pre-islamic arabia:poetry,tribal rivalry and heroism 15overland trade which was controlled by the South Arabians was
transferred to the Red Sea. The final blow came when the Ptolemies
mastered the navigating problems of monsoons in the south of the
Red Sea by the end of second century B.C. and entered the Indian
Ocean, establishing a direct trade route between India and Egypt
(Della Vida, 1944). That was the start of an economic decline in
South Arabia. Internal schism instigated by religious differences
between the newly converted Christians, Jews and pagan Arabians
marked a stage of political disturbances, which the feudalistic socio-
economic system did not help to alleviate. Political disturbances, as
usual, led to adverse economic consequences. The breaking of the
dam of Ma"rib, possibly during the rule of the Abyssinians, was an
economic disaster. The reasons for the breaking of the dam are not
known for certain but it could be attributed to inefficient mainte-
nance work. However, the breaking led, with other factors, to a dra-
matic economic decline in the area (Haykal, 1976).
North Arabia
On the northern end of the peninsula lay several kingdoms: the
Nabataeans, the Palmyrenes, the Ghassànìds, the Lakhmìds and the
Kindaites.
The Nabataeans
The Nabataeans were the first significant Arabian state in the north.
Although the exact origin of the Nabataeans is not known for cer-
tain, historians agree that they were emigrant nomads who came to
the area from Transjordan and the northern part of Central Arabia,
possibly in the early sixth century B.C., and occupied the land of
the Edomites between the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Aqabah. The
third, or perhaps the fourth, century B.C. was the starting point of
their uprising; they occupied important cities such as Petra, Bostra
and Gerash, the major caravan cities on the South-to-North trade
route, and stretched their territory to Damascus at the time of Christ.
The year 105 A.C. witnessed their end however, when the Emperor
Trajan annexed the area and declared it a Roman province, a
“Provincia Arabia”, (Hitti, 1963).
The Nabataeans developed a high level of civilization with the
help of two major economic factors: agriculture and trade. Although
they were originally nomads, the Nabataeans developed an agricultural