South Arabia: Prosperity of the States

Assalamu'alaikum wa rahmatullah

Right now if we visit those ancient archeological sites in Hadramawt region, perhaps we could only see vast desert and sands with hot sun shining at the day. However, there was a great state with green farms and fertile land. There were city-states known as Mo'in, Saba' and Himyar. 

There were no Euphrates like in Iraq and no Nil river like in Egypt. Rain hardly pouring down there and they receive the rain once a year. They had no choice except to build a dam which is known as the Ma'arev Dam and they use the water kept their according to the necessity for agriculture activities. The original Sheba city-state was just an oval shaped city with the radius of one kilometer. They city was heavily fortified with walls and there were Eastern and Western gates. The name of the king who established the city-state was carved at the Western gate, Yas'amar Yabin the son of Samah 'Ali Yanoph, Ma'arev Saba.   

Some ancient states such as Mo'in, Baragesh, Shabwa, Sāfar and Ṣana'ā could be grouped into vanquished old states because they were humped by thick desert sands. Only Sana'a could be managed to be reconstructed where a new city was build upon the old one. Sana'a became the center for Persian administration during their invasion in Yemen for some time around 7th century. One of its beautiful palace in ancient time was, the Ghamdan. One of Western researcher known as Halifix had discovered the city of Mu'in from the sand. The city was not known even to natives of Yemen herself until the archeologist dig up the remain of the ancient city from the sand. 

Abu Muhammad al-Hasan al-Hamdani (893-945 AD) in his literary work, al-Iklil mentioned that he founded the remains of palaces and edification of ancient Yemen. He even describes on how did those buildings and citadels look like in the book but many did not believe him. They accused him as exaggerating and making up stories out of his imagination. However, if we could fairly be considerate on the motives of the writer, we could also think that what benefit could he get if he tell lies? Will he acquire fortune with the lies? His stories had attracted Western researchers to see it with their own eyes and so we could see some of the such as Halifix, Arnot and Glazar among the Western archeologists who had unearthen the ancient cities from the sand in Southern Arabia. Al-Iklil talks about the genealogies of HImyarites and the wars of their kings in 10 volumes. Part eighth deals with the citadels and castles of South Arabia and it was edited and annotated by Müller in Die Burgen und Schlösser Sudarabiens (Vienna, 1879-1881).

Their efforts in the catchment of rain is among the most amazing things which we could see in the world and the dam is still in existence until nowadays.

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

Arabian Chronicles : Thamudic Ancient Arab

Assalaamu'alaikum wa rahmatullah

A remnant of Thamudic house, they dwelled in rock mountains around the area

The Thamudic people had began from a person who is known as Thamud bin Katir bin Iram. Their dwelling place is in the area called Hagar Wadi al-Qura. It is located in between Hejaz of Saudi Arabia and Syria today. Their houses were carved inside metal rocks.

The God had also sent them a noble prophet and messenger who is known as Saaleh a.s in the glorious Quran. Said al-Mas'udi : "Thamud had been in power in Hejaz to Syria and the sea of Ethiopia. Their houses were carved inside the rocks and pilgrimage caravans who passed through the area of Wadi al-Qura can see the remnants of their houses."

According to the narration of Ibnu Kalbi, he said that the tribe of Jadis and Tasmin among the branches of Thamudic Arabs came from the lineage of Iram bin Shem. The Tasmin was said as inhabited the area of Bahrain today. However, according to at-Tabari, both of the Jadis and Tasmin dwelled in Yamamah and not in Bahrain. It is due to that Yamamah is a fertile area and easier to establish settlements, build up houses and creating gardens. One of the king from Tasmin dynasty or the tribe of Tasmin was known as Amluq and he was so brutal and cruel.   

If we open up our Old Testament, we can also read a word which sounds like Amelechites. Amelechites referring to Amaliqah in Arabic. They came from the lineage of a person whose name is Amaliq bin Lawz. Amalechites were a kind of ancient Arab tribe. I had also heard a narration of elders that some followers of the noble prophet Moses a.s from the children of Israel was sent down to Arabian Peninsula to track these Amalechites and massacre them all as they were very cruel people.

The Amelechites according to at-Tabari had expanded widely. The major descendents were in Oman in the East of Amelechites. There were also Amelechites in Arabian Peninsula. Some Pharaohs who ruled ancient Egypt were also from Amelechites lineage. Kings of Cana'an were also Amelechites. The opinion which support the assumption that some Pharaohs of ancient Egypt came from al-Jarjany. Another branch of the sibling of Amaliq bin Lawz according to some narrations had expanded to ancient Persia. A branch of Thamudic Arab called the Hadhora had build up settlements in a place called Rass. They became adherents of Zoroaster. 

The map portraying the area where Thamudic Arabs had been which is marked with the cross, some of them had expanded as far as Azerbaijan and Georgia today. Both Azerbaijan and Georgia were under Persian lands.

Those Arabs in Hadramawt are not considered as ancient Arabs. They are considered as the 'Ariba Arabs because they survived until post-Christ era. Other under this category is the Jurhums and Jurhums were divided into the First Jurhum and the Second Jurhum. The First Jurhum falls under the category of ancient Arabs because none of them survived. The Second Jurhums are descents of this person, Jurhum bin Qahtan. The son of Qahtan whose name was Ya'arob began to rule Yemen in Southern Arabian Peninsula. He also appointed his sibling to be king in Hejaz.          

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