From around the second century ad Arab camel-based nomadism extended over the peninsula after the collapse of the border states and the decline of south Arabian culture. The Bedouin advanced into areas which were hitherto settled; the use of writing regressed. The society was formed to which the Koranic revelation was directed, whose ethics and concept of justice were to become the sub-stratum of the Islamic order, and from which there finally were to arise the motivating forces for Islamic expansion outside Arabia.From the fourth century ad Arabia was drawn into the wars between Byzantium and Sasanian Persia. Situated as it was in the sphere of interest of the buffer states of the sixth century – the Kingdom of the Lakhmids in Iraq, the phylarchy of the Ghassanids in Syrian territory, the Yemen under Abyssinian rule – the trading city of Mecca was also affected by the political game of the two great powers.The pre-Islamic shrine of Mecca, its economic importance, the rise of trade (along the incense route) and the emergence of an urban society from a Bedouin milieu were behind the social conflicts which the Koranic revelation sought to solve.
Ganjnameh Fall in Winter, Hamadan Province, Central Persia
