After the conquest, the city became part of Homs Province.


title: Arabs

text: Palmyra prospered as part of the Umayyad Caliphate, and its population grew. It was a key stop on the East-West trade route, with a large "souq" (, market), built by the Umayyads, who also commissioned part of the Temple of Bel as a mosque. During this period, Palmyra was a stronghold of the Banu Kalb tribe. After being defeated by Marwan II during a civil war in the caliphate, Umayyad contender Sulayman ibn Hisham fled to the Banu Kalb in Palmyra, but eventually pledged allegiance to Marwan in 744; Palmyra continued to oppose Marwan until the surrender of the Banu Kalb leader al-Abrash al-Kalbi in 745. That year, Marwan ordered the city's walls demolished. In 750 a revolt, led by Majza'a ibn al-Kawthar and Umayyad pretender Abu Muhammad al-Sufyani, against the new Abbasid Caliphate swept across Syria; the tribes in Palmyra supported the rebels. After his defeat Abu Muhammad took refuge in the city, which withstood an Abbasid assault long enough to allow him to escape.


title: Arabs

text: The Ghassanids, Lakhmids and Kindites were the last major migration of pre-Islamic Arabs out of Yemen to the north. The Ghassanids increased the Semitic presence in then-Hellenized Syria, the majority of Semites were Aramaic peoples. They mainly settled in the Hauran region and spread to modern Lebanon, Palestine and Jordan.


title: Arabs

text: Greeks and Romans referred to all the nomadic population of the desert in the Near East as Arabi. The Romans called Yemen "Arabia Felix". The Romans called the vassal nomadic states within the Roman Empire "Arabia Petraea", after the city of Petra, and called unconquered deserts bordering the empire to the south and east Arabia Magna. The Emesene were a Roman client dynasty of Arab priest-kings known to have ruled from Emesa, Syria. Roman empress Julia Domna, matriarch of the Severan dynasty of Roman emperors, was one of their descendants.


title: Arabs

text: The Lakhmids as a dynasty inherited their power from the Tanukhids, the mid Tigris region around their capital Al-Hira. They ended up allying with the Sassanids against the Ghassanids and the Byzantine Empire. The Lakhmids contested control of the Central Arabian tribes with the Kindites with the Lakhmids eventually destroying the Kingdom of Kinda in 540 after the fall of their main ally Himyar. The Persian Sassanids dissolved the Lakhmid dynasty in 602, being under puppet kings, then under their direct control.


title: Arabs

text: The Kindites migrated from Yemen along with the Ghassanids and Lakhmids, but were turned back in Bahrain by the Abdul Qais Rabi'a tribe. They returned to Yemen and allied themselves with the Himyarites who installed them as a vassal kingdom that ruled Central Arabia from "Qaryah Dhat Kahl" (the present-day called Qaryat al-Faw). They ruled much of the Northern/Central Arabian peninsula, until they were destroyed by the Lakhmid king Al-Mundhir, and his son 'Amr.


title: Arabs

text: After the death of Muhammad in 632, Rashidun armies launched campaigns of conquest, establishing the Caliphate, or Islamic Empire, one of the largest empires in history. It was larger and lasted longer than the previous Arab empire of Queen Mawia or the Aramean-Arab Palmyrene Empire. The Rashidun state was a completely new state and unlike the Arab kingdoms of its century such as the Himyarite, Lakhmids or Ghassanids.


title: Arabs

text: In 661, the Rashidun Caliphate fell into the hands of the Umayyad dynasty and Damascus was established as the empire's capital. The Umayyads were proud of their Arab identity and sponsored the poetry and culture of pre-Islamic Arabia. They established garrison towns at Ramla, Raqqa, Basra, Kufa, Mosul and Samarra, all of which developed into major cities.


title: Arabs

text: Caliph Abd al-Malik established Arabic as the Caliphate's official language in 686. This reform greatly influenced the conquered non-Arab peoples and fueled the Arabization of the region. However, the Arabs' higher status among non-Arab Muslim converts and the latter's obligation to pay heavy taxes caused resentment. Caliph Umar II strove to resolve the conflict when he came to power in 717. He rectified the disparity, demanding that all Muslims be treated as equals, but his intended reforms did not take effect, as he died after only three years of rule. By now, discontent with the Umayyads swept the region and an uprising occurred in which the Abbasids came to power and moved the capital to Baghdad.


title: Arabs

text: Umayyads expanded their Empire westwards capturing North Africa from the Byzantines. Before the Arab conquest, North Africa was conquered or settled by various people including Punics, Vandals and Romans. After the Abbasid Revolution, the Umayyads lost most of their territories with the exception of Iberia. Their last holding became known as the Emirate of Córdoba. It wasn't until the rule of the grandson of the founder of this new emirate that the state entered a new phase as the Caliphate of Córdoba. This new state was characterized by an expansion of trade, culture and knowledge, and saw the construction of masterpieces of al-Andalus architecture and the library of Al-Ḥakam II which housed over 400,000 volumes. With the collapse of the Umayyad state in 1031 CE, Islamic Spain was divided into small kingdoms.


title: Arabs

text: The Abbasids were the descendants of Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib, one of the youngest uncles of Muhammad and of the same Banu Hashim clan. The Abbasids led a revolt against the Umayyads and defeated them in the Battle of the Zab effectively ending their rule in all parts of the Empire with the exception of al-Andalus. In 762, the second Abbasid Caliph al-Mansur founded the city of Baghdad and declared it the capital of the Caliphate. Unlike the Umayyads, the Abbasids had the support of non-Arab subjects.


title: Arabs

text: The Islamic Golden Age was inaugurated by the middle of the 8th century by the ascension of the Abbasid Caliphate and the transfer of the capital from Damascus to the newly founded city of Baghdad. The Abbasids were influenced by the Qur'anic injunctions and hadith such as "The ink of the scholar is more holy than the blood of martyrs" stressing the value of knowledge. During this period the Muslim world became an intellectual centre for science, philosophy, medicine and education as the Abbasids championed the cause of knowledge and established the "House of Wisdom" () in Baghdad. Rival dynasties such as the Fatimids of Egypt and the Umayyads of al-Andalus were also major intellectual centres with cities such as Cairo and Córdoba rivaling Baghdad.


title: Arabs

text: The Abbasids ruled for 200 years before they lost their central control when Wilayas began to fracture in the 10th century; afterwards, in the 1190s, there was a revival of their power, which was ended by the Mongols, who conquered Baghdad in 1258 and killed the Caliph Al-Musta'sim. Members of the Abbasid royal family escaped the massacre and resorted to Cairo, which had broken from the Abbasid rule two years earlier; the Mamluk generals taking the political side of the kingdom while Abbasid Caliphs were engaged in civil activities and continued patronizing science, arts and literature.


title: Arabs

text: The Fatimid caliphate was founded by al-Mahdi Billah, a descendant of Fatimah, the daughter of Muhammad, in the early 10th century. Egypt was the political, cultural, and religious centre of the Fatimid empire. The Fatimid state took shape among the Kutama Berbers, in the West of the North African littoral, in Algeria, in 909 conquering Raqqada, the Aghlabid capital. In 921 the Fatimids established the Tunisian city of Mahdia as their new capital. In 948 they shifted their capital to Al-Mansuriya, near Kairouan in Tunisia, and in 969 they conquered Egypt and established Cairo as the capital of their caliphate.


title: Arabs

text: Intellectual life in Egypt during the Fatimid period achieved great progress and activity, due to many scholars who lived in or came to Egypt, as well as the number of books available. Fatimid Caliphs gave prominent positions to scholars in their courts, encouraged students, and established libraries in their palaces, so that scholars might expand their knowledge and reap benefits from the work of their predecessors. The Fatimids were also known for their exquisite arts. Many traces of Fatimid architecture exist in Cairo today; the most defining examples include Al-Hakim Mosque and the Al-Azhar University.


title: Arabs

text: It was not until the 11th century that the Maghreb saw a large influx of ethnic Arabs. Starting with the 11th century, the Arab bedouin Banu Hilal tribes migrated to the West. Having been sent by the Fatimids to punish the Berber Zirids for abandoning Shias, they travelled westwards. The Banu Hilal quickly defeated the Zirids and deeply weakened the neighboring Hammadids. According to some modern historians. their influx was a major factor in the arabization of the Maghreb. Although Berbers ruled the region until the 16th century (under such powerful dynasties as the Almoravids, the Almohads, Hafsids, etc.), the arrival of these tribes eventually helped Arabize much of it ethnically, in addition to the linguistic and political impact on local non-Arabs.


title: Arabs

text: From 1517 to 1918, much of the Arab world was under the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans defeated the Mamluk Sultanate in Cairo, and ended the Abbasid Caliphate. Arabs did not feel the change of administration because the Ottomans modeled their rule after the previous Arab administration systems.


title: Arabs

text: In 1911, Arab intellectuals and politicians from throughout the Levant formed al-Fatat ("the Young Arab Society"), a small Arab nationalist club, in Paris. Its stated aim was "raising the level of the Arab nation to the level of modern nations." In the first few years of its existence, al-Fatat called for greater autonomy within a unified Ottoman state rather than Arab independence from the empire. Al-Fatat hosted the Arab Congress of 1913 in Paris, the purpose of which was to discuss desired reforms with other dissenting individuals from the Arab world. However, as the Ottoman authorities cracked down on the organization's activities and members, al-Fatat went underground and demanded the complete independence and unity of the Arab provinces.


title: Arabs

text: After World War I, when the Ottoman Empire was overthrown by the British Empire, former Ottoman colonies were divided up between the British and French as League of Nations mandates.


title: Arabs

text: Arabs in modern times live in the Arab world, which comprises 22 countries in Western Asia, North Africa, and parts of the Horn of Africa. They are all modern states and became significant as distinct political entities after the fall and defeat and dissolution of the Ottoman Empire (1908–1922).


title: Arabs

text: Arab identity is defined independently of religious identity, and pre-dates the spread of Islam, with historically attested Arab Christian kingdoms and Arab Jewish tribes. Today, however, most Arabs are Muslim, with a minority adhering to other faiths, largely Christianity, but also Druze and Baháʼí.


title: Arabs

text: Paternal descent has traditionally been considered the main source of affiliation in the Arab world when it comes to membership into an ethnic group or clan.


title: Arabs

text: Today, the main unifying characteristic among Arabs is Arabic, a Central Semitic language from the Afroasiatic language family. Modern Standard Arabic serves as the standardized and literary variety of Arabic used in writing. The Arabs are first mentioned in the mid-ninth century BCE as a tribal people dwelling in the central Arabian Peninsula subjugated by Upper Mesopotamia-based state of Assyria. The Arabs appear to have remained largely under the vassalage of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911–605 BCE), and then the succeeding Neo-Babylonian Empire (605–539 BCE), Persian Achaemenid Empire (539–332 BCE), Greek Macedonian/Seleucid Empire and Parthian Empire.


title: Arabs

text: Arab tribes, most notably the Ghassanids and Lakhmids begin to appear in the south Syrian deserts and southern Jordan from the mid 3rd century CE onwards, during the mid to later stages of the Roman Empire and Sasanian Empire. Also, before them the Nabataeans of Jordan and arguably the Emessans, Edessans, and Hatrans all appear to have been an Aramaic speaking ethnic Arabs who came to rule much of the pre-Islamic fertile crescent often as vassals of the two rival empires, the Sasanian (Persian) and the Byzantine (Eastern Roman). Thus, although a more limited diffusion of Arab culture and language was felt in some areas by these migrant minority Arabs in "pre-Islamic" times through Arabic-speaking Christian kingdoms and Jewish tribes, it was only after the rise of Islam in the mid-7th century that Arab culture, people and language began their wholesale spread from the central Arabian Peninsula (including the south Syrian desert) through conquest and trade.


title: Arabs

text: Arabs in the narrow sense are the indigenous Arabians who trace their roots back to the tribes of Arabia and their immediate descendant groups in the Levant and North Africa. Within the people of the Arabian Peninsula, distinction is made between:


title: Arabs

text: Arabians are most prevalent in the Arabian Peninsula, but are also found in large numbers in Mesopotamia (Arab tribes in Iraq), the Levant and Sinai (Negev Bedouin, Tarabin bedouin), as well as the Maghreb (Eastern Libya, South Tunisia and South Algeria) and the Sudan region.


title: Arabs

text: This traditional division of the Arabs of Arabia may have arisen at the time of the First Fitna. Of the Arabian tribes that interacted with Muhammad, the most prominent was the Quraysh. The Quraysh subclan, the Banu Hashim, was the clan of Muhammad. During the early Muslim conquests and the Islamic Golden Age, the political rulers of Islam were exclusively members of the Quraysh.


title: Arabs

text: The Arab presence in Iran did not begin with the Arab conquest of Persia in 633 CE. For centuries, Iranian rulers had maintained contacts with Arabs outside their borders, dealt with Arab subjects and client states (such as those of Iraq and Yemen), and settled Arab tribesmen in various parts of the Iranian plateau. It follows that the "Arab" conquests and settlements were by no means the exclusive work of Arabs from the Hejaz and the tribesmen of inner Arabia. The Arab infiltration into Iran began before the Muslim conquests and continued as a result of the joint exertions of the civilized Arabs (ahl al-madar) as well as the desert Arabs (ahl al-wabar). The largest group of Iranian Arabs are the Ahwazi Arabs, including Banu Ka'b, Bani Turuf and the Musha'sha'iyyah sect. Smaller groups are the Khamseh nomads in Fars Province and the Arabs in Khorasan.


title: Arabs

text: The Arabs of the Levant are traditionally divided into Qays and Yaman tribes. This tribal division is likewise taken to date to the Umayyad period. The Yemen trace their origin to South Arabia or Yemen; they include Banu Kalb, Kinda, Ghassanids, and Lakhmids. Since the 1834 Peasants' revolt in Palestine, the Arabic-speaking population of Palestine has shed its formerly tribal structure and emerged as the Palestinians.


title: Arabs

text: Native Jordanians are either descended from Bedouins (of which, 6% live a nomadic lifestyle), or from the many deeply rooted non bedouin communities across the country, most notably Al-Salt city west of Amman which was at the time of Emirate the largest urban settlement east of the Jordan River. Along with indigenous communities in Al Husn, Aqaba, Irbid, Al Karak, Madaba, Jerash, Ajloun, Fuheis and Pella. In Jordan, there is no official census data for how many inhabitants have Palestinian roots but they are estimated to constitute half of the population, which in 2008 amounted to about 3 million. Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics put their number at 3.24 million in 2009.


title: Arabs

text: The Bedouins of western Egypt and eastern Libya are traditionally divided into Saʿada and Murabtin, the Saʿada having higher social status. This may derive from a historical feudal system in which the Murabtin were vassals to the Saʿada.


title: Arabs

text: In Sudan, there are numerous Arabic-speaking tribes, including the Shaigya, Ja'alin and Shukria, who are ancestrally related to the Nubians. These groups are collectively known as Sudanese Arabs. In addition, there are other Afroasiatic-speaking populations, such as Copts and Beja.


title: Arabs

text: The medieval trans-Saharan slave trade in the Sudan drove a wedge between the Arabized Sudanese and the non-Arabized Nilotic Sudanese populations. It has contributed to ethnic conflict in the region, such as the Sudanese conflict in South Kordofan and Blue Nile, Northern Mali conflict, or the Boko Haram insurgency.


title: Arabs

text: The Arabs of the Maghreb are descendants of Arabian tribes of Banu Hilal, the Banu Sulaym and the Maqil native of Middle East and of other tribes native to Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Iraq. Arabs and Arabic-speakers inhabit plains and cities. The Banu Hilal spent almost a century in Egypt before moving to Libya, Tunisia and Algeria, and another century later some moved to Morocco, it is logical to think that they are mixed with inhabitants of Egypt and with Libya.


title: Arabs

text: The total number of Arabic speakers living in the Arab nations is estimated at 366 million by the CIA Factbook (as of 2014). The estimated number of Arabs in countries outside the Arab League is estimated at 17.5 million, yielding a total of close to 384 million.


title: Arabs

text: According to the Charter of the Arab League (also known as the "Pact of the League of Arab States"), the League of Arab States is composed of independent Arab states that are signatories to the Charter.


title: Arabs

text: Although all Arab states have Arabic as an official language, there are many non-Arabic-speaking populations native to the Arab world. Among these are Berbers, Toubou, Nubians, Jews, Assyrians, Armenians, Kurds. Additionally, many Arab countries in the Persian Gulf have sizable non-Arab immigrant populations (10–70%). 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 South Asia and the Philippines.


title: Arabs

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


title: Arabs

text: Arab diaspora refers to descendants of the Arab immigrants who, voluntarily or as refugees, emigrated from their native lands in non-Arab countries, primarily in East Africa, South America, Europe, North America, Australia and parts of South Asia, Southeast Asia, the Caribbean, and West Africa. According to the International Organization for Migration, there are 13 million first-generation Arab migrants in the world, of which 5.8 million reside in Arab countries. Arab expatriates contribute to the circulation of financial and human capital in the region and thus significantly promote regional development. In 2009, Arab countries received a total of 35.1 billion USD in remittance in-flows and remittances sent to Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon from other Arab countries are 40 to 190 per cent higher than trade revenues between these and other Arab countries. The 250,000 strong Lebanese community in West Africa is the largest non-African group in the region. Arab traders have long operated in Southeast Asia and along the East Africa's Swahili coast. Zanzibar was once ruled by Omani Arabs. Most of the prominent Indonesians, Malaysians, and Singaporeans of Arab descent are Hadhrami people with origins in southern Arabia in the Hadramawt coastal region.


title: Arabs

text: There are millions of Arabs living in Europe, mostly concentrated in France (about 6,000,000 in 2005). Most Arabs in France are from the Maghreb but some also come from the Mashreq areas of the Arab world. Arabs in France form the second largest ethnic group after ethnically French people. In Italy, Arabs first arrived on the southern island of Sicily in the 9th century. The largest modern societies on the island from the Arab world are Tunisians and Moroccans, who make up 10.9% and 8% respectively of the foreign population of Sicily, which in itself constitutes 3.9% of the island's total population. The modern Arab population of Spain numbers 1,800,000, and there have been Arabs in Spain since the early 8th century when the Umayyad conquest of Hispania created the state of Al-Andalus. In Germany the Arab population numbers over 1,000,000, in the United Kingdom between 366,769 and 500,000, and in Greece between 250,000 and 750,000). In addition, Greece is home to people from Arab countries who have the status of refugees (e.g. refugees of the Syrian civil war). In the Netherlands 180,000, and in Denmark 121,000. Other European countries are also home to Arab populations, including Norway, Austria, Bulgaria, Switzerland, North Macedonia, Romania and Serbia. As of late 2015, Turkey had a total population of 78.7 million, with Syrian refugees accounting for 3.1% of that figure based on conservative estimates. Demographics indicated that the country previously had 1,500,000 to 2,000,000 Arab residents, so Turkey's Arab population is now 4.5 to 5.1% of the total population, or approximately 4–5 million people.


title: Arabs

text: Arab immigration to the United States began in sizable numbers during the 1880s. Today, it is estimated that nearly 3.7 million Americans trace their roots to an Arab country. Arab Americans are found in every state, but more than two thirds of them live in just ten states: California, Michigan, New York, Florida, Texas, New Jersey, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Metropolitan Los Angeles, Detroit, and New York City are home to one-third of the population. Contrary to popular assumptions or stereotypes, the majority of Arab Americans are native-born, and nearly 82% of Arabs in the U.S. are citizens. Arabs immigrants began to arrive in Canada in small numbers in 1882. Their immigration was relatively limited until 1945, after which time it increased progressively, particularly in the 1960s and thereafter. According to the website "Who are Arab Canadians," Montreal, the Canadian city with the largest Arab population, has approximately 267,000 Arab inhabitants.


title: Arabs

text: Latin America has the largest Arab population outside of the Arab World. Latin America is home to anywhere from 17–25 to 30 million people of Arab descent, which is more than any other diaspora region in the world. The Brazilian and Lebanese governments claim there are 7 million Brazilians of Lebanese descent. Also, the Brazilian government claims there are 4 million Brazilians of Syrian descent. According to research conducted by IBGE in 2008, covering only the states of Amazonas, Paraíba, São Paulo, Rio Grande do Sul, Mato Grosso and Distrito Federal, 0.9% of white Brazilian respondents said they had family origins in the Middle East. Other large Arab communities includes Argentina (about 4,500,000) The interethnic marriage in the Arab community, regardless of religious affiliation, is very high; most community members have only one parent who has Arab ethnicity. Colombia (over 3,200,000), Venezuela (over 1,600,000), Mexico (over 1,100,000), Chile (over 800,000), and Central America, particularly El Salvador, and Honduras (between 150,000 and 200,000). is the fourth largest in the world after those in Israel, Lebanon, and Jordan. Arab Haitians (a large number of whom live in the capital) are more often than not, concentrated in financial areas where the majority of them establish businesses.


title: Arabs

text: In 1728, a Russian officer described a group of Arab nomads who populated the Caspian shores of Mughan (in present-day Azerbaijan) and spoke a mixed Turkic-Arabic language. It is believed that these groups migrated to the South Caucasus in the 16th century. The 1888 edition of Encyclopædia Britannica also mentioned a certain number of Arabs populating the Baku Governorate of the Russian Empire. They retained an Arabic dialect at least into the mid-19th century, there are nearly 30 settlements still holding the name "Arab" (for example, Arabgadim, Arabojaghy, Arab-Yengija, etc.). From the time of the Arab conquest of the South Caucasus, continuous small-scale Arab migration from various parts of the Arab world occurred in Dagestan. The majority of these lived in the village of Darvag, to the north-west of Derbent. The latest of these accounts dates to the 1930s. Most Arab communities in southern Dagestan underwent linguistic Turkicisation, thus nowadays Darvag is a majority-Azeri village. According to the "History of Ibn Khaldun", the Arabs that were once in Central Asia have been either killed or have fled the Tatar invasion of the region, leaving only the locals. However, today many people in Central Asia identify as Arabs. Most Arabs of Central Asia are fully integrated into local populations, and sometimes call themselves the same as locals (for example, Tajiks, Uzbeks) but they use special titles to show their Arab origin such as Sayyid, Khoja or Siddiqui.


title: Arabs

text: There are only two communities in India which self-identify as Arabs, the Chaush of the Deccan region and the Chavuse of Gujarat. These groups are largely descended from Hadhrami migrants who settled in these two regions in the 18th century. However, neither community still speaks Arabic, although the Chaush have seen re-immigration to Eastern Arabia and thus a re-adoption of Arabic. In South Asia, where Arab ancestry is considered prestigious, many communities have origin myths that claim Arab ancestry. Several communities following the Shafi'i madhab (in contrast to other South Asian Muslims who follow the Hanafi madhab) claim descent from Arab traders like the Konkani Muslims of the Konkan region, the Mappilla of Kerala, and the Labbai and Marakkar of Tamil Nadu and a few Christian groups in India that claim and have Arab roots are situated in the state of Kerala. South Asian Iraqi biradri may have records of their ancestors who migrated from Iraq in historical documents. The Sri Lankan Moors are the third largest ethnic group in Sri Lanka, constituting 9.23% of the country's total population. Some sources trace the ancestry of the Sri Lankan Moors to Arab traders who settled in Sri Lanka at some time between the 8th and 15th centuries.


title: Arabs

text: There are about 5,000,000 Native Indonesians with Arab ancestry. Arab Indonesians are mainly of Hadrami descent.


title: Arabs

text: Afro-Arabs are individuals and groups from Africa who are of partial Arab descent. Most Afro-Arabs inhabit the Swahili Coast in the African Great Lakes region, although some can also be found in parts of the Arab world. Large numbers of Arabs migrated to West Africa, particularly Côte d'Ivoire (home to over 100,000 Lebanese), Senegal (roughly 30,000 Lebanese), Sierra Leone (roughly 10,000 Lebanese today; about 30,000 prior to the outbreak of civil war in 1991), Liberia, and Nigeria. Since the end of the civil war in 2002, Lebanese traders have become re-established in Sierra Leone. The Arabs of Chad occupy northern Cameroon and Nigeria (where they are sometimes known as Shuwa), and extend as a belt across Chad and into Sudan, where they are called the Baggara grouping of Arab ethnic groups inhabiting the portion of Africa's Sahel. There are 171,000 in Cameroon, 150,000 in Niger), and 107,000 in the Central African Republic.


title: Arabs

text: Arabs are mostly Muslims with a Sunni majority and a Shia minority, one exception being the Ibadis, who predominate in Oman. Arab Christians generally follow Eastern Churches such as the Greek Orthodox and Greek Catholic churches, though a minority of Protestant Church followers also exists. There are also Arab communities consisting of Druze and Baháʼís.


title: Arabs

text: Before the coming of Islam, most Arabs followed a pagan religion with a number of deities, including Hubal, Wadd, Allāt, Manat, and Uzza. A few individuals, the "hanifs", had apparently rejected polytheism in favor of monotheism unaffiliated with any particular religion. Some tribes had converted to Christianity or Judaism. The most prominent Arab Christian kingdoms were the Ghassanid and Lakhmid kingdoms. When the Himyarite king converted to Judaism in the late 4th century, the elites of the other prominent Arab kingdom, the Kindites, being Himyirite vassals, apparently also converted (at least partly). With the expansion of Islam, polytheistic Arabs were rapidly Islamized, and polytheistic traditions gradually disappeared.


title: Arabs

text: Today, Sunni Islam dominates in most areas, vastly so in North Africa and the Horn of Africa. Shia Islam is dominant among the Arab population in Bahrain and southern Iraq while northern Iraq is mostly Sunni. Substantial Shia populations exist in Lebanon, Yemen, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, northern Syria and Al-Batinah Region in Oman. There are small numbers of Ibadi and non-denominational Muslims too. The Druze community is concentrated in Lebanon, Syria, Israel and Jordan. Many Druze claim independence from other major religions in the area and consider their religion more of a philosophy. Their books of worship are called Kitab Al Hikma (Epistles of Wisdom). They believe in reincarnation and pray to five messengers from God. In Israel, the Druze have a "status aparte" from the general Arab population, treated as a separate ethno-religious community.


title: Arabs

text: Christianity had a prominent presence In pre-Islamic Arabia among several Arab communities, including the Bahrani people of Eastern Arabia, the Christian community of Najran, in parts of Yemen, and among certain northern Arabian tribes such as the Ghassanids, Lakhmids, Taghlib, Banu Amela, Banu Judham, Tanukhids and Tayy. In the early Christian centuries, Arabia was sometimes known as "Arabia heretica", due to its being "well known as a breeding-ground for heterodox interpretations of Christianity." Christians make up 5.5% of the population of Western Asia and North Africa. A sizeable share of those are Arab Christians proper, and affiliated Arabic-speaking populations of Copts and Maronites. In Lebanon, Christians number about 40.5% of the population. In Syria, Christians make up 10% of the population. In West Bank and in Gaza Strip, Christians make up 8% and 0.7% of the populations, respectively. In Egypt, Coptic Christians number about 10% of the population. In Iraq, Christians constitute 0.1% of the population. In Israel, Arab Christians constitute 2.1% (roughly 9% of the Arab population). Arab Christians make up 8% of the population of Jordan. Most North and South American Arabs are Christian, so are about half of the Arabs in Australia who come particularly from Lebanon, Syria and Palestine. One well known member of this religious and ethnic community is Saint Abo, martyr and the patron saint of Tbilisi, Georgia. Arab Christians also live in holy Christian cities such as Nazareth, Bethlehem and the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem and many other villages with holy Christian sites.


title: Arabs

text: Arab culture is the culture of the Arabs, 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. The various religions the Arabs have adopted throughout their history and the various empires and kingdoms that have ruled and took lead of the Arabian civilization have contributed to the ethnogenesis and formation of modern Arab culture. Language, literature, gastronomy, art, architecture, music, spirituality, philosophy and mysticism are all part of the cultural heritage of the Arabs.


title: Arabs

text: Arabs share basic beliefs and values that cross national and social class boundaries. Social attitudes have remained constant because Arab society is more conservative and demands conformity from its members.


title: Arabs

text: Another important and unifying characteristic of Arabs is a common language. Arabic is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic Family. Evidence of its first use appears in accounts of wars in 853 BCE. It also became widely used in trade and commerce. Arabic also is a liturgical language of 1.7 billion Muslims.


title: Arabs

text: Arabic is one of six official languages of the United Nations. It is revered as the language that God chose to reveal the Quran.


title: Arabs

text: Arabic has developed into at least two distinct forms. Classical Arabic is the form of the Arabic language used in literary texts from Umayyad and Abbasid times (7th to 9th centuries). It is based on the medieval dialects of Arab tribes. Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) is the direct descendant used today throughout the Arab world in writing and in formal speaking, for example, prepared speeches, some radio broadcasts, and non-entertainment content, while the lexis and stylistics of Modern Standard Arabic are different from Classical Arabic. Colloquial Arabic, an informal spoken language, varies by dialect from region to region; various forms of the language are in use today and provide an important force for Arab cohesion.


title: Arabs

text: Arabic mythology comprises the ancient beliefs of the Arabs. Prior to Islam the Kaaba of Mecca was covered in symbols representing the myriad demons, djinn, demigods, or simply tribal gods and other assorted deities which represented the polytheistic culture of pre-Islamic. It has been inferred from this plurality an exceptionally broad context in which mythology could flourish. The most popular beasts and demons of Arabian mythology are Bahamut, Dandan, Falak, Ghoul, Hinn, Jinn, Karkadann, Marid, Nasnas, Qareen, Roc, Shadhavar, Werehyena and other assorted creatures which represented the profoundly polytheistic environment of pre-Islamic.


title: Arabs

text: The most obvious symbol of Arabian mythology is the Jinn or genie. Jinns are supernatural beings of varying degrees of power. They possess free will (that is, they can choose to be good or evil) and come in two flavors. There are the Marids, usually described as the most powerful type of Jinn. These are the type of genie with the ability to grant wishes to humans. However, granting these wishes is not free. The Quran says that the "jinn" were created from "mārijin min nar" ("smokeless fire" or "a mixture of fire"; scholars explained, this is the part of the flame, which mixed with "the blackness of fire"). They are not purely spiritual, but are also physical in nature, being able to interact in a tactile manner with people and objects and likewise be acted upon. The "jinn", humans, and angels make up the known sapient creations of God.


title: Arabs

text: A ghoul is a monster or evil spirit in Arabic mythology, associated with graveyards and consuming human flesh, demonic being believed to inhabit burial grounds and other deserted places. In ancient Arabic folklore, ghūls belonged to a diabolic class of jinn (spirits) and were said to be the offspring of Iblīs, the prince of darkness in Islam. They were capable of constantly changing form, but their presence was always recognizable by their unalterable sign—ass's hooves. which describes the "ghūl" of Arabic folklore. The "ghul" is a devilish type of jinn believed to be sired by Iblis.


title: Arabs

text: The Qur'an, the main holy book of Islam, had a significant influence on the Arabic language, and marked the beginning of Islamic literature. Muslims believe it was transcribed in the Arabic dialect of the Quraysh, the tribe of Muhammad. As Islam spread, the Quran had the effect of unifying and standardizing Arabic.


title: Arabs

text: Not only is the Qur'an the first work of any significant length written in the language, but it also has a far more complicated structure than the earlier literary works with its 114 "suwar" (chapters) which contain 6,236 "ayat" (verses). It contains injunctions, narratives, homilies, parables, direct addresses from God, instructions and even comments on how the Qu'ran will be received and understood. It is also admired for its layers of metaphor as well as its clarity, a feature which is mentioned in An-Nahl, the 16th surah.


title: Arabs

text: Al-Jahiz (born 776, in Basra – December 868/January 869) was an Arab prose writer and author of works of literature, Mu'tazili theology, and politico-religious polemics. A leading scholar in the Abbasid Caliphate, his canon includes two hundred books on various subjects, including Arabic grammar, zoology, poetry, lexicography, and rhetoric. Of his writings, only thirty books survive. Al-Jāḥiẓ was also one of the first Arabian writers to suggest a complete overhaul of the language's grammatical system, though this would not be undertaken until his fellow linguist Ibn Maḍāʾ took up the matter two hundred years later.


title: Arabs

text: There is a small remnant of pre-Islamic poetry, but Arabic literature predominantly emerges in the Middle Ages, during the Golden Age of Islam. Literary Arabic is derived from Classical Arabic, based on the language of the Quran as it was analyzed by Arabic grammarians beginning in the 8th century.


title: Arabs

text: A large portion of Arabic literature before the 20th century is in the form of poetry, and even prose from this period is either filled with snippets of poetry or is in the form of "saj" or rhymed prose.


title: Arabs

text: The "ghazal" or love poem had a long history being at times tender and chaste and at other times rather explicit. In the Sufi tradition the love poem would take on a wider, mystical and religious importance. Arabic epic literature was much less common than poetry, and presumably originates in oral tradition, written down from the 14th century or so. Maqama or rhymed prose is intermediate between poetry and prose, and also between fiction and non-fiction. Maqama was an incredibly popular form of Arabic literature, being one of the few forms which continued to be written during the decline of Arabic in the 17th and 18th centuries.


title: Arabs

text: Arabic literature and culture declined significantly after the 13th century, to the benefit of Turkish and Persian. A modern revival took place beginning in the 19th century, alongside resistance against Ottoman rule. The literary revival is known as "al-Nahda" in Arabic, and was centered in Egypt and Lebanon. Two distinct trends can be found in the "nahda" period of revival. The first was a neo-classical movement which sought to rediscover the literary traditions of the past, and was influenced by traditional literary genres—such as the "maqama"—and works like "One Thousand and One Nights". In contrast, a modernist movement began by translating Western modernist works—primarily novels—into Arabic. A tradition of modern Arabic poetry was established by writers such as Francis Marrash, Ahmad Shawqi and Hafiz Ibrahim. Iraqi poet Badr Shakir al-Sayyab is considered to be the originator of free verse in Arabic poetry.


title: Arabs

text: Arabic cuisine is the cuisine of the Arab people. The cuisines are often centuries old and reflect the culture of great trading in spices, herbs, and foods. The three main regions, also known as the Maghreb, the Mashriq, and the Khaleej have many similarities, but also many unique traditions. These kitchens have been influenced by the climate, cultivating possibilities, as well as trading possibilities. The kitchens of the Maghreb and Levant are relatively young kitchens which were developed over the past centuries. The kitchen from the Khaleej region is a very old kitchen. The kitchens can be divided into the urban and rural kitchens.


title: Arabs

text: Arab cuisine mostly follows one of three culinary traditions – from the Maghreb, the Levant or Eastern Arabia. In the Maghreb countries (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya) traditional main meals are tajines or dishes using couscous. In the Levant (Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria) main meals usually start with mezze – small dishes of dips and other items which are eaten with bread. This is typically followed by skewers of grilled lamb or chicken. Gulf cuisine, tends to be more highly spiced with more use of rice. Sometimes a lamb is roasted and served whole.


title: Arabs

text: One will find the following items in most dishes; cinnamon, fish (in coastal areas), garlic, lamb (or veal), mild to hot sauces, mint, onion, rice, saffron, sesame, yogurt, spices due to heavy trading between the two regions. Tea, thyme (or oregano), turmeric, a variety of fruits (primarily citrus) and vegetables such as cucumbers, eggplants, lettuce, tomato, green pepper, green beans, zucchini and parsley.


title: Arabs

text: Arabic art takes on many forms, though it is jewelry, textiles and architecture that are the most well-known. It is generally split up by different eras, among them being early Arabic, early medieval, late medieval, late Arabic, and finally, current Arabic. One thing to remember is that many times a particular style from one era may continue into the next with few changes, while some have a drastic transformation. This may seem like a strange grouping of art mediums, but they are all closely related.


title: Arabs

text: Arabic writing is done from right to left, and was generally written in dark inks, with certain things embellished with special colored inks (red, green, gold). In early Arabic and early Medieval, writing was typically done on parchment made of animal skin. The ink showed up very well on it, and occasionally the parchment was dyed a separate color and brighter ink was used (this was only for special projects). The name given to the form of writing in early times was called Kufic script.