Back مملكة سبأ Arabic مملكة سبأ ARZ Səba dövləti Azerbaijani Сәба батшалығы Bashkir Сабейскае царства Byelorussian শেবা Bengali/Bangla སེ་བ། (གསུང་རབ།) Tibetan Regne de Sabà Catalan Sabejci Czech Saba Danish
Kingdom of Sheba Kingdom of Saba | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ~1000 BCE–275 CE | |||||||||
.jpg) Emblem
| |||||||||
 Map of Sheba in blue in South Arabia | |||||||||
| Capital | Marib Sanaa[1][2] | ||||||||
| Official languages | Sabaic | ||||||||
| Religion | South Arabian polytheism | ||||||||
| Demonym(s) | Sabaeans | ||||||||
| Government | Monarchy | ||||||||
| Mukarrib (list of rulers) | |||||||||
• 730–710 BCE | Yatha' Amar Watar | ||||||||
• 620–600 BCE | Karib'il Watar | ||||||||
• 120–130 CE | Ilīsharaḥ Yaḥḍub I | ||||||||
| History | |||||||||
• Established | ~1000 BCE | ||||||||
• Disestablished | 275 CE | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| Today part of | South Arabia YemenHorn of Africa  Eritrea Ethiopia | ||||||||
| Part of a series on the |
| History of Yemen |
|---|
 Yemen portal |
.jpg)
Sheba,[a] or Saba,[b] was an ancient South Arabian kingdom that existed in Yemen from c. 1000 BCE to c. 275 CE.[3] Its inhabitants were the Sabaeans,[c] who, as a people, were indissociable from the kingdom itself for much of the 1st millennium BCE.[4] Modern historians agree that the heartland of the Sabaean civilization was located in the region around Marib and Sirwah.[5][6] In some periods, they expanded to much of modern Yemen[4] and even parts of the Horn of Africa, particularly Eritrea and Ethiopia.[7] The kingdom's native language was Sabaic, which was a variety of Old South Arabian.[8]
Among South Arabians and Abyssinians,[9][10] Sheba's name carried prestige, as it was widely considered to be the birthplace of South Arabian civilization as a whole.[11] The first Sabaean kingdom lasted from the 8th century BCE to the 1st century BCE: this kingdom can be divided into the "mukarrib" period, where it reigned supreme over all of South Arabia; and the "kingly" period, a long period of decline to the neighbouring kingdoms of Ma'in, Hadhramaut, and Qataban, ultimately ending when a newer neighbour, Himyar, annexed them.[12] Sheba was originally confined to the region of Marib (its capital city) and its surroundings. At its height, it encompassed much of the southwestern parts of the Arabian Peninsula before eventually declining to the regions of Marib. However, it re-emerged from the 1st to 3rd centuries CE. During this time, a secondary capital was founded at Sanaa, which is also the capital city of modern Yemen. Around 275 CE, the Sabaean civilization came to a permanent end in the aftermath of another Himyarite annexation.[1][12]
The Sabaeans, like the other South Arabian kingdoms of their time, took part in the extremely lucrative spice trade, especially including frankincense and myrrh.[13] They left behind many inscriptions in the monumental Ancient South Arabian script, as well as numerous documents in the related cursive Zabūr script. Their interaction with African societies in the Horn is attested by numerous traces, including inscriptions and temples dating back to the Sabaean colonization of Africa.[14][15][16]
The Hebrew Bible mentions the kingdom in a story describing the interactions between King Solomon of Israel and a supposed Queen of Sheba. This narrative is co-opted by the Quran (not to be confused with the Sabians).[17][18][19] However, the historicity of the Hebrew Bible's account has been challenged by some historians due to a lack of sufficient evidence, although recent research has indicated that the kingdom was involved in the incense trade route as early in its history as the time of Solomon's reign.[20][21] Traditions concerning the legacy of the Queen of Sheba feature extensively in Ethiopian Christianity, particularly Orthodox Tewahedo, and among Yemenis today. She is left unnamed in Jewish tradition, but is known as Makeda in Ethiopian tradition and as Bilqis in Arab and Islamic tradition. According to the Jewish historian Josephus, Sheba was the home of Princess Tharbis, a Cushite who is said to have been the wife of Moses before he married Zipporah. Some Quranic exegetes identified Sheba with the People of Tubba.[22]
- ^ a b Robin 2002, p. 51.
- ^ Hoyland 2002, p. 47.
- ^ "The kingdoms of ancient South Arabia". British Museum. Archived from the original on May 4, 2015. Retrieved 2013-02-22.
- ^ a b Schiettecatte 2024.
- ^ Michael Wood, "The Queen Of Sheba", BBC History.
- ^ Nebes 2023, p. 299.
- ^ Nebes 2023, pp. 348, 350.
- ^ Stuart Munro-Hay, Aksum: An African Civilization of Late Antiquity, 1991.
- ^ Nebes 2023, p. 332.
- ^ Stein 2024, pp. 4–5.
- ^ Robin 2002, pp. 56–57.
- ^ a b Arbach & Rossi 2022, pp. 40–41.
- ^ "Yemen | Facts, History & News". InfoPlease.
- ^ Japp, Sarah; Gerlach, Iris; Hitgen, Holger; Schnelle, Mike (2011). "Yeha and Hawelti: cultural contacts between Sabaʾ and DʿMT — New research by the German Archaeological Institute in Ethiopia". Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies. 41: 145–160. ISSN 0308-8421. JSTOR 41622129.
- ^ Prioletta, Alessia; Robin, Christian Julien; Schiettecatte, Jérémie; Gajda, Iwona; Nuʿmān, Khaldūn Hazzāʿ (2021). "Sabaeans on the Somali coast". Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy. 32 (S1): 328–339. doi:10.1111/aae.12202. ISSN 1600-0471.
- ^ Robin, Christian Julien; Prioletta, Alessia; Schiettecatte, Jérémie; Gajda, Iwona; Nuʿmān, Khaldūn Hazzāʿ (2021). "Des Sabéens dans la Corne de l'Afrique (Somalie du Nord) vers les VIIIe-VIIe siècles av. l'ère chrétienne". Comptes-rendus des séances de l'Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres (in French). 2021 (1): 4–49. doi:10.2143/CRA.2021.1.0000001. ISSN 0065-0536.
- ^ Burrowes, Robert D. (2010). Historical Dictionary of Yemen. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 319. ISBN 978-0810855281.
- ^ St. John Simpson (2002). Queen of Sheba: treasures from ancient Yemen. British Museum Press. p. 8. ISBN 0714111511.
- ^ Kitchen, Kenneth Anderson (2003). On the Reliability of the Old Testament. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. p. 116. ISBN 0802849601.
- ^ Lemaire, André (2014). "The Queen of Sheba and the Trade Between South Arabia and Judah". In Hussein, Ali A.; Oettinger, Ayelet (eds.). Ben ‘Ever La‘Arav VI: Contacts between Arabic Literature and Jewish Literature in the Middle Ages and Modern Times. A Collection of Studies Dedicated to Prof. Yosef Tobi on the Occasion of his Retirement. Haifa: University of Haifa. pp. xi–xxxiv.
- ^ Stein, Peter (2017). "Sabäer in Juda, Juden in Saba. Sprach- und Kulturkontakt zwischen Südarabien und Palästina in der Antike". In Hübner, Ulrich; Niehr, Herbert (eds.). Sprachen in Palästina im 2. und 1. Jahrtausend v. Chr. Abhandlungen des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins (in German). Vol. 43. Harrassowitz Verlag. p. 113. ISBN 978-3-447-10780-8.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Brannon2002was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).
© MMXXIII Rich X Search. We shall prevail. All rights reserved. Rich X Search