This is a 3,000 year history of people, tribes and empires, the earliest mention of Arabs in 853 BC led to their sudden appearance in the international spotlight. Arabs probably existed before there was a place called Arabia and long before their name applied to the entire Arabian Peninsula. The interwoven dualities of hadar/badw, settled/nomadic, sha'b/qibilah, people/tribe only become clear with time. These people who defined themselves by ancestry include the first people