Jahiliyyah - Political aspects of Pre-Islamic Arabia

Jahiliyyah - Political aspects of Pre-Islamic Arabia

Sixth century Arabia was a confused and politically unstable time.
The old civilisation of South Arabia had broken down, and Yemen had been invaded by Abyssinia
Abyssinia = modern Ethiopia
Abyssinia had been Christianised by the Christian Empire of Byzantine.
Abyssinia, by converting to Monophysitism, became a client state of Byzantium.
Monophysitism = a heretical form of Christianity, which believed that Christ only had one nature.
The ruler of Abyssinia, the Negus, was then encouraged by Byzantium to infiltrate Yemen to bring it under the control of Constantinople.
Constantinople = modern Istanbul. It is also the capital of Byzantium.
Another political power was the Persian Empire, the Sassanids.
The Sassanids and the Byzantines were locked in a centuries-old struggle.
This made Arabia an important buffer zone between the two empires.
In 510, Yusuf As’ai converted to Judaism and became known as Dhu Nuwas
Dhu Nuwas = He of the Hanging Locks.
Yusuf As’ai was the King of South Arabia
As’ai converted to Judaism because he knew that the Sassanids favoured Judaism against the Christianity of Byzantium.
However, As’ai’s attempt to gain patronage from the Sassanids failed and his Jewish Kingdom in South Arabia fell to the Byzantine’s in 525.
Eventually, King Khusrua of the Sassanids did invade the region in 570
This made the kingdom of South Arabia a colony of the Sassanid Empire.
This time the Christian heresy of Nestorianism became the official religion.
Nestorianism = Jesus has two separate natures; human and divine
As a consequence the Beoudin Arabs of the Hijaz and Najd regions became suspicious of both Judaism and Christianity.
In the North of Arabia, there was a similar pattern.
The two great powers, Byzantium and the Sassanids, fought for control over Arabia, Byzantium had encouraged Arabs on the northern border of Arabia to convert to Christianity and build monasteries there.
Eventually the tribe of Ghassan in the north of Arabia converted to Monophysite Christianity and became confederates of the Byzantines.
The Ghassan tribe formed a buffer state which was supposed to defend Byzantium from the Sassanid Empire.
Sassanids were able to retaliate.
The Lachmid Arabs of eastern Syria became Nestorians, a faith favoured by Persian Arabs.
The Sassanids appointed the Lachmid rulers to guard their borders against the Byzantine Empire.
However, towards the end of the sixth century, both the Byzantines and the Sassanids withdrew their support from these tribes.