The Arab World is mostly identified with Islam.
And for a good reason. Islam was a catalyst of the biggest expansion of the Arabic people in history.
It paved the way for the establishment of arguably the most powerful empire of its time, the Islamic
Caliphate, which at its zenith ranged from Spain and North Africa in the West to Central Asia and
the Indian Subcontinent in the East. The Caliphate managed to be one of the most dominant political,
military, scientific, and cultural centers of the world for several centuries, while the religion
of Islam remains one of the most important political and societal forces globally. But what
was there before Islam? How did Arab people live, rule themselves, what did they believe in?
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“man maintenance” for the modern gentlemen! Pre-Islamic Arabia was mostly a nomadic society
inhabited by constantly moving tribal units. These Bedouin tribes, some of which maintain
their traditional nomadic lifestyle to this day, had been the most significant
political unit of the Arabian peninsula with constantly shifting alliances, never-ending
warfare, and rare occurrences of organized and centralized statehood. These tribes placed
heavy emphasis on kin-related groups, families and would roam through the deserts with
their livestock mainly comprising of sheep, goats, and camels, living in tents
with their immediate family members. The tribal leaders enforced unwritten
rules of the Bedouin society in the tribe. Bedouin tribes were patriarchal as the
inheritance passed on to the male offsprings, and women could not inherit property and were
virtually rightless, as they could be seized in tribal conflicts as a war spoil and the Bedouin
laws allowed the men to marry their captives. The number of women a man could marry was not fixed.
When a man died, his son “inherited” all his wives except his own mother. Women in tribal Arabia had
little say in their marriages, as they would often be arranged between a man and his future wife’s
family and the family would receive property like camels or horses in exchange for the bride. There
were also cases of killing of female infants, as the Muslim holy book Quran mentions
that the Arabs of the period of ignorance called Jahiliyyah would bury their daughters
alive. The Bedouin men often considered women an economic burden and a potential source
of embarrassment, as the capture of women of the tribe by hostile tribes was considered
humiliating in the conservative Bedouin society. Under the circumstances of lack of centralized
states with rare exceptions, there were no written laws, courts, or law enforcement of
any kind to protect the population, thus, the principal purpose of a Bedouin tribe was to
protect its members. Vengeance was sought for the killing of a tribe member by another tribe, which
led to virtually constant warfare and conflict. Protecting your tribe and avenging your kin was
a high honour. Harsh living conditions of the Arabian peninsula further enhanced the tribal
system and sense of identity within a tribe, as often their protection and economic cooperation
was the difference between death and survival. French historian Maxime Rodinson states that “the
free Arabs were bound by no written code of law, and no state existed to enforce its
statutes with the backing of a police force. The only protection for a man's life
was the certainty established by custom, that it would be dearly bought. Blood for
blood and a life for a life. The vendetta, tha'r in Arabic, is one of the
pillars of Bedouin society.” Austrian historian Gustave E. von Grunebaum
reiterated this and described the state of affairs in Arabia in the century before the rise of Islam
as “tribal guerrilla fighting, all against all.” Tribes would fight against each other, attack
and plunder caravans and sedentary settlements, as lawlessness was the law of the
land in most of Arabia. Caravans and sedentary settlements would pay tributes to the
raiding Bedouin tribes to avoid their attacks. While most of the tribes in Arabia went on with
their nomadic lifestyle, some managed to gain influence over certain territories and switch to
sedentary life. Mecca was practically ruled by the skilled merchants of the Quraysh tribe that took
control of the city sometime in the 5th century, while Yathrib, which was later named Medina, was
dominated by the Arab tribes of Aus and Khazraj, and the Jewish tribes Nadheer, Qaynuqaa,
and Qurayza. While the nomadic Bedouins viewed the sedentary life with contempt and
thought of the town-dwellers as a “nation of shopkeepers”, the emergence of cities like
Mecca was the primary cause of the dawn of the common Arab identity in the pre-Islamic period.
The most important cities of the Arabian peninsula Mecca and Yathrib are situated in Hijaz, a region
with sufficient water supply, which made it a logical choice for a sedentary lifestyle in the
otherwise punishing climate and terrain of Arabia. Mecca was an important trade center in the region, a place through which the caravans would
flow, as well as the location of the Kaaba, the sacred place in Islam, which was
also sacred in the polytheistic Arabia, where the statues of idols and gods of different
Arabic tribes were placed. The Greek historian Diodorus Siculus, who lived between 60 and 30
BC, wrote about the isolated region of Arabia in his work Bibliotheca Historica, describing Kaaba
as a “very holy” temple, which was “exceedingly revered by all Arabians”. For example, the chief
deity of the Quraysh tribe and Mecca was Hubal. The usual trading routes through the Red Sea and
the Tigris and Euphrates were disrupted by piracy and the Roman-Persian conflict, and caravans and
traders switched to the trade route going through Mecca. Goods from beyond the Red Sea and of the
local Bedouin tribes would be brought to Mecca, from where the camel caravans would transport
them to the Levant. Meccans signed treaties with the Byzantine Empire and Bedouin tribes
for safe passage of their trading caravans. As the home of the Kaaba, Mecca also carried a
religious significance for the polytheistic Arabs, as once a year Arabs from all over Arabia would
make a pilgrimage to Kaaba and drink from the sacred Zamzam Well. At this time of the year the
conflict would stop, a truce would be declared, disputes and debts would be resolved and
trade happened between different tribes. Thus, Mecca became a center of a loose confederation of
tribes around this city, as guests were obliged to follow the rules in Mecca. The trading potential
of Mecca and its religious significance for the Arabs turned it into a factor bringing Arabs
together and forming their national identity. Another important city of Arabia was Yathrib
- Medina. It was an agricultural center also situated in a fertile region of Hejaz,
which allowed the city to become an important transit point for trade caravans traveling along
the Red Sea. Initially, Yathrib was dominated by Jewish tribes, but gradually several Arabic
tribes moved to Yathrib and gained political and economic influence in the city too. While
Arabs were mainly engaged in agriculture, Jews would also be active as businessmen. The
rise of cities was inevitably going to lead to the rise of commerce too, and the Rise of commerce
was inevitably going to lead to usury, a practice, which was used both by the Arabs and Jews. This
practice would be later prohibited by Islam. We already saw that even in pre-Islamic Arabia
religion played an important role in shaping the common Arab identity. What religion did
the Arabs practice before the rise of Islam? Religion in pre-Islamic Arabia was a mix of
polytheism, Christianity, Judaism, and Iranian religions. Arab polytheism or paganism was the
most popular belief system. Each tribe, city, and region could have its own god or idol, which was
in a way a patron of that particular community. Arabs also believed in supernatural beings like
djinns. Statues of gods and goddesses would be placed in Kaaba, and some scholars argue that
Allah, the deity of Islam, and other Abrahamic religions also had a statue in Kaaba. There are
hadiths, the authenticity of which is disputed, claiming that Kaaba also had an image of the
Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus with Abraham looking over them. Overall, it is estimated that Kaaba
contained up to 360 such statues and images. Trading and political relations with
the Byzantine Empire, Ethiopia, Persia, and other neighbouring forces had a role in
shaping the religious landscape of Arabia too. As early as the first century AD Arab traders
brought Christianity to Arabia. Others were evangelized by Paul’s ministry in Arabia and by
St Thomas, followed by a strong influence from the Byzantine Empire. For example, the Ghassanids, a
vassal kingdom of Rome, converted to Christianity. In the South of the country, a strong
Christian community emerged in Najran as a result of the influence of the Ethiopian
Christian kingdom of Aksum. Nestorian Christianity was strong in parts of the country, but the
most popular denomination was Monophysitism. Judaism was also a significant part
of the religious landscape of Arabia. As a result of Roman persecution, the
migration of Jewish people to Arabia started as early as the 1st century AD. Many
Jews found homes in Hijaz and towns like Yathrib, Khayber, Fadak, and Umm-ul-Qura.
Many Arabs also converted to Judaism, as often it was a condition of settling
in Jewish-dominated towns of Hijaz. The Yemeni Himyarite Kingdom converted to Judaism
in the 4th century, and some of the Kindah, a tribe in central Arabia who were the Himyarites’
vassals, were also converted by the 5th century. Sources also inform about a monotheistic religion
centered around the worship of a single god of the Abrahamic religions, but apparently, it was
not affiliated with Christianity or Judaism, and was probably centered around the prophethood
of Abraham. Followers of this religion were called Hanifi people, and they rejected the
idolatry and paganism of the majority of Arabs, sharing some of the features of other Abrahamic
religions like the prohibition of pork. The scope of expansion of the Hanifi people is
unclear, but according to some Islamic sources, the Prophet of Islam, Muhammad,
and some of his future companions belonged to this religion. Arabia also
had a small minority following Iran-based religions like Zoroastrianism, Mazdakism, and
others spreading under the Persian influence. Earlier we mentioned how in the pre-Islamic period
the Arab statehood was relatively rare, as Arabia constantly moved from tribal anarchy to loose
state organizations and back again. But there have been a number of notable states in Arabia in
the pre-Islamic period mentioned in Greek, Roman, Mesopotamian, and Persian sources, oral Arab
traditions later recorded by Islamic scholars. According to the Arab classical writers,
Arabs divided themselves into the Yamanites, the South Arabs descended from Qahtan
and the North Arabs descended from Adnan. It is interesting that these two groups had
certain distinctions and the existence of statehood and political systems were among them.
South Arabia, Yemen had more established states and all of them were ruled as monarchies.
In the North loose tribal confederations or de facto city-states like Mecca were a more
prevalent form of statehood. Such states were ruled as oligarchies and aristocracies.
The South was considered more advanced, as it was the key route of trade in Arabia, prior
to the emergence of Mecca as an alternative, and a higher degree of contacts with outsiders such
as Ethiopians. From the fourth century onwards a reverse process started, as many Southern tribes
migrated to the North and underwent the Northern influence. The South Arabian script vanished
and the North Arabian proliferated in Arabia. The Thamud tribe or tribal union was one
of the first recorded states in Arabia, which was a prominent force in Northwestern
Arabia, according to the Assyrian sources related to the 8th century BC and were later used
as auxiliary forces by the Roman Empire according to the Roman sources. In the 3rd century BC, the
Greek scholar Eratosthenes mentioned Minaeans, Sabaeans, Qatabanians, and Hadramites as the
main peoples inhabiting the Arabian peninsula. Historians mention the independent Sabaean Kingdom
situated in present-day Yemen, which was later conquered by the Himyarite Kingdom around 280 AD.
The Himyarite Kingdom was one of the most prominent pre-Islamic states of the Arabian
peninsula. It was ruled by a monarch, but in practice, the power in the state
was shared with the regional governors, which had a high degree of autonomy, a system
akin to the medieval era European kingdoms. By the early 4th century AD the Himyarite Kingdom ruled
over Southern Arabia and expanded North to Najran. Originally polytheistic Himyarites became
monotheistic sometime in the 4th century with a belief in the Abrahamic God. At the end
of the fifth century the Himyarite king Abu Kariba adopted Judaism as his faith. His son and
successor Yusuf Dhu Nuwas was even more zealous, as he started persecuting Christians living in
the Kingdom. This proved to be the undoing of the Himyarite dynasty as Dhu Nuwas was either killed
or committed suicide after being defeated by the Christian coalition of the Ethiopian Kingdom of
Aksum, the Byzantine Empire and South Arabian Christians in 524. Christian Ethiopians then took
control of South Arabia, built a church in Sana in an attempt to attract pilgrims, and hence trade
to Sana in place of Mecca. This caused a conflict between Abraha, the Ethiopian viceroy in Yemen,
and Mecca mentioned in the Quran. Apparently, Abraha used war elephants against Mecca, but was
unsuccessful and had to turn back. The second part of the 6th century was notable for the
power struggle between Ethiopians and Sasanid for control over the remainder of the Himyarite
Kingdom, in which the Persian empire succeeded. Another prominent pre-Islamic state organization
in Arabia was the Kinda Kingdom, the first state in central Arabia recorded by history,
which came to existence after the Kinda tribe managed to unite all tribes in Najd around the
late 5th century. The Kinda Kingdom attempted a number of successful raids on the Byzantine
territories in North Arabia, but similar endeavors against the Sasanid Empire failed,
when in 529 the Lakhmid vassals of the Persians defeated and killed the Kindan king al-Harit bin
Amr, which caused the decline of this state. The aforementioned Lakhmid Kingdom was established
in East Arabia by the Banu Lakhm tribe around the 3rd-4th centuries. Initially, independent
Lakhmids were threatening the coastal cities of the Sassanid empire and in 325 the Sassanid
emperor Shapur II began a campaign against them. Soon the Lakhmid capital Hira was taken under
control of the Sasanids. Since then the Lakhmid kingdom became vassals of the Sasanid Empire until
it was annexed by them in the early 7th century. The Ghassanid Kingdom had a similar fate.
Some time in the 3rd century AD part of the Al-Azd tribe migrated from Yemen to the
Levant and established the Ghassanid Kingdom as a vassal of the Eastern Roman Empire with
a capital of Jabiyah in the Golan Heights. The Ghassanid Kingdom ceased its existence
in the period of early Islamic expansion. But none of these kingdoms were powerful and
centralized enough to unite Arabs in one state and protect the realm from foreign attacks.
Most of Arabia was governed by unwritten rules of the Bedouin society causing warfare and
despair amidst already harsh living conditions. The pre-Islamic Arabs might have shared similar
language and traditions, but they were divided by tribal identities, blood revenge, and religions.
But very soon Arabia and beyond would be transformed by a momentous process of emergence of
Islam and the creation of a unified Arabic state. More videos on the ancient civilizations are
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This gets a lot wrong. I suggest listening to this https://youtu.be/08m6AZ8Eg14
Some of this is pretty outdated/wrong
The Kings and Generals animated historical documentary series on the ancient civilizations continues with a video on Arabia before Islam as they talk about the religion, society, culture, and economic life of the Arabs before the rise of Islam and the creation of the Rashidun caliphate.