The Arabs in History
Bernard Lewis
Hutchinson
What is an Arab? Ethnic terms are notoriously difficult to define, and Arab is not among the easiest. One possible definition may be set aside at once. The Arabs may be a nation; they are not as yet a nationality in the legal sense. A man who calls himself an Arab may be described in his passport as a national of Saudi Arabia, one of the two Yemens, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, the Sudan, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, or any other of the group of states that identify themselves as Arab. Some of them—such as Saudi Arabia, the Union of Arab Emirates, the Syrian and Egyptian Arab Republics—have even adopted the word Arab in their official nomenclature. Their citizens are not, however, designated simply as Arabs. There are Arab states, and indeed a league of Arab states; but as yet there is no single Arab state of which all Arabs are nationals.
But if Arabism has no legal content, it is none the ... | 
