(COURTHOUSE NEWS) – Extreme environmental conditions may have contributed to the decline of a major power in sixth century Arabia, researchers find, in a paper published Thursday in the journal Science.
With a combination of hydrological, historical and archeological records, the study describes a possible link between a period of extreme drought and the fall of the Himyarite kingdom in early sixth century Arabia, and the subsequent rise of Islam in the area. Historians have long debated the political and economic conditions that could have led to the decline of this once powerful society, and while explanations for the fall of the Himyarite kingdom have been the source of frequent study, this collaboration between geology and history provided a new backdrop for what researchers already know.
Using samples from stalagmites found in Hoti Cave in northern Oman, Dominik Fleitmann, a professor of environmental sciences at the University of Basel in Switzerland and an author of the study, found that there was a significant fluctuation in the formation of these stalagmites around 520 to 532 CE.
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