Qataban
Qataban or Qatabania (Template:Lang-ar; Qatabanian: 𐩤𐩩𐩨𐩬, QTBN) was an ancient Yemeni kingdom which existed from 4th century BCE – 200 CE. Its heartland was located in the Baihan valley. Like some other Southern Arabian kingdoms it gained great wealth from the trade of frankincense and myrrh[1], incenses which were burned at altars. The capital of Qataban was named Timna[2] and was located on the trade route which passed through the other kingdoms of Hadramaut, Sheba and Ma'in. The chief deity of the Qatabanians was 'Amm, or "Uncle", and the people called themselves the "children of Amm".
It was a prominent Yemeni kingdom in the 2nd half of the 1st millennium BCE, when its ruler held the title of the South Arabian hegemon Mukarrib. In 110 BCE, it integrated the Himyarite Kingdom, but afterwards recognized it as an independent kingdom.[3]
Decline
The decline of the Incense trade route must have severely affected Qataban. According to a historian:[4]
The third century would thus appear to be a significant time in the history of the incense trade in Arabia. During the political and economic crisis of that century the nature of the trade changed dramatically; prior to that time the incense route from South Arabia seems to have continued to function. Much of this trade seems to have been brought to a standstill by the poor economic conditions of the third century, however, when the economic situation improved again under the Tetrarchy many things had changed. By this time, the two main routes in use seem to have been the Wadi Sirhan, now carrying trade which formerly would have passed through Palmyra, and Aila, receiving goods from India and Arabia which before had gone to the Egyptian Red Sea ports.
It was probably conquered by the now-powerful Himyarite Kingdom.
References
- ^ Archibald 2001: 169
- ^ Phillips, Wendell (1955). Qataban and Sheba : exploring the ancient kingdoms on the Biblical spice routes of Arabia. New York: Harcourt Brace. OCLC 408743.
- ^ Jérémie Schiettecatte. Himyar. Roger S. Bagnall; Kai Brodersen; Craige B. Champion; Andrew Erskine; Sabine R. Huebner. The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, John Wiley & Sons, 2017, 9781444338386.ff10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah30219ff. ffhalshs-01585072ff
- ^ Young, Gary Keith (2001). Rome's Eastern Trade: International Commerce and Imperial Policy, 31 BC–AD 305. Routledge. p. 128. ISBN 0-415-24219-3.
Bibliography
- Alessandro de Maigret. Arabia Felix, translated Rebecca Thompson. London: Stacey International, 2002. ISBN 1-900988-07-0
- Andrey Korotayev. Ancient Yemen. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-19-922237-1.
- Andrey Korotayev. Pre-Islamic Yemen. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 1996. ISBN 3-447-03679-6.
- Andrey Korotayev. Socio-Political Conflict in the Qatabanian Kingdom? (A re-interpretation of the Qatabanic inscription R 3566) // Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 27 (1997): 141–158.