Mosamania
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Bedouins And Arabia (A Short Review of History)
I have made this thread to correct a wide spread belief by None-Arabians (And by Arabians I mean Peninsular People) about the history, culture and civilization of Arabia since Antiquity. So here we go:
1- Where did Arabians come from?
While there is still debate on how long have there been an active population in Arabia, what is certain is that mass Immigration fueled most of population, Immigration into Arabia came from a variety of different places at different time intervals, but the most prominent areas of which Arabians came from are: Babylonia, Assyria, Yemen and Egypt. The immigration into Arabia took on full force during 1200BC-400BC. It was fueled by a Myriad of different political and logistical needs, that drove people to settle in mostly either coastal (Fishing) or Oasis & Mountain (Farming and hunting). And there was those who took on the life of wanderers from one Oasis to the next throughout the year to raise their cattle. Those are the Bedouins.
2- What was life like in Arabia since time antiquity?
Most of the population of Arabia lived in City States not unlike Greek City States (Mecca, Yathrib, Taif, Tamim, Tabuk,etc.) and those constitute approximately 70% of the Arabian Population, people lived through, Farming, Hunting, Fishing and most importantly Trade. These cities were run by the way of a Noble Democracy where the Nobles of each City State form a Senate like body for which they discussed how to steer their City States in time of conflict or other such times. And looking into pre-Islamic Arabian history one can find many examples that all city states was run by a Noble Democratic means and there was no single one set ruler except rarely (Kulaib for example). Most of these cities were walled, had neighborhoods, intricate water and irrigation systems. It had (Book Houses) which served as both a library and a school (Mostly only nobles gave their children education, which is true for most of other civilization at the time) and this has been glossed over by the Epic of Adi for example.
3- What was the status of the Bedouins in Arabia?
Bedouin in Arabic comes from the word (Badu) which literally means (Just started) it is theorized that it is given to them for either one of two reasons: A- They are always starting a new life in a new location. 2- A derogatory term given to them by City Dwellers as (They just started in the path of civilization and are not fully there yet). In General City Dwellers did not like to deal much with Bedouins which we can see in both Quran and Hadith, and more importantly from Arabic poetic and none-poetic recorded history.
4- Why do most None-Arabians associate Arabia with Bedouins?
This has much to do with modern media depiction and needless romanticism made by other forms of literature, since painting entire people with a single brush and taking the most eccentric of them gives in general a better reception of such media it has been engraved that Arabians were mostly Bedouins.
Post-Islamic historians tend to defame Pre-Islamic Arabia for mostly propaganda purposes, like (Al-Jahelya Age etc.) where in fact Arabia was a thriving civilization of a number of City States, some Major other Minor, while true there were practices that were connected to the Gods worshiped at the time, but which polytheist civilization hasn't? I read something funny from an Iranian member the other day that Arabs at the time of Mohammed had only 6 people who knew how to read and write, which is quite funny and ludicrous on why did 6 people create an entire alphabet just between themselves, this however is just one of many many examples of people either getting their hsitory through propaganda means or through means that are only speculating.
If you have any further questions I will be more than glad to answer them,
