Pre-Islamic ArabiaGroups of Christian pilgrims from Yemen on their way to Jerusalem and
Sinai must have been a common sight for the Arabs of the Hijaz and
particularly for those of al-Ta'if and Medina.^26
For the most part, the level of Christianity practiced among the Arab tribes
of the peninsula was not, and perhaps could not have been very high during
the 6th century. Similar to their Jewish counterparts, none of^27 the churches
of the East appears to have even started to systematically translate the
scriptures into Arabic, and thus, except for those Arabs who k^28 new Greek,
Syriac or Ethiopic, the Bible remained a closed book, and the worship
services of Christianity remained a ritualistic mystery. The little
understandable information about Christianity available to those who only
spoke Arabic may have come through the preaching of Syrian and
Abyssinian missionaries, or the works of pre-Islamic Arab^29 Christian
poets.^30
Arabian Idolatry
Whereas paganism had been in rapid decline for hundreds of years in lands
with a Christian majority, it was still the predominant faith of most of the
Arab tribes in the 6th century. As opposed to traditional idolatry, Arabs^31
generally worshiped stones and trees as the habitations of g^3233 ods and
spirits. The sanctuaries of their gods became popular pi^3435 lgrimage sites,^36
whose associated markets brought regional economic prosperity.^37
Again, owing primarily to the influence of Christianity, the paganism of
Arabia was slowly disappearing. Together with some of the Arab poets of
the day, the inhabitants of Mecca (and with them no doubt those of other
pilgrimage towns) had begun to realize the inferiority of their native
religions; and this even though pride and the fear of financial loss at the
markets tended to deter such notions. Later Islamic legends^38 report of at
least four Meccan Arabs who had abandoned paganism in the search for
true religion.^39
Perhaps the greatest phenomenon of religious development in pre-Islamic
Arabia, was the idea of contemporary nationalistic prophethood. Although
the evidence is by no means overwhelming, there are traditions which show