After doing some looking into some figures associated with the "Great Man" theory (not advocating or denouncing it, by the way) and reading up on my Alexander, Genghis Khan, and Napoleon types I got to thinking about two things. One, these conquests were for the most part highly unlikely; and two, I've never heard of any pre-Islamic Bedouin Arabs who could have united their people, lusted after maximum territorial gain, and conquered near ASB levels of territory and subjects.
My question would be is there pre-Islamic (or better yet, pre-Christian) candidates from OTL of whom you are aware?
If one exists or can be invented, how much land is maximum (using the Mongols, the Romans, or the Macedonians as examples)?
What are the long and short term effects of, say, most of the Middle East and large chunks of North Africa, Europe, and/or Central Asia being conquered and assimilated into such an Arabian Empire?
The candidate should preferably be from either the Arabian subcontinent or the Transjordan-greater Syria regions but any middle eastern or North African region is fine so long as it is not Persia.
Any time pre-Christ is preferred but I'll make the window something like 3000 b.c. - 600 a.d. to be safe... Though that might be too safe... Haha
Any thoughts?