Pre-Islamic Arabia: Arabia's Neighbours 🚪

In spite of being deep in the deserts of the Arabian Peninsula, far from more advanced civilisations, the Arabs were not completely isolated from their neighbours.

The Romans had become a regional superpower along the northern border in the early decades CE. By putting down numerous Jewish revolts in the province of Syria Palestina, the Romans stamped their control on the area. For the Bedouin Arabs, this meant the presence of a wealthy and strong trading partner to the north. Merchants regularly traversed the wester part of the peninsula from Yemen in the south to Syria in the north, trading goods that came from places as far away as India and Italy. The Romans were content to remain in the more hospitable and familiar lands of the Fertile Crescent and let the nomadic Arabs carry on the trade with more distant lands.

To the northeast of Arabia lies the Iranian Plateau. The rise of the Sassanid Dynasty in Persia in the 200s CE ushered in a centuries-long struggle between the Romans and the Persians, which would have its effect on the Arabs. The border between the two great Empires fluctuated, but was generally in the Syrian Desert, in the northern part of the Arabian Peninsula. Both the Romans and the Persians attempted to gain the upper hand by using the Arab tribes (usually ones that had converted to Christianity) as proxies. The Ghassanids founded a kingdom in what are now the modern countries of Jordan, Syrian and Palestine, where they served as a buffer for the Roman Empire. Similarly, the Lakhmids controlled southern Mesopotamia and served the Persians. Both Arab kingdoms were greatly influenced by their overlords, who spent heavily on keeping their vassals well equipped in the face of the enemy. Yet the constant warfare between the two sides would slowly wear down all four parties. By the early 600s, the Romans and Persians were exhausted by decades of warfare and were weakening behind a façade of militaristic power. The Ghassanids and Lakhmids too felt the stress of war, as they were mere pawns in this constant conflict. Most Arab tribes, however, avoided the external conflict between the two imperial powers. They were more interested in carrying on a profitable trade with the two warring Empires than helping to decide the winner.