The People Who Became Arabs

In this Conflicted Conversation, Thomas speaks to historian Yossef Rapoport about his new book Becoming Arab, and the revolutionary argument at its heart: that Arab identity in Egypt and the Levant was not the result of mass migration from Arabia, but was forged in the medieval countryside between the 11th and 15th centuries.

Rapoport explains:

What the word ‘Arab’ meant in the early Islamic centuries

Why most medieval villagers in Egypt, Syria, and Palestine did not initially think of themselves as Arabs

Why migration models fail to explain Arabisation in the settled countryside

How Islamisation and Islamic governance reshaped rural society

The role of clan genealogies, taxation, and local leadership in creating Arab village identities

The extraordinary 1245 Fayyum survey and what it reveals about rural Egypt

The rise of popular Arab epics and the imagination of tribal ancestry

Ibn Taymiyyah’s critique of manufactured tribalism in the 14th century

How medieval Arabisation reshapes modern debates about identity, belonging, and land

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Conflicted is a Message Heard production.

Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.

This episode was produced by Thomas Small and edited by Lizzy Andrews. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices