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Concept
Qataban
Summary
Qataban (Qatabanian: , romanized: , ) was an ancient South Semitic-speaking kingdom of South Arabia (ancient Yemen) that existed from the early 1st millennium BCE to the late 1st or 2nd centuries CE.
It was one of the six ancient South Arabian kingdoms of ancient Yemen, along with Sabaʾ, Maʿīn, Ḥaḍramawt, Ḥimyar and Awsān.
Qatabān was centred around the Wādī Bayhān, and its capital was the city of Timnaʿ.
The neighbours of Qatabān were Sabaʾ to the northwest and west, Awsān to the south, and Ḥaḍramawt to the east. At its maximum extent, Qatabān's territory extended from the Bāb al-Mandab in the southwest to the Ṣayhad desert to the north, and the western limits of Ḥaḍramawt to the east.
The earliest human occupation in the region of Qatabān dates to around the 20th century BCE and consisted of a Neolithic population. The earliest settlements in the area of Qatabān are from 11th to 10th centuries BCE.
Later, several waves of Semitic-speaking immigrants from the Levant and Mesopotamia arrived into South Arabia, bringing several new cultural elements, including early pottery which similarly appear to have been derived from various sources. The local and incoming cultures eventually gave rise to the ancient South Arabian culture to which Qatabān belonged.
Qatabān had developed into a centralised state centred around Timnaʿ by the late 7th or early 6th century BCE. At one point during this early period, Qatabān was ruled by two joint kings, respectively named Hawfiʿamm Yuhanʿim son of Sumhuʿalay Watar, of whom several inscriptions are known, and Yadʿʾab son of Ḏamarʿali.
In the late 7th century BCE, Qatabān and the nearby kingdom of Ḥaḍramawt were initially allies of the king Karibʾil Watar of the neighbouring kingdom of Sabaʾ, but soon hostilities broke out between Karibʾil Watar and the Qatabānian king Yadʿʾab. During the 6th century BCE, Qatabān had come under the control of Sabaʾ.
Qatabān regained its independence in the late 5th century BCE, after which it rejected the hegemony of Sabaʾ and became one of the dominant states of the South Arabian region along with Maʿīn and Ḥaḍramawt.
Official source
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