A very interesting and neglected topic IMO, post any that you think are interesting, here are some excerpts from a compilation:http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/arabia1.asp
Inscriptions of Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (mid-late 7th century BC) Pretty crazy stuff:
In my ninth campaign I mustered my troops^ and directed the march against Uaite, King of Arabia, who had broken my treaty, and had not kept in mind the favours which I had shown him, but had thrown oflf the yoke of my lordship, which Ashur had laid upon him, in order that he should betributary to me. He had refrained from asking after my welfare, and had withheld the gift of his heavy tribute.

Like Elam, he heard of the rebellious plans of Akkad, and disregarded my treaty. Me—Ashurbanipal the king, the pure priest, the pious chief, the product of the hands of Ashur, he deserted and to Abiyate and Ayamu, sons of Teri, he handed over his forces and sent them to the help of Shamash-shum-ukin, the hostile brother, and made common cause with him. He (i. e., Shamash-shum- ukin) stirred up the Arabians to revolt along with himself, and made plundering raids upon the people, dominion over whom Ashur, Ishtar, and the great gods had given to me to exercise and had intrusted to me. At the command of Ashur and Ishtar I summoned my troops; on the way to Azarilu and Hirataqaqai, in Edom, in the pass of Yabrud, in Beth-Ammon, in the districts of Hauran, in Moab, in Sa'arri, in Harge, and in the districts of ^ubitu, a countless number of his men I killed and brought about his defeat. The Arabians, as many as had gone forth with him, I ran through with the sword, while he himself escaped from be- fore Ashur's mighty weapons and fled afar off. They set fire to the tents,their dwellings, and burned them up. Dis- aster overtook Uaite, and he fled alone to Nabataea.

As for Uaite, son of Hazael, cousin of Uaite—, son of Birdadda, who had made himself King of Arabia king of the gods, the great rock, changed his purpose, and he came into my presence. In order to exhibit the majesty of Ashur and the great gods, my lords, I laid heavy punishment upon him, in that I put him in a cage, and with wild beasts (?) and dogs I bound him and set him to watch the city gate of Nineveh, (which is called) " The en- trance to Temple-street."
Book of Isaiah:
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21:11 The burden of Dumah. He calleth to me out of Seir, Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?
21:12 The watchman said, The morning cometh, and also the night: if ye will enquire, enquire ye: return, come.
21:13 The burden upon Arabia. In the forest in Arabia shall ye lodge, O ye travelling companies of Dedanim.
21:14 The inhabitants of the land of Tema brought water to him that was thirsty, they prevented with their bread him that fled.
21:15 For they fled from the swords, from the drawn sword, and from the bent bow, and from the grievousness of war.
21:16 For thus hath the LORD said unto me, Within a year, according to the years of an hireling, and all the glory of Kedar shall fail:
21:17 And the residue of the number of archers, the mighty men of the children of Kedar, shall be diminished: for the LORD God of Israel hath spoken it.

Herodotus: The Histories, Book III, c. 430 BCE :
This way of keeping the passage into Egypt fit for use by storing water there, was begun by the Persians so soon as they became masters of that country. As, however, at the time of which we speak the tract had not yet been so supplied, Cambyses took the advice of his Halicarnassian guest, and sent messengers to the Arabian to beg a safe-conduct through the region. The Arabian granted his prayer, and each pledged faith to the other.

The Arabs keep such pledges more religiously than almost any other people. They plight faith with the forms following. When two men would swear a friendship, they stand on each side of a third: he with a sharp stone makes a cut on the inside of the hand of each near the middle finger, and, taking a piece from their dress, dips it in the blood of each, and moistens therewith seven stones lying in the midst, calling the while on Bacchus and Urania. After this, the man who makes the pledge commends the stranger (or the citizen, if citizen he be) to all his friends, and they deem themselves bound to stand to the engagement. They have but these two gods, to wit, Bacchus and Urania; and they say that in their mode of cutting the hair, they follow Bacchus. Now their practice is to cut it in a ring, away from the temples. Bacchus they call in their language Orotal, and Urania, Alilat. . . .There is a great river in Arabia, called the Corys, which empties itself into the Erythraean sea. The Arabian king, they say, made a pipe of the skins of oxen and other beasts, reaching from this river all the way to the desert, and so brought the water to certain cisterns which he had dug in the desert to receive it. It is a twelve days' journey from the river to this desert tract. And the water, they say, was brought through three different pipes to three separate places. . . .The Arabs brought every year a thousand talents of frankincense. . .
Strabo, Geography XVI.iv.19.
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The country of the Sabaei, a very populous nation, is contiguous [most of modern Yemen], and is the most fertile of all, producing myrrh, frankincense, and cinnamon. On the coast is found balsamum and another kind of herb of a very fragrant smell, but which is soon dissipated. There are also sweet-smelling palms and the calamus. There are snakes also of a dark red color, a span in length, which spring up as high as a man's waist, and whose bite is incurable. On account of the abundance which the soil produces, the people are lazy and indolent in their mode of life. The lower class of people live on roots, and sleep on the trees. The people who live near each other receive, in continued succession, the loads of perfumes and deliver them to others, who convey them as far as Syria and Mesopotamia. When the carriers become drowsy by the odor of the aromatics, the drowsiness is removed by the fumes of asphalt and of oat's beard.



Mariaba, the capital of the Sabaeans [the same as Saba], is situated upon a mountain, well wooded. A king resides there, who determines absolutely all disputes and other matters; but he is forbidden to leave his palace, or if he does so, the rabble immediately assail him with stones, according to the direction of an oracle. He himself, and those about his person, pass their lives in effeminate voluptuousness. The people cultivate the ground, or follow the trade of dealing in aromatics, both the indigenous sort and those brought from Ethiopia; in order to procure them, they sail through the straits in vessels covered with skins. There is such an abundance of these aromatics, that cinnamon, cassia, and other spices are used by them instead of sticks and firewood.


Procopius of Caesarea, History of the Wars, c. 550 CE
Book I.xix.1-16, 23-26; xx.1-13:
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The boundaries of Palestine extend toward the east to the sea which is called the Red Sea. Now this sea, beginning at India, comes to an end at this point in the Roman domain. And there is a city called Aelas [modern Aqaba] on its shore, where the sea comes to an end, as I have said, and becomes a very narrow gulf. And as one sails into the sea from there [i.e., sailing Southwest, from Aqaba to the Red Sea], the Egyptian mountains lie on the right, extending toward the south; on the other side a country deserted by men extends northward to an indefinite distance; and the land on both sides is visible as one sails in as far as the island called Iotabe, not less than one thousand stades distant from the city of Aelas. On this island Hebrews had lived from of old in autonomy, but in the reign of this Justinian they have become subject to the Romans. From there on there comes a great open sea. And those who sail into this part of it no longer see the land on the right, but they always anchor along the left coast when night comes on. For it is impossible to navigate in the darkness on this sea, since it is everywhere full of shoals. But there are harbors there and great numbers of them, not made by the hand of man, but by the natural contour of the land, and for this reason it is not difficult for mariners to find anchorage wherever they happen to be.
This coast immediately beyond the boundaries of Palestine is held by Saracens, who have been settled from of old in the Palm Groves. These groves are in the interior, extending over a great tract of land, and there absolutely nothing else grows except palm trees. The Emperor Justinian had received these palm groves as a present from Abochorabus, the ruler of the Saracens there, and he was appointed by the emperor captain over the Saracens in Palestine. And he guarded the land from plunder constantly, for both to the barbarians over whom he ruled and no less to the enemy, Abochorabus always seemed a man to be feared and an exceptionally energetic fellow. Formally, therefore, the emperor holds the Palm Groves, but for him really to possess himself of any of the country there is utterly impossible. For a land completely destitute of human habitation and extremely dry lies between, extending to the distance of a ten days' journey; moreover, the Palm Groves themselves are by no means worth anything, and Abochorabus only gave the form of a gift, and the emperor accepted it with full knowledge of the fact. So much then for the Palm Groves. Adjoining this people there are other Saracens in possession of the coast, who are called Maddeni [in modern Madyan] and who are subjects of the Omeritae. These Omeritae dwell in the land on the farther side of them on the shore of the sea [modern Yemen]. And beyond them many other nations are said to be settled as far as the man-eating Saracens. Beyond these are the nations of India.

Who was Abochorabus btw, a Ghassanid ruler?