Alliance and Allegiance in Pre-Islamic Arabia

Abstract

This chapter traces the pre-Islamic history of alliance and allegiance in the Arabian Peninsula. Tracing the alliance and allegiance in the pre-Islamic Arabia lends a fuller understanding on why the ‘pledge of allegiance’ assumed the precise form and importance that it did in Islam. The evidence of the Arabic-Islamic tradition is combined with that of archaeologically extant inscriptions and other, non-Arabian literary evidence for pre-Islamic Arabia. This long, pre-Islamic perspective is crucial to understanding the origins and early development of Islam within the context of established Arabian monotheist political and communal traditions. This chapter discusses the alliance in late antique Arabia; the hilf alliance in pre-Islamic poetry; allegiance in late antique Arabia; and authority and the sacred in the pre-Islamic Arabia.