Recently there was this news about Saudi Arabia tolerating churches being built. I don't know if that's true or not, but it has nonetheless resorted to discussions and claims by many. One of the claims I have seen in this website is that Arabia always had significant Christian communities and religious tolerance until the House of Saud came to be. Usually I wouldn't take this claim seriously but it was upvoted by dozens so it may be some belief that many have. How true or false is that statement? And was what the reality of Christianity in Arabia since late antiquity?
Arabia is generally defined as the land whose territories include the Arabian Peninsula and parts of the Levant and Iraq^1. In late antique Arabia, there were three major Arab centers of Christianity, al-Hira in Iraq, ar-Rasafa in the Levant and Najran in the southwest of modern-day Saudi Arabia^2.
1: Hoyland, Arabia and the Arabs
2: Fisher (ed). Arabs and Empires
Edit: Rearranged some words