Showing posts with label Before Islam. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Before Islam. Show all posts

Chapter 1 - Arab World Before The Advent of Islam.

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.  

She was a man's possession and considered no better than any other of his possessions. Women to him an instrument of convenience also; it was her duty to do the cooking of his meals and the mending of his clothes. Marriage to them was just a normal affair and may happen at any moment to satisfy the greed and lust of a man. There were no restrictions as to the number of wives a man could take, or in what way he might take them. 

Which is normally by the way of force and power, and in no way does a husband have any obligation to treat his wives well? A wife has no right of her own-just another form of property. Men will marry whoever he likes, except their mothers, sisters, and aunts. Only the man has the right to divorce needing no course or reason to justify it. 

Further to the above prelude, knowing more about the pre-Islamic era will be more enlightening to evaluate the changes after the advent of Islam within the Arab world.


 Pre-Islamic Arabia:

(Arabic: شبه الجزيرة العربية قبل الإسلام) refers to the Arabian Peninsula prior to the emergence of Islam in 610 CE.

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 which were later recorded by Islamic historians. Among the most prominent civilizations were the Thamud civilization, which arose around 3000 BCE and lasted to around 300 CE, and the earliest Semitic civilization in the eastern part was Dilmun, which arose around the end of the fourth millennium and lasted to around 600 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.

Scientific studies of Pre-Islamic Arabs starts 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 EgyptiansGreeksRomans, 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)

 

The Civilization of Magan, Ad, Madain

Magan, Midian, and ʿĀd

Further information: ʿĀdMidian, 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 EgyptiansClaudius 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 EgyptiansGreeksPersiansRomans, 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 SabaeansAswanHimyar, 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."

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 SyriaJordan, 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


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.


The Dilmun civilization was the center of commercial activities linking traditional agriculture of the land with maritime trade between diverse regions such 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).


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:


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


Gerrha  - Ancient Arab Nations.


Gerrha and its neighbors in 1 CE.

Gerrha (Arabicجرهاء), 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. 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 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 at the end of the 9th century when all inhabitants were massacred (300,000). It was 2 miles from the Persian Gulf near current-day Hofuf. The researcher Abdulkhaliq Al Janbi argued in his book, that Gerrha was most likely the ancient city of Hajar, located in modern-day Al AhsaSaudi 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.


Various other identifications of the site have been attempted, Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville choosing QatifCarsten Niebuhr preferring Kuwait, and C Forster suggesting the ruins at the head of the bay behind the islands of Bahrain.

 

Tylos

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.


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 on the southern coast of the Persian Gulf.


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 NinevehDadisho QatrayaGabriel 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 YemenSouth 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

Griffin from the royal palace at Shabwa, the capital city of Hadhramaut

 

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'aAccording to South Arabian tradition, the eldest son of NoahShem, 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.


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.


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.


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. The Ghassanids, as Monophysite Christians from Iraq, believed that God and Jesus Christ were only one nature. This disagreement proved irreconcilable and resulted 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. The fertile lands and important trade routes of Iraq were now open ground for upheaval.

Chapter 62: BATTLES OF HILF AL FUDUL- The Event that happened before Muhammad chosen to be a Prophet.

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