Pre-Islamic Arabia and the World of Mecca

The Arabian Peninsula that gave birth to Islam was a land of harsh contrasts, ranging from the vast deserts of the Rub al-Khali and the Nefud to fertile oases and the relatively lush coastal region of Yemen, known to outsiders since antiquity as "Arabia Felix." Society was organized around tribes (qaba'il) bound by patrilineal descent and a fierce group solidarity the Arabs called 'asabiyya, and within this tribal world lived both nomadic Bedouin herders of camels and settled populations clustered around oases and trading towns. Among these towns, Mecca and Yathrib (later Medina) stood out as major commercial centers in the Hijaz, the western region of Arabia through which caravans carried frankincense, spices, and other goods along the route linking Yemen to Syria and, ultimately, the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean. By the sixth and seventh centuries the Quraysh tribe dominated Mecca and controlled this lucrative regional trade.