Pre-Islam

Arabic language had matured into classical Arabic before advent of Islam.  Classical Arabic was spoken and written all over Arabian Peninsula on the eve of Islam. Arabic language developed in three stages.  During first phase of its development it was mainly a spoken language and did not have alphabets of its own.  Due to this […]

Political self-identity The tribe was the main political self-identity of an Arab in the late pre-Islamic period.  It simply means individuals identified themselves by the tribe they belonged to.  The tribe’s name was a kind of identity card for a person.  Each individual needed to know his genealogy, the knowledge of his descent.  And by

Pre-Islamic Arabia was not a country.  It was a land comprising a number of political entities and regions. Hejaz The portion of the land where Mecca and Medina are located currently was Hejaz.  It not only included the northern portion of the main mountain range of Arabia but also the adjacent portion of Tihamah. Taif

Arabs (‘Arab عَرَب) became an identifiable ethnic group around the beginning of first millennium BCE. Assyrian king Shalmaneser III has recorded his victory over a coalition of Syrian and Palestinian kings on Kurkh Stele.  This war, known as battle of Qarqar, was fought in 853 BCE. Shalmaneser III writes that among others, a certain ‘Gindibu

Medina (Madīnah مَدىِنه), whose ancient name was Yathrib (Yethrib يثرب), is clearly identified at its present location by pre-Islamic sources. Inscription of Nabonidus, dating from 552 BCE or little after and discovered at Harran (Sultantepe) near present day Urfa in south-eastern Turkey, reads ‘I hied myself afar from my city Babylon [on] the road to

The location of the Ka’ba in pre-Islamic times was at the same place where it is located right now. Debate Historians have been debating the location of Mecca, and hence the Ka’ba, in pre-Islamic times. The doubt about its location started when the archaeologists discovered the ruins of the mosque of Wasit in Iraq around

Arabic developed and matured in a span of at least six centuries before the advent of Islam. At one stage of its development it was written, and probably spoken, in a style called Old Arabic.  Scholars have given it a fancy name of Palaeo-Arabic.  Lately Palaeo-Arabic refashioned into Classical Arabic. The earliest document, which its

Genealogical classification of Arab tribes has no historical value.  However, it has great political significance. Early Islamic sources provide a genealogical classification of all Arab tribes. Scholars doubt their accuracy. The genealogies written in the post-Islamic period might reflect a reality of the present or the near past from the time of writing, but they

The date of birth of Mecca is not known.  Early Islamic sources claim that it was Abu Karib Asʾad Tubba’, the Himyar king, who had donated the kiswah (كِسوة) of the Ka’ba (cloth that covers the Ka’ba).  As a dated inscription verifies As’ad Tubba’ ruling the Ḥimyar kingdom in August of 433 CE, it can

Population groups living in Arabia acquired literacy in the first millennium BCE, as is evident by the inscriptions of eastern Saudi Arabia written in Hasaean script. Since then, Arabia has been rich in preserving the written record of ancient scripts.  We know of a myriad of scripts, like Hasaean, Safaitic, Hismaic, Taymanitic, and Dadanitic, etc.,