Arabic

The Arabic group covers Egypt, the Levant, Iraq, the Maghreb, al-Andalus and Malta. Before Islam, Arabs meant mainly the tribes of Arabia and the Syrian desert, among them the Nabataeans of Petra and the Christian Ghassanids.

The Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid and Fatimid caliphates carried Arab rule as far as southern France and western China, and Arab migrations into the Maghreb and the Levant spread the Arabic language among the conquered peoples. The Umayyad Caliphate of Damascus fell in 750. In 1337 the Mamluk Sultanate ruled Egypt and Syria.