ABSTRACT
The conclusion arrived at in this investigation, namely that the term 'Arab' designates a community of people with war-like properties, standing under the command of a divine hero, being intimately connected with the use of the domesticated camel, should not be misunderstood. It is obvious that in many instances, the originator of the ancient source did not have this meaning in mind. To many the meaning itself was probably unknown. But this does not necessarily mean that the word had a vague and general meaning to everybody. In the time of the Soviet Union the inhabitants were often designated Russians by outsiders. This did not mean that the word was a legitimate general designation for the inhabitants of the USSR and nothing else. In that empire of nationalities most people had very clear ideas about what a Russian was and almost half of them did not consider themselves to be Russians in any sense of the word. The word 'Arab' in antiquity would have had a similar status. We have pointed out at least one general usage which is clearly not the proper one, namely the general designation of the inhabitants of Arabia as defined by Greek geographers. The usage of the word in the ancient sources is thus variegated. This does not mean, however, that the word itself had a vague and general meaning for those who originally had coined it and who continued to use it in its original meaning. We think we have been able to point out a sufficient number of occurrences of the word 'Arab' where it has a very specialized and distinct usage and we think that there is little doubt that we here have its original and proper meaning. Finding out this was the main aim of this investigation.
