480
SHEBA
SHEBA
The date of the coins described by Schlumberger was fixed by him, on numismatic grounds (i.e. tlie evolution of the style from Attic, Seleucid, and Roman models), at from about B.C. 150 to A.D. 150, and, while he derived the style of the art from the sources named, he regarded the weight as fixed by Persian models. The purity of the silver and tlie accur.aey of the weight were greatly admired by this numismatist; other coins that liave been dis- covered are described by Mordtmann, ]l'iener N amis"mtische Zeitschri/t, 1S80, pp. 2S9-320. The researches of Glaser and others were also rewarded by the discovery of a variety of other objecbs, illustrative of Sabjean civilization, of which de- scri|itions have been given by Mordt mann (Himyar- uche Inschriften in den iconiglichen Museen zu Berlin, 1893) and others (e.g. Derenhourg, Les Monuments Sab6ens du Music d' Archfulogie de Marseille, 1899 ; D. H. Miiller, Siidarabische Al- terthiimer im Kunsthistorischen So/museum, Wien, 1899 ; Hommel, ' Die siidarab. Altertiimer des Wiener Hofmuseums,' in Aufscitze u. Ab/uind- langp.n, ii., 1900).
Finally, the works of the S. Arabian geographer and archieologer Hamdani (Abu Muhammad Al- Hasan) have been brought to Europe, his Descrip- tion of the Arabic Peninsula in a number of copies, and his Iklil in portions ; both these works have been edited by D. H. Miiller, the former at Leiden, 1891, the latter in the Sitzungsberirhte der Wiener Akademie, Ph. -Hist. Kl. xciv.,xcvii., and in MUller's Sudnrab. Alterthumer, p. 8 ff. The lexicon of Neshwan the Himyarite, which is of some value for the interpretation of the texts, is as yet un- published. In the following paragraphs a few of the chief results of the study will be collected.
[The following abbreviations recur below: A A =010861^3 Abegsiiver in Arabi>n (Munich, 1S95) ; HI = Uimyariache Inschriften ; MM = Mordtmann and Mtiller'a Sabaisrhe Deixk- mater ; M I'AS = Mittheil. d. vorderas. Gesetlschuft ; SA = MUller's Siidarabiscke Alterthumer].
i. History. — On this subject an authentic chronicle of a few pages could give ns more in- formation than all the inscriptions together ; it is, however, clear that they cover an enormous length of time — it can scarcely be made less than 1300 years. The dated inscriptions of the mound at Marib (published by Glaser, MVAS, No. 6) are of the 5th and 6th cents. A.D., one of them being Christian and another perhaps Jewish ; and the final destruction of the Saba.'an State is known to have taken place in the 6th cent. A.D. On the other hand, tlie name of Itharaara the Sabiean, occurring in the inscriptions of Sargon of B.C. 715 (ed. Winckler, p. 97), was identified with justice by Lenorniant with the Yetha'amixra of the Sab.tan inscriptions. That name belongs to no fewer than six Saba-an potentates (Glaser, AA p. 29) ; and there seems no probability that Sar- gon's contemporary Ls the first of these. The in- scriptions, however, are not divided equally over this vast expanse of time ; so far as tliey are at present accessible, it is only for the period just before and just after the commencement of our era that they render the writing of a continuous chronicle possible ; an attempt of this sort has been made by H. Winckler, ' Die Inscliriften des Alhan Nahfan ' (MVAS, No. 5), perhaps without conspicuous success. The greater number of the texts published are devoid of political interest, and indeed emanate from members of two fami- lies or clans, the Bakilites of '.Vmran, and their leaders the IBanu Marthad, and the Ilashidites of Na'it, and their leaders the Banu Haiudan. Tliese great families are said to exist still in S. Arabia m the neighbourhood of their ancestral seats ;Mordtmann in MM p 9).
Saba is the name of a nation or political unit,
not of a city, though the classical writers speak repeatedly ot a city Saba. The Arabic etymologists derive its name from .ifibCi, 'to take captive' ; but they might with greater probability have derived it from the Sabtean verb saba^a, ' he raided ' ; and indeed in CIS 84. 3, the Sabaeans are mentioned aa normal raiders, somewhat as in Job 1'°. The Sabaean name for 'nation' is k/ttons, 'a fifth,' and it is ajjplied by them to other nations as well as to their own, e.g. ' the two Khums, Saba and Himyar' (MM 5). These nations or 'fifths' were divided into ' tribes ' * (shi'b), which again were sometimes divided into 'thirds' (CIS 187, where Derenhourg gives us the names of two 'thirds' of the tribe .Sama'i), and sometimes perhaps 'tenths' (CIS 128). There might be some ground for su.specting that the word jifth implies the original existencb of five nations who shared S. Arabia between them ; at the latest period of the inscriiitions, Saba has swallowed the others up. In these the kings style them.selves kings of Saba, Dhu Ilaidan, yadramaut, and Yamanet. The earliest king who assumed this title was, according to Glaser (AA p. 31), Shammir Yuhar'ish, about A.D. 281 (others would place him some 200 years before). Before this he and his predecessors called themselves kings of Saba and Dhu Raidan, a title which implies the conquest of Raidan, which the combinations of Glaser and H. Winckler place about u.c. 70. Prior to this last date the kings style themselves sometimes malik (' king'), sometimes mukarrib, a word of uncertain meaning, but of a root which forms an element in many proper names, and is the source of Makorabah, the old name for Mecca. It is customary to place the Mukarrib period before the Malik period, and it is certainly noticeable that Sargon does not bestow the title ' king ' on his Sabaian contemporary, though the Assyrians are ordinarily rather lavish with the title. Naturally, such a point could not be settled without better documents than are at our disposal. The residence of the king was at Maryab or Marib (in Beled Al- Jihaf), and sometimes at Ghaiman. But Marib had also a king of its own, probably dependent on the kings of Saba, since in CIS 37. 7 the two are mentioned simultaneously ; and kings of Kamna (SA 12) and other places are mentioned.