Maps of the Middle East in ancient times show a continuing record of settlement and conquest—but not on the Arabian Peninsula (peh-NIN-soo-luh), which remained unconquered. Few ancient armies could wage war in the barren desert landscape, nor did many conquerors have any real reason to want to control the region. It was a land good neither for raising crops or flocks, and indeed one of the few animals that could live there was the camel. Not many people lived in Arabia, and the sparse tribes of the interior were nomads.
The only settled areas were at the fringes of Arabia. To the north, in what is now Jordan, was Petra, a stunning city of temples and tombs carved out of solid rock. Founded prior to 400 B. C., Petra flourished as an important trading center for many centuries. Another area of settlement was on the coast, particularly in the southwestern corner of the peninsula. In this area, part of the modern country of Yemen (yeh-MAHN), the Red Sea meets the Gulf of Aden (AY-den), making it an ideal spot for trading between Egypt, sub-Saharan Africa, and India. For many centuries, the region remained under the control of various Arab kingdoms, and because of the many spices grown and sold on the Arabian coast, this part of the peninsula gained the nickname “the incense states.”
As for the interior of the Arabian Peninsula, however, an event in 24 b. c. says much about conditions there. In that year, the Romans made their one and only bid to gain control of Arabia, and not surprisingly, they went for the relatively wealthy southwestern corner. Equally unsurprising was the fact that they got lost on their way through the desert—their Arab guides led them astray on purpose—and Rome gave up hopes of adding the Arabian Peninsula to its empire.
In the early centuries a. d., the Himyarite (HIM-yah-rite) kingdom in Yemen accepted Judaism, and the Himyarites often found themselves at odds with the Aksumites across the Red Sea in Africa. The Aksumites had adopted Christianity, so their political and economic conflict with the Himyarite Arabs acquired religious overtones. For that reason, the Byzantine Empire supported the Christian Africans, while the Sassanids in Persia, who were Zoroastrian, took the side of the opposing force. Aksum took over the incense states for a time, but by a. d. 575, Persia had assumed political power over the region.
Persia also had a sort of “big brother” relationship with a group of Arabs called the Lakhmids (LAHK-midz) centered in a town called Hira (HEE-rah) in the far northeastern corner of Arabia. They were united in their opposition to the Roman Empire, but like other Arab groups of ancient times, the Lakhmids had little real impact on the course of history.
Tradition holds that the Arab peoples descended from Ishmael (ISH-may-el), the first son of Abraham in the Bible. The Book of Genesis records that Ishmael's mother, the Egyptian maidservant Hagar (HAY-gar), received a promise from God
Muhammad standing, holding open book.
Archive Photos. Reproduced by permission.
That her son would produce a great nation. To the tribes who inhabited the windswept lands of the Arabian Peninsula, the promise must have seemed hard to believe.
World History
