Baraq

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Arabic براقش, DMG Barāqiš
Baraqisch
Baraqi (Yemen)
Baraq
Baraq
Coordinates 16 ° 0 ′  N , 44 ° 48 ′  E Coordinates: 16 ° 0 ′  N , 44 ° 48 ′  E
Basic data
Country Yemen

Governorate

al-Jauf
ISO 3166-2 YE-YES
height 1100 m

Baraqish , Barakish or Baraqish ( Arabic براقش, DMG Barāqiš ; Old South Arabic Yṯl , reconstructed Yathill (Yaṯull) ) is a city in northwestern Yemen in the so-called Eastern Mountain Range , about 125 km northeast of the state capital Sanaa . Barely 100 km to the north-west is the historic Ma'rib , known for its dam . Baraqish was inhabited until the 1960s.

history

Baraqisch is an important archaeological site. The city was known to the Greeks and Romans under the names Athlula and Athrula . More in Jawf located historic sites are Qarnawu , Naschān and Naschq who are between 25 and 50 km north from the latter all along the Wadi al-Jawf (Wadi Jawf / الجوف) .

Paleolithic ceramic finds indicate settlement at least from the 12th to 10th centuries BC. Until the beginning of the 6th century BC Chr. Was today Baraqish still Yathill / (Yaṯull) called and Saba dominated. Yathill lay in a vast wadi , the Wadi Fardha . This location favored the passage and transshipment of merchandise, which is why the settlement became a hub for the incense trade . A Sabaean deed (cited as RES 3943), probably attributed to Yitha'amar Bayyin II , mentioned for the first time rebel Mineans , vassals of Saba, who would turn out to be serious opponents and would have to be thrown down. Instead, the Mineans liberated themselves towards the end of the 5th century BC. Chr. From the dependence of Sheba and established their kingdom in Jawf , the heartland was their power. Sabaean strongholds such as Yathill, Ma'in, Naschān and Naschq came under their influence, which led to a long Minaean heyday, especially from the following century. 343 BC Abyada II. Yitha (cited as RES 3022) ruled along the Incense Route of the Mineans. The South Arabian inscriptions only rarely mention this trade and at best as a minor matter. It is therefore particularly noticeable that inscriptions in Yathill's city wall sometimes do not depict acts of war by hegemonic aristocrats, but rather contain allusions to the power of the merchants.

At the same time, great rivalries continued with Saba, which in the last quarter of the 2nd century BC. BC regained the upper hand. Around 50 BC BC Saba had recaptured the city, but there are no inscriptions providing information about this.

Shortly before the turn of the century, the Roman emperor Augustus (27 BC – 14 AD) tried to subjugate Saba. For this purpose he let 25 BC BC move the Roman general Aelius Gallus under Nabatean leadership to southern Arabia . According to the order, after the rapid subjugation of Najran (in what is now Saudi Arabia , near the border ), which was captured after only a short battle, the old Yathill was also occupied. It is said that Yathill was given to the Romans in 24 BC. Opened the gates. Due to illness and a lack of water, as well as underestimating the adverse land conditions, Gallus and his troops quickly withdrew.

With the conquest of the Hadramaut in 242, Saba and the city of Baraqish reached their political climax. New trade routes could be opened, with which a flourishing economic upswing was connected.

Old South Arabian city

Ruins in Baraqish

The city is a little raised on a hill. It is the impressive and well-preserved landscape of ruins of an ancient city fortress and temple complex, which was built in the 7th or 6th century BC. BC originated. The city once had 57 towers and was accessible through two gates, which were located in the east and west of the complex. The walls closed at a height of up to 14 meters, an architectural superlative of the time.

In the southern part of the city were the imposing temple complex of ‛Athtar dhû-Qabd and a necropolis , which contains a number of grave steles . The remains still convey features of the radiance of Minaean architecture today. In the years 1989 to 1990 and then from 2003 to 2007 members of the Italian archaeological mission in Baraqisch researched and uncovered various finds. A partially intact ceiling structure can be identified on the basis of a temple fragment that still towers over the settlement rubble of the Islamic city era. There are also sixteen monolith pillars in situ with the same spacing. The shafts have a finely honed, smooth surface, still free from visible surface treatments such as anathyrosis . The hypostyle system could have been much larger. Archaeologists suspected the peristyle of a temple in honor of the male Venus star god ( inscribed in any case an Aṯtar temple). Immediate references to the date of construction and the assignment of the temple dedication are still unclear. In Yemen there are Minaean texts only at two ruins, next to Qarnawu ( Qrnw ) just in Barqisch / Yathill ( Yṯl ).

Another temple in the city center - with four more columns, dedicated to the city's god of protection and healing, Nikraḥ - is still preserved today. A large number of Old South Arabic inscriptions are distributed across the city wall. To this day, the city is considered the main archaeological attraction of the Middle East .

see also article section: Architectural history of South Arabia

Surroundings

Not far from Baraqish are other historical sights from the Minean era, such as the sand hills of Ahqaf , the ruins of Duroub Al-Sabi and Kharbat Al-Lisan . Dams and old water channels can be visited.

Bombing during the 2015 military intervention in Yemen

As part of the Saudi Arab guided and supported by the US and UK military intervention in Yemen in 2015 , the excavations of the city was bombed and damaged Barakish, had tried in vain as the military alliance territorial gains of Huthi undo -Rebellen.

literature

  • Alessio Agostini: Two new inscriptions from the recently excavated temple of ʿAthtar dhū-Qabḍ in Barāqish (Ancient Minaean Yathill). In: Arabian Archeology and Epigraphy 22/1 (2011), pp. 48-58.
  • J.-F. Breton: Les fortifications d'Arabie méridionale du 7e au 1er siècle avant notre ère. ( Archaeological reports from Yemen. ) Von Zabern, Mainz 1994
  • A. de Maigret and C. Robin: Le temple de Nakrah à Yathill (aujourd'hui Barāqish), Yémen, résultats des deux premières campagnes de fouilles de la Mission Italienne. In: Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres 1993 , pages 427-498.
  • Horst Kopp (Ed.): Geography of Yemen , Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag, Wiesbaden 2005, ISBN 3-89500-500-2 .
  • Walter W. Müller : Sketch of the history of old South Arabia . In: Werner Daum: Yemen , Umschau, Frankfurt / Main, ISBN 3-7016-2251-5 ; Pp. 50-56
  • Jürgen Schmidt : Old South Arabian cult buildings . In: Werner Daum: Yemen , Umschau, Frankfurt / Main, ISBN 3-7016-2251-5 ; Pp. 81-101
  • Alfred Felix Landon Beeston : Pre-Islamic Inscriptions and Pre-Islamic Languages ​​in Yemen . In: Werner Daum: Yemen , Umschau, Frankfurt / Main, ISBN 3-7016-2251-5 ; Pp. 102-106
  • Hermann von Wissmann : On the archeology and ancient geography of southern Arabia UT: Ḥaḍramaut, Qatabān and the ʿAden area in antiquity , Istanbul, Nederlands Historisch-Archäologische Instituut in Het Nabije Oosten, 1968
  • Rémy Audouin, Jean-François Breton: Cities and Temples - The Origin of the South Arab Civilization. In: Werner Daum: Yemen, Umschau, Frankfurt / Main, ISBN 3-7016-2251-5 ; Pp. 74-78
  • David Heinrich von Müller : Athrula . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume II, 2, Stuttgart 1896, Col. 2071 f.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Baraqish Travel Guide ( Memento of the original from April 21, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.world66.com archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: world66.com . Retrieved April 20, 2017.
  2. ↑ Jane Taylor: Petra and the lost kingdom of the Nabataeans . IB Tauris, London / New York 2001, ISBN 978-1-86064-508-2 , p. 61 (English; limited preview in Google Book Search; accessed April 20, 2017.)
  3. ↑ Finds from As Sawdā on qudama-alarab.blogspot.de , October 16, 2014. Accessed on April 20, 2017 (English / Arabic).
  4. ↑ Al-Bayḍāʾ . In: britannica.com , January 12, 2009. Retrieved April 20, 2017.
  5. ↑ a b c d e f Alessandro de Maigret: THE EXCAVATIONS OF THE ITALIAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL MISSION AT BARÂQISH (REPUBLIC OF YEMEN) . In: Newsletter Archeologia (CISA) . No. 0, pp. 50–90 Retrieved April 20, 2017 (English; PDF; 4.4 MB).
  6. ↑ Charles Aithie, Patricia Aithie: Yemen: jewel of Arabia . Stacey International, 2001, ISBN 9781900988155 , p. 152.
  7. ↑ a b Walter W. Müller : Sketch of the history of Old South Arabia . In: Werner Daum: Yemen . Umschau, Frankfurt / Main, ISBN 3-7016-2251-5 , p. 50 f.
  8. ↑ The Frankincense Route ran eastward from today's Saudi Najran via Qarnawu / Yathill and Ma'rib like Tumna to Shabwat .
  9. ^ Rémy Audouin, Jean-François Breton: Cities and Temples - The Origin of the South Arab Civilization . In: Werner Daum: Yemen . Umschau, Frankfurt / Main, ISBN 3-7016-2251-5 , p. 74.
  10. ↑ Dedicated inscription, around 4./3. Century BC In a flat part of the city wall of Baraqish (translated in Audouin / Breton: "ʿAmmīsadiq ... and Saʿīd ..., leaders of the caravan people who had set out to trade with them in Egypt, Syria and across the river ... at that time when ʿAthar dhū-Qabd, Wadd and Nakraḥ protected themselves and their property and warned them of the fighting which Saba and Khaulān had intended against themselves, against their property and their pack animals when they were on the way between Maʿīn and Radmja (= Nadjrān), and before the war that raged between North and South, and at that time, ʿAthar dhū-Qabd, Wadd and Nakraḥ protected their person and property as they were in their hearts during the war between the Medes and the Egyptians Of Egypt and ʿAthar dhū-Qabd guaranteed them and their property peace and security until they returned to their city of Qarnaw ... ")
  11. ↑ a b Hermann von Wissmann : On the archeology and ancient geography of southern Arabia , (see lit.), p. 10.
  12. ↑ Horst Kopp (ed.): Yemen geography . Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag, Wiesbaden 2005, ISBN 3-89500-500-2 , p. 199 f.
  13. ^ Members of the excavation commissions: Alessandro de Maigret, Mario Liverani, Sabina Antonini, Vittoria Buffa and Patrizia De Socio
  14. ↑ Jürgen Schmidt : Altsüdarabische Kultbauten , (see lit.), pp. 81 ff. (85, 88).
  15. ^ Alfred Felix Landon Beeston : Pre-Islamic inscriptions and pre-Islamic languages ​​of Yemen . (see Ref.) p. 103.
  16. ↑ Alessandro de Maigret: The Temple of Baraqish . In: Catalog Vienna, pp. 217–218.
  17. ↑ History a casualty in Yemen's war as bombs smash ancient sites ( Memento from May 15, 2015 on WebCite ) (English). reuters.com, May 13, 2015, by Noah Browning and Mohammed Ghobari, archived from the original .
  18. ↑ Unesco complains about severe damage to Yemen's cultural heritage ( memento from May 21, 2015 on WebCite ) , derstandard.at, May 12, 2015, archived from the original .