The Sabaeans or Sabeans 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. Sabeans inhabited the Biblical land of
Sheba, a trading state that flourished for over a thousand years in modern-day
Yemen. Modern archaeological studies support
the view that the biblical kingdom of Sheba was the ancient Semitic
civilization of Sabaeans in Yemen, between 1200 BCE until 275 CE with its
capital Marib. The Kingdom fell after a long but sporadic civil war between
several Yemenite dynasties claiming kingship, resulting in the rise of the
late Himyarite Kingdom. Sabaeans are mentioned in the biblical books of Job,
Joel, Ezekiel, and Isaiah., and in ayat 2:62, 5:69, and 22:17 of the Quran.
History The ancient Sabaean kingdom probably
arose sometime in the 2nd millennium BCE. It was conquered, in the 1st
century BCE, by the Ḥimyarites. After the disintegration of the first
Himyarite Kingdom of the Kings of Saba' and Dhū Raydān, the Middle Sabaean
Kingdom reappeared in the early 2nd century. 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 Ṣayhad 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 Wādī al-Jawf,
the Sabeans on the south western 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 period, were
involved in the extremely lucrative spice trade, especially frankincense and
myrrh. They left behind many inscriptions in
the monumental Musnad alphabet, as well as numerous documents in the cursive
Zabūr script. The Book of Job mentions the Sabaens for slaying his livestock
and servants. In the Res Gestae Divi Augusti, Augustus
claims that: Religious practices
Muslim writer Muhammad Shukri al-Alusi compares their religious practices to
Islam in his Bulugh al-'Arab fi Ahwal al-'Arab:
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
doctrine was similar to one that come from Hermes Trismegistus.
Quran The Sabaeans were mentioned in the Quran
twice قوم سبأ people of Saba. The Qur'an, mentions the kingdom of the Saba
in the 34th Chapter. The Qur'anic narrative, from sura 27,[5] has Suleiman
getting reports from the Hoopoe bird about the kingdom of Saba, ruled by a
queen whose people worship the sun instead of God. Suleiman 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: as though it were it. When she enters his crystal
palace she accepts Abrahamic monotheism and the worship of one God alone, Allah.
See also Yemen
Hamdan tribe Minaean Kingdom
Notes References
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.
Andrey Korotayev. Ancient Yemen. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995. ISBN
0-19-922237-1 [2]. Andrey Korotayev. 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.
Info Please Article at Encyclopædia Britannica
External links S. Arabian "Inscription of Abraha" in
the Sabaean language, at Smithsonian/NMNH website