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[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…

[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 …

[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] , 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 (…

[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 …

[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)

[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] This item can be found on the following maps: India, trade with (Κανή; Kanḗ). Ancient seaport on the southern coast of Arabia in the bay of what is now Bīr Alī (14° 02′ N, 48° 20′ E). According to the Peripl. M. Rubr. 27, C., together with the offshore island Ὀρνέων/ Ornéōn, the ancient Urr Māwiyat and what is now Ḥuṣn al-Ġhurāb, was an important trading centre that was part of the Hadramitic kingdom of Eleazos and the starting point of the  incense road; Ptol. 6,7,10 too lists C. as  emporion, and Plin. HN 6,104 places Cane in the incense region. The port of C. (Qana) …

[German version] (Λεανῖται; Leanîtai, Ptol. 6,7,18). People on the north-east coast of Arabia between Gerrha and the Šhaṭṭ al-ʿArab, after whom the Leanitian Bay (Λεανίτης κόλπος) is named. The territory of the L. included the town Malláda (variant Mallába; perhaps Rās at-Tanāqīb or Rās Munīfa), the Chersónēsos promontory (probably Rās al-Arḍ), the port Itamós (probably the modern city of Kuwait) and the Adárou pólis (probably opposite the island of Qurain). The L. (Plin. HN 6,156) on the Leanitian or Aelanitian Gulf are the Liḥyān in north-west Arabia on the Gulf of Eilat. Müller, Wal…

[German version] Inland ( Nascus, Plin. HN 6,154) city in Arabia Felix (Amm. Marc. 23,6,47). Identical with the Našqum of Ancient Southern Arabian inscriptions, which can be identified with the remains of Al-Baydā (16° 12′ N, 44° 29′ E) in Yemenite Ǧawf. N.'s city walls were an oval 1500 m in circumference. At the beginning of the 7th cent. BC, N. was taken by Karibil Watar on behalf of Saba. According to Str. 16,782, Aelius Gallus occupied the city of Aská (Ἀσκᾶ) in 24 BC, which is traced back by the designation of the inhabitants as Aššūqān; Plin. HN 6,160 counts Nesca among the cities des…

[German version] (Arabic Ḥaḍramaut, Ḥaḍramōt, Ḥaḍramūt; Ἁδραμύτα; Hadramýta, Theophr. Hist. pl. 9,4). Ancient southern Arabian kingdom with capital Sabota, i.e. Šabwa(t) in the west; its residents are the easternmost people of Arabia Felix, the so-called Chadramōtítai (Str. 16,4) or Atramitae (Plin. HN 6,155). In ancient times H. was not only the valley of that name with its catchment areas but comprised the entire region up to the Arabian Sea. The kingdom of H. is attested from the 7th cent. BC in Ancient Southern Arabic inscription…

[English version] Bei den Sabaioi (Σαβαῖοι; lat. Sabaei) handelt es sich um eine Völkerschaft in dem im SW der Arabischen Halbinsel, im Gebiet des heutigen Jemen, gelegenen ant. Land und Reich, das aus den einheimischen Inschr. als sb (Saba) bekannt ist. S. ist bereits in assyrischen Quellen bezeugt, wie etwa in den Annalen Tiglatpilesers III., dem die Sabaajja um 730 v. Chr. mit Geschenken huldigten, in den Annalen Sargons II., wo 715 der Sabäer Itamra als Tributbringer erwähnt wird, und in einer Inschr. Sanheribs, nach welcher 685 Karibili von S…

[English version] (Λεανῖται, Ptol. 6,7,18). Völkerschaft an der NO-Küste Arabiens zwischen Gerrha und dem Šaṭṭ al-Arab, nach welcher auch die L.ische Bucht (Λεανίτης κόλπος) benannt ist. Zum Gebiet der L. gehörten die Stadt Malláda (Variante Mallába; vielleicht Rās at-Tanāqīb oder Rās Munīfa), das Chersónēsos-Vorgebirge (wohl Rās al-Arḍ), der Hafen Itamós (wohl die h. Stadt Kuwait) und die Adáru pólis (wahrscheinlich gegenüber der Insel Qurain gelegen). Mit den Leanitae (Plin. nat. 6,156) am Leanitischen bzw. Aelanitischen Meerb…