Sabaeans (khaki) in the 3rd century AD.

Sabaeans
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Main article: Ancient history of Yemen
The Sabaeans or Sabeans (Arabic: ,,'--'
as-Sabaiyn) (Hebrew: ) were an ancient people
speaking an Old South Arabian language who lived in
what is today Yemen, in the south west of the Arabian
Peninsula.
[1]
Some scholars suggest a link between the Sabaeans and
the Biblical land of Sheba. It is assumed by some and
denied by others, that the Sabeans are their descendants.
Sabaeans are mentioned in the Book of Job and Isaiah
chapter XLV.
Contents
1 History
2 Religious Practices
3 Quran
4 See also
5 Notes
6 References
7 External links
History
The ancient Sabaean Kingdom established power in the early 1st millennium BCE. It was conquered, in the
1st century BCE, by the imyarites. After the disintegration of the first Himyarite Kingdom of the Kings of
Saba' and Dh Raydn, the Middle Sabaean Kingdom reappeared in the early 2nd century.
[2]
The Sabaean
kingdom was finally conquered by the imyarites in the late 3rd century and at that time the capital was
Ma'rib. It was located along the strip of desert called ayhad by medieval Arab geographers, which is now
named Ramlat al-Sab`atayn.
The Sabaean people were South Arabian people. Each of these had regional kingdoms in ancient Yemen,
with the Minaeans in the north in Wd al-Jawf, the Sabeans on the south western tip, stretching from the
highlands to the sea, the Qatabnians to the east of them and the aramites east of them.
The Sabaeans, like the other Yemenite kingdoms of the same period, were involved in the extremely
lucrative spice trade, especially frankincense and myrrh.
[3]
They left behind many inscriptions in the monumental Musnad (Old South Arabian) alphabet, as well as
numerous documents in the cursive Zabr script. The Book of Job mentions the Sabaens for slaying his
livestock and servants.
[4]
In the Res Gestae Divi Augusti, Augustus claims that:
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By my command and under my auspices two armies were led at about the same time into
Ethiopia and into Arabia, which is called the Blessed [?]. Great forces of each enemy
people were slain in battle and several towns captured. In Ethiopia the advance reached the
town of Nabata, which is close to Meroe; in Arabia the army penetrated as far as the
territory of the Sabaeans and the town of Ma'rib.
[5]
Religious Practices
Muslim writer Muhammad Shukri al-Alusi compares their religious practices to Islam in his Bulugh al-'Arab
fi Ahwal al-'Arab:
[6]
"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 a 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 circumambulation
around the Ka'ba [tawaf], ran seven times between Mounts Safa and Marwa [sa'y], threw
rocks and washed themselves after intercourse. They also gargled, sniffed water up into
their noses, clipped their fingernails, plucked their hair from their armpits, shaved their
pubic hair and performed the rite of circumcision. Likewise, they cut off the right hand of a
thief.
Muhammad Shukri al-Alusi, Bulugh al-'Arab fi Ahwal al-'Arab, Vol. 2, p. 122
A late Arabic writer wrote of the Sabaeans that they had seven temples dedicated to the seven planets,
which they considered as intermediaries employed in their relation to God. Each of these temples had a
characteristic geometric shape, a characteristic color, and an image made of one of the seven metals. They
had two sects, star and idol worshippers, and the former held their doctrine to come from Hermes
Trismegistus through the prophet Adimun.
[7]
Quran
The Sabaeans were mentioned in the Quran twice '-- , people of Saba. The Qur'an, mentions the kingdom
of the Saba in the 34th Chapter. The Qur'anic narrative, from sura 27 (An-Naml),[5] has Suleiman (Solomon)
getting reports from the Hoopoe bird about the kingdom of Saba, ruled by a queen whose people worship the
sun instead of God. Suleiman (Solomon) sends a letter inviting her to submit fully to the One God, Allah,
Lord of the Worlds according to the Islamic text. The Queen of Saba is unsure how to respond and asks her
advisors for counsel. They reply by reminding her that they are "of great toughness" in a reference to their
willingness to go to war should she choose to. She replies that she fears if they were to lose, Suleiman may
behave as any other king would: 'entering a country, despoiling it and making the most honorable of its
people its lowest'. She decides to meet with Suleiman in order to find out more. Suleiman receives her
response to meet him and asks if anyone can bring him her throne before she arrives. A jinn under the
control of Suleiman proposed that he will bring it before Suleiman rises from his seat. One who had
knowledge of the "Book" proposed to bring him the throne of Bilqis 'in the twinkling of an eye' and
accomplished that immediately.[6] The queen arrives at his court, is shown her throne and asked: does your
throne look like this? She replied: (It is) as though it were it. When she enters his crystal palace she accepts
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Abrahamic monotheism and the worship of one God alone, Allah
NOTE By Amine M Daouk The Sabaeans ,-'-' mentioned in the Quran refer to "THOSE WHO HAVE
LEFT THEIR RELIGIONS" , as explained by -=', rather than '-- , . And the Holy Quran refers to them
in 3 places, in as much as "they left their religions to believe in the one God. The Quran classifies them with
the Nazaretheans(Christians) and Houds (Jews) as believers in the One God, and they are good and will be
favoured
See also
Yemen
Hamdan tribe
Minaean Kingdom
Notes
^ Stuart Munro-Hay, Aksum: An African Civilization of Late Antiquity, 1991. 1.
^ Andrey Korotayev. Pre-Islamic Yemen. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 1996. ISBN 3-447-03679-6. 2.
^ Yemen (http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0108153.html) 3.
^ Job 1:14-15 (http://tools.wmflabs.org/bibleversefinder/?book=Job&verse=1:14-15&src=9) 4.
^ Res Gestae Divi Augusti, paragraph 26.5, translation from Wikisource 5.
^ al-Alusi, Muhammad Shukri. Bulugh al-'Arab fi Ahwal al-'Arab, Vol. 2. p. 122. 6.
^ Stapleton, H.E.; R.F. Azo and M.H. Husein (1927). Chemistry in Iraq and Persia in the Tenth Century AD:
Memoirs of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Volume 8. Calcutta: The Asiatic Society of Bengal. pp. 398403.
7.
References
Bafaqh, M. A., L'unification du Ymen antique. La lutte entre Saba, Himyar et le Hadramawt de
Ier au IIIme sicle de l're chrtienne. Paris, 1990 (Bibliothque de Raydan, 1).
Andrey Korotayev. Ancient Yemen. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-19-922237-1 [1]
(http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0199222371).
Andrey Korotayev. Pre-Islamic Yemen. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 1996. ISBN 3-447-03679-6.
Ryckmans, J., Mller, W. W., and Abdallah, Yu., Textes du Ymen 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 Encyclopdia 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
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Categories: Tribes of Arabia Semitic peoples History of Yemen Yemeni tribes
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