Coordinates	55°45′06″N37°37′04″N
Name	Arabic
Nativename	''''
Pronunciation
Imagecaption	in written Arabic (Naskh script)
Region	Primarily in the Arab states of the Middle East and North Africa;liturgical language of Islam.
Speakers	More than 280 million native speakers
Familycolor	Afro-Asiatic
Fam2	Semitic
Fam3	Central Semitic
Stand1	Modern Standard Arabic
Dia1	Western (Maghrebi)
Dia2	Central (incl. Egyptian)
Dia3	Northern (incl. Levantine, Iraqi)
Dia4	Southern (incl. Gulf, Hejazi, Yemeni)
Script	Arabic alphabet, Syriac alphabet (Garshuni)
Nation	Official language of 26 states, the third most after English and French
Agency	: Supreme Council of the Arabic language in Algeria : Academy of the Arabic Language in Cairo : Iraqi Academy of Sciences : Jordan Academy of Arabic : Academy of the Arabic Language in Jamahiriya : Academy of the Arabic Language in Rabat : Academy of the Arabic Language in Mogadishu : Academy of the Arabic Language in Khartoum : Arab Academy of Damascus (the oldest) : Beit Al-Hikma Foundation : Academy of the Arabic Language in Israel
Iso1	ar
Iso2	ara
Lc1	ara |ld1Arabic (generic)''(see varieties of Arabic for the individual codes)''
Ll1	none
Map	Arabic Language.PNG
Mapcaption	Distribution of Arabic as an official language in the Arab World. Majority Arabic speakers (blue) and minority Arabic speakers (green).
Notice	IPA}}

Arabic ( '''' or '''' ) is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book. This includes both the literary language (Modern Standard Arabic or ''Literary Arabic'', used in most written documents as well as in formal spoken occasions, such as lectures and radio broadcasts) and the spoken Arabic varieties, spoken in a wide arc of territory stretching across the Middle East and North Africa. Arabic is a Central Semitic language, closely related to Hebrew and the Neo-Aramaic languages, and also related to the South Semitic languages (e.g. Amharic in Ethiopia, Tigrinya in Ethiopia and Eritrea, and Mehri in Yemen and Oman) and the extinct East Semitic languages (e.g. Akkadian, first attested nearly 5,000 years ago). The written language is distinct from and more conservative than all of the spoken varieties, and the two exist in a state known as diglossia, used side-by-side for different societal functions.

Many of the spoken varieties are mutually unintelligible, and the varieties as a whole constitute a macrolanguage. This means that on purely linguistic grounds they would likely be considered to constitute more than one language, but are commonly grouped together as a single language for political and/or ethnic reasons. If considered multiple languages, it is unclear how many languages there would be, as the spoken varieties form a dialect chain with no clear boundaries. If Arabic is considered a single language, it counts more than 200 million first language speakers (according to some estimates, as high as 280 million), more than that of any other Semitic language. If considered separate languages, the most-spoken variety would likely be Egyptian Arabic, with more than 50,000,000 native speakers — still greater than any other Semitic language.

The modern written language (Modern Standard Arabic) is derived from the language of the Quran (known as Classical Arabic or Quranic Arabic). It is widely taught in schools, universities, and used to varying degrees in workplaces, government and the media. The two formal varieties are grouped together as ''Literary Arabic'', which is the official language of 26 states and the liturgical language of Islam. Modern Standard Arabic largely follows the grammatical standards of Quranic Arabic and uses much of the same vocabulary. However, it has discarded some grammatical constructions and vocabulary that no longer have any counterpoint in the spoken varieties, and adopted certain new constructions and vocabulary from the spoken varieties. Much of the new vocabulary is used to denote concepts that have arisen in the post-Quranic era, especially in modern times.

Arabic is the only surviving member of the Old North Arabian dialect group, attested in Pre-Islamic Arabic inscriptions dating back to the 4th century. Arabic is written with the Arabic alphabet, which is an abjad script, and is written from right-to-left.

Arabic has lent many words to other languages of the Islamic world, like Malay, Turkish, Urdu, Hausa, Hindi and Persian. During the Middle Ages, Literary Arabic was a major vehicle of culture in Europe, especially in science, mathematics and philosophy. As a result, many European languages have also borrowed many words from it. Arabic influence is seen in Mediterranean languages, particularly Spanish, Portuguese, and Sicilian, owing to both the proximity of European and Arab civilizations and 700 years of Arab rule in some parts of the Iberian peninsula (see Al-Andalus).

Arabic has also borrowed words from many languages, including Hebrew, Greek, Persian and Syriac in early centuries, Turkish in medieval times and contemporary European languages in modern times. However, the current tendency is to coin new words using the existing lexical resources of the language, or to repurpose old words, rather than directly borrowing foreign words.

Classical, Modern Standard, and spoken Arabic

''Arabic'' usually designates one of three main variants: Classical Arabic; Modern Standard Arabic; ''colloquial'' or ''dialectal'' Arabic.

Classical Arabic is the language found in the Qur'an and used from the period of Pre-Islamic Arabia to that of the Abbasid Caliphate. Theoretically, Classical Arabic is considered normative, according to the syntactic and grammatical norms laid down by classical grammarians (such as Sibawayh), and the vocabulary defined in classical dictionaries (such as the ). In practice, however, modern authors almost never write in pure Classical Arabic, instead using a literary language with its own grammatical norms and vocabulary, commonly known as Modern Standard Arabic. This is the variety used in most current, printed Arabic publications, spoken by some of the Arabic media across North Africa and the Middle East, and understood by most educated Arabic speakers. "Literary Arabic" and "Standard Arabic" ( '''') are less strictly defined terms that may refer to Modern Standard Arabic or Classical Arabic.

Some of the differences between Classical Arabic (CA) and Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) are as follows:

Certain grammatical constructions of CA that have no counterpoint in any modern dialect (e.g. the energetic mood) are almost never used in MSA.

No modern spoken variety of Arabic has case distinctions. As a result, MSA is generally composed without case distinctions in mind, and the proper cases added after the fact, when necessary. (Because most case endings are noted using final short vowels, which are normally left unwritten in the Arabic script, it is unnecessary to determine the proper case of most words.) The practical result of this is that MSA is written in a strongly determined word order, and alternative orders that were used in CA for emphasis are rare. In addition, because of the lack of case marking in the spoken varieties, most speakers are not able to consistently use the correct endings in extemporaneous speech. As a result, spoken MSA tends to drop or regularize the endings except when reading from a prepared text.

In CA, the verb normally precedes the subject (VSO order); when the subject is fronted (SVO order), it is usually accompanied by the focusing particle ''''. MSA, following the spoken varieties, tends towards SVO order, and rarely uses ''''.

The numeral system in CA is extremely complex (rivaling that of the Russian language) and heavily tied in with the case system. This system is never used in MSA, even in the most formal of circumstances; instead, a significantly simplified system is used, approximating the system of the conservative spoken varieties.

MSA uses much Classical vocabulary (e.g. '''' "to go") that is not present in the spoken varieties. However, when multiple Classical synonyms are available, MSA tends to prefer words with cognates in the spoken varieties over words without cognates. In addition, MSA has borrowed or coined a large number of terms for concepts that did not exist in Quranic times (and in fact continues to evolve). Some words have been borrowed from other languages, notice that transliteration mainly indicates spelling not real pronunciation (e.g. '''' "film" or '''' "democracy"). However, the current preference is to avoid direct borrowings, preferring to either use loan translations (e.g. '''' "branch", also used for the branch of a company or organization; '''' "wing", also used for the wing of an airplane, building, air force, etc.) or to coin new words using existing lexical resources (e.g. '''' "corporation", '''' "socialism", both ultimately based on the verb '''' "to share, partner with"; '''' "university", based on '''' "to gather, unite"; '''' "republic", based on '''' "multitude"). An earlier tendency was to re-purpose older words that had fallen into disuse (e.g. '''' "telephone" < "invisible caller (in Sufism)"; '''' "newspaper" < "palm-leaf stalk").

''Colloquial'' or ''dialectal'' Arabic refers to the many national or regional varieties which constitute the everyday spoken language. Colloquial Arabic has many different regional variants; these sometimes differ enough to be mutually unintelligible and some linguists consider them distinct languages. The varieties are typically unwritten. They are often used in informal spoken media, such as soap operas and talk shows, as well as occasionally in certain forms of written media, such as poetry and printed advertising. The only variety of modern Arabic to have acquired official language status is Maltese, spoken in (predominately Roman Catholic) Malta and written with the Latin script. It is descended from Classical Arabic through Siculo-Arabic and is not mutually intelligible with other varieties of Arabic. Most linguists list it as a separate language rather than as a dialect of Arabic. Historically, Algerian Arabic was taught in French Algeria under the name ''darija''.

Note that even during Muhammad's lifetime, there were dialects of spoken Arabic. Muhammad spoke in the dialect of Mecca, in the western Arabian peninsula, and it was in this dialect that the Quran was written down. However, the dialects of the eastern Arabian peninsula were considered the most prestigious at the time, and so the language of the Quran was ultimately converted to follow the eastern phonology. It is this phonology that underlies the modern pronunciation of Classical Arabic. The phonological differences between these two dialects account for some of the complexities of Arabic writing, most notably the writing of the glottal stop or ''hamza'' (which was preserved in the eastern dialects but lost in western speech) and the use of '''' (representing a sound preserved in the western dialects but merged with '''' in eastern speech).

Language and dialect

The sociolinguistic situation of Arabic in modern times provides a prime example of the linguistic phenomenon of diglossia, which is the normal use of two separate varieties of the same language, usually in different social situations. In the case of Arabic, educated Arabs of any nationality can be assumed to speak both their local dialect and their school-taught Standard Arabic. When educated Arabs of different dialects engage in conversation (for example, a Moroccan speaking with a Lebanese), many speakers code-switch back and forth between the dialectal and standard varieties of the language, sometimes even within the same sentence. Arabic speakers often improve their familiarity with other dialects via music or film.

The issue of whether Arabic is one language or many languages is politically charged, similar to the issue with Chinese, Hindi and Urdu, Serbian and Croatian, etc. The issue of diglossia between spoken and written language is a significant complicating factor: A single written form, significantly different from any of the spoken varieties learned natively, unites a number of sometimes divergent spoken forms. For political reasons, Arabs mostly assert that they all speak a single language, despite significant issues of mutual incomprehensibility among differing spoken versions.

From a linguistic standpoint, it is often said that the various spoken varieties of Arabic differ among each other collectively about as much as the Romance languages. This is an apt comparison in a number of ways. The period of divergence from a single spoken form is similar—perhaps 1500 years for Arabic, 2000 years for the Romance languages. Also, a linguistically innovative variety such as Moroccan Arabic is essentially incomprehensible to all non-Moroccans other than Algerians and Tunisians, much as French is incomprehensible to Spanish or Italian speakers. However, there is some mutual comprehensibility between conservative varieties of Arabic even across significant geographical distances. This suggests that the spoken varieties, at least, should linguistically be considered separate languages.

On the other hand, a significant difference between Arabic and the Romance languages is that the latter also correspond to a number of different standard written varieties, each of which separately informs the related spoken varieties, while all spoken Arabic varieties share a single written language. Indeed, a similar situation exists with the Romance languages in the case of Italian. As spoken varieties, Milanese, Neapolitan and Sicilian (among others) are different enough to be largely mutually incomprehensible, yet since they share a single written form (Standard Italian), they are often said by Italians to be dialects of the same language. As in many similar cases, the extent to which the Italian varieties are locally considered dialects or separate languages depends to a large extent on political factors, which can change over time. Linguists are divided over whether and to what extent to incorporate such considerations when judging issues of language and dialect.

Influence of Arabic on other languages

The influence of Arabic has been most important in Islamic countries. Arabic is an important source of vocabulary for languages such as Baluchi, Bengali, Berber, Catalan, English, French, German, Gujarati, Hindustani, Italian, Indonesian, Kurdish, Malay, Malayali, Maltese, Pashto, Persian, Portuguese, Punjabi, Rohingya, Saraiki, Sindhi, Somali, Spanish, Swahili, Tagalog, Tamil, Turkish and Urdu as well as other languages in countries where these languages are spoken. For example, the Arabic word for ''book'' ( '''') has been borrowed in all the languages listed, with the exception of French, Spanish, Italian, Catalan and Portuguese which use the Latin-derived words "livre", "libro", "llibre" and "livro", respectively, German and English which use the Germanic "Buch" and "Book", Tagalog which uses "aklat", Hebrew which uses "sefer", Gujarati which uses "chopdi", Marathi which uses "pustak" and Bengali which uses "boi".

In addition, English has many Arabic loan words, some directly but most through the medium of other Mediterranean languages. Examples of such words include admiral, adobe, alchemy, alcohol, algebra, algorithm, alkaline, almanac, amber, arsenal, assassin, banana, candy, carat, cipher, coffee, cotton, hazard, jar, jasmine, lemon, loofah, magazine, mattress, sherbet, sofa, sugar, sumac, tariff and many other words. Other languages such as Maltese and Kinubi derive from Arabic, rather than merely borrowing vocabulary or grammar rules.

The terms borrowed range from religious terminology (like Berber "prayer" < salat) ( ''''), academic terms (like Uyghur ''mentiq'' "logic"), economic items (like English ''sugar'') to placeholders (like Spanish ''fulano'' "so-and-so") and everyday conjunctions (like Hindustani ''lekin'' "but", or Spanish ''hasta'' "until"). Most Berber varieties (such as Kabyle), along with Swahili, borrow some numbers from Arabic. Most Islamic religious terms are direct borrowings from Arabic, such as ''salat'' 'prayer' and ''imam'' 'prayer leader.' In languages not directly in contact with the Arab world, Arabic loanwords are often transferred indirectly via other languages rather than being transferred directly from Arabic.

For example, most Arabic loanwords in Hindustani entered through Persian, and many older Arabic loanwords in Hausa were borrowed from Kanuri. Some words in English and other European languages are derived from Arabic, often through other European languages, especially Spanish and Italian. Among them are commonly used words like "sugar" (''sukkar''), "cotton" ('''') and "magazine" (''''). English words more recognizably of Arabic origin include "algebra", "alcohol", "alchemy", "alkali", "zenith" and "nadir". Some words in common use, such as "intention" and "information", were originally calques of Arabic philosophical terms.

Arabic words also made their way into several West African languages as Islam spread across the Sahara. Variants of Arabic words such as ''kitaab'' (book) have spread to the languages of African groups who had no direct contact with Arab traders.

Arabic was influenced by other languages as well. The most important sources of borrowings into (pre-Islamic) Arabic are from the related (Semitic) languages Aramaic, which used to be the principal, international language of communication throughout the ancient Near and Middle East, Ethiopic, and to a lesser degree Hebrew (mainly religious concepts). In addition, a substantial number of cultural, religious and political terms that have entered Arabic was borrowed from Iranian, notably Middle Persian or Parthian, and to a lesser extent, (Classical) Persian.

As Arabic occupied a position similar to Latin (in Europe) throughout the Islamic world many of the Arabic concepts in the field of science, philosophy, commerce etc., were often coined by non-native Arabic speakers, notably by Aramaic and Persian translators. This process of using Arabic roots, notably in Turkish and Persian, to translate foreign concepts continued right until the 18th and 19th century, when large swaths of Arab-inhabited lands were under Ottoman rule.

Arabic and Islam

Classical Arabic is the language of the Qur'an. Arabic is closely associated with the religion of Islam because the Quran is written in the language, but it is nevertheless also spoken by Arab Christians, Mizrahi Jews and Iraqi Mandaeans. Most of the world's Muslims do not speak Arabic as their native language but many can read the Quranic script and recite the Qur'an. Among Non-Arab Muslims, translations of the Qur'an are most often accompanied by the original text.

Some Muslims present a monogenesis of languages and claim that the Arabic language was the language revealed by God for the benefit of mankind and the original language as a prototype symbolic system of communication, based upon its system of triconsonantal roots, spoken by man from which all other languages were derived, having first been corrupted. Statements spread in later centuries regarding the Arabic language being the language of Paradise are not considered authentic according to the scholars of Hadith and are widely discredited.

History

The earliest surviving texts in Proto-Arabic, or Ancient North Arabian, are the Hasaean inscriptions of eastern Saudi Arabia, from the 8th century BC, written not in the modern Arabic alphabet, nor in its Nabataean ancestor, but in variants of the epigraphic South Arabian ''musnad''. These are followed by 6th-century BC Lihyanite texts from southeastern Saudi Arabia and the Thamudic texts found throughout Arabia and the Sinai, and not actually connected with Thamud. Later come the Safaitic inscriptions beginning in the 1st century BC, and the many Arabic personal names attested in Nabataean inscriptions (which are, however, written in Aramaic). From about the 2nd century BC, a few inscriptions from Qaryat al-Fāw (near Sulayyil) reveal a dialect which is no longer considered "Proto-Arabic", but Pre-Classical Arabic. By the fourth century AD, the Arab kingdoms of the Lakhmids in southern Iraq, the Ghassanids in southern Syria the Kindite Kingdom emerged in Central Arabia. Their courts were responsible for some notable examples of pre-Islamic Arabic poetry, and for some of the few surviving pre-Islamic Arabic inscriptions in the Arabic script.

Dialects and descendants

''Colloquial Arabic'' is a collective term for the spoken varieties of Arabic used throughout the Arab world, which differ radically from the literary language. The main dialectal division is between the varieties within and outside of the Arabian peninsula, followed by that between sedentary varieties and the much more conservative Bedouin varieties. All of the varieties outside of the Arabian peninsula (which include the large majority of speakers) have a large number of features in common with each other that are not found in Classical Arabic. This has led researchers to postulate the existence of a prestige koine dialect in the one or two centuries immediately following the Arab conquest, whose features eventually spread to all of the newly conquered areas. (These features are present to varying degrees inside the Arabian peninsula. Generally, the Arabian peninsula varieties have much more diversity than the non-peninsula varieties, but have been understudied.)

Within the non-peninsula varieties, the largest difference is between the non-Egyptian North African dialects (especially Moroccan Arabic) and the others. Moroccan Arabic in particular is nearly incomprehensible to Arabic speakers east of Algeria (although the converse is not true, in part due to the popularity of Egyptian films and other media).

One factor in the differentiation of the dialects is influence from the languages previously spoken in the areas, which have typically provided a significant number of new words, and have sometimes also influenced pronunciation or word order; however, a much more significant factor for most dialects is, as among Romance languages, retention (or change of meaning) of different classical forms. Thus Iraqi ''aku'', Levantine ''fīh'', and North African ''kayən'' all mean "there is", and all come from Classical Arabic forms (''yakūn'', ''fīhi'', ''kā'in'' respectively), but now sound very different.

Examples

{| class=wikitable ! Variety ! I love reading a lot ! When I went to the library ! I only found this old book ! I wanted to read a book about the history of women in France. |- ! Classical Arabic (liturgical or poetic only) | '''' | '''' | '''' | '''' |- ! Modern Standard Arabic | '''' | '''' | '''' | '''' |- ! Moroccan | | | | |- ! Tunisian | | | | |- ! Egyptian | | | | |- ! Lebanese | | | | |- ! Iraqi | | | | |- ! Saudi | | | | |- ! Kuwaiti | | | | |}

Koine

According to Charles Ferguson, the following are some of the characteristic features of the koine that underlies all of the modern dialects outside the Arabian peninsula. Although many other features are common to most or all of these varieties (see varieties of Arabic), Ferguson believes that these features in particular are unlikely to have evolved independently more than once or twice, and together suggest the existence of the koine:

Loss of the dual (grammatical number) except on nouns, with consistent plural agreement (cf. feminine singular agreement in plural inanimates).

Change of ''a'' to ''i'' in many affixes (e.g. non-past-tense prefixes ''ti- yi- ni-''; ''wi-'' "and"; ''il-'' "the"; feminine ''-it'' in the construct state).

Loss of third-weak verbs ending in ''w'' (which merge with verbs ending in ''y'').

Reformation of geminate verbs, e.g. ''ḥalaltu'' "I untied" → ''ḥalēt(u)''.

Conversion of separate words ''lī'' "to me", ''laka'' "to you", etc. into indirect-object clitic suffixes.

Certain changes in the cardinal number system, e.g. ''ḫamsat ʾayyām'' →''ḫams tiyyām'', where certain words have a special plural with prefixed ''t''. Also, unexpected emphatic ''ṭ'' in the numbers 13-19 (e.g. ''ḫamṣṭaʿšar'' "fifteen" < ''ḫamsat ʿašar'').

Loss of the feminine elative (comparative).

Adjective plurals of the form ''kibār'' "big" → ''kubār''.

Change of nisba suffix ''-iyy'' → ''i''.

Certain lexical items, e.g. ''ǧāb'' "bring" < ''ǧāʾ bi-'' "come with"; ''šāf'' "see"; ''ʾēš'' "what" (or similar); ''illi'' "(relative pronoun)".

Merger of and .

Dialect groups

The major dialect groups are:

Egyptian Arabic

Egyptian Arabic, spoken by around 80 million in Egypt. It is one of the most understood varieties of Arabic, due in large part to the widespread distribution of Egyptian films and television shows throughout the Arabic speaking world. Closely related varieties are also spoken in Sudan.

Maghrebi Arabic

Maghrebi Arabic includes Moroccan Arabic, Algerian Arabic, Saharan Arabic, Tunisian Arabic, and Libyan Arabic, and is spoken by around 75 million North Africans in Morocco, ''Western Sahara'', Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Niger, and western Egypt; it is often difficult for speakers of Middle Eastern Arabic varieties to understand. The Berber influence in these dialects varies in degree.

Mesopotamian Arabic

Iraqi Arabic, spoken by about 29 million people in Iraq, eastern Syria and western Iran (Khuzestan).

North Mesopotamian Arabic, spoken by around 7 million people in northern Iraq, northern Syria, northwestern Iran and southern Turkey.

Levantine Arabic

Levantine Arabic includes North Levantine Arabic, South Levantine Arabic, and Cypriot Arabic. It is spoken by almost 35 million people in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, the Palestinian territories, Israel, Cyprus, and Turkey.

Gulf Arabic

Gulf Arabic, spoken by around 4 million people predominantly in the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Bahrain. Also spoken in Iran's Bushehr and Hormozgan provinces.

Other

Other varieties include:

Yemeni Arabic, spoken in Yemen, southern Saudi Arabia, Djibouti, and Somalia.

Sudanese Arabic (19 million speakers), spoken in Sudan

Najdi Arabic (9.9 million speakers), spoken in Nejd, central Saudi Arabia

Hejazi Arabic (7 million speakers), spoken in Hejaz, western Saudi Arabia.

Hassaniya Arabic (2.8 million speakers), spoken in Mauritania, some parts of Mali and ''Western Sahara''

Bahrani Arabic (310,000 speakers), spoken by Bahrani Shia in Bahrain, where it exhibits some differences from Bahraini Arabic. It is also spoken to a lesser extent in Oman.

Judeo-Arabic dialects

Central Asian Arabic, spoken in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan, is highly endangered

Maltese, spoken on the Mediterranean island of Malta, is the only one to have established itself as a fully separate language, with independent literary norms. In the course of its history the language has adopted numerous loanwords, phonetic and phonological features, and even some grammatical patterns, from Italian, Sicilian, and English. It is also the only Semitic tongue written in the Latin script.

Andalusi Arabic, spoken in Spain until 15th century, now extinct.

Siculo Arabic, spoken on Sicily, South Italy until 14th century, developed into Maltese language.

The Muslim Hui people in China had knowledge of archaic forms of Arabic. The Hui of Yunnan (Burmaese called them Panthays) were reported to be fluent in Arabic. During the Panthay Rebellion, Arabic replaced Chinese as official language of the rebel kingdom. In 1844 "The Chinese repository, Volume 13" was published, including an account of an Englishman who stayed in Ningbo in China. There he visited the local mosque, the Hui running the mosque was from Shandong, and he was a descendant of Muslims from the city of Medina. He spoke both Arabic and Chinese, and could read Arabic as well. In Tianjin, Hui could speak an old, archaic form of Arabic, when they met Arab Muslims in recent times, it was found out that Old Arabic and Modern Arabic were very different, so Modern Arabic is now being taught to Hui.

Sounds

It is important to distinguish between the pronunciation of the "formal" Literary Arabic (usually specifically Modern Standard Arabic) and the "colloquial" spoken varieties of Arabic. The two types of Arabic, but significantly different. The "colloquial" varieties are learned at home and constitute the native languages of Arabic speakers. The literary variety is learned at school; although many speakers have a native-like command of the language, it is technically not the native language of any speakers. Both varieties can be both written and spoken, although the colloquial varieties are rarely written down, and the formal variety is spoken mostly in formal circumstances, e.g. in radio broadcasts, formal lectures, parliamentary discussions, and to some extent between speakers of different colloquial varieties. Even when the literary language is spoken, however, it is normal only spoken in its pure form when reading a prepared text out loud. When speaking extemporaneously (i.e. making up the language on the spot, as in a normal discussion among people), speakers tend to deviate somewhat from the strict literary language in the direction of the colloquial varieties. In fact, there is a continuous range of "in-between" spoken varieties: from nearly pure Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), to a form that still uses MSA grammar and vocabulary but with significant colloquial influence, to a form of the colloquial language that imports a number of words and grammatical constructions in MSA, to a form that is close to pure colloquial but with the "rough edges" (the most noticeably "vulgar" or non-Classical aspects) smoothed out, to pure colloquial. The particular variant (or ''register'') used depends on the social class and education level of the speakers involved, and the level of formality of the speech situation. Often it will vary within a single encounter, e.g. moving from nearly pure MSA to a more mixed language in the process of a radio interview, as the interviewee becomes more comfortable with the interviewer. This type of variation is characteristic of the diglossia that exists throughout the Arabic-speaking world.

Literary Arabic

Although Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) is a unitary language, its pronunciation varies somewhat from country to country and from region to region within a country. The variation in individual "accents" of MSA speakers tend to mirror corresponding variations in the colloquial speech of the speakers in question, but with the distinguishing characteristics moderated somewhat. Note that it is important in descriptions of "Arabic" phonology to distinguish between pronunciation of a given colloquial (spoken) dialect and the pronunciation of MSA by these same speakers. Although they are related, they are not the same. For example, the phoneme that derives from Proto-Semitic /g/ has many different pronunciations in the modern spoken varieties, e.g. . Speakers whose native variety has either or will use the same pronunciation when speaking MSA, even speakers from Cairo, whose native Egyptian Arabic has , normally use when speaking MSA. of Persian Gulf is the only pronunciation which isn't pronounced in MSA, but instead .

Another example: Many colloquial varieties are known for a type of vowel harmony in which the presence of an "emphatic consonant" triggers backed allophones of nearby vowels (especially of the low vowels , which are backed to in these circumstances, and very often fronted to in all other circumstances). In many spoken varieties, the backed or "emphatic" vowel allophones spread a fair distance in both directions from the triggering consonant; in some varieties (most notably Egyptian Arabic), the "emphatic" allophones spread throughout the entire word, usually including prefixes and suffixes, even at a remove of several syllables from the triggering consonant. Speakers of colloquial varieties with this vowel harmony tend to introduce it into their MSA pronunciation as well, but usually with a lesser degree of spreading than in the colloquial varieties. (For example, speakers of colloquial varieties with extremely long-distance harmony may allow a moderate, but not extreme, amount of spreading of the harmonic allophones in their MSA speech, while speakers of colloquial varieties with moderate-distance harmony may only harmonize immediately adjacent vowels in MSA.)

Vowels

Modern Standard Arabic has six pure vowels, with short and corresponding long vowels . There are also two diphthongs: and .

As mentioned above, the pronunciation of the vowels differs from speaker to speaker, in way that tend to echo the pronunciation of the corresponding colloquial variety. Nonetheless, there are some common trends. Most noticeable is the differing pronunciation of and , which tend towards fronted , or in most situations, but a back in the neighborhood of emphatic consonants. (Some accents and dialects, such as those of Hijaz, have central in all situations.) The vowels and are often affected somewhat in emphatic neighborhoods as well, with generally more back and/or centralized allophones, but the differences are less great than for the low vowels. The pronunciation of short and tends towards and in many dialects.

The definition of both "emphatic" and "neighborhood" vary in ways that echo (to some extent) corresponding variations in the spoken dialects. Generally, the consonants triggering "emphatic" allophones are the pharyngealized consonants ; ; and , if not followed immediately by . Frequently, the fricatives also trigger emphatic allophones; occasionally also the pharyngeal consonants (the former more than the latter). Many dialects have multiple emphatic allophones of each vowel, depending on the particular nearby consonants. In most MSA accents, emphatic coloring of vowels is limited to vowels immediately adjacent to a triggering consonant, although in some it spreads a bit farther: e.g. '''' "time"; '''' "homeland"; '''' "downtown" (sometimes or similar).

In a non-emphatic environment, the vowel /a/ in the diphthong tends to be fronted even more than elsewhere, often pronounced or : hence '''' "sword" but '''' "summer"). However, in accents with no emphatic allophones of /a/ (e.g. in the Hijaz), the pronunciation occurs in all situations.

Consonants

+ Standardized Arabic consonant phonemes

! rowspan="2"

! colspan="2"

! rowspan="2"

! rowspan="2"

! rowspan="2"

! rowspan="2"

! rowspan="2"

! plain

emphatic">Dental consonant

! rowspan="2"

! rowspan="2"

! rowspan="2"

! rowspan="2"

! rowspan="2"

! rowspan="2"

! plain

emphatic

emphatic consonant>emphatic

! plain

! colspan=2

! rowspan=2

! voiceless

voice (phonetics)>voiced

3

! rowspan=2

! voiceless

4

voice (phonetics)>voiced

! colspan=2

2

! colspan=2

NOTE: The underlined variants in the above table indicate the pronunciations considered "standard" according to descriptions in linguistic sources; the same pronunciations are normally taught to foreigners learning Literary Arabic. (The sources disagree about whether the sounds indicated above as ~ and ~ are more standardly or , or are unclear.)

See Arabic alphabet for explanations on the IPA phonetic symbols found in this chart.

# This phoneme is represented by the Arabic letter '''' () and has many standard pronunciations. is characteristic of Iraq and most of the Arabian peninsula; occurs in the Levant and North Africa; and is used in Egypt and some regions in Yemen and Oman. Generally this corresponds with the pronunciation in the colloquial dialects. In some regions in Sudan and Yemen, as well as in some Sudanese and Yemeni dialects, it may be either or , representing the original pronunciation of Classical Arabic. Foreign words containing may be transcribed with , , , , , or , mainly depending on the regional spoken variety of Arabic. Note also that in northern Egypt, where the Arabic letter '''' () is normally pronounced , a separate phoneme occurs in a small number of European loanwords, e.g. "jacket". # is pronounced in , the name of God, q.e. Allah, when the word follows ''a'', ''ā'', ''u'' or ''ū'' (after ''i'' or ''ī'' it is unvelarized: ''bismi l–lāh'' ). Some speakers velarize other occurrences of /l/ in MSA, in imitation of their spoken dialects. # The emphatic consonant was actually pronounced , or possibly — either way, a highly unusual sound. The medieval Arabs actually termed their language '''' "the language of the Ḍād" (the name of the letter used for this sound), since they thought the sound was unique to their language. (In fact, it also exists in a few other minority Semitic languages, e.g. Mehri.) # In many varieties, () are actually epiglottal (despite what is reported in many earlier works). # and () are often post-velar, though velar and uvular pronunciations are also possible. # () can be pronounced as or even . In some places of Maghreb it can be also pronounced as .

Arabic has consonants traditionally termed "emphatic" (), which exhibit simultaneous pharyngealization as well as varying degrees of velarization , so they may be written with the "Velarized or pharyngealized" diacritic () as: . This simultaneous articulation is described as "Retracted Tongue Root" by phonologists. In some transcription systems, emphasis is shown by capitalizing the letter, for example, is written ‹D›; in others the letter is underlined or has a dot below it, for example, ‹›.

Vowels and consonants can be phonologically short or long. Long (geminate) consonants are normally written doubled in Latin transcription (i.e. bb, dd, etc.), reflecting the presence of the Arabic diacritic mark '''', which indicates doubled consonants. In actual pronunciation, doubled consonants are held twice as long as short consonants. This consonant lengthening is phonemically contrastive: '''' "he accepted" vs. '''' "he kissed."

Syllable structure

Arabic has two kinds of syllables: open syllables (CV) and (CVV)—and closed syllables (CVC), (CVVC), and (CVCC). The syllable types with three morae (units of time), i.e. CVC and CVV, are termed ''heavy syllables'', while those with four morae, i.e. CVVC and CVCC, are ''superheavy syllables''. Superheavy syllables in Classical Arabic occur in only two places: at the end of the sentence (due to pausal pronunciation), and in words such as '''' "hot", '''' "stuff, substance", '''' "they disputed with each other", where a long '''' occurs before two identical consonants (a former short vowel between the consonants has been lost). (In less formal pronunciations of Modern Standard Arabic, superheavy syllables are common at the end of words or before clitic suffixes such as '''' "us, our", due to the deletion of final short vowels.)

In surface pronunciation, every vowel must be preceded by a consonant (which may include the glottal stop ). There are no cases of hiatus within a word (where two vowels occur next to each other, without an intervening consonant). Some words do underlyingly begin with a vowel, such as the definite article ''al-'' or words such as '''' "he bought", '''' "meeting". When actually pronounced, one of three things happens: If the word occurs after another word ending in a consonant, there is a smooth transition from final consonant to initial vowel, e.g. '''' "meeting" . If the word occurs after another word ending in a vowel, the initial vowel of the word is elided, e.g. '''' "house of the director" . If the word occurs at the beginning of an utterance, a glottal stop is added onto the beginning, e.g. '''' "The house is ..." .

Stress

Word stress is not phonemically contrastive in Standard Arabic. It bears a strong relationship to vowel length. The basic rules for Modern Standard Arabic are:

A final vowel, long or short, may not be stressed.

Only one of the last three syllables may be stressed.

Given this restriction, the last heavy syllable (containing a long vowel or ending in a consonant) is stressed.

If there is no such syllable, the first possible syllable (i.e. third from end) is stressed.

As a special exception, in Form VII and VIII verb forms stress may not be on the first syllable, despite the above rules: Hence '''' "he subscribed" (whether or not the final short vowel is pronounced), '''' "he subscribes" (whether or not the final short vowel is pronounced), '''' "he should subscribe (juss.)". Likewise Form VIII '''' "he bought", '''' "he buys".

Examples:'''' "book", '''' "writer", '''' "desk", '''' "desks", '''' "library" (but '''' "library" in short pronunciation), '''' (Modern Standard Arabic) "they wrote" = '''' (dialect), '''' (Modern Standard Arabic) "they wrote it" = '''' (dialect), '''' (Modern Standard Arabic) "they (dual, fem) wrote", '''' (Modern Standard Arabic) "I wrote" = '''' (short form or dialect). Doubled consonants count as two consonants: '''' "magazine", '''' "place".

These rules may result in differently-stressed syllables when final case endings are pronounced, vs. the normal situation where they are not pronounced, as in the above example of '''' "library" in full pronunciation, but '''' "library" in short pronunciation.

The restriction on final long vowels does not apply to the spoken dialects, where original final long vowels have been shortened and secondary final long vowels have arisen from loss of original final ''-hu/hi''.

Some dialects have different stress rules. In the Cairo (Egyptian Arabic) dialect a heavy syllable may not carry stress more than two syllables from the end of a word, hence '''' "school", '''' "Cairo". This also affects the way that Modern Standard Arabic is pronounced in Egypt. In the Arabic of Sana, stress is often retracted: '''' "two houses", '''' "their table", '''' "desks", '''' "sometimes", '''' "their school". (In this dialect, only syllables with long vowels or diphthongs are considered heavy; in a two-syllable word, the final syllable can be stressed only if the preceding syllable is light; and in longer words, the final syllable cannot be stressed.)

Levels of pronunciation

The final short vowels (e.g. the case endings ''-a -i -u'' and mood endings ''-u -a'') are often not pronounced, despite forming part of the formal paradigm of nouns and verbs. The following levels of pronunciation exist:

Full pronunciation

In full pronunciation, all endings are pronounced as written. This normally is used only in grammatical descriptions of the language.

Full pronunciation with pausa

This is the most formal level actually used in speech. All endings are pronounced as written, except at the end of an utterance, where the following changes occur:

Final short vowels are not pronounced. (But possibly an exception is made for feminine plural ''-na'', and shortened vowels in the jussive/imperative of defective verbs, e.g. ''irmi!'' "throw!".)

The entire indefinite noun endings ''-in -un'' (with nunation) are left off. The ending ''-an'' is left off of nouns preceded by a ''tāʾ marbūṭah'' ة (i.e. the ''-t'' in the ending ''-at-'' that typically marks feminine nouns), but pronounced as ''-ā'' in other nouns (hence its writing in this fashion in the Arabic script).

The ''tāʾ marbūṭah'' itself (typically of feminine nouns) is pronounced as ''h''. (At least, this is the case in extremely formal pronunciation, e.g. some Quranic recitations. In practice, this ''h'' is usually omitted.)

Formal short pronunciation

This is a formal level of pronunciation sometimes seen. It is somewhat like pronouncing all words as if they were in pausal position (with influence from the colloquial varieties). The following changes occur:

Most final short vowels are not pronounced. However, the following short vowels ''are'' pronounced:

*feminine plural ''-na''

*shortened vowels in the jussive/imperative of defective verbs, e.g. ''irmi!'' "throw!"

*second-person singular feminine past-tense ''-ti'', and likewise ''ʾanti'' "you (fem. sg.)"

*sometimes, first-person singular past-tense ''-tu''

*sometimes, second-person masculine past-tense ''-ta'', and likewise ''ʾanta'' "you (masc. sg.)"

*final ''-a'' in certain short words, e.g. ''laysa'' "is not", ''sawfa'' "(future-tense marker)"

The nunation endings ''-an -in -un'' are not pronounced. However, they ''are'' pronounced in adverbial accusative formations, e.g. '''' تقريباً "almost, approximately", '''' عادةً "usually". The ''tāʾ marbūṭah'' ending ة is unpronounced, ''except'' in construct state nouns, where it sounds as ''t'' (and in adverbial accusative constructions, e.g. '''' عادةً "usually", where the entire ''-tan'' is pronounced). The masculine singular nisba ending '''' is actually pronounced '''', and is unstressed (but plural and feminine singular forms, i.e. when followed by a suffix, still sound as ''''). ''Full endings'' (including case endings) occur when a clitic object or possessive suffix is added (e.g. '''' "us/our").

Informal short pronunciation

This is the pronunciation used by speakers of Modern Standard Arabic in extemporaneous speech, i.e. when producing new sentences rather than simply reading a prepared text. It is similar to formal short pronunciation except that the rules for dropping final vowels apply ''even'' when a clitic suffix is added. Basically, short-vowel case and mood endings are never pronounced, and certain other changes occur that echo the corresponding colloquial pronunciations. Specifically:

All the rules for formal short pronunciation apply, except as follows.

The past tense singular endings written formally as ''-tu -ta -ti'' are pronounced ''-t -t -ti''. But masculine '''' is pronounced in full. Unlike in formal short pronunciation, the rules for dropping or modifying final endings are also applied when a clitic object or possessive suffix is added (e.g. '''' "us/our"). If this produces a sequence of three consonants, then one of the following happens, depending on the speaker's native colloquial variety:

*A short vowel (e.g. ''-i-'' or ''-ǝ-'') is consistently added, either between the second and third or the first and second consonants.

*Or, a short vowel is added only if an otherwise unpronounceable sequence occurs, typically due to a violation of the sonority hierarchy (e.g. ''-rtn-'' is pronounced as a three-consonant cluster, but ''-trn-'' needs to be broken up).

*Or, a short vowel is never added, but consonants like ''r l m n'' occurring between two other consonants will be pronounced as a syllabic consonant (as in the English words "butter bottle bottom button").

*When a doubled consonant occurs before another consonant (or finally), it is often shortened to a single consonant rather than a vowel added. (But note that Moroccan Arabic never shortens doubled consonants or inserts short vowels to break up clusters, instead tolerating arbitrary-length series of arbitrary consonants, and hence Moroccan Arabic speakers are likely to follow the same rules in their pronunciation of Modern Standard Arabic.)

The clitic suffixes themselves tend also to be changed, in a way that avoids many possible occurrences of three-consonant clusters. In particular, ''-ka -ki -hu'' generally sound as ''-ak -ik -uh''.

Final long vowels are often shortened, merging with any short vowels that remain.

Depending on the level of formality, the speaker's education level, etc., various grammatical changes may occur in ways that echo the colloquial variants:

Any remaining case endings (e.g. masculine plural nominative ''-ūn'' vs. oblique ''-īn'') will be leveled, with the oblique form used everywhere. (However, in words like '''' "father" and '''' "brother" with special long-vowel case endings in the construct state, the nominative is used everywhere, hence '''' "father of", '''' "brother of".)

*Feminine plural endings in verbs and clitic suffixes will often drop out, with the masculine plural endings used instead. If the speaker's native variety has feminine plural endings, they may be preserved, but will often be modified in the direction of the forms used in the speaker's native variety, e.g. ''-an'' instead of ''-na''.

*Dual endings will often drop out except on nouns, and then used only for emphasis (similar to their use in the colloquial varieties); elsewhere, the plural endings are used (or feminine singular, if appropriate).

Colloquial varieties

: ''The section below only refers to pronunciation''

Vowels

As mentioned above, many spoken dialects have a process of ''emphasis spreading'', where the "emphasis" (pharyngealization) of emphatic consonants spreads forward and back through adjacent syllables, pharyngealizing all nearby consonants and triggering the back allophone in all nearby low vowels. The extent of emphasis spreading varies. For example, in Moroccan Arabic, it spreads as far as the first full vowel (i.e. sound derived from a long vowel or diphthong) on either side; in many Levantine dialects, it spreads indefinitely, but is blocked by any or ; while in Egyptian Arabic, it usually spreads throughout the entire word, including prefixes and suffixes. In Moroccan Arabic, also have emphatic allophones .

Unstressed short vowels, especially , are deleted in many contexts. Many sporadic examples of short vowel change have occurred (especially /a/→/i/, and interchange /i/↔/u/). Most Levantine dialects merge short /i u/ into /ǝ/ in most contexts (all except directly before a single final consonant). In Moroccan Arabic, on the other hand, short /u/ triggers labialization of nearby consonants (especially velar consonants and uvular consonants), and then short /a i u/ all merge into /ǝ/, which is deleted in many contexts. (The labialization plus /ǝ/ is sometimes interpreted as an underlying phoneme .) This essentially causes the wholesale loss of the short-long vowel distinction, with the original long vowels remaining as half-long , phonemically , which are used to represent ''both'' short and long vowels in borrowings from Literary Arabic.

Most spoken dialects have monophthongized original to (in all circumstances, including adjacent to emphatic consonants). In Moroccan Arabic, these have subsequently merged into original .

Consonants

In some dialects, there may be more or fewer phonemes than those listed in the chart above. For example, non-Arabic is used in the Maghrebi dialects as well in the written language mostly for foreign names. Semitic became extremely early on in Arabic before it was written down; a few modern Arabic dialects, such as Iraqi (influenced by Persian and Turkish) distinguish between and . The Iraqi Arabic uses also sounds , and uses Persian adding letters, e.g.: '''' – ''a plum''; '' – ''a truffle'' and so on.

Early in the expansion of Arabic, the separate emphatic phonemes and coalesced into a single phoneme . Many dialects (such as Egyptian, Levantine, and much of the Maghreb) subsequently lost fricatives, converting into . Most dialects borrow "learned" words from the Standard language using the same pronunciation as for inherited words, but some dialects without interdental fricatives (particularly in Egypt and the Levant) render original in borrowed words as .

Another key distinguishing mark of Arabic dialects is how they render the original velar and uvular stops , (Proto-Semitic ), and : retains its original pronunciation in widely scattered regions such as Yemen, Morocco, and urban areas of the Maghreb. It is pronounced as a glottal stop in several prestige dialects, such as those spoken in Cairo, Beirut and Damascus. But it is rendered as a voiced velar stop in Gulf Arabic, Iraqi Arabic, Upper Egypt, much of the Maghreb, and less urban parts of the Levant (e.g. Jordan). Some traditionally Christian villages in rural areas of the Levant render the sound as , as do Shia Bahrainis. In some Gulf dialects, it is palatalized to or . It is pronounced as a voiced uvular constrictive in Sudanese Arabic. Many dialects with a modified pronunciation for maintain the pronunciation in certain words (often with religious or educational overtones) borrowed from the Classical language. is pronounced as an affricate in Iraq and much of the Arabian Peninsula, but is pronounced in most of North Egypt and parts of Yemen and Oman, in Morocco, Tunisia and the Levant, and , in most words in much of Gulf Arabic. usually retains its original pronunciation, but is palatalized to in many words in Israel & the Palestinian Territories, Iraq and much of the Arabian Peninsula. Often a distinction is made between the suffixes (you, masc.) and (you, fem.), which become and , respectively. In Sana'a, Omani, and Bahrani is pronounced .

Pharyngealization of the emphatic consonants tends to weaken in many of the spoken varieties, and to spread from emphatic consonants to nearby sounds. In addition, the "emphatic" allophone automatically triggers pharyngealization of adjacent sounds in many dialects. As a result, it may difficult or impossible to determine whether a given coronal consonant is phonemically emphatic or not, especially in dialects with long-distance emphasis spreading. (A notable exception is the sounds vs. in Moroccan Arabic, because the former is pronounced as an affricate but the latter is not.)

Grammar

Literary Arabic

As in other Semitic languages, Arabic has a complex and unusual morphology (i.e. method of constructing words from a basic root). Arabic has a nonconcatenative "root-and-pattern" morphology: A root consists of a set of bare consonants (usually three), which are fitted into a discontinuous pattern in order to form words. For example, the word for "I wrote" is constructed by combining the root "write" with the pattern "I X'd" to form '''' "I wrote". Other verbs meaning "I X'd" will typically have the same pattern but with different consonants, e.g. '''' "I read", '''' "I ate", '''' "I went", although other patterns are possible (e.g. '''' "I drank", '''' "I said", '''' "I spoke", where the subpattern used to signal the past tense may change but the suffix '''' is always used).

From a single root , numerous words can be formed by applying different patterns: '''' "I wrote" '''' "I had (something) written" '''' "I corresponded (with someone)" '''' "I dictated" '''' "I subscribed" '''' "we corresponded with each other" '''' "I write" '''' "I have (something) written" '''' "I correspond (with someone)" '''' "I dictate" '''' "I subscribe" '''' "We correspond each other" '''' "it was written" '''' "it was dictated" '''' "written" '''' "dictated" '''' "book" '''' "books" '''' "writer" '''' "writers" '''' "desk, office" '''' "library"

etc.

Nouns and adjectives

Nouns in Literary Arabic have three grammatical cases (nominative, accusative, and genitive [also used when the noun is governed by a preposition]); three numbers (singular, dual and plural); two genders (masculine and feminine); and three "states" (indefinite, definite, and construct). The cases of singular nouns (other than those that end in long ā) are indicated by suffixed short vowels (/-u/ for nominative, /-a/ for accusative, /-i/ for genitive).

The feminine singular is often marked by /-at/, which is reduced to /-ah/ or /-a/ before a pause. Plural is indicated either through endings (the sound plural) or internal modification (the broken plural). Definite nouns include all proper nouns, all nouns in "construct state" and all nouns which are prefixed by the definite article /al-/. Indefinite singular nouns (other than those that end in long ā) add a final /-n/ to the case-marking vowels, giving /-un/, /-an/ or /-in/ (which is also referred to as nunation or tanwīn).

Adjectives in Literary Arabic are marked for case, number, gender and state, as for nouns. However, the plural of all non-human nouns is always combined with a singular feminine adjective, which takes the /-ah/ or /-at/ suffix.

Pronouns in Literary Arabic are marked for person, number and gender. There are two varieties, independent pronouns and enclitics. Enclitic pronouns are attached to the end of a verb, noun or preposition and indicate verbal and prepositional objects or possession of nouns. The first-person singular pronoun has a different enclitic form used for verbs (/-ni/) and for nouns or prepositions (/-ī/ after consonants, /-ya/ after vowels).

Nouns, verbs, pronouns and adjectives agree with each other in all respects. However, non-human plural nouns are grammatically considered to be feminine singular. Furthermore, a verb in a verb-initial sentence is marked as singular regardless of its semantic number when the subject of the verb is explicitly mentioned as a noun. Numerals between three and ten show "chiasmic" agreement, in that grammatically masculine numerals have feminine marking and vice versa.

Verbs

Verbs in Literary Arabic are marked for person (first, second, or third), gender, and number. They are conjugated in two major paradigms (past and non-past); two voices (active and passive); and five moods (indicative, imperative, subjunctive, jussive and energetic). There are also two participles (active and passive) and a verbal noun, but no infinitive.

The past and non-past paradigms are sometimes also termed perfective and imperfective, respectively, indicating the fact that they actually represent a combination of tense and aspect. The moods other than the indicative occur only in the non-past, and the future tense is signaled by prefixing '''' or '''' onto the non-past. The past and non-past differ in the form of the stem (e.g. past '''' vs. non-past ''''), and also use completely different sets of affixes for indicating person, number and gender: In the past, the person, number and gender are fused into a single suffixal morpheme, while in the non-past, a combination of prefixes (primarily encoding person) and suffixes (primarily encoding gender and number) are used. The passive voice uses the same person/number/gender affixes but changes the vowels of the stem.

The following shows a paradigm of a regular Arabic verb, '''' "to write". Note that in Modern Standard Arabic, many final short vowels are dropped (indicated in parentheses below), and the energetic mood (in either long or short form, which have the same meaning) is almost never used.

+ Paradigm of a regular Form I Arabic verb, '''' "to write"
			Past	PresentIndicative	FutureIndicative	Subjunctive	! align="center"	! align="center"	! align="center"	! align="center"
Active	Singular
	1st
	2nd	masculine
		feminine
	3rd	masculine
		feminine
	Dual
	2nd	masculine & feminine
	3rd	masculine
		feminine
	Plural
	1st
	2nd	masculine
		feminine
	3rd	masculine
		feminine
Passive	Singular
	1st
	2nd	masculine
		feminine
	etc.
Nominal	Active Participle				Passive Participle			Verbal Noun

Derivation

Unlike in most languages, Arabic has virtually no means of deriving words by adding prefixes or suffixes to words. Instead, they are formed according to a limited (but fairly large) number of templates applied to roots.

For verbs, a given root can construct up to fifteen different verbs, each with one or more characteristic meanings and each with its own templates for the past and non-past stems, active and passive participles, and verbal noun. These are referred to by Western scholars as "Form I", "Form II", and so on through "Form XV" (although Forms XI to XV are rare). These forms encode concepts such as the causative, intensive and reflexive. These forms can be viewed as analogous to verb conjugations in languages such as Spanish in terms of the additional complexity of verb formation that they induce. (Note, however, that their usage in constructing vocabulary is somewhat different, since the same root can be conjugated in multiple forms, with different shades of meaning.)

Examples of the different verbs formed from the root '''' "write" (using '''' "red" for Form IX, which is limited to colors and physical defects): {|class="wikitable" ! Form !! Past !! Meaning !! Non-past !! Meaning |- | I || '''' || "he wrote" || '''' || "he writes" |- | II || '''' || "he made (someone) write" || '''' || "he makes (someone) write" |- | III || '''' || "he corresponded with, wrote to (someone)" || '''' || "he corresponds with, writes to (someone)" |- | IV || '''' || "he dictated" || '''' || "he dictates" |- | V || '''' || ''nonexistent'' || '''' || ''nonexistent'' |- | VI || '''' || "he corresponded (with someone, esp. mutually)" || '''' || "he corresponds (with someone, esp. mutually)" |- | VII || '''' || "he subscribed" || '''' || "he subscribes" |- | VIII || '''' || "he copied" || '''' || "he copies" |- | IX || '''' || "he turned red" || '''' || "he turns red" |- | X || '''' || "he asked (someone) to write" || '''' || "he asks (someone) to write" |- |}

Form II is sometimes used to create transitive denominative verbs (verbs built from nouns); Form V is the equivalent used for intransitive denominatives.

The associated participles and verbal nouns of a verb are the primary means of forming new lexical nouns in Arabic. This is similar to the process by which, for example, the English gerund "meeting" (similar to a verbal noun) has turned into a noun referring to a particular type of social, often work-related event where people gather together to have a "discussion" (another lexicalized verbal noun). Another fairly common means of forming nouns is through one of a limited number of patterns that can be applied directly to roots, such as the "nouns of location" in ''ma-'' (e.g. '''' "desk, office" < ''k-t-b'' "write", '''' "kitchen" < ''ṭ-b-x'' "cook").

The only three genuine suffixes are as follows: The feminine suffix ''-ah''; variously derives terms from women from related terms for men, or more generally terms along the same lines as the corresponding masculine, e.g. '''' "library" (also a writing-related place, but different than '''', as above).

The nisba suffix ''-iyy-''. This suffix is extremely productive, and forms adjectives meaning "related to X". It corresponds to English adjectives in ''-ic, -al, -an, -y, -ist'', etc.

The feminine nisba suffix ''-iyyah''. This is formed by adding the feminine suffix ''-ah'' onto nisba adjectives to form abstract nouns. For example, from the basic root '''' "share" can be derived the Form VIII verb '''' "to cooperate, participate", and in turn its verbal noun '''' "cooperation, participation" can be formed. This in turn can be made into a nisba adjective '''' "socialist", from which an abstract noun '''' "socialism" can be derived. Other recent formations are '''' "republic" (lit. "public-ness" < '''' "multitude, general public"), and the Qaddafi-specific variation '''' "people's republic" (lit. "masses-ness" < '''' "the masses", pl. of '''', as above).

Colloquial varieties

The spoken dialects have lost the case distinctions and make only limited use of the dual (it occurs only on nouns and its use is no longer required in all circumstances). They have lost the mood distinctions other than imperative, but many have since gained new moods through the use of prefixes (most often /bi-/ for indicative vs. unmarked subjunctive). They have also mostly lost the indefinite "nunation" and the internal passive.

The following is an example of a regular verb paradigm in Egyptian Arabic.

+Example of a regular Form I verb in Egyptian Arabic, ''kátab/yíktib'' "write"	Tense/Mood		! Past	! Present Subjunctive	! Present Indicative	! Future	! Imperative
Singular
1st		''katáb-t''	''á-ktib''	''bá-ktib''	''ḥá-ktib''
2nd	!masculine	''katáb-t''	''tí-ktib''	''bi-tí-ktib''	''ḥa-tí-ktib''	''í-ktib''
	!feminine	''katáb-ti''	''ti-ktíb-i''	''bi-ti-ktíb-i''	''ḥa-ti-ktíb-i''	''i-ktíb-i''
3rd	!masculine	''kátab''	''yí-ktib''	''bi-yí-ktib''	''ḥa-yí-ktib''
	!feminine	''kátab-it''	''tí-ktib''	''bi-tí-ktib''	''ḥa-tí-ktib''
Plural
1st		''katáb-na''	''ní-ktib''	''bi-ní-ktib''	''ḥá-ní-ktib''
2nd		''katáb-tu''	''ti-ktíb-u''	''bi-ti-ktíb-u''	''ḥa-ti-ktíb-u''	''i-ktíb-u''
3rd		''kátab-u''	''yi-ktíb-u''	''bi-yi-ktíb-u''	''ḥa-yi-ktíb-u''

See varieties of Arabic for more information on grammar differences in the spoken varieties.

Writing system

The Arabic alphabet derives from the Aramaic through Nabatean, to which it bears a loose resemblance like that of Coptic or Cyrillic script to Greek script. Traditionally, there were several differences between the Western (North African) and Middle Eastern version of the alphabet—in particular, the ''fa'' had a dot underneath and ''qaf'' a single dot above in the Maghreb, and the order of the letters was slightly different (at least when they were used as numerals).

However, the old Maghrebi variant has been abandoned except for calligraphic purposes in the Maghreb itself, and remains in use mainly in the Quranic schools (zaouias) of West Africa. Arabic, like all other Semitic languages (except for the Latin-written Maltese, and the languages with the Ge'ez script), is written from right to left. There are several styles of script, notably Naskh which is used in print and by computers, and Ruq'ah which is commonly used in handwriting.

Calligraphy

After Khalil ibn Ahmad al Farahidi finally fixed the Arabic script around 786, many styles were developed, both for the writing down of the Qur'an and other books, and for inscriptions on monuments as decoration.

Arabic calligraphy has not fallen out of use as calligraphy has in the Western world, and is still considered by Arabs as a major art form; calligraphers are held in great esteem. Being cursive by nature, unlike the Latin script, Arabic script is used to write down a verse of the Qur'an, a Hadith, or simply a proverb, in a spectacular composition. The composition is often abstract, but sometimes the writing is shaped into an actual form such as that of an animal. One of the current masters of the genre is Hassan Massoudy.

Romanization

! ISO 233-2

+ Examples of different transliteration/transcription schemes	Letter	! Name	International Phonetic Alphabet>IPA	United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names>UNGEGN	Library of Congress>ALA-LC	! DIN 31635	SAS
BATR	! ArabTeX	Arabic chat alphabet>chat
!					,		'	e	'	2
						aa	aa / A	a	a/e/é
!		,	y		y; e	y; ii	y	y; i/ee; ei/ai
!					ç		c	_t	s/th
!		~~				j	j	^g	j/g/dj
!					H	.h	7
!		~				j	x	K	_h	kh/7'/5
!					đ	z'	_d	z/dh/th
!					x	^s	sh/ch
!					S	.s	s/9
!					D	.d	d/9'
!					T	.t	t/6
!		~			đ̣	Z	.z	z/dh/6'
!					ř	E	`	3
!		~			g	ğ	g	.g	gh/3'

There are a number of different standards for the romanization of Arabic, i.e. methods of accurately and efficiently representing Arabic with the Latin script. There are various conflicting motivations involved, which leads to multiple systems. Some are interested in transliteration, i.e. representing the ''spelling'' of Arabic, while others focus on transcription, i.e. representing the ''pronunciation'' of Arabic. (They differ in that, for example, the same letter is used to represent both a consonant, as in "you" or "yet", and a vowel, as in "me" or "eat".) Some systems, e.g. for scholarly use, are intended to accurately and unambiguously represent the phonemes of Arabic, generally making the phonetics more explicit than the original word in the Arabic script. These systems are heavily reliant on diacritical marks such as "š" for the sound equivalently written ''sh'' in English. Other systems (e.g. the Bahá'í orthography) are intended to help readers who are neither Arabic speakers nor linguists to intuitively pronounce Arabic names and phrases. These less "scientific" tend to avoid diacritics and use digraphs (like ''sh'' and ''kh''). These are usually more simple to read, but sacrifice the definiteness of the scientific systems, and may lead to ambiguities, e.g. whether to interpret ''sh'' as a single sound, as in ''gash'', or a combination of two sounds, as in ''gashouse''.

During the last few decades and especially since the 1990s, Western-invented text communication technologies have become prevalent in the Arab world, such as personal computers, the World Wide Web, email, Bulletin board systems, IRC, instant messaging and mobile phone text messaging. Most of these technologies originally had the ability to communicate using the Latin script only, and some of them still do not have the Arabic script as an optional feature. As a result, Arabic speaking users communicated in these technologies by transliterating the Arabic text using the Latin script, sometimes known as IM Arabic.

To handle those Arabic letters that cannot be accurately represented using the Latin script, numerals and other characters were appropriated. For example, the numeral "3" may be used to represent the Arabic letter "ع". There is no universal name for this type of transliteration, but some have named it Arabic Chat Alphabet. Other systems of transliteration exist, such as using dots or capitalization to represent the "emphatic" counterparts of certain consonants. For instance, using capitalization, the letter "د", may be represented by d. Its emphatic counterpart, "ض", may be written as D.

Numerals

In most of present-day North Africa, the Western Arabic numerals (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9) are used. However in Egypt and Arabic-speaking countries to the east of it, the Eastern Arabic numerals ( – – – – – – – – – ) are in use. When representing a number in Arabic, the lowest-valued position is placed on the right, so the order of positions is the same as in left-to-right scripts. Sequences of digits such as telephone numbers are read from left to right, but numbers are spoken in the traditional Arabic fashion, with units and tens reversed from the modern English usage. For example, 24 is said "four and twenty" just like in the German language (''vierundzwanzig'') and Classical Hebrew, and 1975 is said "one thousand (and) nine hundred (and) five and seventy."

Language-standards regulators

Academy of the Arabic Language is the name of a number of language-regulation bodies formed in Arab League. The most active are in Damascus and Cairo. They review language development, monitor new words and approve inclusion of new words into their published standard dictionaries. They also publish old and historical Arabic manuscripts.

Studying Arabic

Because the Quran is written in Arabic and all Islamic terms are in Arabic, millions of Muslims (both Arab and non-Arab) study the language. Arabic has been taught worldwide in many elementary and secondary schools, especially Muslim schools. Universities around the world have classes that teach Arabic as part of their foreign languages, Middle Eastern studies, and religious studies courses. Arabic language schools exist to assist students in learning Arabic outside of the academic world. Many Arabic language schools are located in the Arab world and other Muslim countries. Software and books with tapes are also important part of Arabic learning, as many of Arabic learners may live in places where there are no academic or Arabic language school classes available. Radio series of Arabic language classes are also provided from some radio stations. A number of websites on the Internet provide online classes for all levels as a means of distance education.

Examples

or

English	! Arabic	Arabic diacritics>Arabic (vowelled)	Romanization of Arabic>Romanization (DIN 31635)	! IPA
English	or	|	(varies)	(varies)
Yes	|
No	|
Hello	|
Peace(Usually Islamic)	|		}} (varies)	}} (varies)
How are you	|	}}	}}
Welcome	|
Goodbye	|
Please	|
Thanks	|
Excuse me	|
I'm sorry	|
What's your name?	|
How much?	|
I don't understand.	|
I don't speak Arabic.	|
I don't know.	|
I'm hungry.	|
Orange	|
Black	|
One	|
Two	|
Three	|
Four	|
Five	|
Six	|
Seven	|
Eight	|
Nine	|
Ten	|
Eleven	|

See also

Modern Standard Arabic

Arabic diglossia

Varieties of Arabic

Arabic–English Lexicon

Arabic influence on the Spanish language

Arabic literature

Arabist

Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic

Glossary of Islam

List of arabophones

List of French words of Arabic origin

List of Portuguese words of Arabic origin

List of replaced loanwords in Turkish

Arabic grammar

(إﻋﺮﺍﺏ)

Macrolanguage

Notes

}} is the Literary Arabic name of the language(s) and is pronounced in Egypt: ; Libya: ; east central Arabia: ; Levant: ; Hijaz: ; Tunisia: ; Morocco: . Other variations in other geographic regions are also possible. }} is the Literary Arabic name as well as the colloquial and is pronounced in Egypt and Libya: ; east central Arabia: ; Lebanon: ; rest of Levant, ; Hijaz: ; Tunisia and Morocco: . Other variations in other geographic regions are also possible. In general, in pronunciation of Literary Arabic the last vowel is long .

References

External links

Documents

* Arabic phrasebook at Wikitravel

* Arabic grammar online

* A Review of Arabic Language Books and Methods

* Learn Arabic Language تعلم اللغة العربية 'biggest Arabic Learning resource"

* Arabic natural language processing publications

* Arabic: a Category III language Languages which are very difficult for native English speakers

* Arabic Vocabulary with pictures

*Dr. Habash's Introduction to Arabic Natural Language Processing

*Dr. Shaalan's talk about Rule-based approach in Arabic NLP: Tools, Systems and Resources

* ethnologue.com Encyclopedic reference work cataloging all the world’s 6,909 known living languages including Arabic

Tools

*Lane's Arabic–English Lexicon – An 8-volume, 3000-page dictionary in PDF format.

* Google Ta3reeb – Google Transliteration

* Transliteration Arabic language pronunciation applet

* Realtime Arabic transliteration

* Arabic Keyboard that you can use when your keyboard does not support Arabic. – It can feed the terms to google.

* Find Arabic Text on the internet

Category:Central Semitic languages Category:Languages of Algeria Category:Languages of Bahrain Category:Languages of Chad Category:Languages of Comoros Category:Languages of Djibouti Category:Languages of Eritrea Category:Languages of Iraq Category:Languages of Israel Category:Languages of Jordan Category:Languages of Kuwait Category:Languages of Lebanon Category:Languages of Libya Category:Languages of Mauritania Category:Languages of Morocco Category:Languages of Oman Category:Languages of Qatar Category:Languages of Saudi Arabia Category:Languages of Somalia Category:Languages of Somaliland Category:Languages of Sudan Category:Languages of Syria Category:Languages of the Philippines Category:Languages of the United Arab Emirates Category:Languages of Tunisia Category:Languages of Yemen Category:Requests for audio pronunciation (Arabic) Category:Stress-timed languages Category:SVO languages

ace:Bahsa Arab kbd:Хьэрыпыбзэ af:Arabies als:Arabische Sprache am:ዓረብኛ ang:Arabisc sprǣc ar:لغة عربية an:Idioma arabe arc:ܠܫܢܐ ܥܪܒܝܐ frp:Arabo ast:Árabe az:Ərəb dili bn:আরবি ভাষা zh-min-nan:A-la-pek-gí map-bms:Basa Arab be:Арабская мова be-x-old:Арабская мова bjn:Bahasa Arap bcl:Arabe bo:ཨ་རབ་སྐད། bs:Arapski jezik br:Arabeg unvan bg:Арабски език ca:Àrab cv:Арап чĕлхи ceb:Inarabigo cs:Arabština ny:Chiarabu co:Lingua àraba cy:Arabeg da:Arabisk (sprog) de:Arabische Sprache dv:ޢަރަބި nv:Ásáí Bizaad dsb:Arabska rěc et:Araabia keel el:Αραβική γλώσσα eml:Areb es:Idioma árabe eo:Araba lingvo ext:Luenga árabi eu:Arabiera fa:زبان عربی hif:Arbii bhasa fo:Arábiskt mál fr:Arabe fy:Arabysk ga:An Araibis gv:Arabish gag:Arab dili gl:Lingua árabe gan:阿拉伯語 hak:Â-lâ-pak-ngî xal:Арабмудин келн ko:아랍어 haw:‘Ōlelo ‘Alapia hy:Արաբերեն hi:अरबी भाषा hsb:Arabšćina hr:Arapski jezik io:Arabiana linguo ilo:Pagsasao nga Arabe id:Bahasa Arab ia:Lingua arabe iu:ᐊᕋᕕ/aravi os:Араббаг æвзаг is:Arabíska it:Lingua araba he:ערבית jv:Basa Arab kn:ಅರಬ್ಬೀ ಭಾಷೆ ka:არაბული ენა kk:Араб тілі kw:Arabek rw:Icyarabu ky:Араб тили sw:Kiarabu kv:Араб кыв kg:Kilabu ku:Zimanê erebî lad:Lingua arábiga koi:Араб кыв lbe:Аьраб маз krc:Араб тил lo:ພາສາອາຣັບ la:Lingua Arabica lv:Arābu valoda lt:Arabų kalba lij:Lengua àraba li:Arabisch ln:Liarabi lmo:Arab hu:Arab nyelv mk:Арапски јазик mg:Fiteny arabo ml:അറബി ഭാഷ mt:Lingwa Għarbija mr:अरबी भाषा arz:لغه عربى mzn:عربی ms:Bahasa Arab mdf:Арабонь кяль mn:Араб хэл nah:Arabiatlahtōlli nl:Arabisch ne:अरबी भाषा new:अरबी भाषा ja:アラビア語 ce:Jarboyn mott pih:Erabek no:Arabisk nn:Arabisk nrm:Arabe oc:Arabi pa:ਅਰਬੀ ਭਾਸ਼ਾ pnb:عربی ps:عربي ژبه pms:Lenga aràbica nds:Araabsche Spraak pl:Język arabski pt:Língua árabe kaa:Arab tili crh:Arap tili ro:Limba arabă qu:Arabya simi rue:Арабскый язык ru:Арабский язык sah:Араб тыла se:Arábagiella sa:अरबी sco:Arabic sq:Gjuha arabe scn:Lingua àrabba simple:Arabic language sk:Arabčina cu:Аравьскъ ѩꙁꙑкъ sl:Arabščina so:Carabi sr:Арапски језик sh:Arapski jezik su:Basa Arab fi:Arabian kieli sv:Arabiska tl:Wikang Arabe ta:அரபு மொழி kab:Taɛrabt tt:Ğäräp tele te:అరబ్బీ భాష th:ภาษาอาหรับ tg:Забони арабӣ tr:Arapça tk:Arap dili uk:Арабська мова ur:عربی زبان ug:ئەرەب تىلى vi:Tiếng Ả Rập fiu-vro:Araabia kiil wa:Arabe zh-classical:阿拉伯語 war:Inarabo wuu:阿拉伯语 yi:אראביש yo:Ède Lárúbáwá zh-yue:阿剌伯話 diq:Erebki bat-smg:Arabu kalba zh:阿拉伯语

Coordinates	55°45′06″N37°37′04″N
name	Hussein Fahmy
birth name	Hussein Mahmoud Fahmy
birth date	September 29, 1940
birth place	Cairo, Egypt
yearsactive	1970 - present }}

Hussein Fahmy, () is an Egyptian actor born in 1940 in Cairo. He is the brother of actor Mustafa Fahmy.

A leading movie star and the first UNDP Goodwill Ambassador for the Arab States in 1998 and since then has worked hard to convey to his audience in the Middle East important human development messages. Recently he resigned from his post in UN as a result of his refusal to the UN role towards the Lebanese crisis in 2006.

He worked in film and TV for 40 years, specializing in film directing and appearing in more than 100 movies, on TV and in the theatre.

Was also appointed the president of the Cairo International Film Festival.

In 2006 he hosted a TV show for the first time in his show business career titled "Elnas wa Ana" aired on the Egyptian television and el-Safwa channel, part of Orbit TV Network.

He acted with Soad Hosny in the very popular movie called: Khali Balak Min Zouzou

In March 2007, Fahmy was named the first Special Olympics Ambassador for the Middle East North Africa Region. In this role, he will work to create awareness and encourage all members of the community to be involved in the movement .

Personal life

Hussein Fahmy got married five times. His first wife was Nadia Moharram, an Egyptian ambassador's daughter, whom he married after his college graduation and with whom he has two children. His second wife was the beautiful Egyptian actress Mervat Amin (1974–1986), from whom he had their daughter, Menatallah. He later married computer specialist, Hala Fathy (2001–2007). His current spouse is actress Leqaa Swidan.

Filmography

Hussein Fahmy has starred 112 films starting from 1970 to the present time.

Lovers' Paperclips - 2001. (''aka; Qasaqees Al'Oshaq'')

Children of the Devil - 2000. (''aka; Abnaa Al'Shaytan'')

Anbar and the Colours - 2000. (''aka; Anbar wal'Alwan'')

The Disappearance of Gaafar Al'Masry - 1998. (''aka; Ekhtefaa Gaafar Al'Masry'')

Hazelnut Peels - 1995. (''aka; Qeshr Al'Bondoq'')

Hekmat Fahmy - 1994.

The Women Market - 1994. (''aka; Sooq Al'Nesaa'')

Criminal Case 85 - 1993. (''aka; 85 Genayat'')

The Revolving Stone - 1992. (''aka; Al'Hagar Al'Dayer'')

Prisoner 67 - 1992. (''aka; Al'Sagueena 67'')

The Bloody Meeting - 1992. (''aka;Al'Leqaa Al'Dami'')

My Wife and the Wolf - 1992. (''aka; Zawgati wal'Zeab'')

Dangerous Game - 1991. (''aka; Al'Leab Maa Al'Kobar'')

Alexandria Again and Again - 1990. (''aka; Eskendereyya Kaman we Kaman'')

The Suicide of a High School Teacher - 1989. (''aka; Entehaar Modarres Sanawi'')

This Wedding Can't Be Done - 1988. (''aka; El'Gawaza Di Mesh Lazim Tettem'')

Players - 1987. (''aka; El'Laeeba'')

Animal Running - 1987. (''aka; Garii El'Wohoosh'')

Big Guys Game - 1987. (''aka; Lebet El'Kobar'')

Oh My Homeland - 1986. (''aka; Ah Ya Balad'')

The Female - 1986. (''aka; Al'Ontha'')

The Inheritors - 1986. (''aka; Al'Waratha'')

A Mutinous Woman - 1986. (''aka; Imraa Motamarreda'')

Desire, Spite, and Revenge - 1986. (''aka; Raghba wa Heqd wa Entiqam'')

Before Farewell - 1986. (''aka; Qabl Al'Wadaa'')

Rescuing the Rescuable - 1985. (''aka; Enqaz Ma Yomken Enqazoh'')

Honey of the Queen - 1985. (''aka; Shahd El'Malleka'')

A Devil of Honey - 1985. (''aka; Shaytan Men Assal'')

A Deal with A Woman - 1985. (''aka; Safqa Maa Emraa'')

The Prince - 1984. (''aka; El'Berrins'')

Legal Wins - 1984. (''aka; El'Halal Yeksab'')

The Crooks - 1984. (''aka; El'Nassabeen'')

Sea of Illusions - 1984. (''aka; Bahr Al'Awham'')

The Hounds - 1984. (''aka; Kelab Al'Herassa'')

Tanneries Fences - 1983. (''aka; Aswar El'Madabegh'')

God is Watching - 1983. (''aka; Enna Rabbaka Labell-Mersad'')

Babelshereyya Strongmen - 1983. (''aka; Gedaan Babelshereyya'')

Dog Bite - 1983. (''aka; Addet Kalb'')

Kingdom of Hallucination - 1983. (''aka; Mamlaket Al-Halwassa'')

Dog Bite - 1983. (''aka; Addet Kalb'')

Collapse - 1982. (''aka; Enheyaar'')

The Shame - 1982. (''aka; Al'Aar'')

The Last Word - 1982. (''aka; Al'Kallema Al'Akheera'')

The Shine of Your Eyes - 1982. (''aka; Bareeq Aynaykee'')

Nights - 1982. (''aka; Layali'')

My Love Was Lost There - 1982. (''aka; Wa Daa Hobbi Honaak'')

Shark - 1981. (''aka; El'Ersh'')

Horror Trip - 1981. (''aka; Rehlat Al'Roab'')

Fight of the Lovers - 1981. (''aka; Seraa Al'Oshaaq'')

A Moment of Weakness - 1981. (''aka; Lahzet Daaf'')

"Maowid ala ashaa",Dinner Date - 1981. (''aka; Mawed Ala Al'Ashaa'')

Who Crazes Whom? - 1981. (''aka; Meen Yegannen Meen'')

Goodbye Suffering - 1981. (''aka; Wadaan Lel'Azaab'')

Watch Out, Gentlemen - 1980. (''aka; Entabbeho Ayyoha Al'Sadah'')

Bondless Woman - 1980. (''aka; Emraa Bela Qayd'')

Challenge of the Tough - 1980. (''aka; Tahaddi Al'Aqweyaa'')

Sinless Tears - 1980. (''aka; Domooa Bela Khataya'')

The Night the Moon Cried - 1980. (''aka; Layla Baka Fiha Al'Qamar'')

Save This Family - 1979. (''aka; Anqizu Hazihi Al'Aaela '')

Deveived By A Woman - 1979. (''aka; Khadaatni Emraa'')

Sin of An Angel - 1979. (''aka; Khatee'at Malaak'')

Let Me Revenge - 1979. (''aka; Da'ooni Antaqqem '')

Men Who Don't Know Love - 1979. (''aka; Regaal La Yarifoon Al'Hobb'')

West District Story - 1979. (''aka; Qessat Al'Hayy Al'Gharbi'')

Sweetest Days of Life - 1978. (''aka; Ahla Ayyam Al'Omr'')

Masters and Slaves - 1978. (''aka; Asyaad Wa Abeed'')

Woman is Woman - 1978. (''aka; Al'Maraa Heya Al'Maraa'')

Love on Top of Volcano - 1978. (''aka; Hobb Fawq Al'Borkaan'')

Lovers Avenue - 1978. (''aka; Sekket El'Ashqeen'')

Yasmeen's Nights - 1978. (''aka; Layali Yasmeen'')

The After Midnight Phone Call - 1978. (''aka; Mokallamat Baad Montassaf Al'Layl'')

Love May Kill - 1978. (''aka; Wa Menn Al'Hobb Ma Qatal'')

Thousand Kiss and Kiss - 1977. (''aka; Alf Bossah We Bossah'')

Love in Deadend - 1977. (''aka; Al'Hobb Fi Tareeq Masdood'')

The Devils - 1977. (''aka; Al'Shayateen'')

Look What Sokkar Is Doing - 1977. (''aka; Boss Shoof Sokkar Bettemel Eih'')

Love Mania - 1977. (''aka; Gonoon Al'Hobb'')

Barefooted on the Golden Bridge - 1977. (''aka; Hafeya Ala Gesr Al'Zahab'')

Sweet Love World - 1977. (''aka; Helwa Ya Donya El'Hobb'')

Night and Desire - 1977. (''aka; Layl Wa Raghba'')

Women in the City - 1977. (''aka; Nessaa Fil'Madeena'')

Waves With No Shore - 1976. (''aka; Amwaag Bela Shatea'')

Hot Tears - 1976. (''aka; Al'Domoo Al'Sakhina'')

The Gorgeous and the Pauper - 1976. (''aka; Al'Fattena Wal'Sollook'')

The Guilty - 1976. (''aka; Al'Mozneboon'')

Wise Fate - 1976. (''aka; Hekmetak Ya Rabb'')

Longing - 1976. (''aka; Shoaq'')

A Bachelor's Affairs - 1976. (''aka; Gharamiyyat Aazeb'')

No Time for Tears - 1976. (''aka; La Waqt Lel'Domoo'')

The After Love - 1976. (''aka; Ma Baad Al'Hobb'')

Women in Press - 1976. (''aka; Nessaa Taht El-Tabbe'')

Who Can Beat Azeeza - 1975. (''aka; Meen Yeqdar Ala Azeeza'')

A Melody in My Life - 1975. (''aka; Nagham Fi Hayati'')

Forgive Me, God - 1975. (''aka; Ya Rabb Tobah'')

Best Days of My Life - 1974. (''aka; Agmal Ayyam Hayati'')

Ameera, My Love - 1974. (''aka; Ameera Hobbi Ana'')

The Enemy Brothers - 1974. (''aka; Al'Okhwa Al'Aadaa'')

The Bullet is Still in My Pocket - 1974. (''aka; Al'Rossassa La Tazaal Fi Gaybi'')

The Fugitive - 1974. (''aka; Al'Haareb'')

A Woman in Love - 1974. (''aka; Emraa Aashiqa'')

My Blood, My Tears, and My Smile - 1973. (''aka; Dammi Wa Domooie Wa Ebtessamati'')

Wild Roses - 1973. (''aka; Zohoor Bariyya'')

The Soul Lover - 1973. (''aka; Aashiq Al-Roah'')

Stranges - 1973. (''aka; Ghorabaa'')

Badeea's Daughter - 1972. (''aka; Bent Badeea'')

Love and Pride - 1972. (''aka; Hobb Wa Kebriyya'')

Take Care of Zuzu - 1972. (''aka; Khalli Ballak Men Zuzu'')

Lady of the Black Moons - 1971. (''aka; Sayyedat Al'Aqmaar Al'Sawdaa'')

My Beautiful Teacher - 1971. (''aka; Modarressati Al'Hasnaa'')

Queen of Night - 1971. (''aka; Malleket El'Leil'')

Dalaal the Egyptian - 1970. (''aka; Dalaal El'Masreyya'')

Fire of Longing - 1970. (''aka; Nar El'Shoaq'')

See also

Lists of Egyptians

Hussein Fahmy Internet Movie Database.

حسين فهمي

Category:Egyptian actors Category:1940 births Category:Living people Category:Egyptian people Category:Egyptian people of Turkish descent

ar:حسين فهمي arz:حسين فهمى

Coordinates	55°45′06″N37°37′04″N
name	Najwa Karam
background	solo_singer
birth name	Najwa Nicola Karam
born	February 26, 1966 inZahlé, Lebanon
type of sound	(Canter Alto
origin	Majdel Balhis, Lebanon
genre	Arabic music
occupation	Singer, Producer, Writer
years active	1985–present
label	Relax-In (1989–1991) CM (1992–1993) Rotana (1994–)
website	* Najwa Karam's Official Website Najwa Karam's Official Facebook-Page Najwa Karam's Official YouTube-Channel
notable instruments	}}

Najwa Karam (}}) (born February 26, 1966) is a Multi-Platinum, Best-Selling Lebanese singer, who has sold over 50 Million records worldwide. Najwa is known for creating her own blend of traditional and Contemporary Arabic Music, which has defined her image and her music in the Middle East and through out the world.

Najwa's singing career began with moderate success with her debut album "Ya Habayeb," in 1989. Her second album, "Shams el-Ghinnieh" achieved greater success, earning her her well-known title, Shams el-Ghinnieh, (The Sun of Song). But Najwa's major successes were to come in the mid-1990s when she would rise to new heights of fame and popularity in the Arabic and International music worlds.

Najwa's Domination of the Arabic Music Industry began in 1994 through 1999, when she had major successes with albums, such as "Naghmet Hob," "Ma Bassmahlak," and "Maghroumeh." In 1999, her Album "Rouh Rouhi," ranked #1 on every music Chart in almost every Arabic country. Then in 2000, Najwa's Album, "Oyoun Qalbi," brought Najwa's greatest success yet, as it sold over 5 Million albums Worldwide, holding the up-to-date record for Best-Selling Arabic album of all time. In 2001 Najwa's New Album "Nedmaneh" sold over 4 million copies worldwide, and is one of Najwa's most acclaimed albums to date. The success of Nedmaneh earned Najwa numerous awards, including a coveted Murex D'or award for "Best Arabic Artist," and three special awards from Najwa's production company, Rotana: "Artist of the Year", "Album of the Year" and "Highest Selling Album." By the time of the Release of "Saharni" in 2003, Najwa had established the status of Pop Icon in the Middle East. Najwa's most recent Albums, such as "Shu Mghaiara," "Hayda Haki," "Am Bemzah Ma'ak," and "Hal Leile...MaFi Noum" have all sold millions of copies and achieved great success, earning her numerous awards worldwide. Her many Singles, such as "Shou Jani" and "Lashhad Hobbak" have also topped music charts.

One of the Best-Selling Arabic Artists in History, Najwa has participated in countless festivals and concerts around the globe, and has received a number of awards from various distinguished bodies. In her other works, Najwa has collaborated with legend, Wadih el Safi on a single titled "W Kberna" (We grow old together), which achieved major success through out the Middle East, and with Musician and Composer Melhem Barakat. Najwa has been in advertisement commercials, which feature her music and videos for Pearl Properties, a UAE Real estate company. In 2010 Najwa became the main judge and face of the new television series, "Arabs Got Talent," which became a television sensation across the Arab World. Then in 2011, with the collaboration of Sony, Najwa produced the first 3D Music Video Clip in the Middle East, for her song, "MaFi Noum" Further, Najwa is one of Rotana's most important and highest paid artists.

The early years and ''Layali Lubnan'': 1972–1988

Najwa Karam Karam was born in Zahlé, Lebanon, to Karam Karam and Barbara Chahine Karam, a family of Lebanese Christians. She is the youngest of five children, having an older sister, Salwa, and three older brothers, Tony, Jean, and Nicolas. She spent her childhood in Zahlé, in the care of her parents and older brothers. From an early age, Najwa was known among her friends and relatives for her powerful singing voice, but her parents emphasized the need for an education and a stable career over entertaining.

Karam attended secondary school at Jesus the Angel College, and then worked as a teacher for two years at Eastern College, Zahlé.

In 1985, Karam decided to pursue a singing career by participating in the television singing contest ''Layali Lubnan'' (''Lebanese Nights''), although against her father's wishes. Interpreting popular varieties of the traditional Lebanese Mawal in her powerful voice, Najwa walked away with the Gold Medal, public exposure, and her father's approval.

Following this win, Karam studied at the Lebanese Institute of Music for four years to improve her knowledge of music and the music industry in general. She was under the direction of renowned Lebanese composers Zaki Nassif and Fouad Awad. In 1987, Najwa participated in another television program named ''Laylat Haz'', where she was warmly accepted by the audience. By 1989, Najwa had gained the knowledge and experience she needed to make her first attempt at breaking into the Arabic music industry.

The beginning: 1989–1993

''Shams el-Ghinnieh'', (The Sun of Song)

In 1989, Karam's first studio album, ''Ya Habayeb'', was released by a then-little-known record label, Relax-in International. The album contained seven tracks, all in the traditional Lebanese traditional/folkloric style. Due to her previous exposure to the Lebanese public, the album was well-received in Lebanon but did not receive much attention from the rest of the Arab world.

After a three year hiatus from music making, Karam returned to the scene with her follow up album, ''Shams el-Ghinnieh''. The album title was inspired by her nickname, Shams el-Ghinnieh (The sun of song), which was given to her by the Lebanese people and media because of her vocal abilities. The album was recorded by another small record company CM. The style of the album was more romantic and contemporary, in comparison to Najwa's debut, ''Ya Habayeb'', which was more traditional. ''Shams el-Ghinnieh'' was received very well by the Lebanese public.

''Ana Ma'akon'' (I'm With You)

The next year, 1993, Karam signed on with another record label for her new album. This time it was an even less known Saudi Arn company. The new album was called ''Ana Ma'akon'' (''I am with you''). The album was classic in style and quite different from ''Shams el-Ghinnieh'', not really reflecting Najwa's artistic identity. Despite her personal miscontent, she had no choice but release it, bound by a contract with her production company. As expected, the album failed to do as well as ''Shams el-Ghinnieh''. Poor marketing and lack of resources did not help much either and were blamed for the low sales of the album. It remains Karam's least-known album, although many of her fans consider it the best in terms of showing Najwa's abilities and voice-power/

Domination: 1994–1999

Najwa's fortunes took a turn for the better when she was approached by the Middle East's largest recording label, ''Rotana'', owned by the Saudi Arabian Prince Walid Bin Talel. An agreement between the parties was made, and Najwa was now on Rotana's roster.

Work on a new album began immediately. Expert poets, writers, and composers were enlisted to help Najwa make a fresh new musical image for herself to revitalize public interest, and finally draw attention from the wider Arab audience. By mid-1994, an album consisting of 8 new songs had been compiled and was ready to be released to the Middle East. ''Naghmet Hob'' (''The Rhythm of Love'') fused Lebanese tradition with Arab pop. Its catchy Lebanese dance song ''Law Habaytek'' ''(If I loved you)'' was an instant hit, introducing Najwa Karam to all of the Middle East. The song and its video clip dominated the Arabian charts. Its follow up hits from the same album were "Wrood Eddar" ''(Roses of the Garden)'' and "Elala (la la)," which received similar success.

The wide success of ''Naghmet Hob'' fueled a concert tour and a number of awards for Karam, including a prize from the Lebanese Broadcasting Association for the Best Artist of 1994.

Karam had been thrust to the top of the Arabic music scene in less than a year, and was now constantly in the public eye. In 1995, Najwa started work on her second ''Rotana'' album, her fifth release in total. It was titled ''Ma Bassmahlak'' and closely followed the traditional style of ''Naghmet Hob''. The main difference was the lyrical and vocal nature of the tracks which had more depth. Riding the wave of her celebrity, two of the songs were hits, namely ''Ma Bassmahlak (I won't allow you)'' and ''Hakim el-Qady (The Judge has spoken)''.

''Hazi Helo'', (I'm Lucky)

With five albums under her belt, the latter two of which witnessed ground breaking success, Najwa was becoming a familiar face in the Arabic music industry. On 16 June 1996, Karam released her newest album entitled ''Hazi Helo (I'm Lucky)''. The title track, ''Hazi Helo'', and three other songs, "Khayarouni", "Ala Mahlak" and "El-Ghorbil", were the most popular from the album.

Following the release of ''Hazi Helo'', Najwa set off on a large scale world concert tour, which would take in many Arab states, parts of Europe, and America. She found a number of fans in the U.S., and performed to sold-out concerts all over. To honour her success in the U.S., Najwa was presented with the Key to the City of Chicago.

''Ma Hada La Hada'', (Nobody) and ''Maghroumeh'', (In Love)

After the sell-out world tour, Najwa returned to Lebanon with a fresh mind and new song ideas. And so work began on her next studio album - ''Ma Hada La Hada''. The tracks on the album were quite different from those of Najwa's previous albums, with a more contemporary sound. For example the song "El Helw" was heavily influenced by foreign beats and synthesised melodies. Three months prior to the album's official release, the song ''El Tahady'' was distributed to the Arabic radio stations. By the time of the album's release, the song's popularity had dwindled, and ''Ma Hada La Hada'''s relatively poor sales were attributed to this factor. However, the title track did become quite popular. It had harmonious musical arrangements which used the traditional Lebanese instrument the ''Qanoun'', along with other traditional instruments such as the violin and the accordion. These musical stylings, along with an uplifting song topic and a powerful "mini movie" video clip made the song a huge hit.

The 1998 release, ''Maghroumeh'', marked Karam's "official" transition from purely traditional Lebanese artist to the blend of traditional and contemporary Arabic that she is famous for today. It had poetic Arabic lyrics sung with Najwa's trademark power and authority; extensive use of Arabic instruments (trumbakke, mijwiz, zamour, tabal... etc.) and contemporary ones; and a brand new look for the album cover. ''Maghroumeh'' was another success from Karam. The title track, ''Maghroumeh (I am in Love)'', was shot as a video clip, and was the biggest hit off the album, hitting number one on most radio stations in the region. Other hits were the feisty ''Ghamza (The Wink)'' and the sad love song ''Noqta al-Satr (Somewhere along the line)''.

''Rouh Rouhi''

The new year brought about a number of changes in Karam's career lives. Najwa's new album was set to be released in the summer, and her personal changes were showing in her new album ''Rouh Rouhi''. It was similar to the ''Maghroumeh'' album, but had a number of tweaks in the vocal and musical styles. The musical arrangements were heavily detailed and technical, and the lyrics were more poetic than all other Karam albums. The tracks ''Ariftu Albi La Meen (Do you know who my heart belongs to?)'', ''Atchana (Thirsty)'', and the title track, ''Rouh Rouhi (Soul of my Soul)'' were the major hits off the album, the latter two being shot as music videos. Many other songs succeeded like "Kif Bdawik (How do I treat You?)", and "Ma Berda Ghayrak (I Don't Accept Anyone Beside You)".

The new millennium

No Regrets

Another year, another change for Najwa Karam. This time it came about in the form of a music album called ''Oyoun Qalbi''. ''Oyoun Qalbi'' was a more romantic, reflective body of work compared to Karam's previous albums. Its major included ''Majboura (I have to)'' which had a modern jazz influence, and the "power ballets", ''Oyoun Qalbi (Sweetheart)'' and ''Khaleek al Ard (Stay down to earth)''. A music video was made for the ''Najwa 2000'' megamix, which contained samples from each song on the ''Oyoun Qalbi'' album. The album sold over 5 Million copies, topping charts. It holds the up to date record for best selling Arabic album of all time.

In 2001, Karam made her record breaking release ''Nedmaneh''. It sold over 4 million copies worldwide, and is one of Najwa's most acclaimed albums to date. It followed on from the style of music first presented by Karam in ''Oyoun Qalbi'', and further experimented with new styles and sounds. The song '''Aaskah (Falling in love)'' was an enormous hit, hitting number one all over the Middle East, and was also quite popular abroad. It was a more playful and vibrant song than most of Karam's previous work, with a strong bass line, and a distinct oriental influence. It was quite different from any Arabic song at the time, and appealed to a wide range of audiences. The success of ''Nedmaneh'' brought about a number of awards, including a coveted ''Murex D'or'' for "Best Arabic Artist" award, and three special awards from Karam's production company, ''Rotana'': "Artist of the Year", "Album of the Year" and "Highest Selling Album".In 2001 Najwa Karem got married to Youssef Harb and got divorce her brother tony spilled out her secret.

To further ''Rotana's'' crediting of Karam's successes, an honouring assemble was held on Saturday, 23 June 2001 where Karam was awarded for her achievements throughout her singing career and for the huge success of ''Nedmaneh''. The ceremony was held at the Venesia Hotel, Beirut, Lebanon. In attendance were the Lebanese Minister of Information, Ghazi Al-Aredi who was representing the President of the Lebanese Republic, Émile Lahoud, prominent singer Wadih el Safi, acclaimed composer Elias Rahbani and a number of journalists and reporters. During the night, Karam sang some of her hits (old and new), and was presented with numerous medals and trophies. The recording was released on a special edition CD (''Live in Concert''), along with a compilation CD of Najwa's hits from 1989-2000 titled ''The Very Best Of Najwa Karam''.

Karam's 2002 album, ''Tahamouni'', was far removed from the "easy going" contemporary feel of ''Oyoun Qalbi'' and ''Nedmaneh'', and audiences noticed. The album was intended to get back in touch with a more youthful audience from other Arab nations, with whom had taken slight dis-interest in Karam's music from the late 90s. This was shown though songs like ''Tahamouni (They accused me)'' which included attempts at rapping, and ''Ew'a Tekoun Ze'alt (I hope you're not mad at me)'' which seemed to have a complete Western influence. The songs had a youthful sound.

''Saharni'', (He Charmed Me)

In late 2002, Karam began meeting with the Lebanese ''"tarab"'' star, Wadih el Safi (Born 1919). Wadi had known Najwa for a while, and had been impressed with her vocal talents. The two of them decided to make a duet together, depicting the trials of a father-daughter relationship. The song was titled ''W Kberna (We grow old together)'', and was an epic ballad in which both vocalists showed immense vocal range and depth. ''W Kberna'' was a success as the lyrics were easy to relate to and it teamed two of the region's most prominent artists together.

Taking this success, Najwa got back to the drawing board for a new album. Months were spent piecing together lyrics and arrangements, and by mid 2003, the album was ready for release. ''Rotana'' set up a large launch party in Downtown Beirut, where over fifteen thousand of Karam's fans packed the streets, waiting for Najwa to appear and sing her new material.

''Saharni (Charmed)'' was exactly the kind of album that was a rebirth of the "old Najwa Karam", and took the public by surprise, as they had at this point come to expect contemporary pop from the ''Shams el-Ghinnieh''. The music had all the makings of distinctly Lebanese music: trumbakke solos, traditional wind instruments, lots of bass and a vibrant singing style - all features far removed from the "western" motif that most artists opted for at the time. Not only had Karam's music changed, but she also sported a new look, which further emphasised that the album was a turn around. ''Saharni'''s success was instantaneous, even though there was a lack of video clips for the songs, the album came through on top of the charts, and produced a number of major hits, including ''Edhak Lil Dounya (Smile to the world)'', and the title track ''Saharni (He charmed me)''.

Najwa made a world tour to complement ''Saharni'''s success, taking in the Middle East as well as destinations such as France and the U.S. with Wadih el Safi. She also travelled to Australia, where her concert there still holds the record for largest ever recorded concert attendance for an Arabic artist. Najwa was presented with a number of awards and achievements in 2003. These include "Highest Selling Album" from ''Rotana'', and award for the "Best singer of Traditional Lebanese Song" from the Lions Club, "Song of the Year": Edhak Lil Donya from Sawt El Ghad Australia and an honorary Award from Australian Government.

As the New Year came and passed, Karam began work on a new single to be included in her upcoming album. This single would be like no other she had released before. Titled ''Leish Mgharrab? (Why are you living abroad?)'' it told of the hardships that people face when having to leave their home country for a better life. Coupled with this harrowing topic, was a revolutionary new music video (directed by Sa'aed el-Marouk), which would transform modern day Beirut into a bleak and harsh wasteland in 2020. The original video - which also contained scenes of citizens protesting against the Lebanese government - was banned from being aired by the Lebanese Parliament. When the clip was edited slightly, it was finally allowed to go to air, along with its song. It hit home with many people, especially those living abroad in countries like Australia and the U.S.. It also sent a direct message to Lebanese politicians, telling them to act on their words.

After a few months, Najwa had completed the rest of her new album, ''Shu Mghaira..!''. Like ''Saharni'', it was distinctly Lebanese, but it was more of a modern adaptation, with a reflective and sad overtone. Najwa continued her many live appearances to promote the album, and a notable event for 2004 was her sell-out concert in Carthage, Tunisia where she performed to thousands of enthusiastic fans. The tracks ''Bi Hawak (In your love)'' and ''Shu Mghaira (How you've changed)'' were shot in an expensive duel video clip which was riddled with special effects. It remained at the number 1 position for 6 weeks on the Rotana Top 20 Chart. The two songs were the most popular from the album, and Najwa obtained the as "Female Artist of the Year" from MusicanaNet.net, which was decided via a large scale internet poll.

2005 and beyond

In the second quarter of 2005, Karam released a new single and video clip called ''Shu Jani''. Shu Jani was a contemporary pop song, with the use of traditional Lebanese instruments. The video was filmed in the Faraya ski resort in Lebanon by director Sa'aed el-Marouk. It was to be on her upcoming 2005 album. The timing of the new clip was criticised in some tabloids, because it was released during the tense electoral season in Lebanon, and the so-called ''Cedar Revolution'' (Independence Intifada). It was argued by these tabloids that it was disrespectful for Karam to release new material at such a time. Karam defended herself by putting the claim on her Saudi production company, ''Rotana'', who she says fast tracked the release against her wishes. Even though there was some controversy surrounding ''Shu Jani'', it fared well with the public.

Due to the prolonged situation in the Lebanon region, Karam's 2005 album was postponed from originally being released in June, then July and then finally postponed until November 2005. However, Karam released another single in late July called ''Bhebak Walaa'' which was an upbeat, contemporary/traditional song typical of Karam's usual work. It was a fairly big hit, hitting number one on many internet and radio charts. On 6 September 2005, Karam released the video for ''Bhebak Walaa'', directed by Salim el-Turk.

''Kibir'el Hob'', (Love Got Greater)

In November 2005, billboards and unipolls all over Beirut were displaying a lady's hand upon a cloudy horizon. No writing was on the posters. The advertisement had the public wondering what message the posters were relaying, and who did the mysterious hand belong to? Soon it was generally concluded that the hand belonged to a recording artist, but there were many conflicting suggestions as to whose it was. Gradually, the billboards had bits of the lady added to the picture, until on 30 November 2005 the "mystery lady" was revealed as Najwa Karam.

On the same day, Karam's 15th studio album, ''Kibir'el Hob (Love Just Got Greater)'' was officially released. The album gained widespread attention through its rigorous advertising campaign, which included the billboard posters, many television appearances [on popular variety programs such as ''Dandana'', and ''Akeed Maestro''], and music video clips for singles. ''Kibir'el Hob'' topped the highest selling album chart in Lebanon for Rotana during the Christmas sales period, and remained in the number one position through the New Year. In mid April 2006, Karam released a third and last single from the ''Kibir'el Hob'' album, accompanied by a video clip, and proved to be among the most popular Arabic songs of the year 2006.

In response to the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict, Karam teamed for the first time with popular Lebanese singer/songwriter Melhim Barakat to record the song ''Rah Yeb2a El Watan''. The track was written and composed by Barakat, and called for unity among all Lebanese people. The single was released in late September and was critically acclaimed for its message and vocals, although criticised for its short running time. Plans for another collaboration with Barakat are underway.

2007-2008: ''Haida Haki'', (That's What I'm Talking About) & ''Aam Bimzah Maak'', (I'm Kidding With You)

28 May began Sawt el Ghad and several other Arab radio stations to play the new hit Hayda Haki. This song with a very new style was expected to be a great deal for 2007.

On 6 June 2007, the company Rotana released Najwa's 16th album titled Hayda Haki. A new Lebanese album with Najwa Karam's special flavor in it. This album include 8 excellent songs as usual.

Different kind of styles in each song. A powerful ''mawal'' in ''Raje3 Tes2al 3a Meen'' and a nice/soft ''mawal'' for ''El hanone''. ''Law ma btekzob'' is like her 90's songs, ''Ana Rouh'' and ''Nawer Eyami'' are two of a kind romance songs. ''Hata Be Ahlamak, Hayda Haki'' and ''Behkik'' are upbeat songs with different styles in each one and a special Najwa Karam's touch. ''Hayda Haki'' was the next song (after her 06-07 huge hit ''Shu Hal Hala'') that Najwa Karam shot as a video clip with Lebanese director Said el Marouk.

From the First week of the release of Hayda Haki it was the best selling album in Lebanon in UAE and Kwait Number one best selling Album.The Album had huge succees from the first week of release in Lebanon, the Gulf, Libya, Syria, Jordan and other Arabic countries.

Najwa Karam was a guest on the show ''Album'' on MBC 1. In 29 June 2007, she shined on Album's stage, one week before Album's final prime. She started by singing ''Hayda Haki'' by herself. Secondly, she sang ''Sho hal hala'' with one of the three groups. Thirdly, she sang ''Law Ma Btekzob'' with another group of the three groups.

In June she released her latest video clip : ''Hayda Haki'', which displayed her character in a romantic atmosphere and love shots and in its first day on the charts she landed on the 1st spot.

Najwa Karam toured the United States and Canada with Lebanese Stars Wael Kfoury and Fadel Shaker, the tour lasted for a little more than a month as they visited major cities and was all success. The American concerts were in Chicago, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Nevada|Las Vegas, Detroit, New Jersey, Boston and Miami. And in Canada, concerts were in Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto, singing in the biggest and most important venues.

Najwa celebrated the New Year's Eve with Wael Kfoury in the Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi, the huge demand on the concert left it sold out more than a week before its date.

Najwa Karam was the first guest on the first prime of Star Academy 5 LBC on Friday 25 January 2008. She sang: Hayda Haki, ''Law ma btekzob'' and ''Ana rou7 ya rou7i''.

On 9 February, Karam held a huge, successful concert in the capital city of Germany, Berlin.

After four days, Najwa released a video clip for "Law Ma Btekzob" by the director Fadi Haddad. The song achieved tremendous success across the middle east. Along with Law Ma Btekzob success, the song Behkeek was achieveing unexpected success too in Egypt and Lebanon ranking #2 in both charts for couple of weeks.

One of Najwa's most anticipated appearance on TV show Al Arrab (Final), with host Nishan, was aired on 31 May. As well, George Kurda7i was there. Najwa sang medley of her old and new songs and added songs for Fairouz, Sabah, Wadih El Safi and Samira Tawfiq. She also sang one of her old mawal "Wainak Ya Ra3i Deni" (Where are you God?) aka. Mawal El Adyan and it achieved huge success.

On 17 July 2008, Rotana released Najwa's 17th studio-album, Am Bimzah Maak (I'm Joking with you). The album received considerable success and positive reviews. The album contained eight songs. One of the most famous Arabic composer Melhim Baraket composed two songs from the album: "Kammil 3ala Rouhi" and "Gatalna El Khof". The album stayed for three months #1 in Virgin Mega Store Lebanon, 4 weeks #1 in UAE Virgin Mega Store, 8 Weeks in Saudi Arabia, etc.; Rotana, Najwa's production company, said that Najwa Karam's last album Am Bimzah Maak, was one of the top 3 best-selling (Rotana) albums in the middle east. It was chosen by Virgin MegaStore Jordan, as Top 3 most selling albums in the year of 2008.

One week after the release of her album, The Queen of Carthage, Najwa Karam shined in Carthage, Tunisia. The concert was very successful.

Najwa Karam went to Sweden where she shined in the Globe-arena 20 September.

The celebrating of Eid El Fitr took place in Dubai.

While four songs from Aam Bimza7 Maak; Am Bimzah Maak, Enta El Shams, Amanti Galbi, and Taa Khabik were achieving a lot of success all over the middle east, Najwa released her second video clip from her latest album " Ma Bkhabi Aleyk" were she collaborated for the first time with Lebanese young director Randa Aalam.

She got an invitation to open the new music-channel named Al Dafrah that would take place 1 November.

Najwa shot a 3rd video clip from her successful album " Aam Bimza7 Maa" called Taa Taa Khabik. And it played on many Music channels in the middle east and received huge success in Lebanon, Maghreb, Syria, Jordan and the Gulf countries.

2009: ''Khaleeni Shoofak'', (Let Me See You)

On February 2009, Najwa attended one of the Middle East most important concert, Hala Febrayer 09 in Kuwait. She performed a mixture of old and new songs for the very active crowd.

On 9 March, specifically on Mothers Day, Najwa Karam released her anticipated single "El Deni Em" (A mother is the whole world), which received huge success and stayed #1 for three wjkjlkiuoppliopeeks on the Online-Magazine "Elaph".

After the meeting between Najwa Karam and Nidal El Ahmadieh (journalist) took place to discuss the many events that took place including Nidal El Ahmadieh's imprisonment, everything is back to normal and Najwa & Nidal are back to being on better terms.

In May 2009, Najwa Karam traveled to Morocco to perform at the Mawazine Festival 2009. Her opening performance attracted a crowd exceeding 60,000. She performed for two and a half hours long as the crowd sang and danced along with her. It will go down in history as one of, if not the most successful concert of Najwa's legendary career.

On 10 June 2009, Rotana released Najwa's 18th album, entitled "Khallini Shoufak" (Let me see you). It has been deemed a very strong release from Shams El Ghenniyie, Najwa Karam. The album contains 8 songs, each with a different style of music and catchy lyrics. It is worth mentioning that along with the lead single "Khallini Shufak", three other songs are receiving huge success: "Eidak" (your hand), "Allah Yesghello Balo" (may God make him worry), and "Aboos Eynak" (kiss your eye). The remaining songs are: "Wale'"(light the fire), "El Deni Em" (a mother is the whole world), "Albi Masna' Baroud" (my heart is a gun factory), "El Haramy" (the thieve). The album is considered to be Najwa's strongest return to her original style since "Saharny" (2003). Najwa said, "it's full of folkloric, balady songs, similar to Saharny and her 90's releases". Her video for "Khallini Shoufak" was released around the same time as her cd.

It's worth to mention that Najwa was a guest performer on Star Academy 6's (Lebanon) final prime. She sang "Am Bemzah Ma'ak" (I'm joking with you), "Ta'a Khabeek" (Let me hide you), and her latest single, "Khallini Shoufak" (Let Me See you).

Najwa appeared on Layali El Samar on March 25, 2010 on ABU DHABI TV. Also Najwa was the guest star on Taratata, Dubai TV, and soon after she appeared on the TV show Akher Man Ya3lam.

2010-2011: ''Bil Rou7, Bil Dam'' (with soul, with blood) & ''Lashhad Hobbak'' (I'll beg for your love)

On May 7, 2010, Sawt El Ghad Radio, Beirut, started playing Najwa's new hit "Bil Rou7, Bil Dam" (with soul, with blood) The New hit single was the first song of Najwa's that was produced directly out of Rotana in 17 years. The song, along with its video clip, which featured in it the Guinness world record for largest plate of tabbouleh, sponsored by Najwa, were well received, and reached great success.

Then On November 11, 2010 Najwa released her next single "Lashhad Hobbak" (I'll beg for your love). Its Video clip aired on Rotana Music Channels, attracting a large audience through its classy styles, like its spider-webbed characteristics. The song became very popular among the masses, and it became a favorite of Najwa's fans. The spider-like outfit, designed by international designer Zuhair Murad, and worn by Najwa in the video clip, was later also worn by Jeniffer Lopez, in her music video, "I'm Into You."

In late 2010, although there were doubts of a new contract between Najwa and Rotana Production Company, after several meetings with Salem El Hendi, Najwa agreed to return to Rotana. Haifa Wehbe attended the dinner party which was held after the press conference telling the press that she was glad to accept Najwa’s invitation and delighted to be part of the celebration.

On January 17, 2011 Najwa was the last guest of the popular show, "Absher" with Nishan.

On February 23, 2011 the first issue of the online Najwa Karam Magazine was published by her official Page on Facebook.(facebook.com/NajwaKaram).

After Najwa decided to postponed her upcoming album, a Song called "Wayn" appeared on the internet. The song was verified stolen from the Najwa Karam Office and released without her permission. The song was recorded three years prior in 2009 and was removed from that year's Album, "Khallini Shoufak." Although illegally released, the song was well liked, and was played on numerous radio stations. With its slow rhythm and different style, unusual of Najwa's music, it reached the top ten singles, and became a favorite, especially among Najwa fans.

Arabs' got Talent

"Arabs' got Talent" debuted on 14 January 2011 on MBC4. It was the first Time for Najwa to be in a jury. The show is very successful and very popular in the Arab world. The 7th Episode was the first live show. It was on 25 February 2011.

2011: ''Hal Leile...MaFi Noum'' (Tonight, There's No Sleep)

On June 28, 2011 Rotana released "Hal Leile...MaFi Noum", Najwa Karam's 19th Studio Album. The album contains the usual 8 songs, 3 of them, "Mafi Noum," "Shu Hal Leile," and "Eainy Bi Eainak" were written by Najwa Karam herself. "MaFi Noum (There's No Sleep)" and "Shu Hal Leile (What a Night)" were both successful before the Album release. After only three days, the Album reached Number 1 on Virgin Megastore Charts, pushing Nawal Al Zoghbi's album, "Ma'rafsh Leh," from number one, down to number five. With Najwa's huge success, Tamer Hosny, a well-known Egyptian singer, was unable to land a number one spot for his new album, "Elly Gai Ahla," which was released the same day. Also unable to reach a number one spot was Assi El Helani with his album "Rouhi Ana." Two weeks after the album debut, with "MaFi Noum" still at the number 1 spot on the charts, A 3D Video clip was released for the song "MaFi Noum." It became the first produced 3D Music Clip in the Middle East, giving Najwa the earned distinction of first Arabic artist to create a video using 3D technology. Put together by three teams, one American, one British, and one Lebanese, the video was Directed by Waleed Nassif, created in cooperation with Sony, and produced by Rotana. The clip received huge success as audiences were wowed by the up-beat style of the stylish Video clip. During the opening sequence, The Clip features, Season 1 Arab's Got Talent contestant, Abdelmalek Al Baljani, from Morocco, in a dance solo. Because of his advanced dance skills, on the show, Najwa, a judge on Arab's Got Talent, had made a promise to cast Al Baljani in her next video, and when she actually did, many were surprised. The three-day shoot took place in Northern Lebanon, at Nahr Ibrahim, in the Kesserwan area of Basateen Al Ossi, Jeita Grotto, and at the studio of Mansourieh, The video clip is currently being played in 3D in Sony showrooms, and in 600 selected 3D theaters across the Arab world. It is also being aired in 2D on Rotana Music Channels, and is being sold in Virgin Megastores.

The Album itself, unlike the largely Dabke 2008 and 2009 albums, "Am Bemzah Ma'ak," and "Khallini Shoufak," was much like the Extremely successful and popular 2007 album, "Hayda Haki," which consisted of more Baladi beats. "MaFi Noum" brings a greater variety of rhythms than Najwa's past two Albums, with upbeat Dabke songs like, "Dallel" and "Bayaa Al Yanaseeb," slower songs such as "Law Bas Taraef" and "Eainy Bi Eainak," and melodious songs consisting of different rhythms like, "MaFi Noum."

Controversy regading the usage of "DOUM TAC," in "MaFi Noum"

The song "MaFi Noum" Employs the fun, "Doum Tac" Derbake notes as a part of its variety of music styles. But the "Doum, Tac...Tarra Doum Doum Doum" parts of the song were at first questioned. In critiques and popular fandom, some believed that the derbake notes were unnecessary in the song, but after repeated listening to the song, especially over the radio, the "Doum Tac" parts become catchy and fun to sing along, and the "MaFi Noum" video clip adds to they're appeal as the notes are associated with sudden movements and swift dance moves in the 3D music Video. In concerts, the audience sings along the "Doum Tac," and it, like the well-known lines "Rooh Rouhi," "Ana Ma Fiyeh," and "Aam Bimzah Maak" has become a trademark of Najwa Karam's and a popular label.

2011 Summer Concerts

On June 26, Najwa Sang infront of a massive crowd at the Timitar Festival in Aghadir, Morocco.

Following the Release of "MaFi Noum," Najwa appeared on the Star Academy 8 Final Prime, where she sang, "MaFi Noum," "Shu Hal Leile." and her 2010 Single, "Lashhad Hobbak."

Najwa also starred at the Exclusive Batroun International Festival in Lebanon, and at the Aswat Nisa2ayat, (Women's Voices) Concert in Morocco.

Other Concerts of the summer took place in Rest House Tyre, Ehden, Beit Mary, and Mayrouba, in Lebanon.

Jerash Festival

On July 28, 2011 Najwa participated in the Jerash Festival of Culture and Arts in Jordan, where she sang for an audience numbering in the tens of thousands. Present in the crowd was Queen Noor of Jordan. The successful concert earned her another Jerash Festival award, as the concert was one of the biggest 2011 summer concerts in the Middle East.

Philanthropy

2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict

Karam's initial response to the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict was to go ahead with scheduled tour dates abroad, with all proceeds forwarded to the Lebanese Red Cross. Furthermore, Karam donated 3 fully equipped ambulance vehicles, also to the Lebanese Red Cross.

Other causes

In November 2006, Karam attended the launching of charity program Reach Out To Asia in Doha. The program aims at raising money for the underprivileged and disadvantaged across Asia. Najwa performed at the event.

Najwa has also raised money for other causes such as cancer research via a number of chartity performances.

Before the end of 2007 Najwa Karam appeared on LBCI TV and announced that she will be donating free full health insurance for 300 attending elderly people, hoping that this "small" first step will become bigger and bigger.

Najwa performed in a live concert on Berlin, Germany during February 2008, a percentage of the concert's earnings goes as aid for children of war in Lebanon and Palestine.

Najwa, also is currently working hard to be appointed United Nations Goodwill Ambassador, she feels that she has to contribute through her art to spread peace worldwide from the middle east.

Awards and nominations

! Year	! Awarded by	! Category
1985	Layali Lubnan	Gold Medal First Place
1994	Lebanese Broadcasting	The Best Singer
1995	Lebanese Broadcasting	The Best Singer
1995	LaRami.com	The Most Famous Singer
1996
1996		Key to the City of Chicago
1996	Jordan	Jerash Festival Award
1996	2nd Orbit	Festival Award
1996	LaRami.com	The Most Famous Singer
1997	Tunis	Carthage Festival Award
1998	Oman	Masqat Festival Award
1998	Germany	Key to the City of Düsseldorf
1998	Canada	Arab Communities Festival Award
1998	Libya	Alfatih Festival Award
1999	Australia	Arab Communities Festival Award
1999	Lebanese Army	Honorary Award
2000	Tunisia	Carthage Festival Award
2000	Tunisia	Alzahra City festival Award
2000		Pronounced As "Lebanese Diva"
2001	Qatar	"Doha Arab Song" Festival Award
2001	Kuwait	Hala February Festival Award
2001	UAE	Layali Dubai Festival Award
2001	Lebanon	Murex D'or award for The Best Arabic singer
2001	Lebanon	Best Singer from Lebanese Radio Stations
2001	Rotana	Artist of the year
2001	Rotana	Album of the Year: Nedmani
2001	Rotana	The highest selling album: Nedmani
2001	Al delta, Almahabi, Almeraj, Jabal Lebanon & Sawt El Musica	Awards
2002	Aley	Festival Award
2002	Lebanon	Tyre Festival Award
2003	Rotana	Highest selling album: Saharni
2003	Lebanon	Tyre Festival Award
2003	Lions	Best Singer of the Traditional Lebanese Songs
2003	Lebanon	Faraya City Award
2003	Jordan	Jarash Festival Award
2003	Sawt El Ghad Australia	Song of the Year: Edhak Lil Donya
2003	Australian Government	Honorary Award
2004	Kuwait	Hala February Award
2004	Tunisia	Carthage Festival Award
2004	Lebanon	Zahle City Award
2004	MusicanaNet.net	Female Artist of the Year
2005	Rotana	Arabic Singer of the Year
2005	Sawt El Ghad Australia	Song of the Year: Bhebak Walaa
2006	Sawt El Ghad Australia	Shu Hal Hala marked #4 in Top 100 songs
2007	Qatar	Doha Festival Award
2007	Kuwait	Hala February Award
2007	Jordan	Jerash Festival Award
2007	Canada	The Best Female Singer in the Middle East
2007	Mosaqiue Fm	Best Album of the Year: Hayda Haki
2007	Zahrat Al Khaleej Yearly Survey	Most Popular Female Singer #1, Best Female Singer #2
2008	Tunisia	Queen Of Carthage
2008	Software Times Award	The Best Arabic Singer
2008	LE Music Choice	The Best Lebanese Song: Am Bimzah Maak
2008	Al Sarih Magazine	The Best Arabic Singer
2008	Zahrat Al Khalig	The Best Arabic Singer (receiving 90%)
2008	Stars Magazine	#1 The Best Album: Am Bimzah Maak	Rotana	One of the most selling albums: Am Bimzah Maak
2009	Melody FM	Najwa Karam Best female singer
2009	Al Jaras TV	"Khallini shufak" Best Album for the year	Best Female singer for the year
2009	Hiya TV	Najwa karam best female singer of the year, program: Top of the Tops	"Khallini shufak" Best Album fot the year receiving 64%
2009	Najwa Karam Best singer ever who sings LEBANESE SONG accordind to www.bisara7.com
2009	IRAQ Radio FM	Najwa karam best female singer for the year (97%)	"Khallini Shoufak" best selling album in Iraq
2009	El Madina FM	Best Female Singer for the year (31.0%)
2009	Zahrat El khalij	Best Female Arab Singer for the year
2011	Virgin Records	"Hal Leile...MaFi Noum" Number 1 on Charts 3 Days after release
2011	Sony	"MaFi Noum" First 3D Music Video in the Middle East
2011	Jerash, Jordan	Jerash Festival of Culture and Arts Award

Discography

Studio albums

1989: ''Ya Habayeb''

1992: ''Shams el-Ghinnieh''

1993: ''Ana Ma'akon''

1994: ''Naghmet Hob''

1995: ''Ma Bassmahlak''

1996: ''Hazi Helo''

1997: ''Ma Hada La Hada''

1998: ''Maghroumeh''

1999: ''Rouh Rouhi''

2000: ''Oyoun Qalbi''

2001: ''Nedmaneh''

2002: ''Tahamouni''

2003: ''Saharni''

2004: ''Shu Mghaira..!''

2005: ''Kibir'el Hob''

2007: ''Hayda Haki'':

2008: ''Am Bemzah Ma'ak''

2009: ''Khallini Shoufak''

2011: ''Hal Leile... MaFi Noum''

Singles not appearing in albums

2000: ''Tal Omrak''

2003: ''W Kberna'' withWadih El Safi

2005: ''Shou Jani''

2006: ''Rah Yeb'a El Watan '' featuring Melhem Barakat

2007: ''Bel Sana'' with Melhem Barakat

2010: ''Bil Rou7, Bil Dam''

2010: ''Lashhad Hobbak''

2011: ''Wayn''

Compilations

2001: ''The Very Best Of Najwa Karam''

2006: ''Greatest Hits''

Live recordings

2001: ''Live in Concert''

2008: ''Queen of Carthage 2008''

See also

Music of Lebanon

References

Websites

Najwa Karam's Official Website

Najwa Karam's Official Facebook-Page

Najwa Karam's Official YouTube-Channel

Category:1966 births Category:Living people Category:Arabic-language singers Category:Lebanese female singers Category:Lebanese Maronites Category:People from Zahle Category:Rotana artists

ar:نجوى كرم br:Najwa Karam es:Najwa Karam fr:Najwa Karam ko:나즈와 카람 nl:Najwa Karam pl:Najwa Karam pt:Najwa Karam sr:Наџва Карам fi:Najwa Karam tr:Najwa Karam

Coordinates	55°45′06″N37°37′04″N
name	Haifa Wehbe
background	solo_singer
birth place	Mahrouna, Lebanon
genre	Arabic pop, World
occupation	Singer, model, Designer, Actress
years active	1990s- (model) 2002–present (Singer) 2007–present (Actress)
website	http://www.haifawehbe.com }}

Haifa Wehbe (Arabic: هيفاء وهبي) born in Mahrouna, Lebanon), is a Lebanese model, actress, and singer born to a Lebanese father and Egyptian mother who rose to fame in the Arab world as runner up for Miss Lebanon and later through the release of her debut album ''Houwa El-Zaman'' (Arabic: هو الزمن) in 2002 and is best known through her music for her sex appeal, provocative mannerisms and image, Wehbe is also widely considered a sex symbol in the Middle East. She has so far released four studio albums and made her acting debut in 2008 Pepsi-produced film "''Sea of Stars''". Wehbe is one of the most well-known female singers in the Arab World and is considered one of the most successful Lebanese singers. In 2006, she was on People Magazine's 50 most beautiful people list.

Early life

Wehbe was born in Mahrouna, a small Shia farming town in Southern Lebanon, to a Lebanese father and Egyptian mother, but shortly after her family had moved to Beirut where she grew up listening to jazz and R&B and began to work as a full-time model at a young age. Wehbe won the title of ''Miss South Lebanon'' at the age of sixteen. Wehbe won an ancillary title at the Miss Lebanon competition, which she had to relinquish when it was discovered that she had already been married to nadim anntar(at age 18) and had a baby girl called Zeineb, disqualifying her.

Wehbe also made a name for herself when she starred in a music video clip for the famous Arabic crooner, George Wassouf. By 1996, she had appeared on over one hundred magazine covers.

Career

Houwa El-Zaman (2002-2003)

In 2002, Wehbe released her first album, titled ''Houwa El-Zaman'' (Arabic: هو الزمن, English: "It Is The Time"), which became a commercial success, in part thanks to the popularity of her first single "Agoul Ahwak" (Arabic: أقول أهواك, English: "I Say I Love You").

Baddi Eish and Television Career (2004-2007)

Wehbe released her second studio album ''Baddi Eesh'' (Arabic: بدي عيش, English: "I Want to Live") in early 2005 and lived up to expectations due to the success of its lead single "Ya Hayat Albi." Released after the assassination of Lebanese politician Rafik Hariri, the title single of the album is about "freedom, considered to be among the most basic of human rights". Her follow-up single became her biggest hit to date, "Ana Haifa" (Arabic: أنا هيفاء, English: "I Am Haifa"), which became her novelty song. In 2006 she released a follow up single "Bus al-Wawa" (Arabic: بوس الواوا, English: "Kiss the ''booboo''"), the song was later used in a Pepsi advertisement. The song was also voted Song of the Year in 2006 by Radio Scope and Sawt Al Musika.

In July 2005, Wehbe, along with 14 other celebrities from the Arab world, appeared on the live pan-Arab reality series Al-Wadi (Arabic: الوادي, English: The Farm‎), based on the French reality show La Ferme Célébrités. Wehbe's role featured songs from her then new album.

Wehbe was the first Arab artist appear on the Italian television channel Rai Uno at Piazza Navona in Rome, performing in front of celebrities and fashion designers. Haifa Wehbe has also performed with artists from outside the Arab world. On June 10, 2006, Wehbe became the first artist in the Arab world to perform with rapper 50 Cent when she performed the opening act for his first concert in Lebanon, at BIEL in Beirut.

In summer 2006 she was a spokesperson for Pepsi, and worked on Pepsi ads with football star Thierry Henry which were aired on Lebanese television during the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

Film Career Beginnings and Habibi Ana (2008-2009)

Wehbe starred in the Pepsi-produced film Sea of Stars released in early 2008, along with Carole Samaha, Ahmad el Sherif, Wael Kfoury, Brigitte Yaghi, and Ruwaida al-Mahrooqi

On July 4, 2008, Wehbe released her third studio album Habibi Ana (Arabic: حبيبي أنا, English: "My Love") which contains 15 songs including the lead single "Mosh Adra Astana". In the Middle East album sales struggled due to Haifa's lack of promotion as she was concentrating more on her acting and film career.

In 2009 Wehbe starred in Dokkan Shehata, a high-grossing Egyptian drama film. The film was produced by Khaled Youssef. It was released in June 2009 and immediately became a huge success in the Middle East whilst gaining tremendous publicity.

Baby Haifa (2010-present)

After a lengthy delay, Wehbe released a children's album titled Baby Haifa in March 2010 under Rotana Records.

Wehbe was scheduled to work on the Egyptian movie Leilet El-Baby Doll, but canceled due to her overbooked schedule. The singer will be starring in another movie with producer Muhammad Al Sabki scheduled for sometime in 2011.

In April 2010, Wehbe was featured on French DJ David Vendetta's album ''Vendetta'' on the song ''Yama Layali''. Wehbe is currently working on her fifth studio album. In an interview she said the album will be released in the start of summer.

Other works

Wehbe occasionally works as a television host and has also designed her own selection of diamond jewellery.

Personal life

Wehbe is a Shia Lebanese Muslim, and she has three sisters. Wehbe's brother died at the age of 24 during the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon. Wehbe's daughter has been living with her father since her parents divorce. In 2008 Wehbe's daughter was married in a private ceremony. As of 2010, Zeinab Zaza and her father are living in Kuwait.

In 2005, Wehbe announced her engagement to a Saudi businessman Tariq Al-Jaffali. After only a few weeks, she and her fiancé decided to split for personal reasons and family issues.

On June 25, 2007, Wehbe survived an accident while filming a music video for the song "Hasa Ma Bena" in Lebanon. In the video, a single engine airplane was to chase Wehbe as she drove a car. However, the airplane inadvertently hit the car, taking off the front windshield of the convertible she was driving. Despite the severity of the accident, Wehbe suffered only minor cuts and bruises.

Wehbe married Egyptian businessman Ahmad Abu Husheima on April 24, 2009 in Beirut. Among the guests at the wedding party were singer Anastacia, Googoosh, Kim Kardashian, Samar Ibrahim, Nawal Al Zoghbi, Najwa Karam, Ragheb Alama, Ahlam, and Sherine.

Criticism and controversy

Elissa rivalry

Haifa is known for her enmity and rivalry with Lebanese singer Elissa. In 2009 Haifa compared the two singers to 'cars' by saying that Elissa is an 'old car' while she is a 'new' one. This statement was highly publicised and talked about in the media and press, causing anger between fans. Elissa refused to reply and just stated carelessly: "When someone compares me to a car, is there anything left for me to say?". This enmity stopped when Nishan had Elissa live on his show and called Haifa. Both Elissa and Haifa were surprised, but assured people that there are no problems or issues between the two singers.

Further controversy started when Haifa claimed that Elissa's perfume, "Elle D'Elissa", was supposed to be hers, but Elissa didn't reply and said that the perfume is hers and only hers yet again, Haifa and Elissa announced the love and peace between them. During the Murex d'Or 2010, after Haifa had finished her performance and accepted her award, she said that Lebanon is a country of love and that all Lebanese people love and respect each other. And to prove to people that what she was saying was true, she said "There's no problem with Elissa, and this is the proof to all people," she shook hands with Elissa and congratulated her on her success.

Allegations of Racism

In 2009, lyrics in one of Wehbe song's Baba Fein (from her unreleased 2010 kids album) seemed to refer to Nubians as "monkeys". Exact translation: "''Where is my teddy bear and the Nubian monkey?''". Black Egyptians accused the artist of racism and singing a song that fueled racism and discrimination against them. In 2010 a lawsuit filed against Wehbe was dropped.

Another serious incident occurred after the 2009 Egypt–Algeria World Cup dispute, adding to the diplomatic tension between the two countries. Wehbe went on to make statements that she would not be performing in Algeria anytime soon, because Algerians "''...wouldn't understand her music''". Algerian officials and many Algerians responded to Wehbe's statements stating she would not be welcome in Algeria anyway. Algeria's cultural minister stated that Wehbe would be banned from performing in Algeria for insulting Algeria and the Algerian people regardless of whether she apologizes.

Wehbe went on to explain her initial comments to Lebanese host Tony Khalife, saying that she didn't mean to offend Algerians or Algeria as a country but was condemning the actions of a few Algerians during the match. She then added saying: "I couldn’t help it but cry when I saw the blood of an Egyptian woman on the stadium!".

Political views

During the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict, she left her home, in Verdun, Beirut and moved to Egypt for the duration of the conflict. In a concert in the Lebanese town of Jounieh, Wehbe congratulated Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah for his stand against Israel during the war.

In a further interview with Reuters, Wehbe stated that Israel attacked Lebanese civilians intentionally while Hezbollah attacked only military targets: }}

Wehbe also refused to perform at any concert during the 34 days of the war including fundraisers, saying that there were more ways than one to show support for Lebanon.

Wehbe has also urged fans to support Japanese victims of the Tsunami.

2007 Lebanon elections and concert in Beirut

Wehbe wore a shirt with the face of President Michel Suleiman during her performance at the election celebrations in downtown Beirut.

Lebanese newspapers said scores went onstage when Haifa appeared, despite attempts by police to prevent them from reaching the pop star. She also sang the Fairuz classic "Ya Hawa Beirut" ("Oh my love Beirut"), which is nostalgic song written during the Lebanese Civil War that reminisces on the "Glorious Days" of Lebanon prior to 1975.

Image

Wehbe was ranked 49^th in the 2006 Edition of the Top 99 Most Desirable Women by the website AskMen.com. Wehbe was also ranked number 6 in the AskMen.com's 10 Hottest Arab Women article.

Some in the more conservative Arab countries deem her revealing outfits scandalous. One Bahraini member of parliament called her a sexual singer who spoke with her body, not her voice. Wehbe said she was aware of the efforts to ban her from performing at the concert but had chosen to ignore their attempts to silence her.

''"I am a performer and not a politician,"'' Haifa said. ''"I know my fans want me I am there for them.'' ''I am not concerned with the other issues."''

In April 2008, the Islamist-dominated parliament of Bahrain passed a motion urging the government to ban Haifa Wehbe's show in the country. As a result of the motion, Wehbe performed in Bahrain with more modest dress, wearing a long green gown with a low V-neckline during the performance.

Discography

Studio albums

Houwa El-Zaman (2002)

Baddi Eesh (2005)

Habibi Ana (2008)

Other albums

Baby Haifa (2010)

Soundtracks

2008: ''Sea of Stars''

Singles

" 80 Million Ehsas"

"Enta Tany"

"Yama Layali"

"Samaani"

Concert Tours

2011

January 29- Amsterdam, Netherlands (TBA)

2010

November 18- Al Massa Hotel, Cairo

November 17- Movempic Hotel, Beirut, Lebanon

July 31 - Movempic Hotel, Beirut, Lebanon

July 24 - Chouf, Lebanon

July 22 - Batroun, Lebanon

July 16–19 - Casablanca, Morocco

July 4 - PRIVATE CONCERT, Monaco

July 2 - Zahle Festival, Zahle, Lebanon

May 8 - Phoenicia Hotel, Beirut

March 13 - Houston, Texas

Filmography

Films

Sea of Stars (produced by Pepsi) - released July, 2008

Dokkan Shihata - June 2009

Television

Al Wadi (2005) - reality television show based on the French reality show La Ferme Célébrités.

Awards

2002: The "Golden Lion" Award in Egypt. 2004: Best Young Female Arab singer in Egypt. 2005: The Oscar for "ninashnash" for her song ''Baddi Eesh'' from her second album. 2005: The "Murex d'Or" award with the title "Best Artist of the Year". 2006: The "Murex d'Or" award with the title "Best Artist of the Year". 2009: The "Murex d'Or" award with title "Most Popular Lebanese Singer"

2010: The "Murex d'Or" award with the title "Best singer actress"

2010: The "ART" Award for her role in her first Egyptian Film "Dokkan Shehata"

2011: World's Most Desirable Woman List #49 Rank 2011: Most beautiful Arabian model cum actress list Ranked #2 2011: Murex d'Or best song award, for "Yama Layaly."

References

Further reading

Arab youth revel in pop revolution by Sebastian Usher, 21 May 2007, BBC

External links

Most Desirable Arabian:Haifa Wehbe

Haifa Wehbe.com: Official website

Haifa Fans: Official FanClub

Haifa Wehbe Music Videos

Haifa's Official Fanpage

Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Living people Category:Arabic-language singers Category:Lebanese female singers Category:Rotana artists Category:Lebanese female models Category:Lebanese people of Egyptian descent Category:Lebanese Shi'a Muslims Category:Shi'a Islamists Category:Lebanese Islamists Category:Hezbollah Category:People from South Lebanon

ang:Hēffe Ƿehbiȝ ar:هيفاء وهبي cs:Haifa Wehbe de:Haifa Wehbe es:Haifa Wehbe fa:هیفا وهبی fr:Haifa Wehbe ko:하이파 와흐비 hy:Հայֆա Ուեհբե id:Haifa Wehbe it:Haifa Wehbe he:הייפא והבי arz:هيفاء وهبى ja:ハイファ・ワハビ pl:Haifa Wehbe pt:Haifa Wehbe ru:Вахби, Хайфа simple:Haifa Wehbe fi:Haifa Wehbe tr:Haifa Wehbe zh:海法·维哈比