Religion in pre-Islamic Arabia included indigenous Arabian polytheism, ancient Semitic religions, Christianity, Judaism, Mandaeism, and Zoroastrianism.
Mecca is the capital of Mecca Province in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia and the holiest city in Islam. It is 70 km (43 mi) inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow valley 277 m (909 ft) above sea level. Its last recorded population was 1,578,722 in 2015. Its estimated metropolitan population in 2020 is 2.042 million, making it the third-most populated city in Saudi Arabia after Riyadh and Jeddah. Pilgrims more than triple this number every year during the Ḥajj pilgrimage, observed in the twelfth Hijri month of Dhūl-Ḥijjah.
Yanbu, also known simply as Yambu or Yenbo, is a city in the Al Madinah Province of western Saudi Arabia. It is approximately 300 kilometers northwest of Jeddah. The population is 222,360. Many residents are foreign expatriates working in the oil refineries and petrochemical industry, mostly from Asia, but there are also large numbers from the Middle East, Europe, and North America.
The Ghassanids (Arabic: الغساسنة, romanized: al-Ġasāsina, also Banu Ghassān, also called the Jafnids, were an Arab tribe which founded a kingdom. They emigrated from South Arabia in the early third century to the Levant. Some merged with Hellenized Christian communities, converting to Christianity in the first few centuries, while others may have already been Christians before emigrating north to escape religious persecution.
The Himyarite Kingdom or Himyar, historically referred to as the Homerite Kingdom by the Greeks and the Romans, was a polity in the southern highlands of Yemen, as well as the name of the region which it claimed. Until 110 BCE, it was integrated into the Qatabanian kingdom, afterwards being recognized as an independent kingdom. According to classical sources, their capital was the ancient city of Zafar, relatively near the modern-day city of Sana'a. Himyarite power eventually shifted to Sana'a as the population increased in the fifth century. After the establishment of their kingdom, it was ruled by kings from dhū-Raydān tribe. The kingdom was named Raydān.
Aromata, also called the Spice Port, was an emporium and seaport in the Horn of Africa, today a part of Somalia. It lay near the tip of Cape Guardafui, which was itself called the "promontory of spices". It was notable for its produce of resins and various herbs.
Adulis was an ancient city along the Red Sea in the Gulf of Zula, about 40 kilometers (25 mi) south of Massawa. Its ruins lie within the modern Eritrean city of Zula. It was the emporium considered part of the D’mt and Kingdom of Aksum. It was close to Greece and the Byzantine Empire, with its luxury goods and trade routes. Its location can be included in the area known to the ancient Egyptians as the Land of Punt, perhaps coinciding with the locality of Wddt, recorded in the geographical list of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt.
Abraha, also known as Abrahah al-Ashram, was an Aksumite general, then the viceroy of South Arabia for the Kingdom of Aksum, and later declared himself an independent King of Himyar, even though he ruled much as a viceroy, relied heavily upon Axumite backing, and ran his kingdom with Axumite customs and religion. Abraha ruled parts of southern Arabia including much of what is now Yemen from around 531–547 CE to around 555–570 CE.
Kaleb, also known as Saint Elesbaan, was King of Aksum, which was situated in modern-day Eritrea and Ethiopia.
South Arabia is a historical region that consists of the southern region of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia, mainly centered in what is now the Republic of Yemen, yet it has also historically included Najran, Jizan, Al-Bahah, and 'Asir, which are presently in Saudi Arabia, and the Dhofar of present-day Oman.
The Monumentum Adulitanum was an ancient bilingual inscription in Ge'ez and Greek depicting the military campaigns of an anonymous Axumite king. The original text was inscribed on a throne in Adulis written in Ge'ez in both the Ge'ez script and Sabean alphabet, while the Greek was written in the Greek alphabet. The monument was found in the port city state of Adulis. Though the inscription and the monument have never been located by archaeologists, it is known about through the copying of the inscription by Cosmas Indicopleustes, a 6th-century Greek traveller-monk. The text narrates the King's military campaigns in Agame, Simien and the Arabian Peninsula between 200 and 270 AD.
The Banu Kalb was an Arab tribe which mainly dwelt in the desert and steppe of northwestern Arabia and central Syria. It was involved in the tribal politics of the Byzantine Empire's eastern frontiers, possibly as early as the 4th century. By the 6th century, the Kalb had largely adopted Christianity and came under the authority of the Ghassanids, leaders of the Byzantines' Arab allies. During the lifetime of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, a few of his close companions were Kalbites, most prominently Zayd ibn Haritha and Dihya, but the bulk of the tribe remained Christian at the time of Muhammad's death in 632. They began converting in large numbers when the Muslims made significant progress in the conquest of Byzantine Syria, in which the Kalb stayed neutral. As a massive nomadic tribe with considerable military experience, the Kalb was sought as a key ally by the Muslim state. The leading clans of the Kalb forged marital ties with the Umayyad family, and the tribe became the military foundation of the Syria-based Umayyad Caliphate (661–750) from the reign of Mu'awiya I to the early reign of Abd al-Malik.
The ancient history of South Arabia or Yemen is especially important because it is one of the oldest centers of civilization in the Near East. Its relatively fertile land and adequate rainfall in a moister climate helped sustain a stable population, a feature recognized by the ancient Greek geographer Ptolemy, who described Yemen as Eudaimon Arabia meaning Fortunate Arabia or Happy Arabia. Between the eighth century BCE and the sixth century CE, it was dominated by six main states which rivaled each other, or were allied with each other and controlled the lucrative spice trade: Saba', Ma'īn, Qatabān, Hadhramaut, Kingdom of Awsan, and the Himyarite Kingdom. Islam arrived in 630 CE and Yemen became part of the Muslim realm.
The provinces of Eritrea existed since pre-Axumite times and became administrative provinces from Eritrea's incorporation as a colony of Italy until the conversion of the provinces into administrative regions. Many of the provinces had their own local laws since the 13th century.
The Nabataean Kingdom, also named Nabatea, was a political state of the Nabataeans during classical antiquity.
The Kingdom of Aksum, also known as the Kingdom of Axum, the City-State of Axum, or the Aksumite Empire, was centered in East Africa and South Arabia from Classical antiquity to the Middle Ages. Based primarily in what is now Eritrea and Northern Ethiopia, and spanning Djibouti and Sudan, it extended at its height into much of Southern Arabia during the reign of Kaleb, King of Axum.
Barbaria was the name used by the ancient Greeks for littoral northeast Africa. The corresponding Arabic term, bilad al-Barbar, was used in the Middle Ages. The name of Barbaria is preserved today in the name of the Somali city of Berbera, the city known to the Greeks as Malao.
Qaryat Al Faw was the capital of the first Kindah kingdom. It is located about 100 km south of Wadi ad-Dawasir, and about 700 km southwest of Riyadh, the capital city of Saudi Arabia. The Al Faw archeological site reveals various features such as residential houses, markets, roads, cemeteries, temples, and water wells.
SumyafaʿAshwaʿ was the king of Ḥimyar under the Aksumite Empire from 525/531 until 535.
The Aksumite invasion of Himyar consisted of a series of two invasions from 518 to 525 fought between the Christian Kingdom of Aksum and the Jewish Himyarite Kingdom. The wars functioned as proxy wars waged by the former on behalf of the Roman Empire during the Roman-Persian Wars with the ultimate goal of establishing an anti-Sasanid bloc in Arabia Felix.
