Arabic [S]ingular masculine 'Arabi, singular feminine 'Arabiyah, plural 'Arab one whose native language is Arabic. (See ... Arabic language.) Before the spread of Islam and, with it, the Arabic language, Arab referred to any of the largely nomadic Semitic inhabitants of the Arabian Peninsula. In modern usage, it embraces any of the Arabic-speaking peoples living in the vast region from Mauritania, on the Atlantic coast of Africa, to southwestern Iran, including…