Arabic Culture

Pre-Islamic Beliefs of Arabs In the pre-Islamic period or Jahiliyyah الْجَاهِلِيَّة (age of ignorance), Arabs were not all monotheists. Like many other nations at the time, they had more than one religion دَيَانَة. Quraish قُرِيْش, an Arab tribe who was in control of Mecca, and other neighboring tribes were principally paganist وَثَنِي. Judaism was the main religion in Yemen. …

Sherine Abdel-Wahab شِرِين عِبْدَ الوَهَاب In this post, some differences between Egyptian dialect and MSA (Modern Standard Arabic) are highlighted through a song by a popular Egyptian singer, Sherine Abdel-Wahab. The song is called حُبُه جَنَّة ‘his love is heaven’, and it is taken from a recent album of hers entitled نَسَّاي ‘the one who forgets me.’ This album includes twel…

Following the death of Prophet Mohammed (PBUH), there was never a discord about the essence of Islam. The pillars of Islam, the Quran, the matters of worship, and all other principles that guided and organized Muslims’ lives were all incontrovertible. Political conflicts, however, began to emerge. These differences were attributed to Arab partisanship and quarrel over who sho…

Yemeni music is mostly oud-based. This post gives a taste of Yemeni and Arabic oud music. العُوْد ‘the oud’ is a musical instrument used in the Middle East and North Africa. Its name was derived from the Arabic word عُوْد ‘a piece of wood’ as it is made of wood. Although it is an ancient instrument, it is still very popular in many countries. In Yemen, a piece of music wi…

Modern Religious Ideologies in the Arab World What are modern religious ideologies in the Arab World? Most Arabs define being an Arab as one who speaks Arabic and views the history of Arabs as an integral part of his/her cultural identity. Arabs are predominantly Muslims, but they have different religious ideologies. This difference is primarily due to power struggle which led…

Yemen's National Dish: Saltah سَلْتَة What is Yemen's National Dish? There many popular dishes in Yemen such as Bint as-sahn بِنْت الصَّحْن , sousi سُوسِي , and shafoot / shafout شَفُوت. However, saltah سَلْتَه is the national dish of Yemen. These dishes are peculiar to Yemeni cuisine. While the former three are popular on special days and occasions, people in Yemen eat saltah…