Arabia Before Islam: Religion, Society, Culture DOCUMENTARY

Sabeans, Qatabanians and Hadramites as the main peoples inhabiting the Arabian Peninsula. Historians mention the independent Sabean kingdom located in present-day Yemen, which was later conquered by the Himyarite kingdom around 280 AD. The Himyarite Kingdom was one of the most prominent pre-Islamic states in the Arabian Peninsula. It was ruled by a monarch, but in practice, power in the state was shared with regional governors, who had a high degree of autonomy, a system similar to the European kingdoms of medieval times. At the beginning of the 4th century AD. C., the Himyarite Kingdom ruled southern Arabia and expanded north to Najran.

The originally polytheistic Himyarites became monotheistic sometime in the 4th century and believed in the Abrahamic God. At the end of the 5th century, the Himyarite king Abu Kariba adopted Judaism as his faith. His son and successor, Yusuf Dhu Nuwas, was even more zealous and began persecuting Christians living in the Kingdom. This proved to be the downfall of the Himyarite dynasty, as Dhu Nuwas was killed or committed suicide after being defeated by the Christian coalition of the Ethiopian Kingdom of Aksum, the Byzantine Empire, and the Christians of South Arabia in 524. The Ethiopian Christians then They took control of the South.

Arabia, built a church in Sana in an attempt to attract pilgrims and therefore trade with Sana instead of Mecca. This caused a conflict between Abraha, the Ethiopian viceroy in Yemen, and Mecca mentioned in the Quran. Abraha apparently used war elephants against Mecca, but he was unsuccessful and had to return. The second part of the 6th century was notable for the power struggle between Ethiopians and Sassanids for control of the rest of the Himyarite kingdom, in which the Persian empire triumphed. Another prominent pre-Islamic state organization in Arabia was the Kinda Kingdom, the first state in central Arabia recorded by history, which emerged after the Kinda tribe managed to unite all the tribes in Najd around the end of the 5th century.

The Kinda Kingdom attempted a series of successful raids on the Byzantine territories in northern Arabia, but similar efforts against the Sassanid Empire failed, when in 529 the Lakhmid vassals of the Persians defeated and killed king Kinda al-Harit bin Amr, leading to the decline of this state. The aforementioned Lakhmid Kingdom was established in eastern Arabia by the Banu Lakhm tribe around the 3rd and 4th centuries. Initially, the independent Lakhmids threatened the coastal cities of the Sassanid empire and in 325 the Sassanid emperor Shapur II began a campaign against them. Soon, Hira, the capital of Lakhmid, came under the control of the Sassanids.

Since then, the Lakhmid kingdom became a vassal of the Sassanian Empire until it was annexed by it in the early 7th century. The Ghassanid Kingdom met a similar fate. Sometime in the 3rd century AD. C., part of the Al-Azd tribe emigrated from Yemen to the Levant and established the Ghassanid Kingdom as a vassal of the Eastern Roman Empire with its capital at Jabiyah in the Golan Heights. The Ghassanid Kingdom ceased to exist in the period of early Islamic expansion. But none of these kingdoms were powerful and centralized enough to unite the Arabs into a single state and protect the kingdom from foreign attacks.

Most of Arabia was governed by the unwritten rules of Bedouin

society

that led to wars and despair amidst already harsh living conditions. Pre-Islamic Arabs may have shared a similar language and traditions, but they were divided by tribal identities, blood feuds, and

religion

s. But soon Arabia and beyond would be transformed by a momentous process of the rise of Islam and the creation of a unified Arab state. There are more videos on ancient civilizations on the way, so make sure you are subscribed and have hit the bell button to watch the next video in the series. Please consider liking, commenting and sharing;

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