lecture 3. rulership in yemen. The Aksumites controlled Himyar and attempted to invade Mecca in the year 570 CE. - Free Online Library", "Culture of Yemen - history, people, clothing, traditions, women, beliefs, food, customs, family", "Saudi Aramco World: Well of Good Fortune", "MANICHEISM v. MISSIONARY ACTIVITY AND TECHNIQUE: Manicheism in Arabia", "6th millennium BC structure discovered in Saudi Arabia", "Marking the sacral landscape of a north Arabian oasis: a sixth-millennium BC monumental stone platform and surrounding burials", "Mecca On The Caravan Routes In Pre-Islamic Antiquity", "Arabia In Late Antiquity: An Outline of The Cultural Situation In The Peninsula At The Time of Muhammad", "Sources For The History of Pre-Islamic Religion", "Literacy In Pre-Islamic Arabia: An Analysis of The Epigraphic Evidence", "The Earliest Relations of Islam with Other Religions: The Meccan Polytheists", Internet Medieval Sourcebook: Pre-Islamic Arabia: The Hanged Poems, before 622 CE, Ancient History Sourcebook: Ancient Accounts of Arabia, 430 BCE - 550 CE, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pre-Islamic_Arabia&oldid=1138747575, "Perishing Arabs": These are the ancients of whose history little is known. In the 1st century BC it was conquered by the Himyarites, but after the disintegration of the first Himyarite empire of the Kings of Saba' and dhu-Raydan the Middle Sabaean Kingdom reappeared in the early 2nd century. I don't remember any prophecies from them in the Bible, and I don't think the Koran (or any interpretation of it) shows that these men told prophecies. As you read this, think about why he felt it important to start with a global perspective. Bedouin Arabs were usually proud of three things regarding their enemies. By the time the last Byzantine-Sassanid war came to an end in 628, Arabia had started to unite under Muhammad's politico-religious leadership. and oral traditions later recorded by Islamic scholars. Minaean inscriptions have been found far afield of the Kingdom of Main, as far away as al-'Ula in northwestern Saudi Arabia and even on the island of Delos and Egypt. Overview. 4. (History, I:1). The most impressive of these earthworks, known as the Marib Dam, was built ca. Many of the physical descriptions of the pre-Islamic gods are traced to idols, especially near the Kaaba, which is said to have contained up to 360 of them in Islamic tradition. In pre-Islamic Arabia, most sedentary Arabs were of Arabian origin. Those peoples may have engaged in trade across the Red Sea with speakers of Cushitic or Nilo-Saharan. [27][28] The Sumerians described Dilmun as a paradise garden in the Epic of Gilgamesh. 12.5 Political Structure in Pre-Islamic Arabia 12.6 Social Structures in Pre-Islamic Arabia 12.6.1 Tribal Structure and Leadership 12.6.2 Inequality and Slavery 12.6.3 The Elite Camel Nomads 12.6.4 Intra-Tribal Warfare 12.7 Economic Conditions 12.7.1 Camel Nomadism 12.7.2 Agriculture in Arabia 12.7.3 Industry and Mining in Arabia Pre-Islamic Arabia | Boundless World History | | Course Hero There was a dam in this city, however one year there was so much rain that the dam was carried away by the ensuing flood. The Condition Of Arabia Before The Advent Of Islam | Studymode During Sabaean rule, Yemen was called "Arabia Felix" by the Romans, who were impressed by its wealth and prosperity. The first point is that the social structure within the nomadic life of the Arabs in the desert. It conquered in c. 25 BC, Qataban in c. 200 AD and Hadramaut c. 300 AD. Socio-Legal Conditions in Pre-Islamic Arabia | PDF - Scribd [26] Dilmun is regarded as one of the oldest ancient civilizations in the Middle East. Various other identifications of the site have been attempted, Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville choosing Qatif, Carsten Niebuhr preferring Kuwait and C Forster suggesting the ruins at the head of the bay behind the islands of Bahrain. PDF Unit 12 Pre-islamic Arab World and Its Culture* Pre - Islamic Arabia. Pre-Islamic Arabia was not a single state governed by a single government or empire. The Condition of Arabia before the Advent of Islam In writing the history of Islam, it is customary to begin with a survey of the political, economic, social and religious conditions of Arabia on the eve of the Proclamation by Muhammad (may God bless him and his Ahlul-Bait) of his mission as Messenger of God.In writing the history of Islam, it is customary to begin with a survey of the . Himyar then allied with Saba and invaded the newly taken Aksumite territories, retaking Thifar, which had been under the control of Gadarat's son Beygat, and pushing Aksum back into the Tihama. The researcher Abdulkhaliq Al Janbi argued in his book[39] that Gerrha was most likely the ancient city of Hajar, located in modern-day Al Ahsa, Saudi Arabia. Support Let's Talk Religion on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/letstalkreligionOr through a one-time donation: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/letstalkrelig. Direct link to tuaakin.2421752's post is there really a order o, Posted 3 years ago. "Singh, Nagendra", "International encyclopaedia of Islamic dynasties", "(India: 2005)", "75", Last edited on 11 February 2023, at 10:51, Learn how and when to remove this template message, "Southern Arabian Desert Trade Routes, Frankincense, Myrrh, and the Ubar Legend", "Bahrain digs unveil one of oldest civilisations", "Qal'at al-Bahrain Ancient Harbour and Capital of Dilmun", "Nestorian Christianity in the Pre-Islamic UAE and Southeastern Arabia", "AUB academics awarded $850,000 grant for project on the Syriac writers of Qatar in the 7th century AD", "Christianity in the Gulf during the first centuries of Islam", "Yemen's history and its originality:Report. Arabia is here understood in the broad sense of the term to include the confines of the Syrian Desert. Pre-Islamic Arabia up to the 600s - . ECONOMY OF PRE-ISLAMIC ARABIA by Arianna Jater The term jahiliyyah is derived from the verbal root jahala () "to be ignorant or stupid . Instead, they simply provided 1,000 talents of frankincense a year. Spread Of Islam Dbq Essay. Context of pre-Islamic Arabia. Bahrain was referred to by the Greeks as Tylos, the centre of pearl trading, when Nearchus came to discover it serving under Alexander the Great. Information about these communities is limited and has been pieced together from archaeological evidence, accounts written outside of Arabia, and Arab oral traditions which were later recorded by Islamic historians. If you're seeing this message, it means we're having trouble loading external resources on our website. No Semitic people had founded an empire now for more than a thousand years, , most of the Middle East had abandoned its local polytheistic religious systems and had taken on Judaism, , the state religion of the Persian Empire, . It is also featured in the Epic of Gilgamesh. pre-islamic arabia essay | Bartleby The poet would control or affect the destiny of the tribe through the poet's blessed divine wisdom was a common view of people. The Pre-Islamic Arabia represents the Arabic civilization period that happened in Arabian Peninsula in the 630s before Islam rose. Think about how these connections might have influenced the adoption of Islam. The peninsula had been a destination for Jewish migration since pre-Roman times, which had resulted in a diaspora community supplemented by local converts. The inhabitants emigrated seeking to live in less arid lands and became scattered far and wide. Pre-Islamic Arabia. They settled east of the Syro-African rift between the Dead Sea and the Red Sea, that is, in the land that had once been Edom. [22] The sedentary dialects of Eastern Arabia, including Bahrani Arabic, were influenced by Akkadian, Aramaic and Syriac languages. The Bedouins engaged for economic reason in horse-breeding, hunting, camel raising etc. This map shows some of the names and locations of the dominant tribes in Arabia c.600 C.E. It later became independent and was invaded by the growing Yemeni kingdom of Himyar toward the end of the 1st century BCE, but it was able to repel the attack. The politics of the Middle East during the 5 th and 6 th centuries CE were complex. The Solluba were a utaymi tribal group in the northern part of the Arabian Peninsula who were clearly distinguishable from the Arabs. Herodotus's account (written c. 440BCE) refers to the Io and Europa myths. Following the Himyarite victory, a branch of Kindah established themselves in the Marib region, while the majority of Kindah remained in their lands in central Arabia. In 129, Hadrian visited the city and was so enthralled by it that he proclaimed it a free city and renamed it Palmyra Hadriana. The question of the origin of the Midianites still remains open. What were the economic and political conditions in Pre-Islamic Arabia Muhammad spreads revelations rejecting the idol worship of Mecca and urged his followers to submit to God, forming a religious community that became the Islamic faith. Another theory sees the Solubba as a former Bedouin group that lost their herds and fell in the eyes of other Bedouin.[103][104]. The promise of Enki to Ninhursag, the Earth Mother: For Dilmun, the land of my lady's heart, I will create long waterways, rivers and canals, whereby water will flow to quench the thirst of all beings and bring abundance to all that lives. Pre-Islamic Arabia: History & Religion | StudySmarter Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1981. This was just one aspect of the social and political strife that existed. Pre-Islamic Arab Politics. The area steadily grew further in importance as a trade route linking Persia, India, China, and the Roman Empire. M. Ali, p22. From 106 CE to 630 CE northwestern Arabia was under the control of the Roman Empire, which renamed it Arabia Petraea. important factor which also influenced the social and moral life of the pre-Islamic Arabs was the economic condition. Werner Cascel consider the Nabataean annexation of Lihyan was around 24 BC under the reign of the Nabataeans king Aretas IV. The status of the woman among the nobility recorded an . The Greek historian Strabo believed the Phoenicians originated from Eastern Arabia. Allah mentions this Arabic word a few times. Zaheerul Islam, Guest lecturer, Deptt. Scientific studies of Pre-Islamic Arabs starts with the Arabists of the early 19th century when they managed to decipher epigraphic Old South Arabian (10th century BCE), Ancient North Arabian (6th century BCE) and other writings of pre-Islamic Arabia. Instead, the socio-political structure of pre-Islamic Arabia was made up of many different tribes who were constantly at war with one another. Dilmun appears first in Sumerian cuneiform clay tablets dated to the end of 4th millennium BC, found in the temple of goddess Inanna, in the city of Uruk. to 1300 C.E. [35][36] Prior to Gerrha, the area belonged to the Dilmun civilization, which was conquered by the Assyrian Empire in 709 BCE. The success of the kingdom was based on the cultivation and trade of spices and aromatics including frankincense and myrrh. On the other hand China was a steadily expanding empire which probably at that time exceeded all Europe in population, , and the Turkish people who were growing to power in Central Asia were disposed to work in accord with China, . Once it was one of the most important small kingdoms of South Arabia. From their capital city, afr, the Himyarite kings launched successful military campaigns, and had stretched its domain at times as far east as eastern Yemen and as far north as Najran[78] Together with their Kindite allies, it extended maximally as far north as Riyadh and as far east as Yabrn. They were generally running from east to west . Indeed, in a society shaped by the rigors of desert life, women were relegated to the margins of community life. The Roman Empire had collapsed just then and broken down into West Roman Empire and East Roman Byzantium. According to the Persians best informed in history, the Phoenicians began the quarrel. The first known inscriptions of the Kingdom of Hadhramaut are known from the 8th century BC. Culture and Religion in Pre-Islamic Arabia | World Civilization Introduction. This suggests that Darius might have conquered this part of Arabia[92] or that it was originally part of another province, perhaps Achaemenid Babylonia, but later became its own province. is there really a order or union in western europe? [83] Arabian polytheism was, according to Islamic tradition, the dominant form of religion in pre-Islamic Arabia, based on veneration of deities and spirits. Achaemenid Arabia corresponded to the lands between Nile Delta (Egypt) and Mesopotamia, later known to Romans as Arabia Petraea. Women in Pre-Islamic Arabia | World Civilization - Lumen Learning [citation needed] It was first referenced by an outside civilization in an Old Sabaic inscription of Karab'il Watar from the early 7th century BC,[citation needed] in which the King of Hadramaut, Yada`'il, is mentioned as being one of his allies. Of these the most remarkable was the existence of a belief in Allah as the Supreme God (Q. So Arabia, from Cairo to Petra to Damascus were all under a constant shadow of economic turmoil. Get Perfect Grades Consistently by Using Our Service +1 718 717 2861 . October 2001. [50] Some place names in Bahrain go back to the Tylos era, for instance, the residential suburb of Arad in Muharraq, is believed to originate from "Arados", the ancient Greek name for Muharraq island.[51]. Agriculture in Yemen thrived during this time due to an advanced irrigation system which consisted of large water tunnels in mountains, and dams. Documentation for Ancient Arabia. Islam. Copy. More accurately, the ancient city of Gerrha has been determined to have existed near or under the present fort of Uqair. They are mentioned in sources such as the Qur'an,[84][85][86][87][88][89] old Arabian poetry, Assyrian annals (Tamudi), in a Greek temple inscription from the northwest Hejaz of 169 CE, in a 5th-century Byzantine source and in Old North Arabian graffiti within Tayma. Context of pre-Islamic Arabia (article) | Khan Academy Answer and Explanation: Become a Study.com member to unlock this answer! [38] It was 2 miles from the Persian Gulf near current day Hofuf. Dilmun is also described in the epic story of Enki and Ninhursag as the site at which the Creation occurred. It is thought that the Qedarites were eventually subsumed into the Nabataean state after their rise to prominence in the 2nd century CE. Sedentary Arabs who inhabited cities or rural areas (towns, villages or oases). Because they needed to control the Persian Gulf trade route, the Parthians established garrisons in the southern coast of Persian Gulf. He refers to the people in Greek as Khindynoi (Greek , Arabic Kindah), and mentions that they and the tribe of Maadynoi (Greek: , Arabic: Ma'ad) were the two most important tribes in the area in terms of territory and number. [73] According to South Arabian tradition, the eldest son of Noah, Shem, founded the city of Ma'rib.[3]. ", "Egger, Vernon", "Origins" in A History of the Muslim World to 1405: The Making of a Civilization", "(New Jersey: 2005)", "10", "Ware, Timothy", "The Orthodox Church", "(New York:1997)", "67 69". It is often translated as the "Age of Ignorance". 1 (1970), p28. Jadis and Tasm perished because of genocide. "Bowersock", "Brown", and "Grabar", ""Alphabetical Guide" in Late Antiquity: A Guide to the Post-Classical World", "(Cambridge: 2000)", "469". The chief deity of the Qatabanians was Amm, or "Uncle" and the people called themselves the "children of Amm". A. Dome of the Rock B. Temple of Solomon C. Great Shrine . Thus, studies are no longer limited to the written traditions, which are not local due to the lack of surviving Arab historians' accounts of that era; the paucity of material is compensated for by written sources from other cultures (such as Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, etc. Jahiliyyah and How Islam Changed Arabia | Quran For kids Gods and goddesses were worshipped at local shrines, such as the Kaaba in Mecca. It is also important to say. Arrogance of aristocracy, slander. Archaeological exploration in the Arabian peninsula has been sparse; indigenous written sources are limited to the many inscriptions and coins from southern Arabia. Immortality: many practices went on in pre Islamic Arabia which are considered immoral by the standards of Islam which included; Idol worship - commits sins of shirk. Direct link to Saravalenciatorres's post Describe Mecca around the, Posted 3 years ago. See answer (1) Best Answer. These letters and other documents, hint at an administrative relationship between Dilmun and Babylon at that time. [108][109] Buddhism is also but rarely practiced as well. The Greeks also refer to these people as "Tamudaei", i.e. The Age of Ignorance (Arabic: jhilyah / hiliyyah [dhlj.j], "ignorance") is an Islamic concept referring to the period of time and state of affairs in Arabia before the advent of Islam in 610 CE. 39. [60] The southern province of the Sassanids was subdivided into three districts of Haggar (Hofuf, Saudi Arabia), Batan Ardashir (al-Qatif province, Saudi Arabia), and Mishmahig (Muharraq, Bahrain; also referred to as Samahij)[42] (In Middle-Persian/Pahlavi means "ewe-fish". d. The emigrants were from the southern Arab tribe of Azd of the Kahlan branch of Qahtani tribes. Jahiliyyah - Wikipedia The most organized of the Northern Arabian tribes, at the height of their rule in the 6th century BCE, the Kingdom of Qedar spanned a large area between the Persian Gulf and the Sinai. They are also mentioned in the victory annals of the Neo-Assyrian King, Sargon II (8th century BCE), who defeated these people in a campaign in northern Arabia. Justinian viewed his mercenaries as so valued for preventing conflict that he awarded their chief with the titles of patrician, phylarch, and king the highest honours that he could bestow on anyone. The Islamic expansion occurred through military raids, Jihad, tolerance, stipends and taxes. [32] Dilmun was also later on controlled by the Kassite dynasty in Mesopotamia. The kingdom of Hadramaut was eventually conquered by the Himyarite king Shammar Yahri'sh around 300 CE, unifying all of the South Arabian kingdoms.[77]. By Fred McGraw Donner, 11-50. Additionally, the influence of the Sasanian Empire resulted in Iranian religions being present in the peninsula. According to Herodotus, Cambyses did not subdue the Arabs when he attacked Egypt in 525 BCE. [42] The Greek admiral Nearchus is believed to have been the first of Alexander's commanders to visit this islands, and he found a verdant land that was part of a wide trading network; he recorded: "That in the island of Tylos, situated in the Persian Gulf, are large plantations of cotton tree, from which are manufactured clothes called sindones, a very different degrees of value, some being costly, others less expensive. Nabateens Routes. The Parthian dynasty brought the Persian Gulf under their control and extended their influence as far as Oman. a. the masses. Life and Land Use on the Bahrain Islands: The Geoarchaeology of an Ancient Society University Of Chicago Press, 1984. [115] The Ghassanids, as Monophysite Christians from Iraq, believed that God and Jesus Christ were only one nature. [28], Dilmun was mentioned in two letters dated to the reign of Burna-Buriash II (c. 1370 BCE) recovered from Nippur, during the Kassite dynasty of Babylon. Some people in the past doubted their existence, but Imlaq is the singular form of 'Amaleeq and is probably synonymous to the biblical, This page was last edited on 11 February 2023, at 10:51. Part I. Chronological Framework and Historical Sources p.110, George Mendenhall, "Qurayya and the Midianites," in, Peter J. Parr, "Further Reflections on Late Second Millennium Settlement in North West Arabia," in, Rothenberg, "Egyptian Chariots, Midianites from Hijaz/ Midian (Northwest Arabia) and Amalekites from the Negev in the Timna Mines: Rock drawings in the Ancient Copper Mines of the Arabah new aspects of the region's history II,", sfn error: no target: CITEREFLarsen1983 (, Gerrha, The Ancient City Of International Trade . Socio Economic Conditions of Pre Islamic Arabia Introduction If we visualize modern day Arabia, it will be in the image of barren lands, camels, red sands and oil production. Direct link to David Alexander's post Moses and Abraham, in the, Posted 3 years ago. a- Books Purchased from Paragraph Bookstore, McGill College Avenue Mahmood Ibrahim, "Social and Economic . Multiple Choice Ninlil, the Sumerian goddess of air and south wind had her home in Dilmun. After the demise of the Lakhmids, another army was sent to Yemen, making it a province of the Sassanid Empire under a Persian satrap. As a result of this, the Aksumite Empire was able to capture the Himyarite capital of Thifar in the first quarter of the 3rd century. Pre-Islamic Arabia And Its Socio-Religious Condition - Bismika Allahuma [60] He appointed his son Shapur I as governor of Eastern Arabia. Other religions were represented to varying, lesser degrees. A Peninsula which became known to the outside world only after the rise of Islam, as we have been barely told about the importance of Arabia before first century BC. Mahmood Ibrahim traces the roots of capitalism from the emergence of merchants as the main force in Mecca through the first civil war in Islam (-). islamic jurisprudence - Introduction to Islamic Law COURSE INFORMATION It is not clear whether they converted to Judaism or remained pagan, but there is a strong archaeological evidence that they were among the tribes in Dh Nuws' forces during the Jewish king's attempt to suppress Christianity in Yemen. "Dmt" in Siegbert Uhlig, ed., sfn error: no target: CITEREFRohmerCharloux2015 (, sfn error: no target: CITEREFAl-Ansary1999 (, D. H. Mller, Al-Hamdani, 53, 124, W. Caskel, Entdeckungen In Arabien, Koln, 1954, S. 9. The art is similar to that of neighbouring cultures. ), so it was not known in great detail. Political conditions in Arabia before Islam. It was the first of the Yemeni kingdoms to end, and the Minaean language died around 100 CE . There were no signs of order or union in Western Europe, , and the Byzantine and Persian Empires were manifestly bent upon a mutual destruction, . Of Arabic, Gauhati University, Assam. Most of it originates from Hadith and historical traditions, pre-Islamic poetry, and early biographical accounts, or from conclusions from Qur'anic statements. We can say regarding the religious conditions in Pre-Islamic Arabia that polytheism and idol worshipping was the most eminent aspect of the people. The study of Pre-Islamic Arabia is important to Islamic studies as . Ancient South Arabian inscriptions mention a tribe settling in Najd called kdt, who had a king called rbt (Rabi'ah) from w wr-m (the people of Thawr), who had sworn allegiance to the king of Saba' and Dh Raydn. Direct link to Sofia Fitterer's post Did Muhammed always conqu, Posted 3 years ago. Additionally, from the second half of the second millennium BCE,[3] Southern Arabia was the home to a number of kingdoms such as the Sabaeans, Minaeans, and Eastern Arabia was inhabited by Semitic speakers who presumably migrated from the southwest, such as the so-called Samad population. Arabia was a highly tribal land governed by tribal politics 29. . The Byzantine historian Procopius, who witnessed the plague, documented that citizens died at a rate of 10,000 per day in Constantinople. [citation needed] Recent archaeological work has revealed numerous Thamudic rock writings and pictures. Islam, essentially Arabian in nature, whatever superficial external influences may have affected it, is Arabia's outstanding contribution to world civilization. Religion in pre-Islamic Arabia was a mix of polytheism, Christianity, Judaism, and Iranian religions. The Kindites were polytheistic until the 6th century CE, with evidence of rituals dedicated to the idols Athtar and Khil found in their ancient capital in south-central Arabia (present day Saudi Arabia). The most powerful Arabs were mostly capitalists (rich people) and money lenders. The use of these is not confined to India, but extends to Arabia. Kitchen The World of "Ancient Arabia" Series. [63], During Minaean rule, the capital was at Karna (now known as Sa'dah). Migration: Importance and implications 5. Here, according to Agatharchides, they were for a time very troublesome, as wreckers and pirates, to the reopened commerce between Egypt and the East, until they were chastised by the Ptolemaic rulers of Alexandria. c. the sale of the woman to her husband in exchange for a dowry. Muslim warfare was set for defeat, but became matchless and unconquerable . Votive alabaster figurines from Yemen that represent seated women and female heads; 3rd-1st century BC; National Museum of Oriental Art (Rome, Italy), Stele, male wearing a baldric an iconic artwork for pre-Islamic Arabia; 4th millennium BCE, Al-'Ula (Saudi Arabia); exhibition at the National Museum of Korea (Seoul), Another anthropomorphic stele from pre-Islamic Saudi Arabia. [66][68] Christianity's significance was diminished by the arrival of Islam in Eastern Arabia by 628. The Ghassanid emigration has been passed down in the rich oral tradition of southern Syria. [53][54] This theory was accepted by the 19th-century German classicist Arnold Heeren who said that: "In the Greek geographers, for instance, we read of two islands, named Tyrus or Tylos, and Arad, Bahrain, which boasted that they were the mother country of the Phoenicians, and exhibited relics of Phoenician temples. [11] It was the dominant state in Arabia until 525 AD. The proverb "They were scattered like the people of Saba" refers to that exodus in history. Pre-Islamic Yemen produced stylized alabaster (the most common material for sculpture) heads of great aesthetic and historic charm. During the 3rd century CE, the South Arabian kingdoms were in continuous conflict with one another. Here, China has become more willing to share sensitive military technology and cooperate in research and development with regional partners in the Middle East. "State and Society in Pre-Islamic Arabia." In The Early Islamic Conquests. [82] The Lihyanite kingdom went through three different stages, the early phase of Lihyan Kingdom was around the 7th century BC, started as a Sheikdom of Dedan then developed into the Kingdom of Lihyan tribe. [64] It included Bahrain, Tarout Island, Al-Khatt, Al-Hasa, and Qatar. They participated in the Second Persian invasion of Greece (479-480 BCE) while also helping the Achaemenids invade Egypt by providing water skins to the troops crossing the desert.[93]. People lived in that age described themselves as being uncivilized; the powerful oppressed the weak, there were no laws in society, and bloodshed was so common and normal. Some Sabaeans also lived in D'mt, located in Eritrea and northern Ethiopia, due to their hegemony over the Red Sea. But before that let me parcel an interesting side of . The Geography of Arabia | A Restatement of the History of Islam and Study with Quizlet and memorize flashcards containing terms like In what year did Muhammad die?, What group was the most important political and military force in pre-Islamic Arabia?, The presence of the Ka'ba attracted pilgrims to what city?