Major Semitic language of the Hamito-Semitic family of W Asia and North Africa, originating among the Arabs of the Arabian peninsula. It is spoken today by about 120 million people in the Middle East and N Africa. Arabic script is written from right to left.
The language has spread by way of conquest and trade as far west as Morocco and as far east as Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines, and is also spoken in Arab communities scattered across the western hemisphere. Forms of colloquial Arabic vary in the countries where it is the dominant language: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Arabic is also a language of religious and cultural significance in such other countries as Bangladesh, India, Iran, Israel, Pakistan, and Somalia. Arabic-speaking communities are growing in the US and the West Indies.
A feature of the language is its consonantal roots. For example, s–l–m is the root for salaam, a greeting that implies peace; Islam, the creed of submission to God and calm acceptance of his will; and Muslim, one who submits to that will (a believer in Islam). The Koran, the sacred book of Islam, is “for reading” by a qari (“reader”) who is engaged in qaraat (“reading”). The 7th-century style of the Koran is the basis of Classical Arabic.
Arabic words borrowed into English usually relate to Islamic and Arab society and culture. Contact between the two languages dates from the Crusades (11th–13th centuries). At that time, for example, the founder of the assassin sect would tempt potential members with pleasures heightened by the use of hashish, experiences (seen as a foretaste of heaven) that took away their fear of death.