Pre-Islamic Arabia

This article is about the peoples, cultures, and traditions within Arabia before Islam. For a religion-specific overview, see Religion in pre-Islamic Arabia.
"Jahili Arabia" redirects here. For the Islamic concept of a pre-Islamic "age of ignorance", see Jahiliyyah.
Pre-Islamic Arabia
شبه الجزيرة العربية قبل الإسلام (Arabic)
Nabataean trade routes in Pre-Islamic Arabia
Nabataean trade routes in Pre-Islamic Arabia
 Succeeded by
First Islamic State

Pre-Islamic Arabia (Arabic: شبه الجزيرة العربية قبل الإسلام, romanized: shibh al-jazirat al-'arabiyat qabl al-islām),[1] referring to the Arabian Peninsula before Muhammad's first revelation in 610 CE, is referred to in Islam in the context of jahiliyyah (lit. 'The period of ignorance '), highlighting the prevalence of paganism throughout the region at the time.

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 that were later recorded by Muslim historians. Among the most prominent communities were the Thamud, who arose around 3000 BCE and lasted to around 300 CE; and the earliest Semitic-speaking civilization in the eastern part was Dilmun,[2] which arose around the end of the 4th millennium BCE and lasted to around 600 CE. Additionally, from around the second half of the 2nd millennium BCE,[3] Southern Arabia was the home to a number of kingdoms, such as the Sabaeans and the Minaeans, and Eastern Arabia was inhabited by Semitic-speaking peoples who presumably migrated from the southwest, such as the so-called Samad population. From 106 CE to 630 CE, Arabia's most northwestern areas were controlled by the Roman Empire, which governed it as Arabia Petraea.[4] A few nodal points were controlled by the Iranian peoples, first under the Parthians and then under the Sasanians.

Religion in pre-Islamic Arabia was diverse; although polytheism was prevalent, monotheism was still a notable practice among some of the region's inhabitants, such as the Jewish tribes. In addition to Arabian paganism, other religious practices in the region included those of the ancient Semitic religions, the Abrahamic religions (of which the emerging Islam would become a part), and the Iranian religions.

Gravestone of a young woman named Aban, portrayed frontally with a raised right hand and a sheaf of a wheat in her left hand, symbolizing fertility. British Museum, London
  1. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2018-04-30. Retrieved 2017-05-13.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. ^ Jr, William H. Stiebing (July 1, 2016). Ancient Near Eastern History and Culture. Routledge. ISBN 9781315511153 – via Google Books.
  3. ^ Kenneth A. Kitchen The World of "Ancient Arabia" Series. Documentation for Ancient Arabia. Part I. Chronological Framework and Historical Sources p.110
  4. ^ Taylor, Jane (2005). Petra. London: Aurum Press Ltd. pp. 25–31. ISBN 9957-451-04-9.