What was Mohammed's religion prior to the founding of Islam? If that's perhaps overly controversial or unclear, what was likely the religion of his parents? I had previously assumed it to be something Abrahamic, and thus Islam being an expansion upon that, but the little investigation I have done suggests it was something else. If it was not something Abrahamic, how did Islam become so close to other Abrahamic religions?

Oh I've got another one for you!

I'm aware Zoroastrianism was a very widespread religion in the region, though primarily in Iran. However, part of the mythos of Mohammed is that he destroyed all of the gods and statuettes in Mecca Were these widespread religions if they could be called that, or were these faiths more animistic (as loaded a term as that is)?

Hello!

I was wondering if you could comment on how widespread literacy would have been in this era, and what languages would have been used for communication.

I've often read that the Ghassanids and Lakhmids were "client kingdoms" of the Byzantines/Sassanids (respectively) and primarily served to prevent raids into the larger empires by Arabs from further south. Is that an accurate assessment of their relations? If so, was either kingdom actually effective at doing so?

Do you know anything about the music in this time period? Was it purely religious, or was it wider than with folk songs and other such things?

Hi /u/Daeres! Do you know what's the earliest reference to Arabs in external/textual sources? You mentioned that our knowledge stretches back to the Middle Bronze Age, and that made me curious. :)

What is known about the pre-Islamic God "Allah"? Would he have been one of the idols in the Kaaba?

During the Islamic Period, Arab maritime trade networks famously stretched from Southeast Asia to down along the East African coast. To what extent was this mercantile activity already present in pre-Islamic Arabia? Were Arab merchants interacting regularly with the Horn of Africa, India, and beyond, or was trade focused more internally, or towards the Byzantines?

I know that "the Evil eye" is pretty prominent in the Islamic world and indeed has reference in Islamic doctrine, but is there any equivalent or previous version of this in the Pre-Islamic Middle East? Were there the same kinds of talismans and beliefs associated with this idea?

I have a couple of very generic questions, mainly about the living conditions of pre-Islamic Arabia,.

1. Exactly where are we speaking of? It seems like the "borders" of the cultural and ethnic identity that we're talking about would change drastically with the emergence of Islam.

2. What were conditions like? Health? Violence? Intellectualism? Where did these fit pre-Islamic Arabia?

3. Who had political and religious authority?

4. What was the biggest single change Islam caused in Arabia?

EDIT: Spelling, sorry...

Great topic, I have three questions:

1. I often read about the complex relationship between Rome and the Arabian Peninsula, but less often about Persia, which seems more directly relevant. How did the Persians attempt to assert control over the region?

2. I have been hearing about the stunning recent finds of settlements associated with Bronze Age pearl fields along the Persian Gulf. What was the political situation of the area?

3. This is a bit of a long shot, but have you bumped into anything on the history of the dhow?

What are the primary sources historians use to study pre-Islamic Arabs?

What was this area's views on animals that are now considered unclean in Abrahamic religions? Pigs, dogs, shell fish (though that might just be a Jewish thing), etc.

So you kind of hinted at this when you said

The history of people identified as Arabs or who spoke an Arabic language outside of what we'd call Arabia and before Islam.

but who were the people who fell into the group "Arab" and how was that group defined? Is this an imposed ethnonym or was there really an underlying cultural unity? Did this definition change over time, and if so, how?

Did the land of Dilmun hold any special significance for the Sumerians? Also, are there any theories as to what caused the Dilmun civilization to fall?

This is a fascinating topic.

Once I read that there has been a consistent movement of population of the people of Arabia to the Near East even before the advent of Islam. The pattern, according to the book, is as follows: the semi-nomadic Arab tribes - who in winter lived by sheep-rearing in the desert, far from the settled Near East - in summer would come to the settled areas in the Near East. There, the semi-nomads would put the settled folk under tribute, acquire grazing-rights in return for protection, or even become proprietors of land. Some of the nomads would then continue living in a settled form of life (and mix with the Near Eastern folks), while some others would leave and return to the desert. This pattern repeats continuously until the Muslim conquest become the major drive for the Arabs to go out from the desert.

I have a few questions in my mind:

• Is there any truth to that claim?
• If that claim is not accurate, what kind of relationship/interaction that the Arabs and Near Eastern folks actually had prior to Islam? What kind of "influence" that they had on each other?
• In Islamic literature, Waraqah ibn Naufal is usually revered as the first Christian to acknowledge the prophethood of Muhammad. How widespread was Christianity in Arabia, and in what form (was it Nestorian? Monophysite?)? I'm especially curious about Late Antiquity.

Thank you so much for your time!

Often in the Islamic religion we hear that the time before Mohammad was a time of sin and ignorance. In fact, it is called the Era of Ignorance. This encompasses the notion that not only were the people pagan, but also that they were largely uneducated, participated in female infanticide, discrimination of the poor, and so on. Specifically to The Arabian Peninsula, what evidence is there for or against this claim?

How do you find the claims of illiteracy of Mohammad. Is it possible that a caravan merchant could be illiterate? Also I read that there used to be poetry contests in Mecca where the poets would hang their poems on the Kaaba wall so everyone could read them. In a society where there are poetry contests, how likely is it that literacy was rare as islamic sources say it was - can this be a deliberate contrast created by islamic scholars to bad mouth pre-islamic arabia?

Having extensively studied ME history as an undergrad, the thing that keeps popping up is this: There is little in the way of primary sources from the pre-Islamic and early Islamic period other than the Qur'an. Why is this? Arabs could certainly write, and the Qur'an itself was written down in a period not terribly long after the life of Mohammed. Even with the lack of diacritics, it seems there should be more writing to survive from the period. However, in any discussion of pre- and early Islamic history, you almost always end up hitting a brick wall of "our only record is from the Qur'an.

Can you elaborate a little about the practice of waad (The crime of burying newborn daughters alive in Idolatry Arabia).

Any theories as to why the Quraysh, the Hashemite Arabs specifically (including presumably, Muhammad himself since he was a Hashemite) have the same Y chromosomal haplogroup (paternal lineage) as the Cohen Jewish modal haplotype (which the Jews trace to Aaron)? It's J1c3d in case you didn't know and at this point it's been documented in peer reviewed scientific studies, open genealogy projects utilizing personal genomics testing services with thousands of members on both the Arab and Jewish sides, and covered a little in popular media events by National Geographic.

Because the haplotypes are so similar, the overlap could have happened even in recent times (around the time of the origin of Islam) though because of history we know the Quraysh were around for a certain period of time at the bare minimum (let's say 2000ybp at least). So when and where do you think the Quraysh tribe formed? When and where do you think the Cohen Jews and Quraysh (Adnani?) Arabs split off the same paternal line? Do you think this happened before the origin of the religion of Judaism itself? If not, does this not constitute a possible avenue for the introduction of monotheism or certain ideas (re: "Allah", Abraham, etc) into what eventually became Arab culture?

Edit: It's disappointing that this question wasn't answered. Genetics might be the most concrete evidence of pre-Islamic Semitic history we'll ever have.

Were women required to dress in the Islamic way (covering up their whole bodies) in pre-Arabia? I'm guessing that is why Muslims still do, even though the clothing industry has come a long way in protecting people's skin from the weather since those times.

How big of an archaeological loss was the destruction of the inside of the Kaaba along with the spread of Islam? Additionally, Is there an idea of how much of the history of pre-Islamic religion in Arabia has been destroyed?

I'm going to hit you up for a brief bibliography. Specifically, what works in English can you recommend for a good general grounding and then more focused discussions of life, society, and religion? Additionally, a brief note on why you like the work would be awesome.

(I'm asking mostly because I'm interested in the topic, but I can't come up with a specific question. :) )

What kinds of political theory and philosophy were used/discussed in this era?

I took a class in the fall on the History of Christianity, and we had a brief set of classes centered around the rise of Islam. We spent some time studying pre-Islamic Arabia, and one of the things that stood out to me was the "raid" culture of the peninsula, where groups would descend upon their neighbors for plunder. How did this "raiding" culture develop? More specifically, what are the origins of the culture as well as the reasons for it developing?

Thanks for doing this!

We often hear about the plight of women before the arrival of Muhammad, mostly by Muslims. Can you explain why Khadija was able to garner such influence when the status of women was so low (as we are told)? Was she an exception or were there many women in positions of power and influence?

I read Philip K. Hitti's "History of Arabs" and I loved it. Could you recommend me some book that talks about pre-Islamic customs that had a major impact on the modern Arab culture and the way that societies in the Arab countries (especially the Gulf ones) function today?

One question about poetry in the Peninsula. Growing up, we're taught about how important poetry and poets were to pre-Islamic Arabian society, one of my Arabic teachers mentioned that war between tribes could start in the case of a particular poem insulting a tribe and that poets were the diplomats between tribes. How accurate is the view of the importance of poetry in pre-Islamic Arabia?

Regarding the empty quarter, is there any detailed findings on the issue of alleged trade routes and settlements in the region which might have come out as of late?

As a follow-up, I would be curious to learn what impact the spread of various Eastern Orthodox denominations of Christianity such as Nestorianism and Miathysitism - both of which I am lead to understand had some considerable expansion in that region of the world - had upon the culture and writing in the years of late antiquity.

What was the status of women in the Arabian peninsula like before Islam?

Was female genital mutilation practised before Islam in the Arabian peninsula?

Awesome AMA! Thank you for doing this.

• How much do we know about the earliest human migrations into the area we recognize today as the Arabian Peninsula?

• I'm not sure how involved you are in archeology, but how cooperative is the Saudi government with archeological expeditions digging into pre-Islamic sites?

If I could read one book you recommend me on this subject, what would it be?

What was the relation of Arabs to other Semitic groups at the time like the Akkadians, Arameans, Babylonians, Assyrians, Phoenicians, Jews? What about Egyptians and lybians? Did they share similar religious/cultural beliefs? How is it that they managed to spread their language, culture, religion and even ethnic identity to these markedly different people? Did the Arabs create a lingua Franca as well as a common "united Semitic identity" so to speak?

I read in In the Shadow of the Sword by Tom Holland that Mecca was not the major trading hub in the pre-Islamic era that it is referred to as in the Koran. While I appreciate that Holland's section on the Arab Empire is often controversial for controversy's sake (and reading around the book has helped enormously), this particular claim has stuck with me. Holland indicates two reasons for Mecca not being the major hub that it is indicated as being in the Koran:

1. Mecca is in the middle of the desert and lies on no major waterways, seas or roads, unlike every other major trading city of the classical period.
2. It is rarely referred to as such in outside (non-Arab) sources.
3. There were no cities in South Arabia during the classical period to justify a large over-land trade route.
4. Traveling overland through the Arabian Desert is unnecessary when it is considered that a trader could simply cross over at Sinai and then sail down the Red Sea.

Could you tell me if there is any truth in these claims? I am happy to be disproved if that is the case.

1. Do we have any historical evidence as to when was Kaaba constructed? As Per Islamic Legends it was initially constructed by Adam, and then Abraham reconstructed it. So, what is the oldest historical record of a presence of a house in the Pre-Islamic tradition?

2. From which region the majority of Pre-Islamic Arabic poets came from?

3. Any book recommendation to Study Pre-Islamic Poetry

4. Some people claim that Muhammad never existed (Robert spencer for example) do historians take this claim seriously?

Would you mind suggesting good books to read on the topic? The only ones I've read that partially deal with it are Reza Aslan's "No God but God" and Hazleton's "The First Muslim"

Thanks! And fascinating topic!

I have an obscure question.

I remember in a Byzantine class I took in college we either read in a source or were told by the professor this amusing note illustrating the fickleness of some Arab tribes concerning religion prior to Islam. As it went, a particular tribe had decided to construct a god made out of dates, which they prayed to. When the god failed to deliver on their requests, they decided to eat it.

Do you happen to know the source of that story? Seems likely to be a Roman/Byzantine account.

I'm just curious and want to shore up the memory.

How much of pre-Islamic Arabia continues into popular culture today? Are there still people who follow other pre-Islamic religions and traditions in the Near-East (apart from the well-known ones).

How come the Romans or Greeks under Alexander never invaded Arabia?

I'm currently very interested in the mediterranean during the late bronze age (1500-1300BCE) so my questions relate to then:

• Were the Thamud the same people that would later become known as Arabs, or did they migrate from elsewhere?

• Have scholars figured out how to translate the thalmudic inscriptions that are found on stones throughout the Arabian Peninsula?

• What sort of interactions did the Thalmud have with other civilizations of the time (Mitanni, Hittite, Egyptian, Babylonian,) and how did they compare to these empires?

• Are we aware of any other civilizations on the Arabian peninsula at this time?

• Before Allah, what gods were worshipped? It seems like the other civilizations of the time adopted every new god they learned about into their pantheon. Was it the same for the tribes throughout the peninsula?

• I've heard some discussion that climate change may have turned many lush areas around the mediterranean into desert (both in the myth of the city of the pillars and what the findings at Göbekli Tepe seem to indicate) Was the climate of the Arabian peninsula different at that time or was it as arid as it appears today?

Thanks, it's been challenging to find information about this online.

How can you tell if the artefacts found contains information that are true and not just propaganda or people patting themselves on the back?

This might be a naive question, but I've heard the origins of Mithraism are traced to pre-Islam Arabia with ties to Zoroastrianism an maybe some other places? I would love any history about Mithraism's origins, or sources. If this is off the mark, you can disregard.

How far can we make generalisations in religious and cultural terms for PIA? I'm interested particularly in how far we need to distinguish the kingdom in the south east (whose name has escaped me) and the region which the Romans and Persians identified as 'Arabia Felix' in comparison to the communities of the north west and the Bedouin lifestyle.

While Rome never formally ruled in Arabia, I was wondering what sort of political and economic power Rome had over the region.

Is Egypt today populated by the same ethnic group as who built the pyramids? Or when Arab Muslims moved into the area did they pretty much wipe out and replace the local population? (kinda like early America). Or maybe the significant population shift happened when the Greeks or the Romans conquered Egypt?

How prevalent was calligraphy and verdant imagery in pre-Islamic art of the area?

Islamic arabia is fairly famous for science, math, etc. Were there any large discoveries/intellectual advancements from pre-islamic arabia?

So there is extensive proof of a trade network between Sumeria and the Indus Valley Civilizations. Did these networks last with South Asia after the fall of the Indus Valley Civ. Do you see any South Asian influences in PreIslamic Arabia?

What tools or inventions were around pre-muslim that we simply give the muslims credit for, or that were outstanding and/or interesting?

Where can I find some information about the myths and legends of the these peoples? Are any notably distinct from Western myths?

Has much archaeology been able to occur in the Arabian peninsula? Violent areas aside, is there hostility to exploration of ancient sites?

How was Arabia governed prior to Islam? Were all the various cities and tribes formally independent of each other? I know there were various tribes in Mecca with the Quraysh being prominent, did these tribes basically self-govern inside Mecca and wherever with ad-hoc collaboration when necessary, or was there some sort of formal government architecture?

I know southern Arabia had kingdoms at the time, were Mecca or Medina ever parts of kingdoms?

I remember in my Old Testament studies class our professor talked a little bit about the story of Gilgamesh. Even though the epic dates back around 2500 B.C. do modern day Arabs consider this still to be a substantial part of their history? Were there other similar epics in the region containing natural disaster elements, i.e. the great flood?

Was some ritual like potlatch and / or kula more widespread during this time?

I hope it's not too late, this may be idiotic, but I've understood the Bahamut in videogame fiction is based on a myth that the whole world is on the back of a turtle or whale and it's from Arabian mythology. Is any of that true?

Thanks for doing this AMA.

I'm curious about the political system that was in place. What was the ruling system in place and/or who laid claim to "Arabia"? Were there large countries/empires interested in Arabia (if so, why?) or was it just small factions?

What was the influence of established neighboring states and what were there thoughts about Arabia: Was it valued? Why? Was it just seen as a thoroughfare for the silk-road? Was there more?

Does the Persian Gulf Oasis Hypothesis hold any weight at all?

You touch on this a little in a couple of answers to other questions, but I want to more about the military and political opposition Alexander, the Seleucids, and the Ptolemaics would have faced if they attempted to conquer Arabia. Were there large states in northern part of the peninsula capable of fighting these empires? Or did most of the people live in the South like the Sabeans? What type of military would Arab states have had? I assume they did not use hellenic units like the phalanx. Did the nabateans, who were closer to the hellenic world, field hellenic units of native troop types?

Hi /u/Daeres!

This honestly sounds like a series of really stupid questions, but I don't really have much knowledge of this area period, let alone pre-Islamic. So forgive me for not utilizing your knowledge on this subject to the fullest.

1. Were most of the people living in what we'd call Arabia nomadic? I'm aware that by the time Muhammad came around that there were clans (and I might be getting something wrong). What do we know about their family structure during this time period? Was it more tribal (for lack of a better term)?
2. I know that your flair covers Greece and the Near East. What nature is their connection to pre-Islamic Arabia? Was it mostly trade routes, or was there more to it?

Again, apologies if I sound like an idiot. :P

How variant would the cultures have been between kingdoms/nations/what-have-you ca. first-century BCE? For instance, what were some of the differences between the Kindah and the Sabaeans? Did they practice similar religions? Were their social structures similar? If not, how did they differ?

What is the Year of the Elephant?

What was the relationship between Pre-Islamic Arabia and Sub-Saharan Africa (e.g. Ethiopia and Somalia)? The very little I found of pre-Christian Ethiopia was that their mythology seems to be more Middle Eastern than one would expect.

This might be silly but i remember studying a lot of babylonian and near eastern art in college. Most of it involved animals ( as do most civilizations) and even some mythical creatures but then studying islamic art the style shifted to entirely no animals or people at all. Everything had to be abstract patterns and designs.

I guess i'm just curious what caused the shift. I know religion is the obvious answer but why?

Hi, I'd like to ask two questions:

1. you mention evidence of Sasanian and Parthian involvement in Arabia; how is this reflected in Arabian material culture?

2. You mention Mesopotamian trade relationships with the region of Tarut or Dilmun; do we know of any communities of Babylonian origin resident there and what local evidence did they leave? Is finding an archive of the Babylonian community comparable to the Assyrian trading colony at Kanesh's archive a realistic possibility?

I've been told that tribes (clans? groups? not sure about the proper phrase) in pre-Islamic Arabia would often hesitate to shed blood during raids or conflicts with others for fear of retribution. This was, I recall seeing, the reason that Mohammed was rather shocking in one episode in Mecca (or was it Medina?), because he chose to kill those who attempted to betray him.

To what extent was there a fear of retribution when conducting raids on others, or fights with them, considering the use of some groups as proxies that you mentioned?

This might be broad but give it a shot!

What would be the best way to describe governance of regions during the time just prior to the rise of Islam? Was there a feudal system similar to Europe or did the Arabic peninsula treat war/governance differently? Did this change post-Islam?

I've seen some websites say that the appearance of Princess Jasmine from Disney's Aladdin is modeled on "rare" depictions of pre-Islamic Arabia. Is this true? If so, what do we know about how women dressed before Islam in the region?

1. Can you give an overview of the weapons and related industry available to the pre-Islamic Arabs? What level of metallurgy did they have? Smelting? Casting? Forging? What style of weapons? Were there large scale conflicts of note?
2. Did they have a writing system, and if so, what was it like? What did the write with?

I'm curious about the industry available to primarily nomadic groups, essentially.

What's your opinion on tri-liths? The random, tiny, three-stone monuments all over south Arabia? Sometimes they are found in relation to small dams, sometimes near tombs, sometimes in the middle of nowhere, and there are probably thousands of them. Bedouin tradition says that they are platforms for pilgrims on the Hajj to stand on when the land flooded... but archaeological evidence suggests that many are far older than Islam.

Second, what's your opinion on the Bronze Age Hafit and Umm an-Nar tombs all across South Arabia? Literally thousands of those too.

What do you consider the best structure from this period? Is it still standing?

Thanks for the AMA!

I'm not sure if this fits in your criteria and I may be too late for this but anyway.

Did any or many of Alexander's Occidental/Hellinisation policies survive his death and the wars of the Diadochi and their successors to make it through in Arabia up until the time of Muhammad?

I would also be interested in the reverse of that with any of the oriental customs he tried to get the Greeks to adopt.

Who did the people of the Arabina Peninsula likely trade with at this time? Did they have dealings with Western or Eastern Europe or with the ancient Chinese civilizations?

Can you detail how the Arabic language has since changed (And due to what driving factors) from WITHIN the region of where Koranic Arabic is modelled after?

Was Arabia united under one ruling faction at any time pre-Muhammad or was it structured more like the many Greek city states I. Terms of how the people were ruled?

what do you think of the claims about mecca not existing as the hidjazi town described in Islamic narratives?

Thank you for doing this AMA! I'm curious about what the "average" person ate during this period. How was it prepared? What did they drink? What were the special occasion foods? Were any food taboos already in place? Thanks again!

Was the turban a common headgear for Arabs pre-Islam?

Hi, thanks for doing this really interesting AMA, hope you're still taking questions.

1. We know that before Muslims took over Makkah, the Kaabah was used for worship by pagans, and was filled with pagan idols. Islam teaches that the Kaabah was originally built by Abraham as a monotheistic place of worship, but was gradually filled with idols after Abraham's death by the pagan tribes that lived around it. Do any reliable sources provide us with evidence of the Kaabah initially being used for monotheistic worship?

2. Growing up as a Muslim, I've sat through many Islamic lectures, and the speakers (usually scholars) commonly refer to the pre-Islamic era as an "age of ignorance". Is there truth to this claim? I.e. how did these societies fare in terms of academics and politics? Or are the speakers just obliged to use this term because of the usual hatred monotheistic religions have towards pagan practices.

3. How exactly did education work in pre-Islamic Arabia? Did they have famous schools and universities where people would learn to become professionals in a field? Was their learning mostly passed on orally or through literature?

How much contact did the pre-Islamic peoples have with Europeans?

Thank you for doing this Daeres. I found your answers informative and frankly fascinating. I counted over 50 responses on your part and all have been thorough and complete. Thank you sincerely for taking the time to do this. I know I greatly appreciate it and I am sure I am not alone. Threads like these are what makes this sub so good.

i'll start small:

from beginnings in the period in question to total dominance in a few years, to what extent was Islam spread by the sword?

I don't know if you're still answering, but I'd like to ask you if there's any knowledge on when did the Sabaean/Himyarite/other non-Arabian languages died off? I know some of them survived until Muslim times, but it seems others died only shortly before.

I'm probably too late, but if you are still answering, I'll give it a shot.

Why is much of the Middle East in such bad shape when compared to much of the world? Did Islam play a significant role in this?

What factors contributed to this and do you believe that these factors are different than the contributing factors in other parts of the developing world (i.e., are the contributing factors that led to the Middle East's poor situation different than the factors that led to the poor situation in, say, Central Africa?

Edit: Not really on topic, but I was curious of your 2-cents.