تويت
Arab Civilization before Islam
Arab Civilization before Islam
Contrary to some popular Western misconceptions propagated by many Western "experts" and "authorities" on the Arab world alleging that Arabs did not have any civilization before Islam, or that Arabs were nothing more than a collection of nomadic warring primitive tribes, confined solely to the Arabian Peninsula, who spent most of their existence looking for food and water, the historical record proves otherwise. In fact, centuries before the birth of Islam, the Arabs had several civilizations, not only in the Arabian Peninsula itself, but also in the Fertile Crescent, some of which were highly advanced with elaborate development and culture. Although Arab civilization before Islam might not have had a noticeable impact on Greece and Rome, it is nonetheless important to briefly mention here the following pre-Islamic Arab civilizations in order to dispel this wrong conventional Western notion that Arabs had no civilization before the birth of Islam, were nothing but wandering nomads, and were confined only to the Arabian Peninsula.
The Kingdom of Saba (or Sheba)
One of the earliest and most important of all pre-Islamic Arab civilizations is the Qahtani Kingdom of Saba or Sheba (10th century BCE – 7th century CE), which had an elaborate civilization, legendary in its reputation of prosperity and wealth. The Kingdom of Saba was located in the southwestern mountainous rainy parts of the Arabian Peninsula in what is known today as the regions of Aseer and Yemen. Envious of its wealth, the Romans named it “Arabia Felix” (fortunate or prosperous Arabia).
The Sabaean capital, Ma'rib, was located near San'a, today's capital of Yemen, which was reportedly founded by Noah's eldest son Shem (or "Sam" in Arabic) from whose name the word "Sami" in Arabic or "Semitic" in English comes. In addition to their domains in the Arabian Penisula, the Sabaean kings controlled for a long time some parts of the East African coast across the Red Sea where they established the Kingdom of Abyssinia, which is Eritrea today. It should be indicated here that the name “Abyssinia” comes from the Arabic word “Habashah”. One of the most famous rulers of the Sabaeans was Queen Balgais. This mystic Arab Queen of Sheba was well known for her beauty, grace, wealth, charm, and splendor. She reportedly had a famous impassioned encounter with the Hebrew King Solomon when she took a special trip to Jerusalem
The Sabaean Kingdom produced and traded in spices, Arabian frankincense, myrrh, and other Arabian aromatics. The Sabaeans excelled in agriculture and had a remarkable irrigation system with terraced mountains, incredible huge water tunnels in mountains and great dams including the legendary Ma'rib Dam, which was built around 2000 BCE. This Arab dam was considered to be one the greatest technological wonders of the ancient world. However, the tragic breaking of the Ma'rib Dam around 575, as indicated in the Qur'an, was an event of very traumatic proportions in the collective consciousness of all Arabs at the time and of later generations.
The Kingdom of Himyar
The Arab Kingdom of Himyar (115 BCE to 525 CE), which was also located in the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula, had a sizable number of Arab Christians and Arab Jews (not Hebrews). The most prominent Arab Jew of this kingdom was King Dhu al-Nuwas who persecuted his Arab Christian subjects. He reportedly incinerated some of them alive in retaliation for their persecution of Arab Jews in neighboring Arab Christian Najran.
From their capital city, first at Zafar and later at San'a, the powerful Himyarite kings executed military plans which resulted in the expansion of their domains at times eastward as far as the Persian Gulf and northward into the Arabian Desert. However, internal disorder and the changing of trade routes eventually caused the kingdom to suffer political and economic decline. In fact, after several unsuccessful attempts, the African Abyssinians finally invaded the Arab Himyarite Kingdom in 525. In 570, the year Prophet Mohammad was born, the Abyssinian governor Abraha sent an army of elephant-borne troops in an unsuccessful attempt to attack the city of Makkah (Mecca) and destroy its Ka'bah. In 575 the Persians invaded Himyar and ended the Abyssinian presence in Himyar. But the Persians did not last long there either. Soon thereafter Islam swept the entire Arabian Peninsula.
The Nabataean Kingdom
Arab kingdom with its capital Petra in southern Jordan ruled the north of the Arabian Peninsula, Jordan, and reached the southern Syria.
Nbt name launched by the Arab population of Iraq blackness (rural southern Iraq) before the Islamic conquest and who spoke Aramaic.
With urticaria, carved Nabataean found south of Syria and preserved in the Damascus National Museum of the Nabataean Arabs, a people lived in the South Levant and their capital Petra.
Characterize the Nabataeans to participate in the caravan trade, showing inscriptions and monuments left by Nabateans traders away from their headquarters until it reached Egypt, Italy and Yemen.
Abdel-known Arab Nabataean gods: the sun god with urticaria, which Mtloh in the form of a black stone, as well as Lat (feminine god), and Uzza, and Manat, and Hubble.
Nabatean Arabs and their civilization on the mountain: Nabataean Arab people came out of the southern Arabian Peninsula probably were initially expressing cattle herders, including the owners of caravan trade in the sixth century BC. M took control of the land of Edomites, south of the Dead Sea, and they speak Arabic with the effects of Aramaic and shows us the characters, as well as Hoasme kings such as: (al-Harith - owner - Obeida - Ribal - etc). The first mention of this people back to the year (647 BC)., As mentioned by the Assyrian king (Ashur Nepal) for in counter his opponents, and before that the endemic city of Petra, the capital of his kingdom later, and at that time was the king (Nbonid) the last king of Babylon has been subjected oasis Taima, which was on the caravan route linking the city of stone and the Euphrates, and was the capital of Nabataean by Petra, but the word (Nbt), the scholars differed in its reasoning, some of them responding to (Nbit) and (Nbayut) is the eldest son of Ismail bin Ibrahim Al-Khalil from his wife emigrated or to the large Allenbt them, which was water, says Dr. Jawad Ali at the origin of the Nabataeans: and I have to Allenbt Arabs, they are the people closest to the Quraysh Arabs southerners they participate Quraysh in more idols (with the company - Lat - Uzza ...) line Allenbt very close to clerks of the line of revelation
Establishment of the Kingdom: Switch on the Arab Nabateans site (Petra) in Wadi Musa in Jordan, after the abandonment of the Adamites they (the Canaanites) in the sixth century BC. M. And have made it a springboard for their trade, and was mentioned this city in the Bible as the "Iktailt in Arabic (the rock - stone) as stated at the coordinates of the ancients, and the launching of the Nabataeans from their capital Petra took place between the fourth to the first s. M. Said King Seleucid Antiochus III (169 BC . m), and it seems that what he had taken after the title (the king), while we find al-Harith the second king of the Arabs, and that between (120-96 BC). was ruled Syria and the kingdom has spread to Egypt, and the right successor (his servants, I) at the beginning of his rule as well as areas Horan and Jabal Al-Arab which income between (90-88 BC). after bloody battles with the Seleucids in position (Muthu), which the scholars differed as to determine its proper place, of whom Mundkr near the channels (Kanatha) or near Matan (Mutan) and others have said it is near (Karak) in the Hauran, where he was killed in this battle King Greyhound (Antiochus XIII). also managed King Harith Khalifa Obeida year (85 BC). to capture Damascus and extending his influence on the part of Syria and Lebanon, and mintage bronze and put them specific traditions Greco and named it (Velelen), then extended his kingdom to the south until the Hijaz and to provide a strong foundation on the caravan route outgoing towards Damascus and Antioch, the bastion of the city of Bosra city, which took increasing importance in the Roman era, and later became the center of a Christian is important, and was on the caravan route outgoing from Mecca to the land of the Levant, where he was staying monk Nestorian (Kneen). and cities the Nabateans as well as the (stone) and is an important city located on the artery of trade referred to (Strabo), a little drive (Elios Gallus) at the Arabian Peninsula, as Ocharalqran Quran into this city, saying (and I lie owners of the stone the messengers).
It was the Nabateans diets political appeared for their love of expansion and control Vdmoa to the kingdom of Damascus and the Bekaa and the Hauran, south and east of Palestine and Adom and a debit to Ddn (Ela) in Saudi Arabia today, and the shores of the Red Sea, has been proven that they are also in the eastern Nile Delta. The Nabataeans had Mofharab relationship with humanity the Greeks and Romans and the inhabitants of the South Arabian, and the land of Egypt was the cause of the impact of acts of worship, the Nabataeans and religions of those peoples. This was the Kingdom of the Nabataean Arabs Boj wide as its capital (Petra) This city, which overflowed sang Otaha of world trade and taxation of goods and fees for convoys, and Mehr Nabatean Arabs profession of trade in goods and good that desired by the western world more and more, Ktjarh spices and Taiob, perfumes and other Vdrt they profit a lot, and the rocky stronghold of Petra and a great store of goods from which the convoys to the logic of a broad point of contact between the kingdoms of the Hellenistic Greek, Albultmah and forecastle.When the Romans occupied the Levant remained Bosra and the logic of Horan, however, the Nabatean Arabs was its northern border is adjacent to the mandate of Syria, formed by the Romans and left it like this, to be issued the Emperor Trajan year (106 AD) ordered the elimination of the State of the Nabataeans, and when the check has this elusive cut the northern parts of the state Horan, including the area and shape of the Arab state which has become one of the most important states of the Levant, and the (optical), the capital of the new mandate and became known as (Nova Trajana Bosra). The effects of the Nabatean Arabs in the mountain: The mountain of centers Nabataean trade, represented in positions of endosperm (black) and old channels (Kanatha) and Salkhad (Salcah) and (Srkhadd) and Issa (Asia) were the sites relate to the old place the primary (optical), which relate to its role Great place, DC (Petra). Nabateans left traces on the mountain is still mostly a witness to what had reached him of the greatness and glory .. And characterized by buildings with stone basalt, a key element in the construction, as rarely used the other elements of wood, brick and iron ... Vsnawa of the stone basalt available in abundance in the region capitals of columns and eaves decorated with floral, geometric and human, as they made the doors and windows, seats, lockers and brackets, which was adopted in the interface between the rules on the dimensions of balanced construction makes it easy to put a roof over it in the form of stones called the long (Red) and after look like carved from wood carefully polished. It also created the Nabataeans masterpieces in the Covenant Hellenistic and early Roman times, was sculptures basaltic great, and also appears to influence of Greek art evident in the money that Skoha, they are like cash, Seleucid, and since the reign of King Obeida third 27-9 BC). M) become money Nabatiyeh bearing the image of Queen Nabatiyeh along with her husband. In the endosperm: 2. Remains of the temple built late first century BC. M and the first century AD, and was devoted to the Nabatean god (with a company) and is currently the center of the city are still three of the Corinthian columns Ptijanaa beautiful lie amid narrow road paved with basaltic stones .. The remains of thick walls and very high is one of the castles of the Nabataeans, located west of the city near what is today the Square Samara .. Several towers located on the western slope of the Castle Mountain Suedaaly way back. In the channels: There are fortifications with thick walls and very large stones near the entrance to the town from the west on a hill overseeing the entire western plain. Site Issa: Located at a distance of / 2 / km southeast of the channels and was a site fortified, surrounded by high walls and has had several sections, is still the eastern section of which is clear and the site of the West built the Nabataean temples: the first was devoted to the god (The Company) and the second of the god (Baal Shamin (god of the heavens, and built in the second half of the first century BC. m / 33 s. m /, but unfortunately no remains of these temples only founded and some architectural elements scattered at the site and its neighborhood.
The Kingdom of Kindah
Kindat al-Muluk (or the Royal Kindah) was a famous Arab kingdom, which originated in the southern Arabian Peninsula near Yemen's Hadramawt region. Its capital city, al-Fau, was excavated northeast of Najran in Saudi Arabia in 1972 by Saudi archaeologists from King Saud University in Riyadh. The Kingdom of Kindah became prominent around the late 5th and early 6th centuries CE when it made one of the earliest and successful efforts to unite several Arab tribes under its new domain in Najd in central Arabia.
The traditional founder and ruler of Kindah was Hujr Akil al-Murar. However, the most renowned of all Kindah kings was al-Harith ibn Amr, Hujr's grandson, who extended his kingdom's domain north by invading Iraq and temporarily capturing al-Hirah, the capital city of the Arab Christian Kingdom of Lakhmid. But in 529 al-Hirah was liberated by its Christian Arabs who killed King al-Harith along with 50 members of his family. After al-Harith's death, the Kindah Kingdom split up into four factions - Asad, Taghlib, Kinanah, and Qays - each led by a prince. The famous pre-Islamic Arab poet Imru' al-Qays (who died around 540) was the prince of Qays. The continuing feuding between these Arab factions, however, eventually forced the Kindah princes by the middle of the 6th century to withdraw to their original place in southern Arabia next to Yemen. Nevertheless, after Islam was established throughout the Arabian Peninsula, many descendants of the Royal Kindah continued to hold powerful political positions within the Islamic state. In fact, one branch of the Royal Kindah was even successful in gaining great political influence in far away Arab Andalusia in the European Iberian Peninsula.
The Kingdom of Lakhmid
The Arab Christian Kingdom of Lakhmid, which originated in the 3rd century CE, reached the height of its power during the 6th century under King al-Munthir III (503-554). Its domain covered from the western shores of the Persian Gulf all the way north to Iraq where its capital city, al-Hira, was located on the Euphrates River near present day Kufah. Working in close cooperation with the Zoroastrian Persian Sasanian Empire to which the Lakhmid Kingdom was a vassal state, al-Munthir III raided and frequently challenged the pro-Byzantine Arab Kingdom of Ghassan in Syria. His son King Amr Ibn Hind was patron of the legendary Arab poet Tarfah Ibn al-Abd and other poets associated with the seven Mu'allaqat (the Suspended Odes") of pre-Islamic Arabia (see "The Jahiliyyah" below). The Lakhmid dynasty eventually disintegrated after the death of its great Arab Christian King an-Nu'man III in 602.
The Jahiliyyah (Pre-Islamic Arabia)
Even in the period of Jahiliyyah (or "the ignorance" of pre-Islamic Arabia 500-622) the Arabs also had a great cultural literary civilization. Its great classical belles letters could very easily be compared to the best literary treasures developed during the later golden age of the Arab/Islamic civilization of the Abbasids and Andalusia. The Jahiliyyah era witnessed a vibrant golden age of Arab poetry and odes. Among the top pre-Islamic Arab poets, whose poems are still studied in college and pre-college curricula throughout the Arab world, are the seven legendary poets of the Golden Odes, known as the Seven Mu'allaqat ("the Suspended Odes"). These seven pre-Islamic Arab poets who belonged to different Arab tribes included: Prince Imru' al-Qays of the Kindah Kingdom; Tarfah (by far the greatest pre-Islamic Arab poet); Zuhair; Labid (who became so overwhelmed by the power and elegance of the Qur'an that he refused to compose any poetry for the last thirty years of his life); Antar (the greatest cavalier warrior of pre-Islamic Arabia); Amru' Ibn Kalthoom; and al-Harith Ibn Hillizah. Each one of these seven great Arab poets wrote magnificent lengthy poems accentuated with passion, love, eloquence, courage, and sensuality. Their seven golden odes, considered to be the greatest literary treasure of pre-Islamic Arabia, were accorded the highest honor by the critics of the times in the annual poetry fair in Ukaz near Makkah. Their works were inscribed in gold letters and hung (or "suspended") on the door and walls of the Ka'bah for the public to read, enjoy, and appreciate. To these seven incomparable Jahiliyyah Arab poets one must add the following four geniuses in poetry: an-Nabighah al-Thubyani, Hassan Ibn Thabit, al-Hutay'ah, and al-Khansa' (a female).
Although most of pre-Islamic Arabia during the Jahiliyyah period was largely nomadic and tribal where bedouin wars and conflicts were the norms among the disunited Arab tribes and where most people believed in pagan religions and superstitions, the two important cities of the Hejaz, Makkah and Ukaz, stood as shining spots in the entire Arabian Peninsula. In fact, Makkah was the religious, political, economic, intellectual, and cultural center of pre-Islamic Arabia. The Ka'bah in Makkah and Mount Arafat outside it (both of which were later incorporated in Islam) had been important religious sites for annual pilgrimage centuries before the coming of Islam.
The Arab Kingdom of Himyar (115 BCE to 525 CE), which was also located in the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula, had a sizable number of Arab Christians and Arab Jews (not Hebrews). The most prominent Arab Jew of this kingdom was King Dhu al-Nuwas who persecuted his Arab Christian subjects. He reportedly incinerated some of them alive in retaliation for their persecution of Arab Jews in neighboring Arab Christian Najran.
From their capital city, first at Zafar and later at San'a, the powerful Himyarite kings executed military plans which resulted in the expansion of their domains at times eastward as far as the Persian Gulf and northward into the Arabian Desert. However, internal disorder and the changing of trade routes eventually caused the kingdom to suffer political and economic decline. In fact, after several unsuccessful attempts, the African Abyssinians finally invaded the Arab Himyarite Kingdom in 525. In 570, the year Prophet Mohammad was born, the Abyssinian governor Abraha sent an army of elephant-borne troops in an unsuccessful attempt to attack the city of Makkah (Mecca) and destroy its Ka'bah. In 575 the Persians invaded Himyar and ended the Abyssinian presence in Himyar. But the Persians did not last long there either. Soon thereafter Islam swept the entire Arabian Peninsula.
The Nabataean Kingdom
Arab kingdom with its capital Petra in southern Jordan ruled the north of the Arabian Peninsula, Jordan, and reached the southern Syria.
Nbt name launched by the Arab population of Iraq blackness (rural southern Iraq) before the Islamic conquest and who spoke Aramaic.
With urticaria, carved Nabataean found south of Syria and preserved in the Damascus National Museum of the Nabataean Arabs, a people lived in the South Levant and their capital Petra.
Characterize the Nabataeans to participate in the caravan trade, showing inscriptions and monuments left by Nabateans traders away from their headquarters until it reached Egypt, Italy and Yemen.
Abdel-known Arab Nabataean gods: the sun god with urticaria, which Mtloh in the form of a black stone, as well as Lat (feminine god), and Uzza, and Manat, and Hubble.
Nabatean Arabs and their civilization on the mountain: Nabataean Arab people came out of the southern Arabian Peninsula probably were initially expressing cattle herders, including the owners of caravan trade in the sixth century BC. M took control of the land of Edomites, south of the Dead Sea, and they speak Arabic with the effects of Aramaic and shows us the characters, as well as Hoasme kings such as: (al-Harith - owner - Obeida - Ribal - etc). The first mention of this people back to the year (647 BC)., As mentioned by the Assyrian king (Ashur Nepal) for in counter his opponents, and before that the endemic city of Petra, the capital of his kingdom later, and at that time was the king (Nbonid) the last king of Babylon has been subjected oasis Taima, which was on the caravan route linking the city of stone and the Euphrates, and was the capital of Nabataean by Petra, but the word (Nbt), the scholars differed in its reasoning, some of them responding to (Nbit) and (Nbayut) is the eldest son of Ismail bin Ibrahim Al-Khalil from his wife emigrated or to the large Allenbt them, which was water, says Dr. Jawad Ali at the origin of the Nabataeans: and I have to Allenbt Arabs, they are the people closest to the Quraysh Arabs southerners they participate Quraysh in more idols (with the company - Lat - Uzza ...) line Allenbt very close to clerks of the line of revelation
Establishment of the Kingdom: Switch on the Arab Nabateans site (Petra) in Wadi Musa in Jordan, after the abandonment of the Adamites they (the Canaanites) in the sixth century BC. M. And have made it a springboard for their trade, and was mentioned this city in the Bible as the "Iktailt in Arabic (the rock - stone) as stated at the coordinates of the ancients, and the launching of the Nabataeans from their capital Petra took place between the fourth to the first s. M. Said King Seleucid Antiochus III (169 BC . m), and it seems that what he had taken after the title (the king), while we find al-Harith the second king of the Arabs, and that between (120-96 BC). was ruled Syria and the kingdom has spread to Egypt, and the right successor (his servants, I) at the beginning of his rule as well as areas Horan and Jabal Al-Arab which income between (90-88 BC). after bloody battles with the Seleucids in position (Muthu), which the scholars differed as to determine its proper place, of whom Mundkr near the channels (Kanatha) or near Matan (Mutan) and others have said it is near (Karak) in the Hauran, where he was killed in this battle King Greyhound (Antiochus XIII). also managed King Harith Khalifa Obeida year (85 BC). to capture Damascus and extending his influence on the part of Syria and Lebanon, and mintage bronze and put them specific traditions Greco and named it (Velelen), then extended his kingdom to the south until the Hijaz and to provide a strong foundation on the caravan route outgoing towards Damascus and Antioch, the bastion of the city of Bosra city, which took increasing importance in the Roman era, and later became the center of a Christian is important, and was on the caravan route outgoing from Mecca to the land of the Levant, where he was staying monk Nestorian (Kneen). and cities the Nabateans as well as the (stone) and is an important city located on the artery of trade referred to (Strabo), a little drive (Elios Gallus) at the Arabian Peninsula, as Ocharalqran Quran into this city, saying (and I lie owners of the stone the messengers).
It was the Nabateans diets political appeared for their love of expansion and control Vdmoa to the kingdom of Damascus and the Bekaa and the Hauran, south and east of Palestine and Adom and a debit to Ddn (Ela) in Saudi Arabia today, and the shores of the Red Sea, has been proven that they are also in the eastern Nile Delta. The Nabataeans had Mofharab relationship with humanity the Greeks and Romans and the inhabitants of the South Arabian, and the land of Egypt was the cause of the impact of acts of worship, the Nabataeans and religions of those peoples. This was the Kingdom of the Nabataean Arabs Boj wide as its capital (Petra) This city, which overflowed sang Otaha of world trade and taxation of goods and fees for convoys, and Mehr Nabatean Arabs profession of trade in goods and good that desired by the western world more and more, Ktjarh spices and Taiob, perfumes and other Vdrt they profit a lot, and the rocky stronghold of Petra and a great store of goods from which the convoys to the logic of a broad point of contact between the kingdoms of the Hellenistic Greek, Albultmah and forecastle.When the Romans occupied the Levant remained Bosra and the logic of Horan, however, the Nabatean Arabs was its northern border is adjacent to the mandate of Syria, formed by the Romans and left it like this, to be issued the Emperor Trajan year (106 AD) ordered the elimination of the State of the Nabataeans, and when the check has this elusive cut the northern parts of the state Horan, including the area and shape of the Arab state which has become one of the most important states of the Levant, and the (optical), the capital of the new mandate and became known as (Nova Trajana Bosra). The effects of the Nabatean Arabs in the mountain: The mountain of centers Nabataean trade, represented in positions of endosperm (black) and old channels (Kanatha) and Salkhad (Salcah) and (Srkhadd) and Issa (Asia) were the sites relate to the old place the primary (optical), which relate to its role Great place, DC (Petra). Nabateans left traces on the mountain is still mostly a witness to what had reached him of the greatness and glory .. And characterized by buildings with stone basalt, a key element in the construction, as rarely used the other elements of wood, brick and iron ... Vsnawa of the stone basalt available in abundance in the region capitals of columns and eaves decorated with floral, geometric and human, as they made the doors and windows, seats, lockers and brackets, which was adopted in the interface between the rules on the dimensions of balanced construction makes it easy to put a roof over it in the form of stones called the long (Red) and after look like carved from wood carefully polished. It also created the Nabataeans masterpieces in the Covenant Hellenistic and early Roman times, was sculptures basaltic great, and also appears to influence of Greek art evident in the money that Skoha, they are like cash, Seleucid, and since the reign of King Obeida third 27-9 BC). M) become money Nabatiyeh bearing the image of Queen Nabatiyeh along with her husband. In the endosperm: 2. Remains of the temple built late first century BC. M and the first century AD, and was devoted to the Nabatean god (with a company) and is currently the center of the city are still three of the Corinthian columns Ptijanaa beautiful lie amid narrow road paved with basaltic stones .. The remains of thick walls and very high is one of the castles of the Nabataeans, located west of the city near what is today the Square Samara .. Several towers located on the western slope of the Castle Mountain Suedaaly way back. In the channels: There are fortifications with thick walls and very large stones near the entrance to the town from the west on a hill overseeing the entire western plain. Site Issa: Located at a distance of / 2 / km southeast of the channels and was a site fortified, surrounded by high walls and has had several sections, is still the eastern section of which is clear and the site of the West built the Nabataean temples: the first was devoted to the god (The Company) and the second of the god (Baal Shamin (god of the heavens, and built in the second half of the first century BC. m / 33 s. m /, but unfortunately no remains of these temples only founded and some architectural elements scattered at the site and its neighborhood.
The Kingdom of Kindah
Kindat al-Muluk (or the Royal Kindah) was a famous Arab kingdom, which originated in the southern Arabian Peninsula near Yemen's Hadramawt region. Its capital city, al-Fau, was excavated northeast of Najran in Saudi Arabia in 1972 by Saudi archaeologists from King Saud University in Riyadh. The Kingdom of Kindah became prominent around the late 5th and early 6th centuries CE when it made one of the earliest and successful efforts to unite several Arab tribes under its new domain in Najd in central Arabia.
The traditional founder and ruler of Kindah was Hujr Akil al-Murar. However, the most renowned of all Kindah kings was al-Harith ibn Amr, Hujr's grandson, who extended his kingdom's domain north by invading Iraq and temporarily capturing al-Hirah, the capital city of the Arab Christian Kingdom of Lakhmid. But in 529 al-Hirah was liberated by its Christian Arabs who killed King al-Harith along with 50 members of his family. After al-Harith's death, the Kindah Kingdom split up into four factions - Asad, Taghlib, Kinanah, and Qays - each led by a prince. The famous pre-Islamic Arab poet Imru' al-Qays (who died around 540) was the prince of Qays. The continuing feuding between these Arab factions, however, eventually forced the Kindah princes by the middle of the 6th century to withdraw to their original place in southern Arabia next to Yemen. Nevertheless, after Islam was established throughout the Arabian Peninsula, many descendants of the Royal Kindah continued to hold powerful political positions within the Islamic state. In fact, one branch of the Royal Kindah was even successful in gaining great political influence in far away Arab Andalusia in the European Iberian Peninsula.
The Kingdom of Lakhmid
The Arab Christian Kingdom of Lakhmid, which originated in the 3rd century CE, reached the height of its power during the 6th century under King al-Munthir III (503-554). Its domain covered from the western shores of the Persian Gulf all the way north to Iraq where its capital city, al-Hira, was located on the Euphrates River near present day Kufah. Working in close cooperation with the Zoroastrian Persian Sasanian Empire to which the Lakhmid Kingdom was a vassal state, al-Munthir III raided and frequently challenged the pro-Byzantine Arab Kingdom of Ghassan in Syria. His son King Amr Ibn Hind was patron of the legendary Arab poet Tarfah Ibn al-Abd and other poets associated with the seven Mu'allaqat (the Suspended Odes") of pre-Islamic Arabia (see "The Jahiliyyah" below). The Lakhmid dynasty eventually disintegrated after the death of its great Arab Christian King an-Nu'man III in 602.
The Jahiliyyah (Pre-Islamic Arabia)
Even in the period of Jahiliyyah (or "the ignorance" of pre-Islamic Arabia 500-622) the Arabs also had a great cultural literary civilization. Its great classical belles letters could very easily be compared to the best literary treasures developed during the later golden age of the Arab/Islamic civilization of the Abbasids and Andalusia. The Jahiliyyah era witnessed a vibrant golden age of Arab poetry and odes. Among the top pre-Islamic Arab poets, whose poems are still studied in college and pre-college curricula throughout the Arab world, are the seven legendary poets of the Golden Odes, known as the Seven Mu'allaqat ("the Suspended Odes"). These seven pre-Islamic Arab poets who belonged to different Arab tribes included: Prince Imru' al-Qays of the Kindah Kingdom; Tarfah (by far the greatest pre-Islamic Arab poet); Zuhair; Labid (who became so overwhelmed by the power and elegance of the Qur'an that he refused to compose any poetry for the last thirty years of his life); Antar (the greatest cavalier warrior of pre-Islamic Arabia); Amru' Ibn Kalthoom; and al-Harith Ibn Hillizah. Each one of these seven great Arab poets wrote magnificent lengthy poems accentuated with passion, love, eloquence, courage, and sensuality. Their seven golden odes, considered to be the greatest literary treasure of pre-Islamic Arabia, were accorded the highest honor by the critics of the times in the annual poetry fair in Ukaz near Makkah. Their works were inscribed in gold letters and hung (or "suspended") on the door and walls of the Ka'bah for the public to read, enjoy, and appreciate. To these seven incomparable Jahiliyyah Arab poets one must add the following four geniuses in poetry: an-Nabighah al-Thubyani, Hassan Ibn Thabit, al-Hutay'ah, and al-Khansa' (a female).
Although most of pre-Islamic Arabia during the Jahiliyyah period was largely nomadic and tribal where bedouin wars and conflicts were the norms among the disunited Arab tribes and where most people believed in pagan religions and superstitions, the two important cities of the Hejaz, Makkah and Ukaz, stood as shining spots in the entire Arabian Peninsula. In fact, Makkah was the religious, political, economic, intellectual, and cultural center of pre-Islamic Arabia. The Ka'bah in Makkah and Mount Arafat outside it (both of which were later incorporated in Islam) had been important religious sites for annual pilgrimage centuries before the coming of Islam.
