Arab world

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The Arab world comprises a large group of countries, mainly located in West Asia and North Africa. While the majority of people in the Arab world are ethnically Arab, there are also significant populations of other ethnic groups such as Berbers, Kurds, Somalis and Nubians, among other groups. Arabic is used as the lingua franca throughout the Arab world. The Arab world is usually defined as the 19 states where Arabs form at least a plurality of the population. At its maximum definition it consists of the 22 members of the Arab League, an international organization, which on top of the 19 plurality Arab states also includes 3 non-Arab countries, namely the Comoros, Djibouti and Somalia. The region stretches from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the east, and from the Mediterranean Sea in the north to the Indian Ocean in the southeast. The eastern part of the Arab world is known as the Mashriq ("east" in Arabic) and the western part as the Maghreb ("west" in Arabic). According...

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