Economy and trade of pre-Islamic Arabia

The economy and trade of pre-Islamic Arabia refers to the land- and sea-trade networks used by the inhabitants of Pre-Islamic Arabia, both inter-regionally (between different regions of Arabia) and internationally.

Famously, the Arabian Peninsula, situated between the Levant, Mesopotamia, Persia, Egypt, and the Horn of Africa, is known for its role in the ancient incense trade route, which saw the movement of spices across regions as distant as India to Europe. Commodities transported through these routes included myrrh from modern-day Yemen and frankincense from Oman.

The documentation of trade in the region goes back to the 3rd millennium BC, where Dilmun, a civilization covering most of Eastern Arabia, was known in Mesopotamian traders as a legendary source of wealth and goods in the Bronze Age. South Arabia was also a major center of trade. The transition from pre-Islamic to Islamic times shifted the locus of trade to the Hejaz, the birthplace of Islam.