ABSTRACT
Pre-Islamic Inscriptions Centuries before the rise of Islam, Arab tribes had already immigrated into the regions of Palestine, Syria and Mesopotamia. Arabs formed the dominant group among the inhabitants of Palmyra, which was controlled for a long time by a dynasty of Arab origin until the Romans destroyed their kingdom in 273 CEo Between the first century BCE and the third century CE the Nabateans established a state reaching from Sinai in the west to northern Hejaz in the east and from Mada'in SaIil) in the South to Damascus in the North, with Petra as its capital. The Arabic-speaking tribes of Palmyra and the Nabateans both used Aramaic in writing, but the influence of Arabic is clearly attested in their inscriptions by the occasional use of Arabic vocabulary and in particular by numerous Arabic proper names.
