divide the 'Adnan into two sub-groups which they term as Rabi'a and Mudar. There had
been a marked rivalry from the distant past between the Qahtan and the 'Adnan just as the
Rabi'a and the Mudar had been hostile to each other. However, the historians trace the
origin of the Qahtan to a remoter past from which the 'Adnan branched off at a later time
and learned Arabic vernacular from the former. It is held that the 'Adnan were the offspring
of Ishmael (Isma'il) who settled in Hijaz after naturalization.
Arab genealogists give great weight to these racial classifications which also find a confir-
mation in the attitude of Iranians in the olden times. The Iranian general Rustam had admo-
nished his courtiers who had derided Mughira b. Shu'ba and looked down upon him for
having presented himself as the envoy of Muslims in tattered clothes, Rustam had then said
to his counselors: "You are all fools....The Arabs give little importance to their dress and
food but are vigilant about their lineage and family."
LINGUISTIC UNITY
Multiplicity of dialects and languages should not have been at all surprising in a country so
big as Arabia (actually, equal to a sub-continent), divided into north and south, not only by
the trackless desert, but also by the rivalry of kindred races and clanish patriotism of a pas-
sionate, chauvinistic type, affording but little opportunity for intermixing and unification of
the country's population. The tribes living in the frontier regions close to Iranian and Byzan-
tine empires were, quite naturally, open to influences of alien elements. All these factors
have given birth to numerous languages in Europe and the Indian subcontinent. In India
alone, fifteen languages have been officially recognized by the Constitution of India while
there are still people who have to speak in an official language other than their own mother
tongue or take recourse to English for being understood by others.
But, the Arabian Peninsula has had, despite its vastness and proliferation of tribes, a
common language ever since the rise of Islam. Arabic has been the common lingua franca of
the Bedouins living in the deserts as well as of the sedentary and cultured populations like
the Qahtan and 'Adnan. Some local variations in the dialects of various regions arising from
differences of tones and accents, wide distances and diversity of physical and geographical
conditions could not be helped, yet there has always been a linguistic uniformity which has
made the Qur'an intelligible to all. It has also been helpful in the rapid diffusion of Islam to
the far-flung tribes of Arabia.
ARABIA IN ANCIENT HISTORY
Archaeological excavations show existence of human habitation in Arabia during the earli-
est period of Stone Age. These earliest remains pertain to Chellean period of Paleolithic
epoch. The people of Arabia mentioned in the Old Testament throw light on the relations
between the Arabs and ancient Hebrews between 750 to 200 B.C. Similarly, Talmud also