Pre-Islam

Himyar were sedentary Arabs who ruled over Yemen in the 6th century.  Yemen of the 6th century is sometimes referred to as the Himyar state. Origin Yemen (Al-Yemen يمن) in the Arabian Peninsula had developed states since ancient times.  By the beginning of the 3rd century CE, Yemen had many small states.  The rulers of […]

The question why Tribal Zone expanded from first century BCE onwards and took the place of all Arabian states except those at the northernmost and southernmost fringes, is still not settled.  Scholars implicate a few factors. The Economic Decline The inland incense trade was the lifeline of the economy in the first century BCE.  Diodorus

The Ghassans (Ghassanids) ceased to be main phylarchs of Byzantine Rome by fourth quarter of sixth century CE. The Background Despite having them as allies, the Byzantine looked down upon the Arabs.  Whenever a contemporary Byzantine writer mentions character of an Arab, he expresses contempt for him.  Theophylact Simocatta notes, “The Saracen tribe is known

Byzantine Empire is a well known state which developed in antiquity, and continued to exist throughout medieval ages.  Its ultimate fall was the beginning of Renaissance. Heironymus Wolf, writing in 1557, named it the Byzantine Empire, and since then, this name has become a standard among historians. The citizens of this empire, anyhow, used to

The boundaries of the Tribal Zone of pre-Islamic Arabia had not been constant during antiquity.  Benouinization denotes the process by which the Tribal Zone extended.  It is opposite to ‘state formation’. Arabia had a number of states, even in central regions, by the 1st century CE.  As time passed, many of them disappeared, giving way

Axum was a kingdom located at the horn of Africa.  It was born around 100 CE and survived up to 940 CE. Modern historians call it the kingdom of Axum (Aksum) after its capital city.  The citizens of this country did not call it by this name.  Instead, they used to call it Ethiopia (Ḥabshah

The mutual friction between the Pahlavi-speaking people and the Arabic-speaking people of the 6th century CE is well known. The Dialogue Between Khosrow and Nu’man Hatred for each other is illustrated from the opinions the two camps have expressed about each other on entirely different occasions, but are usually put together in a dialogue form

Pre-Islamic Arabs had a taste for wine drinking.  Here is a passionate description of wine by a pre-Islamic poet: Not wine of the white grape, fragrant as musk [when the jar is broached] And set on the strainer to clear, and ladled from cup to cup a captive, it dwelt in the jar for twenty

A tribal-based social hierarchy is well known among late pre-Islamic Arabs. However, this was not the only way of classifying people.  Vocation played some role in determining the social status of a person.  All trades were not considered to be of equal status by society.  Some jobs were superior to others.  Most menial work one

Pre-Islamic Arabia was predominantly rural.  Urban centers did exist, but were tiny as compared to the towns and cities in contemporary Sasanian Iran, Byzantine Rome, or Ethiopia. The tiny urban centers of Arabia existed to fulfill specific needs of the nomadic population, like their need to exchange the produce, seek tradesmen’s services, or get treatment