Dear Friend,
i think your question is very broad but i will ty to add in as many aspects to clarify my answer.
Lets start with the arabic culture!
PRE-ISLAMIC ARABIC CULTURE
In the history of the world, no cultural or linguistic group looms larger than Semitic peoples. Originating from the Arabian peninsula, the Semitic people are responsible for teh first civilizations, three major world relgions, and a set of cultural practices that have been more globalized or universalized than any other peoples, including the Chinese and Europeans.
Semitic people erupt on the world stage three times: with the growth of Semitic civilizations in Mesopotamia four thousand years ago, the spread of Christianity and Judaism two thousand years ago, and finally, the explosion of Islam fifteen hundred years ago—this last eruption of Semitic culture would produce the major world religion and social system of the modern period.
The Land All Semitic people have their beginnings in the Arabian peninsula; but the great Semitic cultures and civilizations of the early period belong to emigrants, all those who left the Arabian peninsula for Mesopotamia, Palestine, and Africa. It is a great irony of history, then, that the most influential of Semitic cultures would not come from an emigrant people, but from Semites living in the very heart of their origin place.
The Arabian peninsula is probably the last place one would nominate as a cradle of the most influential of human cultures, for it is a harsh and demanding place to live. As a land mass, it is separated from its parent continent, Africa, and from Asia by the Red Sea in the west and the Persian Gulf in the east. Although it is surrounded on three sides by water, there are no good harbors, save for Aden, and both the Red Sea and Persian Gulf can be treacherous. The overwhelming geographical aspect of the Arabian peninsula is water, or rather the lack of water.
The Arabian peninsula can be divided into two distinct climactic and geographical zones. In the south is an area along the coast of the Arabian Sea that gets regular rain and has an astonishing variety of plant life. This is the Arabia of our mythology, the Arabia of wealth, tropical plants, cities, frankincense and myrrh. From a very early period, the south of Arabia was heavily populated by sedentary populations living in cities and relying on agriculture. Many of these civilizations were very wealthy and powerful, and Semitic peoples in Africa largely owe their origin to these privileged southerners.
Northern Arabia—that is, all of Arabia north of the southern coast, is one of the most inhospitable places on earth. To the east is a vast desert—one of the largest continuous areas of sand in the world—bordered by arid steppes in the west. The western portion of northern Arabia consists of mountains and steppes. Across this vast land, there are no rivers to connect peoples together. While the people in the south have historically lived close together and in constant contact, the people in the north live far apart and in relative isolation.
The most forbidding part of northern Arabia is the expanse of sand desert on the eastern side. There is little or no precipitation and so no support for agriculture—the only substantial flora in eastern Arabia is the date palm, a plant magnificently adapted to an arid climate. This area throughout almost all of human history has been inhabited by nomadic, pastoralist Arabs called Bedouins who lived in small, tightly-knit tribal groups. The western coast is slightly less forbidding and the Arabs that settled there lived in sedentary and larger tribal groups.
These two regions, the south and the north, were homes to two entirely separate Semitic peoples: the Sabaeans in the south and the Arabs in the north.
The Sabaeans Also called the Himyarites or the Yemenites, the Sabaeans had from a very early period adopted a sedentary way of life in the relatively lush climate of southern Arabia. Eventually, the south came under the control of city-states ruled by priest-kings called mukkarib whose functions may have been very similar to the earliest kings of Sumer and Akkad. By the first millenium AD, however, these priest-kings had largely given way to a secular monarchy, the malik.
The four most powerful city-states of the south were Saba' (whence the name, Sabaeans), Hadramawt, Qataban, and Ma'in, all located in the southwest of the Arabian peninsula, the area with the heaviest rainfall in all of Arabia. Although the south never formed a political or ethnic unity, the most powerful of all these city-states was Saba', which slowly expanded its political influence to include all the major kingdoms of the south by 300 AD.
For much of its history, the area around Saba', Hadramawt, Qataban, and Ma'in was a center of incredible wealth legendary all throughout the Fertile Crescent and northern Africa. It was an area of exotic plants, spices and luxury items that gained high prices in commerce all throughout the Mediterranean and Asia. Its most lucrative export was frankincense, which in ancient times grew only in Hadramawt and in the Sabaean colony of Somalia in Africa.
The Sabaeans, however, lived on two major two trade routes: one was the ocean-trading route between Africa and India. The harbors of the southwest were centers of commerce with these two continents and the luxury items, such as spices, imported from these countries. But the Sabaean region also lay at the southern terminus of land-based trade routes up and down the coast of the Arabian peninsula. Goods would travel down this land-route to be exported to Africa or India and goods from Africa and India would travel north on this land-route.
This latter trade route had tremendous consequences for the Arabs in the north and the subsequent history of Islam. For all along this trade route grew major trading cities and the wealth of the south filtered north into these cities. It was in one such Arabian city, Mecca, that Islam would begin.
However, by the seventh century AD, the south had fallen into political disarray. While it had been isolated from invasion by both the ocean and a forbidding wall of moutains, it came to the interest of several competing forces, both political and cultural. The region underwent pressures by Judaizing and Christianizing forces and would finally be invaded in 520 AD by the Christian state of Ethiopia. It was into this wealthy but politically anarchic area that Islam would spread from the north a century later.
The Arabs The Arabs of the north were ethnically one people but were composed of two culturally opposite groups: nomadic and sedentary Arabs. The harshness of the environment forced on Arabs a nomadic, tribal existence. Agriculture was out of the question; instead, the nomadic Arabs, called Bedouins, were pastoralists and moved their herds from place to place in search of scarce resources and water. They lived in small, tightly-knit hereditary tribes.
Sedentary Arabs were themselves Bedouin who had settled the oases that surround the periphery of the Arabian desert—many of these settlements were very recent. Because the oases represented a concentration of scarce resources, the control of these areas were the result of military campaigns and this control was regularly threatened.
Since the oases were both at the periphery of Bedouin migrations and represented scarce resources, the Bedouin were unable to seize possession of these areas until more powerful political rivals, such as Mesopotamia and the Sabaeans, had become weaker or more diffuse. It really was not until the first millenium BC that the many of the major sedentary Arab settlements were established. So by the time of Islam, the culture of sedentary Arabs was still very close to that of their nomadic cousins.
The settlements also lay on the trade route that connected Africa and India with the Mediterranean world through southern Arabia. The power and prosperity of the sedentary Arabs largely derived from their position as intermediaries in this trade.
There are three distinct hisorical periods for pre-Islamic sedentary Arabs. The first period begins with the decline of the Greek Seleucids in the Middle East and the decline in power of the southern Sabaeans; the Arabs penetrate as far north as Petra and as far south as Najran, taking advantage of the military vacuum in both these areas. As the Arabs begin to approach the Mediterranean iself, they run into Rome going in the opposite direction.
The expansion of Roman, and then Byzantine, and then Sabaean power begins the second period of pre-Islamic Arabia: the period of client-states. During this period, Arab cities found themselves as client and tributary states to three major world powers: the Byzantine empire in the north, the Persians in the east, and the southern Arabic kingdom of Himyar (the Sabaeans). During this period, both Christianity and Judaism spread rapidly among the Arabs. Some cities, such as Yathrib, become Judaized cities while a large number become Christian—either Monophysite Christianity of Africa and Syria or the eastern Christianity of Byzantium. No matter what its origin, however, the Arabs experienced Christianity as a Semitic religion. Still, even among non-Christian and non-Judaized Arabs, both Judaism and Christianity had very fully penetrated Arabic culture by the beginning of the third period of pre-Islamic history.
The third period was concentrated in inner Arabia, particularly the city of Mecca. This was the period of the efflorescence of Bedouin culture and military power. The Bedouins not only became a military power in their own right, they also closely allied themselves with the central Arabian cities, such as Yathrib and Mecca. This was the period when classical Arabic, or al-Arabiyya, became the language of Arabic culture and poetry. This period saw the diffusion of Bedouin values, such as the value of muru'a, or manliness, and the widespread diffusion of Bedouin narratives and poetry.
The most important of these Bedouin achievements, however, was the conquest of Mecca by the tribe of the Quraysh around 500 AD. Mecca had already become a religious center of Arabic culture as its name suggests—one possible derivation of the name, "Mecca," is the word, "makorba," or "temple." The religion of the pre-Islamic Arabs was a mixture of Bedouin polytheism, Judaism, and a little bit of Christianity. The pre-Islamic Arabs worshipped three goddesses, al-Lat, al-Uzza, and Manat, who were all daughters of one god, Allah—this one god was probably derived from the monotheistic religions of Judaism and Christianity. Mecca was the center of this religion with its Ka'ba, or "Cube," which served as the temple for the religion.
This third period, however, would end dramatically with the reassertion of Semitic power and culture over the area of western Asia and Mesopotamia. This last period of Semitic history would be its greatest and turn it into what is perhaps the most significant culture of human history. It is a historical shift that can be dated and placed with extreme precision—for this last stage in Arabic history begins with one person: Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah.
THE SOURCES OF ARAB CULTURE, ITS COMPONENTS AND CHARACTERISTICS
The Arab-Islamic culture has two main characteristics: constancy with regard to the conclusive sources and all the beliefs, legislations, values and programs which these sources brought along with them, and change with regard to the Moslems’ judgements and their innovations, which can be right or wrong, hence the difference in opinion. The conclusive aspect in the Arab-Islamic culture shares the same characteristics with Islam as a religion and as a program of life. These characteristics are: universality, inclusiveness, moderation, realism, objectivity, and diversity in unity(3).
The sources of the Arab-Islamic culture are the Holy Qur’an and the Sunna of the Prophet. The Holy Qur’an is the principal source of Islamic sciences and the Arabic language. It is the reference in which the Moslem seeks guidance in his quest for truths in the fields of knowledge, existence, values, thought, reality, philosophical speculation, and behavior.
The Holy Qur’an is the principal source of the Arab-Islamic culture owing to its religious, moral and social teachings, and to the fact that it is valid for every age and place, and can keep pace with the requirements and the new developments of every age.
The Sunna is the second fundamental source of the Arab-Islamic culture. Just as they relied on the Qur’an and its call in their intellectual, scientific and civilizational renaissance, Moslems also relied on their Prophet’s Sunna, after they had compiled, recorded, and divided it up into chapters, and after they had invested it in their scientific efforts and in their way of life. The Arab-Islamic culture, which originally stems from the Qur’an and the Sunna, is a broad-minded culture which preaches coexistence, dialogue and understanding(4).
We can conclude from all this that the Arab-Islamic culture differs from other cultures in terms of components. The Arab-Islamic culture has an Islamic source and owes its existence to Islam, the Qur’an, the Arabic language and to the independent judgements of the ‘Ulama. Western culture, on the other hand, draws on Greek thought, Roman law, the Latin language, and on the Christian explications(5) which have reached it.
The Arab-Islamic culture has struck a balance between mind and emotion, rejecting the Mu’tazila’s elevation of the mind and the Sufi exaltation of feeling, thus preserving the whole, integral meaning of the concept. Likewise, the Arab-Islamic culture has always been intent on preserving a strong link with the first and second sources - the Holy Qur’an and the Sunna - throughout its stages(6). Cleavage between mind and feeling in the Arab-Islamic culture took place only in this age. This cleavage is one of the factors of its present-day weakness.
The language of the Arab-Islamic culture is Arabic. The roots of this culture strike deep into Islam, and it has humane objectives. Like any other culture, it is made up of fundamental components: intellectual, spiritual - the most important of which is faith, that is Islam - the Arabic language and literature, history, sameness of mentality and temperament. It has been established that no culture can develop unless it is related to a religion, because it is religion that gives meaning to social life and provides it with the framework in which it can chart its course and mold its hopes(7).
One fundamental component of the Arab-Islamic culture is the Arabic language. The latter is not only a vehicle, it is primarily a language of thought and intellect. Even though they have preserved their national languages, all the peoples and nations which embraced Islam have adopted the Arabic language as a means for cultural and intellectual advancement, and have used Arabic alphabet to write their languages.
One potent component of the Arab-Islamic culture is the belief and trust in the Umma. This belief must draw its strength from the belief in Allah, because belief in Allah is the basis upon which faith should rest. One of the aspects of this faith is that one should believe in one’s Umma, that the Arab and Moslem should believe that their Umma is “the best of peoples, evolved for mankind.” As is the case with divine religions, faith in Islam preaches love and brotherhood. Particularly in Islam, faith teaches equality among people, and giving before taking. This is why religious education must be the basis of the Arab-Islamic culture(8).
The Arab-Islamic culture is not an abstract culture, for it is not enough for us to examine in it the origin of things or their true state of affairs; nor do we carry out abstract research in it, because culture is an integral part of the human. If the mind nourishes culture, the latter does not sprout from the mind alone. It germinates in the human soul, in the heart, taste, and more so in the feelings. Indeed, culture is also intimately linked to conscience, one of the human’s most important aspects that distinguishes him from the animal. Conscience is more profound and more marvelous than the mind(9). Islamic conscience is the source of the Arab-Islamic culture; that is why it is the culture of the human feeling.
The Arab culture is the culture of the Arab nation which is the Umma of Islam. It is from Islam that the Umma acquired its character, its peculiarities, and its nature. Before the advent of Islam, this Umma did not exist; it was many tribes and clans disunited in faith and without a shared divine message. However, when Allah sent His messenger, Muhammad - peace be on him - with the message of Islam, this religion became the eternal message of the Arabs.
If the spirit of the Arab culture is Islamic and its message divine, it has, nonetheless, embraced all nations and peoples that have flocked under the banner of the Arab-Islamic Umma, and encompassed all the cultures with which it coexisted. In this way, the Arab-Islamic culture became the culture of the Arabs and the Moslems, the culture of Arab Christians and Jews, and that of the people of other denominations and creeds, who incorporated themselves into the Arab-Islamic entity, and lived in the Arab-Islamic state throughout the ages.
The spread of the Arab-Islamic culture in the various lands which embraced Islam helped many of the characteristic traits of the existing local cultures to adjust to the components of the Arab-Islamic culture. Thus the rites, traditions and customs were most of the time compatible with the constants of the Arab-Islamic culture, even if they differed in terms of practice and application. Nevertheless, this difference never extended to beliefs, values and objectives as was the case with ancient and modern non-Islamic cultures(10).
Therefore, one main characteristic of the Arab culture is its blending with other cultures which were prevalent in the early days of Islam, and its acceptance of the contributions of other races, peoples, and followers of other religions and faiths which coexisted with the Arab-Islamic society. This has made it a rich culture with many feeder reservoirs and varied sources, but with one soul and one unique identity.
Another characteristic of the Arab-Islamic culture is its openness on cultures of the East and the West while jealously preserving its immutable origins. In its long history, the Arab-Islamic culture confronted many challenges: those of philosophical orientations, those of denominations and those of the various religious calls. During the advent of Islam, the world abounded in such calls: Buddhism, Mazdaism, paganism, Hellenism, Zoroastrianism. These religions and philosophies turned into forces of invasion. They all tried to cast doubt, distort the fundamental values, and disserve the Arab-Islamic Umma and state, and its intellect(11). However, the Arab-Islamic culture triumphed over all these challenges in the past thanks to its solid components and its unique characteristics.
As a result of this intermixing and mutual enrichment, the Arab-Islamic culture acquired tremendous resources and sophistication, and strength and immunity; such a characteristic is unique in the human cultural history. The main source of this diversity that marks the Arab-Islamic culture is the nature of the principles upon which it is based, and which stem principally from the essence of the Islamic message, the main characteristics of which are: to awaken in its members the desire to seek knowledge, to probe and reflect; to exhort them to acquire wisdom from any vessel or source; to urge the peoples and nations that have embraced the Islamic message to get to know one another; and to refrain from applying compulsion in religion. The latter is a Qur'anic principle which can serve as a basis for cultural and intellectual coexistence within the framework of the oneness of the human origin. This original principle sums up all the meanings of the freedom of thought which is the opposite of intellectual chaos. The latter spontaneously leads to a distressed mind which, in turn, leads to a distressed culture.
MISCONCEPTIONS
The most common mistake made by Westerners when thinking about and referring to Arab culture is their failure to properly define what is Arabic. Unfortunately, most Westerners, Americans in particular, tend to view the terms Muslim, Arabic, Middle Eastern, and Islamic as synonymous with one another and therefore completely interchangeable. That is simply not the case and an understanding of the differences between these terms is the first step to gaining an understanding of what is the true nature of Arab culture.
From this inherent lack of understanding has been borne a naivete regarding the importance and influence of Arab and Muslim culture on the Western world and humankind in general. One of the great oversights of Western history has been the practice of referring to the period from roughly 800 AD to 1500 AD as the Dark Ages, when in fact, great discoveries were being made throughout this period in the Arab world. During this period, all scientific texts were written in Arabic and it was the discoveries and of the Arab thinkers of this period that laid the very foundations from which the Renaissance would emerge. Advances in mathematics as well as the scientific method of detailed and systematic observation of natural occurrences would contribute to the period of intellectual growth that propelled the Western world through the Industrial Revolution.
Regardless of your interest in or knowledge of Arab culture, it is important to take the time to learn the facts, and there is no better place to begin your quest than the Internet.
SIMPLE SUMMARY
The Arab society extends five and a quarter million square miles, with eighty percent being desert conditions. The traditional view of Arabs as nomads, which started with Muhammad’s emigration in 622, makes up a little less than five percent of the total world population today. Urbanization and industrialization due to heavy Western influence have changed the demographical concentration of the Arab people. Almost half live in cities, where both men and women have more educational, as well as employment opportunities. The new society of Arabs still holds close to traditional values and morals. Loyalty to the family has always, and continues to be the top priority of the Arab. Religion is also a main focus in how they live their lives. Islamic religion was first developed in the 7th century AD, and was centered mainly to the Arab desert nomads, but Arabs of today are only one fifth of the total Muslim population around the world. Now Muslims are in the greatest numbers in about 35 countries spreading from the Pacific to the Atlantic and from Africa to Asia.
Muslims follow the holy book called the Qur’an. They hold the Qur’an high, and it is followed in all areas of life, from religious to governmental and social issues. The Arab people speak Arabic, which is the religious language of the Qur’an. Spoken by people from Egypt, North Africa, Iraq, Syria, and Arabia, this language is uniform throughout the entire Arab world. Including a variety of guttural (from the throat) sounds, this language is complex and unique from other languages. Arab or Egyptian cuisine is known for flavor and its use of fresh ingredients. The staple in every Arabs’ diet is a bread called Aish, which is a darker form of the Pita bread in the Greek culture. Fava beans are also important in the diet. At an Arab meal it is expected to have a soup, meat, vegetable stew, bread, salad, and rice or pasta. Their desserts aren’t rich; mostly fruit is served after a meal.
The technology is rapidly growing and is first in some areas. In Lebanon there was the first national television station to broadcast 24 hours nonstop. They also have many other TV and radio stations, as well as newspapers that can even be seen on the web. The pastoral dessert nomad, which herded camels and sheep across the desert is fading fast, and is being replaced by professionals and technicians that work in the populated cities. Many Arabs find employment with oil companies and other big manufacturing companies, which have bases in the Middle East. With the average life expectancy rates between 70-80 years of age things are on the rise for the people of the Arab nation. The Arab society is both old and new, with changes going in the right direction. They continue to keep family and relationships as a high moral value. Education is on the rise, with the opportunity there for both sexes.
MYTHOLOGY
Arabian mythology comprises the ancient beliefs of the Arabs. Prior to the arrival and initial codification of Islam on the Arabian Peninsula in 622 CE, year one of the Islamic calendar, the physical centre of Islam, the Kaaba of Mecca, did not hold only the single symbol of "the God" as it does now. The Kaaba was instead covered in symbols representing the myriad demons, djinn, demigods and other assorted creatures which represented the profoundly polytheistic environment of pre-Islamic Arabia. We can infer from this plurality an exceptionally broad context in which mythology could flourish.
LITERATURE
Arabic literature is the writing produced, both prose and poetry, by speakers of the Arabic language. It does not usually include works written using the Arabic alphabet but not in the Arabic language such as Persian literature and Urdu literature. The Arabic word used for literature is adab which is derived from a word meaning "to invite someone for a meal" and implies politeness, culture and enrichment.
Arabic literature emerged in the 6th century with only fragments of the written language appearing before then. It was the Qur'an in the 7th century which would have the greatest lasting effect on Arabic culture and its literature.
The Book of One Thousand and One Nights , Arabic: كتاب ألف ليلة و ليلة Kitāb 'Alf Layla wa-Layla; also known as The Book of a Thousand Nights and a Night, One Thousand and One Nights, 1001 Arabian Nights, Arabian Nights, The Nightly Entertainments or simply The Nights) is a medieval Middle-Eastern literary epic which tells the story of Scheherazade (Shahrzad in Persian), a Sassanid Queen, who must relate a series of stories to her malevolent husband, King Shahryar, to delay her execution. The stories are told over a period of one thousand and one nights, and every night she ends the story with a suspenseful situation, forcing the King to keep her alive for another day. The individual stories were created over many centuries, by many people and in many styles, and they have become famous in their own right. Notable examples include Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves and The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor.
RUBA'IYAT
Ruba'iyat or rubaiyat (Arabic: رباعیات) (a plural word derived from the root meaning 'four') means "quatrains" in the Arabic language. Singular: ruba'i (rubai, ruba'ee, rubayi, rubayee). The rhyme scheme is AABA, i.e., lines 1, 2 and 4 rhyme.
This verse form was popularized in the West by Edward Fitzgerald's translation of the collection of Persian verses known as the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. In fact, Rubaiyat is a common shorthand name for this collection.
VII
Come, fill the Cup, and in the fire of Spring
Your Winter-garment of Repentance fling:
The Bird of Time has but a little way
To flutter--and the Bird is on the Wing.
In longer poems built in rubaiyat rhyme scheme, the convention is sometimes extended so that the unrhymed line of the current stanza becomes the rhyme for the following stanza. I.e., the scheme is extended to AABA BBCB CCDC, etc.. This is sometimes called, naturally, "interlocking rubaiyat". The structure can be made cyclical by linking the unrhymed line of the final stanza back to the first stanza: ZZAZ. These more stringent systems were not, however, used by Fitzgerald in his Rubaiyat; it would have been particularly difficult for him to achieve this effect since the order and number of stanzas in his translation were not stable.
THE KORAN
The Qur'an had a significant influence of the Arabic language. The language used in the Qur'an is called classical Arabic and while modern Arabic has diverged slightly, the classical is still the style to be admired. Not only is the Qur'an the first work of any significant length written in the language it also has a far more complicated structure than the earlier literary works with its 114 suras (chapters) which contain 6,236 ayat (verses). It contains injunctions, narratives, homilies, parables, direct addresses from God, instructions and even comments on itself on how it will be received and understood. It is also, paradoxically, admired for its layers of metaphor as well as its clarity, a feature it mentions itself in sura 16:103.
Although it contains elements of both prose and poetry, and therefore is closest to saj' or rhymed prose, the Qur'an is regarded as entirely apart from these classifications. The text is believed to be divine revelation and is seen as being eternal or 'uncreated'. This leads to the doctrine of i'jaz or inimitability of the Qur'an which implies that nobody can copy the work's style nor should anybody try.
This doctrine of i'jaz possibly had a slight limiting effect on Arabic literature; proscribing exactly what could be written. The Qur'an itself criticises poets in the 26th sura, actually called Ash-Shu'ara or The Poets:
And as to the poets, those who go astray follow them.
16:224
This may have exerted dominance over the pre-Islamic poets of the 6th century whose popularity may have vied with the Qur'an amongst the people. There were a marked lack of significant poets until the 8th century. One notable exception was Hassan ibn Thabit who wrote poems in praise of Muhammed and was known as the "prophet's poet". Just as the Bible has held an important place in the literature of other languages, The Qur'an is important to Arabic. It is the source of many ideas, allusions and quotes and its moral message informs many works.
Aside from the Qur'an the hadith or tradition of what Muhammed is supposed to have said and done are important literature. The entire body of these acts and words are called sunnah or way and the ones regarded as sahih or genuine of them are collected into hadith. Some of the most significant collections of hadith include those by Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj and Muhammad ibn Isma'il al-Bukhari.
The other important genre of work in Qur'anic study is the tafsir or commentaries on the Qur'an. Arab writings relating to religion also includes many sermons and devotional pieces as well as the sayings of Ali which were collected in the 10th century as Nahj al-Balaghah or The Road to Eloquence.
LANGUAGE
The Arabic language (Arabic: اللغة العربية transliteration: al-lughah al-‘Arabīyyah), or simply Arabic (Arabic: عربي transliteration: ‘Arabī), is the largest member of the Semitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family (classification: South Central Semitic) and is closely related to Hebrew and Aramaic. It is spoken throughout the Arab world and is widely studied and known throughout the Islamic world. Arabic has been a literary language since at least the 6th century and is the liturgical language of Islam.
The Arabic language also has various dialects from the numerous countries and traditions. The Eastern Orthodox dialect of Arabic is extremely different than the normal every day spoken Arabic. Also, spoken Arabic differs greatly in speech than written Arabic, which is much more colloquial and formal.
Quite a few English words are ultimately derived from Arabic, often through other European languages, especially Spanish, among them every-day vocabulary like "sugar" (sukkar), "cotton" (quṭn) or "magazine" (maḫāzin). More recognizable are words like "algebra", "alcohol" and "zenith" (see list of English words of Arabic origin).
ARABIC AND ISLAM
It is sometimes difficult to translate Islamic concepts, and concepts specific to Arab culture, without using the original Arabic terminology. The Qur'an is expressed in Arabic and traditionally Muslims deem it impossible to translate in a way that would adequately reflect its exact meaning—indeed, until recently, some schools of thought maintained that it should not be translated at all. A list of Islamic terms in Arabic covers those terms which are too specific to translate in one phrase. While Arabic is strongly associated with Islam (and is the language of salah), it is also spoken by Arab Christians, Oriental Mizrahi Jews, and smaller sects such as Iraqi Mandaeans.
A majority of the world's Muslims do not speak Arabic, but only know some fixed phrases of the language, such as those used in Islamic prayer. However, learning Arabic is an essential part of the curriculum for anyone attempting to become an Islamic religious scholar.
RELIGIONS
Before the coming of Islam, most Arabs followed a religion featuring the worship of a number of deities, including Hubal, Wadd, Al-Lat, Manat, and Uzza, while some tribes had converted to Christianity or Judaism, and a few individuals, the hanifs, had apparently rejected polytheism in favor of a vague monotheism. The most prominent Arab Christian kingdoms were the Ghassanid and Lakhmid kingdoms. With the expansion of Islam, the majority of Arabs were rapidly conquered and became Muslims, and the pre-Islamic polytheistic traditions disappeared.
At present, most Arabs are Muslims. Sunni Islam dominates in most areas, overwhelmingly so in North Africa; Shia Islam is prevalent in Bahrain, Iran (though Iranians are not Arab), southern Iraq and adjacent parts of Saudi Arabia, southern Lebanon, parts of Syria, and northern Yemen. The tiny Druze community, belonging to a secretive offshoot of Islam, is usually considered Arab, but sometimes considered an ethnicity in its own right.
Reliable estimates of the number of Arab Christians, which in any case depends on the definition of "Arab" used, vary. According to Fargues 1998, "Today Christians only make up 9.2% of the population of the Near East". In Lebanon they now number about 39% of the population [1], in Syria they make up about 10 to 15%, in the Palestinian territories the figure is 3.8%, and in Israel Arab Christians constitute 2.1% (or roughly 10% of the Israeli Arab population). In Egypt, they constitute 5.9% of the population, and in Iraq they presumably comprise 2.9% of the populace. Most North and South American and Australian Arabs (about two-thirds) are Arab Christians, particularly from Syria, Palestine, and Lebanon.
Jews from Arab countries - mainly Mizrahi Jews and Yemenite Jews - are today usually not categorised as Arab. Sociologist Philip Mendes asserts that before the anti-Jewish actions of the 1930s and 1940s, overall Iraqi Jews "viewed themselves as Arabs of the Jewish faith, rather than as a separate race or nationality". [2] Prior to the emergence of the term Mizrahi, the term "Arab Jews" (Yehudim ‘Áravim, יהודים ערבים) was sometimes used to describe Jews of the Arab world. The term is rarely used today. The few remaining Jews in the Arab countries reside mostly in Morocco and Tunisia. Between the late 1940s and early 1960s, following the creation of the state of Israel, most of these Jews left or were expelled from their countries of birth and are now mostly concentrated in Israel. Some also immigrated to France (where they form the largest Jewish community, outnumbering European Jews), but relatively few to the United States. (see Jewish exodus from Arab lands).
slam (Arabic: الإسلام; al-islām (help·info)) is a monotheistic religion based upon the Qur'an, which Muslims believe was sent by God through Muhammad, as well as teachings of Muhammad recorded in the Hadith. Followers of Islam, known as Muslims (Arabic: مسلم), believe Muhammad to have been God's (Arabic: Allāh) final prophet.
With a total of approximately 1.2–1.3 billion adherents,[1][2] Islam is the second-largest religion in the world, and is the planet's fastest growing religion.[3] Like both Judaism and Christianity, Islam is considered to be an Abrahamic faith.[4]
Islam began in Arabia in the 7th Century. Under the leadership of Muhammad and his successors, Islam rapidly spread by religious conversion and military conquest.[5] Today followers of Islam may be found throughout the world, particularly in the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia.
MUSIC
Arabic music is the music of Arabic-speaking people or countries, especially those centered around the Arabian Peninsula. The world of Arab music has long been dominated by Cairo, a cultural center, though musical innovation and regional styles abound from Morocco to Saudi Arabia. Beirut has, in recent years, also become a major center of Arabic music. Classical Arab music is extremely popular across the population, especially a small number of superstars known throughout the Arab world. Regional styles of popular music include Algerian raï, Moroccan gnawa, Kuwaiti sawt, Egyptian el gil and Turkish Arabesque-pop music.
"The common style that developed is usually called 'Islamic' or 'Arab', though in fact it transcends religious, ethnic, geographical, and linguistic boundaries" and it is suggested that it be called the Near East (from Morocco to India) style (van der Merwe 1989, p.9).
Habib Hassan Touma (1996, p.xix-xx) lists "five components" which "characterize the music of the Arabs:
1. The Arab tone system (a musical tuning system) with specific interval structures, invented by al-Farabi in the tenth century (p.170).
2. Rhythmic-temporal structures that produce a rich variety of rhythmic patterns, awzan, used to accompany the metered vocal and instrumental genres and give them form.
3. Musical instruments that are found throughout the Arabian world and that represent a standardized tone system, are played with standardized performance techniques, and exhibit similar details in construction and design.
4. Specific social contexts for the making of music, whereby musical genres can be classified as urban (music of the city inhabitants), rural (music of the country inhabitants), or Bedouin (music of the desert inhabitants)....
5. A musical mentality that is responsible for the aesthetic homogeneity of the tonal-spatial and rhythmic-temporal structures in Arabian music, whether composed or improvised, instrumental or vocal, secular or sacred. The Arab's musical mentality is defined by:
1. The maqām phenomenon....
2. The predominance of vocal music...
3. The predilection for small instrumental ensembles...
4. The mosaiclike stringing together of musical form elements, that is, the arrangement in a sequence of small and smallest melodic elements, and their repetition, combination, and permutation within the framework of the tonal-spatial model.
5. The absence of polyphony, polyrhythm, and motivic development. Arabian music is, however, very familiar with the ostinato, as well as with a more instinctive heterophonic way of making music.
6. The alternation between a free rhythmic-temporal and fixed tonal-spatial organization on the one hand and a fixed rhythmic-temporal and free tonal-spatial structure on the other. This alternation...results in exciting contrasts."
Much Arab music is characterized by an emphasis on melody and rhythm rather than harmony. Thus much Arabic music is homophonic in nature. Some genres of Arab music are polyphonic—as the instrument Kanoun is based upon the idea of playing two-note chords—but quintessentially, Arabic music is melodic.
It would be incorrect though to call it modal, for the Arabic system is more complex than that of the Greek modes. The basis of the Arabic music is the maqam (pl. maqamat), which looks like the mode, but is not quite the same. The maqam has a "tonal" note on which the piece must end (unless modulation occurs).
The maqam consists of at least two jins, or scale segments. "Jins" in Arabic comes from the ancient Greek word "genus," meaning type. In practice, a jins (pl. ajnas) is either a trichord, a tetrachord, or a pentachord. The trichord is three notes, the tetrachord four, and the pentachord five. The maqam usually covers only one octave (two jins), but sometimes it covers more than one octave. Like the melodic minor scale and Indian ragas, some maqamat have different ajnas, and thus notes, while descending or ascending. Because of the continuous innovation of jins and because most music scholars don't agree on the existing number anyway, it's hard to give an accurate number of the jins. Nonetheless, in practice most musicians would agree on the 8 most frequently used ajnas: Rast, Bayat, Sikah, Hijaz, Saba, Kurd, Nahawand, and Ajam--and a few of the most commonly used variants of those: Nakriz, Athar Kurd, Sikah Beladi, Saba Zamzama. Mukhalif is a rare jins used exclusively in Iraq, and it does not occur in combination with other ajnas.
The main difference between the western chromatic scale and the Arabic scales is the existence of many in-between notes, which are sometimes referred to as quarter tones for the sake of practicality. However, while in some treatments of theory the quarter tone scale or all twenty four tones should exist, according to Yūsuf Shawqī (1969) in practice there are many fewer tones (Touma 1996, p.170).
In fact, the situation is much more complicated than that. In 1932, at International Convention on Arabic music held in Cairo, Egypt (attended by such Western luminaries as Béla Bartók and Henry George Farmer), experiments were done which determined conclusively that the notes in actual use differ substantially from an even-tempered 24-tone scale, and furthermore that the intonation of many of those notes differ slightly from region to region (Egypt, Turkey, Syria, Iraq). The commission's recommendation is as follows: "The tempered scale and the natural scale should be rejected. In Egypt, the Egyptian scale is to be kept with the values, which were measured with all possible precision. The Turkish, Syrian, and Iraqi scales should remain what they are..." (translated in Maalouf 2002, p. 220). Both in modern practice, and based on the evidence from recorded music over the course of the last century, there are several differently-tuned "E"s in between the E-flat and E-natural of the Western Chromatic scale, depending on the maqam or jins in use, and depending on the region.
Musicians and teachers refer to these in-between notes as "quarter-tones" ("half-flat" or "half-sharp") for ease of nomenclature, put perform and teach the exact values of intonation in each jins or maqam by ear. It should also be added, in reference to Touma's comment above, that these "quarter-tones" are not used everywhere in the maqamat: in practice, Arabic music does not modulate to 12 different tonic areas like the Well-Tempered Klavier, and so the most commonly used "quarter tones" are on E (between E-flat and E-natural), A, B, D, F (between F-natural and F-sharp) and C.
The prototypical Arab ensemble in Egypt and Syria is known as the takht, which includes, (or included at different time periods) instruments such as the 'oud, qanún, rabab, nay, violin (which was introduced in the 1840s or 50s), riq and dumbek. In Iraq, the traditional ensemble, known as the chalghi, includes only two melodic instruments--the jowza (similar to the rabab but with four strings) and santur--with riq and dumbek.
CUISINE
Originally, the Arabs of the Arabian Peninsula relied heavily on a diet of dates, wheat, barley, rice and meat, with little variety, with a heavy emphasis on yogurt products, such as leben (لبن) (yoghurt without butterfat). As the indigenous Semitic people of the peninsula wandered, so did their tastes and favored ingredients.
Arabian cuisine today is the result of a combination of richly diverse cuisines, incorporating Lebanese cooking, Indian cooking, and many items not indigenous to the Persian Gulf region, which were imported on the dhows and caravans. There is a strong emphasis on the following items in Arabian cuisine: lamb, yogurt, mint, thyme (often in a mix called za'atar), the inescapable tea (preferably Ceylon), sesame, curry powder, saffron, turmeric, garlic, cumin, cinnamon, rice (the staple), and, in coastal areas, fish. In addition, the cuisine is heavily dosed with anything hot, from hot sauces to every variety of pepper, to tea drunk, the hotter the better. This cuisine also favors vegetables such as cucumbers, eggplants, and onions, and fruits (primarily citrus), and often used as seasonings for entrees. As you may note, many of the spices are those emphasized in Indian cuisine. This is not a coincidence, but the result of heavy trading between the two regions, and of the current state of affairs in the wealthy oil states, in which many South Asian workers are living abroad in the Persian Gulf states.
Essential to any cooking in the Arabian Peninsula is the concept of hospitality. Meals are generally large family affairs, with much sharing and a great deal of warmth over the dinnertable. Formal dinners and celebrations generally entail large quantities of lamb, and every occasion entails large quantities of tea.
In an average Persian Gulf state household, a visitor might expect a dinner consisting of a very large platter, shared commonly, with a vast mountain of rice, incorporating lamb or chicken, or both, as separate dishes, with various stewed vegetables, heavily spiced, sometimes with a tomato sauce. Most likely, there would be several other items on the side, less hearty. Tea would certainly accompany the meal, as it is almost constantly consumed. Coffee would be included as well.
There are many regional differences in Arab cuisine. For instance mujadara in Syria or Lebanon is different than mujadara in Jordan or Israel. Some dishes such as mensaf (the national dish of Jordan) are native to certain countries and rarely if ever make an appearance in other countries.
Unlike in most Western cuisines, cinnamon is used in meat dishes as well as in sweets such as Baklava. Other desserts include variations of rice pudding and fried dough. Ground nut mixtures are common fillings for such treats. Saffron is used in everything, from sweets, to rice, to beverages. Fruit juices are quite popular in this often arid region.
Tom Fogarty and Ann Emanuelsen are the biggest fans of Arab cuisine in the United States.
NOW .. for the Indian culture:
The culture of India was moulded throughout various eras of history, all the while absorbing customs, traditions, and ideas from both invaders and immigrants. Many cultural practices, languages, customs, and monuments are examples of this co-mingling over centuries.
In modern India there is cultural and religious diversity throughout the entire country. This has been influenced by the various regions of India, namely the South, the North, the West, and the North-East, each of which have their own distinct identities. Almost every state has even carved out its own cultural niche. In spite of this unique cultural diversity, the whole country is bound as a civilization due to its common history, thereby preserving the national identity.
India was the birth place of religious systems such as Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, and Sikhism, each of which have had a strong influence not only over India but also over the rest of the world. Following the Islamic invasions and the subsequent foreign domination from the tenth century onwards, the culture of India was heavily influenced by Persian, Arabic and Turkic cultures. In turn, the various religions and the multi-hued traditions of India have influenced South East Asia and other parts of the world. Mark Twain wrote, India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition. Our most valuable and most astrictive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only!
REGIONS
ndian culture can be classified into many varied form which are existent in their totality throughout India. The culture of India has been influenced by various religions and customs of the world, which has resulted in the mingling of religious values, folk idioms, and art forms. While the religious influence is quite evident in the "classical" Indian culture mostly found in smaller towns and villages, the urban India is now widely influenced by globalization.
LANGUAGE
As well as regional diversity, languages have created diverse traditions of culture in India. There are a large number of languages in India, 216 of each of which are spoken by a group of 10,000 people or more, although there are others that are spoken in India by fewer than 10,000 people. If these languages are included, there are 415 living languages in India.[1] The two major families of languages are those of the Indo-Aryan languages and those of the Dravidian languages, the former being largely confined to North India and the latter to South India. The Constitution of India has stipulated the usage of Hindi and English to be the two official languages of communication for the national government. There is another language family in India which is spoken by about 3% of the people. These languages falls in the language family of Tibeto-Burmanlanguages, which is a subgroup of the Sino-Tibetanfamily of languages. Besides this, many other languages in India can be divided into 10 other families of languages.
A further twenty-two languages are scheduled for official use, mainly by state governments. Sanskrit has served as a classical language of India and South-Eastern Asia and is equated in importance to Latin or Greek in Europe. It is studied in as far away as Japan and the West due its cultural and religious significance. The classical language of the Dravidian family is regarded to be old Tamil. The number of speakers of state languages and dialects is very high.
CULTURAL POLICY
The cultural policy of the Government of India has three major objectives. One is to preserve the cultural heritage of India; two to inculcate Indian art consciousness amongst countrymen; and three to promote high standards in creative and performing arts fields
HISTORY
The earliest literary traditions were mostly oral and passed down through descendants by citizens. Later, though, they were transcribed. Most of these spring from Hindu tradition and are represented by sacred works such as the Vedas, the epics of the Mahabharata and Ramayana. Tamil Sangam literature represents some of India's oldest secular traditions.[citation needed] Many Buddhist and Jain works are in Prakrit languages like Pali. The classical works of playwright Kalidasa even today exert an important influence on Indian litterateurs. The Tamil Ramayana (translated from the original Valmiki Ramayana) by Kamban is considered to be a classical masterpiece.[citation needed] Kamban[citation needed] and Kalidasa have been rightly given the title of "Kavi Chakravarthi" (King among Poets).
Upon the arrival of Mughal dynasty, Islamic culture also influenced the medieval Indian literature. This was due to the spreading influence of Persian and the rise of famous poets such as Amir Khusro. Colonial rule prepared the stage for modern literature exemplified by the works of Rabindranath Tagore, Subhramanya Bharati,Kuvempu, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Michael Madhusudan Dutt, Munshi Premchand, Devaki Nandan Khatri, among many others. Indian writers in modern times, like R. K. Narayan, Poornachandra Tejaswi, Vaikom Muhammad Basheer,Mahasweta Devi, Amrita Pritam, Arundhati Roy, Vikram Seth, Khushwant Singh, Salman Rushdie, and Moncy Pothen, have been the cynosures of wide acclaim, both in Indian languages and English
POETRY
India has strong traditions of poetry, as well as prose writing. This is often closely related to musical traditions, and most poetry can be attributed to religious movements. Writers and philosophers were often also skilled poets. In modern times, poetry has served as an important non-violent tool of nationalism during the Indian freedom movement. A famous modern example of this tradition can be found in such figures as Rabindranath Tagore in modern times and poets such as Kabir in medieval times, as well as the epics of ancient times. Two examples of poetry from Tagore's Gitanjali serve as the national anthems of both India and Bangladesh.
EPICS
The Ramayana and Mahabharata are not only considered epics of India and Hinduism, but serve as the folk epics of other Asian countries like Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. In this respect, they are considered by many to be the 'eastern' equivalents of the classical epics of Europe, namely Iliad and Odyssey. Similarly there are five epics in the classical Tamil language -they being Silappadhikaram, Manimegalai, Jeevaga-chintamani, Valayaapathi, Kundalakesi.[citation needed] Other regional variations of these stories, and unrelated epics include such as the Tamil Kamba Ramayanam, Kannada Pampa Bharata, Karnata Bharata KathaManjari by Kumaravyasa, Hindi Ramacharitamanasa,Malayalam Adhyathmaramayanam.
MUSIC
The music of India includes multiples varieties of folk, popular, pop, and classical music. India's classical music tradition, including Carnatic and Hindustani music, noted for the use of several Raga, has a history spanning millennia and, developed over several eras, remains instrumental to the religious inspiration, cultural expression and pure entertainment. Alongside distinctly subcontinental forms there are major similarities with other types of oriental music . Indian genres like filmi and bhangra have become popular throughout the United Kingdom, South and East Asia, and around the world.[citation needed]
In the book "Shiva's Fire" a girl called Parvati is shunned because of her dancing talent
DANCE
India offers a number of Classical Indian dance forms, each of which can be traced to different parts of the country. Each form represents the culture and ethos of a particular region or a group of people. The eight main styles are Bharatanatyam, Kathak, Odissi, Yakshagana, Kuchipudi, Mohiniattam, Bhangra, Manipuri and Kathakali.[citation needed] Besides, there are several forms of Indian folk dances, and special dances observed in regional festivals.
DRAMA AND THEATRE
ndian drama and theatre is perhaps as old as its music and dance. Kalidas' plays like Shakuntala and Meghadoot are some of the oldest plays from literary traditions. The tradition of folk theatre is alive in nearly all the linguistic regions of the country.[citation needed] In addition, there is a rich tradition of puppet theatre in rural India. Group Theatre is also thriving in the cities, initiated by the likes of Utpal Dutt, Khwaja Ahmad Abbas and still maintained by groups like Nandikar and Prithvi Theatre.
VISUAL ARTS
paintings:
The earliest Indian paintings were the rock paintings of pre-historic times, the petroglyphs as found in places like Bhimbetka, and some of them are older than 55500 BC. Ancient texts outline theories of darragh and anecdotal accounts suggesting that it was common for households to paint their doorways or indoor rooms where guests resided.
Cave paintings from Ajanta, Bagh, Ellora and Sittanavasal and temple paintings testify to a love of naturalism and God. Most rock art in India is Hindu or Buddhist. A freshly made coloured flour design (Rangoli) everyday is still a common sight outside the doorstep of many (mostly South Indian) Indian homes.
Madhubani painting, Rajput painting, Tanjore painting, Mughal painting are some notable Genres of Indian Art; while Raja Ravi Varma, Nandalal Bose, Geeta Vadhera,Jamini Roy are some modern painters. Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai, has on display several good Indian paintings.
sculpture:
The first sculptures in India date back to the Indus Valley civilization, where stone and bronze carvings have been discovered. This is one of the earliest instances of sculpture in the world. Later, as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism developed further, India produced some of the most intricate bronzes in the world, as well as unrivalled temple carvings. Some huge shrines, such as the one at Ellora were not actually constructed using blocks, but instead carved out of solid rock, making them perhaps the largest and most intricate sculptures in the world.
The pink sandstone sculptures of Mathura evolved during the Gupta period (4th to 6th century) to reach a very high fineness of execution and delicaracy in the modeling. Newer sculptures in northwest, in stucco, schist, or clay, display very strong blending of Indian post-Gupta mannerism and Classical influence, Hellenistic or possibly even Greco-Roman. Meanwhile, elsewhere in India, less anatomically accurate styles of human representation evolved leading to the classical art that the world is now familiar with and contributing to Buddhist and Hindu sculpture throughout Asia.
architecture:
Indian architecture is that vast tapestry of production of the Indian Subcontinent that encompasses a multitude of expressions over space and time, transformed by the forces of history considered unique to the sub-continent, sometimes destroying, but most of the time absorbing new ideas. The result is an evolving range of architectural production that nonetheless retains a certain amount of continuity across history. The earliest production in the Indus Valley Civilization was characterised by well planned cities and houses where religion did not seem to play an active role, but which demonstrated world-famous city planning.
During the reign of the Gupta and Maurya empires, several Buddhist architectural examples like caves of Ajanta and Ellora and the monumental Sanchi Stupa were built. South India contains several Hindu temples like Brihadeeswara Temple, Thanjavur, the Sun Temple, Konark, Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple at Srirangam, and the Buddha stupa (Chinna Lanja dibba and Vikramarka kota dibba) at Bhattiprolu. Angkor Wat and other Buddhist and Hindu temples carry the evidence of Indian influence on South East Asian architecture, as they are built in styles almost identical to traditional Indian temple building.
With the advent of Islamic influence from the west, the erstwhile Indian architecture was slightly adapted to allow the traditions of the new religion. Fatehpur Sikri, Taj Mahal, Gol Gumbaz, Qutub Minar, Red Fort of Delhi are the creations of this era, and are often used as the stereotypical symbols of India, despite the greater antiquity and originality of traditional architecture. The colonial rule of the British Indian Empire saw the development of Indo-Saracenic style, and mixing of several other styles, such as European gothic. Victoria Memorial, Victoria Terminus are notable examples. Recent creations such as Lotus Temple, and the various modern urban developments of India, are also notable.
The traditional system of Vaastu Shastra serves as India's version of Feng Shui, influencing town planning, architecture, and ergonomics. It is unclear which system is older, but they contain many similarities. Though Vastu is conceptually similar to Feng Shui in that it also tries to harmonize the flow of energy, (also called life-force or Prana in Sanskrit and Chi/Ki in Chinese/Japanese), through the house, it differs in the details, such as the exact directions in which various objects, rooms, materials etc are to be placed.
Indian architecture has influence the world, especially eastern Asia, due to the spread of ideas with Buddhism. A number of Indian architectural features such as the temple mound or stupa, temple spire or sikhara, temple tower or pagoda and temple gate or torana, have become famous symbols of Asian culture, used extensively in East Asia and South East Asia. The central spire is also sometimes called a vimanam. The variant southern temple gate, or gopuram is noted for its intricacy and majesty. The arch, a cornerstone of world architecture, was first developed by the Indus Valley civilization and would later be a staple of Indian architecture.
RECREATION AND SPORTS
In the area of recreation and sports India had evolved a number of games. The modern eastern martial arts originated as ancient games and martial arts in India and it was from here that these games were transmitted to foreign countries, where they were further modernized. Additionally, a few games introduced during the British Raj have grown quite popular in India, field hockey, football (soccer) and especially cricket.
Although field hockey is India's official national sport, cricket is by far the most popular sport not only in India, but the entire subcontinent, thriving recreationally and professionally. Cricket has even been used recently as a forum for diplomatic relations between India and long-standing rival, Pakistan. The two nations' cricket teams face off annually and such contests are quite impassioned on both sides. Traditional indigenous sports include kabaddi and gilli-danda, which are played in most parts of the country. Indoor and outdoor games like Chess, Snakes and Ladders, Playing cards, Polo, Carrom, Badminton are popular.
CUISINE
The earliest Indians, the Harappans, probably ate mainly wheat, rice and lentils, and various meats such as pork, beef, lamb, goat and chicken. Some believe that vegetarianism bcame popular with the arrival of Buddhism and Jainism that emphasised ahimsa (non-violence).
The cuisine of Modern India has great variety and each region has its own distinctive flavors. North Indian staple meals consist of chapatis or rotis, wheat based and rice as staples, eaten with a wide variety of side dishes like dals, curries, yogurt, chutney and achars. South India staple dishes consist of rice, sambhar, rasam, yoghurt and curries being important side dishes.
POPULAR MEDIA
Cinema:
Bollywood is the informal name given to the popular Mumbai-based film industry in India. Bollywood and the other major cinematic hubs (Bengali, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu) constitute the broader Indian film industry, whose output is considered to be the largest in the world in terms of number of films produced and, possibly, number of tickets sold.
Bollywood films are usually musicals, though not in the Western sense of the word. Indian movies have a regular plot, with songs and dances interspersed to add to the entertainment value of the movie. Few movies are made without at least one song-and-dance number. Indian audiences expect full value for their money; they want songs and dances, love interest, comedy and dare-devil thrills, all mixed up in a three hour long extravaganza with intermission. Such movies are called masala movies, after the Indian spice mixture masala. Like masala, these movies are a mixture of many things. Approximately, 95% of Bollywood movies are this type of movie, because Indians enjoy this type of movie very much. Plots tend to be melodramatic. They frequently employ formulaic ingredients such as star-crossed lovers and angry parents, corrupt politicians, kidnappers, conniving villains, courtesans with hearts of gold, long-lost relatives and siblings separated by fate, dramatic reversals of fortune, and convenient coincidences, and even movies with tri polar changes that can turn a movie and its plot upside down.
Bollywood is becoming increasingly popular in other countries including several places in Europe and the U.S. Some Bollywood actors have adapted to more Hollywood-type films in movies like Bend It Like Beckham and Bride and Prejudice. Bollywood's fame is increasing internationally as more and more people across the globe are exposed to its style.
Besides the regular masala film, India has also produced many critically acclaimed cinema-makers like Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Girish Kasaravalli, Ram Gopal Varma, Mani Ratnam, G. Aravindan etc. (See Indian film directors). In fact, with the opening up of the economy in the recent years & consequent exposure to world cinema, audience tastes have been changing. Indian commercial movies have also started following authentic, real world themes with a lower amount of melodrama & some do not even contain songs. In addition, multiplexes have mushroomed in most cities, changing the revenue patterns & allowing film makers greater liberty & scope for executing bold & innovative ideas which would not have been possible even a decade ago.
television:
Indian television started off in 1959 in New Delhi with tests for educational telecasts.[2] Indian small screen programming started off in the early 1980s. At that time there was only one national channel Doordarshan, which was government owned. The Ramayana and Mahabharat were some among the popular television series produced. By the late 1980s more and more people started to own television sets. Though there was a single channel, television programming had reached saturation. Hence the government opened up another channel which had part national programming and part regional. This channel was known as DD 2 later DD Metro. Both channels were broadcasted terrestrially.
In 1994, the government liberated its markets, opening them up to cable television. Since then, there has been a spurt in the number of channels available. Today, Indian silver screen is a huge industry by itself, and has thousands of programmes in all the states of India. The small screen has produced numerous celebrities of their own kind some even attaining national fame. TV soaps are extremely popular with housewives as well as working women, and even men of all kinds. Some small time actors have made it big in Bollywood. Indian TV has evolved to be similar to Western TV, including stations such as Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, and MTV India.
radio:
Radio broadcasting began in India in 1927, with two privately owned transmitters at Mumbai and Calcutta. These were nationalised in 1930 and operated under the name "Indian Broadcasting Service" until 1936, when it was renamed All India Radio (AIR). Although officially renamed again to Akashwani in 1957, it is still popularly known as All India Radio. All India Radio is a division of Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India), an autonomous corporation of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India. It is the sister service of Prasar Bharati's Doordarshan, the national television broadcaster.
PHILOSOPHY
Indian philosophy throughout the ages has had a tremendous impact on world thought, especially in the east. Various theistic schools of philosophy, such as the many schools of Buddhism and Hinduism, have has huge influences, but also, India produced some of the longest and most influential secular traditions of logic, rationalism, science, mathematics, materialism, atheism, agnosticism, etc, which are often overlooked due to popular conception that India is a 'mystical' country.
Many of the complex scientific and mathematical concepts such as the idea of zero, found their way to Europe via Arab intermediaries. The most famous school of Indian atheism, is Carvaka, considered by some to be the oldest materialistic school of thought in the world, composed around the same time as the Hindu Upanishads, as well as the philosophy of Buddhism and Jainism. This period around 600-400 BCE marked a huge leap in both Indian philosophy and world philosophy in general, with contemporary Greek schools emerging simultaneously. Some philosophical concepts from India were introduced to the Greeks, especially during the campaigns of Alexander the Great, and vis a vis, leading some schools of classical Greek philosophy to be almost identical to prior Indian schools.
In addition to the unbroken high emphasis placed on philosophy in India, which has existed since ancient times, modern India has produced some of the world's most influential philosophers of modern times, who have written both in their native languages, and often English. During the British occupation of India, various thinkers, both secular and religious, achieved a new level of recognition across the world as both ancient Indian texts, and the work of contemporary Indian philosophers was translated into English, German and other languages. Swami Vivekananda travelled to America and participated in the 1893 World Parliament of Religions, impressing delegates with a groundbreaking speech that for the first time gave access to eastern, Indian, Hindu and dharmic philosophy to western intellectuals.
As well as various religious thinkers Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore and other members of the Indian freedom movement, generated political philosophy, and formed the basis of modern Indian democracy, secularism and liberalism. Today, economists such as Amartya Sen, who won Asia's first Nobel Prize in economics, continue to give India a reputation as an important contributor to world thought.
RELIGION
The Dharmic religions, one of the two main families of world religion (the other being the Abrahamic), originated in India. Every dharmic religion originated in India, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Jainism and other schools of language. Today, Hinduism and Buddhism are the world's third and fourth largest religions respectively, with a collective 1.4 billion followers, despite being free of any evangelistic traditions. Unlike the sectarianism that has often marked differences among the Abrahamic schools, the philosophical-like treatment of these religions has generally made the idea of rivalry and conversion alien, leading to extremely close relationships between these faiths.
India is one of the most religiously diverse nations in the world, with one of the most deeply religious societies and cultures. Religion plays a central and definitive role in the life of the country and most of its people. The religion of more than 80.4% of the people is Hinduism, considered the world's oldest religious and philosophical system.
Islam is practiced by around 13.4% of all Indians.[3] Sikhism,Buddhism and Jainism are systems that are strong and influential not only in India but across the world. Christianity, Zoroastrianism, Judaism and the Bahá'í Faith are also influential but their numbers are smaller. Despite the strong role of religion in Indian life, atheism and agnostics are also visible influences.