degrees of relevance to the emergence of the name. It is also possible that some forms
were metathetical from ʿ-B-R , 'moving around' (Arabic: ʿ-B-R , 'traverse') and hence, it is alleged,
'nomadic'.[103]
Origins
See also: Generations of Noah, Ancient Semitic-speaking peoples, Semitic people, Ishmaelites,
and Qahtanites
Further information: Proto-Semitic language, Proto-Arabic, and Old Arabic
Shem, Ham and Japheth by James Tissot 1904.The Arabs are a Semitic people who speak Arabic, which is a Semitic language that belongs to
the Afroasiatic language family. The majority of scholars accept the "Arabian peninsula" has long been
accepted as the original Urheimat (linguistic homeland) of the Semitic languages.[104][105][106][107] Or to be
from the Levant.[108] The ancient Semitic peoples lived in the ancient Near East, including the Levant,
Mesopotamia, and the Arabian Peninsula from the 3rd millennium BCE to the end of antiquity. Proto-
Semitic likely reached the Arabian Peninsula by the 4th millennium BCE, and its daughter languages
spread outward from there,[109] while Old Arabic began to differentiate from Central Semitic by the start
of the 1st millennium BCE.[110] Central Semitic is a branch of the Semitic language includes
Arabic, Aramaic, Canaanite, Phoenician, Hebrew and others.[111][112] The origins of Proto-Semitic may lie
in the Arabian Peninsula, with the language spreading from there to other regions. This theory proposes
that Semitic peoples reached Mesopotamia and other areas from the deserts to the west, such as
the Akkadians who entered Mesopotamia around the late 4th millennium BCE.[109] The origins of Semitic
peoples are thought to include various regions Mesopotamia, the Levant, the Arabian Peninsula,
and North Africa. Some view that Semitic may have originated in the Levant around 3800 BCE and
subsequently spread to the Horn of Africa around 800 BCE from Arabia, as well as to North Africa.[113][114]
The Expulsion of Hagar and Ishmael , by Adriaen van der Werff, c. 1699 (Rhode Island School of Design
Museum, Rhode Island)
According to Arab-Islamic-Jewish traditions, Ishmael son of Abraham was " father of the Arabs" , to be the
ancestor of the Arabs.[115][116][117][118][119] That Abraham be the ancestor of the Arabs and
Israelites.[118][119] Shem's descendants: Genesis chapter 10 verses 21–30 gives one list of descendants of
Shem. In chapter 11 verses 10–26 a second list of descendants of Shem names Abraham and thus the
Arabs and Israelites.[120] Genetic research has indicated that Arabs and Jews share common genetic
ancestry and are closely related along with other Semitic
peoples.[121][122][123][124][125][126][127][128] Additionally, it is common for Arabs and Jews to refer to each other