Ruler-ship and Princes-ship among the Arabs
When verbalizing about the Arabs afore Islam, we deem it indispensable to draw a mini-picture of the history of ruler-ship, princes-ship, sectarianism and the religious dominations of the Arabs, so as to facilitate the construal of emergent circumstances when Islam appeared.
When the sun of Islam rose, rulers of Arabia were of two kinds: crowned kings, who were in fact not independent; and heads of tribes and clans, who relished the same ascendant entities and privileges possessed by crowned kings and were mostly independent, though some of whom could have shown some kind of submission to a crowned king. The crowned kings were only those of Yemen, Heerah and Ghassan. All other rulers of Arabia were non-crowned.
Ruler-ship in Yemen
The folks of Sheba were one of the oldest nations of the pristine Arabs, who lived in Yemen. Excavations at "Or" brought to light their subsistence twenty five centuries B.C. Their civilization flourished, and their domain spread eleven centuries B.C.
It is possible to divide their ages according to the following estimation:
- The centuries afore 650 B.C., during which their kings were called "Makrib Sheba". Their capital was "Sarwah", additionally kenned as "Khriba", whose ruins lie in a spot, a day’s walk from the western side of "Ma’rib". During this period, they commenced building the "Dam of Ma’rib" which had great paramountcy in the history of Yemen. Sheba was additionally verbalized to have had so great a domain that they had colonies inside and outside Arabia. 2. From 650 B.C. until 115 B.C. During this era, they gave up the designation "Makrib" and surmised the designation of "Kings of Sheba". They withal made Ma’rib their capital in lieu of Sarwah. The ruins of Ma’rib lie at a distance of sixty miles east of San‘a. 3. From 115 B.C. until 300 A.D. During this period, the tribe of Himyar surmounted the kingdom of Sheba and took Redan for capital in lieu of Ma’rib. Later on, Redan was called "Zifar". Its ruins still lie on Mudawwar Mountain near the town of "Yarim". During this period, they commenced to decline and fall. Their trade failed to a very great extent, firstly, because of the Nabetean domain over the north of Hijaz; secondly, because of the Roman preponderation over the naval trade routes after the Roman conquest of Egypt, Syria and the north of Hijaz; and thirdly, because of the inter-tribal warfare. Thanks to the three above-mentioned factors, families of Qahtan were disunited and scattered out. 4. From 300 A.D. until Islam dawned on Yemen. This period witnessed an abundance of disorder and turmoil. The great many and civil wars rendered the people of Yemen liable to peregrine subjection and hence loss of independence. During this era, the Romans surmounted ‘Adn and even availed the Abyssinians (Ethiopians) to occupy Yemen for the first time in 340 A.D., making utilization of the constant intra-tribal conflict of Hamdan and Himyar. The Abyssinian (Ethiopian) vocation of Yemen lasted until 378 A.D., where after Yemen regained its independence. Later on, cracks commenced to show in Ma’rib Dam which led to the Great Flood (450 or 451 A.D.) mentioned in the Noble Quran.