On 29 November 1990, the adoption of United Nations Security Council Resolution 678 authorized the assembly of a multinational military coalition to liberate Iraqi-occupied Kuwait by "all necessary means" if Iraq did not withdraw its forces by 15 January 1991. Iraq failed to do so, and the coalition began an aerial bombardment against targets in Iraq and Kuwait on 17 January 1991. At this time, the coalition consisted of 42 countries and was spearheaded by the United States . The central command was led by the United States, Saudi Arabia , and the United Kingdom ; the marine command was led by the United States; the Joint Forces East Command was led by Egypt , Saudi Arabia, Syria , Morocco , Kuwait , Oman , the United Arab Emirates , Qatar , Bahrain , Poland , and Czechoslovakia ; and the Joint Forces North Command was led by the United States, the United Kingdom, France , Canada , Italy , Australia , and Turkey .
110-820: The Saudi Arabian Armed Forces ( SAAF ) ( Arabic : القوات المسلحة السعودية , romanized : Al-Quwwat al-Musallahah al-Malakiyah as-Su’ūdiyah ), also known as the Royal Saudi Armed Forces , is part of the military forces of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia . It consists of the Royal Saudi Army , the Royal Saudi Navy , the Royal Saudi Air Force , the Royal Saudi Air Defense , and
220-575: A collection of related dialects that constitute the precursor of Arabic, first emerged during the Iron Age . Previously, the earliest attestation of Old Arabic was thought to be a single 1st century CE inscription in Sabaic script at Qaryat al-Faw , in southern present-day Saudi Arabia. However, this inscription does not participate in several of the key innovations of the Arabic language group, such as
330-1184: A contract worth at least US$ 10 billion to supply the Saudi Arabian army with armored military vehicles. The Royal Saudi Land Forces are composed of three armored brigades, five mechanized brigades, one airborne brigade, one Royal Guard brigade, and eight artillery battalions. The army also has one aviation command with two aviation brigades. The army's main equipment consists of a combination of French- and U.S.-made armored vehicles: 315 M–1A2 Abrams, 290 AMX–30 , and 450 M60A3 main battle tanks; 300 reconnaissance vehicles; 570+ AMX–10P and 400 M–2 Bradley armored infantry fighting vehicles; 3,000+ M113 and 100 Al-Fahd armored personnel carriers, produced in Saudi Arabia; 200+ towed artillery pieces; 110 self-propelled artillery pieces; 60 multiple rocket launchers; 400 mortars; 10 surface-to-surface missiles; about 2,000 antitank guided weapons; about 200 rocket launchers; 450 recoilless launchers; 12 attack helicopters; 50+ transport helicopters; and 1,000 surface-to-air missiles. In 1996 Saudi Arabia had military cities in
440-435: A corpus of poetic texts, in addition to Qur'an usage and Bedouin informants whom he considered to be reliable speakers of the ʿarabiyya . Arabic spread with the spread of Islam . Following the early Muslim conquests , Arabic gained vocabulary from Middle Persian and Turkish . In the early Abbasid period , many Classical Greek terms entered Arabic through translations carried out at Baghdad's House of Wisdom . By
550-1081: A dialect of Arabic and written in the Latin alphabet . The Balkan languages, including Albanian, Greek , Serbo-Croatian, and Bulgarian , have also acquired many words of Arabic origin, mainly through direct contact with Ottoman Turkish . Arabic has influenced languages across the globe throughout its history, especially languages where Islam is the predominant religion and in countries that were conquered by Muslims. The most markedly influenced languages are Persian , Turkish , Hindustani ( Hindi and Urdu ), Kashmiri , Kurdish , Bosnian , Kazakh , Bengali , Malay ( Indonesian and Malaysian ), Maldivian , Pashto , Punjabi , Albanian , Armenian , Azerbaijani , Sicilian, Spanish, Greek, Bulgarian, Tagalog , Sindhi , Odia , Hebrew and African languages such as Hausa , Amharic , Tigrinya , Somali , Tamazight , and Swahili . Conversely, Arabic has borrowed some words (mostly nouns) from other languages, including its sister-language Aramaic, Persian, Greek, and Latin and to
660-595: A failed response by Saudi forces to Houthi incursions in 2009 . In the early 2010s, after almost 20 years of relatively modest increases in military spending, the Saudi government embarked an unprecedented expansion of the Kingdom's armed forces. This shift in policy was spear-headed primarily by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman , who took over as Defense Minister in 2015. It is believed the continued high level expansion of
770-486: A field hospital was deployed to al-Jubayl . An estimated 60,000 to 100,000 Saudi troops participated in operations against Iraq, led by Khalid bin Sultan , Saleh Al-Muhaya and Sultan Al-Mutairi . Senegal contributed approximately 500 troops. Singapore sent 30 personnel to provide medical and humanitarian services under Operation Nightingale , as well as nine military support teams. The South Korean contingent
880-487: A lesser extent and more recently from Turkish, English, French, and Italian. Arabic is spoken by as many as 380 million speakers, both native and non-native, in the Arab world, making it the fifth most spoken language in the world, and the fourth most used language on the internet in terms of users. It also serves as the liturgical language of more than 2 billion Muslims . In 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked Arabic
990-575: A logistical hub for coalition forces. The Bangladeshi contribution to the coalition contained about 2300 personnel. Their operation was codenamed Operation Moruprantar and involved security personnel, including two field Ambulance teams. After the war, Bangladeshi forces inspected and cleared land mines lain by the Iraqi forces. In 2015, there were still up to 5000 Bangladeshi troops stationed in Kuwait to aid with mine clearance. The Bangladeshi commander
1100-648: A long list of outstanding orders for arms, including 27 more combat aircraft from the United Kingdom, 154 combat aircraft from the U.S. and a large number of armoured vehicles from Canada. The United States sold more than $ 80 billion in military hardware between 1951 and 2006 to the Saudi military. In comparison, the Israel Defense Forces received $ 53.6 billion in U.S. military grants between 1949 and 2007. On 20 October 2010, U.S. State Department notified Congress of its intention to make
1210-690: A millennium before the modern period . Early lexicographers ( لُغَوِيُّون lughawiyyūn ) sought to explain words in the Quran that were unfamiliar or had a particular contextual meaning, and to identify words of non-Arabic origin that appear in the Quran. They gathered shawāhid ( شَوَاهِد 'instances of attested usage') from poetry and the speech of the Arabs—particularly the Bedouin ʾaʿrāb [ ar ] ( أَعْراب ) who were perceived to speak
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#17327765996801320-594: A result, many European languages have borrowed words from it. Arabic influence, mainly in vocabulary, is seen in European languages (mainly Spanish and to a lesser extent Portuguese , Catalan , and Sicilian ) owing to the proximity of Europe and the long-lasting Arabic cultural and linguistic presence, mainly in Southern Iberia, during the Al-Andalus era. Maltese is a Semitic language developed from
1430-462: A script derived from ASA attest to a language known as Hasaitic . On the northwestern frontier of Arabia, various languages known to scholars as Thamudic B , Thamudic D, Safaitic , and Hismaic are attested. The last two share important isoglosses with later forms of Arabic, leading scholars to theorize that Safaitic and Hismaic are early forms of Arabic and that they should be considered Old Arabic . Linguists generally believe that "Old Arabic",
1540-470: A single language, despite 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
1650-507: A type of Arabic. Cypriot Arabic is recognized as a minority language in Cyprus. 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. Tawleed is the process of giving a new shade of meaning to an old classical word. For example, al-hatif lexicographically means
1760-507: A variety of regional vernacular Arabic dialects , which are not necessarily mutually intelligible. Classical Arabic is the language found in the Quran , used from the period of Pre-Islamic Arabia to that of the Abbasid Caliphate . Classical Arabic is prescriptive, according to the syntactic and grammatical norms laid down by classical grammarians (such as Sibawayh ) and the vocabulary defined in classical dictionaries (such as
1870-476: A wider audience." In the wake of the industrial revolution and European hegemony and colonialism , pioneering Arabic presses, such as the Amiri Press established by Muhammad Ali (1819), dramatically changed the diffusion and consumption of Arabic literature and publications. Rifa'a al-Tahtawi proposed the establishment of Madrasat al-Alsun in 1836 and led a translation campaign that highlighted
1980-737: Is a Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world . The ISO assigns language codes to 32 varieties of Arabic , including its standard form of Literary Arabic, known as Modern Standard Arabic , which is derived from Classical Arabic . This distinction exists primarily among Western linguists; Arabic speakers themselves generally do not distinguish between Modern Standard Arabic and Classical Arabic, but rather refer to both as al-ʿarabiyyatu l-fuṣḥā ( اَلعَرَبِيَّةُ ٱلْفُصْحَىٰ "the eloquent Arabic") or simply al-fuṣḥā ( اَلْفُصْحَىٰ ). Arabic
2090-590: Is a minimum level of comprehension between all Arabic dialects, this level can increase or decrease based on geographic proximity: for example, Levantine and Gulf speakers understand each other much better than they do speakers from the Maghreb. The issue of diglossia between spoken and written language is a complicating factor: A single written form, differing sharply from any of the spoken varieties learned natively, unites several sometimes divergent spoken forms. For political reasons, Arabs mostly assert that they all speak
2200-559: Is a sister language rather than their direct ancestor. Arabia had a wide variety of Semitic languages in antiquity. The term "Arab" was initially used to describe those living in the Arabian Peninsula , as perceived by geographers from ancient Greece . In the southwest, various Central Semitic languages both belonging to and outside the Ancient South Arabian family (e.g. Southern Thamudic) were spoken. It
2310-478: Is believed that the ancestors of the Modern South Arabian languages (non-Central Semitic languages) were spoken in southern Arabia at this time. To the north, in the oases of northern Hejaz , Dadanitic and Taymanitic held some prestige as inscriptional languages. In Najd and parts of western Arabia, a language known to scholars as Thamudic C is attested. In eastern Arabia, inscriptions in
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#17327765996802420-691: Is believed to be the largest arms sale in Canadian history. In 2016, the European Parliament decided to temporarily impose an arms embargo against Saudi Arabia, as a result of the Yemen civilian population's suffering from the conflict with Saudi Arabia . In 2017, Saudi Arabia signed a 110 billion dollar arms deal with the United States . Saudi Arabia is Britain's largest arms customer, with more than £4.6 billion worth of arms bought since
2530-408: Is credited with establishing the rules of Arabic prosody . Al-Jahiz (776–868) proposed to Al-Akhfash al-Akbar an overhaul of the grammar of Arabic, but it would not come to pass for two centuries. The standardization of Arabic reached completion around the end of the 8th century. The first comprehensive description of the ʿarabiyya "Arabic", Sībawayhi's al - Kitāb , is based first of all upon
2640-472: Is credited with standardizing Arabic grammar , or an-naḥw ( النَّحو "the way" ), and pioneering a system of diacritics to differentiate consonants ( نقط الإعجام nuqaṭu‿l-i'jām "pointing for non-Arabs") and indicate vocalization ( التشكيل at-tashkīl ). Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi (718–786) compiled the first Arabic dictionary, Kitāb al-'Ayn ( كتاب العين "The Book of the Letter ع "), and
2750-565: Is equipped with the Chinese DF-3A (CSS-2) Dongfeng missile sold to Saudi Arabia by China. A conventional high-explosive warhead (2150 kg) variant of the DongFeng 3A Intermediate-Range Ballistic Missile was developed for an export order to Saudi Arabia in 1987. About 30+ missiles and 9~12 launchers were reportedly delivered in 1988, though no known test launch has ever been made in the country. IISS Military Balance 2022 estimates that
2860-527: Is imported from the Western world. The United States sold more than $ 80 billion in military hardware between 1951 and 2006 to the Saudi military. 2013 saw Saudi military spending climb to $ 67bn, overtaking that of the UK, France and Japan to place fourth globally. The United Kingdom has also been a major supplier of military equipment to Saudi Arabia since 1965. Since 1985, the UK has supplied military aircraft—notably
2970-574: Is not present in the spoken varieties, but deletes Classical words that sound obsolete in MSA. In addition, MSA has borrowed or coined many terms for concepts that did not exist in Quranic times, and MSA continues to evolve. Some words have been borrowed from other languages—notice that transliteration mainly indicates spelling and not real pronunciation (e.g., فِلْم film 'film' or ديمقراطية dīmuqrāṭiyyah 'democracy'). The current preference
3080-855: Is official in Mali and recognized as a minority language in Morocco, while the Senegalese government adopted the Latin script to write it. Maltese is official in (predominantly Catholic ) Malta and written with the Latin script . Linguists agree that it is a variety of spoken Arabic, descended from Siculo-Arabic , though it has experienced extensive changes as a result of sustained and intensive contact with Italo-Romance varieties, and more recently also with English. Due to "a mix of social, cultural, historical, political, and indeed linguistic factors", many Maltese people today consider their language Semitic but not
3190-472: Is organized in seven fighter/ground-attack squadrons, six fighter squadrons, and seven training squadrons. Saudi Arabia has at least 15 active military airfields. As of 2011, Saudi Arabia has around 300 combat aircraft. The kingdom's combat aircraft are newly acquired Typhoons and upgraded Tornado IDS , F-15 Eagle and F-15E Strike Eagle fighter planes. Saudi Arabia has a further 80+ F-15 Eagles on order and an option to buy another 72 Typhoons. Air Defense
3300-572: Is the third most widespread official language after English and French, one of six official languages of the United Nations , and the liturgical language of Islam . Arabic is widely taught in schools and universities around the world and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, governments and the media. During the Middle Ages , Arabic was a major vehicle of culture and learning, especially in science, mathematics and philosophy. As
3410-590: 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" ( فُصْحَى fuṣḥá ) 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: MSA uses much Classical vocabulary (e.g., dhahaba 'to go') that
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3520-413: Is to avoid direct borrowings, preferring to either use loan translations (e.g., فرع farʻ 'branch', also used for the branch of a company or organization; جناح janāḥ 'wing', is also used for the wing of an airplane, building, air force, etc.), or to coin new words using forms within existing roots ( استماتة istimātah ' apoptosis ', using the root موت m/w/t 'death' put into
3630-524: Is used to denote concepts that have arisen in the industrial and post-industrial era , especially in modern times. Due to its grounding in Classical Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic is removed over a millennium from everyday speech, which is construed as a multitude of dialects of this language. These dialects and Modern Standard Arabic are described by some scholars as not mutually comprehensible. The former are usually acquired in families, while
3740-445: The Lisān al-ʻArab ). Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) largely follows the grammatical standards of Classical Arabic and uses much of the same vocabulary. However, it has discarded some grammatical constructions and vocabulary that no longer have any counterpart in the spoken varieties and has adopted certain new constructions and vocabulary from the spoken varieties. Much of the new vocabulary
3850-712: The Royal Australian Artillery provided air defence to the Australian supply ships, as they had none of their own. Bahraini troops played a limited role in the conflict, with the Bahraini Army providing troops to the Gulf Cooperation Council contingent (exclusively embedded with Saudi Arabian and Kuwaiti troops), which played a support role in the conflict. The Bahraini government also allowed their territory to be used as
3960-636: The Royal Saudi Guard Regiment and the Royal Saudi Border Guards . The Royal Saudi Armed Forces are one of the best-funded in the world, having the world's sixth largest defense budget . The first steps towards building an institutionalised armed force for Saudi Arabia began in the 1940s, when Saudi regulars numbered perhaps 1,000–1,500, Gaub saying that officers mostly came from the Ottoman troops who had served
4070-642: The Royal Saudi Strategic Missile Force . The King of Saudi Arabia is the commander-in-chief of all the military forces and forms military policy with the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Interior . The five Armed Forces are among eight military forces of Saudi Arabia, with the others including the Royal Saudi National Guard (under the administrative control of the Ministry of National Guard ),
4180-505: The Sharif of Mecca before he was expelled in 1924. A Ministry of Defense was created in 1943; a military school founded in Taif , and the United Kingdom began efforts to try to build a professional force. After the failure of this UK programme, a subsequent U.S. programme which ran from 1951 also failed to reach its objective (the creation for three to five Regimental Combat Teams ). Growth of
4290-591: The Tornado and Eurofighter Typhoon combat aircraft—and other equipment as part of the long-term Al-Yamamah arms deal estimated to have been worth £43 billion by 2006 and thought to be worth a further £40 billion. In 2012, British defence giant BAE signed a £1.9bn ($ 3bn) deal to supply Hawk trainer jets to Saudi Arabia. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute , in 2010–14 Saudi Arabia became
4400-568: The Xth form , or جامعة jāmiʻah 'university', based on جمع jamaʻa 'to gather, unite'; جمهورية jumhūriyyah 'republic', based on جمهور jumhūr 'multitude'). An earlier tendency was to redefine an older word although this has fallen into disuse (e.g., هاتف hātif 'telephone' < 'invisible caller (in Sufism)'; جريدة jarīdah 'newspaper' < 'palm-leaf stalk'). Colloquial or dialectal Arabic refers to
4510-630: The armed forces fighting Iraq in support of Saudi Arabia . In 1990, he held state dinner for United States Central Command commander General Norman Schwarzkopf where, alongside Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Admiral Iftikhar Sirohey , he briefed US commanders on Pakistani preparations and military operational capabilities. The war was a polarizing political issue in Pakistan. Beg predicted that popular opinion would favor Iraq, as anti-American sentiment in
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4620-745: The battles around the Saudi town of Ras al-Khafji . Since the Gulf War , the United States stationed 5,000 troops in Saudi Arabia, a figure that rose to 10,000 during the 2003 conflict in Iraq . Operation Southern Watch enforced the no-fly zones over southern Iraq set up after 1991, as well, the country's oil exports through the shipping lanes of the Persian Gulf are protected by the United States Fifth Fleet based in Bahrain . It
4730-494: The northern Hejaz . These features are evidence of common descent from a hypothetical ancestor , Proto-Arabic . The following features of Proto-Arabic can be reconstructed with confidence: On the other hand, several Arabic varieties are closer to other Semitic languages and maintain features not found in Classical Arabic, indicating that these varieties cannot have developed from Classical Arabic. Thus, Arabic vernaculars do not descend from Classical Arabic: Classical Arabic
4840-419: The "learned" tradition (Classical Arabic). This variety and both its classicizing and "lay" iterations have been termed Middle Arabic in the past, but they are thought to continue an Old Higazi register. It is clear that the orthography of the Quran was not developed for the standardized form of Classical Arabic; rather, it shows the attempt on the part of writers to record an archaic form of Old Higazi. In
4950-702: The "purest," most eloquent form of Arabic—initiating a process of jamʿu‿l-luɣah ( جمع اللغة 'compiling the language') which took place over the 8th and early 9th centuries. Kitāb al-'Ayn ( c. 8th century ), attributed to Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi , is considered the first lexicon to include all Arabic roots ; it sought to exhaust all possible root permutations —later called taqālīb ( تقاليب ) — calling those that are actually used mustaʿmal ( مستعمَل ) and those that are not used muhmal ( مُهمَل ). Lisān al-ʿArab (1290) by Ibn Manzur gives 9,273 roots, while Tāj al-ʿArūs (1774) by Murtada az-Zabidi gives 11,978 roots. Coalition of
5060-454: The 11th and 12th centuries in al-Andalus , the zajal and muwashah poetry forms developed in the dialectical Arabic of Cordoba and the Maghreb. The Nahda was a cultural and especially literary renaissance of the 19th century in which writers sought "to fuse Arabic and European forms of expression." According to James L. Gelvin , " Nahda writers attempted to simplify the Arabic language and script so that it might be accessible to
5170-571: The 4th to the 6th centuries, the Nabataean script evolved into the Arabic script recognizable from the early Islamic era. There are inscriptions in an undotted, 17-letter Arabic script dating to the 6th century CE, found at four locations in Syria ( Zabad , Jebel Usays , Harran , Umm el-Jimal ). The oldest surviving papyrus in Arabic dates to 643 CE, and it uses dots to produce the modern 28-letter Arabic alphabet. The language of that papyrus and of
5280-834: The 8th century, knowledge of Classical Arabic had become an essential prerequisite for rising into the higher classes throughout the Islamic world, both for Muslims and non-Muslims. For example, Maimonides , the Andalusi Jewish philosopher, authored works in Judeo-Arabic —Arabic written in Hebrew script . Ibn Jinni of Mosul , a pioneer in phonology , wrote prolifically in the 10th century on Arabic morphology and phonology in works such as Kitāb Al-Munṣif , Kitāb Al-Muḥtasab , and Kitāb Al-Khaṣāʾiṣ [ ar ] . Ibn Mada' of Cordoba (1116–1196) realized
5390-548: The Al-Masmak MRAP which has achieved very high protection, all are Saudi-made Ashibl 1 and Ashibl 2 are Saudi-made armored vehicles used by the Royal Saudi Land Forces and the kingdom's most elite special operations units of Battalion 85. Saudi Arabia has also recently unveiled the new Tuwaiq MRAP. Saudi Arabian Military Industries signed a Memorandum of Understanding with ROSOBORONEXPORT for
5500-888: The General Staff. The United States was the largest contributor to the coalition, with some 697,000 personnel. Its forces participated in Operation Desert Shield , the Battle of Khafji , the Battle of 73 Easting , the Battle of Al Busayyah , the Battle of Phase Line Bullet , the Battle of Medina Ridge , Battle of Wadi al-Batin , and the Battle of Norfolk , among other engagements. American commanders included Colin Powell , Calvin Waller , Charles Horner , Walt Boomer , Stan Arthur , Frederick Franks , Buster Glosson . Norman Schwarzkopf led all coalition forces in
5610-859: The Gulf War On 23 February 1991, the aerial bombardment campaign came to an end and the coalition began a large-scale ground offensive into Iraqi-occupied Kuwait and parts of Iraq . The Iraqi military was devastated in the fighting, and Kuwait was declared completely free of Iraqi troops on 28 February 1991. Argentina contributed 500 troops, two corvettes, a destroyer, two cargo planes and three helicopters. The operations of Argentinian forces were codenamed Operation Alfil . Australia contributed at least one guided missile frigate, one destroyer and one supply ship. Limited numbers of Australian troops were imbedded in British and American formations, and RAAF photo interpreters were based in Saudi Arabia. Soldiers of
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#17327765996805720-756: The Islamic prophet, Muhammad as banning the "permanent presence of infidels in Arabia". On 5 November 2009, the Royal Saudi Land Forces launched a sweeping ground offensive against Yemen's Shiite Houthi rebels after they crossed the Saudi border in order to outflank the Yemeni Army, which had launched a military campaign against the Houthis to control and pacify the northern Yemeni mountains, and killed two Saudi border guards. The Saudi forces relied heavily on air power and artillery to soften
5830-412: The Middle East and North Africa have become a badge of sophistication and modernity and ... feigning, or asserting, weakness or lack of facility in Arabic is sometimes paraded as a sign of status, class, and perversely, even education through a mélange of code-switching practises." Arabic has been taught worldwide in many elementary and secondary schools, especially Muslim schools. Universities around
5940-498: The Middle East was growing. The Philippines sent around 200 medical personnel. The Polish contribution included approximately 320 personnel. Poland also conducted intelligence operations, such as Operation Simoom . Portugal provided one logistics ship and two C-130 transport aircraft . Qatar contributed around 2,600 personnel. Qatari forces participated in the Battle of Khafji . Romania deployed 363 medical personnel and 21 soldiers. As part of Britain's Operation Granby ,
6050-474: The Qur'an is referred to by linguists as "Quranic Arabic", as distinct from its codification soon thereafter into " Classical Arabic ". In late pre-Islamic times, a transdialectal and transcommunal variety of Arabic emerged in the Hejaz , which continued living its parallel life after literary Arabic had been institutionally standardized in the 2nd and 3rd century of the Hijra , most strongly in Judeo-Christian texts, keeping alive ancient features eliminated from
6160-413: The Romance languages. Also, while it is comprehensible to people from the Maghreb , a linguistically innovative variety such as Moroccan Arabic is essentially incomprehensible to Arabs from the Mashriq , much as French is incomprehensible to Spanish or Italian speakers but relatively easily learned by them. This suggests that the spoken varieties may linguistically be considered separate languages. With
6270-636: The SMF has 2,500 personnel. Probably it is separate branch officially called Strategic Missile Forces (guessing by its website URL http://www.smf.gov.sa/ Archived 15 January 2013 at the Wayback Machine ). It certainly has one advanced Al-Watah ballistic missile base (found on the satellite images ) in the rocky central part of Saudi Arabia, some 200 km south-west of the capital city Riyadh . Two other bases include Al Sulayyil ballistic missile base (the older base located 450 km southwest of Riyadh) and Al Jufayr base (placed 90 km south of Riyadh) share many similarities, suggesting that they share
6380-438: The Saudi Armed Forces was a response to not only short term threats (including incursions by Yemeni rebels and the rise of ISIS) but long term regional strategic concerns, namely the increasing strength of Iran and the uncertain future of America's role in the region. In 2019, the government of Saudi Arabia stated that women can start working in the military. In the past they could only work in police. The armed forces are mainly
6490-427: The Saudis to the rational conclusion that their own military could potentially pose a greater threat to their line than any of their neighbors. In the decades that followed, though the Kingdom experienced unprecedented economic expansion and modernization; the Royal Armed Forces remained contained. From the late 1950s to the late 1970s, the Saudis did expand and modernize their military but at a stagnate rate, this despite
6600-416: The Saudis would pursue only limited increased support for their armed forces in the wake of the Grand Mosque Seizure in 1979. In the 1980s Saudi Arabia became a major source of financial but not military assistance, for the Mujahideen in Afghanistan , and the regime of Saddam Hussein in its war against Revolutionary Iran . The 1991 Gulf War saw the greatest threat to the Kingdom in modern history and
6710-449: The U.S. military to deploy in a comfortable and familiar battle environment. This new deal would increase these capabilities, as an advanced American military infrastructure is about to be built. The U.S. government was also in talks with Saudi Arabia about the potential sale of advanced naval and missile-defense upgrades. The United Kingdom has also been a major supplier of military equipment to Saudi Arabia since 1965. Canada recently won
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#17327765996806820-734: The air campaign against Iraq. The UAE contributed one army battalion and a squadron of Mirage fighters . They also provided facilities to deploy over 255 aircraft, and gave the coalition access to practically all of their ports and shipyards. The UK participated in Operation Granby and the Battle of Norfolk . The total British contribution included 16 ships, 58 aircraft, and 53,462 personnel, including 1st Armoured Division , 7th Armoured Brigade , 4th Armoured Brigade . British commanders included: Patrick Hine , commander of all British forces; Michael Graydon , Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief RAF Strike Command ; Peter de la Billière - Commander-in-Chief of British Forces and John Chapple , Chief of
6930-469: The armed forces was slowed to some 7,500–10,000 by 1953. Continued enlargement came to a halt in the late 1950s due to internal Saudi power struggles (including two plots by senior officers) and geo-political concerns, namely the Free Officers Revolution in Egypt followed by a brutal Baathist coup in Iraq, wherein expanded post-colonial Arab armies overthrew the domestic monarchies they had sworn allegiance to in 1952 and 1958, respectively. These events led
7040-465: The biggest arms sale in American history—an estimated $ 60.5 billion purchase by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The package represented a considerable improvement in the offensive capability of the Saudi armed forces. The United States emphasized that the arms transfer would increase "interoperability" with U.S. forces. In the Persian Gulf War , having U.S.-trained Saudi Arabian forces, along with military installations built to U.S. specifications, allowed
7150-790: The case of some units by an estimated 30 to 50 percent. These shortages have been aggravated by a relaxed policy that permitted considerable absenteeism and by a serious problem of retaining experienced technicians and non-commissioned officers . The navy is divided into two fleets: the Western Fleet has bases in Jeddah , Jizan , and Al Wajh ; the Eastern Fleet has bases in Al Jubayl , Ad Dammam , Ras Mishab , and Ras al Ghar. The marines are organized into one infantry regiment with two battalions. The navy's inventory includes 11 principal surface combatants , 65 patrol and coastal combatants, 7 mine warfare vessels, 8 amphibious craft, and 7 support and miscellaneous craft. Naval aviation forces have 19 helicopters (armed) serving in naval support. The air force
7260-540: The ceasefire took place, clearing operations moved to the coast off Kuwait. Eighteen Mirage 5s of 8th Fighter Squadron and six C-130s of the 15th Air Transport Wing were deployed to Türkiye as part of the NATO preventative deployment of aircraft. Medical personnel were attached to a British Field Hospital in Cyprus, and were also deployed in Türkiye alongside 75 soldiers. Canada's contribution included 4,600 personnel, and their activities were codenamed Operation Friction . Royal Canadian Navy vessels took part in
7370-525: The coalition's flank. Six F-104s were stationed in Türkiye. 4 ships were sent to the gulf. The Italian commander of the operation was Mario Arpino . Japan contributed no personnel or equipment to the coalition force as it was prohibited from doing so by its constitution . However, the Japanese government made a financial contribution of approximately $ 13bn to fund Coalition operations. The contribution of Kuwaiti forces in exile included around 9,900 personnel. Luxembourg provided financial support. After
7480-517: The coast of Kuwait. The army provided a field hospital and medical team for the coalition, while the air force sent two MIM-23 Hawk squadrons and three MIM-104 Patriot squadrons - one of which was deployed in Israel to defend against Iraqi Scud missiles . Niger deployed about 480 troops to guard shrines in Mecca and Medina . Norway contributed 280 personnel, one naval vessel, a field hospital, and intelligence capabilities. Oman contributed about 6,300 personnel. The Pakistani contingent
7590-509: The conversion of Semitic mimation to nunation in the singular. It is best reassessed as a separate language on the Central Semitic dialect continuum. It was also thought that Old Arabic coexisted alongside—and then gradually displaced— epigraphic Ancient North Arabian (ANA), which was theorized to have been the regional tongue for many centuries. ANA, despite its name, was considered a very distinct language, and mutually unintelligible, from "Arabic". Scholars named its variant dialects after
7700-412: The emergence of Central Semitic languages, particularly in grammar. Innovations of the Central Semitic languages—all maintained in Arabic—include: There are several features which Classical Arabic, the modern Arabic varieties, as well as the Safaitic and Hismaic inscriptions share which are unattested in any other Central Semitic language variety, including the Dadanitic and Taymanitic languages of
7810-728: The eve of the conquests: Northern and Central (Al-Jallad 2009). The modern dialects emerged from a new contact situation produced following the conquests. Instead of the emergence of a single or multiple koines, the dialects contain several sedimentary layers of borrowed and areal features, which they absorbed at different points in their linguistic histories. According to Veersteegh and Bickerton, colloquial Arabic dialects arose from pidginized Arabic formed from contact between Arabs and conquered peoples. Pidginization and subsequent creolization among Arabs and arabized peoples could explain relative morphological and phonological simplicity of vernacular Arabic compared to Classical and MSA. In around
7920-607: The fact that they participate in the innovations common to all forms of Arabic. The earliest attestation of continuous Arabic text in an ancestor of the modern Arabic script are three lines of poetry by a man named Garm(')allāhe found in En Avdat, Israel , and dated to around 125 CE. This is followed by the Namara inscription , an epitaph of the Lakhmid king Imru' al-Qays bar 'Amro, dating to 328 CE, found at Namaraa, Syria. From
8030-471: The fact the region was regularly at war. In 1969, South Yemeni forces attacked the Kingdom along the border but were swiftly defeated by Royal and allied forces. When the Yom-Kippur War broke out in 1973, Saudi Arabia used " Oil as a weapon ", to aid the Arab cause; this strategy significantly influenced world opinion against Israel though to what extent is remains unclear. Following these successes,
8140-619: The first Western government to suspend future arms deal with the kingdom after Angela Merkel stated that "arms exports can't take place in the current circumstances." The Al-Fahd Infantry fighting vehicle and the Al-Faris 8–400 armored personnel carrier , used by Saudi land forces, were manufactured by the Abdallah Al Faris Company for Heavy Industries, based in Dammam . Also, Al-Kaser and Al-Mansour armored vehicles and
8250-510: The fourth most useful language for business, after English, Mandarin Chinese , and French. Arabic is written with the Arabic alphabet , an abjad script that is written from right to left . Arabic is usually classified as a Central Semitic language . Linguists still differ as to the best classification of Semitic language sub-groups. The Semitic languages changed between Proto-Semitic and
8360-500: The help of Pakistani and Western troops, the Saudi military captured the terrorists inside the Grand Mosque. When Iraq invaded Saudi Arabia's northern neighbor Kuwait in 1990, Saudi Arabia immediately requested the deployment of U.S. troops within the country to deter further aggression. Saudi forces participated in the subsequent Operation Desert Storm : Saudi pilots flew more than 7,000 sorties and Saudi troops took part in
8470-597: The inclusion of new words into their published standard dictionaries. They also publish old and historical Arabic manuscripts. In 1997, a bureau of Arabization standardization was added to the Educational, Cultural, and Scientific Organization of the Arab League . These academies and organizations have worked toward the Arabization of the sciences, creating terms in Arabic to describe new concepts, toward
8580-466: The join the coalition. Hungary contributed approximately 40 personnel, including a medical team. The Italian contribution included about 1,950 personnel; their operation mostly involved aircraft, and the air operation was known as Operazione Locusta . Italy deployed eight Panavia Tornado aircraft, which conducted sorties over the 42 days of war, and a cell of RF-104G Starfighter tactical reconnaissance aircraft , which operated from Turkey to monitor
8690-613: The language. Software and books with tapes are an 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; most teach Modern Standard Arabic, but some teach regional varieties from numerous countries. The tradition of Arabic lexicography extended for about
8800-503: The largest deployment of Saudi Armed Forces in history, with all levels of the Saudi military actively participating as part of the U.N. coalition against Iraq . In 1987, members of the air force, army, and navy used to be mainly recruits from groups of people without a strong identity from the Nejd tribal system and people from urban areas. King Abdullah increasingly moved towards comprehensive military reform following what he considered
8910-604: The late 6th century AD, a relatively uniform intertribal "poetic koine" distinct from the spoken vernaculars developed based on the Bedouin dialects of Najd , probably in connection with the court of al-Ḥīra . During the first Islamic century, the majority of Arabic poets and Arabic-writing persons spoke Arabic as their mother tongue. Their texts, although mainly preserved in far later manuscripts, contain traces of non-standardized Classical Arabic elements in morphology and syntax. Abu al-Aswad al-Du'ali ( c. 603 –689)
9020-420: The latter is taught in formal education settings. However, there have been studies reporting some degree of comprehension of stories told in the standard variety among preschool-aged children. The relation between Modern Standard Arabic and these dialects is sometimes compared to that of Classical Latin and Vulgar Latin vernaculars (which became Romance languages ) in medieval and early modern Europe. MSA
9130-532: The local production of the 9M133 Kornet -EM anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) system, the TOS-1 A advanced multiple rocket launcher and AGS-30 automatic grenade launchers with grenades and Kalashnikov AK-103 . Arabic language Arabic (endonym: اَلْعَرَبِيَّةُ , romanized : al-ʿarabiyyah , pronounced [al ʕaraˈbijːa] , or عَرَبِيّ , ʿarabīy , pronounced [ˈʕarabiː] or [ʕaraˈbij] )
9240-883: The many national or regional varieties which constitute the everyday spoken language. Colloquial Arabic has many regional variants; geographically distant varieties usually differ enough to be mutually unintelligible , and some linguists consider them distinct languages. However, research indicates a high degree of mutual intelligibility between closely related Arabic variants for native speakers listening to words, sentences, and texts; and between more distantly related dialects in interactional situations. 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. Hassaniya Arabic , Maltese , and Cypriot Arabic are only varieties of modern Arabic to have acquired official recognition. Hassaniya
9350-782: The need for a lexical injection in Arabic, to suit concepts of the industrial and post-industrial age (such as sayyārah سَيَّارَة 'automobile' or bākhirah باخِرة 'steamship'). In response, a number of Arabic academies modeled after the Académie française were established with the aim of developing standardized additions to the Arabic lexicon to suit these transformations, first in Damascus (1919), then in Cairo (1932), Baghdad (1948), Rabat (1960), Amman (1977), Khartum [ ar ] (1993), and Tunis (1993). They review language development, monitor new words and approve
9460-503: The northeast, the King Khalid Military City , at Tabuk, at Dharhran, and at Abha in the southwest. There was a 1996 report that construction of a military city at Jizan , orientated toward Yemen, had begun with Defense Minister Prince Sultan pouring the first concrete on 8 May 1996. The Library of Congress Country Study for Saudi Arabia, issued in 1992, noted that "[t]he army has been chronically under strength, in
9570-424: The one whose sound is heard but whose person remains unseen. Now the term al-hatif is used for a telephone. Therefore, the process of tawleed can express the needs of modern civilization in a manner that would appear to be originally Arabic. In the case of Arabic, educated Arabs of any nationality can be assumed to speak both their school-taught Standard Arabic as well as their native dialects, which depending on
9680-549: The overhaul of Arabic grammar first proposed by Al-Jahiz 200 years prior. The Maghrebi lexicographer Ibn Manzur compiled Lisān al-ʿArab ( لسان العرب , "Tongue of Arabs"), a major reference dictionary of Arabic, in 1290. Charles Ferguson 's koine theory claims that the modern Arabic dialects collectively descend from a single military koine that sprang up during the Islamic conquests; this view has been challenged in recent times. Ahmad al-Jallad proposes that there were at least two considerably distinct types of Arabic on
9790-515: The rebels without risking their men. The Saudi Army lost 133 soldiers in the fighting against the rebels, with most of the casualties occurring when ground forces tried to move into areas that had been softened by shelling that "raised alarms across the Sunni Arab world about the possibility that Iran might be supporting the Yemeni rebels". The vast majority of Saudi Arabia's military equipment
9900-410: The region may be mutually unintelligible. Some of these dialects can be considered to constitute separate languages which may have "sub-dialects" of their own. 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
10010-485: The responsibility of the Ministry of Defense and Aviation , which also oversees the construction of civilian airports as well as military bases , and meteorology departments. Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz was Saudi Arabia's Minister of Defense and Aviation from 1962 to 2011. The vice minister, Abdulrahman bin Abdulaziz , was his full brother and served until November 2011. His oldest son, Khalid bin Sultan ,
10120-582: The same role. Armed Forces Medical Service of Saudi Arabia provides medical services to all members of the Armed Forces. It is led by a Director General and is responsible for 24 military hospitals across Saudi Arabia. The service operates aero lift operations with its own fleet of aircraft: In 1979, Islamic extremists took control of the Grand Mosque in Mecca . The extremists were led by Juhayman Al Otaiba and held many worshippers hostage for weeks. With
10230-458: The same sentence. The issue of whether Arabic is one language or many languages is politically charged, in the same way it is for the varieties of Chinese , Hindi and Urdu , Serbian and Croatian , Scots and English, etc. In contrast to speakers of Hindi and Urdu who claim they cannot understand each other even when they can, speakers of the varieties of Arabic will claim they can all understand each other even when they cannot. While there
10340-458: The sole example of Medieval linguist Abu Hayyan al-Gharnati – who, while a scholar of the Arabic language, was not ethnically Arab – Medieval scholars of the Arabic language made no efforts at studying comparative linguistics, considering all other languages inferior. In modern times, the educated upper classes in the Arab world have taken a nearly opposite view. Yasir Suleiman wrote in 2011 that "studying and knowing English or French in most of
10450-563: The standardization of these new terms throughout the Arabic-speaking world, and toward the development of Arabic as a world language . This gave rise to what Western scholars call Modern Standard Arabic. From the 1950s, Arabization became a postcolonial nationalist policy in countries such as Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, and Sudan. Arabic usually refers to Standard Arabic, which Western linguists divide into Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic. It could also refer to any of
10560-631: The start of Saudi-led coalition in Yemen. According to a report from the Global Affairs Canada , a record-breaking amount of military hardware was sold to Saudi Arabia in 2019, despite its poor human rights record. Following the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi , a nonbinding resolution was passed in the European Parliament on 25 October 2018, urging EU countries to impose an EU-wide arms embargo on Saudi Arabia. Germany became
10670-501: The towns where the inscriptions were discovered (Dadanitic, Taymanitic, Hismaic, Safaitic). However, most arguments for a single ANA language or language family were based on the shape of the definite article, a prefixed h-. It has been argued that the h- is an archaism and not a shared innovation, and thus unsuitable for language classification, rendering the hypothesis of an ANA language family untenable. Safaitic and Hismaic, previously considered ANA, should be considered Old Arabic due to
10780-669: The use of NATO airbases in Germany were removed so they could be used for logistics. Germany also provided $ 6 billion in cash and materiel to aid the coalition. Greek forces included Hellenic Air Force pilots and ground support staff and the frigate Limnos in the Red Sea. The Greek Merchant Marine Service aided the Coalition in the movement of fuel and equipment with their large fleet, and most Greek airfields were made available for US and allied use. Honduras sent 400 personnel to
10890-534: The war, Luxembourgish soldiers were deployed to deliver humanitarian aid to Kurdish civilians taking refuge in the mountains along the Turkish-Iraqi border. Morocco contributed around 13,000 personnel. New Zealand provided two Lockheed C-130 Hercules transporter aircraft and 100 personnel. The Dutch navy sent two frigates to help maintain the UN embargo on Iraq , and three minehunters to clear mines off
11000-537: The war, the Royal Canadian Air Force conducted patrols and bombing missions, and the army deployed a field hospital. Canadian aircraft and ground forces also attacked retreating Iraqi military forces along the Highway of Death . The Czechoslovak contribution included a specialised 200-man chemical defence unit and 150 medical personnel. The lead Czechoslovak commander was Ján Való . The war
11110-451: 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 to learn Arabic outside the academic world. There are many Arabic language schools in the Arab world and other Muslim countries. Because the Quran is written in Arabic and all Islamic terms are in Arabic, millions of Muslims (both Arab and non-Arab) study
11220-490: The world's most densely armed nations, with its military equipment being supplied primarily by the United States, France, and Britain. According to SIPRI , in 2010–14 Saudi Arabia became the world's second largest arms importer, receiving four times more major arms than in 2005–2009. Major imports in 2010–14 included 45 combat aircraft from the United Kingdom, 38 combat helicopters from the U.S., 4 tanker aircraft from Spain and over 600 armored vehicles from Canada. Saudi Arabia has
11330-456: The world's second-largest arms importer, receiving four times more major arms than in 2005–2009. Major imports in 2010–14 included 45 combat aircraft from the UK, 38 combat helicopters from the U.S., four tanker aircraft from Spain, and over 600 armoured vehicles from Canada. Saudi Arabia received 41% of UK arms exports in 2010–14. France authorized $ 18 billion in weapons sales to Saudi Arabia in 2015 alone. The $ 15 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia
11440-684: Was Zubayr Siddiqui . Belgium had a limited deployment of troops and aircraft to Türkiye, and several ships deployed to the gulf. Two minesweepers of the Tripartite class , the Iris and the Myostis along with the Command and Logistics ship Zinnia, deployed to the gulf, and conducted mine clearing operations. The Belgian government later decided to send an additional minesweeper, the Dianthus. When
11550-414: Was 314-strong, including medical and logistical support. Spain deployed 500 ground troops (mostly engineers) with another 3,000 participating in naval operations: two corvettes and one destroyer patrolled near the strait of Bab al Mandeb . Syria's contributed around 14,500 troops, led by Mustafa Tlass . The Swedish contingent numbered about 525 and included a field hospital. Turkey contributed to
11660-646: Was 4,900–5,500 strong. Mirza Aslam Beg , then-Pakistani Chief of the Army Staff , endorsed the campaign against Iraq. In a briefing given to president Ghulam Ishaq Khan , Beg maintained the assessment that once the ground battle with the Iraqi Army began, the Iraqi Army would comprehensively repel and defeat the US Army . Beg accused Western countries of encouraging Iraq to invade Kuwait, but supported
11770-400: Was appointed assistant minister in 2001 and was in office until April 2013. Spending on defense and security has increased significantly since the mid-1990s and was about US$ 67 billion in 2013. Saudi Arabia ranks among the top five nations in the world in government spending for its military, representing about 9% of GDP in 2013. Its modern, high-technology arsenal makes Saudi Arabia among
11880-629: Was conducted by Joint Task Force Southwest Asia (JTF-SWA) with the mission of monitoring and controlling airspace south of the 32nd Parallel (extended to the 33rd Parallel in 1996) in Iraq , following the 1991 Persian Gulf War until the 2003 invasion of Iraq . This was one of the stated motivations behind the September 11 attacks , as well as the Khobar Towers bombing . Bin Laden interpreted
11990-945: Was notable as the first time Czechoslovakian troops had taken part in an armed conflict since the Second World War, and would be the last time before the breakup of Czechoslovakia in 1993. Denmark deployed the HDMS Olfert Fischer (a Niels Juel -class Corvette) alongside 100 personnel. Egypt contributed around 40,000 soldiers and 400 tanks. Their commander was Salah Mohammed Atia Halabi . The French contingent consisted of around 20,000 personnel led by Lieutenant General Michel Roquejeoffre , and their activities were codenamed Opération Daguet . France also contributed 14 ships, more than 75 aircraft, and 350 tanks. Germany sent one fighter squadron to Türkiye to show solidarity with operations in Kuwait and make its presence felt on NATO's southern flank. Restrictions on
12100-621: Was part of the Army until 1981 when it was made a separate service. It operates "Peace Shield" a state-of-the-art radar and air defense system consisting of a Command Operations Center at Riyadh , and main operating bases at Dhahran , Taif , Tabuk , Khamis Mushait and Al Kharj . The total system includes 164 sites. The system equipment comprises 17 General Electric AN/FPS-117 long-range 3D radars , 6 Northrop Grumman AN/TPS-43 tactical radars, and Raytheon Improved HAWK air defense missile system. The Royal Saudi Strategic Missile Forces (RSSMF)
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