[00:06] The Arab World is mostly identified with Islam. 
And for a good reason. Islam was a catalyst of the
[00:13] biggest expansion of the Arabic people in history. 
It paved the way for the establishment of arguably
[00:19] the most powerful empire of its time, the Islamic 
Caliphate, which at its zenith ranged from Spain
[00:26] and North Africa in the West to Central Asia and 
the Indian Subcontinent in the East. The Caliphate
[00:32] managed to be one of the most dominant political, 
military, scientific, and cultural centers of the
[00:38] world for several centuries, while the religion 
of Islam remains one of the most important
[00:44] political and societal forces globally. But what 
was there before Islam? How did Arab people live,
[00:52] rule themselves, what did they believe in? 
Welcome to our video on Arabia before Islam.
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[02:14] Pre-Islamic Arabia was mostly a nomadic society 
inhabited by constantly moving tribal units.
[02:22] These Bedouin tribes, some of which maintain 
their traditional nomadic lifestyle to this day,
[02:28] had been the most significant 
political unit of the Arabian peninsula
[02:32] with constantly shifting alliances, never-ending 
warfare, and rare occurrences of organized
[02:38] and centralized statehood. These tribes placed 
heavy emphasis on kin-related groups, families
[02:46] and would roam through the deserts with 
their livestock mainly comprising of sheep,
[02:50] goats, and camels, living in tents 
with their immediate family members.
[02:55] The tribal leaders enforced unwritten 
rules of the Bedouin society in the
[03:00] tribe. Bedouin tribes were patriarchal as the 
inheritance passed on to the male offsprings,
[03:05] and women could not inherit property and were 
virtually rightless, as they could be seized in
[03:11] tribal conflicts as a war spoil and the Bedouin 
laws allowed the men to marry their captives. The
[03:18] number of women a man could marry was not fixed. 
When a man died, his son “inherited” all his wives
[03:25] except his own mother. Women in tribal Arabia had 
little say in their marriages, as they would often
[03:32] be arranged between a man and his future wife’s 
family and the family would receive property like
[03:38] camels or horses in exchange for the bride. There 
were also cases of killing of female infants,
[03:44] as the Muslim holy book Quran mentions 
that the Arabs of the period of ignorance
[03:50] called Jahiliyyah would bury their daughters 
alive. The Bedouin men often considered women
[03:56] an economic burden and a potential source 
of embarrassment, as the capture of women
[04:01] of the tribe by hostile tribes was considered 
humiliating in the conservative Bedouin society.
[04:08] Under the circumstances of lack of centralized 
states with rare exceptions, there were no
[04:13] written laws, courts, or law enforcement of 
any kind to protect the population, thus,
[04:19] the principal purpose of a Bedouin tribe was to 
protect its members. Vengeance was sought for the
[04:26] killing of a tribe member by another tribe, which 
led to virtually constant warfare and conflict.
[04:32] Protecting your tribe and avenging your kin was 
a high honour. Harsh living conditions of the
[04:38] Arabian peninsula further enhanced the tribal 
system and sense of identity within a tribe,
[04:44] as often their protection and economic cooperation 
was the difference between death and survival.
[04:51] French historian Maxime Rodinson states that “the 
free Arabs were bound by no written code of law,
[04:58] and no state existed to enforce its 
statutes with the backing of a police force.
[05:03] The only protection for a man's life 
was the certainty established by custom,
[05:08] that it would be dearly bought. Blood for 
blood and a life for a life. The vendetta,
[05:14] tha'r in Arabic, is one of the 
pillars of Bedouin society.”
[05:19] Austrian historian Gustave E. von Grunebaum 
reiterated this and described the state of affairs
[05:26] in Arabia in the century before the rise of Islam 
as “tribal guerrilla fighting, all against all.”
[05:33] Tribes would fight against each other, attack 
and plunder caravans and sedentary settlements,
[05:39] as lawlessness was the law of the 
land in most of Arabia. Caravans and
[05:44] sedentary settlements would pay tributes to the 
raiding Bedouin tribes to avoid their attacks.
[05:50] While most of the tribes in Arabia went on with 
their nomadic lifestyle, some managed to gain
[05:55] influence over certain territories and switch to 
sedentary life. Mecca was practically ruled by the
[06:02] skilled merchants of the Quraysh tribe that took 
control of the city sometime in the 5th century,
[06:08] while Yathrib, which was later named Medina, was 
dominated by the Arab tribes of Aus and Khazraj,
[06:15] and the Jewish tribes Nadheer, Qaynuqaa, 
and Qurayza. While the nomadic Bedouins
[06:21] viewed the sedentary life with contempt and 
thought of the town-dwellers as a “nation
[06:26] of shopkeepers”, the emergence of cities like 
Mecca was the primary cause of the dawn of the
[06:32] common Arab identity in the pre-Islamic period.
The most important cities of the Arabian peninsula
[06:39] Mecca and Yathrib are situated in Hijaz, a region 
with sufficient water supply, which made it a
[06:45] logical choice for a sedentary lifestyle in the 
otherwise punishing climate and terrain of Arabia.
[06:52] Mecca was an important trade center in the region,
[06:55] a place through which the caravans would 
flow, as well as the location of the Kaaba,
[07:00] the sacred place in Islam, which was 
also sacred in the polytheistic Arabia,
[07:05] where the statues of idols and gods of different 
Arabic tribes were placed. The Greek historian
[07:11] Diodorus Siculus, who lived between 60 and 30 
BC, wrote about the isolated region of Arabia in
[07:18] his work Bibliotheca Historica, describing Kaaba 
as a “very holy” temple, which was “exceedingly
[07:25] revered by all Arabians”. For example, the chief 
deity of the Quraysh tribe and Mecca was Hubal.
[07:34] The usual trading routes through the Red Sea and 
the Tigris and Euphrates were disrupted by piracy
[07:40] and the Roman-Persian conflict, and caravans and 
traders switched to the trade route going through
[07:46] Mecca. Goods from beyond the Red Sea and of the 
local Bedouin tribes would be brought to Mecca,
[07:53] from where the camel caravans would transport 
them to the Levant. Meccans signed treaties
[07:59] with the Byzantine Empire and Bedouin tribes 
for safe passage of their trading caravans.
[08:05] As the home of the Kaaba, Mecca also carried a 
religious significance for the polytheistic Arabs,
[08:11] as once a year Arabs from all over Arabia would 
make a pilgrimage to Kaaba and drink from the
[08:17] sacred Zamzam Well. At this time of the year the 
conflict would stop, a truce would be declared,
[08:24] disputes and debts would be resolved and 
trade happened between different tribes. Thus,
[08:30] Mecca became a center of a loose confederation of 
tribes around this city, as guests were obliged to
[08:37] follow the rules in Mecca. The trading potential 
of Mecca and its religious significance for the
[08:43] Arabs turned it into a factor bringing Arabs 
together and forming their national identity.
[08:49] Another important city of Arabia was Yathrib 
- Medina. It was an agricultural center
[08:56] also situated in a fertile region of Hejaz, 
which allowed the city to become an important
[09:01] transit point for trade caravans traveling along 
the Red Sea. Initially, Yathrib was dominated
[09:08] by Jewish tribes, but gradually several Arabic 
tribes moved to Yathrib and gained political and
[09:14] economic influence in the city too. While 
Arabs were mainly engaged in agriculture,
[09:21] Jews would also be active as businessmen. The 
rise of cities was inevitably going to lead to
[09:27] the rise of commerce too, and the Rise of commerce 
was inevitably going to lead to usury, a practice,
[09:34] which was used both by the Arabs and Jews. This 
practice would be later prohibited by Islam.
[09:41] We already saw that even in pre-Islamic Arabia 
religion played an important role in shaping
[09:47] the common Arab identity. What religion did 
the Arabs practice before the rise of Islam?
[09:54] Religion in pre-Islamic Arabia was a mix of 
polytheism, Christianity, Judaism, and Iranian
[10:00] religions. Arab polytheism or paganism was the 
most popular belief system. Each tribe, city, and
[10:08] region could have its own god or idol, which was 
in a way a patron of that particular community.
[10:15] Arabs also believed in supernatural beings like 
djinns. Statues of gods and goddesses would be
[10:22] placed in Kaaba, and some scholars argue that 
Allah, the deity of Islam, and other Abrahamic
[10:28] religions also had a statue in Kaaba. There are 
hadiths, the authenticity of which is disputed,
[10:35] claiming that Kaaba also had an image of the 
Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus with Abraham looking
[10:41] over them. Overall, it is estimated that Kaaba 
contained up to 360 such statues and images.
[10:50] Trading and political relations with 
the Byzantine Empire, Ethiopia, Persia,
[10:55] and other neighbouring forces had a role in 
shaping the religious landscape of Arabia too.
[11:01] As early as the first century AD Arab traders 
brought Christianity to Arabia. Others were
[11:08] evangelized by Paul’s ministry in Arabia and by 
St Thomas, followed by a strong influence from the
[11:14] Byzantine Empire. For example, the Ghassanids, a 
vassal kingdom of Rome, converted to Christianity.
[11:22] In the South of the country, a strong 
Christian community emerged in Najran
[11:26] as a result of the influence of the Ethiopian 
Christian kingdom of Aksum. Nestorian Christianity
[11:33] was strong in parts of the country, but the 
most popular denomination was Monophysitism.
[11:39] Judaism was also a significant part 
of the religious landscape of Arabia.
[11:45] As a result of Roman persecution, the 
migration of Jewish people to Arabia
[11:50] started as early as the 1st century AD. Many 
Jews found homes in Hijaz and towns like Yathrib,
[11:57] Khayber, Fadak, and Umm-ul-Qura. 
Many Arabs also converted to Judaism,
[12:03] as often it was a condition of settling 
in Jewish-dominated towns of Hijaz.
[12:08] The Yemeni Himyarite Kingdom converted to Judaism 
in the 4th century, and some of the Kindah,
[12:15] a tribe in central Arabia who were the Himyarites’ 
vassals, were also converted by the 5th century.
[12:22] Sources also inform about a monotheistic religion 
centered around the worship of a single god of the
[12:28] Abrahamic religions, but apparently, it was 
not affiliated with Christianity or Judaism,
[12:33] and was probably centered around the prophethood 
of Abraham. Followers of this religion were
[12:39] called Hanifi people, and they rejected the 
idolatry and paganism of the majority of Arabs,
[12:45] sharing some of the features of other Abrahamic 
religions like the prohibition of pork. The
[12:51] scope of expansion of the Hanifi people is 
unclear, but according to some Islamic sources,
[12:57] the Prophet of Islam, Muhammad, 
and some of his future companions
[13:01] belonged to this religion. Arabia also 
had a small minority following Iran-based
[13:07] religions like Zoroastrianism, Mazdakism, and 
others spreading under the Persian influence.
[13:14] Earlier we mentioned how in the pre-Islamic period 
the Arab statehood was relatively rare, as Arabia
[13:20] constantly moved from tribal anarchy to loose 
state organizations and back again. But there
[13:27] have been a number of notable states in Arabia in 
the pre-Islamic period mentioned in Greek, Roman,
[13:33] Mesopotamian, and Persian sources, oral Arab 
traditions later recorded by Islamic scholars.
[13:40] According to the Arab classical writers, 
Arabs divided themselves into the Yamanites,
[13:45] the South Arabs descended from Qahtan 
and the North Arabs descended from Adnan.
[13:51] It is interesting that these two groups had 
certain distinctions and the existence of
[13:55] statehood and political systems were among them. 
South Arabia, Yemen had more established states
[14:02] and all of them were ruled as monarchies. 
In the North loose tribal confederations
[14:08] or de facto city-states like Mecca were a more 
prevalent form of statehood. Such states were
[14:15] ruled as oligarchies and aristocracies. 
The South was considered more advanced,
[14:20] as it was the key route of trade in Arabia, prior 
to the emergence of Mecca as an alternative, and
[14:27] a higher degree of contacts with outsiders such 
as Ethiopians. From the fourth century onwards a
[14:33] reverse process started, as many Southern tribes 
migrated to the North and underwent the Northern
[14:40] influence. The South Arabian script vanished 
and the North Arabian proliferated in Arabia.
[14:47] The Thamud tribe or tribal union was one 
of the first recorded states in Arabia,
[14:52] which was a prominent force in Northwestern 
Arabia, according to the Assyrian sources
[14:57] related to the 8th century BC and were later used 
as auxiliary forces by the Roman Empire according
[15:04] to the Roman sources. In the 3rd century BC, the 
Greek scholar Eratosthenes mentioned Minaeans,
[15:12] Sabaeans, Qatabanians, and Hadramites as the 
main peoples inhabiting the Arabian peninsula.
[15:18] Historians mention the independent Sabaean Kingdom 
situated in present-day Yemen, which was later
[15:25] conquered by the Himyarite Kingdom around 280 AD.
The Himyarite Kingdom was one of the most
[15:31] prominent pre-Islamic states of the Arabian 
peninsula. It was ruled by a monarch,
[15:37] but in practice, the power in the state 
was shared with the regional governors,
[15:41] which had a high degree of autonomy, a system 
akin to the medieval era European kingdoms. By the
[15:48] early 4th century AD the Himyarite Kingdom ruled 
over Southern Arabia and expanded North to Najran.
[15:55] Originally polytheistic Himyarites became 
monotheistic sometime in the 4th century
[16:00] with a belief in the Abrahamic God. At the end 
of the fifth century the Himyarite king Abu
[16:07] Kariba adopted Judaism as his faith. His son and 
successor Yusuf Dhu Nuwas was even more zealous,
[16:14] as he started persecuting Christians living in 
the Kingdom. This proved to be the undoing of the
[16:20] Himyarite dynasty as Dhu Nuwas was either killed 
or committed suicide after being defeated by the
[16:26] Christian coalition of the Ethiopian Kingdom of 
Aksum, the Byzantine Empire and South Arabian
[16:32] Christians in 524. Christian Ethiopians then took 
control of South Arabia, built a church in Sana
[16:40] in an attempt to attract pilgrims, and hence trade 
to Sana in place of Mecca. This caused a conflict
[16:47] between Abraha, the Ethiopian viceroy in Yemen, 
and Mecca mentioned in the Quran. Apparently,
[16:54] Abraha used war elephants against Mecca, but was 
unsuccessful and had to turn back. The second
[17:00] part of the 6th century was notable for the 
power struggle between Ethiopians and Sasanid
[17:06] for control over the remainder of the Himyarite 
Kingdom, in which the Persian empire succeeded.
[17:12] Another prominent pre-Islamic state organization 
in Arabia was the Kinda Kingdom, the first
[17:19] state in central Arabia recorded by history, 
which came to existence after the Kinda tribe
[17:24] managed to unite all tribes in Najd around the 
late 5th century. The Kinda Kingdom attempted a
[17:31] number of successful raids on the Byzantine 
territories in North Arabia, but similar
[17:36] endeavors against the Sasanid Empire failed, 
when in 529 the Lakhmid vassals of the Persians
[17:43] defeated and killed the Kindan king al-Harit bin 
Amr, which caused the decline of this state. The
[17:50] aforementioned Lakhmid Kingdom was established 
in East Arabia by the Banu Lakhm tribe around
[17:56] the 3rd-4th centuries. Initially, independent 
Lakhmids were threatening the coastal cities
[18:03] of the Sassanid empire and in 325 the Sassanid 
emperor Shapur II began a campaign against them.
[18:10] Soon the Lakhmid capital Hira was taken under 
control of the Sasanids. Since then the Lakhmid
[18:17] kingdom became vassals of the Sasanid Empire until 
it was annexed by them in the early 7th century.
[18:24] The Ghassanid Kingdom had a similar fate. 
Some time in the 3rd century AD part of
[18:30] the Al-Azd tribe migrated from Yemen to the 
Levant and established the Ghassanid Kingdom
[18:35] as a vassal of the Eastern Roman Empire with 
a capital of Jabiyah in the Golan Heights.
[18:41] The Ghassanid Kingdom ceased its existence 
in the period of early Islamic expansion.
[18:47] But none of these kingdoms were powerful and 
centralized enough to unite Arabs in one state
[18:53] and protect the realm from foreign attacks. 
Most of Arabia was governed by unwritten
[18:59] rules of the Bedouin society causing warfare and 
despair amidst already harsh living conditions.
[19:06] The pre-Islamic Arabs might have shared similar 
language and traditions, but they were divided by
[19:12] tribal identities, blood revenge, and religions. 
But very soon Arabia and beyond would be
[19:19] transformed by a momentous process of emergence of 
Islam and the creation of a unified Arabic state.
[19:27] More videos on the ancient civilizations are 
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