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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books A History of Muslim Philosophy Volume 1, Book 1 Chapter 6: Pre Islamic Arabian Thought Pre Islamic Arabian Thought by Shaikh Inayatullah , M.A Ph.D., Formerly, Professor of Arabic, University of the Panjab, Lahore (Pakistan) In the present chapter, we are concerned only with the people of Arabia who lived in the age immediately preceding the rise of Islam.

The ancient civilized inhabitants of southern Arabia, the Sabaeans and Himyarites, have been left out of account, not only because the relevant materials at our disposal are scanty and fragmentary, but also because they are far removed from the Islamic times, with which the present volume is primarily and directly con­cerned. We cannot hope to understand properly the religious or philosophical ideas of a people without comprehending their economic and social background.

A few words about the social structure of pre‑Islamic Arabs should, therefore Form a suitable and helpful prelude to a description of their religious outlook. The land of Arabia is mainly a sandy plain, which is partly steppe‑land and partly desert. Except in the oases which are few and far between, the land is bare and monotonous, unfit for cultivation and unable to support settled communities.

From times immemorial, its inhabitants have been of necessity nomadic, living on the produce of their camels and sheep. The majority of the ancient Arabs were, therefore, pastoralists who were constantly on the move in search of grass and water for their herds and flocks. Restless and rootless, with no permanent habitations, they stood at a low level of culture and were innocent of those arts and sciences which are associated in our minds with civilized life.

The art of reading and writing was confined only to a few indivi­duals in certain commercial centres, while illiteracy was almost universal among the sons of the desert. Their mental horizon was narrow, and the struggle for existence in their inhospitable environment was so severe that their energies were exhausted in satisfying the practical and material needs of daily life, and they had little time or inclination for religious or philosophic speculation.

Their religion was a vague polytheism and their philosophy was summed up in a number of pithy sayings. Although the ancient Arabs had no written literature, they possessed a language which was distinguished for its extraordinary rich vocabulary.