Pre-Islamic recent period is recorded in this encyclopedia from the source named below.
Overview
The Recent Pre-Islamic Period (PIR) in southeastern Arabia refers to the period between 300 BCE, the end of the Iron Age III period, through to the Islamic era which effectively commenced with the culmination of the 7th-century Ridda Wars. Previously referred to as the Mleiha or Hellenistic era, the period was dominated in the region by the rise of the cities of Ed-Dur, currently located in Umm Al Quwain, UAE and Mleiha in Sharjah. It follows on from the dissolution of Darius III's Persian empire. Although the era has been called Hellenistic, Alexander the Great's conquests went no further than Persia and he left Arabia untouched.
Source and reuse
The descriptive text above is drawn from the English-language encyclopedia article Pre-Islamic recent period, reused under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike licence and attributed in the sources block on this page. Figures in the infobox come from Wikidata and carry that project's own provenance; they should be checked against the cited source before being relied on.
Editorial note
This record is a sourced summary, not original research. Where the underlying material is silent on a point, this article is silent too. Last reviewed 2026-09-23.