Yemen, Classical

At the time of the earliest historical sources originating in South Arabia the territory is under the rule of the Kingdom of Saba’, the centers of which are situated to the east of present-day Sana'a in Ṣirwāḥ and Ma’rib.

The political map of South Arabia at this time consisted of several larger kingdoms, or rather tribal territories: Awsān, Qatabān and the Ḥaḑramawt; and on the other hand an uncertain number of smaller states, such as the city states of Ḥaram (Yemen) and Nasq in al-Jawf.

Shortly after, Yitha'amar Watar I unites Qatabān and some areas in al-Djawf with Saba’, the Kingdom reaches the peak of its power under Karib'il Watar I, who probably reigns some time around the first half of the seventh century BCE, and rules all the region from Najrān in the south of modern South Arabia right up to Bāb al-Mandab, on the Red Sea.

The formation of the Minaean Kingdom in the river oasis of al-Jawf, northwest of Saba’ in the sixth century BCE, actually poses a danger for Sabaean hegemony, but Yitha'amar Bayyin II, who has completed the great reservoir dam of Ma’rib, succeeds in reconquering the northern part of South Arabia.

Between the eighth and fourth centuries the state of Da’amot emerges, under Sabaean influence in Ethiopia, which survives until the beginning of the Christian era at the latest.

The exact chronology of Da'amot and to what extent it is politically independent of Saba’ remains in any case uncertain.The success of the Kingdom is based on the cultivation and trade of spices and aromatics including frankincense and myrrh.

These are exported to the Mediterranean, India, and Abyssinia where they are greatly prized by many cultures, using camels on routes through Arabia, and to India by sea.Agriculture in Yemen thrives during this time due to an advanced irrigation system that consists of large water tunnels in mountains, and dams.

The most impressive of these earthworks, known as the Ma'rib Dam is built c. 700 BCE, provides irrigation for about twenty five thousand acres (one hundred and one square kilometers) of land and stands for over a millennium, finally collapsing in 570 CE after centuries of neglect.

The final destruction of the dam is noted in the Qur'an and the consequent failure of the irrigation system provokes the migration of up to fifty thousand people.The Sabaean kingdom, with its capital at Ma'rib where the remains of a large temple can still be seen, thrives for almost fourteen centuries.

Some have argued that this kingdom was the Sheba described in the Old Testament.

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