Arabia Before Islam_ Religion, Society, Culture DOCUMENTARY
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00:00The Arab world is mostly identified with Islam, and for good reason.
00:12Islam was a catalyst of the biggest expansion of the Arabic people in history.
00:17It paved the way for the establishment of arguably the most powerful empire of its time,
00:22the Islamic Caliphate, which at its zenith ranged from Spain and North Africa in the
00:27west to Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent in the east.
00:32The Caliphate managed to be one of the most dominant political, military, scientific,
00:37and cultural centers of the world for several centuries, while the religion of Islam remains
00:43one of the most important political and societal forces globally.
00:47But what was there before Islam?
00:50How did Arab people live, rule themselves, what did they believe in?
00:55Welcome to our video on Arabia before Islam.
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02:15Pre-Islamic Arabia was mostly a nomadic society, inhabited by constantly moving tribal units.
02:22These Bedouin tribes, some of which maintain their traditional nomadic lifestyle to this
02:27day, had been the most significant political unit of the Arabian Peninsula, with constantly
02:33shifting alliances, never-ending warfare, and rare occurrences of organized and centralized
02:40statehood.
02:41These tribes placed heavy emphasis on kin-related groups and families, and would roam through
02:47the deserts with their livestock, mainly comprising of sheep, goats, and camels, living in tents
02:53with their immediate family members.
02:55The tribal leaders enforced unwritten rules of the Bedouin society in the tribe.
03:01Bedouin tribes were patriarchal, as inheritance passed to male offspring, and women could
03:06not inherit property and were virtually rightless, as they could be seized in tribal conflicts
03:12as a spoil of war, and the Bedouin laws allowed the men to marry their captives.
03:18The number of women a man could marry was not fixed.
03:22When a man died, his son inherited all his wives, except his own mother.
03:28Women in tribal Arabia had little say in their marriages, as they would often be arranged
03:33a man and his future wife's family, and the family would receive property like camels
03:38or horses in exchange for the bride.
03:41There were also cases of killing female infants, as the Muslim holy book the Quran mentions
03:47that the Arabs of the period of ignorance, called Jahiliyyah, would bury their daughters
03:53alive.
03:54The Bedouin men often considered women an economic burden and a potential source of
03:59embarrassment, as the capture of women of the tribe by hostile tribes was considered
04:04humiliating in the conservative Bedouin society.
04:08Under the circumstances of lack of centralized states, with rare exceptions, there were no
04:13written laws, courts, or law enforcement of any kind to protect the population.
04:19Thus, the principal purpose of a Bedouin tribe was to protect its members.
04:24Vengeance was sought for the killing of a tribe member by another tribe, which led to
04:29virtually constant warfare and conflict.
04:33Protecting your tribe and avenging your kin was a high honor.
04:37Harsh living conditions of the Arabian Peninsula further enhanced the tribal system and sense
04:42of identity within a tribe, as often their protection and economic cooperation was the
04:48difference between death and survival.
04:51French historian Maxime Rodanson states that,
04:55The free Arabs were bound by no written code of law, and no state existed to enforce its
05:01statutes with the backing of a police force.
05:04The only protection for a man's life was the certainty established by custom that it
05:08would be dearly bought.
05:11Blood for blood and a life for a life.
05:13The vendetta, the Ahr in Arabic, is one of the pillars of Bedouin society.
05:20Austrian historian Gustav Ivon Grunebaum reiterated this and described the state of affairs in
05:26Arabia in the century before the rise of Islam as tribal guerrilla fighting, all against
05:32all.
05:34Tribes would fight against each other, attack and plunder caravans and sedentary settlements,
05:39as lawlessness was the law of the land in most of Arabia.
05:44Caravans and sedentary settlements would pay tribute to the raiding Bedouin tribes to avoid
05:48their attacks.
05:50While most of the tribes in Arabia went on with their nomadic lifestyle, some managed
05:55to gain influence over certain territories and switch to a sedentary life.
06:01Mecca was practically ruled by the skilled merchants of the Quraysh tribe that took control
06:06of the city sometime in the 5th century, while Yathrib, which was later named Medina, was
06:12dominated by the Arab tribes of Aus and Khazraj, and the Jewish tribes Atir, Qaynuqa, and Qurayza.
06:20While the nomadic Bedouins viewed sedentary life with contempt and thought of the town
06:25dwellers as a nation of shopkeepers, the emergence of cities like Mecca was the primary cause
06:31of the dawn of the common Arab identity in the pre-Islamic period.
06:36The most important cities of the Arabian Peninsula, Mecca and Yathrib, were situated
06:41in Hijaz, a region with sufficient water supply, which made it a logical choice for a sedentary
06:47lifestyle in the otherwise punishing climate and terrain of Arabia.
06:53Mecca was an important trade center in the region, a place through which caravans would
06:57flow, as well as the location of the Kaaba, a sacred place in Islam which was also sacred
07:03in polytheistic Arabia, where the statues of idols and gods of different Arabic tribes
07:09were placed.
07:11The Greek historian Diodorus Siculus, who lived between 60 and 30 BC, wrote about the
07:16isolated region of Arabia in his work Bibliotheca Historica, describing Kaaba as a very holy
07:23temple which was exceedingly revered by all Arabians.
07:28For example, the chief deity of the Quraysh tribe and Mecca was Hubal.
07:34The usual trading routes through the Red Sea and the Tigris and Euphrates were disrupted
07:39by piracy and the Roman-Persian conflict, and caravans and traders switched to the trade
07:45route going through Mecca.
07:48Goods from beyond the Red Sea and of the local Bedouin tribes would be brought to Mecca,
07:53from where the camel caravans would transport them to the Levant.
07:58Meccans signed treaties with the Byzantine Empire and Bedouin tribes for safe passage
08:03of their trading caravans.
08:06As the home of the Kaaba, Mecca also carried a religious significance for the polytheistic
08:11Arabs, as once a year, Arabs from all over Arabia would make a pilgrimage to Kaaba and
08:17drink from the sacred Zamzam well.
08:20At this time of the year, conflict would stop, a truce would be declared, disputes
08:25and debts would be resolved, and trade happened between different tribes.
08:30Thus, Mecca became a centre of a loose confederation of tribes around this city, as guests were
08:36obliged to follow the rules in Mecca.
08:39The trading potential of Mecca and its religious significance for the Arabs turned it into
08:44a factor bringing Arabs together and forming their national identity.
08:50Another important city of Arabia was Yathrib, Medina.
08:54It was an agricultural centre, also situated in a fertile region of Hijaz, which allowed
09:00the city to become an important transit point for trade caravans travelling along the Red
09:05Sea.
09:06Initially, Yathrib was dominated by Jewish tribes, but gradually, several Arabic tribes
09:12moved to Yathrib and gained political and economic influence in the city too.
09:18While Arabs were mainly engaged in agriculture, Jews would also be active as businessmen.
09:24The rise of cities was inevitably going to lead to the rise of commerce too, and the
09:29rise of commerce was inevitably going to lead to usury, a practice which was used by both
09:35the Arabs and Jews.
09:37This practice would be later prohibited by Islam.
09:41We already saw that even in pre-Islamic Arabia, religion played an important role in shaping
09:47the common Arab identity.
09:50What religion did the Arabs practice before the rise of Islam?
09:54Religion in pre-Islamic Arabia was a mix of polytheism, Christianity, Judaism, and Iranian
10:01religions.
10:02Arab polytheism, or paganism, was the most popular belief system.
10:07Each tribe, city, and region could have its own god or idol, which was in a way a patron
10:13of that particular community.
10:16Arabs also believed in supernatural beings like djinns.
10:20Statues of gods and goddesses would be placed in Kaaba, and some scholars argue that Allah,
10:26the deity of Islam and other Abrahamic religions, also had a statue in Kaaba.
10:32There are hadiths, the authenticity of which is disputed, claiming that Kaaba also had
10:37an image of the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus, with Abraham looking over them.
10:43Overall, it is estimated that Kaaba contained up to 360 such statues and images.
10:51Trading and political relations with the Byzantine Empire, Ethiopia, Persia, and other neighboring
10:56forces had a role in shaping the religious landscape of Arabia too.
11:01As early as the 1st century AD, Arab traders brought Christianity to Arabia.
11:08Others were evangelized by Paul's ministry in Arabia and by Saint Thomas, followed by
11:13a strong influence from the Byzantine Empire.
11:16For example, the Ghassanids, a vassal kingdom of Rome, converted to Christianity.
11:22In the south of the country, a strong Christian community emerged in Najran as a result of
11:28the influence of the Ethiopian Christian kingdom of Aksum.
11:32Nestorian Christianity was strong in parts of the country, but the most popular denomination
11:37was Monophysitism.
11:40Judaism was also a significant part of the religious landscape of Arabia.
11:45As a result of Roman persecution, the migration of Jewish people to Arabia started as early
11:51as the 1st century AD.
11:54Many Jews found homes in Hijaz and towns like Yathrib, Kaaba, Fardak, and Um al-Qura.
12:01Many Arabs also converted to Judaism, as often it was a condition of settling in Jewish-dominated
12:07towns of Hijaz.
12:09The Yemeni Himyarite kingdom converted to Judaism in the 4th century, and some of the
12:14Kindah, a tribe in central Arabia who were the Himyarites' vassals, were also converted
12:20by the 5th century.
12:22Sources also inform about a monotheistic religion centered around the worship of a single god
12:28of the Abrahamic religions, but apparently it was not affiliated with Christianity or
12:33Judaism and was probably centered around the prophethood of Abraham.
12:38Followers of this religion were called Hafini people, and they rejected the idolatry and
12:43paganism of the majority of Arabs, sharing some of the features of other Abrahamic religions
12:49like the prohibition of pork.
12:51The scope of expansion of the Hafini people is unclear, but according to some Islamic
12:57sources the prophet of Islam Muhammad and some of his future companions belonged to
13:02this religion.
13:04Arabia also had a small minority following Iran-based religions like Zoroastrianism,
13:09Mazdakism, and others spreading under Persian influence.
13:14Earlier we mentioned how in the pre-Islamic period, Arab statehood was relatively rare,
13:20as Arabia constantly moved from tribal anarchy to loose state organizations and back again.
13:27But there have been a number of notable states in Arabia in the pre-Islamic period mentioned
13:32in Greek, Roman, Mesopotamian, and Persian sources, and oral Arab traditions later recorded
13:38by Islamic scholars.
13:41According to the Arab classical writers, Arabs divided themselves into the Yamanites, the
13:46South Arabs descended from Khatan, and the North Arabs descended from Adnan.
13:51It is interesting that these two groups had certain distinctions and the existence of
13:56statehood and political systems were among them.
13:59South Arabia, Yemen, had more established states, and all of them were ruled as monarchies.
14:06In the north, loose tribal confederations or de facto city-states like Mecca were a
14:11more prevalent form of statehood.
14:14Such states were ruled as oligarchies and aristocracies.
14:18The south was considered more advanced, as it was the key route of trade in Arabia, prior
14:24to the emergence of Mecca as an alternative, and had a higher degree of contact with outsiders
14:30such as Ethiopians.
14:32From the 4th century onwards, a reverse process started, as many southern tribes migrated
14:38to the north and underwent northern influence.
14:41The South Arabian script vanished and North Arabian proliferated in Arabia.
14:47The Thamud tribe or tribal union was one of the first recorded states in Arabia, which
14:53was a prominent force in northwestern Arabia according to the Assyrian sources related
14:58to the 8th century BC, and were later used as auxiliary forces by the Roman Empire according
15:04to the Roman sources.
15:06In the 3rd century BC, the Greek scholar Eratosthenes mentioned Minnaeans, Sabaeans, Catabaneans,
15:14and Hadrumites as the main people inhabiting the Arabian Peninsula.
15:19Historians mention the independent Sabian Kingdom situated in present-day Yemen, which
15:24was later conquered by the Himyarite Kingdom around 280AD.
15:29The Himyarite Kingdom was one of the most prominent pre-Islamic states of the Arabian
15:34Peninsula.
15:35It was ruled by a monarch, but in practice, the power of the state was shared with regional
15:41governors, which had a high degree of autonomy, a system akin to medieval-era European kingdoms.
15:48By the early 4th century AD, the Himyarite Kingdom ruled over southern Arabia and expanded
15:53north to Najran.
15:56Originally polytheistic Himyarites became monotheistic sometime in the 4th century with
16:01a belief in the Abrahamic god.
16:04At the end of the 5th century, the Himyarite King Abu Kariba adopted Judaism as his faith.
16:10His son and successor Yusuf du Nuwas was even more zealous, as he started persecuting Christians
16:16living in the kingdom.
16:18This proved to be the undoing of the Himyarite dynasty, as du Nuwas was either killed or
16:24committed suicide after being defeated by the Christian coalition of the Ethiopian Kingdom
16:29of Aksum, the Byzantine Empire, and South Arabian Christians in 524.
16:36Christian Ethiopians then took control of South Arabia, built a church in Sana'a in
16:40an attempt to attract pilgrims, and hence trade to Sana'a in place of Mecca.
16:46This caused a conflict between Abraha, the Ethiopian viceroy in Yemen, and Mecca mentioned
16:52in the Quran.
16:53Apparently, Abraha used war elephants against Mecca, but was unsuccessful and had to turn
16:59back.
17:00The second part of the 6th century was notable for the power struggle between Ethiopians
17:05and Sassanids for control over the remainder of the Himyarite Kingdom, in which the Persian
17:11Empire succeeded.
17:13Another prominent pre-Islamic state organization in Arabia was the Kindah Kingdom, the first
17:19state in Central Arabia recorded by history, which came to existence after the Kindah tribe
17:25managed to unite all tribes in Najd around the late 5th century.
17:30The Kindah Kingdom attempted a number of successful raids on Byzantine territories in North Arabia,
17:36but similar endeavors against the Sassanid Empire failed, when in 529 the Lakhmid vassals
17:42of the Persians defeated and killed the Kindan king Alharit bin Amr, which caused the decline
17:48of this state.
17:50The aforementioned Lakhmid Kingdom was established in East Arabia by the Banu Lakhm tribe around
17:56the 3rd to 4th centuries.
17:59Initially, independent Lakhmids were threatening the coastal cities of the Sassanid Empire,
18:05and in 325 the Sassanid Emperor Shapur II began a campaign against them.
18:11Soon the Lakhmid capital Hira was taken under control of the Sassanids.
18:16Since then the Lakhmid Kingdom became vassals of the Sassanid Empire, until it was annexed
18:21by them in the early 7th century.
18:24The Ghassanid Kingdom had a similar fate.
18:28Sometime in the 3rd century AD, part of the Aladz tribe migrated from Yemen to the Levant
18:33and established the Ghassanid Kingdom as a vassal of the Eastern Roman Empire, with a
18:38capital at Jabiya in the Golan Heights.
18:42The Ghassanid Kingdom ceased its existence in the period of early Islamic expansion.
18:48But none of these kingdoms were powerful and centralized enough to unite Arabs in one state
18:54and protect the realm from foreign attack.
18:57Most of Arabia was governed by unwritten rules of Bedouin society, causing warfare and despair
19:03amidst already harsh living conditions.
19:06The pre-Islamic Arabs might have shared similar language and traditions, but they were divided
19:12by tribal identities, blood revenge, and religions.
19:16But very soon, Arabia and beyond would be transformed by a momentous process of the
19:22emergence of Islam and the creation of a unified Arabic state.
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