Pre-Islamic Arabia and Early Islam

Writing the social and religious history of Arabia in the centuries preceding the rise of Islam presents a number of challenges – particularly in the Ḥijāz, the region of the western Arabian Peninsula most closely associated with the life of the Prophet Muḥammad (ca. 570–632 CE). These challenges stem primarily from the relative paucity of evidence and the fact that, in many cases, the narrative sources are much later than the events they depict. However, scholarly studies of recent years have advanced the field considerably and the benefit of a holistic approach, which takes into account all source types, including material evidence, has been understood. We are starting to get a picture of pre-Islamic Arabia that is full of life, religious ideas, and historical phenomena and that is not isolated from the world of late antiquity but is, instead, an intrinsic part of it. This article surveys the available evidence on religious, social, and linguistic history of Arabia before Islam, with an emphasis on the late antique period.