Pre-Islamic Arabia

The phrase Pre-Islamic Arabia[1] refers to the Arabian Peninsula prior to Muhammad’s preaching of Islam in the early 7th centuryCE.


Pre-Islamic religion in Arabia consisted of indigenous polytheistic beliefs, Ancient Arabian Christianity, Nestorian Christianity, Judaism, Zoroastrianism and Rahmanism.



Prehistoric to Iron Age

  • Ubaid period (5300 BCE) – could have originated in Eastern Arabia.
  • Umm an-Nar Culture (2600–2000 BCE)
  • Sabr culture (2000 BCE)
  • Wadi Suq Culture (1900–1300 BCE)
  • Lizq/Rumaylah = Early Iron Age (1300–300 BCE)
  • Samad Period Late Iron Age (c. 100 BCE–c.300 CE)
  • Recent Pre-Islamic Period (c. 150 BCE–c. 325 CE)

Magan, Midian, and ʿĀd


The ʿĀd 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.[2]


Overview of major kingdoms

The history of Pre-Islamic Arabia before the rise of Islam in the 630s 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 BC. It was first referenced by an outside civilization in an Old Sabaic inscription of Karab’il Watar from the early 7th century BC, in which the King of Hadramaut, Yada`’il, is mentioned as being one of his allies.


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 BC to the 8th century BC. Some Sabaeans also lived in D’mt, located in northern Ethiopia and Eritrea, due to their hegemony over the Red Sea.[7] They lasted from the early 2nd millennium to the 1st century BC. In the 1st century BC 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 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.

Eastern Arabia

The sedentary people of pre-Islamic Eastern Arabia were mainly Aramaic speakers and to some degree Persian speakers while Syriac functioned as a liturgical language.[9][10] In pre-Islamic times, the population of Eastern Arabia consisted of Christianized Arabs (including Abd al-Qays), Aramean Christians, Persian-speaking Zoroastrians[11] and Jewish agriculturalists.[9][12] 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”.[12][13] Other archaeological assemblages cannot be clearly brought clearly into larger context, such as the Samad Late Iron Age.[14]

Zoroastrianism was also present in Eastern Arabia.[15][16][17] The Zoroastrians of Eastern Arabia were known as “Majoos” in pre-Islamic times.[18] The sedentary dialects of Eastern Arabia, including Bahrani Arabic, were influenced by Akkadian, Aramaic and Syriac languages.[19][20]


Dilmun and its neighbors in the 10th century BCE.

The Dilmun civilization was an important trading centre[21] which at the height of its power controlled the Persian Gulf trading routes.[21] The Sumerians regarded Dilmun as holy land.[22] Dilmun is regarded as one of the oldest ancient civilizations in the Middle East.[23][24] The Sumerians described Dilmun as a paradise garden in the Epic of Gilgamesh.[25] The Sumerian tale of the garden paradise of Dilmun may have been an inspiration for the Garden of Eden story.[25] 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.[26]

Dilmun was an important trading center from the late fourth millennium to 1800 BCE.[21] Dilmun was very prosperous during the first 300 years of the second millennium.[27] 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.



Dilmun, sometimes described as “the place where the sun rises” and “the Land of the Living”, is the scene of some versions of the Sumerian creation myth, 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”.[30]


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.


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 and its neighbors in 1 CE.

Gerrha (Arabic: جرهاء‎), 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. This fort is 50 miles northeast of Al-Hasa in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. This site was first proposed by R E Cheesman in 1924.

Gerrha and Uqair are archaeological sites on the eastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula.[31][32] Prior to Gerrha, the area belonged to the Dilmuncivilization, 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 destroyed by the Qarmatians in the end of the 9th century where all inhabitants were massacred (300,000).[34] It was 2 miles from the Persian Gulf near current day Hofuf. The researcher Abdulkhaliq Al Janbi argued in his book[35] 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.[36]

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.



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.[37] From the 6th to 3rd century BCE Bahrain was included in Persian Empire by Achaemenians, an Iranian dynasty.[38] 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.”[39] 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.[40] Ares was also worshipped by the ancient Baharna and the Greek colonists.[41]

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.[42] Alexander had planned to settle the eastern shores of the Persian Gulf with Greek colonists, 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.[43] Tylos even became the site of Greek athletic contests.[44]

The name Tylos is thought to be a Hellenisation of the Semitic, Tilmun (from Dilmun).[45] The term Tylos was commonly used for the islands until Ptolemy’s Geographia when the inhabitants are referred to as ‘Thilouanoi’.[46] 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.[47]

Phoenicians man their ships in service to Assyrian king Sennacherib, during his war against the Chaldeansin the Persian Gulf, c. 700 BCE



— Herodotus

The Greek historian Strabo believed the Phoenicians originated from Eastern Arabia.[48] Herodotus also believed that the homeland of the Phoenicians was Eastern Arabia.[49][50] 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.”[51] 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.[52] However, there is little evidence of occupation at all in Bahrain during the time when such migration had supposedly taken place.[53]


Parthian and Sassanid



In the 3rd century CE, the Sassanids succeeded the Parthians and held the area until the rise of Islam four centuries later.[54] Ardashir, the first ruler of the Iranian Sassanians dynasty marched down the Persian Gulf to Oman and Bahrain and defeated Sanatruq [55] (or Satiran[38]), probably the Parthian governor of Eastern Arabia.[56] 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.[38] At this time, Eastern Arabia incorporated the southern Sassanid province covering the Persian Gulf’s southern shore plus the archipelago of Bahrain.[56] 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)[38] (In Middle-Persian/Pahlavi means “ewe-fish”.[57]) which included the Bahrain archipelago that was earlier called Aval.[38][56] The name, meaning ‘ewe-fish’ would appear to suggest that the name /Tulos/ is related to Hebrew /ṭāleh/ ‘lamb’ (Strong’s 2924).[58]

Beth Qatraye

The Christian name used for the region encompassing north-eastern Arabia was Beth Qatraye, or “the Isles”.[59] The name translates to ‘region of the Qataris’ in Syriac.[60] It included Bahrain, Tarout Island, Al-Khatt, Al-Hasa, and Qatar.[61]

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.[62][63] 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.[62][64] Christianity’s significance was diminished by the arrival of Islam in Eastern Arabia by 628.[65] In 676, the bishops of Beth Qatraye stopped attending synods; although the practice of Christianity persisted in the region until the late 9th century.[62]

The dioceses of Beth Qatraye did not form an ecclesiastical province, except for a short period during the mid-to-late seventh century.[62] They were instead subject to the Metropolitan of Fars.

Beth Mazunaye

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.[59]

South Arabian kingdoms

Sabaean inscription addressed to the moon-god Almaqah, mentioning five South Arabian gods, two reigning sovereigns and two governors, 7th century BCE

Kingdom of Ma’īn (7th century BCE – 1st century BCE)

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 Wādī Madhab. Minaean inscriptions have been found far afield of the Kingdom of Maīin, as far away as al-Ūlā 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 .[66]

Kingdom of Saba (9th century BCE – 275 CE)

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.[67] According to South Arabian tradition, the eldest son of Noah, Shem, founded the city of Ma’rib.

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.



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 km2) of land[70] and stood for over a millennium, finally collapsing in 570 CE after centuries of neglect.

Kingdom of Hadhramaut (8th century BCE – 3rd century CE)

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.[71]

Kingdom of Awsān (8th century BCE – 6th century BCE)


Kingdom of Qataban (4th century BCE – 3rd century CE)

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)

Statue of Ammaalay, 1st century BCE, Yemen

Main article: Himyarite Kingdom


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.[73][74]The standing relief image of a crowned man, is taken to be a representation possibly of the Jewish king Malkīkarib Yuhaʾmin or more likely the Christian Esimiphaios (Samu Yafa’).[75]

The ‘Crowned Man’ excavated from the Stone Building in Zafar.

Aksumite occupation of Yemen (525 – 570 CE)

The Aksumite intervention is connected with Dhu Nuwas, a Himyarite king who changed the state religion to Judaism and began to persecute the Christiansin 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)




The Thamud (Arabic: ثمود‎) was an ancient civilization in Hejaz, which flourished from 3000 BCE to 200 BCE. Recent archaeological work has revealed numerous Thamudicrock writings and pictures. They are mentioned in sources such as the Qur’an,[76][77][78][79][80][81] 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 400–600 CE, the Thamud totally disappeared.

North Arabian kingdoms

Arab soldier (Old Persian cuneiform, Arabāya)[82] of the Achaemenid army, circa 480 BCE. Xerxes Itomb relief.

Kingdom of Qedar (8th century BCE – ?)


The Achaemenids in Northern Arabia



Al Khazneh in the ruins of Petra (Jordan)



Roman Arabia


Map showing Roman emperor Trajan control of northwestern Arabia until Hegra (actual Mada’in Saleh)


Recently has been discovered evidence that Roman legions occupied Mada’in Saleh in the Hijaz mountains area of northwestern Arabia, increasing the extension of the “Arabia Petraea” province.[86]





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.

Central Arabia

Kingdom of Kindah

Kindah was an Arab kingdom by the Kindah tribe, the tribe’s existence dates back to the second century BCE.[87] 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 Dhāt Kāhil, today known as Qaryat Al-Fāw.[88]

The Kindites were polytheistic until the 6th century CE, with evidence of rituals dedicated to the idols Athtar and Kāhil 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 Dhū Nuwās’ forces during the Jewish king’s attempt to suppress Christianity in Yemen.[89] 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 Muḥammad.




Sedentary Arabs



Bedouin tribes

Consisted many of major clans and the tribes were nomadic. The lineage followed through males, since the tribes were named after the male ancestors.




Western travelers reported that the Bedouin did not consider the Solluba to be descendants of Qaḥṭān. One legend mentions that they originated from ancient Christian groups, possibly Crusaderswho were taken into slavery by the Bedouin.[93] 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-Ḥasā 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.[94] Another theory sees the Solubba as a former Bedouin group that lost their herds and fell in the eyes of other Bedouin.[95][96]

Arab genealogical tradition

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:

  1. “Perishing Arabs”: These are the ancients of whose history little is known. They include ʿĀd, Thamud, Tasm, Jadis, Imlaq and others. Jadis and Tasm perished because of genocide. ʿĀd 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.
  2. “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.[97]
  3. “Arabized Arabs” (Adnanite): They are traditionally seen as having descended from Adnan.[97][98][99]

Modern historians believe that these distinctions were created during the Umayyad period, to support the cause of different political factions.[97]

The several different Bedouin tribes throughout Arabian history are traditionally regarded as having emerged from two main branches: the Rabi`ah, from which amongst others the Banu Hanifaemerged, and the Mudhar, from which amongst others the Banu Kinanah (and later Muhammad’s own tribe, the Quraysh) emerged.


Rising from a roundel, the sculpture represents a priestess who intercedes with the sun goddess on behalf of the donor, Rathadum

Main articles: Religion in pre-Islamic Arabia and Jahiliyyah

Religion in pre-Islamic Arabia was a mix of polytheism, Christianity, Judaism, and Iranian religions. Arab polytheism, the dominant belief system, was based on the belief in deities and other supernatural beings such as djinn. Gods and goddesses were worshipped at local shrines, such as the Kaaba in Mecca. The Kaaba was dedicated to Hubal and also contained the images of the three chief goddesses Al-lāt, Al-‘Uzzá and Manāt. Some scholars postulate that Allahmay have been one of the gods of the Meccan religion to whom the shrine was dedicated although it seems he had little relevance in the religion.[100][101][102][103] Many of the physical descriptions of the pre-Islamic gods are traced to idols, especially near the Kaaba, which is believed to have contained up to 360 of them.[104] Allah was the only god not represented by an idol.[105]

Other religions were represented to varying, lesser degrees. The influence of the adjacent Roman, Axumite and Sassanian empires 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. According to the Bible in Acts 2:11 and Galatians 1:17, Christianity was established first by the early Arab traders who heard the gospel from Peter the apostle at Jerusalem as well as those evangelized by Paul’s ministry in Arabia. Christianity was mostly prominent in Najran, South Arabia. In the latter stages of the pre-Islamic era, Christianity gained converts with some unorthodox sects, such as the gnostics, having a presence. With the exception of Nestorianism in the northeast and the Persian Gulf, the dominant form of Christianity was Monophysitism.[106] The peninsula had seen Jewish migration since Roman times, which had resulted in a diaspora community supplemented by local converts.[107] Additionally, the influence of the Sasanian Empireresulted in Iranian religions being present in the peninsula. Zoroastrianism existed in the east and south whilst there is evidence of Manichaeism or possibly Mazdakism being practised in Mecca.[108][109]

Late Antiquity

The demographic situation also favoured Arab expansion: overpopulation and lack of resources encouraged Arabs to migrate out of Arabia.[111]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”.[110]

Fall of the Empires

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.[112] 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.[113]

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.[114] 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.[115] The Ghassanids, as Monophysite Christians from Iraq, believed that God and Jesus Christ were only one nature.[116] 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.[117] The fertile lands and important trade routes of Iraq were now open ground for upheaval.

Rise of Islam

Expansion of the caliphate, 622–750 CE.  Prophet Muhammad, 622–632  Rashidun Caliphate, 632–661  Umayyad Caliphate, 661–750Main article: Spread of Islam

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.[110] Over the following centuries, most of the Byzantine Empire and the entirety of the Sassanid Empire came under Muslim rule.

“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.”[118]


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