when talking about the arabs before islam,we deem it necessary to draw a mini-picture of the history of rulership, princeship, sectarianism and the religious dominations of the arabs, so as to facilitate the understanding of emergent circumstances when islam appeared.

when the sun of islam rose, rulers of arabia were of two kinds: crowned kings, who were in fact not independent; and heads of tribes and clans, who enjoyed the same authorities and privileges possessed by crowned kings and were mostly independent, though some of whom could have shown some kind of submission to a crowned king. the crowned kings were only those of yemen, heerah and ghassan. all other rulers of arabia were non-crowned.