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word "Arab," tbe meaning of which
is thought to be "arid."
Yarab's brother Hadoram
(Jor –
ham
to the Arabs) is believed to have
founded the Hejaz, an important
kingdom a long the western coast of
Arabia, containing the cities of Mee–
ca and Medina. According to Arab
history, the daughter of Mudad, a
descendant of this Jorham, became
one of the wives of IShmael.
It
is from
that union that Ishmael's illustrious
son Keda r is said to have come.
Another of Joktan's sons, Hazar–
maveth, is claimed by the present–
day tribesmen of the Hadhramaut (a
region in the southern part of the
Arabian Península) as their ances–
tor.
The other line with which the Ish–
maelites are said to have intermar–
ried is that of the Keturahites. The
Keturahites were descendants of Ke–
turah, whom Abraham married after
the death of Sarah. Abraham and
Keturah had six sons (Genesis 25:2),
whose progeny, like that of Joktan,
gradually became incorporated into
the house of Ishmael.
Thus, after making due allowance
for mixture with Joktanites and Ke–
turahites, the Arabs may be regarded
as essentially an Ishmaelite race.
In Bible usage, the name
Kedar
is
often employed as the collective
name of all tbe nomadic Arab tribes
generally, as Kedar apparently had
been the largest and most conspicu–
ous of all the Ishmaeli te tribes. The
tribe's importance can be inferred
from the mention of the rich "princes
of Keda r" in Ezekiel 27:21 and else–
where.
The prophet Isaiab, in bis "burden
[or denunciat ion] upon Arabia"
( Isaiah 21: 13-17) prophesied the
demise of the "glory of Kedar"-a
reference to the invasion of Arabia
by Sargon in 716
B.C.,
during the
wars between Egypt and Assyria.
The glory of Kedar did fail, and the
Arabs slipped for many centuries
into obscurity.
The Conquests of Islam
Through the period ofthe Medo-Per–
sian kingdom and on into Roman
times, the Arab tribes lived in semi–
isolation from tbe rest of the world,
breeding camels, goats and sheep in
The
PLAIN TRUTH December 1979
the deserts of the Arabian Península.
Tbeir principal interest appears to
have been fighting wars among
themselves-an activity designed not
so mucb with the intent of eradicat–
ing or enslaving rival tribes but rath–
er to break the wearisome monotony
of watching animals graze in the vast
emptiness of the desert.
When it carne to religion, the
Arabs were ido! worshipers. Tbe
great temple of Mecca-Qverseen by
the influential Koreish tribe-was
said to bave contained 365 idols.
Ironically, it was from the Koreish
tribe that Mohammed arose early in
tbe 7th century A.o.-six centuries
after Christ. He succeeded in abol–
ishing tbe idolatry long prevalent in
Arabia and bringing his fellow Arabs
a new faith,
Islam
("Submission to
God"), based on belief in one god,
Allah . Moreover , Mohammed's
~~
The Arabpeoples are
destined to play a
significant role infuture
world events.
' '
teachings forged the divided Arab
tribes into a socially and culturally
united people. Islam provided them
for the first time with a powerful uni–
fying force, making it ·possible for
them to aspire to greatness as a na–
tion.
A little history will be useful here
to sbow how the stage has been set
over the centuries for the prophetic
events which lie just ahead.
Following Mohammed's death in
632, tbe leadership of the Moslem
nation passed to a succession of
ca/–
iphs
("successors") , ruling initially
from Medina. They completed the
unification of the Arabian Península
and began to push outward, eventu–
ally bringing the entirety of the Mid–
dle East under tbeir rule.
In tbe early 7th century, tbe Near
and Middle East were divided be–
tween two great rival powers: the
Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire
(called
Rum
by the Arabs) centered
at Constantinople, and the Sassanid
Empire of Persia. These two adver–
saries had exhausted each other by
long and destructive wars, and thus
were "sitting ducks" for the vigorous
new Islamic power sweeping out of
Arabia.
To the frenzied críes of
Al/ah Ak–
bar!
("God is Great!") , camel–
mounted Arab tribesmen swept with
lightning speed into neighboring ter–
ritories, taking Syria in 635, Iraq in
637, Palestine in 640, Egypt and Per–
sia in 641. Jerusalem was taken in
638. Not since the days of Alexander
the Great had such swift and far–
reaching conquests been seen. "The
Believers smote and slaughtered till
the going down of the sun," recorded
one contemporary Arab historian,
"and the fear of the Arabs fell upon
all kings."
The supreme office of caliph, orig–
inally elective, soon was made hered–
itary- first in the Omayyad family
(from
A.D.
661 to 750) and then in
the Abbasid family (750 to 1258).
The Omayyad dynasty, ruling from
Damascus, was responsible for the
conquest of the remainder of North
Africa and most of the lberian Pe–
nínsula (Spain and Portugal). In the
East, Omayyad armies swept over
Central Asia toward India and Chi–
na. In less than 100 years, the
Omayyads had built an empire la rger
than that of Rome at its height. Mil–
lions were added into the fold of the
Moslem faith.
It was the great Omayyad caliph
Abdul Malik, incidentally, who con–
structed the great Dome of the Rock
Mosque in Jerusalem in 691-692 on
Mount Moriah, the former si te of the
illustrious Temple of Solomon.
The Abbasid dynasty, ruling from
Baghdad, consisted of 37 caliphs,
among them the famous Harun al–
Rashid (786-809) of
Arabian Nights
fame. The first two or three centuries
of Abbasid rule marked the Golden
Age of Islamic culture and literature.
While Europe lay engulfed by the
"Dark Ages," the Arabs kept the
torch of knowledge burning through–
out their far-fiung domains.
lncreasingly, however, the Abba–
sid caliphs grew soft, succumbing to
the ease of sedentary palace life and
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