The Arabic language is a rich and flexible tool that, over the centuries, has been shaped and molded by the many different peoples that came to express themselves in it. In Africa, Arabic spread with the advent of Islam. It became the official language throughout northern Africa, from the Sudan to the western Sahara, and as far south as Mauritania. The first Arabic works in Africa date from about the tenth century and are mostly religious treatises written by Muslim jurists. Creative writing in Arabic initially consisted of poetry, a genre much esteemed and perfected by Arabs since pre-Islamic times. Prose works continued to be scholarly and religious, right up to the end of the nineteenth century when genres new to Arabic literature, like the novel, the short story, and drama emerged.

The region now has a thriving national literature in Arabic. Egypt, in particular, has a rich tradition of Arabic creative writing, predating the emergence of modern Arabic literature elsewhere in Africa. The Maghreb countries, once under French rule, have a globally renowned francophone literature. It was only after independence that the Arabic creative writing of the Maghreb began to reach a wide readership in other parts of the Arabic-speaking world. In sub-Saharan Africa, and particularly in West Africa, where Islam is the main religion, Arabic is a religious language, introduced by Muslim scholars. It spread with the establishment of centers of Arabic learning in several African cities. Some parts of sub-Saharan Africa have been prolific in the production of Arabic works.