How Were the Arabs Able to Conquer the Middle East?

The world before the Arab conquests. Image Source: Getoryk, CC BY-SA 3.0,Wikimedia Commons

When people think of the modern Middle East, most instantly think of the Arabic people and Islam, as the dominant people and religion of the area. This, however, was far from being the case in the pre-Islamic times, as Arabia and the Arabic-speaking tribes, from a purely political point of view, were a constant, but rather insignificant feature of the Antique and Late Antique Middle East.