THE PRE-MOHAMMEDAN ERA

B1efore the Mohammedan conquests, Arabia is divided into a number of local monarchies. In these we recognise two distinct origins.

2(1) Those ruled by a race of southern origin--the genuine or Kahtanee Arabs. Their monarchies form a rim around the wild and desert centre of the peninsula.

3(2) The centre of Arabia is occupied by nomadic races--the Mustareb Arabs, of northern origin, descendants of a mythical Adnan.

4THE KAHTANEE KINGDOMS (_ca._ 380 B.C.-634 A.D.)

5The kingdom of Yemen is the most important and powerful of these. It occupies a portion of the ancient Arabia Felix. Descendants of Kahtan and Himyar--names of African origin--its monarchs rule over the whole of southern Arabia from about 380 B.C., with but few interruptions. The capital is first at Mareb and then at Sana. The northern kingdoms are more or less tributary. The Persians, Greeks, and Macedonians make no attempts upon Arabia, if we except the frontier skirmishes of Antigonus and Ptolemy. Rome had an eye to its conquest. Pompey, the first to attempt it, is foiled, and it was not until

6B.C.

725 when Ælius Gallus, the prefect of Egypt, undertakes an expedition at the command of Augustus. His army is unable to support the hardships of the desert, and the following year the Arabs drive the remnant out. Later attempts under Trajan and Severus do not succeed beyond the frontier, and Bosrah and Petra mark the extreme limits of Roman dominion.

8A.D.

9100 Probable date of the great flood of Arem or Mareb, which leads to the foundation of other Arab kingdoms.

10529 The Abyssinians, under Aryat, invade Yemen, to avenge the Christians persecuted by =Dhu-Nowas= the king. Dhu-Nowas is killed, and the Abyssinians rule the kingdom until

11605 when Saif, with the assistance of Chosroes the Great, restores the Kahtanee dynasty, but it becomes dependent on Persia.

12634 Mohammedan conquest of Yemen.