The Arabs were originally the people of the Arabian desert. Converted to Islam in the 7th century A.D., they conquered the Middle East from the Sassanian and Byzantine empires and established a succession of Arab-Islamic Middle Eastern empires from Spain to Central Asia and from the Caucasus to India. More profoundly, Islam, as well as its laws and doctrines, became the universally accepted religion and culture of the Persians, Turks, and many other peoples. What is referred to as Arab Civilization is a combination of certain classical Arab values [see Arab], Islamic culture and institutions, the inherited knowledge of the great civilizations of the Old World, and the unity provided by the Arabic language.
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