Arabic is a Central Semitic language that was first spoken in the Iron Age northwestern Arabia and is now the lingua franca of the Arab world. Arabic also is a liturgical language of 1.7 billion Muslims.It is one of six official languages of the United Nations. It is named after the Arabs, a term initially used to describe peoples living from Mesopotamia in the east to the Anti-Lebanon mountains in the west and from northwestern Arabia to the Sinai in the south.