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In pre-Islamic Arabia, while there were a number of faiths with a noteworthy presence—including Christianity, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, and Mandaeism—the dominant religious practice was that of Arab polytheism, which was based on the veneration of various deities and spirits, such as the god Hubal and the goddesses al-Lāt, al-‘Uzzā, and Manāt.
Deities formed a part of the polytheistic religious beliefs in pre-Islamic Arabia, with many of the deities' names known. [1] Up until about the time between the fourth century AD and the emergence of Islam, polytheism was the dominant form of religion in Arabia. Deities represented the forces of nature, love, death, and so on, and were ...
Pre-Islamic Arabia is the Arabian Peninsula and its northern extension in the Syrian Desert before the rise of Islam. This is consistent with how contemporaries used the term Arabia or where they said Arabs lived, which was not limited to the peninsula. [1] Pre-Islamic Arabia included both nomadic and settled populations.
For approximately a millennium, the Abrahamic religions have been predominant throughout all of the Middle East. [1] [2] [3] The Abrahamic tradition itself and the three best-known Abrahamic religions originate from the Middle East: Judaism and Christianity emerged in the Levant in the 6th century BCE and the 1st century CE, respectively, while Islam emerged in Arabia in the 7th century CE.
Religion always played a prevalent role in Middle Eastern culture, affecting learning, architecture, and the ebb and flow of cultures. Muhammad 's introduction of Islam inspired achievements in architecture , the revival of old advances in science and technology, and the formation of a distinct way of life.
The Ancient Gods: The History and Diffusion of Religion in the Ancient Near East and the Eastern Mediterranean, 1960. Leick, Gwendolyn. A Dictionary of Ancient Near Eastern Mythology Routledge, London & New York, 2003. Pritchard, James B., (ed.). The Ancient Near East: An Anthology of Texts and Pictures. Princeton University Press, New Jersey ...
570 – 632: The life of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. 632: Work began on the compilation of the Quran into the form of a book (soon to be known as Mashaf-ul-Hafsa), in the era of Abu Bakr, the first Caliph of Islam. 632 – 661: The Rashidun Caliphate heralded the Arab conquest of Persia, Egypt and Iraq, bringing Islam to those regions.
Christianity was a prominent monotheistic religion in pre-Islamic Arabia. Christianization was a major phenomena in Arabian late antiquity, driven by missionary activities from Syrian Christians in the north and by Christianity's entrenchment in South Arabia after the conquest of this area (518 to 525) by the Ethiopian Christian Kingdom of Aksum.