"The Early Muslim Arabs" Topic

Origins, Unification and Early Warfare.

"The Arabs are one of the two main contemporary populations of the Semitic language group. The other populations who constitute that group are the Jews and the Semitic-speaking peoples of Eritrea and Ethiopia. However the Semitic-speaking Eritreans and Ethiopians are of Kushite origins. The cradle of the ancient Arabs is the extensive Peninsula still bearing their name (other theories place their cradle in southern Mesopotamia and Armenia). The northern Arabs – the inhabitants of the central and northern Arabian Peninsula – were a nomadic people with mainly livestock economy, who used to raid neighboring countries. Their language became the basis of the later classic Arabic. The southern Arabs whose language differed from the Northern Arabian one, were a settled people living in Southwestern Arabia, with a mixed agriculture and livestock economy. Since the beginnings of the first millennium BC, they developed a remarkable ancient culture (kingdoms of the Sabaeans [Saba, ‘Sheba'], of the Himyarites and others). The pre-Islamic Arabian religion was polytheistic and quite resembled the religions of other Semitic peoples.

Due to the Islamic domination in the countries of the Fertile Crescent (Syria, Palestine and Mesopotamia), the Arabs assimilated the preexisting Semitic peoples, namely the Aramaeans, the Canaanites/Phoenicians, the descendants of the Assyro-Babylonians and others who almost all of them spoke the Aramaic language which completely dominated this region from the 2nd century B.C. and was much akin to Arabic. On the other hand, the modern Arabs of North Africa are not Semitic in origin in their overwhelming majority, being Arabized descendants of Hamites, namely Egyptians and Libyans/Berbers (the latter in Libya and the Maghreb). However the Hamites are the closest relatives of the Semites and the Hamitic peoples have fully adopted the Arabic language and customs: the only exception are the Berbers of Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Mali and a few other West African countries that have maintained their Hamitic language and customs but are profoundly influenced by the Arabic culture. The Arabs of Sudan, Mauritania, Mali, Zanzibar and other countries are mainly descendants of Arabized Kushites, Berbers and black Africans.

The Arabs were well known in the Greco-Roman and the Iranian world. Several of their tribes migrated and settled in the Fertile Crescent before the Muslim conquest (until the 6th century AD). Such Arabic peoples were the Ituraeans, Saphaites (possibly a tribal offshoot of the Sabaeans), Nabataeans, Emeseni (of Emesa), Palmyrans, Hirani (of Hira), Gassanids, Lakhmids and others. After all, the Aramaic tribes who had settled in early Antiquity in the same area are considered by some scholars as proto-Arab colonizers (I do not share this view although the Aramaeans were akin to the Arabs). In other cases, the existing Semitic tribes mixed with the Arab newcomers giving them their tribal name, as in the case of the Edomites (of Edom) who were Arabized and became known as Idumaeans (a Hellenized version of the Aramaean "Edom"). Saint Paul (the Apostle) was partly Jew, Idumaean and Nabataean…"

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Amicalement
Armand

THE EARLY MUSLIM ARABS (Part II): Origins, Unification and Warfare

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The subjugation of powerful Mecca to the Muslim state impressed the northern Arab tribes, and thereby many of them embraced Islam. Those tribes who did not accept the new faith marched against Muhammad, who confronted them in the battle of Hunayn (630). Although a part of his army was defeated and dissolved, he and his veterans managed to repel their opponents, eventually reversing the situation in favor of the Muslim army and finally defeating the enemy. The Muslim state was extended to Yemen and the shores of the Persian Gulf (mostly in modern Oman), generally including the greater part of the Arabian Peninsula. At the end of 630, Muhammad led 30,000 warriors to the borders of Byzantine Syria making alliances with the tribes of the Arabo-Syrian desert: it was a portent of the coming Arabic invasion in the Byzantine territory.
Two years later, Muhammad died in Yathrib and his death led many Arab tribal leaders to revolt against Muslim power. Thus the "War of Secession" started. In 632-633 the aforementioned General Khalid ibn al Walid (see part I) who was converted to Islam, marched against the rebellious tribes, defeating them one by one and consolidating the integrity of the state. Khalid who was nicknamed "the sword of God" evolved to the most formidable Muslim general of the 7th century. Meanwhile, Abu Bakr (Muhammad's father-in-law) was elected as successor of Muhammad and Caliph of the believers (political, religious and military leader of all Muslims), an election that was strongly contested by the supporters of Ali, the Prophet's favorite son-in-law. The controversy over this election became ‘eternal', later leading to the deeper schism of the Islamic world: the religious division between Sunnis (the descendants of the supporters of Abu Bakr) and Shia (descendants of the supporters of Ali).
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ARAB and MUSLIM WARFARE OF THE 2nd quarter of the 7th century

Considering the warfare of the early Islamic armies till the middle 7th century, the cavalry was their main weapon. All wealthy Arabs, nomadic or sedentary, dwelling in villages or oases fought as horsemen, using mainly spear and sword. The sedentary Arabs used to send their sons in nomadic tribes to learn the martial art. The infantry was numerous enough before 638 AD and included swordsmen – sometimes bearing mail cuirass – javeliners, archers, slingers and a few spearmen. The Yemeni javeliners were renowned as armed escorts for trade caravans…"
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