Arabia

Although it is a desert, it was at the hub of communications for centuries. In fact, Arab merchants and sailors played an important role in the sea trade between India and Europe (see page 100). Others who lived in Arabia were the Bedouins,pastoral tribes depending mainly on like hardy animals camels, that could survive in the desert. Around 1400 years ago, Prophet Muhammad introduced a new religion, Islam, in Arabia. Like Christianity, Islam was a religion that laid stress on the equality and unity of all before Allah, the one supreme god. Here is a verse from the Quran, the sacred book of Islam:“For Muslim men and women, for believing men and women, for devout men and women, for true men and women, for men and women who are patient and constant, for men and women who humble themselves, for men and women who give in charity, for men and women who fast, for men and women who guard their chastity, and for men and women who engage much in Allah’s remembrance, for them has Allah prepared forgiveness and great reward.”

Within a hundred years Islam spread to north Africa, Spain, Iran and India. Arab sailors, who were already familiar with the coastal settlements of the subcontinent, now brought the new religion with them. Arabs soldiers conquered Sind (in present-day Pakistan) about 1300 years ago.