Sabaeans

The Sabaeans or Sabeans (Sabaean: 𐩱𐩨𐩪, S¹Bʾ; Arabic: ُّ َ َّ , as-

Sabaʾiyyūn; Hebrew: ‫ )סבאים‬were an Arab people of South Arabia. Sabaean Kingdom
They spoke the Sabaean language, They founded the kingdom of َ ‫( ﻣَﻤْﻠَﻜ َﺔ‬in Arabic)
‫ﺳﺒَﺄ‬
َ ),[2][3] which was believed to be the biblical land
Sabaʾ (Arabic: ‫ﺳـﺒَـﺄ‬
between 1200 and 800 BCE–CE
of Sheba[4][5][6] and "the oldest and most important of the South 275
Arabian kingdoms".[7]
Capital Sirwah
The date of the foundation of Sabaʾ is a point of disagreement among Maʼrib,
Sana'a
scholars. Kenneth Kitchen dates the kingdom to between 1200 BCE
and 275 CE, with its capital at Maʼrib.[8] On the other hand, Israel Common languages Sabaic
Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman believe that "the Sabaean Religion pre-
kingdom began to flourish only from the eighth century BC onward" Islamic
and that the story of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba is "an Arabian
anachronistic seventh-century set piece."[9] The Kingdom fell after a religions
long but sporadic civil war between several Yemenite dynasties Government Theocracy
claiming kingship;[10][11] from this, the late Himyarite Kingdom arose (Early)
as victors. Monarchy
(Late)[1]
Sabaeans are mentioned several times in the Hebrew Bible. In the Mukarrib
Quran,[12] they are described as either Saba’,[2][3] or as the people of • 700–680 BCE Karibi-ilu
[13][14]
ْ َ‫ﻗ‬, romanized: Qawm Tubbaʿ).
Tubba' (Arabic: ‫ـﻮم ﺗُـﺒـﻊ‬ • 620–600 BCE Karib'il
Watar
• 60–20 BCE Ilasaros
Historical era Iron Age
Contents to
Classical
History Antiquity
Religious practices • Established between
1200 and
Mentions in religious texts
800 BCE
Quran • Disestablished CE 275
Bible
Succeeded by
See also
Himyarite Kingdom
References
Further reading
External links

History
The origin of the Sabaean Kingdom is uncertain. Kenneth Kitchen dates the kingdom to around 1200
BCE,[15] while Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman write that "the Sabaean kingdom began to flourish
only from the eighth century BCE onward".[16] Originally, the Sabaeans were one of the shaʻbs (Sabaean:
𐩪𐩨𐩲𐩦), "communities", on the edge of the Sayhad desert. Very early, at the beginning of the 1st millennium
BC, the political leaders (Sabaean: 𐩫𐩡𐩣𐩱, romanized: ʼmlk) of this tribal community managed to create a huge
commonwealth of shaʻbs occupying most of South Arabian territory and took the title Sabaean: 𐩱𐩨𐩪 𐩨𐩧𐩫𐩣,
romanized: mkrb sbʼ, “Mukarrib of the Sabaeans”.[17]

Several factors caused a significant decline of the Sabaean state and

civilization by the end of the 1st millennium BC.[18] Saba' was conquered by
the Himyarite Kingdom in the first century BCE; but after the disintegration
of the first Himyarite Kingdom of the Kings of Saba' and Dhū Raydān, the
Middle Sabaean Kingdom reappeared in the early second century.[19] Note
that the Middle Sabaean Kingdom was different from the Ancient Sabaean
Kingdom in many important respects.[20] The Sabaean kingdom was finally
conquered by the Ḥimyarites in the late 3rd century and at that time the capital
was Ma'rib. It was located along the strip of desert called Sayhad by medieval
Arab geographers, which is now named Ramlat al-Sab'atayn.

The Sabaean people were the South Arabian people. Each of these peoples
had regional kingdoms in ancient Yemen, with the Minaeans in the north in
Wādī al-Jawf, the Sabeans on the southwestern tip, stretching from the
highlands to the sea; the Qatabānians to the east of them, and the Ḥaḑramites
east of them. The Sabaeans, like the other Yemenite kingdoms of the same
"Bronze man" found in Al-
period, were involved in the extremely lucrative spice trade, especially
Baydā' (ancient Nashqum,
frankincense and myrrh.[21] They left behind many inscriptions in the
Kingdom of Saba'), 6th–5th
monumental ancient South Arabian script or Musnad, as well as numerous
century BCE, Louvre
documents in the related cursive Zabūr script. Museum

Religious practices
Muslim writer Muhammad Shukri al-Alusi compares their religious
practices to Islam in his Bulugh al-'Arab fi Ahwal al-'Arab:[22]

The Arabs during the pre-Islamic period used to practice

certain things that were included in the Islamic Sharia.
They, for example, did not marry both a mother and her
daughter. They considered marrying two sisters
simultaneously to be the most heinous crime. They also
censured anyone who married his stepmother, and called
him dhaizan. They made the major hajj and the minor
umra pilgrimage to the Ka'ba, performed the
circumlocution around the Ka'ba tawaf, ran seven times
between Mounts Safa and Marwa sa'y, threw rocks and
washed themselves after sexual intercourse. They also
gargled, sniffed water up into their noses, clipped their
fingernails, removed all pubic hair and performed ritual
circumcision. Likewise, they cut off the right hand of a
Inscription that shows religious
thief and stoned Adulterers.
practice during pilgrimage

According to heresiographer Shahrastain, Sabaeans accept both the

sensible and intelligible world, but do not follow religious laws, but center their worship on spiritual
entities.[23]

Mentions in religious texts

Quran

The name of Saba' is mentioned in the Qur'an twice, in the 27th[24]

and 34th[25] Chapters, with the latter Sūrah being named after the
area. The former refers to the area in the context of Solomon and the
Queen of Sheba, whereas the latter refers to the Sayl al-ʿArim (Flood
of the Dam), in which the historic dam was ruined by flooding. As for
the phrase "Qawm Tubba'" ("People of Tubba'"), which occurs in the Ruins of the historical dam of the
44th[26] and 50th[27] Chapters, "Tubba'" was a title for kings of Saba', former Sabaean capital of Ma'rib,
like for Himyarites.[28] amidst the Sarawat Mountains of
present-day Yemen

Bible

Sabaeans are mentioned in the biblical books of Job, Joel, Ezekiel, and Isaiah. The Book of Job mentions them
as having slain Job's livestock and servants.[29] In Isaiah they are described as "tall of stature".[30]

See also
Ancient South Arabian art
Hamdan tribe
Minaean Kingdom
Himyarite Kingdom

References
1. Houtsma, Martijn Theodoor (1993). E.J. Brill's First Encyclopaedia of Islam, 1913-1936 (https://
books.google.com/books?id=Va6oSxzojzoC&pg=PA292). v5. Leiden: BRILL. p. 292.
ISBN 978-90-04-09791-9. OCLC 258059170 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/258059170).
2. Quran 27:6-93 Quran 27:6–93 (https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atex
t%3A2002.02.0006%3Asura%3D27%3Averse%3D6)
3. Quran 34:15-18 Quran 34:15–18 (https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3At
ext%3A2002.02.0006%3Asura%3D34%3Averse%3D15)
4. Robert D. Burrowes (2010). Historical Dictionary of Yemen. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 319.
ISBN 0810855283.
5. St. John Simpson (2002). Queen of Sheba: treasures from ancient Yemen. British Museum
Press. p. 8. ISBN 0714111511.
6. Kenneth Anderson Kitchen (2003). On the Reliability of the Old Testament (https://archive.org/d
etails/onreliabilityold00kitc). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. p. 116 (https://archive.org/details/on
reliabilityold00kitc/page/n139). ISBN 0802849601.
7. "The kingdoms of ancient South Arabia" (https://web.archive.org/web/20150504061448/https://
www.britishmuseum.org/explore/online_tours/middle_east/ancient_south_arabia/the_kingdom
s_of_ancient_south.aspx). Britishmuseum.org. Archived from the original (https://www.britishmu
seum.org/explore/online_tours/middle_east/ancient_south_arabia/the_kingdoms_of_ancient_s
outh.aspx) on May 4, 2015. Retrieved 2013-02-22.
8. Kenneth A. Kitchen The World of "Ancient Arabia" Series. Documentation for Ancient Arabia.
Part I. Chronological Framework and Historical Sources p.110
9. Israel Finkelstein; Neil Asher Silberman, David and Solomon: In Search of the Bible's Sacred
Kings and the Roots of the Western Tradition, p. 171
10. D. H. Muller (1893), Himyarische Inschriften (in German), Mordtmann, p. 53
11. Javad Ali, The Articulate in the History of Arabs before Islam, Volume 2, p. 420
12. Brannon M. Wheeler (2002). Prophets in the Quran: An Introduction to the Quran and Muslim
Exegesis (https://books.google.com/books?id=Lo9jAavEHdIC&pg=PA166). Continuum
International Publishing Group. p. 166. ISBN 0-8264-4956-5.
13. Quran 44:37 Quran 44:37 (https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3
A2002.02.0004%3Asura%3D44%3Averse%3D37) (Translated by Yusuf Ali)
14. Quran 50:12 Quran 50:12–14 (https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atex
t%3A2002.02.0006%3Asura%3D50%3Averse%3D12)
15. Kenneth A. Kitchen : The World of "Ancient Arabia Series. Documentation for Ancient Arabia.
Part I. Chronological Framework and Historical Sources, p.110
16. Israel Finkelstein, Neil Asher Silberman, David and Solomon: In Search of the Bible's Sacred
Kings and the Roots of the Western Tradition, p. 171
17. Andrey Korotayev. Pre-Islamic Yemen (https://www.academia.edu/32923104/Korotayev_A._Pr
e-Islamic_Yemen._Wiesbaden_Harrassowitz_Verlag_1996). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag,
1996. ISBN 3-447-03679-6. P. 2-3.
18. Andrey Korotayev. Ancient Yemen. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995 (https://www.academ
ia.edu/32711023/ANCIENT_YEMEN_Oxford_University_Press_1995_). ISBN 0-19-922237-1.
P. 98.
19. Andrey Korotayev. Pre-Islamic Yemen (https://www.academia.edu/32923104/Korotayev_A._Pr
e-Islamic_Yemen._Wiesbaden_Harrassowitz_Verlag_1996). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag,
1996. ISBN 3-447-03679-6.
20. KOROTAYEV, A. (1994). Middle Sabaic BN Z: clan group, or head of clan?. Journal of semitic
studies, 39(2), 207-219 (https://www.academia.edu/17729252/MIDDLE_SABAIC_BN_Z_CLA
N_GROUP_OR_HEAD_OF_CLAN).
21. "Yemen | Facts, History & News" (https://www.infoplease.com/world/countries/yemen).
InfoPlease.
22. al-Alusi, Muhammad Shukri. Bulugh al-'Arab fi Ahwal al-'Arab, Vol. 2. p. 122.
23. Walbridge, John. “Explaining Away the Greek Gods in Islam.” Journal of the History of Ideas,
vol. 59, no. 3, 1998, pp. 389–403. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3653893.
24. Quran 27:15–44 (https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2002.02.
0006%3Asura%3D27%3Averse%3D15)
25. Quran 34:15–17 (https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2002.02.
0006%3Asura%3D34%3Averse%3D15)
26. Quran 44:37 (https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2002.02.000
4%3Asura%3D44%3Averse%3D37) (Translated by Yusuf Ali)
27. Quran 50:12–14 (https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2002.02.
0006%3Asura%3D50%3Averse%3D12)
28. Brannon M. Wheeler (2002). Prophets in the Quran: An Introduction to the Quran and Muslim
Exegesis (https://books.google.com/books?id=Lo9jAavEHdIC&pg=PA166). Continuum
International Publishing Group. p. 166. ISBN 0-8264-4956-5.
29. Job 1:14–15 (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job+1:14–15&version=nkjv)
30. Isaiah 45:14 (https://bible.oremus.org/?passage=Isaiah%2045:14&version=nrsv)

Further reading
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).
Klotz, David (2015). "Darius I and the Sabaeans: Ancient Partners in Red Sea Navigation".
Journal of Near Eastern Studies. 74 (2): 267–280. doi:10.1086/682344 (https://doi.org/10.108
6%2F682344).
 Andrey Korotayev. Ancient Yemen. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995 (https://www.academ
ia.edu/32711023/ANCIENT_YEMEN_Oxford_University_Press_1995_). ISBN 0-19-922237-1
[1] (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0199222371).
Andrey Korotayev. Pre-Islamic Yemen. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 1996 (https://www.ac
ademia.edu/32923104/Korotayev_A._Pre-Islamic_Yemen._Wiesbaden_Harrassowitz_Verlag_
1996). ISBN 3-447-03679-6.
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 (http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0108153.html)
Article (http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-45966) at Encyclopædia Britannica

External links
S. Arabian "Inscription of Abraha" in the Sabaean language (http://www.mnh.si.edu/epigraphy/
e_pre-islamic/fig04_sabaean.htm), at Smithsonian/NMNH website

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sabaeans&oldid=1027464682"

This page was last edited on 8 June 2021, at 02:38 (UTC).

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this
site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia
Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.