the Arabs - appear in the written sources - in the 9th C.
But: their ancestors => important role in  Near East

- those who lived on the fringes of the Byzantine and Sassanid empires  - absorbed into the cultural and political spheres of the two great powers
* within those empires the distinction Arab and non - Arab populations - blurred
* common element: common language and a common kinship

Southern Arabia (fertile region): a region governed by monarchs
* the kingdom of Saba (the Sheba of the Bible)   - 10th C. B.C.
    - 5th C. A.D. => the kings of Yemen - extended their influence north over the Bedouin tribes of central Arabia (to control and protect the caravan trade between the north and south)
    - 6th C: Yemen is destroyed by Ethiopian and Persian conquerors => absorbed into their empires

- the interior of the Arabian Peninsula (desert, waterless) => nomadic Bedouin
    - life of independence, simplicity and danger
    - they acknowledged membership in various tribes => But: kin relationships were more important than any governmental system

- tribal leader - sheikhs - chosen from the ruling families : served as arbitrators and executors of tribal consensus
* the patriarch of each family - the final say over his kin (he could ignore the sheikh - he had supreme power over his flocks and herds, wives and slaves)
- the individual - unimportant
- private land ownership - unknown
- flocks and herds - often held in common

Economy:
- pastoral => provided meat, cheese, and wool
- weapons, ornaments, women, livestock - acquired through exchange at the market towns
- goods and women - could be taken in raids against other tribes; or as payments from weaker neighbors for protection
- raids => were means of increasing prestige and glory in the warrior society

Religion:
the nomadic Bedouin - most of them were pagan; they recognized some important gods, a high god - called - Allah
    * Bedouins - worshiped local tribal deities thought of as inhabiting a sacred stone of spring
    * worship played a small part in the nomadic life; more important => the commitment to the tribe

- some Arabs (in the South) - were Christian or Jewish
    * were farmers and merchants (the Bedouin looked down to them)

- the rivalry among tribes - could be set aside at a mutually accepted neutral site - which might grow up around a religious sanctuary (haram)
* within the safety of those sites (neutral ground on which no violence takes place) - merchant communities sprang up

Mecca - such a sanctuary
    - here around the sacred black rock (Ka'bah) - a holy man (Qusayy) - established himself and his tribe (the Quraysh) - 6th C.
- 7th C. - grew into an important commercial center
    * the Quraysh network  (camel caravans) - the leading commercial organization in northern Arabia
    * Muhammad - was a descendant of Qusayy