“Critical Analysis of Socioeconomic conditions and customs in

Jahiliyyah (Pre-Islamic Arabia)”

Islamic Jurisprudence Assignment

(2020 - 21)

Submitted by

Apoorva Pandita
201903498
BA. LLB. (III) (regular)

Faculty of Law, Jamia Millia Islamia

Submitted to: Dr Ghulam Yazdani, Associate Professor (Faculty of Law,

Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi)

(4th November, 2020)

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Acknowledgement
 
I would like to take this opportunity to express special gratitude to my teacher Dr. Ghulam  
Yazdani, who gave me the wonderful opportunity to do this Islamic Jurisprudence
assignment on the topic “Critical Analysis of Socioeconomic conditions and customs in
Jahiliyyah (Pre-Islamic Arabia)”. The opportunity to participate in this assignment has helped
me to improve my research skills and, I am really grateful to him. It helped me in building
my concepts. I would like to thank my family and friends for their constant support and help
whenever I required.

(Apoorva Pandita)

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 Table of Contents

S.no Heading name Page no.

.
1 Acknowledgement 2
2 Table of Contents 3
3 Abstract 4
4 Introduction 4-5
5 The Background 5-8
6 Customs and condition of Women 9-11
7 Political outlook of Arabia before Islam 12-13
8 Educational Conditions 13-14
9 Societal Conditions 14-15
10 Religious Conditions 15-16
11 Economic outlook of that period 16-20
12 Conclusion 20
13 Bibliography 21

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Abstract
This study aims at illuminating the various institution, customs, traditions and practices in
the pre‐Islamic period (AlJahiliyya). The social, economic, political and educational
conditions have also been critically analyzed. Therefore, an attempt to show how pre-islamic
arabians used to live their lives and how eventually the commoners were enlightened to the
concept of Islam. The trade routes, market places, marriage practices and geographical
importance of Arabia which resulted in it being established as one of the most important
trade hubs of that time have also been explicated.

Keywords: Jahiliyyah, Mecca, Arabs, Islam, culture, customs

Introduction

To comprehend the religion that Prophet Muhammad passed on and the impacts that this
religion had on society it is important to comprehend to a limited extent highlights of the
climate in which Prophet Muhammad lived. Uncovering this cycle, which straightforwardly
influenced the presence of Islamic culture, won't just assist us to understand the situation of
Prophet Muhammad in the general public in which he lived for a very long time before his
prophethood, yet additionally will give an occasion to figure out how much that society
changed with the emergence of Islam. The time frame before the disclosures, which has
consistently been perceived by Muslims all through history as "The Age of Ignorance".

Mecca in its early period had no political power as such. It was majorly in control of
Himyarites in Yemen who looked upon to spread their hegemony over many profitable
regions of Arabia like Najd, Oman and Bahrain. Mecca was of great importance due to its
location basically, which was near the most important trade route in western Arabia which
linked the surplus producing region of Yemen with Syria. The route Branch near Ayla hey in
the North to proceed to Mecca on the Mediterranean and also to Egypt. Another route
branched near Mecca hey to proceed in a northeasterly direction toward al-ubula, hira, and
eventually Persia. The commercially advantageous location of Mecca walls in hands further
by zamzam water well which made make a convenient stop in the trade of antiquity. Also the
concept of Haram, the sacred area, and its center, the Kaaba made maker the object of
pilgrimage during the sacred months.

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During these months, pilgrims or merchant traveled with security of life and property and
went to Mecca to trade their commodities. Not all tribes in the area believed in the concept of
Haram, they were referred to as al-muhillun distinguished from those who adhered to the
concept who were known as al-muhrimun.

The Background

Until the beginning of the 5th century A.D. Mecca was controlled by the tribe of Khuzaah
who had migrated earlier from Yemen. This tribe was edged out of power when Qussay ibn
Kilab gathered several clans to form the tribe of Quraish who quickly became the leading
merchant of the city. Although the Meccan were well situated for the development of a
commercial network, they remain secondary to the Himyarites and to the Lakhmids of Hira,
both of whom attempted to spread and to maintain their influence over the producing regions
of Arabia. The evolution in Arabia thus took place in the shadow of these two leading
commercial and political centers. Tha-alibi reported that Meccans operated only locally,
never venturing beyond the Haram area, waiting instead for outside merchants to come in and
sell their merchandise. Only then did the Meccans have anything to trade with the
surrounding tribes. This limited exchange however was the Genesis of merchant capital in
Arabia.

An indication of this limited exchange was Qussays introduction of some governing

institutions in Mecca. After he took over sole leadership, he built Dar-al-Nadwa adjacent to
the Kaba to be his residence and his meeting place for the collective leadership of the quraishi
clans to deliberate. Marriages and other ceremonies also took place here. 1

The Beduin of the desert has changed but little in the two or three thousand years between
historic memory. A true son of the desert, the influences of nature have left upon his
character and indelible mark. The climate of the desert is inhospitable in the extreme and
water is cars, the burning sun and the hot sands are things to which he will have to grow
accustomed. We in the cities can hardly realize degree of hardship which the denizens of the

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desert have to suffer. In towns there are roads and streets, but in desert the rising and setting
sun and the shadow cast by day and the positions of the moon and the stars by the night are
the soul guides.

The Arab roams about in desert stands in search of water or pasturage, and in doing so the
spirit of independence and freedom is born in him. Face to face with hardship develops
characteristic which are peculiar to the desert nomads. If his land is inhospitable, he
considered hospitality one of the greatest virtues. Courage and bravery are qualities greatly
admired by everyone who is either free or nobly born. No abuse can be greater to the Arab
than to call him a coward. Arab hospitality and Arab bravery are proverbial. An Arab takes a
peculiar pride in his lineage, and when anyone of his line or tribes is hurt or killed, he
considers revenge almost religious duty. Vendetta is the rubs master passion. The three
Arabian virtues as extolled universally by the ancient poets our hospitality, fortitude and
manliness. 2

He loves his animals, his sheep and camels and horses, with the love of an idyllic nature, and
yet in the picturesque phrase of Springer, the Beduin is a parasite of the camel. 3 In the free
cell Amit poetry that has been handed down towards, beautiful descriptions of animals
abound. The horse, the camel and the gazelle, each one of them is painted with delight by the
poet. The chief joys of an Arab, the way they lived and what were their pastimes and duties.
The best answer to these questions are contained in the immortal lines of the Mu’allaqa of
Tarafa where he said them to be wine, women and war.

As a race, the Arabs are at once the most ancient as they are in many ways the purest,
surviving type of Semites, a great conquering and migrating race of antiquity. 4 It cannot be
decided with certainty whether their tongue is the most ancient of languages but compared
with other languages in the same group, classical Arab is rich in grammatical forms and
preserves intact many ancient philological usages. It possesses a rich and varied literature,
which the Arabs are used justly proud. They consider their mother tongue the best of all the
languages.

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Physically the Arabs are one of the strongest and noblest races of the world. Baron de Larry,
surgeon-general to Napoleon remarked: ‘The physical structure is in all respects more perfect
than that of Europeans, their organs of sense exquisitely acute, their size about the average of
men in general, they figure robust and elegant, their colour Brown , their intelligence
proportionate to the physical protection and without doubt, other things being equal to that of
other nations.’ 5

They used to be very defective in organising power and incapable of combined action. The
Prophet, however put new life into them and one of the most remarkable achievements of
Islam was to unify the warring tribes and inspire them with a common ideal. To study the
social conditions of the ancient Arabs it is necessary to realise the position of women in pre
Islamic Arabia or Jahilliya. Muslim authors as a rule maintain that the condition of women at
the time of the Prophet was no better than that of animals, they had no legal rights, in youth
they were the goods and chattels of the father, after marriage their husbands became their
Lord and master.6

During the period before Islam in Arabia, the status of women varied widely according to the
laws and cultural loans of the tribes in which they live. In the prosperous southern region of
the Arabian Peninsula 5 sample religious edicts of Christianity and Judaism held sway among
the Sabians and Himyarites. In other places such as the city of Mecca, the nomadic Bedouin
tribes, tribal law determine womens right. Therefore there was no single definition of the
roles played and rights held by women prior to the advent of Islam.

Under the customs of the tribal law existing in Arabia at the advent of Islam, as a general rule
women had virtually no legal status. The tribe acted as the main functional unit of Arabian
society and was composed of people with connections to a common relative. These tribes
were patriarchal and inheritance was passed through the male lines. Women could not inherit
property. The tribal leader enforced the tribe with spoken rules which generally limited the
rights of the women. Women were often considered property to be inherited or seized in a
tribal conflict.

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There were also patterns of homicidal abuse of women and girls including instances of killing
female infants if they were considered a liability. The Quran mentions at the Arabs in
jahilliyah (period of ignorance or pre-Islamic period) used to bury their daughters alive. The
motives were twofold, the fear that the increase in female offspring would result in economic
burden and the fear of humiliation frequently caused when girls were captured by a hostile
tribe and subsequently preferring their captor today parents and brothers.

In pre-Islamic Arabian culture, the women had little control over their marriages and were
rarely allowed to divorce their husbands. Marriages usually consisted of an agreement
between a man and his future wise family and occurred either within the tribe or between two
families of different tribes. As part of the agreement demands, family might offer property
such as camels or horses in exchange for the women. Upon marriage the woman would leave
her family and design permanently in the tribe of husband. Marriage by capture or Ba’al was
also a common pre-Islamic practice.

When is the most important rules of the women in pre-Islamic tribes was to produce children
specially male offspring. The male child of the woman could inherit property and increase the
wealth of the tribe while men often tended the heard of the lively stock, guard the tribe,
women play integral roles within tribal society. Women cooked meals, milked animals, wash
clothes, prepared cheese, spun wool and wove fabric for tents.

While the general population of women in pre-Islamic Arabia did not enjoy the luxury of
many rights, many women of upper-class status did. They married into comfortable homes
and were sometimes able to own property and or even inherit from relatives.

European scholars generally, following Sir Goldziher and Sir Charles Lyall, are of the
opinion that this picture is overdrawn. They maintain that Islam dropped Arabian women of
her ancient liberty and relying on poetry and proverbs of the days of jahilliyah they show that
the ideal Arab women was an embodiment of modesty, fortitude, virtue and beauty and that
the men honoured and respected her. 7

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The explanation that is real seems to be that about 100 years prior to the Prophet, when the
classical poets wrote, Arabia was civilised to some extent and women were treated
favourably: they enjoyed some rights and certain measure of freedom. That civilization
slowly disappeared, the Arabs of the desert forgot all forms of religion and morality, and
idolatry of a crude type generally prevailed . Privileges which the free Arab women of the
desert used to enjoy were lost and their legal rights cut down. Thus the time was peculiarly
trip for the acceptance of simple and rational faith like Islam which gave to women many
important rights. 8

Customs and condition of Women

In pre-Islamic times proper law was unknown. Tribes and chieftains acted in accordance with
tradition and convention. Abdul Rahim in his Muhammadan Jurisprudence has examined a
number of such customs and many of them are interesting from a comparative point of view.
It will be observed how many constitutions marriage by sample there is a curious similarity
between some pre-Islamic Arab customs and certain kinds of marital relationship known
among the ancient Hindus.

We find many of customs adopted wholly or with modifications by the law of Islam. One
striking example is the principle of agency which is fundamental in the sunnite law of
inheritance. At time of the advent of Islam, Arab society was generally nomadic. No settled
form of government or administration of law existed. The population consisted of two
classes: there were the desert nomads who led a more or less roving life and were called
Beduins and there were the town dwellers who to some extent led a more settled form of
existence.

The tribe was the principal unit and therefore the tribal chief exercise great power and
influence. Generally, he was elected because of his nobility of birth or wisdom on courage.
There was no regular manner in which his behests were carried out, he relied mainly on the
force of his character and tribal opinion. The commonest offences were tribal, for example

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one member of a tribe killing a member of another tribe. In such circumstances the chief of
the tribe that had suffered would call upon the leader of the offender’s tribe to surrender the
criminal so that he might suffer the penalty of death. If the tribes were friendly, some sort of
arrangement was arrived at and if not, there would be warfare between them.

Generally, two kinds of customs having the force of law may be recognised, that is, Inter
tribal customs, and customs which regulated the relation of the individual to his own drive.
We are mostly concerned with the latter class. The procedure that was followed in the
deciding cases is not known. Usually the plaintiff had to substantiate his claim. If he had no
evidence the defendent, where he denied the charge, would be given the oath, and on taking
it, he would be absolved from all liability. Occasionally, diviners would be consulted, and
torture was also resorted. Oaths were held in great reverence and were often used for settling
disputes. The most interesting of ancient Arabian customs were those that regulated the
relations between the sexes and filiation of children. By side with the regular form of
marriage, various other connections between members of the opposite sex were common.

Abdur Rahim tells us four types of Arabian marriages:

1. A form of marriage similar to that function by Islam, a man would ask another for the
hand of his daughter or board and then marry her by giving her a certain dower.
2. A man desiring noble offspring would ask his wife send for a great chief and have
intercourse with him. During the period of such intercourse the husband would stay
away. But return to her after pregnancy was well advanced.
3. A number of men, less than ten, would be invited by a woman to have intercourse
with her. If she conceived and was delivered of a child, she had the right to summon
all the men and they were bound to come. She would then say, ‘O so and so this is
your son.’ This established paternity conclusively and the man had no right to
disclaim it.
4. Common prostitutes were well known, they used to have a definite number of visitors
and their tents had special flag as a sign of their calling. If a woman of this class
conceived, the man who frequented her house were assembled, and the
physiognomists decided to whom the child belongs.

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Mut’a or temporary marriage was a common practice. From a study of hadith it would seem
that temporary marriage was a form of legalised prostitution tolerated by the Prophet in the
earlier days of Islam, but later on he prohibited it. The second form of marriage mentioned by
Abdur Rahim reminds us of the ancient Hindu practice of niyoga. Widely different people
have, it seems, possessed, in times past, similar institutions before coming to the modern and
not merely the Christian idea of marriage, the voluntary union for life and one man and one
moment to the exclusion of all others. Dower was one of the necessary conditions of my age
in the regular form. But the amount was paid more often to the Guardian or the father done to
the woman herself, and for this reason the marriage contract was for all practical purposes a
sale.

In Islam, however mahr is a bridal gift and the idea of sale has disappeared almost entirely,
although the classical text do contain vestiges of the original conception of marriage and
being a form of sale. The husband could avoid his liability to pay dower in various ways. A
man would give his daughter or sister in marriage to another in consideration of the latter
giving his daughter or sister in marriage to the former. This was called Shighar. In this case
nothing was paid. Unchastity on the part of the wife was also a reason for debarring her claim
for dower. A false charge was therefore sometimes brought against her and her dower
forfeited before divorce.

Woman was never a free agent in marriage. Her consent was of no value. There was no limit
to the number of wives a man could have. Divorce was a matter of few words, and there were
many forms of dissolution of marriage, some of which have been adopted by Islam.

The Arabian law of property has very little value now and therefore we shall pass on to the
inheritance and succession. An Arab could dispose of all his property by will. He could in
many instances cut off his nearest relations. In the law of inheritance, the cardinal rule was
that no female could take, only the males inherited and, even among males only agnates, such
as son, father, grandfather, brother, cousin etc; cognates were in entirely excluded. These
constituted the first class of heirs.

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The second class consisted of adopted sons and relations, who stood on the same footing as
natural bond sons. The third class consisted of heirs by contract. Two Arabs, for services
rendered to each other or for mutual affection, would enter into a contract that in the event of
the death of the one, the other would succeed in his estate.

Political outlook of Arabia before Islam

The most wonderful component of the political existence of Arabia before Islam was the
complete nonappearance of political association in any structure. Except for Yemen in the
south-west, no piece of the Middle Eastern landmass had any legislature whenever, and the
Arabs never recognized any authority other than the authority of the heads of their clans. The
authority of the clan leaders, notwithstanding, refreshed, by and large, on their character and
character, and was good as opposed to political. The cutting edge understudy of history thinks
that its staggering that the Arabs lived, age after age, consistently, without a legislature of any
sort. Since there was no government, there was no law and no structure.

The main tradition that must be adhered to was wilderness. In the function a wrongdoing was
submitted, the harmed party assumed control over attempted to regulate "equity" to the guilty
party. This framework drove very as often as possible to demonstrations of awful pitilessness.
On the off chance that the Arab ever practiced any pinch of restriction, it was not a direct
result of any weakness he needed to inquiries of right or wrong but since of the dread of
inciting retaliations and feud. Quarrel devoured entire ages of Arabs. Since there were no
such things as police, courts or judges, the main assurance a man could discover from his
adversaries, was in his own clan. The clan had a commitment to secure its individuals
regardless of whether they had carried out violations. Tribalism or 'asabiyya (the faction soul)
outweighed morals.

A clan that neglected to shield its individuals from their foes, presented itself to deride,
obloquy furthermore, scorn. Morals, obviously, didn't enter the image anyplace. Since Arabia
didn't have a legislature, and since the Arabs were revolutionaries by nature, they were
secured up incessant fighting. War was a perpetual foundation of the Arabian culture. The
desert could uphold just a predetermined number of individuals, and the condition of between

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ancestral war kept up an inflexible command over the development of populace. Be that as it
may, the Arabs themselves didn't see battle in this light.

To them, war was a leisure activity or rather a risky game, or types of ancestral show,
pursued by experts, as indicated by old and heroic codes, while the "crowd" cheered.
Interminable harmony held no interest for them, and war gave a departure from drudgery and
from the dreariness of life in the desert. They, in this way, pursued the energy of the conflict
of arms. War allowed them a chance to show their abilities at arrow based weaponry, fencing
and horsemanship, and furthermore, in war, they could recognize themselves by their bravery
and simultaneously win magnificence and honor for their clans. In numerous cases, the Arabs
battled for battling, regardless of whether there was a reason belli.

Educational conditions

Among the Arabs there were hardly any people who could peruse and compose. Majority of
them were not extremely anxious to get familiar with these expressions. A few history
specialists are of the supposition that the way of life of the period was on the whole oral. The
Jews and the Christians were the caretakers of such information as Arabia had. The best
intelligent achievement of the agnostic Arabs was their verse.

They asserted that God had offered the most noteworthy characteristics of the head upon the
Greeks (its evidence is their science and theory); of hand upon the Chinese (its evidence is
their craftsmanship); and of the tongue upon the Arabs (its confirmation is their expert
articulation). Their most noteworthy pride, both previously, then after the fact Islam, was
their expert articulation and verse.

Most of the information on the economic conditions, social regime and mores of the Arabs in
the fifth and sixth centuries A.D., comes from ancient Arabic or pre-Islamic poetry, known
for its ‘photographic faithfulness' to all phases of Arabian tribal life and its environment.
Specialists, therefore, accept this poetry as the ‘most important and authoritative source for

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describing the Arab people and their customs' in this period (Arabs, Islam and the Arab
Caliphatein the Early Middle Ages, 1969)

Arabic poetry was rich in eloquence and imagery but it was limited in range, and was lacking
in profundity. Its content might be interesting but it was stereotyped. The masterpieces of
their poetry follow almost exactly the same sequence of ideas and images. It was,
nevertheless, a faithful mirror of life in ancient Arabia. Also, in cultivating the art of poetry,
the Arab poets were, unconsciously, developing one of the greatest artifacts of mankind, the
Arabic language. The greatest compositions of the pagan Arabs were the so-called “Golden
Odes,” a collection of seven poems, supposedly of unsurpassed excellence in spontaneity,
power and eloquence. They were suspended in Kaaba as a challenge to any aspiring genius to
excel or to match them.

Sir William Muir writes about these poems as follows: The Seven Suspended Poems still
survive from a period anterior even to Mohammed, a wondrous specimen of artless
eloquence. The beauty of the language and wild richness of the imagery are acknowledged by
the European reader; but the subject of the poet was limited, and the beaten track seldom
deviated from. The charm of his mistress, the envied spot marked by the still fresh traces of
her encampment, the solitude of her deserted haunts, his generosity and prowess, the
unrivaled glory of his tribe, the noble qualities of his camel - these were the themes which,
with little variation of treatment, and with no contrivance whatever of plot or story, occupied
the Arab muse – and some of them only added fuel to the besetting vices of the people,
vainglory, envy, vindictiveness and pride (The Life of Mohammed, 1877)

With the rise of Islam the emphasis shifted, temporarily, from poetry to prose, and poetry lost
its prestigious position as the “queen” of the arts of Arabia. The greatest “composition” of
Islam was Al-Qur’an al-Majid, the Scripture of Islam, and it was in prose. Muslims believe
that Qur’an was “composed” in Heaven before it was revealed to Muhammad, the Messenger
of God. They believe that human genius can never produce anything that can match its style
or contents. For the last fifty generations, it has been, for them, a model of literary,
philosophical, theological, legal, metaphysical and mystical thought.

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Societal conditions

Arabia was a male-ruled society. Ladies had no status of any sort other than as sex objects.
The number of ladies a man could wed was not fixed. At the point when a man kicked the
bucket, his child "acquired" all his spouses aside from his own mom. A savage custom of the
Arabs was to cover their female babies alive. Regardless of whether an Arab didn't wish to
cover his girl alive, he actually needed to maintain this "noteworthy" custom, being not able
to stand up to social pressures. Drunkenness was a typical bad habit of the Arabs.

With drunkenness went their gambling. They were compulsive consumers and enthusiastic
players. The relations of the genders were very loose. Many ladies offered sex to make their
living since there was little else they could do. These ladies flew banners on their homes, and
were designated "women of the banners" (dhat - er-rayyat).

Religious conditions in Jahilliyah

The time frame in the Arabian history which went before the introduction of Islam is known
as the Times of Ignorance. Based on the convictions and the acts of the agnostic Arabs,
apparently it was a most proper name. The Arabs were the enthusiasts of an assortment of
"religions" which can be ordered into the accompanying classifications.

1. Symbol admirers or polytheists. The majority of the Arabs were barbarians. They
venerated various symbols and every clan had its own godlike object or icons and fixations.
They had turned the Kaaba in Makkah, which as per convention, had been worked by the
Prophet Abraham and his child, Ismael, and was devoted by them to the administration of
One God, into a barbarian pantheon lodging 360 icons of stone and wood.

2. Nonbelievers This gathering was made out of the realists and accepted that the world was
unceasing.

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3. Zindiqs They were affected by the Persian regulation of dualism in nature. They accepted
that there were two divine beings speaking to the twin powers of good and shrewd or light
and obscurity, and both were secured up a ceaseless battle for incomparability.

4. Sabines. They venerated the stars.

5. Jews When the Romans obliterated Jerusalem in A.D. 70, and drove the Jews out of
Palestine and Syria, huge numbers of them discovered new homes in Hijaz in Arabia. Under
their impact, numerous Arabs additionally became converts to Judaism. Their solid
communities were the towns of Yathrib, Khayber, Fadak and Umm-ul-Qura.

6. Christians. The Romans had changed the north Arabian clan of Ghassan over to
Christianity. A few tribes of Ghassan had relocated to and had gotten comfortable Hijaz. In
the south, there were numerous Christians in Yemen where the statement of faith was initially
brought by the Ethiopian intruders. Their solid place was the town of Najran.

7. Monotheists There was a little gathering of monotheists present in Arabia just before the
ascent of Islam. Its individuals didn't adore icons, and they were the adherents of the Prophet
Abraham. The individuals from the groups of Muhammad, the future prophet, and Ali ibn
Abi Talib, the future caliph, and most individuals from their faction – the Banu Hashim – had
a place with this gathering.

Economic outlook of that period

The Arabian Peninsula occupies strategic position between the continents of Africa and Asia.
To its north lie Syria and trans-jordan, and on the East, Iraq and Persia. On the North western
side lion ship, and southern Europe across the Mediterranean Sea. In the South Western
direction joining the Red Sea are Ethiopia and Somaliland. In the South, the Indian Ocean
separates the Arabian Peninsula from the indo-Pakistan subcontinent. From the early Middle

16
Ages, are we and the neighbouring person with opinion and Roman empires were carrying a
major part of the World Trade.

In the ancient East the commercial supremacy was held by the Arabs. The Arabians stand
today as they stood in the past in a most strategic geographical position astride one of the
greatest arteries of World Trade. The natural resources of Arabia are unevenly distributed all
over the Peninsula. Human life, to a great extent, dependent upon the transport and
interchange of goods. Interregional trade as an answer to the perpetual problem of scarcity
must have arisen very early. Goods out of necessity tended to flow from places where they
were in abundance to those where they were scarce. Acute scarcity caused by drought and
barrenness of the soil was frequent in the Peninsula.

The natural resources and hence the indigenous production of the Peninsula, therefore always
fell short of the increasing population. Scarcity and the pressure of population drop them
towards more fertile regions surrounding them. The effect of this was twofold; first, their
emigration to the neighbouring fertile lands resulted in their settlement and urbanization
there. Second, Trade in commodities of the ancient world which they were in constant contact
you to the central position of the Peninsula, from new and wide dimensions. Camel was the
fastest means of transportation and it adequately served the social and economic purposes of
the herbs in all their conditions of life. They tended to trade in products of the three
continents, spreading to all parts of the world transporting goods from a place of abundant
supply to a place which was affected with want and scarcity. Through this relationship the
entire Peninsula was transformed into a living cell which throbbed with economic activism.

Observance of 4 sacred months of Rajab, Muharram, Dhual-qada and Dhual-Hijja During

which raids and bloodshed were considered unlawful, greatly facilitated the growth of trade
relations among the different tribes and people and directly help the development of these
markets. Regional markets were scattered all over the Peninsula. They were held at a
particular place in a particular season, usually at the time of pilgrimage when the different
types took their products to be sold out to be exchanged. Historians have tried to establish the
actual number of these markets, the places where they were held and their duration.

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Al-Marzuqi He is of the opinion that there were two types of markets and Arabia. Markets
which were held in the 4 sacred months and the markets which were guys doing the rest of
the year. It means that marketing activities of the Arabs or not confined only to the sacred
months but continue throughout the year. The difference was that in the month of truce,
transportation of merchandise used to increase in momentum but for the rest of the year this
activity somewhat slow down do I did not completely stop as generally supposed. He gives
the number of greater of markets in this period as thirteen. He says that some of these markets
were held during the months of truce and were not held another month and those which were
not held in sacred months were held in other months and nobody could approach them
without hiring protectors (Khifara). Neither could he return without them.

Daniel trade activity generally began in the sacred month of Muharram in the northern part of
Arabia. Afterwards the markets were held in the eastern region, culminating and the centres
of hajar-al-yaman and in bahrein. The third area comprised al-yemen and hadramawt. In the
month of Rajab and Ramadan the traders converged in the market of Aden, uman and daba.
In the month of dhu-al-hijja this trade activity shifted to al-hejaz and reached its zenith at the
so called mawasim-al-Arab near Mecca.

Among them was the market of dumat al-jandal. It lay between them and Syria, at 10 days
journey from Medina, 8 days journey from Damascus and 12 days from Egypt. It thus
occupied a central place to which came Traders from all parts of Arabia, from Syria, Egypt
and Iraq. No trader from Syria or Iraq could sell anything without prior permission of its
ruler. The market there was held from the first day of the month of Rabi al-awwal to the
middle of the month, when it began to wane.

Taxes or duties imposed on the goods crossing the border of the market areas were known as
al-maks or Ushr. The philologists define them to be taken from the sellers of goods in the pre
slamet markets. One who levied these taxes was called sahib al-maks or ashshar. Commercial
rivalries, the struggle to control the market areas and strategic trade routes to gain economic
supremacy over others, and search for new markets- all these points to the same mercantilist

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policy of protection. For these reasons, the Arab traders, from very early times had
desperately been striving for commercial treaties with different tribes and rulers of foreign
lands.

Commercial treaties, which guaranteed safe conduct for the reading caravans were really
props of the mercantilist policy of the Arab merchants. They had trade relations with the three
continents, they always felt the need of searching for new markets will stop as trade was the
mainstay of Arab life, it's discontinuation and stoppage meant unemployment, misery and
starvation. They therefore strove hard to improve and maintain trade relations through all
possible means.

Another fact, besides the factor of commercial treaties which determine the nature and
substance of the Arab trade and affected the economic structure, was the existence of trade
routes in the Peninsula along which the goods and services flowed from one region to
another. The pattern of trade was influenced by these trade arteries as it was influenced by the
existing methods of production, the state of scale and technology and the people’s mode of
consumption. The routes connected all the commercial centres. They laid to the continents of
Asia Africa and Europe.

In pre-Islamic Arabia unique method of mobilising capital and labour evolved through the
ages. In the beginning of Commerce, then investor merchant and the carrier merchant must be
the same. The prospecting merchant took his goods to the different markets and appropriated
the profits the sound. Its developed form was the association of many traders in a partnership
will stop the partners were of two types. The investor merchant, who invested in his capital in
a trade venture and interested the merchandise to another partner - the merchant carrier- who
carried it to desired markets. He was given a fixed proportion of the profit on in the
enterprise.

In conclusion 2 main factors, economic and religious, determine the development of

Commerce and the evolution of a market system which was broadened and deepened by the

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trade activities of the rising merchant capitalist. Due to the forces generated by all these
factors, an economic transformation was underway in Arabia of the 6th century A.D. The
existence of division of Labor, manufacturing of important luxury goods and mercantalist
notions its main features. The foundations were led by the Arab merchants.

The growing power of money must have created some sort of social commotion. Okay no
references to the rich Mercantile Society of Mecca, in the Quran signify a growing contrast
between the rich and the poor. In the mist of primitive economy entailing common ownership
of wealth, individualistic mercantilism was enthroned. Superstructure of the commercial
economy of the commercial centres was, in a sense, based on division of Labour which in
turn must have risen on some sort of class structure.

Conclusion

All these changes are reflected in the Quran in numerous verses where greed and love of
wealth and have been condemned. The rising commercial class has been upbraided for its
covetousness, for its practices of usury and for exploitation of the poor and for other evils
which seem to have been corroding the society. This study has shown that, despite their
fundamentally pagan nature, the Arabs went to Mecca to perform the Hajj and tawaaf around
it, crying out there talbiyyah, examples of which expose a rich religious vocabulary and
terminology. Although this is far from the final word on this topic, it is hoped that it will help
to clarify and some of the issues involved and help one build understanding of how the
Arabian society used to be before Islam.

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Bibliography

1.

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