What was the middle east like before Islam? Before muhammad...

Too broad of a question. You're asking about thousands of years of history and a wide geographic area here.

>What was the middle east like before Islam? Before muhammad. What kind of kingdoms were there and what did they believe in?
Mostly warring tribes with pagan beliefs mixed with Christianity and Judaism. There's a bunch of cool kingdoms and people from that era too.

Islam was really liberal in comparison to their previous """values"""

>HURRR
What did world-renowned retard and twelve times winner of "dumbest post on the site award" user mean by this?

Let's just narrow it down to levantine and arabia and therabouts and the time before islam, like from 0 to Islam (600s?)

Armenia was the battleground of the empires and changed hands several times.
Mesopotamia was mostly under Parthian/Sassanid rule but was briefly captured by Romans.
Syria was mostly under Roman rule.
Judea became a client kingdom in 63BC and was integrated as a province sometime time after the revolt of the 60s IIRC.
Arab tribes in Northen Arabian desert were Christianized and became Roman allies, while others sided with Sassanids. Descendants of these Christian Arabs still live in Syria today.

>Time immemorial to 539 BC
The Semitic Golden Age
Semites create civilization single-handedly.

>539 BC - 638 AD
The Aryan dark ages
Various Aryan barbarians (Persians, Greeks, Romans and Parthians) wreak havoc on the Semitic lands

>638 AD to Turkish slave revolts
The Islamic Golden Age
The Semites are able to drive the Aryan barbarians out of their lands and create the second Semitic golden age.

>Arab tribes in Northen Arabian desert were Christianized and became Roman allies, while others sided with Sassanids. Descendants of these Christian Arabs still live in Syria today.
Didn't even know this.

>t. semite

Go back to wherever you came from, moron.

Then you probably didn't know there are actual Gnostics still living today in Iraq: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandaeans .

I didn't !

The fuck do you think that proves, retard? Arabia is in the middle east and you're a fucking dimwit, deal with it.

I wonder, why did civilization start in the deserty lands of the middle east instead of somewhere green? I know the middle east was more fertile but I understand that it was still very dry and deserty back then. It always baffled me that people would live and prosper in a place like that.

There were two great powers, the Byzantine or Eastern Roman Empire, and the Sassanian Persian Empire. The rulers were Christian and Zoroastrian respectively. The Christians were in dispute and schism. Greek areas were Orthodox/Catholic (these would split later), eastern regions under Byzantine rule had become Oriental Orthodox "Monophysites" using Coptic and other languages while under Sassanian rule, the Christians had become "Nestorians" using Syriac. Manichaeism was rising in the Sassanian Empire as well and the Zoroastrians were in dispute with it. Judaism was also widespread and the Talmud was written. The Silk Road was likely growing in importance and range.

He didn't ask about arabia though.

It's obvious that you'll never understand this, do don't expect another (You)

>what is rivers
>what is irrigation

>What was the middle east like before Islam?

You are a fucking spastic.

Yes, sure, but the fact that they had to be close to a river to prosper really says it all. It's a hostile place. I mean, I find it more likely that civilization starts somewhere green, but yet it didn't. The more unlikely thing happened. I just think it's funny.

Islamized Arabs
They hate idolatry

I started writing this when the thread had 0 replies, left for a few minutes before posting it, and lo and behold, 20 posts of idiocy.

>Who destroyed more local history: Romans, Byzantines, Egyptians, Mongols, Persians or Arabs?

None of the above. Turks.

You're using shitty Wikipedia maps to prove your point. Don't do that. At least parts of Arabia are in the Middle East.

The majority of the Christians of Syria are not from those Arab Christian tribes. Do you think Arabs brought Christianity to Syria? It was the other way around.

They live in Persian Gulf areas, not just Iraq.

You say "actual Gnostics still existed" like it's obvious such a thing as Gnosticism is extinct. Why? Because it's spoken of as history? That's why this thread exists. Because for no real reason people speak of everything pre-Arab in the M. E. as just "history" when, like I mentioned, it was the Turks who really destroyed pre-Arab and non-Muslim minorities/groups, even more so the more recent in history you look.

Arabia was mostly polytheistic but also had some Christianity and Judaism. The Ethiopians actually conquered South Arabia for a time.

>Mongols
>Turks
>different people

What part of civilisation started in fertile areas with acess to freshwater and 'highways' for trade and the sharing of information is hard to grasp?
Rivers are a colossal boon to civilisation building, they just make everything easier.

>What do you mean "destroyed local history"?
See
>What was the middle east like
So it means historic artifacts, knowledge, buildings, works of art, historians, ... in that region.

Interesting what-if:
What if Ceasar actually succeeded in his post-Assassination military plans without dying?

(Against the Parthers and then fetch Germania completely?)

Were polytheism with the king of gods an Allah, and even were few goddesses (mostly for pray before child-bearing)

>its the brainlet thinks the Romans/Byzantines and Parthians/Persians "persecuted' religious minorties while fighting each other for 800 years episode again

>Aryan barbarians
>Greeks
>Romans
Not Aryan, Ackbar.

Interesting.

No one said anything about 800 years, m8, but the last ~200 years before Muslim conquest were full of religious violence in both empires, mostly against different Christian sects and Jews in the Roman Empire and Manicheans and Mazdakians in Persia.

Manicheans were largely fellow Iranians, same with Mazdakites, this has no bearing on other unrelated ethnic minorities and groups under the Persian or Parthian control. One were basically heretics to traditional Zoroastrian orthodoxy, the others were proto-extremist socialists/communistic egalitarians. Jews 99% of the time had it good in Persia. And so did Zoroastrians in Rome until Constantine and Shapur II decided to *officially* make the state religions of their states be Christianity and Zoroastrianism in law.

>And so did Zoroastrians in Rome until Constantine and Shapur II decided to *officially* make the state religions of their states be Christianity and Zoroastrianism in law.
Right, this is what I said.

>Turks
Wrong
ULAN

It was always grand

That guy get pussy from all race

Maybe a dumb question, but what is Albania doing there?

yes

wtf..? I agree that's weird.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caucasian_Albania
They're not actually related to modern Albania.

Read Tom Holland

I see!

Alright, thanks

Very similar to pre-monotheist proto-judaism and to the whole region really. We know a lot more about this than we used to thanks to discoveries as Ebla and elsewhere in the region.
They probably weren't wrong about identifying their chief god with El, and the merger of the elder god with a younger more virile god was also a common feature of these religions as the stories about the god were meant to mirror the life of the king. So we have birth narratives, victories in youth, and then a wise elder god with sons.

From what I've heard, the time directly before Islam was even more a shithole

>Tom Holland
Meme.