Arab tribes in the context of "Qahtanite"

Mauritania, officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, is a country in Northwest Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Western Sahara to the north and northwest, Algeria to the northeast, Mali to the east and southeast, and Senegal to the southwest. By land area Mauritania is the 11th-largest country in Africa and the 28th-largest in the world; 90% of its territory is in the Sahara desert. Most of its population of some 4.3 million live in the temperate south of the country; roughly a third of the population is concentrated in the capital and largest city, Nouakchott, on the Atlantic coast.

The country's name derives from Mauretania, the Latin name for a region in the ancient Maghreb. It extended from central present-day Algeria to the Atlantic. Berbers occupied what is now Mauritania by the beginning of the 3rd century AD. Groups of Arab tribes migrated to this area in the late 7th century, bringing with them Islam, Arab culture, and the Arabic language. In the early 20th century, Mauritania was colonized by France as part of French West Africa. It achieved independence in 1960. However, the country has since experienced recurrent coups and periods of military dictatorship. The 2008 Mauritanian coup d'état was led by General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, who won subsequent presidential elections in 2009 and 2014. He was succeeded by General Mohamed Ould Ghazouani following the 2019 elections, in what was considered the country's first peaceful transition of power since independence. Mauritania has a poor human rights record, particularly because of its perpetuation of slavery; the 2018 Global Slavery Index estimates there are about 90,000 slaves in the country (or 2.1% of the population).

The history of the Arabs is recorded to have begun in the mid-9th century BCE, corresponding with the earliest known attestation of Old Arabic. Tradition in the Abrahamic religions holds that Arabs are the descendants of Ishmael, who was the son of the Hebrew patriarch Abraham and his Egyptian concubine Hagar. The Syrian Desert, which includes an extension of the Arabian Peninsula, is the home of the first attested "Arab" groups, as well as other defined Arab groups that spread in the land and existed for millennia.

Before the expansion of the Rashidun Caliphate (632–661) during the early Muslim conquests, the word "Arab" referred to any of the largely nomadic or settled Arab tribes in the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, and Upper and Lower Mesopotamia. Today, "Arab" refers to a variety of large numbers of people whose native regions form the Arab world due to Arab migrations and the concurrent spread of the Arabic language throughout the region, namely the Levant and the Maghreb, following the rise of Islam in the 7th century. During this period, they forged the Rashidun Caliphate (632–661), the Umayyad Caliphate (661–750), and the Abbasid Caliphate (750–1258). These Arab dynasties ruled some of the largest land empires in history, reaching southern France in the west, China in the east, Anatolia in the north, and Sudan in the south. In 1517, the Mamluk Sultanate of Cairo was conquered by the Ottoman Empire, which went on to rule much of the Arab world until World War I, after which it was defeated and dissolved and its territories partitioned, forming the modern Arab states. Following the adoption of the Alexandria Protocol in 1944, the Arab League was founded on 22 March 1945. The Charter of the Arab League endorsed the principle of an Arab homeland while respecting the individual sovereignty of its member states.

The influence of ancient Rome in the Arabian Peninsula took root through extensive commerce between Arabs and Romans, who frequently traded with each other on the incense route and the spice route. The Romans knew of Arabia in three roughly divided regions: Arabia Petraea (lit. 'Rocky Arabia'), Arabia Deserta (lit. 'Deserted Arabia'), and Arabia Felix (lit. 'Fertile Arabia'). Collectively, they were a natural stop on the Roman trade route with India, especially by way of the Red Sea. While the Roman Republic had held territory in the Levant, it was not until the time of the Roman Empire that parts of Arabia proper came under Roman rule.

Arabia Petraea was a Roman province that was established after the Roman conquest of the Nabataean Kingdom in 106, consisting of the Sinai Peninsula and parts of the Southern Levant. Arabia Deserta referred to the uncontrolled and sparsely populated interior of the Arabian Peninsula, namely the vast Arabian Desert, which was inhabited by various Arab tribes. Arabia Felix, referring to South Arabia, was home to many independent Arab kingdoms, which variously traded with or fought wars against the Romans.

Adnan (Arabic: عدنان, romanized: ʿAdnān) is traditionally regarded as the patriarch of the Adnanite Arabs, a major Arab lineage that historically inhabited Northern, Western, Eastern, and Central Arabia. The Adnanites are distinct from the Qahtanite Arabs of Southern Arabia, who trace their lineage to Qahtan.

Adnan is considered a direct descendant of the prophet Abraham (Ibrahim) through his son Ishmael (Ismāʿīl). His genealogy is of great significance in Arab and Islamic tradition, as the Islamic prophet Muhammad is said to descend from him. Adnan’s lineage connects him to a broad network of Arab tribes that played a crucial role in pre-Islamic and Islamic history.