Pre-Islamic Arabia

The Arabian Peninsula and its neighbours in the generations before the revelation: trading cities, tribes, poetry, and Jewish, Christian and polytheist communities. The museum roughly bounds it from about 500 CE to about 610 CE. These boundaries are the museum's own organising convention and are not absolute.

The museum's holdings for this era today include: notable events: 10, polities: 8, groups: 13, most frequently appearing figures: 28, buildings: 4.

Notable events

• The command to sacrifice Ismail (c. 1900 BCE)
• The raising of the Kaaba's foundations (c. 1900 BCE)
• Qusayy ibn Kilab takes control of Mecca (440 CE)
• The Flood of al-Arim (c. 450 CE)
• The massacre of Najran (People of the Ditch) (523 CE)
• The second Abyssinian occupation of Yemen (525 CE to 575 CE)
• The liberation of Yemen and Persian rule (575 CE to 638 CE)
• The Battle of Dhu Qar (c. 604 CE)

Polities

• The Byzantine Empire (Rum)
• The Sasanian Empire (Persians)
• The Aksumite Kingdom (Abyssinia)
• The Ghassanid Kingdom (c. 220 CE to 636 CE)
• The Himyarite Kingdom (c. 115 BCE to 638 CE)
• The Kingdom of Saba (c. 1100 BCE to c. 115 BCE)
• The Lakhmid Kingdom of al-Hira (Lakhmids) (c. 268 CE to 632 CE)
• The Nabataean Kingdom

Groups

• Quraysh
• Hawazin
• Jurhum
• Himyar
• Lakhm (Lakhmids)
• Banu Shayban ibn Bakr ibn Wa'il

Most frequently appearing figures

• Abu Talib ibn Abd al-Muttalib
• Abd al-Muttalib ibn Hashim
• Halima al-Sa'diyya
• Durayd ibn al-Simma
• Hajar
• Ibrahim
• Hashim ibn Abd Manaf
• Ismail
• Qusayy ibn Kilab
• Abd Manaf ibn Qusayy

Buildings

• The Kaaba
• Dar al-Nadwa
• The Marib Dam
• Al-Qullays (the Yemeni Kaaba)

The lists above are the most prominent and most frequently appearing items in the museum, not everything it holds. Items for this era are being added gradually from primary sources with each new batch.

The era's boundaries are the museum's own organising convention and are approximate. For the wider history of this period, see ^{1 2}.