Arabia and its Neighbourhood in Muhammad's time

This is mainly a post on the significance of politics, social forms, culture and religion in the region in the time of Muhammad for our story.

As Muhammad was being born, the fates of two Empires to the north of Arabia were being decided by wars between them. They were the Persian Empire and Byzantium or the Eastern Roman Empire. The weakening of these empires by their wars was significant for the later military success of Islam.

Arabia was largely beyond the direct ambitions of either of the powers to the north. Nevertheless, they and their African allies attempted to exercise influence on Arabia as a trading and ideological/geopolitical asset. The Nabataeans of Petra who had originated in Yemen attempted for some time to exercise their influence to their south in the northern Hijaz town of Dedan and in other direction but the Romans had defeated that civilisation much earlier in the Common Era leaving Palmyra to the north of Petra independent for a short period. The Arab kingdom centred on Edessa was proud to have produced the first king to convert to Christianity (in the 1^st century). The Arab civilisation centred on Hatra allied itself more with Persia. Hira’s Arab rulers also preferred to deal with Persia as they amassed support in the interior of Arabia. The Kindah rulers of Yemen and the Ghassanid rulers of southern Syria swayed as necessary to maintain some independence.

While both Empires preferred monotheism (the Persians Zoroastrianism from the 3^rd Century CE and Byzantium Christianity from the 4^th Century CE) and the Arab rulers aimed to please their patrons for the time being, many of the people of the Arabian kingdoms continued to practice polytheism along with the monotheistic religions of the Empires and Judaism. Deities included the sun, the moon and stars and agriculture and weather Gods and Goddesses.

Al-Lat (mentioned by Herodotus) was one of the three Goddesses worshipped widely including at Mecca, at-Taif, Hatra, Petra and Palmyra.

Marriage customs varied between regions and polygyny (along with isolated cases of polyandry) were a reasonably common feature of social life on the Peninsula. Women were generally regarded as inferior and the property of their male ‘guardian’, as were children.

The major pre-Islamic art form unique to the Arabs was predominantly a Bedouin desert art: Arabic pre-Islamic poetry. It was generally meant to be sung and accompanied by instruments. There was little writing or literacy at the time these lyrical poems were composed and so poetry was handed down orally between the generations and perhaps refined and/or embellished from generation to generation until modern times. Genealogies were passed down in a similar way and were also prized by the Bedouins. Some of the poets were women whose speciality was often elegy (praise of a dead person).

The Ka’ba in Mecca, which is now the geographical focus of all Islamic prayer, contained hangings of at least seven noted long pre-Islamic poems (called the “mu’allaqāt” or “hangings”) written in gold leaf on calf-skin parchment before the time of Muhammad. Towns like Mecca held poetry contests probably open to all the Arab tribes of which the mu’allaqāt were likely the winners and Mecca’s was a major contest on the Peninsula. Arab high school children continue to learn a few of these poems in modern times.

The poetry had many uses but it was predominantly art, expressing the feelings of the poet and each poem tended to concern several themes rather than being focused on one (themes such as love, ego, eulogy, reconciliation, social criticism, political comedy, the meaning and arbitrariness of human life and death, loss, longing, hunting, justice, the past, wine and journeys through the harsh region). These works of poetry (and the poets) were dynamic and identified with the plight of the poor and the poets often lived their ideals by acting to right poverty or reconcile tribes at war. The Arabic word for poet (sha’ir) means literally “one who has deep feelings”. Muhammad was significantly thought by some of his earliest opponents to be a mere poet rather than a prophet.

Such was the world of 7th Century central Arabia. Open to many religions, trade, discussion of questions of justice and art but dominated by global geopolitical interests and not much more than a lawless land with some settlements (often with religious significance and therefore used as a place of sanctuary from their lawless surroundings) but dominated by itinerant tribes (I may discuss this further in a later post). The generally accepted rules of religious sanctuaries thus exerted a peaceful influence and therefore became useful places for these tribes to safely negotiate, stage caravans and trade.