Arabs in Pakistan (Urdu: عربي‎) consist of migrants from different countries of the Arab world, especially Egypt, Oman, Iraq, Kuwait, Syria, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Palestine, Jordan and Yemen and have a long history. The first form of contact between the Arab people and modern-day Pakistan originally came in 711 to Sindh, when Muhammad bin Qasim, an Arab military general, was on a quest to free Muslims and their families who had apparently been arrested by Raja Dahir's soldiers while they were returning in a merchant ship to their homes in Iraq's city of Basra from Sri Lanka.