«The arab factor» in development of the Roman-Iranian borderland

Abstract

The article is devoted to the influence on the development of the Roman-Iranian borderland of such an ethnoconfessional factor as the Arab tribes and the buffer states formed by them. Among them are considered such political formations as: Nabataean kingdom, Osroena, Palmira, Characene, Hatra. The features of their interaction with the "great powers" (Parthia, and then the Sasanid Empire on the one hand and Rome, then Byzantium on the other) and the nomadic periphery are considered. Considered is the enormous influence of the Trans-Arab trade routes, especially the "The Incense trade route" in the development of the Arab sector of the Roman-Iranian borderland. The gradual shift in the sharpness of the development of the Roman-Iranian borderland and the shift of political, religious, and cultural activity to its former periphery, to the Arabian Peninsula, is shown. The formation, flowering and decline of such clan buffer frontier states as Lakhmids, Ghassanids and Kindahes. The article describes the complex struggle of foreign policy groups in Ḥimyar (Ancient Yemen), between the pro-Romanian (pro-Byzantine) and pro-Sasanid (pro-Persian) "trade parties". Attempts by various foreign policy actors of the region to take under direct control the territories inhabited by the Arabs, but without success. The "Arab factor", organized in the form of a new world religion of Islam led by the Prophet Muhammad, that destroyed the Roman-Iranian borderland that had existed for eight centuries before.