The caravan city ia-at-ri-bu was aflourishing oasis and stopping place for the caravans coming from South arabia carring products including frankincense and myrrh as several kinds of spices. This city was also located at the three crossroads of the four main overland trade routes that were traced by the camelcaravans from the central Arabian Peninsula to Mesopotamia northeastward and to Syria and Levant norhwestward. Its ancient name ia-at-ri-bu was frist mentioned in the sources of the reign of the king Nabonidus in the middle of the 6th century BC. It could correspond to the Arabic name ya-th-ri-b known by Arabpeople before the rise of Islam. Thhis paper discusses the relationship between the Babylonian name ia-at-ri-bu and the Arabic name yathrib.