1. golden age
In pre-Islamic times the Arabian peninsula was a desert backwater, largely ignored by the rulers of the Sasanian empire. ... Driven by religious zeal and the desire for the spoils of war, they brought Muslim rule to Syria, Egypt, and what was left of the Sasanian Empire. ... Soon after this victory, Mu"awiya, a Syrian regional governor and cousin of Uthman, began a campaign against Ali to avenge Uthman's death. ... As the Empire grew to include more urbanized, cosmopolitan parts of the middle east such as Syria and Iraq, the Arabian peninsula came to be thought of as a desert was...
Stressing the same strict adherence to religious law of the Wahhabi sect, Ikhwan Bedouin abandoned their traditional way of life in the desert and move to an agricultural settlement called a hijra. ... In 1915 Abdul Aziz had various goals: he wanted to take Hail from the Al Rashidi, to extend his control into the northern deserts in present-day Syria and Jordan, and to take over the Hijaz and the Persian Gulf coast. ... They also opposed Abdul Aziz's efforts to extend his influence beyond the Jordanian, Syrian, and Iraqi deserts because of their own imperial interests. ...