CONFLICTED – “The People Who Became Arabs”
Podcast by: Message Heard
Host: Thomas Small
Guest: Yosef Rapoport, Professor of Islamic History, Queen Mary University London
Date: February 19, 2026
Episode Overview
In this episode, Thomas Small speaks with Yosef Rapoport, whose new book Becoming Arab challenges the traditional narrative about how the Middle East became Arab. Rather than being the result of mass migrations or conquests by Arabian tribes, Rapoport argues that Arab identity among Middle Eastern peasants was a gradual, locally-driven process. The discussion explores how, from the 11th to 15th centuries, rural populations in Egypt and the Levant shifted their religious, social, and cultural frameworks, eventually coming to see themselves as Arabs through adaptation, clan formation, conversion, and the power of storytelling—transformations that continue to shape identity and politics in the region today.
Key Discussion Points and Insights
Yosef Rapoport’s Background and Approach
- [04:25] Rapoport describes his academic journey, focusing on medieval peasant life rather than the more politically fraught modern era:
“I tried to move away from the modern period, which is so heavily loaded with political discourse... I find it easier to deal with the medieval period.” (Rapoport, 04:29)
- His long-term study of village life and overlooked peasant agency shapes his reevaluation of how Arab identity formed.
Rethinking the Origins of Arab Identity
Traditional Narrative vs. Rapoport’s Argument
- [05:19] The classic view: Arabness spread through mass migration and conquest by tribes from Arabia.
- [05:40] Rapoport: Most who became “Arabs” in Egypt and the Levant were local villagers, adopting new identities over centuries.
“Arab identity emerged locally among sedentary peasant and village communities... through various social, administrative, and cultural processes rather than mass migration.” (Small, 05:41)
The Forgotten Majority: Peasant Agency and Village Life
- [07:18] Medieval history has focused on urban elites; peasants, the majority, have been wrongly dismissed as passive.
- [08:33] Word origins—like “pagan” (meaning village dweller)—reveal how city writers shaped perceptions of the countryside.
- [09:49] Rapoport seeks sources from the villages themselves: “To hear the stories that villagers tell about themselves and what tax collectors tell about them as well.”
“Arab” Before Arabization – Identities in the Early Islamic Centuries
- [09:49–12:35]
- Early “Arabs” were tribal, sometimes urban elites in new garrison cities (e.g., Kufa, Basra, Fustat).
- Most countryside populations (farmers, peasants) remained non-Arab, often Christian, for centuries:
“We have very little evidence that this group settled as farmers in the countryside... Farmers have Coptic Christian names.” (Rapoport, 11:31)
- Arabic language spread faster than “Arab” identity; local populations adopted Arabic without becoming “Arabs” in a genealogical sense.
Local Identities and Religious Persistence
- [14:49]
- 10th/11th c. Egypt, Palestine and Syria: Christian majorities among peasants, little clan organization.
- Conversion to Islam did not immediately equate to adopting Arab identity or genealogy.
The Turning Point: Administrative and Social Transformation
- [17:42]
- Shift from peasant landownership to tenant status under state- or lord-owned land—“the rise of feudalism.”
- [18:59]
- Focus shifts to decentralization and the rise of local military lords (often Turkic or Central Asian origins) who manage taxation and land allocation.
- Peasants’ identities reorient from locality to group (“clan”) as a function of collective land tenure.
“They are no longer owners...their identity is not defined by the place they live in, but by the group that they belong to.” (Rapoport, 19:57)
Becoming Arabs: Clan Formation and Invented Genealogies
- [20:43]
- Two decisive changes:
- Village cultivators become a “clan,” negotiating as a group.
- Adoption/invention of Arabian ancestry to claim status, particularly after conversion to Islam:
“If you are a convert, you want to erase the traces of your conversion... Lineage is the most logical choice.” (Rapoport, 22:13)
- Arabness existed in cities before; now rural clans attached themselves to this elite genealogy.
- Two decisive changes:
Evidence of Transition: Regional Case Studies
Sinai & Orban ("New Arabs")
- [25:56]
- 12th-century Sinai: Documents from St. Catherine’s Monastery show the emergence of “orban”—people claiming Arab identity, but not seen as true Arabs by local monks.
“These are muwaladun, a word that means half caste or half breed. They are not really Arabs.” (Rapoport, 27:20)
Fayoum & Egypt’s “Doomsday Book”
- [27:57]
- 13th-century Fayoum: Census shows every peasant village now grouped as an Arab clan. No archaeological/language evidence of mass migration or name changes.
“The names [of villages] are remarkably Coptic... Each village now is leasing its lands from a local amir, and then they have headmen... also the heads of the clan.” (Rapoport, 29:28)
Palestine Highlands: The Religious Divide
- [31:20]
- Muslim villages—organized by Arab clans; Christian villages—organized through church, no clans.
- Type of agriculture (annual grains versus perennial orchards) affects continuity of land tenure and thus religious/communal persistence.
Culture, Storytelling, and the Reinvention of Identity
- [37:55]
- Popular Arabic epics (e.g., Antar) emerge as blueprints for Arab identity, giving new clans shared history and values.
“These are not just stories. There are ways to create ident[ity]... The best way to do that is through epics.” (Rapoport, 38:05)
- Parallels to modern national identity-making—e.g., American cowboy myths, shared films:
“The example of films and movies is similar to the popular epics because... you identify with a hero. And this creates... the identity of the group that you want to belong to.” (Rapoport, 41:04)
The Medieval Reaction
- [42:21]
- 13th/14th-century scholars like Ibn Taymiyyah (c. 1300) witness and object to new rural “tribal” rivalries and self-identification as legendary Arabian confederacies (Qays & Yaman).
“This isn't genuine. This isn’t real ancestry. It isn’t even really Islam... a kind of manufactured tribalism.” (Small, 43:14)
- Rapoport likens this to football fandoms—rivalries foster a common overarching identity.
Enduring Legacies: Modern Implications
- [46:43]
- Clan identities and rivalries persist in places like Syria, activated during periods of state collapse.
- This “Arabization” was adopted by long-rooted locals, not mass invaders, and informs contemporary political debates over belonging and land rights.
“No clan, no ethnic identity is primordial. Everything was created at some point.” (Rapoport, 48:32)
- Dual identities persist—Egyptians are both “Arab” and “descendants of the Pharaohs”; Palestinians are both Arab and “people of the place”.
Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments
-
On the overlooked agency of peasants:
“Most farmers I know are not [passive]. And most of the people in the Middle Ages were farmers and they had agency and they wanted to keep as much of their harvest as they could, and they created their own identities and they told stories.” (Rapoport, 07:34)
-
Describing the shift in identity:
“From being individual peasants... they are now clans, and these clans are now attaching themselves to this genealogical tree of Arab people.” (Rapoport, 23:10)
-
Explaining the power of invented ancestry:
“If you are a convert, you want to erase the traces of your conversion... Lineage is the most logical choice.” (Rapoport, 22:13)
-
On the enduring duality of identities:
“People hold dual identities all the time, don't we?” (Rapoport, 51:54)
-
On the contemporary stakes of these narratives:
“...the fact that people call themselves clansmen doesn’t mean that they are not attached to the land. So this is something that is very real and happening at this moment in time when people, because of this myth of migrations, are being uprooted from lands they have been cultivating for many, many years.” (Rapoport, 53:41)
Key Timestamps
- [04:07] – Introduction of Yosef Rapoport
- [07:18] – Rural perspectives in medieval history
- [09:49] – What “Arab” meant in early Islam
- [14:37–16:41] – What identities meant to rural populations pre-Arabization
- [17:42–22:13] – How state power and conversion influenced new social identities
- [25:56–27:57] – Case study: The Sinai and Fayoum documents as evidence of identity change
- [31:20–36:09] – Palestine: Muslim and Christian communal organization
- [37:55–41:04] – Popular epics as tools for forging and spreading “Arabness”
- [42:21–46:43] – Ibn Taymiyyah’s objection & the persistence of tribal rivalries
- [48:32]–[54:38] – Modern implications and political stakes
Conclusion
Rapoport’s research fundamentally reframes what it means to be Arab in the Middle East, undermining simplistic ethnonationalist myths and emphasizing how fluid, imaginative, and contingent identities can be—even those that now seem primordial. The Arabization of Egypt and the Levant was not a story of mass migration, but of gradual, local transformation. This challenges political claims (in Israel, Palestine, Egypt and elsewhere) about who truly “belongs” and highlights the continuing importance of understanding identity formation as a complex, ground-up process, not merely an inheritance from an ancient past.