Arabian Peninsula

Earlier Revealed Religions of Arabia

Arabia had been the birth place of several prophets of God in the bygone times. The Quran says:

"And make mention (O Muhammad) of the brother of Aad when he warned his folk among the wind curved sandhills—and verily warners came and went before and after him—saying: Serve none but Allah. Lo! I fear for you the doom of a tremendous Day . (Qur’an 46:21)

Prophet Hud1 was sent to the Aad; a people, according to historians, belonging to the Arab Baidah who lived in a tract of white or reddish sand blown into hill banks or dunes and covering a vast area to the south west of al Rate al Khali (the vacant quarter) near Hadramaut. This region has no habitation and is void of the breath of life, but it was a verdant land in the ancient times, with flourishing towns inhabited by a people of gigantic strength and stature. The whole area was consumed by a fearful and roaring wind which covered it with sand dunes.2

The Quranic verse quoted above shows that the Prophet Hud was not the only messenger of God sent to the ancient Arabs of this area as many more warners came and went before him.

Salih3 was another Arabian Prophet sent to the people called Thamud who lived in al Hijr situated between Tabuk and Hijaz. Prophet Ismail was brought up in Mecca, and he died in the same city. If we extend the frontiers of the Arabian peninsula northwards to include Midian on the borders of Syria, Prophet Shuyeb (Indentified with Jethro) would also be reckoned as an Arabian prophet. The historian Abul Fida says that Midianites were Arabs, living in Midian near Maan, which is adjacent to the Sea of Lut (Dead Sea) in Syria on the frontier of Hijaz. The Midianites flourished after the downfall of the people of Lut.

Ancient Arabia had been the cradle of many a civilised and flourishing people to whom God had sent His apostles. But all of them were either destroyed because of their evil ways or became strangers in their own homeland, or were forced to seek new homes. The prophets of God born in the lands far away had sometimes to seek refuge in Arabia from the despotic kings of their lands. Ibrahim (Abraham) had migrated to Mecca and Moses had to flee to Midian. Followers of other religions, too, had to seek shelter in Arabia. The Jews, when persecuted by the Romans, had settled in Yemen and Yathrib while several Christian sects harassed by the Byzantine Emperors had migrated to Najran.4

Footnotes:

1. Recognized by some as Heber of the Bible (Judges iv-l).
2. For details see the Chapter “The Reality” of the Qur’an.
3. Identified by some as Salah of Genesis xi-13.
4. For further details see Vol. I of Kathim-un-Nabiyin by Shekh Muhammad Abu Zuhra.

Arabia in Ancient History

Archaeological excavations show existence of human habitation in Arabia during the earliest period of Stone Age. These earliest remains pertain to Chellean period of palaeolithic epoch. The people of Arabia mentioned in the Old Testament throw light on the relations between the Arabs and ancient Hebrews between 750 to 200 B.C. Similarly, Talmud also refers to the Arabs. Josephus (37 c.—100) gives some valuable historical and geographical details about the Arabs and Nabataeans.1 There are many more Greek and Latin writings of pre Islamic era, enumerating the tribes living in the Peninsula and giving their geographical locations and historical details, which, notwithstanding the mistakes and inconsistencies in them, are inestimable sources of information about ancient Arabia. Alexandria was also one of those important commercial centers of antiquity which had taken a keen interest in collecting data about Arabia, its people and the commodities produced in that country for commercial purposes.

The classical writers first to mention the Arabians in the Greek literature were Aeschylus (525 465 B. C.) and Herodotus (484 425 B. C.). Several other writers of the classical period have left an account of Arabia and its inhabitants, of these, Claudius Ptolemaeus of Alexandria was an eminent geographer of the second century, whose Almagest occupied an important place in the curriculum of Arabic schools. Christian sources also contain considerable details about Arabia during the pre Islamic and early Islamic era although these were primarily written to describe Christianity and its missionary activities in that country.

The numerous references made to the Ereb2 in the Old Testament are synonymous with the nomadic tribes of Arabia since the word means desert in Semitic and the characteristics of the people described therein apply to the Bedouins. Similarly, the Arabs mentioned in the writings of the Greeks and Romans as well as in the New Testament were Bedouins who used to make plundering raids on the frontier towns of Roman and Byzantine empires, despoiled the caravans and imposed extortionate charges on the traders and wayfarers passing through their territories. Diodorus Siculus, a classical writer of Sicily in the second half of the first century B.C., affirms that the Arabians are "self reliant and independence loving, like to live in the open desert and highly prize and value their liberty.3 The Greek historian Herodotus (484 425 B. C.) also makes a similar remark about them. "They revolt against every power," he says, "which seeks to control their freedom or demean them.4 The passionate attachment of the Arabs to their personal freedom had been admired by almost all the Greek and Latin writers.

The acquaintance of the Arabs with the Indians and their commercial and cultural relations which India began in the days much before the advent of Islam and their conquest of India. Modern researches on the subject show that of all the Asiatic countries, India was closest to, Arabia and well acquainted with it.5

Footnotes:

1. Especially in Jewish Antiquities, ed. S.A. Naber , Leipzig, 1888
2. Is. 21: 13, 13:20 and Jer. 3:2
3. Bibliotheca Historica, Book II, Chapt. 1, & 5.
4. Heordus, History, Book III, Chap. 88.
5. For details see Arab our Hind ke T’aluqat by S. Sulaiman Nadwi.

Linguistic Unity

Multiplicity of dialects and languages should not have been at all surprising in a country so big as Arabia (actually, equal to a sub continent), divided into north and south, not only by the trackless desert, but also by the rivalry of kindred races and clanish patriotism of a passionate, chauvinistic type, affording but little opportunity for intermixing and unification of the countrys population. The tribes living in the frontier regions close to Iranian and Byzantine empires were, quite naturally, open to influences of alien elements. All these factors have given birth to numerous languages in Europe and the Indian subcontinent. In India alone, fifteen languages have been officially recognised by the Constitution of India while there are still people who have to speak in an official language other than their own mother tongue or take recourse to English for being understood by others.

But, the Arabian peninsula has had, despite its vastness and proliferation of tribes, a common language ever since the rise of Islam. Arabic has been the common lingua franca of the bedouins living in the deserts as well as of the sedentary and cultured populations like the Qahtan and Adnan. Some local variations in the dialects of various regions arising from differences of tones and accents, wide distances and diversity of physical and geographical conditions could not be helped, yet there has always been a linguistic uniformity which has made the Quran intelligible to all. It has also been helpful in the rapid diffusion of Islam to the far flung tribes of Arabia.

Ethnic Divisions

Arab historians as well as old traditions of the land hold that the people of Arabia can be categorised in three broad divisions. The first of these were the Arab Baidah (extinct Arabs) who populated the country but ceased to exist before the advent of Islam. The next were the Arab Ar’ibah (Arabian Arabs) or Banu Qahtan who replaced the Arab Baidah and the third were the Arab Mustarabah (Arabicized Arabs) or the progeny of Ishmael which settled in Hijaz. The line of demarcation drawn according to racial division of the Arab stock makes a distinction between those descending from Qahtan1 and Adnan; the former are held to be Yemenites or southern Arabs while the latter had settled in Hijaz. Arab genealogists further divide the Adnan into two sub groups which they term as Rabia and Mudar. There had been a marked rivalry from the distant past between the Qahtan and the Adnan just as the Rabia and the Mudar had been hostile to each other. However, the historians trace the origin of the Qahtan to a remoter past from which the Adnan branched off at a later time2 and learnt Arabic vernacular from the former. It is held that the Adnan were the offspring of Ishmael (Ismail) who settled in Hijaz after naturalisation.

Arab genealogists give great weight to these racial classifications which also find a confirmation in the attitude of Iranians in the olden times. The Iranian General Rustam had admonished his courtiers who had derided Mughira b. Shuba and looked down upon him for having presented himself as the envoy of Muslims in tattered clothes, Rustam had then said to his counselors: "You are all fools.. .The Arabs give little importance to their dress and food but are vigilant about their lineage and family.3

Footnotes:

1. The Joktan of the Old Testament.
2. Some experts of the modern times hold the view that the ‘Adhan are really the ‘Arab ‘Aribah and form the original stock. Others who disagree with this view argue that the division made by earlier historians is based on the Yemenite stock after the advent of Islam and not prior to it.
3. Ibn Kathir, AL-Bidayah Wan-Nihayah, Vol. VIII, p. 40.

Cultural Centers

In places where there were sufficient periodic rains or water was available in wells or springs settlements used to spring up or the nomads came together during seasonal fairs and festivals. While such get togethers exerted a civilizing influence on the life of the bedouins, the agricultural settlements reflected their specific characteristics depending on climatic conditions and economic and occupational features of the sedentary populations. Accordingly, Mecca had a peculiar cultural development as had other settlements like Yathrib and Hira their own distinguishing cultural features. Yemen was culturally the most developed region in the country owing to its long history and political developments in the recent past. Because of its suitable climate, Yemen had made rapid strides in cultivation of cereals, animal husbandry, quarry of minerals and construction of forts and palaces. It had commercial relations with Iraq, Syria and Africa and imported different commodities needed by it.

The Land and its People

One of the driest and hottest countries of the world, nineteenth of Arabia is made up of barren desert. The geological and physical features of the land along with its climatic conditions have kept its population, in the days gone by and also in the present time, to the minimum and hindered the flowering of civilized communities and empires. The nomadic life of the desert tribes, rugged individualism of the people and unrestrained tribal warfare have tended to limit the settled population to the areas where there is abundance of rainfall or water is available on the surface of land in the shape of springs or ponds or is found nearer the surface of the earth. The Bedouins dig deep wells in the ground. The way of life in Arabia is, so to say, dictated by the availability of water; nomadic tribes continually move about in the desert in search of water. Wherever verdant land is found, the tribes go seeking pastures but they are never bound to the land like the tillers of the soil. They stay over a pasture or oasis so long as they can graze their flocks of sheep, goats and camels and then break up their camps to search out new pastures.

Life in the desert was hard and filled with danger. The Bedouin felt bound to the family and to the clan, on which depended his existence in the arid desert; loyalty to the tribe meant for him the same life long alliance as others feel for the nation and State. His life was unstable and vagrant; like the desert, he knew not ease nor comfort; and understood only the language of power, of might. The Bedouin knew no moral code — no legal or religious sanction — nothing save the traditional sentiment of his own and the tribes honour. In short, it was a life that always brought about hardship and trouble for him and sowed the seeds of danger for the neighbouring sedentary populations.

The desert tribes of Arabia were continually engaged in an endless strife amongst themselves or made incursions into the settled lands around them. At the same time, the Arabs displayed a boundless loyalty to their tribes and traditions, were magnanimously hospitable, honoured the treaties, were faithful friends and dutifully met the obligations of tribal customs. All these traits of the Arab character are amply illustrated by their forceful and elegant literature, both in prose and poetry, proverbs, metaphors, simile and fables.

The Arab was thus a born democrat, individualistic and freedom loving, practical minded and realist, active and straight thinking and hated to do anything deemed vulgar or indecent by him. Not only was he content with his nomadic life and the frugal demands it made upon him but he also felt satisfied with or was rather proud of his migratory existence for it fulfilled his passionate urge for freedom. To spiritual impulses he was lukewarm although he was absolutely loyal to the ancient traditions of his tribe. The fundamental virtues of an Arab, consisting of courage, loyalty and generosity, were derived from the concept of murauwah (manliness); and he was never tired of singing its praises in his odes and orations.

Introduction

Arabia is the largest peninsula on the map of the world. The Arabs call it

Jazirat ul Arab1 which means the "Island of Arabia", although it is not an

island, being surrounded by water on three sides only. Lying in the south west

of Asia, the Arabian Gulf is to its east, which was known to the Greeks as

Persian Gulf; Indian Ocean marks the southern limits; and to its west is Red Sea

which was called Sinus Arabicus or Arabian Gulf by the Greeks and Latins and

Bahr Qulzum by the ancient Arabs. The northern boundry is not well defined, but

may be considered an imaginary line drawn due east from the head of the Gulf of

al Aqabah in the Red Sea to the mouth of the Euphrates.

The Muslim geographers have divided the country into five regions:

1. Hijaz extends from Aila (al Aqabah) to Yemen and has been so named

   because the range of mountains running parallel to the western coast separates

   the low coastal belt of Tihama from Najd,

2. Tihama inside the inkier range is a plateau extending to the foothills,

3. Yemen, south of Hijaz, occupies the south west corner of Arabia,
4. Najd, the north central plateau, extends from the mountain ranges of Hijaz

   in the west to the deserts of Bahrain in the east and encompasses a number of

   deserts and mountain ranges,

5. Aruz which is bounded by Bahrain to its east and Hijaz to its west. Lying

   between Yemen and Najd it was also known as Yamamah.2

Footnotes:

1. The word has been commonly used since the ancient times because no distinction was made in the days of yore between a peninsula and an island nor there were separate words to denote the two. Certain scholars have tried to prove that Arabia is an Island in the Modern geographical sense, as, for instance, in the Tarikh al-Umam al-Islamia of ‘Allama Khudhari, but it requires to stretch the sense of the term and takes the boundaries of the Peninsula too far away from its present limits.
2. This geographical division of the country is attributed to ‘Abdullah b. ‘Abbas.