History and Culture of the Arabian Peninsula

Since the rise of Islam within 25 years of the early 7th century and the emergence of Arab Muslims as the founders of one of the great empires in history, Muslims themselves and the peoples related to them have used the term Arab to refer to them. All people of Arab descent. The word Arabia or its Arabic name Jazirat Al-Arab is used to refer to the entire Arabian Peninsula. But the definition of the region is not entirely consistent even among Islamic texts. In a narrow sense, it refers to an area far smaller than the entire peninsula; in ancient Greek and Latin documents--and in some later documents--the term Arabia also includes the Syrian and Jordanian deserts, as well as the west of the lower Euphrates River. of the Iraqi desert. Likewise, "Arabs" primarily included the tribesmen of central and northern Arabia, at least before the Islamic era.

Arab culture is a branch of Semitic civilization. For this reason, and also because it has been influenced by its Semitic sister cultures for a certain period of time, it is sometimes difficult to determine what is unique to Arabia. culture. Because an important trade route ran along its flanks, the Arabs came into contact with Egyptian, Greco-Roman, and Indo-Persian civilizations along its borders. The Turks had less influence when they ruled Arabic-speaking countries, and the overwhelmingly dominant Western European culture did not penetrate into Arabia until the colonial era.

From pre-Islamic times to the 7th century

Prehistory and Archeology

On the northeastern coast, on the island of Faylakah and Bahrain, A.D. The site was inhabited by Stone Age fishermen and shell-eating people in 3000 BC. In many places on the peninsula, you can see flint utensils scattered on the ground, and you can also see stone paintings whose age is unknown, but they must be ancient. This kind of stone painting is considered to be closely related to the stone paintings in the Sahara Desert.

Attempts to view all Arabs as a single race are unfounded. Ancient evidence shows that Africans visited the coastal plains of the Red Sea, Iranians visited the southeastern tip of the peninsula, and people of Aramaic descent visited the northern regions. The ethnic affinities of the ancient Yemenis have not yet been determined. Arab culture closely resembles the Semitic culture that arose in the fertile crescent of the northern peninsula, and can be considered the result of cultural diffusion rather than immigration.

In addition to continuing to study the small amount of prehistoric evidence, archaeological research has mainly focused on historical sites that have been confirmed by written records from 1000 BC to 500 BC.

Written records include numerous inscriptions on stone slabs, rock walls, bronze tablets, and other objects scattered throughout the peninsula, as well as impromptu carvings on stone (especially in Yemen). Only a small proportion of these inscriptions are in genuine Arabic. The main language in the north and center is Old North Arabic (Lihyanic, Thamudic and Safaitic). Although this group of languages ??is closely related to Arabic, the latter cannot be considered to have developed directly from the former. Yemeni inscriptions are in Old South Arabic (belonging to Minaean, Sabaean, Qatabanian and Hadhramautic), which is a group of Semitic languages. Completely independent languages ??(Old North Arabic and Old South Arabic inscriptions and improvisations are engraved in the South Semitic alphabet, of which only Ethiopian exists; the modern Arabic alphabet is North Semitic of a type). Many Yemeni inscriptions have greatly lost their original value due to unscientific looting that removed them from their original sites. There are also inscriptions in foreign Aramaic, Greek and Latin scripts.

In the ancient Yemeni cultural area, there were many large buildings and monumental buildings, such as dams, palaces, temples, and a large number of extremely high-quality plastic arts. Its themes, such as the bull heads and wild goat statues that can be seen everywhere, partially express the artistic characteristics of Yemen, but it clearly has the artistic style of ancient Greece from the 3rd century BC onwards.