| The Muslim community emerged in seventh century Arabia in a region dominated by ancient civilizations, empires, cultures, and ethnic groups. Traces of Mesopotamian culture still survived in the Tigris and Euphrates valleys, and the areas bordering the Mediterranean and the Gulf had long felt the impact of the adjoining powers that plied the maritime trade in these waters. Byzantium, the Eastern Roman and Orthodox state based in Constantinople, was the primary Christian kingdom in the region and at odds with the powerful Zoroastrian Sasanian Empire based in Persia (modern Iran). The ebb and flow of conflict between the various major states influenced trade as well as relations with the prosperous region of Arabia to the south. The history of some of the ancient Arab kingdoms is still preserved in archaeological remains, such as those of the Nabateans at Petra (first century BC—first century AD), Palmyra (second—third century AD), and of the Ghassanids in later centuries, whose patrons were the Byzantines and the Lakhmids, who gave allegiance to the Sasanian Empire. |
This rock relief from Magshi-i Rus Van depicts Ardeshir I, founder of the Sasanian dynasty,
facing a hostile Parthian warrior.
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| A major influence on intellectual life that was to emerge in the Muslim world came from the academies and learning institutions that preserved influences from Persia, Greece, and India. In particular, the Hellenistic and Persian legacies in the fields of medicine, the sciences, and philosophy would bring about a strong tradition of intellectual inquiry in Muslim societies. |
| The cultures in the regions were influenced by the cosmopolitan nature of this Mediterranean world to different degrees, preserving the heritage of classical antiquity and the Hellenistic legacy in its various forms, architectural, philosophical, artistic, urban, and agricultural. Of the major religions in the region, Christianity in its orthodox form also held sway in southern Arabia while Zoroastrianism predominated in Iran and Mesopotamia. Judaism had a long history in the Near East and small Jewish communities had also settled in Yemen and the oases of Arabia, such as Medina. The inherited values, literature, and practices of all these traditions coexisted in this vast, multi-faith and multi-ethnic milieu, which within a century of the death of the Prophet Muhammad would be overtaken by Muslim conquest. Over time it would form part of a larger set of civilizations linked by the faith of Islam, while still preserving continuities with the various heritages of antiquity. |
Arabia before the Muslim conquests
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