South Arabia: Mo'inide Kingdom

Assalaamu'alaikum wa rahmatullah

Many historians did not really talk about the history in Southern Arabia. Their chronicles actually exceed eight centuries BCE. The inscriptions of the periods in Southern Arabia could be divided into two where some of them were of Mo'inide period and the latter were of Sabaa' period. From the comparison made, everyone could now know that the Mo'inide kingdom is earlier than the Sabaa' kingdom.   

Those scholars who claimed that Mo'inide is older as compared to the Sabaa' kingdom were Muller, Winckler and Glazer among all. The gap of time between these kingdoms is 500 years. The opinion is supported by historians namely, Martin Hartman and Edward Meyer. Hartman for e.g said that Mo'inide is earlier than Sabaa'. However, when all of the sources being checked by other historians; It seems like both of these kingdoms seem like exist in parallel to each other. Later then, the Himyarite kingdom came into existence.

Both of these kingdoms were well-developed and they possess large natural sources within their boundaries. They had fertile lands and their kingdoms located in the middle of merchants' trading route. Strabo mentions about Yemen: "At the southern tip of Arabian Peninsula, there were four descendants of the Mo'inide. Those who based themselves in the Qarna', the Sabaa' whose capital in the Ma'arev, the Qatabites whom capital were in Tamna and the Hadramawts in Shabwa". In other parts, Strabo mentions that the Mo'inides went to the state of Baratta with its capital al-Anbat for trading businesses.

Baltius mentioned that Mo'inide was a fertile land, with large area of bushes. Other ancient historians such as Theonosius and Ptolemy also talked about the kingdom. Halephi had once visited Arabian Peninsula in the 19th century where he stopped by at the state of Juff in the north. He founded 303 inscriptions and had conducted researches on them. The result of his archeological research founds that, the place was once the capital of the Mo'inide kingdom. The names of their kings were enlisted in the inscriptions and about 26 kings had been traced.

Each of the king has their own designation which means "the great", "the stronger among others", "the great warrior" and others. Muller stated that from his research, the kings usually inherits the throne from their fathers. Sometimes, both the son and the father would rule together. The king was called as Mize'aad just like those in the Sabaa' who called their kings as the Mekrav. Henry suggested that the whole Southern Arabia were subjected under the rule of the Mo'inides.     

The Mo'inides were defeated by the Sabaa' kingdom but it was still mentioned in records of the second century before Christ. The language used by the Mo'inides were almost the same with those in the Sabaa' and their writing system was the same. This kingdom was a peace loving kingdom and never conquer other states. They love to conduct business and trading with other well-developed countries at that same time period.

Sealed with prayers for mercy, peace and love, amin!