First Published in 2000. This is Volume V of six of the Oriental series looking at Arabic History and Culture. It was written in 1927, the main purpose of this text is to show that Arabia, before the coming of Islam, was not a country secluded from the cultural influences of Western Asia, nor was it entirely cut off from contact with the political and social life of its neighbours in the Near East. De Lacy O’Leavy Lecturer in Aramaic and Syriac, Bristol University Author of Arabic Thought and its Place in History