Dr. Christian Julien Robin gave a lecture on “New Milestones in the History of Ancient Arabia”.
Dr. Robin is the Director of Research Emeriti of the National Center for Research (CNRS) in France, the founder of the French research centre in Sana’a (Yemen) and has served as director for many archaeological expeditions and research projects.
His lecture looked at the history of pre-Islamic Arabia through texts inscribed on a permanent support, and the proliferation of regular surveys and excavations, as well as the looting of antiquities in Yemen that have revealed a large number of important texts. For the most part, the new data revolves around long-distance trade by land (Gerrha) or by sea (Suquṭra); the development of Arabic script (now attested in Najrān circa 150 years before the Hijrah); Judaism and Christianity; and the reign of Abraha (which spread over much of northern Arabia in 552-553).