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Arabization is the gradual transformation of an area into one that speaks Arabic and is part of the Arab culture. It can also mean the replacement or displacement of a native population with Arabs, although this rarely happened in ancient times, as there weren't nearly sufficient numbers of original Arabs to replace or displace existing populations.
It should be noted that the Muslims were not the first Semitic peoples who migrated out of the peninsula (see: Aramaeans, Canaanites , Akkadians who branched into the Northern Semitic civilizations Assyrians, Phoenicians, Babylonians, Hebrews, Amorites )[1] part of Qahtan the origin of the Arabs. However, pre Islamic Modern Arabic script groups are mainly the Ghassanids, Nabataeans, while the Kindites used the South Arabian Musnad Script.
After Islam the Arab tribes unified under the banner of Islam and flooded into the strongly Semitic Greater Syria and Iraq, within few years the major garrison towns developed into the major cities of Syria and Iraq. The Local population which shared a very close Semitic linguistic/genetic ancestory with the Qahtani and Adnani Muslims were quickly Arabized.
North Africa was no stranger to Semitic culture, the Phoenicians and later the Cathagenians dominated the North African shores for more than 8 centuries until they were suppressed by the Romans and the following Vandal invasion. In the Inland the Nomadic Berbers allied themselves with the Arab muslims and joined them in invading Spain, during this period the Arab tribes mainly settled the old Phoenician/Carthagenian towns while the Berbers remained the dominant group inland. The Inland North Africa remained partly Arabized until the 11th century.
The Banu Hilal a Yemeni tribal confedaration organized by the Fatimids in Egypt, struck first in Libya reducing the Zenata berbers (a berber clan that claimed Yemeni ancestory from pre-Islamic periods) to the small coastal towns and Arabizing the Sanhaja berber confederation. The Banu Hilal eventually Settled modern (Morraco and Algeria) and subdued Arabized the Sanhaja by the time of Ibn Khaldun.
The Banu Sulyam another Bedouin tribal confederation from Nejd followed through the trials of Banu Hilal and helped them defeat the Zirids in the battle of Gabis 1052Ad, and finally taking Kairuan in 1057Ad. The Banu Sulaym mainly settled and completely Arabized Libya.
A Branch of the Rabia' tribe settled Southern Egypt and slowly Arabized the Makurian kingdom in modern Sudan until 1315Ad when the Banu Kanz inherited the kingdom of Makuria and paved the way for the Arabization of the Sudan, that was completed by the arrival of the Jaali and Juhayna Arab tribes.
After the defeat of the Crusades. The Ayubids repopulated the reconquered towns with Arabs mainly from their Southern provinces of whats today Yemen and Asir in modern Saudi Arabia.
The Banu Maqil is a Yemeni nomadic tribe that settled in Tunisia in the 13th century. The Banu Hassan a Maqil branch moved into the Sanhaja region in whats today the Western Sahara and Mauritania, they fought a thirty years war on the side of the Lamtuna Arabized Berbers who claimed Himyarite ancestory (from the early Islamic invasions) defeating the Sanhaja berbers and Arabizing Mauritania.
In general After the rise of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula, Arab culture and language spread through trade with African states, conquest, and intermarriage of the local population with the Arabs.
Countries and territories that are traditionally thought to have gone through Arabization include Spain and Portugal (until 1492), Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, Iraq and the Sudan. Also, though Yemen is traditionally held to be the homeland of Arabs, most[1] of the population did not speak Arabic (but instead South Semitic languages) prior to the spread of Islam. The peninsular Arabic language became common among these areas; dialects also formed. Today, an Arab from the Levant finds the Arabic of a North African almost incomprehensible. Modern Standard Arabic functions as something of a dachsprache, allowing speakers of disparate dialects to communicate.
The influence of Arabic has also been profound in many other countries whose cultures have been influenced by Islam. Arabic is a major source of vocabulary for languages as diverse as Spanish, Berber, Kurdish, Persian, Somali, Swahili, Urdu, spoken Hindi, Turkish, Malay, and Indonesian, as well as other languages in countries where these languages are spoken. For example the Arabic word for book /kita:b/ is used in all the languages listed, apart from Malay and Indonesian (where it specifically means "religious book") and Spanish (which uses the Latin-derived "libro").
The term "Arabised-Arabs" has historically been used to signify Arabs who are descendants of Adnan, the son of Ishmael and grandson of Abraham.
In part of the Al-Anfal Campaign, Saddam Hussein's Iraqi Ba'athist regime drove hundreds of thousands of Kurdish, Assyrians,[2][3][4] and Turkmen[5] families out of their homes in Kirkuk after a Kurdish revolt, and gave their homes to Arab-speaking oil field workers as well as to other non-Kurdish people whom Saddam moved from southern Iraq to the city. This violent campaign of Arabization was an attempt to transform the historically multi-ethnic city of Kirkuk, with a strong Turkmen majority according to the Iraqi government's official census , into an Arab city. Kurdish families were left with no homes after being evicted forcefully by Saddam's Iraqi soldiers, and therefore had to migrate to refugee camps. After the fall of Saddam's regime, many Kurdish families came back to Kirkuk.
In the Sudan, Janjaweed militia have been in conflict with some African tribes in the Darfur region. The Darfur region is populated by non-Arab African tribes, and the United States government claims the Janjaweed to be supported by the Arab government in a genocidal campaign, although the Sudanese government denied any relations to the militia.
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