þ7—3»D–3¶~¶~¸~¸~¸~¸~¸~¸~¸~¸~L¸Ê¸à¸àD»$»$»$ »D»D»D»D Chapter 2 Pre-Islamic Arabia: Beliefs, Values, Way of LifePre-Islamic Arabia The Òisland of the Arabs,Ó as the Arabian Peninsula is known by its inhabitants, is somewhat over one million square miles in area. Because most of the terrain is inhospitable desert or marginally habitable steppe, the population is proportionally sparse. In general, the land slopes from a high, mountainous western border along the Red Sea to lower elevations toward the east, with the exception of such rare upthrusts as the Green Mountain (al-Jabal al-Akhd.ar) in Oman. The southern region, embracing Yemen and the Hadramaut coast, is affected by the Indian Ocean monsoons. Unlike the rest of the peninsula, it has known a complex civilization in antiquity, related in certain respects to Mesopotamia. Much of the southern sector of the peninsula, north of Hadramaut and northeast of Yemen, is a vast desert known as the Empty Quarter (al-RubÔ al-Khaølõø). This is connected by a narrow strip of desert, known as al-DahnaøÕ, to the Nufuød desert in the north, reaching as far as the frontiers of southern Jordan. The western sector of Arabia, from below the latitude of the Sinai Peninsula in the north to about the latitude of al-TaÕif in the south, is known as Hejaz. This is the region in which Islam was born and developed, and thus it is often called the Òcradle of Islam.Ó For a region and a complex of peoples who have had such a great impact on world history, the prehistory, archaeology, and antiquity of Arabia are much less well known than those of the other parts of the Near East are. This is due in part to a cautious attitude by the regionÕs modern rulers toward archaeological investigations in their domains. We do know that since early times Arabia has been a major factor in trade between the east and west. One of the most important routes has been along the Red Sea coast between southern Palestine and Yemen. Other routes proceed from Yemen across the desert to central Arabia and then on to Syria, Mesopotamia, or the Persian Gulf. The Arabs are Semites, which means that they speak a language belonging to a large family of related tongues, including Hebrew, Aramaic, and Syriac, as well as ancient Akkadian and Assyrian. It is part of an even larger language group, called Afro-Asiatic, which includes the Berber languages, Amharic, and other Ethiopic tongues, ancient Egyptian, and Coptic. The term Semite comes from Shem, one of NoahÕs sons who came forth from the ark after the Flood (Gen. 9:18Ð19). There is a popular modern theory that the Semitic-speaking peoples originated in the Arabian Peninsula in prehistory when it was relatively fertile and capable of supporting large populations.1 With the gradual drying up of the old river courses and the absence of sufficient rainfall, the peoples migrated in waves into the Fertile Crescent, becoming the Babylonians, the Syrians, the Hebrews, the Phoenicians, and others. Thus the area that is now largely desert was the breeding ground of significant populations. This theory has not been proved, but it has had some supporters. Alternative theories place the origins of the Semites in Africa or southern Mesopotamia. It is true that within recorded history, the Arabs seem definitely to have overpopulated their regions. Long before Islam, they migrated in large numbers to the richer, contiguous lands of Egypt, North Africa, the Fertile Crescent, and beyond. It is not so much that the Arabs, or whoever the peninsulaÕs aboriginal inhabitants were, reproduced more abundantly than did other peoplesÑalthough they often didÑas that the available land and food resources were inadequate to provide for even relatively small increases in population. Thus the critical threshold of maximum population was reached sooner in the more arid, less productive ecosystems of Arabia.2 The Northern and Southern Branches The Arabs traditionally trace their roots back to two major sources: the northerners and the southerners. The southern branch, centered in Yemen, they consider to be the peninsulaÕs aboriginal peoples, whereas the northerners, who settled in Hejaz, Najd, Palmyra, and Nabataea, are thought to have become assimilated to Arabism through a kind of naturalization process. These latter are thought to have descended from ÔAdnaøn, a descendant of Ishmael. The two branches of Arabs have remained distinct to this day, although Islam did much to narrow the gap between them. The southern branch also regards itself as having descended from biblical forebears: Joktan, the grandson of Shem (Gen. 10:25Ð26). According to the Bible, other Arabian groups, particularly in the north, sprang from the union of Abraham and his other wife, Ketura (Gen. 25:1Ð4). The pre-Islamic Arabian past to which Islam looks back is not the civilized past of the Yemen but the pastoral-nomad dominated past of Hejaz, which is generally considered to have been barbarian and wild. No outside power had ever succeeded in subduing the region, owing to its remoteness, the difficulty of the terrain, and the extreme fierceness of its inhabitants, who possessed certain technical as well as systemic advantages when defending their own territories. The term al-Jaøhilõøya is applied to the life and times of the Arabs in Hejaz and surrounding areas during the centuries before Islam. This term means, literally, Òthe ignorance,Ó but it also includes the notion of barbarism. It is a term coined in Islamic times and is thus intended to discredit the idolatrous and licentious days of old, before the Islamic virtues and habits came to transform, to some extent, the life of the Arabs. Social Structure and Economy Before we describe the pre-Islamic ArabsÕ world view, it is necessary to understand something of their social structure and economy, for these are intimately linked with it. The dominant pattern of life was pastoralist, with the people divided into more or less independent tribes. Although these tribes concluded alliances with one another in an ad hoc manner as the need arose, such arrangements were fragile and subject to rapid dissolution. A number of towns spotted the landscape, but their inhabitants often were only recently removed from the nomadic way of life themselves and in fact shared the old values to the extent of continuing to trace their lineages by genealogy rather than by location. Genealogy was an important concern of the Arabs, for the preservation of family, clan, and tribal purity and honor was more important than anything else. But it would be a mistake to think of these people as aimless wanderers. Pastoralists, as nomads everywhere, move their flocks, people, and minimal domestic goods seasonally according to availability of pastureland. They usually do this in a highly regulated, traditional manner. Abraham was an exception, and he must have been strong indeed to have passed through regions where there were sure to have been local pastoralists guarding their water holes and customary grazing grounds, as well as townfolk who hated the tribal nomads and, for excellent reasons, feared them as well. The old Arabian way of life was highly conservative, with change coming rarely and finding a welcome even less often. The Arab pastoralistsÕ main means of livelihood was raising camels and sheep, hunting, occasionally serving as bodyguards or escorts to caravans, or being hired out as mercenaries in such fringe areas as the Syrian and Iraqi frontiers, where it was best to buy off the wild aborigines. Another means of gaining goods, if not great wealth, was by raiding. This was done among Bedouin groups as well as between them and sedentary peoples. In the former case, the total level of wealth did not normally increase; it just changed hands from time to time. Only by attacking settled peoples, who produce the goods of this life, could the Bedouin significantly add to their meager possessions. The raiders particularly hoped to capture camels, horses, slaves (especially women), gold, fine fabrics, and other luxury items but often had to settle for much less. The raid, known as the ghazwa (razzia), was more than a means of adding to the clanÕs or tribeÕs store of goods; it was, according to the great authority on the Arabs, Philip K. Hitti, a Òsort of national sport,Ó with well-understood rules that included refraining from bloodshed if at all possible.3 The ghazwa was a way of expressing vitality, and it seems to have been highly ritualized as well as fun, at least for the victors. Usually a raid was carried out by a superior force against a weaker one, perhaps a few men in an encampment who were looking after camels. The raiders would often journey to the scene of their planned attack by means of a secret, usually circuitous route, taking up their final position under cover of darkness. A long journey would be made on camelback, with horses trailed along for the dashing attack at dawn. Language and Culture The QurÕan (IslamÕs scripture)4 contains a vivid early Meccan passage (Sura 100, vss. 1Ð5) that preserves in poetic form the spirit of a Bedouin raid. Recite the right-hand transliteration to gain a sense of the rhythm. By the snorting chargers, wa-l-ÕaÐdiyaÐti d.‡bh.a by the strikers of fire, fa-l-muriyaÐti q‡dha. by the dawn-raiders, fa-l-mœghõøraÐti s.œbh.a blazing a trail of dust, fa ath‡rna b’hi n‡q Ôa cleaving there with a host! fa was‡t.na b’hi j‡m Ôa The meter suggests the rocking motion of a horse. The wasat.na bihi jamÔa has an onomatopoeic quality: a sharp sword cutting through something soft, like cloth and flesh. Wasat.na brings t...
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