Arab World

Posted at Feb 25/2007 09:04PM:
Harry: The Arab World consists of about 22 modern countries spanning from Mauritania in Northeast Africa to Oman in the westernmost part of the Arabian peninsula. These areas are unified by the fact that they all speak a common language: Arabic. Many dialects of Arabic exist throughout this broad expanse, and many of the Arab world's inhabitants, although Arabic-speakers, may not be of Arab blood heritage.

Posted at Mar 06/2007 01:36PM:
ian: One of the thngs that this demonstrates is a close link between language and identity. It also shows that the notion of Arabness has taken a dominant hold in places that were not traditionally (that is prior to the ISlamic conquest) part of the territory of the the Arabs.

So what does this tell us about the term Arab itself? Is it clearly defined or rather a vague ethnic marker?