We are going to discuss pre-islamic arabia. And we begin it by discussing who the arabs were? This is a topic of geneology - of ethnicity. Who are the arabs the prophet PBUH lived with? The beginning of Ishaaq indeed begins with this aswell. Most of arabs today are not truly arabs - they cannot trace their lineage back.
The scholars have divided arabs into two broad categories of arabs:
1. The extinct arabs 'al arab al bai'ida' - the earliest civilisation that lived in Arabia. Pre islam by 1000 of years. Earliest civilisaton of humanity in the arabian penincilla. The Quran mentions some of their stories is A'ad and Stham'ood. They have nothing to do with the later arabs. They are simply called arabs because they live in the lands which became Arabia. And Shamood was the earliest humanity that flourished around 3000BCE. So around 5000 years ago. We have documented evidence of the shamoood flourishing 5000 years ago. And also Sal'eh. The people of Sal'eh - we can see their palaces etc. And the people of A'ad. And these people fled from the acienct cities of Babel and came to Arabia. So Shamood and A'ad are the earliest civilisation to live in Arabia. And eventually they all became extinct.
2. 'Al arab al ba'qiyah'. They are two categories:
2a) Kahthaan - the father of the arabs. His son was named Ya'rab so Yar'ab is where the term arab comes from. And it is said Ya'rab was the first to speak arabic. The arabic language is traced to him, Ya'rab the son of Kahthaan. And so these are the kahthaani arabs. Now who are they? We don't know. Where did Kahthaan descend from? Majority says he descended from the children of Nuh AS - in paticular Sam. And he is the father of the semites who are the sons of Sam. And they are a group of people who speak a similar type of language - the hebrews, arabs etc are all semites. 'Legend' has it Nuh AS had three sons. First of these we don't know. But Sam is the father of the semites - the hebrew race, the aramaeic speaking people ibrahim AS etc. His brother was Ya'fif whose descendents is the roman race. The caucasions and white people. His brother Ham is the father of the africans. The bible says this and there is a da'eef hadith which supports this. And so Kahthaan is one of the descendants of Sam. Then Kahthaan and Ibrahim AS come from Sam both but there isn't a direct link. Another opinion is Kahthaan is the descendent of Ibrahim AS. Majority is Kahtaan is NOT linked to Ibrahim AS. They were both descendants of Sam however. Note Kahthaan is WAY before Adnaan. They lived in southern Arabia. Number of kingdoms. The ous and khajraj are khathanis. These are called the original arabs because they invented arabic - they spoke it.
2b) Adnaan - is the ancestor of the Prophet PBUH. And of course the Prophet PBUH came from Adnaan. So we know alot of him. The Prophet PBUH is adnaani. Who is Adnaan? One of the desendants of Ismail AS. Now ibrahim AS is from Iraq - made his way through Egypt. So Ismail AS is also from Iraq. He is left as a baby with Hajar in Mecca an area where kahthaanis don't normally inhabit. They don't live there - it's a barren land. And one of the tribes of Kahthaan passes by and Ismail marries into them. And so he begins speaking their language, arabic, and their children are a mixture of Ibrahim AS and the kahthaanis and a few generations down Adnaan appears. He is a direct descendant. There is about 7-10 generations between Adnaan and Ismail AS. And from Adnaan the arab tribe spring forth. All of the adnaani tribes, famously, Quraysh come from Adnaan who came from Ismail. Ismail AS also had other children who weren't arabs. The adnaani arabs are called 'al arab al must'aibya' - the arabs who learnt arabic. There is no difference of opinion that the Prophet PBUH is the 20th offspring - 20th generations between Prophet PBUH and Adnaan. Now the adnaanis actually spoke better arabic than the original arabs. Because they settled in central Arabia. So all of the other tribes went through them etc. Because they interacted with so many original arabs they took the best of the culture so they became more prestigious than the original arabs. And so Prophet PBUH came from them.
We need to understand the tribes and lineage of the arabs to fully understand the seerah of the Prophet PBUH.
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