Demography of the Arabian Peninsula before 610 CE
This article is about the peoples, cultures, and traditions within Arabia before Islam. For a religion-specific overview, see
Religion in pre-Islamic Arabia
.
"Jahili Arabia" redirects here. For the Islamic concept of a pre-Islamic "age of ignorance", see
Jahiliyyah
.
Pre-Islamic Arabia
??? ??????? ??????? ??? ???????
(
Arabic
)
|
---|
Nabataean trade routes in Pre-Islamic Arabia
|
|
Pre-Islamic Arabia
(
Arabic
:
??? ??????? ??????? ??? ???????
),
[1]
referring to the
Arabian Peninsula
before
Muhammad's first revelation
in 610 CE, is referred to in
Islam
in the context of
jahiliyyah
(
lit.
'
ignorance/stupidity
'
), highlighting the prevalence of
paganism
throughout the region at the time.
Some of the settled communities developed into distinctive civilizations. Information about these communities is limited and has been pieced together from archaeological evidence, accounts written outside of Arabia, and
Arab oral traditions
that were later recorded by
Muslim historians
. Among the most prominent communities were the
Thamud
, who arose around 3000 BCE and lasted to around 300 CE; and the earliest
Semitic-speaking civilization
in the eastern part was
Dilmun
,
[2]
which arose around the end of the 4th millennium BCE and lasted to around 600 CE. Additionally, from around the second half of the 2nd millennium BCE,
[3]
Southern Arabia
was the home to a number of kingdoms, such as the
Sabaeans
and the
Minaeans
, and
Eastern Arabia
was inhabited by Semitic-speaking peoples who presumably migrated from the southwest, such as the so-called
Samad population
. From 106 CE to 630 CE, Arabia's most northwestern areas were controlled by the
Roman Empire
, which governed it as
Arabia Petraea
.
[4]
A few nodal points were controlled by the
Iranian peoples
, first under the
Parthians
and then under the
Sasanians
.
Religion in pre-Islamic Arabia
was diverse; although
polytheism
was prevalent,
monotheism
was still a notable practice among some of the region's inhabitants, such as the
Jewish tribes
. In addition to Arabian paganism, other religious practices in the region included those of the
ancient Semitic religions
; the
Abrahamic religions
, of which the emerging Islam would become a part; the
Iranian religions
; the
Gnostic religions
; and, rarely, the
Indian religions
, which were mostly adhered to by non-native merchants and other travellers.
[
citation needed
]
Studies
[
edit
]
Scientific studies of Pre-Islamic Arabs start with the
Arabists
of the early 19th century when they managed to decipher epigraphic
Old South Arabian
(10th century
BCE
),
Ancient North Arabian
(6th century BCE) and other writings of pre-Islamic Arabia. Thus, studies are no longer limited to the written traditions, which are not local due to the lack of surviving Arab historians' accounts of that era; the paucity of material is compensated for by written sources from other cultures (such as
Egyptians
,
Greeks
,
Romans
, etc.), so it was not known in great detail. From the 3rd century
CE
, Arabian history becomes more tangible with the rise of the
?imyarite
, and with the appearance of the
Qa???nites
in the
Levant
and the gradual assimilation of the
Nabataeans
by the Qa???nites in the early centuries CE, a pattern of expansion exceeded in the
Muslim conquests
of the 7th century. Sources of history include archaeological evidence, foreign accounts and
oral traditions
later recorded by Islamic scholars?especially in the pre-Islamic poems?and
the ?ad?th
, plus a number of ancient Arab documents that survived into medieval times when portions of them were cited or recorded. Archaeological exploration in the
Arabian Peninsula
has been sparse but fruitful; and many ancient sites have been identified by modern excavations. The most recent detailed study of pre-Islamic Arabia is
Arabs and Empires Before Islam
, published by Oxford University Press in 2015. This book collects a diverse range of ancient texts and inscriptions for the history especially of the northern region during this time period.
Prehistoric to Iron Age
[
edit
]
Magan, Midian, and ??d
[
edit
]
- Magan
is attested as the name of a trading partner of the Sumerians. It is often assumed to have been located in
Oman
.
- The A'adids established themselves in
South Arabia
(modern-day
Yemen
), settling to the east of the Qahtan tribe. They established the Kingdom of ??d around the 10th century BCE to the 3rd century CE.
The ??d nation were known to the
Greeks
and
Egyptians
.
Claudius Ptolemy
's
Geographos
(2nd century CE) refers to the area as the "land of the Iobaritae" a region which legend later referred to as
Ubar
.
[5]
The origin of the Midianites has not been established. Because of the
Mycenaean
motifs on what is referred to as
Midianite pottery
, some scholars including George Mendenhall,
[6]
Peter Parr,
[7]
and
Beno Rothenberg
[8]
have suggested that the Midianites were originally
Sea Peoples
who migrated from the
Aegean
region and imposed themselves on a pre-existing Semitic stratum. The question of the origin of the Midianites still remains open.
Overview of major kingdoms
[
edit
]
The history of Pre-Islamic Arabia before the rise of
Islam
in the 610s is not known in great detail. Archaeological exploration in the
Arabian peninsula
has been sparse; indigenous written sources are limited to the many inscriptions and coins from southern Arabia. Existing material consists primarily of written sources from other traditions (such as
Egyptians
,
Greeks
,
Persians
,
Romans
, etc.) and
oral traditions
later recorded by Islamic scholars. Many small kingdoms prospered from Red Sea and Indian Ocean trade. Major kingdoms included the
Sabaeans
,
Awsan
,
Himyar
and the
Nabateans
.
The first known inscriptions of the
Kingdom of Hadhramaut
are known from the 8th century BCE.
[
citation needed
]
It was first referenced by an outside civilization in an
Old Sabaic
inscription of Karab'il Watar from the early 7th century BC,
[
citation needed
]
in which the King of Hadramaut, Yada`'il, is mentioned as being one of his allies.
Dilmun
appears first in Sumerian cuneiform clay tablets dated to the end of 4th millennium BC, found in the temple of goddess
Inanna
, in the city of
Uruk
. The adjective
Dilmun
refers to a type of axe and one specific official; in addition, there are lists of rations of wool issued to people connected with Dilmun.
[9]
The
Sabaeans
were an ancient people speaking an
Old South Arabian
language who lived in what is today
Yemen
, in south west
Arabian Peninsula
; from 2000 BCE to the 8th century BCE. Some Sabaeans also lived in
D'mt
, located in
Eritrea
and northern
Ethiopia
, due to their hegemony over the
Red Sea
.
[10]
They lasted from the early 2nd millennium to the 1st century BCE. In the 1st century BCE it was conquered by the
Himyarites
, but after the disintegration of the first
Himyarite empire
of the Kings of Saba' and dhu-Raydan the Middle
Sabaean Kingdom
reappeared in the early 2nd century. It was finally conquered by the Himyarites in the late 3rd century.
The ancient
Kingdom of Awsan
with a capital at
Hagar Yahirr
in the
wadi
Markha
, to the south of the wadi Bayhan, is now marked by a
tell
or artificial mound, which is locally named
Hagar Asfal
. Once it was one of the most important small kingdoms of South Arabia. The city seems to have been destroyed in the 7th century BCE by the king and
mukarrib
of
Saba
Karib'il Watar
, according to a Sabaean text that reports the victory in terms that attest to its significance for the Sabaeans.
The
Himyar
was a state in ancient
South Arabia
dating from 110 BC. It conquered in c. 25 BC,
Qataban
in c. 200 CE and
Hadramaut
c. 300 AD. Its political fortunes relative to Saba changed frequently until it finally conquered the Sabaean Kingdom around 280 CE.
[11]
It was the dominant state in
Arabia
until 525 CE. The economy was based on agriculture.
Foreign trade was based on the export of
frankincense
and
myrrh
. For many years it was also the major intermediary linking East Africa and the Mediterranean world. This trade largely consisted of exporting
ivory
from Africa to be sold in the
Roman Empire
. Ships from Himyar regularly traveled the East African coast, and the state also exerted a considerable amount of political control of the trading cities of East Africa.
The
Nabataean
origins remain obscure. On the similarity of sounds,
Jerome
suggested a connection with the tribe
Nebaioth
mentioned in
Genesis
, but modern historians are cautious about an early Nabatean history. The
Babylonian captivity
that began in 586 BCE opened a power vacuum in
Judah
, and as
Edomites
moved into
Judaean
grazing lands, Nabataean inscriptions began to be left in Edomite territory (earlier than 312 BC, when they were attacked at
Petra
without success by
Antigonus I
). The first definite appearance was in 312 BC, when Hieronymus of Cardia, a Seleucid officer, mentioned the Nabateans in a battle report. In 50 BC, the Greek historian
Diodorus Siculus
cited Hieronymus in his report, and added the following: "Just as the Seleucids had tried to subdue them, so the Romans made several attempts to get their hands on that lucrative trade."
Petra
or
Sela
was the ancient capital of
Edom
; the Nabataeans must have occupied the old
Edomite
country, and succeeded to its commerce, after the Edomites took advantage of the
Babylonian
captivity to press forward into southern
Judaea
. This migration, the date of which cannot be determined, also made them masters of the shores of the
Gulf of Aqaba
and the important harbor of
Elath
. Here, according to
Agatharchides
, they were for a time very troublesome, as wreckers and pirates, to the reopened commerce between Egypt and the East, until they were chastised by the
Ptolemaic rulers of Alexandria
.
The
Lakhmid Kingdom
was founded by the Lakhum tribe that immigrated out of
Yemen
in the 2nd century and ruled by the
Banu Lakhm
, hence the name given it. It was formed of a group of
Arab Christians
who lived in Southern
Iraq
, and made
al-Hirah
their capital in (266). The founder of the dynasty was
'Amr
and the son Imru' al-Qais converted to Christianity. Gradually the whole city converted to that faith. Imru' al-Qais dreamt of a unified and independent Arab kingdom and, following that dream, he seized many cities in
Arabia
.
The
Ghassanids
were a group of South Arabian Christian tribes that emigrated in the early 3rd century from
Yemen
to the
Hauran
in southern
Syria
,
Jordan
and the
Holy Land
where they intermarried with
Hellenized
Roman
settlers and Greek-speaking
Early Christian
communities. The Ghassanid emigration has been passed down in the rich oral tradition of southern
Syria
. It is said that the Ghassanids came from the city of
Ma'rib
in
Yemen
. There was a dam in this city, however one year there was so much rain that the dam was carried away by the ensuing flood. Thus the people there had to leave. The inhabitants emigrated seeking to live in less arid lands and became scattered far and wide. The proverb "They were scattered like the people of
Saba
" refers to that exodus in history. The emigrants were from the southern
Arab
tribe of
Azd
of the
Kahlan
branch of Qahtani tribes.
[12]
Eastern Arabia
[
edit
]
The sedentary people of pre-Islamic Eastern Arabia were mainly
Aramaic
, Arabic and to some degree
Persian speakers
while
Syriac
functioned as a
liturgical language
.
[13]
[14]
In pre-Islamic times, the population of Eastern Arabia consisted of
Christianized Arabs
(including
Abd al-Qays
),
Aramean
Christians, Persian-speaking
Zoroastrians
[15]
and
Jewish
agriculturalists.
[13]
[16]
According to
Robert Bertram Serjeant
, the
Baharna
may be the
Arabized
"descendants of converts from the original population of Christians (Aramaeans), Jews and
ancient Persians (Majus)
inhabiting the island and cultivated coastal provinces of
Eastern Arabia
at the time of the Arab conquest".
[16]
[17]
Other archaeological assemblages cannot be brought clearly into larger context, such as the
Samad Late Iron Age
.
[18]
Zoroastrianism
was also present in Eastern Arabia.
[19]
[20]
[21]
The Zoroastrians of Eastern Arabia were known as "
Majoos
" in pre-Islamic times.
[22]
The sedentary dialects of Eastern Arabia, including
Bahrani Arabic
, were influenced by
Akkadian
, Aramaic and Syriac languages.
[23]
[24]
Dilmun
[
edit
]
The Dilmun civilization was an important trading centre
[25]
which at the height of its power controlled the
Persian Gulf
trading routes.
[25]
The
Sumerians
regarded Dilmun as
holy land
.
[26]
Dilmun is regarded as one of the oldest ancient civilizations in the
Middle East
.
[27]
[28]
The Sumerians described Dilmun as a paradise garden in the
Epic of Gilgamesh
.
[29]
The Sumerian tale of the garden paradise of Dilmun may have been an inspiration for the
Garden of Eden
story.
[29]
Dilmun appears first in
Sumerian
cuneiform
clay tablets dated to the end of fourth millennium BCE, found in the temple of goddess
Inanna
, in the city of
Uruk
. The adjective "Dilmun" is used to describe a type of axe and one specific official; in addition there are lists of rations of wool issued to people connected with Dilmun.
[30]
Dilmun was an important trading center from the late fourth millennium to 1800 BCE.
[25]
Dilmun was very prosperous during the first 300 years of the second millennium.
[31]
Dilmun's commercial power began to decline between 2000 BCE and 1800 BCE because piracy flourished in the Persian Gulf. In 600 BCE, the
Babylonians
and later the
Persians
added Dilmun to their empires.
The Dilmun civilization was the centre of commercial activities linking traditional agriculture of the land with maritime trade between diverse regions as the
Indus Valley
and Mesopotamia in the early period and
China
and the
Mediterranean
in the later period (from the 3rd to the 16th century CE).
[28]
Dilmun was mentioned in two letters dated to the reign of
Burna-Buriash II
(c. 1370 BCE) recovered from
Nippur
, during the
Kassite
dynasty of
Babylon
. These letters were from a provincial official,
Il?-ippa?ra
, in Dilmun to his friend Enlil-kidinni in Mesopotamia. The names referred to are
Akkadian
. These letters and other documents, hint at an administrative relationship between Dilmun and
Babylon
at that time. Following the collapse of the Kassite dynasty, Mesopotamian documents make no mention of Dilmun with the exception of Assyrian inscriptions dated to 1250 BCE which proclaimed the Assyrian king to be king of Dilmun and
Meluhha
. Assyrian inscriptions recorded tribute from Dilmun. There are other Assyrian inscriptions during the first millennium BCE indicating Assyrian sovereignty over Dilmun.
Dilmun was also later on controlled by the
Kassite dynasty
in Mesopotamia.
[33]
Dilmun, sometimes described as "the place where the sun rises" and "the Land of the Living", is the scene of some versions of the
Eridu Genesis
, and the place where the deified Sumerian hero of the flood,
Utnapishtim
(
Ziusudra
), was taken by the gods to live forever.
Thorkild Jacobsen
's translation of the Eridu Genesis calls it
"Mount Dilmun"
which he locates as a
"faraway, half-mythical place"
.
[34]
Dilmun is also described in the
epic
story of
Enki
and
Ninhursag
as the site at which the
Creation
occurred. The promise of Enki to Ninhursag, the Earth Mother:
For Dilmun, the land of my lady's heart, I will create long waterways, rivers and canals, whereby water will flow to quench the thirst of all beings and bring abundance to all that lives.
Ninlil
, the Sumerian goddess of air and south wind had her home in Dilmun. It is also featured in the
Epic of Gilgamesh
.
However, in the early epic
"
Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta
"
, the main events, which center on
Enmerkar
's construction of the
ziggurats
in
Uruk
and
Eridu
, are described as taking place in a world "before Dilmun had yet been settled".
Gerrha
[
edit
]
Gerrha
(
Arabic
:
?????
), was an ancient city of Eastern Arabia, on the west side of the
Persian Gulf
. More accurately, the ancient city of Gerrha has been determined to have existed near or under the present fort of
Uqair
.
[
citation needed
]
This fort is 50 miles northeast of
al-Hasa
in the
Eastern Province
of
Saudi Arabia
. This site was first proposed by
Robert Ernest Cheesman
in 1924.
Gerrha and Uqair are archaeological sites on the eastern coast of the
Arabian Peninsula
.
[35]
[36]
Prior to Gerrha, the area belonged to the
Dilmun
civilization, which was conquered by the
Assyrian Empire
in 709 BCE. Gerrha was the center of an Arab kingdom from approximately 650 BCE to circa 300 CE. The kingdom was attacked by
Antiochus III the Great
in 205-204 BCE, though it seems to have survived. It is currently unknown exactly when Gerrha fell, but the area was under
Sassanid
Persian control after 300 CE.
Gerrha was described by
Strabo
[37]
as inhabited by
Chaldean
exiles from
Babylon
, who built their houses of salt and repaired them by the application of salt water.
Pliny the Elder
(lust. Nat. vi. 32) says it was 5 miles in circumference with towers built of square blocks of salt.
Gerrha was destroyed by the Qarmatians in the end of the 9th century where all inhabitants were massacred (300,000).
[38]
It was 2 miles from the Persian Gulf near current day
Hofuf
. The researcher Abdulkhaliq Al Janbi argued in his book
[39]
that Gerrha was most likely the ancient city of Hajar, located in modern-day
Al Ahsa
,
Saudi Arabia
. Al Janbi's theory is the most widely accepted one by modern scholars, although there are some difficulties with this argument given that Al Ahsa is 60 km inland and thus less likely to be the starting point for a trader's route, making the location within the archipelago of islands comprising the modern
Kingdom of Bahrain
, particularly the main island of Bahrain itself, another possibility.
[40]
Various other identifications of the site have been attempted,
Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville
choosing
Qatif
,
Carsten Niebuhr
preferring Kuwait and C Forster suggesting the ruins at the head of the bay behind the islands of Bahrain.
Tylos
[
edit
]
Bahrain
was referred to by the Greeks as
Tylos
, the centre of pearl trading, when
Nearchus
came to discover it serving under
Alexander the Great
.
[41]
From the 6th to 3rd century BCE Bahrain was included in
Persian Empire
by
Achaemenians
, an
Iranian dynasty
.
[42]
The Greek admiral
Nearchus
is believed to have been the first of Alexander's commanders to visit this islands, and he found a verdant land that was part of a wide trading network; he recorded: "That in the island of Tylos, situated in the Persian Gulf, are large plantations of cotton tree, from which are manufactured clothes called
sindones
, a very different degrees of value, some being costly, others less expensive. The use of these is not confined to India, but extends to Arabia."
[43]
The Greek historian,
Theophrastus
, states that much of the islands were covered in these cotton trees and that Tylos was famous for exporting walking canes engraved with emblems that were customarily carried in Babylon.
[44]
Ares
was also worshipped by the ancient
Baharna
and the Greek empires.
[45]
It is not known whether Bahrain was part of the
Seleucid Empire
, although the archaeological site at
Qalat Al Bahrain
has been proposed as a Seleucid base in the Persian Gulf.
[46]
Alexander had planned to settle the eastern shores of the Persian Gulf with Greek empires, and although it is not clear that this happened on the scale he envisaged, Tylos was very much part of the Hellenised world: the language of the upper classes was Greek (although Aramaic was in everyday use), while Zeus was worshipped in the form of the Arabian sun-god Shams.
[47]
Tylos even became the site of Greek athletic contests.
[48]
The name Tylos is thought to be a Hellenisation of the Semitic, Tilmun (from
Dilmun
).
[49]
The term Tylos was commonly used for the islands until
Ptolemy's
Geographia
when the inhabitants are referred to as 'Thilouanoi'.
[50]
Some place names in Bahrain go back to the Tylos era, for instance, the residential suburb of Arad in
Muharraq
, is believed to originate from "Arados", the ancient Greek name for Muharraq island.
[51]
Herodotus
's account (written c. 440 BCE) refers to the Io and Europa myths. (
History,
I:1).
Phoenicians Homeland
[
edit
]
According to the
Persians
best informed in history, the Phoenicians began the quarrel. These people, who had formerly dwelt on the shores of the
Erythraean Sea
(
the eastern part of the Arabia peninsula
), having migrated to the Mediterranean and settled in the parts which they now inhabit, began at once, they say, to adventure on long voyages, freighting their vessels with the wares of Egypt and Assyria...
?
Herodotus
The Greek historian
Strabo
believed the Phoenicians originated from Eastern Arabia.
[52]
Herodotus
also believed that the homeland of the Phoenicians was Eastern Arabia.
[53]
[54]
This theory was accepted by the 19th-century German classicist
Arnold Heeren
who said that: "In the Greek geographers, for instance, we read of two islands, named Tyrus or
Tylos
, and
Arad, Bahrain
, which boasted that they were the mother country of the Phoenicians, and exhibited relics of Phoenician temples."
[55]
The people of
Tyre
in particular have long maintained
Persian Gulf
origins, and the similarity in the words "Tylos" and "Tyre" has been commented upon.
[56]
However, there is little evidence of occupation at all in Bahrain during the time when such migration had supposedly taken place.
[57]
With the waning of
Seleucid
Greek power, Tylos was incorporated into
Characene
or Mesenian, the state founded in what today is
Kuwait
by
Hyspaosines
in 127 BCE. A building inscriptions found in Bahrain indicate that Hyspoasines occupied the islands, (and it also mention his wife, Thalassia).
Parthian and Sassanid
[
edit
]
From the 3rd century BCE to arrival of Islam in the 7th century CE, Eastern Arabia was controlled by two other Iranian dynasties of the
Parthians
and
Sassanids
.
By about 250 BCE, the
Seleucids
lost their territories to
Parthians
, an Iranian tribe from
Central Asia
. The Parthian dynasty brought the Persian Gulf under their control and extended their influence as far as Oman. Because they needed to control the Persian Gulf trade route, the Parthians established garrisons in the southern coast of Persian Gulf.
[58]
In the 3rd century CE, the
Sassanids
succeeded the Parthians and held the area until the rise of Islam four centuries later.
[58]
Ardashir
, the first ruler of the Iranian
Sassanians
dynasty marched down the Persian Gulf to Oman and Bahrain and defeated Sanatruq
[59]
(or Satiran
[42]
), probably the
Parthian
governor of Eastern Arabia.
[60]
He appointed his son
Shapur I
as governor of Eastern Arabia. Shapur constructed a new city there and named it Batan Ardashir after his father.
[42]
At this time, Eastern Arabia incorporated the southern Sassanid province covering the Persian Gulf's southern shore plus the archipelago of Bahrain.
[60]
The southern province of the Sassanids was subdivided into three districts of Haggar (
Hofuf
, Saudi Arabia), Batan Ardashir (
al-Qatif province
, Saudi Arabia), and
Mishmahig
(
Muharraq
, Bahrain; also referred to as
Samahij
)
[42]
(In
Middle-Persian
/Pahlavi means "ewe-fish".
[61]
) which included the Bahrain archipelago that was earlier called
Aval
.
[42]
[60]
The name, meaning 'ewe-fish' would appear to suggest that the name /Tulos/ is related to Hebrew /??leh/ 'lamb' (Strong's 2924).
[62]
Beth Qatraye
[
edit
]
The Christian name used for the region encompassing north-eastern Arabia was Beth Qatraye, or "the Isles".
[63]
The name translates to 'region of the Qataris' in
Syriac
.
[64]
It included Bahrain,
Tarout Island
, Al-Khatt,
Al-Hasa
, and Qatar.
[65]
By the 5th century, Beth Qatraye was a major centre for
Nestorian Christianity
, which had come to dominate the southern shores of the Persian Gulf.
[66]
[67]
As a sect, the Nestorians were often persecuted as heretics by the
Byzantine Empire
, but eastern Arabia was outside the Empire's control offering some safety. Several notable Nestorian writers originated from Beth Qatraye, including
Isaac of Nineveh
,
Dadisho Qatraya
,
Gabriel of Qatar
and Ahob of Qatar.
[66]
[68]
Christianity's significance was diminished by the arrival of Islam in Eastern Arabia by 628.
[69]
In 676, the bishops of Beth Qatraye stopped attending synods; although the practice of Christianity persisted in the region until the late 9th century.
[66]
The dioceses of Beth Qatraye did not form an
ecclesiastical province
, except for a short period during the mid-to-late seventh century.
[66]
They were instead subject to the Metropolitan of
Fars
.
Beth Mazunaye
[
edit
]
Oman and the United Arab Emirates comprised the
ecclesiastical province
known as Beth Mazunaye. The name was derived from 'Mazun', the
Persian
name for Oman and the United Arab Emirates.
[63]
South Arabian Kingdoms
[
edit
]
Kingdom of Ma'?n (10th century BCE ? 150 BCE)
[
edit
]
During Minaean rule, the capital was at Karna (now known as
Sa'dah
). Their other important city was Yathill (now known as
Baraqish
). The Minaean Kingdom was centered in northwestern Yemen, with most of its cities lying along
W?d?
Madhab
. Minaean inscriptions have been found far afield of the Kingdom of Ma?in, as far away as
al-'Ula
in northwestern
Saudi Arabia
and even on the island of
Delos
and Egypt. It was the first of the
Yemeni kingdoms
to end, and the
Minaean language
died around 100 CE .
[70]
[71]
[72]
Kingdom of Saba (12th century BCE ? 7th century CE)
[
edit
]
During Sabaean rule, trade and agriculture flourished, generating much wealth and prosperity. The Sabaean kingdom was located in Yemen, and its capital,
Ma'rib
, is located near what is now Yemen's modern capital,
Sana'a
.
[73]
According to South Arabian tradition, the eldest son of
Noah
,
Shem
, founded the city of Ma'rib.
[3]
During Sabaean rule, Yemen was called "
Arabia Felix
" by the Romans, who were impressed by its wealth and prosperity. The Roman emperor
Augustus
sent a military expedition to conquer the "Arabia Felix", under the command of
Aelius Gallus
. After an unsuccessful siege of Ma'rib, the Roman general retreated to Egypt, while his fleet destroyed the port of
Aden
in order to guarantee the Roman merchant route to
India
.
The success of the kingdom was based on the cultivation and trade of spices and aromatics including
frankincense
and
myrrh
. These were exported to the
Mediterranean
, India, and
Abyssinia
, where they were greatly prized by many cultures, using
camels on routes
through Arabia, and to India by sea.
During the 8th and 7th century BCE, there was a close contact of cultures between the Kingdom of
D?mt
in
Eritrea
and northern
Ethiopia
and Saba. Though the civilization was indigenous and the royal inscriptions were written in a sort of proto-
Ethiosemitic
, there were also some Sabaean immigrants in the kingdom as evidenced by a few of the D?mt inscriptions.
[74]
[75]
Agriculture in Yemen thrived during this time due to an advanced irrigation system which consisted of large water tunnels in mountains, and dams. The most impressive of these earthworks, known as the
Marib Dam
, was built ca. 700 BCE and provided irrigation for about 25,000 acres (101 km
2
) of land
[76]
and stood for over a millennium, finally collapsing in 570 CE after centuries of neglect.
Kingdom of Hadhramaut (8th century BCE ? 3rd century CE)
[
edit
]
The first known inscriptions of Hadramaut are known from the 8th century BCE. It was first referenced by an outside civilization in an
Old Sabaic
inscription of Karab'il Watar from the early 7th century BCE, in which the King of Hadramaut, Yada`'il, is mentioned as being one of his allies. When the Minaeans took control of the
caravan
routes
in the 4th century BCE, however, Hadramaut became one of its confederates, probably because of commercial interests. It later became independent and was invaded by the growing Yemeni kingdom of Himyar toward the end of the 1st century BCE, but it was able to repel the attack. Hadramaut annexed
Qataban
in the second half of the 2nd century CE, reaching its greatest size. The kingdom of Hadramaut was eventually conquered by the Himyarite king
Shammar Yahri'sh
around 300 CE, unifying all of the South Arabian kingdoms.
[77]
Kingdom of Aws?n (8th century BCE ? 6th century BCE)
[
edit
]
The ancient Kingdom of Aws?n in South Arabia (modern Yemen), with a capital at ?agar Ya?irr in the wadi Markhah, to the south of the W?d? Bay??n, is now marked by a
tell
or artificial mound, which is locally named
?ajar Asfal
.
Kingdom of Qataban (4th century BCE ? 3rd century CE)
[
edit
]
Qataban was one of the ancient Yemeni kingdoms which thrived in the
Beihan
valley. Like the other Southern Arabian kingdoms, it gained great wealth from the trade of frankincense and myrrh incense, which were burned at altars. The capital of Qataban was named
Timna
and was located on the trade route which passed through the other kingdoms of Hadramaut, Saba and Ma'in. The chief deity of the Qatabanians was
Amm
, or "Uncle" and the people called themselves the "children of Amm".
Kingdom of Himyar (late 2nd century BCE ? 525 CE)
[
edit
]
The Himyarites rebelled against Qataban and eventually united Southwestern Arabia (Hejaz and Yemen), controlling the
Red Sea
as well as the coasts of the
Gulf of Aden
. From their capital city,
?af?r
, the Himyarite kings launched successful military campaigns, and had stretched its domain at times as far east as eastern Yemen and as far north as
Najran
[78]
Together with their Kindite allies, it extended maximally as far north as
Riyadh
and as far east as
Yabrin
.
During the 3rd century CE, the South Arabian kingdoms were in continuous conflict with one another.
Gadarat
(GDRT) of
Aksum
began to interfere in South Arabian affairs, signing an alliance with Saba, and a Himyarite text notes that Hadramaut and Qataban were also allied against the kingdom. As a result of this, the
Aksumite Empire
was able to capture the Himyarite capital of Thifar in the first quarter of the 3rd century. However, the alliances did not last, and Sha`ir Awtar of Saba unexpectedly turned on Hadramaut, allying again with Aksum and taking its capital in 225. Himyar then allied with Saba and invaded the newly taken Aksumite territories, retaking Thifar, which had been under the control of Gadarat's son Beygat, and pushing Aksum back into the
Tihama
.
[79]
[80]
The standing relief image of a crowned man, is taken to be a representation possibly of the Jewish king
Malk?karib Yuha?min
or more likely the Christian
Esimiphaios
(Samu Yafa').
[81]
Aksumite occupation of Yemen (525 ? 570 CE)
[
edit
]
The
Aksumite
intervention is connected with
Dhu Nuwas
, a Himyarite king who changed the state religion to
Judaism
and began to persecute the
Christians
in Yemen. Outraged,
Kaleb
, the Christian King of Aksum with the encouragement of the
Byzantine Emperor
Justin I
invaded and annexed Yemen. The Aksumites controlled Himyar and attempted to invade
Mecca
in the year 570 CE. Eastern Yemen remained allied to the
Sassanids
via tribal alliances with the
Lakhmids
, which later brought the
Sassanid army
into Yemen, ending the Aksumite period.
Sassanid period (570 ? 630 CE)
[
edit
]
The Persian king
Khosrau I
sent troops under the command of
Vahriz
(
Persian
:
?????? ????
), who helped the semi-legendary
Sayf ibn Dhi Yazan
to drive the
Aksumites
out of Yemen. Southern Arabia became a Persian dominion under a Yemenite vassal and thus came within the sphere of influence of the Sassanid Empire. After the demise of the Lakhmids, another army was sent to Yemen, making it a province of the Sassanid Empire under a Persian
satrap
. Following the death of
Khosrau II
in 628, the Persian governor in Southern Arabia,
Badhan
, converted to Islam and Yemen followed the new religion.
Hejaz
[
edit
]
Further information:
Hejaz
Kingdom of Lihyan/Dedan (7th century BCE - 24 BC)
[
edit
]
Lihyan
, also called Dad?n or Dedan, was a powerful and highly organized ancient Arab kingdom that played a vital cultural and economic role in the north-western region of the
Arabian Peninsula
and used
Dadanitic
language.
The Lihyanite kingdom went through three different stages, the early phase of Lihyan Kingdom was around the 7th century BC, started as a Sheikdom of Dedan then developed into the Kingdom of Lihyan tribe.
Some authors assert that the Lihyanites fell into the hands of the
Nabataeans
around 65 BCE upon their seizure of Hegra then marching to
Tayma
, and finally to their capital Dedan in 9 BCE. Werner Cascel consider the Nabataean annexation of Lihyan was around 24 BCE under the reign of the
Nabataeans
king
Aretas IV
.
Thamud
[
edit
]
The
Thamud
(
Arabic
:
????
) was an ancient civilization in
Hejaz
, which was a flourished kingdom from 3000 BCE to 200 BCE.
[
citation needed
]
Recent archaeological work has revealed numerous
Thamudic
rock writings and pictures. They are mentioned in sources such as the
Qur'an
,
[84]
[85]
[86]
[87]
[88]
[89]
old
Arabian poetry
,
Assyrian
annals (Tamudi), in a
Greek temple
inscription from the northwest
Hejaz
of 169 CE, in a 5th-century
Byzantine
source and in Old North Arabian graffiti within
Tayma
. They are also mentioned in the victory annals of the
Neo-Assyrian
King,
Sargon II
(8th century BCE), who defeated these people in a campaign in northern Arabia. The Greeks also refer to these people as "Tamudaei", i.e. "Thamud", in the writings of
Aristotle
,
Ptolemy
, and
Pliny
. Before the
rise of Islam
, approximately between 400 and 600 CE, the Thamud completely disappeared.
North Arabian kingdoms
[
edit
]
Kingdom of Qedar (8th century BCE ? ?)
[
edit
]
The most organized of the Northern Arabian tribes, at the height of their rule in the 6th century BCE, the Kingdom of Qedar spanned a large area between the
Persian Gulf
and the
Sinai
.
[91]
An influential force between the 8th and 4th centuries BCE, Qedarite monarchs are first mentioned in inscriptions from the Assyrian Empire. Some early Qedarite rulers were
vassals
of that empire, with revolts against Assyria becoming more common in the 7th century BCE. It is thought that the Qedarites were eventually subsumed into the Nabataean state after their rise to prominence in the 2nd century CE.
The Achaemenids in Northern Arabia
[
edit
]
Achaemenid Arabia corresponded to the lands between
Nile Delta
(Egypt) and
Mesopotamia
, later known to Romans as
Arabia Petraea
. According to
Herodotus
,
Cambyses
did not subdue the
Arabs
when he attacked Egypt in 525 BCE. His successor
Darius the Great
does not mention the Arabs in the
Behistun inscription
from the first years of his reign, but does mention them in later texts. This suggests that Darius might have conquered this part of Arabia
[92]
or that it was originally part of another province, perhaps
Achaemenid Babylonia
, but later became its own province.
Arabs were not considered as subjects to the Achaemenids, as other peoples were, and were exempt from taxation. Instead, they simply provided 1,000 talents of
frankincense
a year.
They participated in the
Second Persian invasion of Greece
(479-480 BCE) while also helping the Achaemenids invade Egypt by providing water skins to the troops crossing the desert.
[93]
Nabateans
[
edit
]
The Nabataeans are not to be found among the tribes that are listed in Arab genealogies because the Nabatean kingdom ended a long time before the coming of Islam. They settled east of the
Syro-African rift
between the
Dead Sea
and the Red Sea, that is, in the land that had once been
Edom
. And although the first sure reference to them dates from 312 BCE, it is possible that they were present much earlier.
Petra
(from the
Greek
petra
, meaning 'of rock') lies in the
Jordan Rift Valley
, east of
Wadi `Araba
in
Jordan
about 80 km (50 mi) south of the Dead Sea. It came into prominence in the late 1st century BCE through the success of the
spice trade
. The city was the principal city of ancient Nabataea and was famous above all for two things: its trade and its
hydraulic engineering
systems. It was locally autonomous until the reign of
Trajan
, but it flourished under
Roman rule
. The town grew up around its Colonnaded Street in the 1st century and by the middle of the 1st century had witnessed rapid urbanization. The quarries were probably opened in this period, and there followed virtually continuous building through the 1st and 2nd centuries CE.
Roman Arabia
[
edit
]
There is evidence of
Roman rule in northern Arabia
dating to the reign of Caesar Augustus (27 BCE ? 14 CE). During the reign of
Tiberius
(14?37 CE), the already wealthy and elegant north Arabian city of Palmyra, located along the caravan routes linking Persia with the Mediterranean ports of Roman Syria and
Phoenicia
, was made part of the
Roman province
of
Syria
. The area steadily grew further in importance as a trade route linking Persia, India,
China
, and the Roman Empire. During the following period of great prosperity, the Arab citizens of Palmyra adopted customs and modes of dress from both the
Iranian
Parthian
world to the east and the
Graeco-Roman
west. In 129,
Hadrian
visited the city and was so enthralled by it that he proclaimed it a free city and renamed it
Palmyra Hadriana
.
The Roman province of Arabia Petraea was created at the beginning of the 2nd century by emperor Trajan. It was centered on Petra, but included even areas of northern Arabia under Nabatean control.
Recently evidence has been discovered that
Roman legions
occupied
Mada'in Saleh
in the
Hijaz mountains
area of northwestern Arabia, increasing the extension of the "Arabia Petraea" province.
[94]
The desert frontier of Arabia Petraea was called by the Romans the
Limes Arabicus
. As a frontier province, it included a desert area of northeastern Arabia populated by the nomadic
Saraceni
.
Qahtanites
[
edit
]
In Sassanid times, Arabia Petraea was a border province between the Roman and Persian empires, and from the early centuries CE was increasingly affected by South Arabian influence, notably with the
Ghassanids
migrating north from the 3rd century.
- The
Ghassanids
revived the Semitic presence in the then Hellenized Syria. They mainly settled the
Hauran
region and spread to modern Lebanon,
Israel
,
Palestine
and
Jordan
. The Ghassanids held Syria until engulfed by the expansion of Islam.
Greeks and Romans referred to all the
nomadic
population of the desert in the Near East as Arabi. The Greeks called Yemen "Arabia Felix" (Happy Arabia). The Romans called the vassal nomadic states within the Roman Empire "Arabia Petraea" after the city of Petra, and called unconquered deserts bordering the empire to the south and east Arabia Magna (Larger Arabia) or
Arabia Deserta
(Deserted Arabia).
- The
Lakhmids
settled the mid
Tigris
region around their capital
Al-Hirah
they ended up allying with the Sassanid against the Ghassanids and the Byzantine Empire. The Lakhmids contested control of the central Arabian tribes with the Kindites, eventually destroying
Kindah
in 540 after the fall of Kindah's main ally at the time, Himyar. The Sassanids dissolved the Lakhmid kingdom in 602.
- The
Kindites
migrated from Yemen along with the Ghassanids and Lakhmids, but were turned back in
Bahrain
by the Abdul Qais Rabi'a tribe. They returned to Yemen and allied themselves with the Himyarites who installed them as a vassal kingdom that ruled Central Arabia from Qaryah dhat Kahl (the present-day
Qaryat al-F?w
) in Central Arabia. They ruled much of the Northern/Central Arabian Peninsula until the fall of the Himyarites in 525 CE.
Central Arabia
[
edit
]
Further information:
Najd
Kingdom of Kindah
[
edit
]
Kindah was an Arab kingdom by the Kindah tribe, the tribe's existence dates back to the second century BCE.
[95]
The Kindites established a kingdom in
Najd
in central Arabia unlike the organized states of
Yemen
; its kings exercised an influence over a number of associated tribes more by personal prestige than by coercive settled authority. Their first capital was Qaryat Dh?t K?hil, today known as Qaryat Al-F?w.
[96]
The Kindites were polytheistic until the 6th century CE, with evidence of rituals dedicated to the idols
Athtar
and K?hil found in their ancient capital in south-central Arabia (present day Saudi Arabia). It is not clear whether they converted to
Judaism
or remained pagan, but there is a strong archaeological evidence that they were among the tribes in
Dh? Nuw?s
' forces during the Jewish king's attempt to suppress Christianity in Yemen.
[97]
They converted to Islam in mid 7th century CE and played a crucial role during the Arab conquest of their surroundings, although some sub-tribes declared
apostasy
during the
ridda
after the death of Mu?ammad.
Ancient South Arabian inscriptions mention a tribe settling in
Najd
called
kdt
, who had a king called
rb?t
(Rabi'ah) from
?w ?wr-m
(the people of Thawr), who had sworn allegiance to the king of Saba' and Dh? Rayd?n.
[98]
Since later Arab genealogists trace Kindah back to a person called Thawr ibn 'Uqayr, modern historians have concluded that this
rb?t ?w ?wrm
(Rab?'ah of the People of Thawr) must have been a king of Kindah (
kdt
); the
Musnad
inscriptions mention that he was king both of
kdt
(Kindah) and
qhtn
(Qa???n). They played a major role in the
Himyarite
-
?a?ramite
war. Following the Himyarite victory, a branch of Kindah established themselves in the
Marib
region, while the majority of Kindah remained in their lands in central Arabia.
The first Classical author to mention Kindah was the Byzantine ambassador Nonnosos, who was sent by the Emperor Justinian to the area. He refers to the people in Greek as
Khindynoi
(Greek Χινδηνοι, Arabic Kindah), and mentions that they and the tribe of
Maadynoi
(Greek:
Μααδηνοι
, Arabic:
Ma'ad
) were the two most important tribes in the area in terms of territory and number. He calls the king of Kindah
Kaisos
(Greek:
Καισο?
, Arabic:
Qays
), the nephew of
Aretha
(Greek:
?ρεθα
, Arabic:
??rith
).
People
[
edit
]
Sedentary Arabs
[
edit
]
Sedentary Arabs who inhabited cities or rural areas (towns, villages or oases). In pre-Islamic Arabia, most sedentary Arabs were of Arabian origin.
Bedouin tribes
[
edit
]
Consisted of many major ancient tribes and clans which were mainly
pastoral nomads
. The ancestral lineage
followed through males
, since the tribes and clans were named after the male ancestors.
Solluba
[
edit
]
The Solluba were a
?utaymi
tribal group in the northern part of the
Arabian Peninsula
who were clearly distinguishable from the
Arabs
. The Solubba maintained a distinctive lifestyle as isolated nomads. The origin of the Solluba is obscure. They have been identified with the
Selappayu
in
Akkadian
records, and a clue to their origin is their use of
desert kites
and game traps, first attested to in around 7,000 BCE, which makes them the pre-Semitic inhabitants of Arabia.
[99]
Cambridge linguist and anthropologist
Roger Blench
sees the Solubba as the last survivors of
Palaeolithic
hunters and salt-traders who once dominated Arabia. Those were assimilated in the next wave of humans consisted of cattle herders in the 6th millennium BCE who introduced cows, wild donkeys, sheep, dogs, camels and goats. Those peoples may have engaged in trade across the
Red Sea
with speakers of
Cushitic
or
Nilo-Saharan
. In the 3rd and 2nd millennium BCE, speakers of
Semitic languages
arrived from the Near East and marginalised and absorbed the rest.
[100]
Western travelers reported that the
Bedouin
did not consider the Solluba to be descendants of
Qa???n
. One legend mentions that they originated from ancient Christian groups, possibly
Crusaders
who were taken into slavery by the Bedouin.
[101]
Werner Caskel
criticizes the Crusader origin theory and instead proposes that the term "Solluba" describes a host of groups hailing from different backgrounds: those of
al-?as?
being of 12th- to 13th-century CE migrants from southern Persia, and the group to the west being composed of communities emerging after their defeat by the
Wahhabis
.
[102]
Another theory sees the Solubba as a former Bedouin group that lost their herds and fell in the eyes of other Bedouin.
[103]
[104]
Arab genealogical tradition
[
edit
]
Arab traditions relating to the origins and classification of the Arabian tribes is based on biblical genealogy. The general consensus among 14th-century Arabic genealogists was that Arabs were three kinds:
- "Perishing Arabs": These are the ancients of whose history little is known. They include ??d, Thamud, Tasm, Jadis, Imlaq and others. Jadis and Tasm perished because of genocide. ??d and Thamud perished because of their decadence. Some people in the past doubted their existence, but Imlaq is the singular form of 'Amaleeq and is probably synonymous to the biblical
Amalek
.
- "Pure Arabs" (
Qahtanite
): These are traditionally considered to have originated from the progeny of Ya'rub bin Yashjub bin Qahtan so were also called Qahtanite Arabs.
[105]
- "
Arabized
Arabs" (
Adnanite
): They are traditionally seen as having descended from
Adnan
.
[105]
[106]
[107]
Modern historians believe that these distinctions were created during the
Umayyad period
, to support the cause of different political factions.
[105]
The several different tribes throughout Arabian history are traditionally regarded as having emerged from two main branches: the
Rabi`ah
, from which amongst others the
Banu Hanifa
emerged, and the
Mudhar
, from which amongst others the
Banu Kinanah
(and later Muhammad's own tribe, the
Quraysh
) emerged.
Religion
[
edit
]
Religion in pre-Islamic Arabia included pre-Islamic Arabian
polytheism
,
ancient Semitic religions
(religions predating the
Abrahamic religions
which themselves likewise originated among the
ancient Semitic-speaking peoples
),
Abrahamic religions
such as
Christianity
,
Judaism
,
Samaritanism
, and
Mandaeism
, and
Iranian religions
such as
Zoroastrianism
and
Manichaeism
, as well as
Dharmic religions
such as
Buddhism
[
citation needed
]
. Arabian polytheism was, according to Islamic tradition, the dominant form of
religion in pre-Islamic Arabia
, based on veneration of
deities
and spirits. Worship was directed to various gods and goddesses, including
Hubal
and the goddesses
al-L?t
,
Al-'Uzza
and
Man?t
, at local shrines and temples, maybe such as the
Kaaba
in
Mecca
. Deities were venerated and invoked through a variety of rituals, including pilgrimages and divination, as well as ritual sacrifice. Different theories
have been proposed
regarding the role of
Allah
in Meccan religion. Many of the physical descriptions of the pre-Islamic gods are traced to
idols
, especially near the Kaaba, which is said to have contained up to 360 of them in Islamic tradition.
Other religions were represented to varying, lesser degrees. The influence of the adjacent
Roman
and
Aksumite
resulted in Christian communities in the northwest, northeast and south of Arabia. Christianity made a lesser impact, but secured some conversions, in the remainder of the peninsula. With the exception of
Nestorianism
in the northeast and the
Persian Gulf
, the dominant form of Christianity was
Miaphysitism
. The peninsula had been a destination for Jewish migration since pre-Roman times, which had resulted in a
diaspora
community supplemented by local converts. Additionally, the influence of the
Sasanian Empire
resulted in
Iranian religions
being present in the peninsula. While
Zoroastrianism
existed in the eastern and southern Arabia, there was no existence of
Manichaeism
in Mecca.
[108]
[109]
Buddhism
is also but rarely practiced as well. From the fourth-century onwards, monotheism became increasingly prevalent in pre-Islamic Arabia, as is attested in texts like the inscriptions from
Jabal Dabub
,
Ri al-Zallalah
, and the Abd Shams inscription.
[110]
The art is similar to that of neighbouring cultures. Pre-Islamic
Yemen
produced stylized
alabaster
(the most common material for sculpture) heads of great aesthetic and historic charm.
-
Votive
alabaster
figurines from Yemen that represent seated women and female heads; 3rd-1st century BC;
National Museum of Oriental Art
(Rome, Italy)
-
Stele, male wearing a baldric ? an iconic artwork for pre-Islamic
Arabia
; 4th millennium BCE, Al-'Ula (
Saudi Arabia
); exhibition at the
National Museum of Korea
(
Seoul
)
-
Another anthropomorphic stele from pre-Islamic Saudi Arabia
-
South Arabian stele, bust of female raising her hand, with the donor's name, Rathadum, written below; 1st century BC-1st century AD; calcite-alabaster; 32.1 cm (12.6 in) x 23.3 cm (9.1 in) x 3.5 cm (1.3 in);
Walters Art Museum
(
Baltimore
).
-
Limestone
sculpture from pre-Islamic
Yemen
that represents a ram
-
Bas-relief with a palm tree; Sana'a, ancient Yemen, alabaster.
-
Miniature gate; Zafar, Yemen, 2rd-3rd century AD.
-
Pergamon Museum (
Berlin
). Exhibition "Roads of Arabia": Funeral mask and glove (1st century AD), gold, from Thaj,
Tell Al-Zayer
(National Museum,
Riyadh
)
-
Dhamar Ali Yahbur II, King of Himyarite
-
Late Antiquity
[
edit
]
The early 7th century in Arabia began with the longest and most destructive period of the
Byzantine?Sassanid Wars
. It left both the Byzantine and Sassanid empires exhausted and susceptible to third-party attacks, particularly from nomadic Arabs united under a newly formed
religion
. According to historian
George Liska
, the "unnecessarily prolonged Byzantine?Persian conflict opened the way for Islam".
[111]
The demographic situation also favoured Arab expansion: overpopulation and lack of resources encouraged Arabs to migrate out of Arabia.
[112]
Fall of the Empires
[
edit
]
Before the
Byzantine?Sassanid War of 602?628
, the
Plague of Justinian
had erupted (541?542), spreading through Persia and into
Byzantine
territory. The Byzantine historian
Procopius
, who witnessed the plague, documented that citizens died at a rate of 10,000 per day in
Constantinople
.
[113]
The exact number; however, is often disputed by contemporary historians. Both empires were permanently weakened by the pandemic as their citizens struggled to deal with death as well as heavy taxation, which increased as each empire campaigned for more territory.
Despite almost succumbing to the plague, Byzantine emperor
Justinian I
(reigned 527?565) attempted to resurrect the might of the Roman Empire by expanding into Arabia. The Arabian Peninsula had a long coastline for merchant ships and an area of lush vegetation known as the
Fertile Crescent
which could help fund his expansion into Europe and
North Africa
. The drive into Persian territory would also put an end to tribute payments to the Sasanians, which resulted in an agreement to give 11,000 lb (5,000 kg) of tribute to the Persians annually in exchange for a ceasefire.
[114]
However, Justinian could not afford further losses in Arabia. The Byzantines and the Sasanians sponsored powerful nomadic mercenaries from the desert with enough power to trump the possibility of aggression in Arabia. Justinian viewed his mercenaries as so valued for preventing conflict that he awarded their chief with the titles of patrician,
phylarch
, and king ? the highest honours that he could bestow on anyone.
[115]
By the late 6th century, an uneasy peace remained until disagreements erupted between the mercenaries and their patron empires.
The Byzantines' ally was a Christian Arabic tribe from the frontiers of the desert known as the
Ghassanids
. The Sasanians' ally; the
Lakhmids
, were also
Christian Arabs
, but from what is now
Iraq
. However,
denominational
disagreements about
God
forced a schism in the alliances. The Byzantines' official religion was
Orthodox Christianity
, which believed that
Jesus
Christ
and God were two natures within one entity.
[116]
The Ghassanids, as
Monophysite Christians
from Iraq, believed that God and Jesus Christ were only one nature.
[117]
This disagreement proved irreconcilable and resulted
[
when?
]
in a permanent break in the alliance.
Meanwhile, the Sassanid Empire broke its alliance with the Lakhmids due to false accusations that the Lakhmids' leader had committed treason; the Sasanians annexed the Lakhmid kingdom in 602.
[118]
The fertile lands and important trade routes of Iraq were now open ground for upheaval.
Rise of Islam
[
edit
]
When the military stalemate was finally broken and it seemed that Byzantium had finally gained the upper hand in battle, nomadic Arabs invaded from the desert frontiers, bringing with them a new social order that emphasized religious devotion over tribal membership.
By the time the last Byzantine-Sassanid war came to an end in 628, Arabia had started to unite under Muhammad's politico-religious leadership. The Muslims were able to launch attacks against both empires, which resulted in destruction of the Sassanid Empire and the conquest of Byzantium's territories in the Levant, the
Caucasus
, Egypt,
Syria
and North Africa.
[111]
[
need quotation to verify
]
"Within the lifetime of some of the children who met Muhammad and sat on the Prophet's knees, Arab armies controlled the land mass that extended from the
Pyrenees Mountains
in Europe to the
Indus River
valley in
South Asia
. In less than a century, Arabs had come to rule over an area that spanned five thousand miles."
[119]
Recent discoveries
[
edit
]
On 9 June 2020, the discovery of a 35-meter long triangular megalithic monument in
Dumat al-Jandal
dated back to VI millennium BCE and which was presumably dedicated to ritual practices was published in the
journal Antiquity
. Archaeological researchers from
France
,
Saudi Arabia
and
Italy
, headed by Olivia Munoz believe that these findings illuminate a pastoralist nomadic lifestyle and a ritual used in prehistoric Arabia.
[120]
[121]
See also
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
"Archived copy"
(PDF)
.
Archived
(PDF)
from the original on 2018-04-30
. Retrieved
2017-05-13
.
{{
cite web
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: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (
link
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a
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Taylor, Jane (2005).
Petra
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9957-451-04-9
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Blom, Ronald G.; Crippen, Robert; Elachi, Charles; Clapp, Nicholas; Hedges, George R.; Zarins, Juris (2007).
"Southern Arabian Desert Trade Routes, Frankincense, Myrrh, and the Ubar Legend"
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Remote Sensing in Archaeology
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See, e.g., Bafaqih 1990.
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Robert Bertram Serjeant
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Gerrha, The Ancient City Of International Trade ??? ????? ??????? ???????? ???????
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Arnold Hermann Ludwig Heeren, Historical Researches Into the Politics, Intercourse, and Trade of the Principal Nations of Antiquity, Henry Bohn, 1854 p38
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Arnold Heeren, ibid, p441
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See
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Classical Greece: Ancient histories and modern archaeologies, Ian Morris, Routledge, p184
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Phillip Ward, Bahrain: A Travel Guide, Oleander Press p68
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W. B. Fisher et al. The Cambridge History of Iran, Cambridge University Press 1968 p40
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Jean Francois Salles in Traces of Paradise: The Archaeology of Bahrain, 2500BC-300AD in Michael Rice, Harriet Crawford Ed, IB Tauris, 2002 p132
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Curtis E. Larsen.
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harvnb error: no target: CITEREFBlench2010 (
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harvnb error: no target: CITEREFBlench2010 (
help
)
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McNutt 2003
, p. 43
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help
)
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Bosworth, Heinrichs & Donzel 2003
, p. 814
harvnb error: no target: CITEREFBosworthHeinrichsDonzel2003 (
help
)
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Meeker 1979
, p. 22
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help
)
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Doughty & Lawrence 2010
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"The 'arabicised or arabicising Arabs', on the contrary, are believed to be the descendants of
Ishmael
through Adnan, but in this case the genealogy does not match the Biblical line exactly. The label 'arabicised' is due to the belief that
Ishmael
spoke Hebrew until he got to Mecca, where he married a Yemeni woman and learnt Arabic. Both genealogical lines go back to
Sem
, son of
Noah
, but only Adnanites can claim
Abraham
as their ascendant, and the lineage of Mohammed, the Seal of Prophets (khatim al-anbiya'), can therefore be traced back to
Abraham
. Contemporary historiography unveiled the lack of inner coherence of this genealogical system and demonstrated that it finds insufficient matching evidence; the distinction between Qahtanites and Adnanites is even believed to be a product of the Umayyad Age, when the war of factions (al-niza al-hizbi) was raging in the young Islamic Empire."
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That Manicheism went further on to the Arabian peninsula, up to the Hejaz and Mecca, where it could have possibly contributed to the formation of the doctrine of Islam, cannot be proven. A detailed description of Manichean traces in the Arabian-speaking regions is given by Tardieu (1994).
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"Bury, John.", "A history of the later Roman empire: from
Arcadius
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Munoz, Olivia; Cotty, Marianne; Charloux, Guillaume; Bouchaud, Charlene (2020).
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Further reading
[
edit
]
- Berkey, Jonathan P.
(2003),
The Formation of Islam
,
Cambridge University Press
,
ISBN
978-0-521-58813-3
- Bulliet, Richard W.
(1975),
The Camel and the Wheel
,
Harvard University Press
,
ISBN
978-0-674-09130-6
- Donner, Fred
(1981),
The Early Islamic Conquests
,
Princeton University Press
,
ISBN
978-0-691-10182-8
- Hawting, G. R.
(1999),
The Idea of Idolatry and the Emergence of Islam: From Polemic to History
,
Cambridge University Press
,
ISBN
978-0-521-65165-3
- Hoyland, Robert G.
(2001),
Arabia and the Arabs: From the Bronze Age to the Coming of Islam
,
Routledge
,
ISBN
978-0-415-19535-5
- Korotayev, Andrey
(1995),
Ancient Yemen
,
Oxford
:
Oxford University Press
,
ISBN
978-0-19-922237-7
- Korotayev, Andrey
(1996),
Pre-Islamic Yemen
,
Wiesbaden
:
Harrassowitz Verlag
,
ISBN
978-3-447-03679-5
- Yule, Paul Alan
(2007),
Himyar?Die Spatantike im Jemen/Himyar Late Antique Yemen
,
Aichwald
: Linden,
ISBN
978-3-929290-35-6
- Arabia Antica
Archived
2006-02-16 at the
Wayback Machine
: Portal of Pre-Islamic Arabian Studies, University of Pisa - Dipartimento Civilta e Forme del Sapere
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