Last updated: April 29th, 2025 at 10:25 am · Est. Reading Time: < 1 minute
There were three types of graves in pre-Islamic Arabia.
Grave of the Commoners
The grave of a common Arab was as simple as a trench covered by a pile of earth. A pre-Islamic Arab poet says:
Yes sure enough, in a grave, dug where the valley is bent
swathed in white I shall lie, white like an antelope’s back.1
Grave of the Well-Off
Grave of the better off dead was very similar to that one of the commoners, however, they got a funerary monument like a pile of stones.
Grave of the Rich and Elite
The rich and elite had magnificent tombs. Hassan bin Thabit talks about such a tomb when he says, “The Sons of Jafna are around the tomb of their father.” 2
Further Reading
History of Islam, Social Structure of Pre-Islamic Arabs, https://historyofislam.org/social-structure-of-pre-islamic-arabs/
Footnotes
- ‘Abid ibn al-Abras. The Dīwāns of ‘Abīd ibn al-Abraṣ, of Asad, and ‘Āmir ibh aṭ-Ṭufail, of ‘Amir ibn Ṣa’ṣa’ah, ed. and trans. Charles Lyall (Leyden, E. J. W. Gibb Memorial, 1913), 60, ode 28, Poet: ‘Abid.
- Ḥassān bin Thābit, The Dīwan of Hassān B. Thābit, ed. Hartwig Hirschfeld (Leyden: E. J. W. Gibb Memorial, 1910), I, 74, verse 11.