"While it is true that many Muslim scholars who composed their works in Arabic, both in the religious and in the intellectual sciences, have been of non-Arab descent, Ibn Khaldūn's use of the term Arab in his history seems to indicate a class of people and not a group. Most scholars believe that, in many instances, Ibn Khaldūn uses the name Arab to mean bedouin. Other scholars, such as Mohamed Chafik, deny this."
January 1, 1970
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ibn_Khaldun