Ancient South Arabia

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South Arabia around 100 BC (The map is possibly anachronistic, since Ma'in (approx. 400–100 BC) and Himyar (from approx. 100 BC) probably never coexisted as independent states.)

The areas of today's Yemen , western Oman and the extreme south of Saudi Arabia from the establishment of the empires Saba , Ausan , Qataban and Hadramaut at the beginning of the 1st millennium BC are called Old South Arabia or Sayhad culture . Until the spread of Islam from 632 AD. The science that deals with these cultures is called Sabaean Studies .

The centers of the ancient South Arabian empires were around the Ramlat as-Sabatain desert . The southern and western highlands and the coastal regions were less politically influential. The coastal cities have been of great importance for trade since the early days. Outside of today's Yemen, the empires expanded into Oman, into the North Arabian oasis of Dadan , to Ethiopia and along the East African coast to today's Tanzania .

Research history

The Austrian explorer Eduard Glaser (1855–1908)

Sabaean Studies, the science of ancient South Arabia, is one of the younger branches of ancient studies, as South Arabia remained largely unknown in Europe for longer than other areas of the Orient. It was not until 1504 that a European, namely the Italian Ludovico de Varthema (1470–1517), succeeded in penetrating the interior of the country. Two Danish expeditions in which u. a. Johann David Michaelis (1717–1791) and Carsten Niebuhr (1733–1815) contributed, albeit in a modest way, to the scientific exploration of Yemen. In the first half of the 19th century, other travelers brought over a hundred ancient South Arabic inscriptions to Europe. This research phase reached a climax with the travels of the French Joseph Halévy in 1869/70 and the Austrian Eduard Glaser 1882-1894, who copied around 2500 inscriptions or brought them to Europe. On the basis of this epigraphic material, Glaser and Fritz Hommel in particular researched the ancient South Arabic language and history. After the First World War , excavations were carried out in Yemen for the first time. Since 1926 Syrians and Egyptians also participated in the exploration of South Arabia. The Second World War ushered in a new phase of scientific preoccupation with ancient South Arabia: 1950–1952, the American Foundation for the Study of Man , founded by Wendell Phillipps , undertook major excavations in Timna and Marib , including William Foxwell Albright and Albert Jamme , the who published the inscription finds contributed. The first systematic inventory of the archaeological objects in the then Aden Protectorate was carried out by Gerald Lankester Harding in 1959 . During this time, Hermann von Wissmann in particular did a great job researching the history and ancient geography of South Arabia. In addition, u. a. the French excavations 1975–1987 in Shabwat and other places, the Italian investigations of the Stone Age remains and the work of the German Archaeological Institute in the area of ​​Marib.

swell

The sources of old South Arabia are poor. In addition to individual mentions in Assyrian, Persian, Roman and Arabic sources as well as in the Old Testament, which dates from the 8th century BC. BC to the Islamic period, the old South Arabic inscriptions are the main source. However, these are for the most part very short and therefore only of limited significance. The majority of the inscriptions come from Saba and its successor realms, the Sabao-Himjar Empire, the fewest from the Ausan, which only existed temporarily. Most of the surviving inscriptions are architectural or dedicatory inscriptions, genuine historical texts rarely appear.

chronology

The kingdom of Saba appears as early as the 8th century BC In Assyrian sources, but this fixed point is not sufficient to date the early history of South Arabia, because it was only with the campaign of Aelius Gallus in 25 BC. BC and the naming of King Ilasaros is an absolute focus in the ancient South Arabian history. For earlier times, the chronological classification must be based on the comparison of ancient South Arabian finds with finds from other oriental areas, palaeography , the reconstructed sequence of kings and radiocarbon dating . In the process, two main doctrines have emerged: the “short chronology” and the “long chronology” . At the end of the 19th century, Eduard Glaser and Fritz Hommel dated the beginning of the ancient South Arabian civilization to the late 2nd millennium BC. BC, this dating remained for a long time. In 1955, Jacqueline Pirenne published a comparison of ancient South Arabian art with Greek art and came to the conclusion that the South Arabian civilization was not until the 5th century BC. Was created under Greek influence. This new “short chronology” was also underpinned by the old South Arabic letter forms, i.e. by palaeography. On the basis of the American excavations in Timna and Marib 1951-52, another, the "Mediating Chronology" was created around the same time, but only started with Qataban and Ma'in later than in the "Long Chronology". On the basis of an examination of a rock inscription near Marib ("Glaser 1703"), AG Lundin and Hermann von Wissmann dated the beginning of Saba back to the 12th and 8th century BC. BC back. Even if some of their interpretations later turned out to be inaccurate, the “Brief Chronology” is not documented; rather, numerous counter-arguments have recently been put forward. The Long Chronology gained more and more followers, primarily due to recent archaeological research results, such as the Italian in Yala / Hafari and the French in Shabwat . In the meantime, the majority of Sabaeans seem to agree with the Wissmanns “Long Chronology”, so the dates in this article are aligned with it.

prehistory

The exploration of the South Arabian prehistory is only at the beginning, however deposits are already known from the Paleolithic Age. Tumuli and megalithic structures date from the Neolithic Age . Immediately ahead of the historical empires were two Bronze Age cultures from around 2500, from northern Yemen and from the coast of the Indian Ocean. In the middle of the second millennium BC, the first important urban centers emerged in the coastal plain, including the Sabir site . So far it is not clear whether the ancient South Arab civilization emerged continuously from the South Arabian Bronze Age, or whether groups from Palestine or North Arabia migrated southwards at the beginning of the Iron Age, as is sometimes assumed.

history

The time of origin of the great South Arabian empires has not yet been clearly determined, the estimates fluctuate (within the framework of the long chronology ) from the 12th to the 8th century BC. Chr.

Sabaean hegemony (800-400 BC)

At the time of the earliest historical sources coming from southern Arabia, southern Arabia was under the domination of the Saba Empire , the centers of which were east of Sanaa in Sirwah and Ma'rib . The political map of South Arabia at that time consisted of a few larger empires or tribal areas, Ausan , Qataban and the Hadramaut and, on the other hand, a number of small states such as the city-states Haram and Naschq im Jauf that cannot be precisely determined . After Yitha'amar Watar I had already bound Qataban and areas in the Jauf to Saba, Saba reached Watar I under Karib'il , who was probably between the 8th and 5th centuries BC. Ruled the height of his power and ruled the area from Najran in southern Saudi Arabia to Bab al-Mandab . The formation of the Minean Empire in the river oasis of the Jauf northwest of Saba in the 6th century BC. BC brought the Sabaean supremacy in danger, but succeeded Yitha'amar Bayyin II. , The completion of the great dam of Ma'rib , to subjugate the north of southern Arabia again. Between the 8th and 4th centuries, the state of Da'amot emerged under Sabaean influence in Ethiopia , which existed at the latest until the emergence of the Aksumite empire at the turn of the ages. The exact chronological classification of Da'amot and to what extent it was also politically dependent on Saba is unclear.

The time of the Qataban Empire (400–50 BC)

In the late 5th and early 4th centuries, Saba's vassals Ma'in, Qataban and Hadramaut broke away from Sabaean hegemony in an alliance. Hadramaut and Ma'in, who were initially united in personal union, now controlled the incense route, which enabled Minaean traders to control the north Arabian oasis of Dedan and a presence in the eastern Mediterranean. Qataban conquered the south of Saba and the southwest of South Arabia, whereby it now controlled the Bab al-Mandab. Qataban reached its climax with the conquest of the Hadramaut in the 3rd century BC. And a little later Ma'ins. Only a few decades later (Hermann von Wissmann: 120 BC. Kenneth A. Kitchen: middle of the 1st century BC) the Qataban empire broke up: Ma'in was incorporated into Saba, the Qataban outlying areas Ausan, Radman and that for a short time Previously created Himyar achieved independence with Sabaean help.

The Supremacy of Saba, Himyar, and the Decline (50 BC – 570 AD)

The control of the sea trade, which had taken over the old meaning of the frankincense route for southern Arabia since the end of the Minean Empire, had now fallen into the hands of Himyar and Sabaeans. In order to secure the Roman sea trade with India through the Red Sea, Augustus let 25/24 BC. BC by Aelius Gallus undertake a campaign to Saba, which however failed. According to Kenneth A. Kitchen, Saba and Himyar were peacefully united in the early 1st century AD. According to Kitchen, this union broke up around 140, shortly before the final victory of the Hadramaut over Qataban. At the beginning of the 3rd century, a new power appeared on South Arabian soil with the Aksumite Empire , the expansion of which was initially held back by Saba. In the next few decades, Saba and Himyar were mostly hostile to each other, and in the Battle of Hurmatum 248/49, apparently no party was able to achieve a clear victory. Around 260/70, Himyar emerged victorious from the power struggle with Saba. Although the Sabao-Himyar Empire saw itself as the successor of Saba, it was ruled from the Himyar Zafar .

In the late 3rd century, the Himyar king Shammar defeated Yuhar'ish III. the Hadramaut finally and thus unified southern Arabia. The royal statute carried from now on by the himyar kings indicates the enormous increase in power since the union of Saba and Himyar: in addition to Saba and Himyar, the himyar ruler now appears as king of Hadramaut, of Yamanat ( Yemen ) and "their (northern) Arabs in the high and lowlands ”. Little is known about the history of the following period. Around 517, Yusuf Asʾar Yathʾar, who professed to be Judaism , took over the Himyar Empire. In the following year, war broke out with the Christian empire of Aksum. A first Aksumite invasion in 518 was repulsed; After the murder of the Christian community in Najran, occupied by Aksum, by Himyar in 523, a second, successful campaign under the Negus Ella Asbeha , in which the Sabao-Himyarian was used, took place in 525 with the support of Justin I from the East Empire was conquered.

However, this also affected the sphere of interest of the Persian Sassanid Empire , the second great power of late antiquity next to Eastern Europe. Both Romans and Persians pursued economic interests in this area, as several trade routes ran through the South Arabian region as part of the Indian trade . However, Eastern Roman attempts to divert trade routes that ran via Persia via the Red Sea and Aksum and thus to evade Persian influence failed (see also the corresponding explanations in the article Late Antiquity ).

With the overthrow of the Aksumite puppet king Simyafa Aschwa by the Aksumite military leader Abraha in 536, Yemen actually regained its independence until the Sassanid Empire invaded Yemen around 572 and drove the Aksumites out again. In the period that followed, a Persian governor was appointed for Yemen, which the East Romans under Emperor Justin II saw as a reason for war (see also Roman-Persian Wars ). After the murder of the last important Sassanid great king Chosrau II in 628, after whose death Persia sank into chaos for years, the Persian satrap converted to Islam in southern Arabia , but Yemen was not incorporated into the Islamic empire until 632.

economy

Field work on a grave stele

As in the Fertile Crescent, the basis of the old South Arabian economy was agriculture, which in South Arabia could only be practiced in the oases. Due to the climatic situation, they also required irrigation systems that have so far been archaeologically proven in Marib, Timna and Shabwat. Larger systems are also documented in writing in many places. These irrigation systems consisted of dams with sluices as well as terraces and canals that divided the water between the fields. The crops were millet, wheat, barley, maize, dates and vegetables. There were also palm crops and widespread livestock farming, with cattle being used as a workhorse for both field work and goods transport. The tools used were a plow with a thorn pulled by animals, the hoe and scraper, a board with chains.

While agriculture could only meet existential needs, trade enabled the great wealth of the South Arabian empires, which brought the old South Arabia the name " Arabia Felix " (Latin for "Happy Arabia"). The trade in frankincense and myrrh , which grew in southern Arabia, is particularly noteworthy, on the one hand through direct sales, but also through customs duties on the frankincense route leading to the north . Unfortunately, some royal market regulations from Qataban and Ma'in hardly give any indication of long-distance trade.

The discovery of the monsoon winds made sea ​​trade in the Indian Ocean considerably easier, which is why the importance of the incense route around the birth of Christ decreased considerably. According to Roman sources ( Periplus Maris Erythraei ), important South Arabian ports were Muza on the Red Sea, Berenike Ocelis on Bab al-Mandab and Qana in Hadramaut. While South Arabia mainly exported its own goods by land, the South Arabian ports now also controlled shipping from Egypt to India. Although Saba had an overseas settlement in Ethiopia several centuries before the birth of Christ , it was now possible to expand to the coast of what is now Tanzania , where a Sabaean and Himjar settlement was located in the Rhapta market .

Language and writing

Qataban inscription from the Louvre

Main articles: Old South Arabic Language and Old South Arabic Script

The written languages ​​of old South Arabia form the Old South Arabic languages and belong to the Semitic languages . The languages ​​used are Sabaean , Qataban , Hadramitic and Minaic , corresponding to the larger political units . The Sabaean, which was also used in Himjar, in the Sabao-Himjar Empire and in the Ethiopian Da'amot , is most strongly documented . The Old South Arabic languages ​​were written in a 29-character alphabetic script derived from the Phoenician script . With the introduction of Islam, the writing and language were abandoned in favor of Arabic , but some ancient South Arabic words have been preserved in Yemeni Arabic from the Middle Ages and modern times. In addition, one or more languages ​​that differed significantly from Old South Arabic, albeit also Semitic, were spoken in southern Arabia, but only fragmentarily documented, especially the Himjar language .

Art and architecture

Main article: Ancient South Arabic art

The evidence for ancient South Arabic art is still very poor, which is why no general periodization of ancient South Arabic art is possible so far.

Grave stele (alabaster) of ʿAmaʿalay dhu-Dharah'il

Works of old South Arabian architecture are only well preserved in a few cases, although the preserved remains, especially of sacred buildings, are still monumental. The main building materials were wood and stone, mud bricks were used in Shabwat and the coastal plain. Compared to other ancient sacred buildings, the old South Arabian temples give a strange impression. The most important building element were pillars with a square cross-section, which were used in monumental propylaea and colonnades. The earliest temples were simple, mostly rectangular hypäthral stone buildings, from which various types emerged, mainly a Sabaean type and the non-Sabaean multi-pillar temple. The most important secular buildings are palaces, castles and irrigation systems, especially the Ma'rib dam .

The most notable works of art outside of architecture brought about pre-Islamic southern Arabia in sculpture , in which mainly alabaster and marble were used. Their typical features are cubic basic shapes, a clumsy overall appearance and the strong emphasis on the head; the remaining body parts mostly only served as a schematic and greatly shortened link to the base or are only shown up to the upper body. Many South Arabian sculptures are also characterized by a lack of attention to proportions, which is expressed in ears that are too big and a nose that is too narrow and long. In this respect, there is a parallel to architecture, which was also based on simple geometric shapes.

society

At the head of all the old South Arabian states was a monarch who in Saba, Qataban, Ausan, in the Hadramaut, as well as in Da'amot, carried the title " Mukarrib " ( old South Arabic mkrb ). Neither the meaning of this title nor the tasks of the mukarrib can be precisely defined. Since the Qataban Mukarribe demonstrably took over cultic tasks, the title was translated as “priest prince” for a long time. Alfred Felix Landon Beeston has contradicted this interpretation, which is why the interpretation has become more cautious. Another old South Arabic ruler title was "King" (old South Arabic mlk ). The exact distinction between “king” and “mukarrib” is still unclear.

In contrast to the rest of the ancient Orient, neither mukarribe nor kings ruled absolutely, but had to obtain the approval of a kind of council of state when legislating. In this council of state, which was convened by the king, the upper class of the various tribes of the state as well as priests in Ma'in were represented, but the broad masses were not considered. On the other hand, some laws, as their introduction seems to show, were passed by the king alone. In Saba the constitution changed from around the birth of Christ: The Council of State disappeared, instead the king had to rely more and more on the approval of individual noble families, the tribes were no longer managed by a royal official but by a representative of the nobility (old South Arabic qyl ) rules.

The smallest unit of the state community formed the village ( byt ), which was grouped into tribes ( s 2 ʿb ). The state was built up from these, with a tribe apparently taking over the leadership of the tribal confederation. This division is particularly clear in Qataban: the king came from the Qataban tribe, the Radman, Madhi, Almalik and Yahir tribes were also represented in the State Council, whereas the Ausan, Kahad, Dahas and Tubanau tribes, which were incorporated later, from the former Reich territory of Ausan did not participate in the government.

From the inscriptions, different, legally different classes or ranks can be distinguished: on the one hand the noble landowners ( ms 3 wd ), on the other hand the soldiers, the traders, the free peasants, the servants, who are tenants of foreign land farmed and possibly serf slaves.

A lot is known about land ownership, especially through Qataban texts. Land belonged to the state or a god who lent it to tenants who had to pay a rent in return.

Although official titles are repeatedly mentioned in the inscriptions, their individual function remains unclear. In any case, a very high official was the Kabīr , who performed various religious and political functions, in particular the reign of a tribe. Apparently the qayn ( old South Arabic qyn ) stood among the Kabirs . Another important office was that of qayl ( old South Arabic qyl ).

The law is only partially known, as there are no comprehensive legal texts such as the Mesopotamian Codex Hammurapi , but only individual, special laws. The judiciary was the privilege of the king or his officials, so the blood revenge, which was widespread in the Orient, was not intended. Particular attention should be paid to the Sabaean and Qataban trade laws, which stipulated, for example, price compulsion, protection of the market from undercutting and a 20-day return period.

Religion and cult

Main article: Ancient South Arabic religion

Old South Arabian incense altar with ibex relief

Like all other ancient oriental religions (except Judaism ), the South Arab religion was polytheistic, whereby the astral character of the gods is clearly recognizable. Most deities are usually attempted to be traced back to a triad of sun, moon and Venus, the most extreme of which is Ditlef Nielsen ; however, this view is by no means undisputed.

At the head of the pantheon was the god Athtar , the representative of the planet Venus , in all the ancient South Arabian empires . On the one hand he was responsible for the vital irrigation, on the other hand he was also a warlike god who brought death to the enemy. Shams and some goddesses, mostly mentioned in pairs, were representatives of the sun . In addition, each empire had its own national god , in Saba this was Almaqah , perhaps a moon god, in Main and Ausan the moon god Wadd ("love"), Sin ("moon") in Hadramaut and in Qataban Amm . In addition, a large number of regionally limited deities were worshiped, such as Ta'lab in Sum'ay and Dhu-Samawi among the Amir and Muha'mir .

The residence and place of worship of a deity was their temple, an open building ( haram or mahram ), access to which was only permitted under certain ritual purity laws. Both large public temples and smaller private sanctuaries existed.

Various types of sacrifice, the sacred hunt, the oracle, the circumnavigation of a sanctuary, the bringing of a woman to a god as wife, petition processions to the temple, cultic cleaning of weapons and the public confession of guilt and the covenant only practiced by the Mukarrib have been handed down to cultic acts . Little is known, however, about the process.

The cult of the dead is archaeologically much more comprehensible than the pantheon. In pre-Islamic southern Arabia, graves had a variety of shapes, including burial caves, grave pits and mausoleums-like structures. Very little is known about ancient South Arabian ideas about the afterlife, as no actual religious texts have survived; however, grave goods, mummification and possible depictions of the afterlife point to the existence of such ideas.

Since the 2nd half of the 4th century AD, royal as well as private inscriptions of the Sabao-Himjar Empire no longer invoke the old gods, but the “Lord of Heaven” and “the Merciful”. After the old South Arabic word Rahmanan “the merciful”, this apparently monotheistic religion is also known as “ Rahmanism ”, archaeological and inscriptions document Jews and, since the beginning of the 6th century, also Christians. With Aksum's conquest of Yemen in 525, Christianity became the state religion until Yemen became Islamic around 630.

Remarks

  1. ↑ Norbert Nebes: On the genesis of the old South Arabian culture. A working hypothesis. In: R. Eichmann and H. Parzinger (eds.): Migration und Kulturtransfer. The change in pre- and Central Asian cultures in the upheaval from the 2nd to the 1st millennium BC. Bonn 2001.
  2. ↑ Norbert Nebes: Itaʾamar the Sabaeans: To date the monumental inscription of Yiṯaʿʾamar Watar from Ṣirwāḥ. In: Arabian archeology and epigraphy. Volume 18, 2007, pp. 25-33.
  3. ↑ Mounir Arbach, 'Abd al-Rahman al-Saqqaf: Naqsh jadīd min ʿhd Ydʿʾb Yhnʿm malik Qtbn w-Ydʿʾb Ġyln malik Ḥḍrmwt. In: Raydan 7, 2001, pp. 110-123 (Arabic part), Figures 21-22. CSAI number of the inscription: Arbach-Sayun 1 .
  4. ↑ Around 130 BC Chr .: Hermann von Wissmann in the rise and fall of the Roman world. P. 394; between 85 and 65 BC Chr .: Kenneth A. Kitchen: Documentation for Ancient Arabia (see bibliography), p. 44; 180.
  5. ↑ Hermann von Wissmann in the rise and fall of the Roman world. P. 395.
  6. ↑ Kenneth A. Kitchen: Documentation for Ancient Arabia. P. 186.
  7. ↑ Kenneth A. Kitchen: Documentation for Ancient Arabia. P. 28 ff.
  8. ↑ Inscriptions: Al-Mi'sal 2 (himjarisch); Yes 578 (Sabaean).
  9. ↑ For the dates see Kitchen, Documentation for Ancient Arabia. Pp. 2–6 with mention of older literature. For Eastern Roman support cf. among others Clifford Edmund Bosworth (translator), Ṭabarī . The Sāsānids, the Byzantines, the Lakhmids, and Yemen , Albany / NY 1999, especially pp. 190ff. (with numerous references in the notes there); John B. Bury , History of the Later Roman Empire , Volume 2 (of 2), New York 1958 (ND of 1923), pp. 322ff.
  10. ↑ See the article Red Sea. In: Glen Bowersock , Peter Brown , Oleg Grabar (Eds.): Late Antiquity: a guide to the postclassical world , Cambridge / Mass. 1999, p. 664f.
  11. ↑ to the market regulations: AFL Beeston: Qahtan. Fascicle 1, 1959; AFL Beeston, in: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. No. 41, London 1978; A. Grohmann: Handbook of ancient studies. Arabia. 1963, p. 139 as well as the editions of the texts
  12. ^ AFL Beeston : Languages ​​of Pre-Islamic Arabia. In: Arabica. Volume 28, Issue 2/3, 1981, pp. 178-186.
  13. ↑ General information: Jacques Ryckmans: L'institution monarchique en Arabie Méridionale avant l'Islam (Ma'în et Saba) ( Bibliothèque de Muséon , Volume 28) Louvain, 1951.
  14. ^ AFL Beeston, In: Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies. No. 7, London 1977.
  15. ↑ To this: Christian Robin. In: Studies in the History of Arabia. Vol. II: Pre-Islamic Arabia. Proceedings of the 2nd International Symposium on Studies of Arabia, 13th – 19th April 1979. Riyad 1984, p. 157.
  16. ↑ On this: Jacques Ryckmans , In: Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies. No. 2, London 1971, p. 24.
  17. ↑ To this: Christian Robin : Les Hautes-Terres du Nord-Yemen avant l'Islam. tome 1, 1982, p. 79 ff .; AFL Beeston: Qahtan. Studies in Old South Arabian Epigraphy. In: Fascicle. Volume 3, 1976, p. 4.

literature

overview

  • Walter W. Müller : South Arabia in antiquity. Annotated bibliography from 1973 to 1996 with the collaboration of E.-M. Wagner ed. by N. Nebes . (= Epigraphic research on the Arabian Peninsula. Volume 2). Marie Leidorf, Rahden / Westphalia 2001, ISBN 3-89646-682-8 .
  • Klaus Schippmann : History of the old South Arabian empires . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1998, ISBN 3-534-11623-2 .
  • Christian Robin (ed.): L'Arabie antique de Karib'il à Mahomet: nouvelles données sur l'histoire des Arabes grâce aux inscriptions. (= Revue du monde musulman et de la Méditerranée. No. 60–62). Édisud, Aix-en-Provence 1991–93, ISBN 2-85744-584-9 .
  • Wilfried Seipel (Ed.): Yemen. Art and archeology in the land of the Queen of Sheba. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna 1998 / Skira, Milan 1998, ISBN 88-8118-464-8 . (contains numerous essays on topics from ancient South Arabia)
  • Paul Yule : Himyar: The Late Antique in Yemen / Late Antique Yemen. Linden Soft, Aichwald 2007, ISBN 978-3-929290-35-6 .

history

  • AM Bafaqīh: L'unification du Yémen antique. La lutte entre Saba ', Himyar et le Hadramawt de Ier au IIIème siècle de l'ère chrétienne. (= Bibliothèque de Raydan. 1). Paris 1990.
  • Iwona Gajda: Le royaume de Ḥimyar à l'époque monothéiste. L'histoire de l'Arabie ancienne de la fin du ive siècle de l'ère chrétienne jusqu'à l'avènement de l'Islam . Paris 2009.
  • KA Kitchen : The World of Ancient Arabia Series. Documentation for Ancient Arabia. Part I. Chronological Framework & Historical Sources . Liverpool 1994. (Research into the chronology of the old South Arabian rulers)
  • Walter W. Müller: Sketch of the history of old South Arabia. In: Werner Daum (Ed.): Yemen . Pinguin-Verlag, Innsbruck / Umschau-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1987, ISBN 3-7016-2251-5 , pp. 50–56 (brief overview with bibliography in the appendix).
  • Walter W. Müller (ed.), Hermann von Wissmann : The story of Sabaʾ II. The great empire of the Sabaeans up to its end in the early 4th century BC. Chr. (= Austrian Academy of Sciences. Philosophical-historical class. Meeting reports. Volume 402). Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences Vienna, Vienna 1982, ISBN 3-7001-0516-9 . (deals with the historically relevant Sabaean inscriptions up to around 400 BC in chronological order; outdated in places).
  • Timothy Power: The Red Sea from Byzantium to the Caliphate: AD 500-1000. The American University in Cairo Press, Cairo 2012.
  • Hermann von Wissmann: On the history and regional studies of old South Arabia (= Eduard Glaser Collection. No. III = Austrian Academy of Sciences. Philosophical-historical class. Meeting reports. Volume 246). Böhlau, Vienna 1964. (geographically ordered collection of individual studies).
  • Hermann von Wissmann: The history of the Sabaean empire and the campaign of Aelius Gallus. In: Hildegard Temporini (ed.): The rise and fall of the Roman world . II. Principate. Ninth volume, first half volume . de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1976, ISBN 3-11-006876-1 , pp. 308-544. (on the story of Saba and Ma'in)

Society and state

  • Andrey Korotayev : Pre-Islamic Yemen. Socio-political Organization of the Sabaean Cultural Area in the 2nd and 3rd Centuries AD . Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1996, ISBN 3-447-03679-6 .

art

See also the bibliography of the article Old South Arabic Art .

  • Christian Darles: L'architecture civile à Shabwa. In: Syria. Revue d'art oriental et d'archéologie. Tome 68, Fasc. 1-4. Geuthner, Paris 1991, pp. 77 ff., ISSN  0039-7946 .
  • Adolf Grohmann: Handbook of ancient studies. Cultural history of the ancient Orient. Third section. Fourth subsection: Arabia . Munich 1963. (comprehensive cultural history of pre-Islamic Arabia, which, however, is out of date in some areas due to the results of recent excavations).
  • Jürgen Schmidt : Old South Arabian cult buildings. In: Werner Daum (Ed.): Yemen . Pinguin-Verlag, Innsbruck / Umschau-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1987, ISBN 3-7016-2251-5 , pp. 81-101.
  • Almut Hauptmann von Gladiss : Problems with old South Arabian plastic. In: German Archaeological Institute, Baghdad Department (ed.): Baghdader Mitteilungen . Volume 10, 1979, ISBN 3-7861-1231-2 , pp. 145-167, ISSN  0418-9698 .
  • Paul Yule: Ẓafār, Capital of Ḥimyar, Rehabilitation of a 'Decadent' Society. Excavations of the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg 1998–2010 in the Highlands of the Yemen . (= Treatises of the German Orient Society. Volume 29). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2013, ISBN 978-3-447-06935-9 .

economy

  • Maria Höfner : Agriculture in ancient South Arabia. In: B. Scholz (Ed.): Grazer Morgenländische Studien 2. The oriental man and his relationship to the environment. Contributions to the 2nd Graz Oriental Symposium (March 2-5, 1989) . Graz 1989.

Language and writing

See also the bibliography of the article Old South Arabic Language .

  • N. Nebes, P. Stein: Ancient South Arabian. In: Roger D. Woodard (Ed.): The Cambridge encyclopedia of the World's ancient languages . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2004, ISBN 0-521-56256-2 , pp. 454-487 (latest grammatical overview with bibliography).
  • AFL Beeston , MA Ghul, WW Müller, J. Ryckmans: Sabaic Dictionary / Dictionnaire sabéen . Louvain-la-Neuve 1982, ISBN 2-8017-0194-7 (English, French, Arabic).

religion

See also the bibliography of the article Old South Arabic Religion .

  • Hartmut Gese, Maria Höfner , Kurt Rudolph: The religions of Old Syria, Altarabia and the Mandaeans (= The religions of mankind . Volume 10.2). Kohlhammer, Stuttgart / Berlin / Cologne / Mainz 1970, pp. 234–353 (very extensive and detailed, but partly outdated overall presentation).
  • Jacques Ryckmans: Religion of South Arabia. In: DN Freedman (Ed.): The Anchor Bible Dictionary . Volume VI, New York 1992, ISBN 0-385-26190-X , pp. 171-176 (extensive bibliography in the appendix).

Series and magazines

  • German Archaeological Institute , Sana'a branch: Archaeological reports from Yemen. Verlag Philipp von Zabern , Mainz 1982–2008 (volumes 1–11); Dr. Ludwig Reichert, Wiesbaden 2008– (from volume 12)
  • Yemeni Center for Cultural and Archaeological Research: Raydān: journal of ancient Yemeni antiquities and epigraphy. Aden 1978-1994.
  • Arabia Antica. PLUS, Pisa 2002-2005 (Vols 1-3); Erma di Bretschneider, Rome 2006– (from volume 4)

Web links

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This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on April 6, 2007 .