Arabic (), the language of Arabs, belongs to Semitic family, which is mainly used in West Asia and North Africa, and is the official language of the following 2 1 countries and regions:

Saudi Arabia, Yemen, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Egypt, Sudan, Libya, Tunisia, Mauritania, Algeria, Comoros, Djibouti, Somalia and Morocco. More than 260 million people speak Arabic as their mother tongue.

Extended data

Arabic originated from ancient Semitic language, and formed a unified Arabic literary language on the basis of northern dialects around the 5th century A.D. ... There were ancient Arabic documents from the 6th century, and with the rise of the Arab Empire in the 7th century.

With the war and cultural invasion, Arabs destroyed many languages that once existed in history, replacing those previously used in Iraq, Syria, Egypt and North Africa. Many linguists believe that Arabic is the language closest to Semitic family.

This language soon became the lingua franca of all ethnic groups in the vast areas from the Indus River in the east to Gibraltar in the west, North Africa in the south and Caspian Sea in the north. In the Middle Ages of Europe, it was a medium language to preserve Greek culture and communicate with eastern and western cultures.

Baidu encyclopedia-Arabic