Arabic is liturgical language of Islam and it has 1.7 billion followers. Spoken by 422 million people in Arabic literature is the writing, both prose and poetry, produced by writers in the Arabic language. The Arabic word used for literature is ''Arabic'' which is derived from a meaning of etiquette, and which implies politeness, culture and enrichment. Arabic literature emerged in the 5th century with only fragments of the written language appearing before then. During the middle Ages, literary Arabic was a major vehicle of culture in Europe, especially in science, mathematics and philosophy. As a result, many European languages borrowed may words from it e.g. Greek, Spanish and Portuguese.