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| Palmera, Syria location of The Temple of Al-Lat. The Pagan Arabian Chosen Idol. |
The first chapter in this blog site shows, in brief, the life of the Arabs as how they lived before the advent of Islam. Savages in tastes, and brutal in their practices. Marriage as a recognized institution was a factor unknown to them. To them, the purpose of marriage was but the sating of animal passion. Women are regarded as mere chattel, an instrument for sensual and lustful gratification.
(Arabic: شبه الجزيرة العربية قبل الإسلام) refers to the Arabian Peninsula prior
to the emergence of Islam in 610 CE.
Additionally, from the second half of
the second millennium BCE, Southern Arabia was the home to a number
of kingdoms such as the Sabaeans, Minaeans, and Eastern
Arabia inhabited by Semitic speakers who presumably migrated
from the southwest, such as the so-called Samad population. From 106
CE to 630 CE northwestern Arabia was under the control of the Roman Empire,
which renamed it Arabia Petra. A few nodal points were controlled by
the Iranian Parthian and Sassanian empires.
Pre-Islamic religions in Arabia included Arabian indigenous polytheistic beliefs, ancient Semitic religions (religions predating the Abrahamic religions which themselves likewise originated among the ancient Semitic-speaking peoples), various forms of Christianity, Judaism, Manichaeism, and Zoroastrianism.
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 became more tangible with the rise of the Ḥimyarite, the appearance of the Qaḥṭānites in the Levant, and the gradual assimilation of the Nabataeans by the Qaḥṭānites 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 Hadiths, 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
·
Ubaid period (5300 BCE) – could have
originated in Eastern Arabia.
·
Umm Al 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)
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| The Civilization of Magan, Ad, Madain |
Magan, Midian, and ʿĀd
Further
information: ʿĀd, Midian, and Magan (civilization)
· 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 Ād around the 10th century BCE
to the 3rd century CE.
The ʿĀd nation was known to the Greeks and Egyptians. Claudius Ptolemy's Geographic (2nd century CE) refers to the area as the "land of the Iobaritae" a region which legend later referred to as Ubar.
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, Peter Parr, and Beno Rothenberg 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
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 the Red Sea and Indian Ocean trade.
Major kingdoms included the Sabaeans, Aswan, 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.
Dilmun appears first in Sumerian cuneiform clay tablets dated to the end of the 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.
The Sabaeans were an ancient people
speaking an Old South Arabian language who lived in what
is today Yemen, in the southwest Arabian Peninsula; from 2000 BC to the 8th century
BC. Some Sabaeans also lived in D'mt, located in Eritrea and northern Ethiopia, due to their hegemony over
the Red Sea. 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 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 BC 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 neighboring Saba (Sheba) in c. 25 BC, Qataban in c. 200 AD, and Hadramaut in c. 300 AD. Its political
fortunes relative to Saba changed frequently until it finally conquered the
Sabaean Kingdom around 280 AD. It was the dominant state in Arabia until 525 AD. 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 early Nabatean history. The Babylonian captivity that began in 586 BC 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."
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| The Nabatean Temples with Khazanah - Capital of Ancient Edom, Petra Jordan |
Petra or Sela was the ancient capital
of Edom; the Nabataeans must have
occupied the old Edomite country, and succeeded in
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 was ruled by the Banu Lakhm, hence the name has been given it. It was
formed by a group of Arab Christians who lived in Southern Iraq and made al-Hirah their capital (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
Main articles: Eastern Arabia and Christianity in Eastern Arabia.
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. In pre-Islamic times, the population of
Eastern Arabia consisted of Christianized Arabs (including Abd al-Qays), Aramean Christians,
Persian-speaking Zoroastrians, and Jewish agriculturalists.
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". Other archaeological assemblages cannot be
brought clearly into the larger context, such as the Samad Late Iron Age.
Zoroastrianism was also present in Eastern
Arabia. The Zoroastrians of Eastern Arabia were known
as "Majoos" in pre-Islamic times. The sedentary dialects of Eastern Arabia,
including Bahrani Arabic, were influenced by Akkadian, Aramaic, and Syriac languages.
Dilmun
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| The Ancient Kingdom of Dilmun is located in today's Bahrain. |
Dilmun and its neighbors in the 10th century BCE.
The Dilmun civilization was an important trading center that at the height of its power controlled the Persian Gulf trading routes. The Sumerians regarded Dilmun as holy land. Dilmun is regarded as one of the oldest ancient civilizations in the Middle East. The Sumerians described Dilmun as a paradise garden in the Epic of Gilgamesh.
The Sumerian tale of the garden paradise of
Dilmun may have been an inspiration for the Garden of Eden story. Dilmun appears first in Sumerian cuneiform clay tablets dated to the
end of the 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.
Dilmun was an important trading center from the
late fourth millennium to 1800 BCE. Dilmun was very prosperous during the first
300 years of the second millennium. 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 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, Ilī-ippašra, 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 except 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.
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".
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:
Ninlil, the Sumerian goddess of air and
south wind had her home in Dilmun. It is also featured in the Epic of Gilgamesh.
Gerrha
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| Gerrha - Ancient Arab Nations. |
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.
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
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| The Ancient Remnants of Tylos -In East South Arabia. |
Asia in 600 CE, showing the Sassanid Empire before the Arab conquest.
Bahrain was referred to by the Greeks as Tylos, the center of pearl trading when Nearchus came to discover it serving under Alexander the Great. From the 6th to 3rd century BCE Bahrain was included in the Persian Empire by the Achaemenians, an Iranian dynasty.
The Greek admiral Nearchus is believed to have been the first of
Alexander's commanders to visit these islands, and he found a verdant land that
was part of a wide trading network; he recorded: "That is the island of
Tylos, situated in the Persian Gulf, are large plantations of cotton tree, from
which are manufactured clothes called sindones, very different
degrees of value, some being costly, others less expensive.
The use of these is
not confined to India but extends to Arabia. 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. Ares was also worshipped by the
ancient Baharna and the Greek empires.
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. 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. Tylos even became the site of Greek athletic
contests.
The name Tylos is thought to be a Hellenisation of
the Semitic, Tilmun (from Dilmun). The term Tylos was commonly used for the islands
until Ptolemy's Geographia when the inhabitants
are referred to as 'Thilouanoi'. 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.
Phoenicians man their ships in service to Assyrian king Sennacherib, during his war against the Chaldeans in the Persian Gulf, c. 700 BCE.
Herodotus's account (written c. 440 BCE) refers to the Io and Europa myths. (History, I:1).
Phoenicians Homeland
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. Herodotus also believed that the homeland of the Phoenicians was Eastern Arabia. This theory was accepted by the 19th-century German classicist Arnold Heeren who said: "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."
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. However,
there is little evidence of occupation at all in Bahrain during the time when
such migration had supposedly taken place.
With the waning of Seleucid Greek power, Tylos was
incorporated into Characene or Messenian, the state founded in what today
is Kuwait by Hyspaosines in 127 BCE. Building
inscriptions found in Bahrain indicate that Hyspoasines occupied the islands,
(and it also mentions his wife, Thalassia).
Parthian and Sassanid
From the 3rd century BCE to the arrival of Islam in the 7th century CE, Eastern Arabia was controlled by two other Iranian dynasties of the Parthians and Sassanids.
In the 3rd century CE, the Sassanids succeeded the Parthians and
held the area until the rise of Islam four centuries later. Ardashir, the first ruler of the Iranian Sassanians dynasty marched down the
Persian Gulf to Oman and Bahrain and defeated Sanatruq (or
Satiran), probably the Parthian governor of Eastern Arabia. 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. At
this time, Eastern Arabia incorporated the southern Sassanid province covering
the Persian Gulf's southern shore plus the archipelago of Bahrain.
The southern province of the Sassanids was subdivided into three districts Haggar (Hofuf, Saudi Arabia), Batan Ardashir (al-Qatif province, Saudi Arabia), and Mishmahig (Muharraq, Bahrain; also referred to as Samahij) (In Middle-Persian/Pahlavi means "ewe-fish".) which included the Bahrain archipelago that was earlier called Aval. The name, meaning 'ewe-fish' would appear to suggest that the name /Tulos/ is related to Hebrew /ṭāleh/ 'lamb' (Strong's 2924)
Beth Qatraye
The Christian name used for the region encompassing north-eastern Arabia was Beth Qatraye, or "the Isles". The name translates to 'region of the Qataris' in Syriac. It included Bahrain, Tarot Island, Al-Khatt, Al-Hasa, and Qatar.
By the 5th century, Beth Qatraye was a major center
for Nestorian Christianity, which had come to dominate the
southern shores of the Persian Gulf. 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 Ahab of Qatar.
Christianity's significance was diminished by the arrival of Islam in Eastern Arabia in 628. In 676, the bishops of Beth Qatraye stopped attending synods; although the practice of Christianity persisted in the region until the late 9th century.
The dioceses of Beth Qatraye did not form an ecclesiastical province, except for a short period
during the mid-to-late seventh century. 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.
South Arabian kingdoms
The ancient history of Yemen; South Arabia; and Zafar, Yemen
Sabaean inscription addressed to the moon-god Almaqah, mentioning five South Arabian gods, two reigning sovereigns, and two governors, 7th century BCE
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 (10th century
BCE – 150 BCE)
Minaeans
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-'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.
Kingdom of Saba (12th century BCE – 7th century CE)
Sabaeans and Sheba
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. 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".
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. 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.
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
honors that he could bestow on anyone. By the late 6th century, an uneasy peace
remained until disagreements erupted between the mercenaries and their patron
empires.
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