Life on the Arabian Peninsula (Essay Sample)

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Life on the Arabian peninsula
The Arabian peninsula is located in western Asia and northeastern part of the African continent. The area is very significant to the history of the Arabs since it is in the center of many Arabic countries such as Saudi Arabia at the center, Kuwait, Bahrain on the east coast of the peninsula, Qatar United Arab Emirates on the east, Oman on the southeast and Yemen on the south. The region is rich in natural resources such as oil and gas activities (Armstrong, 2006).
The people who lived in the Arabian Peninsula before Mohammad led a nomadic lifestyle. Mohammad’s ancestors had been leading a miserable lifestyle before, since they lived on a barren terrain and did not engage in any farming activities (Armstrong, 2006). They only depended on livestock such as goat, sheep camel and horses. Although there were some parts of the colony which were practicing agriculture, it was too little to sustain them and therefore they led a relentless life moving up and down the whole peninsula in search for water and pastureland for their livestock.
The Arabs also fought endlessly with their neighbours who wanted to access their wealth and raid their animals. Most people living in the Arabian peninsula before Muhammad’s lifetime worshiped more than one god. They worshipped many idols and various spirits although there were a few distinguished communities in the peninsula who were Christians and Jews communities activities (Armstrong, 2006).
According to Karen Armstrong in her book Muhammad: a prophet of our time, states clearly that it was only two centuries before the Muslim mighty triumph in the city of Mecca when their ancestors were leading a desperate penurious life in the Arabian desert herding sheep and goats, breeding horses and camels putting every effort to make ends meet, in their closely packed tribal groupings.
According to her, Badawah (nomadic) life was hard and merely left them up without food. Hardly did they scratch a living from it than only finding some other alternative methods to put the food on the table. The only option that was left for them was to get involved in Ghazu (acquisition raids) whenever they were hit by scarcity, where tribesmen united themselves and more often attacked their neighbour’s territories in an effort to raid some livestock and capture some slaves with caution not to take anyone’s life during the raid. According to them, these raiding activities were normal and were seen as a reality, not so evil activities (Armstrong, 2006).
Though the people living in the peninsula encountered many hardships, they had godly virtues such as kindness and generosity. They remembered to love their neighbors as they loved themselves and shared whatever little they had in terms of livestock and food (Armstrong, 2006).
Apart from that, life in the Arabian Peninsula before Muhammad was characterized by paganism. According to Karen Armstrong, they were not interested in religion. The Bedouin had no hope of life after death as many conventional religions of the world believe and this is a remarkable religious organization worth to remember through centuries. These people were not idealists at all. They believed at what worked was true and what did not work as untrue. As a result, fantasy was utter nonsense in their society and needed only what was real activities (Armstrong, 2006).
However, this society had some few religious practices they had adopted so that to prevent themselves from hopelessness betrayal and despair. This religious function was known as Muruwah, ...