Political Divisions of Pre-Islamic Arabia

Last updated: April 17th, 2025 at 9:14 am · Est. Reading Time: 3 minutes

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 (Ṭāʾif طاءِف) towards the south, was a town of Hejaz. In the north, Khaybar was within Hejaz, and Wadi al Qara (modern al-Ula in Saudi Arabia) was in Syria. Both, port of Yanbu and the port of Jeddah were in Hejaz.

Yamama

Adjacent to the Hejaz, and just to the east of it was Yamama (Yamāmah يَمامَه). It corresponded almost with the non-desert parts of Najd Plateau.

The settlements of Jaw, Hajr and Tharmada were part of Yamama.

Bahrain

The area of the land sandwiched between Yamama on the west and the Persian Gulf to the east was Bahrain (Baḥrayn بَحرَين). It was more or less comprised of the Bahrain coastal plain.

The main settlements in Bahrain were Hajar and Qatif.

Yemen

The piece of land confined to the south-western corner of Arabian Peninsula was Yemen. It stretched over the Yemen Highlands, Asir mountains, and the adjacent Tihamah.

Towards north its last settlement was Hubasha (modern Bariq in Saudi Arabia), just to the south of Taif. To the east Shihr was in Yemen.

Najran and Sana’a, two most populous cities in Arabia were located in Yemen. Yemen’s port of Aden was the largest port in Arabia. Only Ubula of Iraq rivalled it.

Hadarmaut

Hadarmaut (Ḥaḍarmaut حَضَرمَوت). was the land squeezed between Yemen and Oman, along the sea shore of Arabian Sea. It was mainly rural. No settlement from Hadarmaut is known.

Oman

The mountainous region along the coast of Gulf of Oman was Oman (Ummān عُمّان). It was geographically and politically isolated from the rest of Arabia and closer to Iran and India. The sea coast communities of Daba and Sohar were located in Oman.

Syria

Syria (Bilād ash shām بلاد الشام) was located in the northwest corner of Arabian Peninsula. Starting from Wadi al Qura in the south, it extended up to the Taurus mountains just south of Anatolia. Its main settlements in Arabian Peninsula were Magna, Tabuk, Tayma and Dumat al Jandal.

It covered all the harras of the northern part of Arabia, the Syrian steppe, and the Syrian desert, and the fertile lands north of River Yarmouk.

Syria was a large land having political subdivisions. Jordan, Palestine, Hawran, Phoenicia (Lebanon), were all its political subdivisions.

Its southern region, which was inside Arabian Peninsula, was part of Tribal Zone of Arabia. The northern part was a province of Byzantine Rome. The boundary between the two ran just to the south of Palmyra and Busra in modern Syria to Azraq and Aqaba in modern Jordan.

Iraq

The desert-like steppe in the north-eastern portion of Arabia was Iraq. River Euphrates separated it from Jazirah (Mesopotamia). Syria was towards West from it. Yamama and Bahrain were to the south.

Iraq of pre-Islamic Arabia should not be confused with Iraq of Umayyad Caliphate. Iraq of Umayyad Caliphate was its eastern province which contained almost all those areas which are Iraq, Kuwait, Iran, Caucasus states, and Central Asian states of ex-Soviet Union.

Some Arab cities, like Ubulah (modern Basra) and Hira (modern Kufa) were on the left bank of Euphrates but were part of Iraq.