Q. & A. 711 to 1707 with solved Papers css 1971 to date

(6) Belief in Ghosts, Devils and Evil Spirits
In common with all Pagans and semi-civilized and semibarbarous peoples, the pre-Islamic Arabs believed in all kinds of invisible beings collectively called Jinn. Those Jinns that were supposed to live in jungles, deserts and ruins and misled the people were called ghoul. Superstitions prevailed everywhere in Arabia. S.M. Imamuddin described the moral conditions in these words, ”Morally also the Arabs were degraded. Some killed their children for fear of poverty others for giving their daughters in marriage to strangers. Women had no distinct position in Arabian society. Their lives and honour were of little consequence. Sexual morality was at its lowest ebb.”28 CULTURAL CONDITIONS
There is a general impression that Arabs had no cultural and artistic values in pre-Islamic days. This statement, though true within limits, must be supplemented and qualified by the fact that the Arabs had contacts with Persian and Roman Empires and that the> had developed extensive trade and cultural relations with the neighbouring countries. Thus Arabia at that time had a cultural centre. So the Arabs were not altogether devoid of culture.
R.A. Nicholson says, ”In the kingdoms of Hira and Ghassan pre-Islamic culture attained its highest development and from these centres it diffused itself and made its influence felt throughout Arabia. Some account, therefore, of their history and of the circumstances which enabled them to assume a civilizing role will
27
W M Watt, Muhammad at Makkah P 18 S M Imamuddin, P.26

52 Political and Cultural History of Islam

not be superfluous.”29 There was no prose literature at that time: it was the poet’s privilege to sing^the history of his own people, to record their genealogies, to celebrate their feats of arms and to extol their virtues.
The educational system of the pre-Islamic Arabs was not so developed as we have in modern age, but inspite of all ignorance and barbarism, Arabs were fully equipped with all literary branches like eloquence, poetry and memory. The Arabs excelled many nations in the world in composition of the epic poetry. The main themes of their composition were inter-tribal feuds, genealogies, heroic deeds and romantic stories. Their ode or Qasida was the perfect type of composition. The ode, as P.K. Hitti says, surpass the Iliad and Odyessy in metrical composition and elaborateness. The heathen poetry including the collection of Imra-ul-Qai’s (he was the Shakespeare of the Arabs) bear the testimony to the fact that in many respects, the Arabian language could be rightly compared with the European languages. Arabs were distinctive for their cultuie and literacy.
The seven ancient Arabian poems, called Muallakat are proof of a golden age of literature and doubtless are only fragments of much larger collection. To them we owe much of our knowledge of the early Arabian life and faith. Palgrave says, ”If poor in architectural, Arabia is superabundantly rich in literary monuments”, and this is true, even of the time of ignorance.” Zuhair, Zarafa, Imra-ul-Qais, Amar-binKulsum, Al-Hanth, Antra and Lubaid furnished the mode! for later Arabian poetry and their poems, as we have them, are remarkable for perfection of form and language But their poetry consisted mostly of personal or tribal hosting; of the love of women and wine; of their fondness for gambling and drunkenness. It was also handmaid of warriors for exciting their passions and a poet was considered to be the equal of a hundred soldiers. Pre-Islamic poetry, instead of elevating the human soul, degraded it to its lowest depths. But its eloquence cannot be denied. It represented the Arab character to perfection. °
The above is a brief account of the political, economic, religious, social and cultural conditions existing in Arabia on the eve of the rise of Islam. It shows that Arabian society from which Islam arose was not, after all. a primitive nomadic society but had been considerably influenced by the civilizations of the adjacent countries. The cross cultural process of the Romans and the Persians played an important role in creating the sense of culture in Arabs.
30
R A Nicholson. A Literary History of the Arabs. London, 1994, P 37 HG Sarvvar. P 28
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