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Throughout
this series of articles the word 'Arab' has been used
to denote only the inhabitants of the Saudi Arabian
peninsula. Today, everyone in the Middle East likes
to be called an Arab, because of the prestige associated
with the name after Islam. The Bedouin tribesmen have
never been a subject race (except the Turkish occupation
before World War 1). They are hardy beyond imagination;
fiercely proud and very large hearted. They are the
people who wrote this History by their blood and sweat.
They performed prodigious feats of arms and valor
during these 100 years. This is their account.
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It is not as if there is no interaction between non-Muslims
and Muslims in India. There is plenty of those; at
all social levels and in a variety of ways. After
all, one out of every six Indians is a Muslim and
they are closely interwoven in the social fabric!
But there is no meeting of minds. There is a particular
period of History, which is very precious to every
Muslim and unfortunately it is precisely in this area
that non-Muslims are most poorly informed. This in
my opinion is where the communication gap arises.
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Before
Islam the condition of the Arabs was pathetic. There
was no government, no police or judiciary and no organized
society as such. People lived mainly by tending to
a few animals. The number of animals in any one herd
was necessarily small as the arid landscape provided
very sparse forage at any one place. This in turn
limited the number of people who could depend on those
animals to sustain themselves, to about a 100 families
or 500 people. These were always members of an extended
family, including up to 3rd or 4th cousins and formed
the 'Clan'.
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