preIslamicera

Pre-Islamic era, also known as the Jahiliyyah in Islamic tradition, refers to the period in the Arabian Peninsula and neighboring regions before the rise of Islam in the 7th century CE. The exact dating varies by region, but most scholars place the end of the era around the early 7th century, culminating with the Prophet Muhammad's mission and the Hijra (c. 610–622 CE).

Geography and polities of the period were diverse. In the south, the Sabaean, Minaean, and Himyarite kingdoms influenced extensive irrigation networks, writing systems, and trade, connecting the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. In the north and central areas, tribes and city-states such as the Nabataeans, Lihyans, and other Arab groups formed caravan-based economies, oasis settlements, and urban centers.

Culture and society centered on kinship, tribal codes, and oral tradition. Poetry and song were highly valued, with poetic works and epics preserved in later anthologies and shaping early Islamic literature. Economic life revolved around long-distance trade networks linking Yemen, the Levant, and the broader Indian Ocean world, with Mecca and other Hijazi towns emerging as major commercial hubs. Religious life was broadly polytheistic, with regional cults and deities worshiped in temples and shrines; the Kaaba housed various idols before the advent of Islam.

Sources and evidence come from inscriptions in Old South Arabian, Nabataean, and other scripts, as well as archaeological remains, coins, and later literary references. Islamic historians later framed the period in moralizing terms, but modern scholarship treats it as a diverse and dynamic era marked by trade, cultural exchange, and evolving social structures.

With the rise of Islam in the early 7th century and its rapid expansion, the pre-Islamic era gave way to new religious, political, and social orders across the Arabian Peninsula and beyond. The label remains a historiographical category reflecting transition as well as continuity.