Sabaeans

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Not to be confused with Sabians.

For the language, see Sabaean language.

The Sabaeans were an ancient people speaking a South Semitic language who lived in what is today Yemen, northern Ethiopia and Eritrea. Their ancient Sabaean Kingdom lasted from the early 1st millennium to the 1st century BC. In the 1st century BC it was conquered by the Himyarites, but after the disintegration of the first Himyarite empire of the Kings of Saba' and dhu-Raydan the Middle Sabaean Kingdom reappeared in the early 2nd century. It was finally conquered by the Himyarites in the late 3rd century. Its capital was Marib and was along the strip of desert that was called Sayhad by medieval Arab geographers and that is called now Ramlat al-Sab`atayn.

The Sabaean people were one of four ancient Yemeni groups (Greek ethnos) classified by Eratosthenes. The others were the Minaeans, Hadramites and Qatabanians. Each of these had regional kingdoms in ancient Yemen, with the Minaeans in the north along the red sea, the Sabeans on the south western tip, streaching from the highlands to the sea, the Qatabanians to the east of them and the Hadramites east of them.

The Sabaeans, as were the other Arabian and Yemenite kingdoms of the same period, were involved in the extremely lucrative spice trade, especially frankincense and myrrh.[1]

Most archaeologists now believe them to be the same nation as the Biblical kingdom of Sheba. They left behind many inscriptions in the monumental Musnad (Old South Arabian) alphabet, as well as numerous documents in the cursive Zabur script.

They were polytheistic, and should not be confused with the Sabians mentioned in the Qur'an, whose name is written with the Arabic letter sad rather than sin.

Due to their hegemony of the Red Sea some Sabaeans lived in northern Ethiopia and Eritrea during the Sabaean-influenced kingdom of D`mt. Most modern historians consider this civilization to be indigenous,<sup>[1]</sup>, but some still view, as in the past, D`mt as the result of a mixture of "culturally superior" Sabaeans and indigenous peoples;^[2] a very small minority even views the kingdom as wholly Sabaean or Eritreans and Ethiopians as the descendents of ancient Sabaean immigrants, but with little evidence.^[3]

Contents 1 See also 2 Notes 3 References 4 External links

[edit] See also

• Yemen
• Minaean Kingdom

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Stuart Munro-Hay, Aksum: An African Civilization of Late Antiquity. Edinburgh: University Press, 1991, pp.57.
2. ^ Taddesse Tamrat, Church and State in Ethiopia: 1270-1527 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1972), pp.5-13.
3. ^ Megalommatis, Mohammed K.P. "[Yemen’s Past and Perspectives are in Africa, not a fictitious 'Arab' world"

[edit] References

• Bafaqīh, M. ‛A., L'unification du Yémen antique. La lutte entre Saba’, Himyar et le Hadramawt de Ier au IIIème siècle de l'ère chrétienne. Paris, 1990 (Bibliothèque de Raydan, 1).
• Ryckmans, J., Müller, W. W., and ‛Abdallah, Yu., Textes du Yémen Antique inscrits sur bois. Louvain-la-Neuve, 1994 (Publications de l'Institut Orientaliste de Louvain, 43).
• Info Please
• Article at Encyclopedia Britannica

[edit] External links

• S. Arabian "Inscription of Abraha" in the Sabaean language, at Smithsonian/NMNH website