Americans found in Marib numerous stone sculptures of the heads of a bull with recesses for a drain of sacrificial blood. To the right of Marib lies the second temple – the round sanctuary of Balkis, Queen of Sheba. Archaeologists for several months unearthed in the sand near Marib temple oval 350 meters in circumference-temple Balkis. They dug up the remains of an elegant hall with columns and an extensive building with eight high pilasters. On the inner wall of the temple found located in a row 64 carved in a niche of false Windows, decorated with bars. Eight and sixty-four are the numbers of the heavenly goddess Venus, not the numbers of the moon. Obviously, among the ancient Arabs the image of the heavenly goddess, Venus merged with the image of the Queen of Sheba – Balkis. Just exactly in religious symbols merge images of the moon and Venus.
Archaeological excavations prove that the sanctuary of Balkis was dedicated to the moon God.
And here, when you delve into the complex interweaving of ideas of the ancient Arabs about Allah and his prophets, the question inevitably arises, what was the meaning of the temple of Balkis for them, if the Arabs have the Moon and the morning star – masculine?
What is interesting, but the type of boats, resembling the sickle of the moon, found in modern locals in the marshy lower Euphrates, near the city of Ur, reminiscent of Italian gondolas. Ancient robbers plundered the tombs of kings and pharaohs, but did not touch the «sacred» boats. Apparently, they were considered sacred and inviolable; these boats are similar to those found near the graves of the pharaohs on the Nile, although there they were much larger and sometimes richer. On these boats the dead king and his court – were sent to «the light». The boats of the dead are distributed throughout the space from Northern Europe to Africa and from the Mediterranean to the South Pacific. In short: this is a copy of the Crescent moon, which floats across the sky as the ocean to the East – toward the Sun. There, in the shining and sparkling country of the Sun, the celestial boat disappears. There is «another world».
Various multiplications of squares gave rise to a complex polygonal pattern. The triangle denotes the «eye» of God (the motive of the ancient magical notions), two-folded triangle «sign of David» – two symbolic eyes of God, who is supposedly overseeing everything. The Pentagon symbolized the five commandments of Islam (faith in the one God, five-time prayer, alms, fasting, and pilgrimage to Mecca).
Appeal to geometric figures existed in the pre-Islamic period among the Arab nomads. Living in the desert, they were guided by the stars, the Sun, the moon and marked their views with geometric signs. With the spread of Islam, ancient astrological symbolism is closely intertwined with the symbols of religion. The Crescent moon, boat, resembling a Crescent moon are found in many ancient cultures, e.g. in ancient Egyptian and Sumerian. Models of boats found by archaeologists as if copy the moon sickle, like a ship. Therefore, the ornament in the medieval Muslim society was «read» as an open book. Developing under the influence of visual traditions of other peoples, it is much more complicated. Along with geometric patterns and inscriptions, floral motifs are widely used in the ornament. Ornament – «music for the eyes» – became for artists the main sphere of application of creative forces, its unprecedented development as if filled restrictions of some fine arts. The religious ban, formulated only by the end of the 8th century, was not always observed. Many areas of creativity were associated with the requirements of secular culture-miniature, Palace paintings, and crafts.
The heritage of Muslim countries was dominated by the art of words, architecture, music, ornament, calligraphy, crafts, and miniature. The important role that mathematics played in the art of the Arab peoples was based not only on the outstanding achievements of the exact Sciences, but also stemmed from the very nature of architecture, music and ornament. In these kinds of art, the strict logic of numbers and rhythmic constructions gained a special aesthetic value.
The emergence of Islam in Arab society in the early 7th century was due to a number of socio-economic and political reasons. Earthly origin of the Muslim religion, socio-economic and ideological roots of the formation of Islam is not a product of a coincidence, one way or another leaves room for a «miracle», but as a natural result of the development of social relations in a certain period of the history of the Arab peoples.
On the Arabian Peninsula, inhabited mainly by nomadic pastoral tribes of Bedouin Arabs, there were important changes in that time. Relations based on property inequality and class privileges began to prevail over tribal or Patriarchal-communal relations and ties due to the decomposition of the old way of life. In the cities, this process was outlined earlier and was more intense.
For example, in Mecca, which grew up at the transshipment point of the caravan route from Yemen to Syria, there were merchants, slave owners and the poor. Slaves worked around the house, worked outside the city and in the nearby oases of the land, grazed cattle, were artisans. It should be said that according to the tradition of the city, inhabited by former nomads, had many «birthmarks» of the tribal system: the population of the districts were immigrants from separate clans, the ancestors and sheikhs of the tribes enjoyed hereditary authority, had some power over the tribesmen. However, monetary relations, trade and craft gradually undermined ties, based on blood kinship. In the cities where merchants were engaged in transit trade, usury prospered: to take «Dinar on Dinar» for the loan became usual norm. That is why the founder of the new religion, Muhammad, in order to win over as many people as possible, condemned usury and declared that Allah forbids «riba», that is, loan interest.
Gradually strengthened ties between tribes, there were alliances of tribes. The idea of uniting tribes found an increasing number of supporters among the tribal nobility and merchants.
The unification of Arab tribes and the strengthening of political and economic ties between cities and human settlements have become an urgent necessity. Different parts of the vast territory of Arabia was the subject of claims of the great empires of that time – Byzantium and Iran. The latter sought to keep under its control path leading from the Mediterranean to India and China, in particular the caravan route from Yemen through Hijaz in Syria, Palestine and Iraq.
As a result of the constant struggle that has been going on for many decades, Iran managed to defeat the satellite of the Byzantium of Ethiopia, which seized Yemen, expel its troops from there and establish its control over the transit trade. Indian goods could now fall into the Byzantine Empire only through Iran. The cessation of transit through Yemen had a serious impact on its economy, the Hijaz cities of Mecca, Taif and others associated with Yemen and the red sea coast (trade routes moved to the Persian Gulf), began to grow. The Meccan rich people who have lost a significant share of the gains from trade, increased exploitation of the working strata of the population, were growing debts of impoverished tribes, unscrupulous money-lenders have increased interest rates.
In Arabia, the socio-economic crisis was growing until unprecedented severity. The contradictions created by or exacerbated by the crisis required resolution. Relations between the owners of land once owned by the entire community and landless congregation, between the nobility and ordinary members of the tribes, between slaves and slave owners, artisans and rich moneylenders, wealthy merchants and their workers became increasingly strained.
The leaders of society clearly felt the need for a strong centralized power, able to keep in check the disgruntled and oppressed people. It would also provide an opportunity to unite the scattered parts of the country, its cities and oases, to ensure national independence, to restore the old caravan routes, to wage wars of conquest.
Old tribal beliefs and religions prevented unification trends and prevented the creation of a unified state on the territory of the entire Arabian Peninsula.
Islam turned out to be an ideological tool suitable for unifying purposes, as well as corresponding to the class interests of the privileged strata of Arab society.