What can you tell me about pre-islamic Arab religion? I have been led to believe that genies are a big deal, and even in some Sufi sects today they claim control of "muwakil", or good slave genies. Was their religion prior to Islam similar to Caananite religion?
Were there many Jews/Christians/Zoroastrians living there?
>>1185790
Some of them were Christian, some Jews, most were polytheists.
>>1185790
Look into the polytheistic Hindu influences. Most evidence 'erased' with the advent of Islam.
>>1185805
>polytheist
It's probably worth noting that polytheism does not necessarily imply a strict pantheon of gods that is mutually exclusive with the worship of other gods.
>>1185790
What's your definition of Arab? Arabization is tied to Islam, even then the religions of the Levant and the regions of Yemen were necessarily the same
>>1185834
I mostly mean the Arabian desert. Today's Oman, Yemen, UAE, and Saudi Arabia. I realize they weren't homogenous, but I don't know much else about them prior to Islam. I know about the assyrians, jews, elamites, caananites, and egyptians who surrwounded the desert. Were the Bedouin living the same way as the rest of the desert monad peoples?
>>1185927
Yes, it was very much similar. There were "resident" or "patron" "gods" (beings) and people who traveled, while they would hold to their own personal choice, observed the others as sort of "siblings" or "children".
So you'd go to one place and it might venerate "moon god", and another might venerate "fertility god", and the way those two micro-societies interacted would become the way the patron gods interacted. If a group of people were defeated, their god was defeated, and while not necessarily being removed from the overall "pantheon" ( which no one observed, but rather recorded ) , would certainly suffer a loss of status.
Over time, then, you have stronger, more successful deities which would gain a wider following as those adherents became more and more successful in the eyes of surrounding observers.
>>1185927
You know, cultural influence from the Hejaz and Yemen was spreading north from before recorded history. While the "people of Sumeria" were markedly different culturally than the people to the south in 3000BC, this became not so much true with the military conquests of Sargon of Akkad, who was of Semitic culture, in (around) 2300BC. So "knowing about" caananites "is" "knowing about" amorites, who were a human migration from the Hejaz, almost exclusively by the mid 3rd century BC. Along the same lines, "knowing about" amorites "is" knowing about "babylonians" (in the era of the dynasty including Hammurabi), and knowing that is knowing about Assyrians, Chaldeans, Phoenecians, etc, because ALL of those (aside from those passing through) were by 2100BC "of Semitic influence".
Arabic is a Semitic language. All the culture around it had major influence following Sargon of Akkad.
>>1185927
About 4k years ago Semitic speakers invaded the Cushitic speaking lands of Arabia but as we still see today in Mehri for example a very mixed community of peoples developed known as the Shasu.
These part semite-part cushite herders form the foundation for our archaeological understanding of Yahweh as the Shasu are mentioned in the Egyptian monument as worshipping YWH in Midian.
These people of the Red Sea influenced levantine Judaism and the whole abrahamic religious "family as we know it". These little black/red goat herders nomads, it's kinda weird when you think about it.
>>1185790
Qalam institute has a podcast on the life of the prophet muhammad (pbuh). The first couple of episodes are an exhaustive explanatio of pre islamic arabia.
i really fucking hope chinamoot filters all this religious larping to something liken with cuc, senpai etc
>>1186202
... what? This thread is straight up about religious history. No larping in sight, m8.
>>1186201
If you actually listen to it, it simply gives an explanation of how the expnomy was structured, how the tribalism worked, how gender structures were, etc. Quite frankly, they're neither very positive, nor very negative about the arabs. Objectively speaking, all of our written data about these people is from muslim sources. If you don't trust those, good luck.
>>1186154
This isn't correct, because Semitic speakers "are" Arabian, from before recorded history. They culturally assimilated north, into the Levant and Mesopotamia, during the advent of recorded history.
Also, "Cushitic" speaking people were not simply "herders" (by and large) in any period of recorded history.
Also, there is no archaeological "evidence" of "Yahweh worshipers" before the "House of David", not to say there were none, because there probably were, but whatever this "the Egyptian monument" was, I'd very much like to see it. That would answer many questions modern scholars have as to the historicity of the Torah.
>>1186207
Stuff like deus vult, pbuh etc.
>>1186213
>Objectively speaking, all of our written data about these people is from muslim sources
No, this isn't true, and if it "were" true, it would not explain anything prior to the existence of "muslims" in the 7th century AD.
>>1186238
and no, please don't bring here "there were muslims before the 7th century AD", thanks. You'll be directly challenged to cite that in ANY surrounding culture's record.
protip: Doesn't exist.
