Economic The area around Mecca before Islam had been a culturally isolated and economically underdeveloped region.

Most of the land is arid and desert, rainfall is scarce, vegetation scant, and a very little of the land is suitable for agriculture. Despite that, Mecca has a significant advantage which is two ancient caravan routes met there. An east-to-west route ran from Africa through the peninsula to Iran and Central Asia, and northwest-southeast route brought the spies of India to the Mediterranean world. Economically, there are 3 major business activities in Mecca which are livestock-breeding, trading and agriculture or farming. The family who has a livestock is considered as rich. The common animals are camel, sheep, goat and cow. For the trading business, there are family businesses of merchant, forgery, textiles and other certain profitable skills. The Jews were the leaders of Arabia. They were the owners of the best arable lands in Hijaz, and they were the best farmers in the country. They were also the entrepreneurs of such industries as existed in Arabia in those days, and they enjoyed a monopoly of the armaments industry. Slavery was an economic institution of the Arabs. Male and female slaves were sold and bought like animals, and they formed the most depressed class of the Arabian society. The most powerful class of the Arabs was made up by the capitalists and money-lenders. The rates of interest which they charged on loans were exorbitant, and were especially designed to make them richer and richer and the borrowers poorer and poorer. The most important urban centers of Arabia were Mecca and Yathrib, both in Hijaz. The citizens of Mecca were mostly merchants, traders and money-lenders. Their caravans traveled in summer to Syria and in winter to Yemen. They also traveled to Bahrain in the east and to Iraq in the northeast. The caravan trade was basic to the economy of Mecca, and its organization called for considerable skill, experience and ability.