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[German Version] country in the southwestern corner of the Arabian Peninsula, bordered to the north by Saudi Arabia and to the east by Oman. The name derives from the Arabic word for “right” (as opposed to “left”) and originally meant the territory lying to the right, i.e. in the south. Yemen, divided into 21 administrative divisions, has an area of 527,968 km2 and a population of 25,130,000 (April 2011), almost exclusively Arabic-speaking Yemeni Muslims, about half Shiʿite Zaidi and half Sunnis of the Shāfiʿite legal school. Yemen is a presidential repub…

[German Version] The Thamudic inscriptions are a group of inscriptions in several dialects of Early North Arabic, written in a script derived from the Old South Arabic alphabet. The Arab Tamûdi are mentioned in 715 bce in the annals of the Assyrian king Sargon II; according to the geography of Ptolemy, the Thamydítai and Thamydḗnoi lived in the territory of Midian. A Greek/Nabatean bilingual from the temple of Rauwāfa in the northern Hijaz mentions a people called Thamudḗnoi, and at the end of the 4th century we still find Thamudeni as mounted soldiers in the East Roman army. The geographic …

[German Version] The Liḥyānites of antiquity were a tribe in the oasis of Dedān (modern al-ʾUlā) in northwestern Arabia who were able to establish an independent kingdom. Epigraphic evidences marks the appearance of this kingdom around 320 bce; it came to an end around 100 bce with the advance of the Nabateans. Thus it coexisted with the colonial settlements of the Minaeans in the same oasis. The Liḥyānites had ties with Ptolemaic Egypt (Ptolemaic Dynasty); of the nine Liḥyānite kings whose names we know, two were called Tulmay (Ptolemaios). The Liḥyānite inscriptions were written i…

[German Version] a Semitic people in the area of modern Yemen, home of an advanced civilization in antiquity. The center of the kingdom of Saba was the city of Mārib, situated in a riverine oasis. With it as a base, in the early 7th century bce the Sabaean ruler Karibʾil Watar gained ascendancy over the rival kingdoms of Qatabān to the south and Ḥaḍramaut to the east, along with the confederation of Minaean towns to the northwest. From the 3rd century bce on, the Sabaean kingdom expanded into the Yemenite uplands, where a competing Himyarite kingdom emerged in the 1st century ce. When the Sab…

[German Version] (Najran) is an oasis town situated on the ancient Frankincense Road in the southwestern part of Saudi Arabia. Naǧrān originally designated the oasis, and later became the name of its main settlement, attested as Rgmtm in Old South Arabian inscriptions and as Ragma in Ezek 27:22, where it is mentioned as a trading partner of the Phoenician city of Tyre (LXX ῾Ραγμα, MT רַעְמָה/Raʿmāh). A Christian community was established in Naǧrān in the 5th century and stood under the authority of its own bishops (Arabian Peninsula: I, 1). Late Sabaean inscr…

[English Version] Sabäer, sem. Volk im Gebiet des heutigen Jemen, das in der Antike Träger einer Hochkultur war. Zentrum des Reiches von Saba war die in einer Flußoase gelegene Stadt Mārib. Von hier aus errang der sabäische (sab.) Herrscher Karibʾil Watar zu Beginn des 7.Jh. v.Chr. die Vormachtstellung gegenüber den rivalisierenden Reichen Qatabān im Süden, Ḥaḍramaut im Osten und dem Städtebund der Minäer im Nordwesten. Seit dem 3.Jh. v.Chr. weitete sich das sab. Reich in das jemenitische Hochla…

[English Version] Thamudisch (T̲amūdisch)/Thamudische Inschriften, Bez. einer Gruppe von dialektal aufgespaltenen frühnordarab. Inschriften, die in einer aus dem altsüdarab. Alphabet abgeleiteten Schrift abgefaßt sind. Die arab. Tamûdi werden 715 v.Chr. in den Annalen des ass. Königs Sargon II. erwähnt, nach der Geographie des Ptolemaios waren die Thamydítai und Thamydēnoi im Gebiet von Midian ansässig, die griech.-nab. Bilingue des Tempels von Rauwāfa im nördlichen Ḥigˇāz nennt die Völkerschaft …

[English Version] , Oasenstadt im Südwesten Saudi-Arabiens, die in der Antike an der Weihrauchstraße lag. N. war urspr. die Bez. der Oase, deren Name später auf den Hauptort übertragen wurde, der in altsüdarab. Inschriften als Rgmtm und in Ez 27,22 als Handelspartner von Tyrus (in Phönizien) als Ragma (LXX ῾Ραγμα, MT רַעְמָה/Ra‘māh) bezeugt ist. Im 5.Jh. entstand in N. eine christl. Gemeinde unter eigenen Bischöfen (arabische Halbinsel: I.,1.). Als 517 in Südarabien der jüd. König Josef an die Macht kam, zog er nach dem Zeugnis spätsabäischer (…

[German Version] I. Pre-Islamic Period – II. Islamic Period I. Pre-Islamic Period Mecca, Arabic Makka, is a city in the western part of the central Arabia lying about 72 km from the Red Sea and situated in an arid and barren depression. The locality is first mentioned in the 2nd century ce by Ptolemy ( Geographia VI 7.32) under the Greek name Makóraba, which is probably to be derived from Old South Arabic mkrb, “temple,” “sanctuary.” Among the sanctuaries in and around Mecca, the most important was the Kaʿba in the city, a cube-shaped construction with a black cult…

[German version] The Sabaei (Σαβαῖοι / Sabaîoi; Lat. Sabaei) were a people in the ancient land and kingdom that is known from the local inscriptions as sb (Saba) and is situated in the area of modern Yemen in the south-west of the Arabian peninsula. S. is already attested in Assyrian sources, for instance in the annals of Tiglath-Pileser III, to whom the Sabaajja paid homage with gifts in about 730 BC, in the annals of Sargon II, where in 715 the Sabaean Itamra is mentioned as bringing tribute, and in an inscription of Sennacherib, according to which i…

[German version] (Κολοβοί, variant Κόλβοι). Ethiopian tribe from the area around the southern part of the Red Sea, named after the particular type of circumcision common to them (Str. 6,773; Ptol. 4,7,28). Müller, Walter W. (Marburg/Lahn)

[German version] (Ptol. 6,7,6: Κασσανῖται; Plin. HN 6,150: Casani; Agatharchidas in Diod. Sic. 3,45,6: Γασάνδαι/ Gasándai). People on the south-west coast of Arabia adjoining the Kinaidokolpites in the north and the Elisaroi in the south. In the area of the C. were the residence of the king Badeṓ (Βάδεως πόλις Steph. Byz.; probably al-Badī in Asīr), the town of Ambḗ, the village of Mámala (probably Mamala in Asīr) and Adḗdu (probably al-Ḥudaida). The C. should be identified with the Ghassān who originally were at home in Yemenite Tihāma before they settled in …

[German version] (Adan, Aden), an important commercial town on the Indian Ocean in the southwestern Arabian peninsula, whose harbour lies on a bay protected by two volcanic peninsulas. The Eudaimones nēsoi mentioned in Agatharchides, De mari Erythraeo, 105a, at which trade ships called, probably referred to the islands of Adane. In the Periplous maris Erythraei § 26 the settlement of Eudaimōn Arabia is A., which is called after Arabia felix, whose most important port it was; it offered favourable anchorage and watering sites, which probably meant the ci…

[German version] (Λάβαι; Lábai: Pol. 13,9.; Steph. Byz.). City on the north-east coast of Arabia in the Gerrhaean coastal area of Chattēnía (Arabic al-Ḫaṭṭ), south of al-Qaṭīf and opposite Bahrein. Their ethnicon is Labaíoi, and probably with a conjecture of g to l the Gabaíoi (Str. 16,4,4) are indicated here, who as merchants travelled from their capital Gerrha to Hadramaut in 40 days. Arab geographers of the Middle Ages also mention Laʿbā as the name of salt pans along the coast of that region. Müller, Walter W. (Marburg/Lahn) Bibliography H. v. Wissmann, Zur Kenntnis von Ostarabien…

[German version] (Masala, Plin. HN 6,158). City of the Homeritae (Ḥimyars) in Arabia Felix, certainly identical with the port of Mesalum (Plin. HN. 12,69), from which white myrrh was exported. It may be equated with the ruined town of al-Aṣala, dialect am-Aṣala (13° 13′ N, 45° 28′ E), in the delta of the Wadi Banā on the Arabian Sea northeast of Aden. Müller, Walter W. (Marburg/Lahn) Bibliography H. von Wissmann, s.v. Zamareni, RE Suppl. 11, 1325-1329.

[German version] (Λαικηνοί/ Laikēnoí, Λαιηνοί/ Laiēnoí, Λεηνοί/ Leēnoí, Ptol. 6,7,22). Tribe who settled to the east of the central Arabian mountain range of Zámēs. Their name is not mentioned in any other ancient source and has to date not been satisfactorily interpreted. Perhaps the L. should be identified with the aṣḥāb al-Aika, the ‘people of the thicket’ or, rather, the ‘people of al-Aika’ mentioned in the Koran (15,78 et passim), a prehistoric people allegedly annihilated by the wrath of God. Müller, Walter W. (Marburg/Lahn)

[English version] (Κολοβοί, Nebenform Κόλβοι). Äthiopischer Stamm am Südende des Roten Meeres, nach der bei ihnen durchgeführten Beschneidung benannt (Strab. 6,773; Ptol. 4,7,28). Müller, Walter W. (Marburg/Lahn)

[English version] (arab. Ḥaḍramaut, Ḥaḍramōt, Ḥaḍramūt; Ἁδραμύτα, Theophr. h. plant. 9,4). Altsüdarab. Reich mit der im Westen gelegenen Hauptstadt Sabota, d.i. Šabwa(t); seine Bewohner sind das östlichste Volk von Arabia Felix, die sog. Chadramōtítai (Strab. 16,4) bzw. Atramitae (Plin. nat. 6,155). In der Ant. war H. nicht nur das gleichnamige Tal mit seinen Einzugsgebieten, sondern umfaßte die gesamte Region bis zum Arab. Meer. Das Königreich H. ist seit dem 7. Jh. v.Chr. in altsüdarab. Inschr. bezeugt, zuerst als Vasall von Saba…

[English version] (Λαικηνοί, Λαιηνοί, Λεηνοί, Ptol. 6,7,22). Östl. des zentralarab. Gebirgszuges Zámēs siedelnder Volksstamm, dessen Name in keiner anderen ant. Quelle genannt und bisher auch noch nicht befriedigend gedeutet wurde. Vielleicht sind die L. mit den im Koran (15,78 u.ö.) erwähnten aṣḥāb al-Aika, den “Leuten des Dickichts” oder besser den “Leuten von al-Aika”, zu identifizieren, einem Volk der Vorzeit, das angeblich durch ein Strafgericht Gottes vernichtet wurde. Müller, Walter W. (Marburg/Lahn)

[English version] (Λάβαι: Pol. 13,9.; Steph. Byz.). Stadt an der NO-Küste Arabiens in der den Gerrhäern gehörenden Chattēnía (arab. al-Ḫaṭṭ), dem südl. von al-Qaṭīf gegenüber Bahrein liegenden Küstengebiet. Das Ethnikon dazu ist Labaíoi, und hierzu sind wohl bei einer Konjektur von g zu l die Gabaíoi (Strab. 16,4,4) zu stellen, die als Händler von ihrer Hauptstadt Gerrha in vierzig Tagen nach Hadramaut zogen. Arab. Geographen des MA erwähnen noch Labā als Name von Salzpfannen an der Meeresküste jener Region. Müller, Walter W. (Marburg/Lahn) Bibliography H. v. Wissmann, Zur Kennt…