Why do historians use Islamic traditions alongside archaeology to study pre-Islamic Arabia?

Historians utilize Islamic traditions alongside archaeology to study pre-Islamic Arabia because each source provides different, complementary types of evidence that help construct a more comprehensive historical picture.

Archaeological and epigraphic data—such as stone inscriptions, graffiti, and ruins—serve as primary, contemporary records of the region’s physical history, including its religious practices, tribal genealogies, and social structures. However, these physical remains are often fragmentary or utilitarian in nature.12

Islamic traditions, which include the Qur'an, pre-Islamic poetry, and the writings of early Muslim annalists and geographers, provide a narrative framework and cultural context that archaeology alone cannot offer. For instance, works like Ibn al-Kalbī’s Kitāb al-aṣnām and al-Hamdānī’s al-Iklīl preserve folklore and details about pre-Islamic antiquities that help interpret the physical sites.1

By cross-referencing these literary accounts with archaeological findings, historians can better evaluate the historicity of both sources, filling gaps where one or the other is incomplete and gaining a deeper understanding of the social, political, and religious life of the Arabian Peninsula before the 7th century CE.13