The Islamic state came into being in the seventh century, and the political organizations and the dissensions which trouble the new state had their origins in the Arab background.
The Arabian peninsula is marked by deserts and different zonal distinctions. Arabia has long served as a transit area between the Mediterranean and the Further East. The early centuries remain obscure because archaeology has not examined the area as it has in Egypt, Palestine, and Mesopotamia. According to tradition, the Arabian people are divided into northern and southern groupings, and the author discusses them separately. The historical chronology of the southern group is obscure until the time of Alexander the Great. The religion was polytheistic. Society was agricultural, with a high degree of development. The people of the central and northern regions were nomadic. The sates were Arab in origin but were under the influence of Hellenized Aramaic culture. Some of these states are less well-known than others of the time. Bedouin tribalism marks the people of this region, with a rudimentary political organization. There was limited foreign rule during this era leading to different influences. The city of Mecca came into being with its own government, a merchant republic governed by a syndicate of wealthy businessmen. Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam, was born into this world.
The way the state developed emerged from the contemporary situation of the Arabs and from the culture they had created (Kennedy 15). The background was one of small and often familial groups organized into hunting and gathering societies and eventually agricultural villages. There was also a tendency to create unities of culture, religion, and empire on an ever-larger scale. Religion and empire were the two major cultural forces in the Middle East leading to the Islamic era (Lapidus 3-4). Just before the Islamic era, the Middle East was divided into two great re...