4 ms·
"Pre-Islamic" is an odd description of a script that predates Islam by a millennium. Did they mean "pre-Arabic?"
by analog31 1y ago
"Pre-Islamic" is an odd description of a script that predates Islam by a millennium. Did they mean "pre-Arabic?"
- dep_b 1y ago[flagged]
- dang 1y agoPlease don't post religious flamebait to HN. It leads to religious flamewars, which we definitely don't want here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- idoubtit 1y ago"Preislamic" is a common term for near-East history. Islam is well dated, it introduced many changes and unified the region, so it's a powerful marker. I've never encountered the word "Pre-Arabic" about the Arabic peninsula. It would be hard to define precisely. The word "arab" is probably more than 3000 years old. The Arabic languages may be older ; they're semitic languages like the Akkadian of Mesopotamia. And when did an "Arab" people or culture emerge from the semitic people and culture? I guess between 6000 BP and 3000 BP, but it was probably a long process, and nomad tribes didn't leave many vestiges.
- gryn 1y agois it "pre-arabic" though ? it's believed that old arabic existed back then.
- arp242 1y agoPre-Islamic Arabia is, as far as I know, a fairly widely accepted term. Not that different from pre-Roman Britain, pre-Columbian Americas, pre-colonial Africa, pre-imperial China, or even Pagan Europe. In all these cases a significant change took place which drastically changed the course of the region (usually some sort of unification as a nation or religion, not always peaceful or voluntary of course).