ARABIAN RELIGIONS. The advent of Islam in the seventh century of the common era marked a clear division in the political and religious history of Arabia. In the eyes of Muslim authors, pre-Islamic time is viewed as the Jāhilīyah ("age of ignorance"), a term applied to pre-Islamic history within and without Arabia. From a religious standpoint, this term corresponds especially to the polytheistic beliefs and rituals that to a large extent characterized religious life in Arabia.

In addition to polytheism, Judaism and Christianity were practiced in Arabia in pre-Islamic times. The second Abyssinian invasion of South Arabia in 525 was prompted by—among other factors—the anti-Christian excesses of Dhū Nuwās, the Jewish Ḥimyarī ruler. A Jewish colony had long been established at Yathrib (Medina) when Muḥammad emigrated there from Mecca in 622. There is no archaeological evidence that Zoroastrianism had been practiced among...