[smegger001]

Interesingly their wouldn't be Islamic Arab there if it weren't for the the Roman conquest many of those scattered Jew moves to what is now southern Saudi Arabia and Yemen and eventually converted the Himyarite Kingdom to Judaism. Those Hymarite Jew along with several other monotheistic religons that moved into the area (early christian, Mandaeins, Sameritain Zorastrians) became highly influential culturally and created the environment in which Mohammed and Islam emerged.