Ancient Arabia and the Mecca of the Kaaba
Incense caravans, Nabataean cities, Bedouin poetry and the pilgrimage shrine of Mecca shape the Arabia into which Islam is born.
- Arabia and the Arabs: From the Bronze Age to the Coming of Islam — Robert G. Hoyland, Routledge (2001)
- Hegra Archaeological Site (al-Hijr / Mada'in Salih) — UNESCO World Heritage Centre (2008)
- Muhammad and the Believers: At the Origins of Islam — Fred M. Donner, Harvard University Press (2010)
- Muhammad — Encyclopaedia Britannica
For more than a thousand years before Islam, camel caravans carried frankincense and myrrh from southern Arabia up the western side of the peninsula to Mediterranean markets. Oasis kingdoms grew rich on the trade: the Nabataeans, best known for Petra in Jordan, carved more than a hundred monumental tombs at Hegra (al-Hijr) in the first century CE, now the kingdom’s first UNESCO World Heritage site.
- Arabia and the Arabs: From the Bronze Age to the Coming of Islam — Robert G. Hoyland, Routledge (2001)
- Hegra Archaeological Site (al-Hijr / Mada'in Salih) — UNESCO World Heritage Centre (2008)
Most Arabians were nomadic or settled tribespeople, with a rich oral poetry that celebrated courage, generosity and tribal honour. By the sixth century Mecca, a trading town of the Quraysh tribe, was the guardian of the Kaaba, a shrine visited in annual pilgrimage. Muslims believe it was built by Abraham and Ishmael for the worship of the one God, and that its idols were later additions. Into this world the Prophet Muhammad was born around 570; his story, and the birth of Islam, are told in the Islam profile.
- Arabia and the Arabs: From the Bronze Age to the Coming of Islam — Robert G. Hoyland, Routledge (2001)
- Muhammad and the Believers: At the Origins of Islam — Fred M. Donner, Harvard University Press (2010)
- Muhammad — Encyclopaedia Britannica
Why it matters today
Saudis traditionally called the pre-Islamic age the jahiliyya, "the age of ignorance", and taught little about it. Since the 2010s the state has embraced it as heritage, opening Hegra and AlUla to visitors, while the poetry, tribal values and hospitality of ancient Arabia have always remained part of Saudi identity.