
The Nabateans were an Arab people who inhabited northern Arabia and the southern Levant from the 4th century BC to the 7th century AD. The Nabateans founded the city of Raqmu (now Petra, Jordan) and had a loosely controlled trading network, stretching from the Euphrates River to the Red Sea. In 106 AD, the Roman emperor Trajan conquered Nabatea, and they converted to Christianity during the Byzantine era. The Muslim Arabs of the Rashidun Caliphate went on to conquer the Nabateans during the 7th century AD, turn them into peasants.