ABSTRACT
In the history of the Arab peoples, the turning point in the nascence of Arab identity was the emergence of Islam. The harshest punishment in pre-Islamic Arab society was to be disowned by one's tribe. The common bond of Islamic religion helped create a place for ethnolinguistic minorities who lived within the AraboIslamic heartland, such as the Kurds. The prestige of the Arabic language waned under Ottoman rule. As Ottoman Turkish became the language of administration and of the military, Arabic was used mainly by the religious strata. The Ottoman ruling elite, aware of the general weakening of its power, initiated extensive reforms of the administrative and military systems. Three major trends prepared the ground for identity politics in the modern Arab world. These were Islamic revivalism, Arab nationalism or qawmiyya, and patriotism or wataniyya. Three tiers can be distinguished in the Islamist trend: Individual intellectual reformers; the traditional Muslim masses; and organized Islamic groups.
