Pre - Islamic Arabia. POLITICAL CONDITIONS 5. [108][109] Buddhism is also but rarely practiced as well. [117] The fertile lands and important trade routes of Iraq were now open ground for upheaval. Following the reparation of the hydro-thermal conditions of the rambla, glimpses of its former more-than-human life have rapidly re-emerged after a one year period. Politico-Notional . [12], 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. Religion in pre-Islamic Arabia was a mix of polytheism, Christianity, Judaism, and Iranian religions. Hoyland, Robert G. Arabia and the Arabs from the Bronze Age to the Coming of Islam . The ancient Kingdom of Awsn in South Arabia (modern Yemen), with a capital at agar Yairr in the wadi Markhah, to the south of the Wd Bayn, is now marked by a tell or artificial mound, which is locally named ajar Asfal. [23][24], The Dilmun civilization was an important trading centre[25] which at the height of its power controlled the Persian Gulf trading routes. At times of extreme peril the pre-Islamic Arabs even directly invoked Allah's mercy and succour (Q. [47] Tylos even became the site of Greek athletic contests. Some of the settled communities developed into distinctive civilizations. His successor Darius the Great does not mention the Arabs in the Behistun inscription from the first years of his reign, but does mention them in later texts. 1. The Articles of Faith. Md. During the reign of Tiberius (1437 CE), the already wealthy and elegant north Arabian city of Palmyra, located along the caravan routes linking Persia with the Mediterranean ports of Roman Syria and Phoenicia, was made part of the Roman province of Syria. ), so it was not known in great detail. Arabia was a highly tribal land governed by tribal politics 29. . How would it have been to convert from Christianity to becoming part of the Muslim community? [61]) which included the Bahrain archipelago that was earlier called Aval. Before the ByzantineSassanid War of 602628, the Plague of Justinian had erupted (541-542), spreading through Persia and into Byzantine territory. Mr Pahary (Islamic Religion And Culture (2068 & Islamic Studies (9013)) Page 3 deficient the balance'.17 It is also said in the Qur'an to 'fulfil the measure and weight and do not deprive people of their due and not to cause corruption upon the earth after its reformation'.18 There would be the introduction of regular check or surprised check by chosen members from the people. Hatoon Ajwad al-Fassi, author of "Women in Pre-Islamic Arabia: Nabataea" stands with her book during an interview at her residence in Riyadh, April 20, 2008. 41. He referred to it in surahs aal-Imran, al-Ma'idah, al-Ahzab, and al-Fath. Mahmood Ibrahim traces the roots of capitalism from the emergence of merchants as the main force in Mecca through the first civil war in Islam (-). Because Jews were waiting for the Messiah and Muhammad's claim to the be the long-awaited Messiah helped him convert the Jewish tribes. At the time in the seventh century of Arabia, people lived in the days of ignorance, known as Jahiliyah. 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. [38] It was 2 miles from the Persian Gulf near current day Hofuf. The first known inscriptions of Hadramaut are known from the 8th century BCE. Kindah was an Arab kingdom by the Kindah tribe, the tribe's existence dates back to the second century BCE. See answer (1) Best Answer. 23:84-89; 31:25), coupled with the belief in the existence of angels and jinn. The Islamic Empire expanded rapidly around the period 600 C.E. They settled east of the Syro-African rift between the Dead Sea and the Red Sea, that is, in the land that had once been Edom. Major kingdoms included the Sabaeans, Awsan, Himyar and the Nabateans. The first point is that the social structure within the nomadic life of the Arabs in the desert. [95] 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. Thorkild Jacobsen's translation of the Eridu Genesis calls it "Mount Dilmun" which he locates as a "faraway, half-mythical place".[34]. The several different tribes throughout Arabian history are traditionally regarded as having emerged from two main branches: the Rabi`ah, from which amongst others the Banu Hanifa emerged, and the Mudhar, from which amongst others the Banu Kinanah (and later Muhammad's own tribe, the Quraysh) emerged. "Bowersock", "Brown", and "Grabar", ""Alphabetical Guide" in Late Antiquity: A Guide to the Post-Classical World", "(Cambridge: 2000)", "469". The general consensus among 14th-century Arabic genealogists was that Arabs were three kinds: Modern historians believe that these distinctions were created during the Umayyad period, to support the cause of different political factions.[105]. Exhibition "Roads of Arabia": Funeral mask and glove (1st century AD), gold, from Thaj, Tell Al-Zayer (National Museum, Riyadh), The early 7th century in Arabia began with the longest and most destructive period of the ByzantineSassanid Wars. The political, social and cultural life developed by the peoples of the ancient world was shattered by the barbarians. 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. Direct link to Talha Ahmed's post Yes, when the various tri, Posted 3 years ago. The Byzantines and the Sasanians sponsored powerful nomadic mercenaries from the desert with enough power to trump the possibility of aggression in Arabia. 700 BCE and provided irrigation for about 25,000 acres (101km2) of land[76] and stood for over a millennium, finally collapsing in 570 CE after centuries of neglect. [citation needed] This fort is 50 miles northeast of al-Hasa in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. Because they needed to control the Persian Gulf trade route, the Parthians established garrisons in the southern coast of Persian Gulf. Muslims Area of expansion. The drive into Persian territory would also put an end to tribute payments to the Sasanians, which resulted in an agreement to give 11,000lb (5,000kg) of tribute to the Persians annually in exchange for a ceasefire.[113]. Yes, when the various tribes and kingdoms were conquered, fighting and war would be the last resort. Hadramaut annexed Qataban in the second half of the 2nd century CE, reaching its greatest size. A PROPHETIC amateur of history surveying the world in the opening of the seventh century might have concluded very reasonably that it was only a question of a few centuries before the whole of Europe and Asia fell under Mongolian domination, . Thus, studies are no longer limited to the written traditions, which are not local due to the lack of surviving Arab historians' accounts of . 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. The kingdom was attacked by Antiochus III the Great in 205-204 BCE, though it seems to have survived. The Condition of Arabia before the Advent of Islam In writing the history of Islam, it is customary to begin with a survey of the political, economic, social and religious conditions of Arabia on the eve of the Proclamation by Muhammad (may God bless him and his Ahlul-Bait) of his mission as Messenger of God.In writing the history of Islam, it is customary to begin with a survey of the . [25] The Sumerians regarded Dilmun as holy land. . Let's read two historical excerpts and think about how they provide global and religious context for the development of Islam. in a permanent break in the alliance. Study with Quizlet and memorize flashcards containing terms like In what year did Muhammad die?, What group was the most important political and military force in pre-Islamic Arabia?, The presence of the Ka'ba attracted pilgrims to what city? The Greeks also refer to these people as "Tamudaei", i.e. [102] 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. c. Muslim fundamentalists. Overview. Ninlil, the Sumerian goddess of air and south wind had her home in Dilmun. These letters and other documents, hint at an administrative relationship between Dilmun and Babylon at that time. Arabia is here understood in the broad sense of the term to include the confines of the Syrian Desert. The tribe was the principle form of social and political organization. Because only Jews and Christians would have been in a position to understand Muhammad's revelations. The Dilmun civilization was the centre of commercial activities linking traditional agriculture of the land with maritime trade between diverse regions 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). In pre-Islamic Arabia, most sedentary Arabs were of Arabian origin. Migration: Importance and implications 5. 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. The Himyar was a state in ancient South Arabia dating from 110 BC. 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. It conquered in c. 25 BC, Qataban in c. 200 AD and Hadramaut c. 300 AD. 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. The Rambla Climate-House is the result of a collaboration between architects Andrs Jaque/Office for Political Innovation and Miguel Mesa del Castillo; the edaphologist Mara . This book collects a diverse range of ancient texts and inscriptions for the history especially of the northern region during this time period. The Bedouins engaged for economic reason in horse-breeding, hunting, camel raising etc. Get Perfect Grades Consistently by Using Our Service +1 718 717 2861 . The city was the principal city of ancient Nabataea and was famous above all for two things: its trade and its hydraulic engineering systems. Arabia was the cradle of Islam, and through this faith it influenced every Muslim people. The success of the kingdom was based on the cultivation and trade of spices and aromatics including frankincense and myrrh. During the 8th and 7th century BCE, there was a close contact of cultures between the Kingdom of Dmt in Eritrea and northern Ethiopia and Saba. [citation needed] Recent archaeological work has revealed numerous Thamudic rock writings and pictures. - Free Online Library", "Culture of Yemen - history, people, clothing, traditions, women, beliefs, food, customs, family", "Saudi Aramco World: Well of Good Fortune", "MANICHEISM v. MISSIONARY ACTIVITY AND TECHNIQUE: Manicheism in Arabia", "6th millennium BC structure discovered in Saudi Arabia", "Marking the sacral landscape of a north Arabian oasis: a sixth-millennium BC monumental stone platform and surrounding burials", "Mecca On The Caravan Routes In Pre-Islamic Antiquity", "Arabia In Late Antiquity: An Outline of The Cultural Situation In The Peninsula At The Time of Muhammad", "Sources For The History of Pre-Islamic Religion", "Literacy In Pre-Islamic Arabia: An Analysis of The Epigraphic Evidence", "The Earliest Relations of Islam with Other Religions: The Meccan Polytheists", Internet Medieval Sourcebook: Pre-Islamic Arabia: The Hanged Poems, before 622 CE, Ancient History Sourcebook: Ancient Accounts of Arabia, 430 BCE - 550 CE, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pre-Islamic_Arabia&oldid=1138747575, "Perishing Arabs": These are the ancients of whose history little is known. The only . South Arabian stele, bust of female raising her hand, with the donor's name, Rathadum, written below; 1st century BC-1st century AD; calcite-alabaster; 32.1cm (12.6in) x 23.3cm (9.1in) x 3.5cm (1.3in); Walters Art Museum (Baltimore). As in most of the nomadic tribes of the ancient world, women were deemed unimportant in pre-Islamic Arabia. Religion in pre-Islamic Arabia was a mix of polytheism, Christianity, Judaism, and Iranian religions. First, let's look at what the world looked like before the emergence of Islam. Actually pre-Islamic Arabia was like a checkerboard in which any point could be reached by any route. [4] A few nodal points were controlled by Iranian Parthian and Sassanian empires. [97] 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 Muammad. A. Dome of the Rock B. Temple of Solomon C. Great Shrine . It is the second convention of the historians (the first being to . The dioceses of Beth Qatraye did not form an ecclesiastical province, except for a short period during the mid-to-late seventh century. 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 early rise of Islam (632-700) The Muslim community spread through the Middle East through conquest, and the resulting growth of the Muslim state provided the ground in which the recently . DJ HILLIYA . To show that Muhammad's revelations about strict monotheism and his place in the prophetic line of Abraham, Moses, and Jesus would not have been completely foreign to the tribes of Arabia. [64] It included Bahrain, Tarout Island, Al-Khatt, Al-Hasa, and Qatar. A building inscriptions found in Bahrain indicate that Hyspoasines occupied the islands, (and it also mention his wife, Thalassia). The Arabian peninsula is the cradle of Islam. [116] This disagreement proved irreconcilable and resulted[when?] This overlap, however, provides opportunity for interactivity between chapters and . The ancestral lineage followed through males, since the tribes and clans were named after the male ancestors. d. It is said that the Ghassanids came from the city of Ma'rib in Yemen. The literary sources in Arabic dealing with pre-Islamic Arabia are copious, but rarely give direct answers to questions which are of interest to modern research. [45], 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. Though the civilization was indigenous and the royal inscriptions were written in a sort of proto-Ethiosemitic, there were also some Sabaean immigrants in the kingdom as evidenced by a few of the Dmt inscriptions.[74][75]. Gerrha was described by Strabo[37] as inhabited by Chaldean exiles from Babylon, who built their houses of salt and repaired them by the application of salt water. and oral traditions later recorded by Islamic scholars. Arabian society was . The Roman province of Arabia Petraea was created at the beginning of the 2nd century by emperor Trajan. In oil Alcoholism is a common occurrence among Arabs. 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. The economy was based on agriculture. . The town grew up around its Colonnaded Street in the 1st century and by the middle of the 1st century had witnessed rapid urbanization. It produced valuable incense and was known for its gold, , and the fierce independence of its inhabitants made it impossible to conquer, In addition to indigenous Arabian polytheism and some forms of Judaism and Christianity practiced in the, , there is evidence that other forms of monotheism were practiced there, . Wells paints a picture of the global context. This suggests that Darius might have conquered this part of Arabia[92] or that it was originally part of another province, perhaps Achaemenid Babylonia, but later became its own province. Life and Land Use on the Bahrain Islands: The Geoarchaeology of an Ancient Society University Of Chicago Press, 1984. Islam was a blessing from Allah that changed the lives of the Arabs. a- Books Purchased from Paragraph Bookstore, McGill College Avenue Mahmood Ibrahim, "Social and Economic . Arab polytheism, the dominant belief system, was based on the belief in deities and other supernatural beings such as djinn. Once Muhammad was born, he and his followers were persecuted by the pagan rulers of Mecca, and then were forced to leave to another holy city for Islam, Medina. 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". Context of pre-Islamic Arabia. the political environment in which the conception of a community of . Kitchen The World of "Ancient Arabia" Series. Arabian religion, polytheistic beliefs and practices that existed in Arabia before the rise of Islam in the 7th century ce. Political Conditions The most remarkable feature of the political life of Arabia before Islam was the total absence of political organization in any form. It is often translated as the "Age of Ignorance". The kingdom of Hadramaut was eventually conquered by the Himyarite king Shammar Yahri'sh around 300 CE, unifying all of the South Arabian kingdoms.[77]. The Grundnorm of Islamic Law. [18], Zoroastrianism was also present in Eastern Arabia. Demoralised state is perhaps the most comprehensive phrase through which the pre- Islamic world can be concisely picturised. Southern Arabia became a Persian dominion under a Yemenite vassal and thus came within the sphere of influence of the Sassanid Empire. [50] 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.[51]. The politics of the Middle East during the 5 th and 6 th centuries CE were complex. SOCIAL CONDITIONS 6. They include d, Thamud, Tasm, Jadis, Imlaq and others. Votive alabaster figurines from Yemen that represent seated women and female heads; 3rd-1st century BC; National Museum of Oriental Art (Rome, Italy), Stele, male wearing a baldric an iconic artwork for pre-Islamic Arabia; 4th millennium BCE, Al-'Ula (Saudi Arabia); exhibition at the National Museum of Korea (Seoul), Another anthropomorphic stele from pre-Islamic Saudi Arabia. As you read this, think about why he felt it important to start with a global perspective. And although the first sure reference to them dates from 312 BCE, it is possible that they were present much earlier. From 106 CE to 630 CE northwestern Arabia was under the control of the Roman Empire, which renamed it Arabia Petraea. Some early Qedarite rulers were vassals of that empire, with revolts against Assyria becoming more common in the 7th century BCE. 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. Petra or Sela was the ancient capital of Edom; the Nabataeans must have occupied the old Edomite country, and succeeded to its commerce, after the Edomites took advantage of the Babylonian captivity to press forward into southern Judaea. [32] Dilmun was also later on controlled by the Kassite dynasty in Mesopotamia. Religious climates were one of the causes of the emergence of Islam. The emigrants were from the southern Arab tribe of Azd of the Kahlan branch of Qahtani tribes. According to Herodotus, Cambyses did not subdue the Arabs when he attacked Egypt in 525 BCE. 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. 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, Samaritanism, and Mandaeism, Manichaeism, Zoroastrianism, and rarely Buddhism. [60] 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)[42] (In Middle-Persian/Pahlavi means "ewe-fish". Arabia before Islam In writing the history of Islam, it is customary to begin with a survey of the political, economic, social and religious conditions of Arabia on the eve of the Proclamation by Muhammad (may God bless him and his Ahlul-Bait) of his mission as Messenger of God. They are mentioned in sources such as the Qur'an,[84][85][86][87][88][89] 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. Several notable Nestorian writers originated from Beth Qatraye, including Isaac of Nineveh, Dadisho Qatraya, Gabriel of Qatar and Ahob of Qatar. 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. Bas-relief with a palm tree; Sana'a, ancient Yemen, alabaster. Multiple Trajectories of Islam in Africa Islam had already spread into northern Africa by the mid-seventh century A.D., only a few decades after the prophet Muhammad moved with his followers from Mecca to Medina on the neighboring Arabian Peninsula (622 A.D./1 A.H.). [11] It was the dominant state in Arabia until 525 AD. [98] Since later Arab genealogists trace Kindah back to a person called Thawr ibn 'Uqayr, modern historians have concluded that this rbt w wrm (Rab'ah of the People of Thawr) must have been a king of Kindah (kdt); the Musnad inscriptions mention that he was king both of kdt (Kindah) and qhtn (Qan). No Semitic people had founded an empire now for more than a thousand years, , most of the Middle East had abandoned its local polytheistic religious systems and had taken on Judaism, , the state religion of the Persian Empire, . [44] Ares was also worshipped by the ancient Baharna and the Greek empires. 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. The Greek historian Strabo believed the Phoenicians originated from Eastern Arabia. Socio Economic Conditions of Pre Islamic Arabia Introduction If we visualize modern day Arabia, it will be in the image of barren lands, camels, red sands and oil production. A time was to come in the thirteenth century when a Mongolian overlord would rule from the Danube to the Pacific, , and Turkish dynasties were destined to reign over the entire Byzantine and Persian Empires, Where our prophet would have been most likely to have erred would have been in under, -estimating the recuperative power of the Latin end of Europe and in ignoring the latent forces of the Arabian desert, . The area steadily grew further in importance as a trade route linking Persia, India, China, and the Roman Empire. [112] The exact number; however, is often disputed by contemporary historians. 87. . Thus the people there had to leave. BIBLIOGRAPHY THE STATE OF RELIGION IN PRE-ISLAMIC ARABIA The period in the Arabian history which preceded the birth of Islam is known as the Times of Ignorance. Worship was directed to various gods and goddesses, including Hubal and the goddesses al-Lt, Al-'Uzz and Mant, at local shrines and temples, maybe such as the Kaaba in Mecca. The Byzantine historian Procopius, who witnessed the plague, documented that citizens died at a rate of 10,000 per day in Constantinople. The great religious shrine of both pre-Muslim and Muslim Arabia is called the _____. [63] The name translates to 'region of the Qataris' in Syriac. 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.[5]. 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. A Time of Conflict. political, economic and social conditions of past generations, but it is in large part determined by them." 1 So, it might be of interest at the beginning of our study to sketch briefly the international status of . "Epigraphic South Arabian". During Sabaean rule, Yemen was called "Arabia Felix" by the Romans, who were impressed by its wealth and prosperity. [115] The Ghassanids, as Monophysite Christians from Iraq, believed that God and Jesus Christ were only one nature. Were Moses and Abraham really prophets? Pre-Islamic Arab Politics. The influence of the adjacent Roman and Aksumite resulted in Christian communities in the northwest, northeast and south of Arabia. Am I wrong? Pre-Islamic Arabia -social and economic conditions, -beliefs and customs, Istis-hab (Presumption of Continuity), -Stare Decisis. Product filter button Description Contents Resources Courses About the Authors This book delves into the political and cultural developments of pre-Islamic Arabia, focusing on the religious attitudes of the inhabitants of the Arabian Peninsula and its northern extension into the Syrian desert. Mecca was a sort of religious center at the time of Muhammad's birth, as there was an annual pilgrimage to it by Arabs for religious reasons. [63], During Minaean rule, the capital was at Karna (now known as Sa'dah). The most recent detailed study of pre-Islamic Arabia is Arabs and Empires Before Islam, published by Oxford University Press in 2015. In less than a century, Arabs had come to rule over an area that spanned five thousand miles. Moral Decline: In pre-Islamic times, Arab society was full of moral decay. 600 - 1450 Regional and interregional interactions. 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. 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. important factor which also influenced the social and moral life of the pre-Islamic Arabs was the economic condition. Jadis and Tasm perished because of genocide. Petra (from the Greek petra, meaning 'of rock') lies in the Jordan Rift Valley, east of Wadi `Araba in Jordan about 80km (50mi) south of the Dead Sea. Pre-Islamic conditions. Many small kingdoms prospered from Red sea and Indian Ocean trade. Miniature gate; Zafar, Yemen, 2rd-3rd century AD. Limestone sculpture from pre-Islamic Yemen that represents a ram. [58], In the 3rd century CE, the Sassanids succeeded the Parthians and held the area until the rise of Islam four centuries later. The Sabaean kingdom was located in Yemen, and its capital, Ma'rib, is located near what is now Yemen's modern capital, Sana'a. [82] The Lihyanite kingdom went through three different stages, the early phase of Lihyan Kingdom was around the 7th century BC, started as a Sheikdom of Dedan then developed into the Kingdom of Lihyan tribe. 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. Socio-Religious conditions of pre-Islamic Arabia 2. vi. ", "A history of the later Roman empire: from, "Sicker, Martin", "The Pre-Islamic Middle East","(Connecticut:2000)", "201. [53][54] 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.