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Saudi Arabia
Index
The bodies of water on either side of the Arabian Peninsula
provided relatively easy access to the neighboring river-valley
civilizations of the Nile and the Tigris-Euphrates. Once contact
was made, trading could begin, and because these civilizations
were quite rich, many goods passed between them.
The coastal people of Arabia were well-positioned to profit
from this trade. Much of the trade centered around present-day
Bahrain and Oman, but those living in the southwestern part of
the peninsula, in present-day Yemen and southern Saudi Arabia,
also profited from such trade. The climate and topography of this
area also permitted greater agricultural development than that on
the coast of the Persian Gulf.
Generous rainfall in Yemen enabled the people to feed
themselves, while the exports of frankincense and myrrh brought
wealth to the area. As a result, civilization developed to a
relatively high level in southern Arabia by about 1000 B.C. The
peoples of the area lived in small kingdoms or city states of
which the best known is probably Saba, which was called Sheba in
the Old Testament. The prosperity of Yemen encouraged the Romans
to refer to it as Arabia Felix (literally, "happy Arabia").
Outside of the coastal areas, however, and a few centers in the
Hijaz associated with the caravan trade, the harsh climate of the
peninsula, combined with a desert and mountain terrain, limited
agriculture and rendered the interior regions difficult to
access. The population most likely subsisted on a combination of
oasis gardening and herding, with some portion of the population
being nomadic or seminomadic.
The material conditions under which the Arabs lived began to
improve around 1000 B.C. A method for saddling camels had been
developed to transport large loads. The camel was the only animal
that could cross large tracts of barren land with any
reliability. The Arabs could now benefit from some of the trade
that had previously circumvented Arabia.
The increased trans-Arabian trade produced two important
results. One was the rise of cities that could service the trains
of camels moving across the desert. The most prosperous of these-
-Petra in Jordan and Palmyra in Syria, for example--were
relatively close to markets in the Mediterranean region, but
small caravan cities developed within the Arabian Peninsula as
well. The most important of these was Mecca, which also owed its
prosperity to certain shrines in the area visited by Arabs from
all over the peninsula.
Some Arabs, particularly in the Hijaz, held some religious
beliefs that recognized a number of gods as well as a number of
rituals for worshiping them. The most important beliefs involved
the sense that certain places and times of year were sacred and
must be respected. At those times and in those places, warfare,
in particular, was forbidden, and various rituals were required.
Foremost of these was the pilgrimage, and the best known
pilgrimage site was Mecca.
The second result of the Arabs' increased involvement in
trade was the contact it gave them with the outside world. In the
Near East, the Persians and the Romans were the great powers in
centuries before the advent of Islam, and the Arab tribes that
bordered these territories were drawn into their political
affairs. After 400 A.D., both empires paid Arab tribes not only
to protect their southern borders but also to harass the borders
of their adversary.
In the long term, however, it was the ideas and people that
traveled with the camel caravans that were the most important. By
500 A.D., the traditional ritual of Arab worship was but one of a
number of religious options. The Sabaeans of southern Arabia
followed their own system of beliefs, and these had some
adherents in the interior. Followers of pagan beliefs, as well as
Hanifs, mentioned in the Quran and believed to be followers of an
indigenous monetheistic religion, were widespread in the
peninsula. In addition, there were well-established communities
of Christians and Jews. Along the gulf coast were Nestorians,
while in Yemen Syrian Orthodox and smaller groups of Christians
were to be found among beduin and in monasteries that dotted the
northern Hijaz. In the sixth century, shortly before the birth of
Muhammad, the city of Najran in what is now southwestern Saudi
Arabia had a Christian church with a bishop, monks, priests,
nuns, and lay clergy, and was ruled by a Jewish king. Jews were
an important part not only of the Yemeni population, but also of
the oases communities in the region of Medina.
Data as of December 1992
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