Pre-islamic Arabia
The first Arab kingdoms appeared at least 2000 BC
A sample of the remnants of the kingdom of Saba'a in southern Arabia.
The Sabeans supplanted the Mineans in orchestrating trade and quickly became the wealthiest kingdom in southern Arabia. Goods were sent from Saba to Babylon and Uruk in Mesopotamia, to Memphis in Egypt, and to Byblos, Sidon, and Tyre in the Levant and, from the port at Gaza, even further. By the time of the reign of the Assyrian king Sargon II (722-705 BCE), their trade routes required his permission to operate in his realm and extend through Assyrian lands. The Egyptians had been trading with the land of Punt (modern-day Puntland State of Somalia) since their 5th Dynasty (c. 2498-2345 BCE), as well as their southern neighbor Nubia but had since initiated trade with southern Arabia. Gold from Nubia traveled north to the capital of Egypt at Memphis and then overland east and south down to Saba.
Sabean kings (known as mukarribs) rose to power and commissioned great building projects from their capital at Ma’rib. The most famous of these projects is the Ma’rib Dam, the oldest known dam in the world, blocking the ravine of Dhana (the Wadi Adanah). The mountainous ravine would flood during the rainy season and the dam was built to control and divert the water to the low-lying farms in the valley.
The Ma'arib Dam.
Sabean inscriptions in the Ma'arib Dam.
Irrigation of these farmlands was so successful that Saba was consistently remarked upon as a “green country” by ancient historians such as Pliny the Elder (c. 23-79 CE) who called the region Arabia Eudaemon (“Fortunate Arabia”), a term later used by the Romans as “Arabia Felix”. The dam, considered one of the greatest engineering feats of the ancient world, was built under the reign of the Sabean mukarrib Yatha’ Amar Watta I (c. 760-740 BCE).
The bust of the Sabean princess Nadine Dhi Sidqin Shams.
After the Kingdom of Saba'a other kingdoms took place, The Himyarite Kingdom was the most popular among them.
Himyarite inscriptions.
Himyarite coins
King “Dhamar Ibn Ali Yahbur” , the current city of “Dhamar” in the western part of Yemen was named after him.
King Yūsuf Asʾar Yathʾar, known as Yusuf Dhu Nawas, he converted to Judaism and he's the one who Judaised Himyar.
An imaginary illustration of the King Yusuf Dhu Nawas.
An illustration of a Himyarite soldier.
Some pictures of the remnants of the other Arabian kingdoms that coexisted with the Himyarites :
Yathal the Capital of the Mineans.
Nabatea :
Nabatea was an Arabian kingdom which flourished in the region of modern-day Jordan between the 4th century BCE and c. 106 CE and is best known today for the ruins of its capital city of Petra.
Women were considered equal to men in Nabatean culture. Inscriptions indicate that women were priestesses, co-rulers or autonomous monarchs, could inherit and dispose of property, owned their own tombs, brought lawsuits and represented themselves in court, and were depicted on coins. Some of the most popular deities in the Nabatean pantheon were female such as Al-'Uzza, Manawat, and Allat.
The cities of the Nabateans declined under Roman invasion and an earthquake in c. 363 CE brought down many of them. The region was then invaded by the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire which established churches in the cities and revitalized commerce until another earthquake in c. 551 CE resulted in further widespread destruction.
Kingdom of Araba
The Kingdom of Araba (or simply Araba) (مملكة عرابا) was a 2nd-century CE Arab kingdom located northern Iraq, between the Roman Empire and the Parthian Empire, it was very influenced by the Parthians.
King Santaruq I (سنطروق الأول) King Of Araba.
Queen Abu Bint Deimon was the wife of Sanatruq I (reigned c. 140 - 180 CE), king of Hatra. This is a detail of the upper part of the statue. It represents one of the finest sculptures from Hatra. She wears an elaborate headgear, earrings, necklaces, and bracelets. Her right arm is raised in a gesture of greeting while the left hand grasps and lifts up her elegant garment. From the Great Temple at Hatra, 2nd century CE. It is on display in one of the Hatra Galleries in the Iraq Museum, Baghdad, Republic of Iraq.
Palmyra :
Was a kingdom created by both Arabs and Aramaic, located in south-east modern Syria.
The Palmyren empire at its greatest extents.
The name Palmyra is believed to be the Latinized form of the original Arabic name of Tadmor, which is related to the word for “date palm.”
King Odhaenathus أذينة
Queen Zenobia زنوبيا the wife of Odhaenathus.
This is a sample from the history of Arabia before Islam.
Ismail Ben Zayed
