A peninsula of southwestern Asia, largely desert, lying between the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf and bounded on the north by Jordan and Iraq. The original homeland of the Arabs and the historic center of Islam, it comprises the states of Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.

Sometime after the rise of Islam in the first quarter of the 7th century CE and the emergence of the Arabian Muslims as the founders of one of the great empires of history, the name ʿArab came to be used by these Muslims themselves and by the nations with whom they came in contact to indicate all people of Arabian origin. The very name Arabia, or its Arabic name Jazīrat al-ʿArab, has come to be used for the whole peninsula.

Arabia was the cradle of Islam, and through this faith it influenced all Muslims. Islam, essentially Arabian in nature, is Arabia’s outstanding contribution to world civilization.