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Arabization is the gradual transformation of an area into one populated by Arabs. It began as a result of the rapid expansion from Arabia after the coming of Islam and in only a few centuries much of the Middle East and North Africa were Arabized. This process was closely linked to the expansion of Islam and the close links between the religion and Arabic language. The Arabic armies that settled in conquered lands intermarried with the local inhabitants. Genealogy was important in the Arab world and many non-Arab groups adopted Arab names and genealogies to conform.
In modern Iraq
Part of the Al-Anfal Campaign, the anti-Kurdish campaign lead by the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein, spanning between between February and September 1988. Arabization was a tactic used by Saddam's regime to drive hundreds of thousands of Kurdish families out of their homes in Kirkuk, which is a city high in oil, and replace their homes with oil field workers of Arab descent. The campaign was an attempt to transform the historic Kurdish city of Kirkuk into an Arab Iraqi city. Kurdish families were left with no homes after being evicted forcefully by Saddam's Iraqi soldiers, and therefore had to migrate to refugee camps.
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