Society, climate and history: a case study and its methodological challenges

Identifying and explaining the relationships be tween society and environment presents many challenges to the historian. This article sets out some of these using a case study from late Roman Arabia in the century preceding the rise of Islam. The first half of the 6(th) century CE in Arabia was particularly marked by the demise of Himyar, the dominant power in the region until 525 CE. Hydroclimate records from and around Southern Arabia, including a new high resolution stalagmite record from Northern Oman, throw new light on the background to these developments. They clearly indicate an unprecedented drought, with the most severe aridity persisting between similar to 500 and 530 CE. Did such droughts contribute to undermining Himyarite resilience - and thus to the appearance of the environmental context in which Islam later emerged? The article discusses the challenges in integrating and interpreting the historical and palaeoclimate data.