Arabic-speaking peoples defined themselves by Islamic loyalty rather than ethnicity
Evidence
Apart from small Christian and smaller Jewish minorities, the former chieļ¬y in the east, the overwhelming majority of the Arabic-speaking peoples were Muslim, and it was by their allegiance to Islam that they deļ¬ned themselves both socially and politically. An awareness of Arab identity of course existed and in earlier times had had a certain importance-more social and cultural than directly political. It had, however, given way to the overriding Islamic loyalty- and in the Islamic lands for a thousand years past the Turks not the Arabs had been the dominant people. ā Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 828
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Arab ethnicity is defined by language and culture, not religion; Arabian and Muslim identities are distinct categories defined by language, not religion ā Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics ofā¦, 292; Arab ethnic identity is linguistic and cultural, distinct from Muslim religious identity.