The roman playwright terence is often remembered for this line: "homo sum: humani nil a me alienum puto." traditionally, it was translated as: "i am a man; i consider nothing that is human alien to me." more recently, some scholars have translated it as: "i am a human being; i consider nothing human alien to me." what was "wrong" with the older translation?

the arab empire adopted the muslim religion as their main belief. arabs would influence the people from the territories they invaded towards islam (the muslim belief).

nevertheless, throughout the history of the arab empire, rulers brought intellectual individuals from other religions to their centers of learning. these other foreigners included jews, christians, greeks, persians, and indians.   these resulted in the adoption of important knowledge developed by these cultures by the arabic empire. for example, the works of aristotle were translated from greek to arab and indian scientists brought the numerical concept of "zero" to the arabs.

nowadays, 93% of the arab population is muslim, which at the same time is subdivided in sects including the sunni, zaini, alawi, shia. the remaining 7% is composed mainly of christians.