Kinaidokolpitai
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The Kinaidokolpitai were a people inhabiting the
Hejaz Hejaz is a Historical region, historical region of the Arabian Peninsula that includes the majority of the western region of Saudi Arabia, covering the cities of Mecca, Medina, Jeddah, Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, Tabuk, Yanbu, Taif and Al Bahah, Al-B ...
in western
Arabia The Arabian Peninsula (, , or , , ) or Arabia, is a peninsula in West Asia, situated north-east of Africa on the Arabian plate. At , comparable in size to India, the Arabian Peninsula is the largest peninsula in the world. Geographically, the ...
in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD, according to
Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
and
Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
authors. They are known from a small number of independent sources. Their capital was Zambram, but none of the named settlements in their territory can be identified with certainty. Their name is possibly related to that of
Kinda Kinda or Kindah may refer to: People Given name * Kinda Alloush (born 1982), Syrian actress * Kinda El-Khatib (born 1996 or 1997), Lebanese activist Surname * Chris Kinda (born 1999), Namibian para-athlete * Gadi Kinda (1994–2025), ...
,
Kinana Kinana () is an Arab tribe based around Mecca in the Tihama coastal area and the Hejaz mountains. The Quraysh of Mecca, the tribe of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, was an offshoot of the Kinana. A number of modern-day tribes throughout the Arab w ...
, Kalb, Kilab or some combination of two of these tribes. For a time they were raiders and pirates preying on the incense trade until defeated by the
Kingdom of Aksum The Kingdom of Aksum, or the Aksumite Empire, was a kingdom in East Africa and South Arabia from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, based in what is now northern Ethiopia and Eritrea, and spanning present-day Djibouti and Sudan. Emerging ...
, which imposed tribute on them.


Name

The name is sometimes anglicized Kinaidokolpites. The earliest attested Latinization is Cinaedocolpitae. The name is usually spelled Kinaidokolpitai (Κιναιδοκολπίται) with an initial
kappa Kappa (; uppercase Κ, lowercase κ or cursive ; , ''káppa'') is the tenth letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the voiceless velar plosive sound in Ancient and Modern Greek. In the system of Greek numerals, has a value of 20. It was d ...
in Greek, but in one instance it is spelled Chinedakolpitai (Χινεδακολπιται) with an initial
chi __NOTOC__ Chi may refer to: __NOTOC__ Greek *Chi (letter) (Χ or χ), the twenty-second letter of the Greek alphabet Chinese * ''Chi'' (length) (尺), a traditional unit of length, about ⅓ meter *Chi (mythology) (螭), a dragon * Chi (surname) ...
. This is relevant to any consideration of a Semitic rather than Greek origin, since it suggests that the Semitic etymon could begin with either
kaph Kaph (also spelled kaf) is the eleventh letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician ''kāp'' 𐤊, Hebrew ''kāp̄'' , Aramaic ''kāp'' 𐡊, Syriac ''kāp̄'' ܟ, and Arabic ''kāf'' (in abjadi order). It is also related to the Anc ...
or
qoph Qoph is the nineteenth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician ''qōp'' 𐤒, Hebrew ''qūp̄'' , Aramaic ''qop'' 𐡒, Syriac ''qōp̄'' ܩ, and Arabic ''qāf'' . It is also related to the Ancient North Arabian , South Arabian ...
. If read literally in Greek, the name is composed of κίναιδος (homosexual, pervert) and κολπίτης (those living on a gulf).
Glen Bowersock Glen Warren Bowersock (born January 12, 1936) is a historian of ancient Greece, Rome and the Near East, and former chairman of Harvard’s classics department. Early life Bowersock was born in Providence, Rhode Island, and attended The Rivers Sc ...
interprets this as an obscenity (if Greek), but
Hélène Cuvigny Hélène Cuvigny, , is a French papyrologist, specialist of the eastern Egyptian desert in Roman times. Biography As part of a research project of the Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale in Cairo, she was entrusted in 1994 with the explo ...
and Christian Robin consider it to have a more positive connotation associated with erotic dancers (to which κίναιδος could also refer). The first part of the name may relate to the later Arab tribe of
Kinda Kinda or Kindah may refer to: People Given name * Kinda Alloush (born 1982), Syrian actress * Kinda El-Khatib (born 1996 or 1997), Lebanese activist Surname * Chris Kinda (born 1999), Namibian para-athlete * Gadi Kinda (1994–2025), ...
, deliberately rendered in Greek in a pejorative form.
Carlo Conti Rossini Carlo Conti Rossini (1872–1949) was an Italian orientalist. He was director of the State Treasury from 1917 to 1925, a member of the Accademia dei Lincei in 1921 and Royal Academy of Italy from 1939. He wrote various works on the historical g ...
interpreted it as "Kinda living on the shore of the gulf".
Hermann von Wissmann Hermann von Wissmann may refer to: * Hermann Wissmann Hermann Wilhelm Leopold Ludwig Wissmann, after 1890 Hermann von Wissmann (4 September 1853 – 15 June 1905), was a German explorer and administrator in Africa. Biography Born in Frankfurt ...
saw it as combining the names of the
Kināna Kinana () is an Arab tribe based around Mecca in the Tihama coastal area and the Hejaz mountains. The Quraysh of Mecca, the tribe of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, was an offshoot of the Kinana. A number of modern-day tribes throughout the Arab wo ...
and
Kalb The Banu Kalb () was an Arab tribe which mainly dwelt in the desert and steppe of northwestern Arabia and central Syria. It was involved in the tribal politics of the Byzantine Empire's eastern frontiers, possibly as early as the 4th century. ...
tribes. Mikhail Bukharin, taking the first element as Kinda, thinks the second part could be either the Kalb or more likely the Kilāb. Laurence Kirwan identifies them with the Kināna.


Location

In the ''
Geography Geography (from Ancient Greek ; combining 'Earth' and 'write', literally 'Earth writing') is the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding o ...
'' of
Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzant ...
from about 150, the Kinaidokolpitai are described as inhabiting the Arabian coast of the
Red Sea The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and th ...
. Their territory began after Iambia (probably
Yanbu Yanbu (), also known as Yambu or Yenbo, is a city in the Medina Province of western Saudi Arabia. It is approximately 300 kilometers northwest of Jeddah (at ). The population is 31,800 (2025 census). Many residents are foreign expatriates wo ...
) and the tribe of Arsai (probably the Irasha, a clan of the
Bali Bali (English:; Balinese language, Balinese: ) is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller o ...
). It encompassed, from north to south: the villages of Kopar and Arga (Agar); the city of Zambram, their capital (''basileion''); the village of Kentos (Kentosi, Kantosi); and the city of Thebai. The southern limit of their land was the river Baitios, probably the ''
wādī Wadi ( ; ) is a river valley or a wet (ephemeral) riverbed that contains water only when heavy rain occurs. Wadis are located on gently sloping, nearly flat parts of deserts; commonly they begin on the distal portions of alluvial fans and ext ...
'' Bayḑ or Baysh, beyond which lived the Kassanitai. These are probably the Ghassānids before they migrated north. This places their southern limit in the northern ʿAsīr roughly opposite the
Farasan Islands The Farasan Islands (; transliterated: ) are a small group of coral islands approximately 40 km off the coast of Jizan in the Red Sea, belonging to Saudi Arabia. The government provides free ferry rides twice a day to Farasan Islands from J ...
. Ptolemy also places an unnamed mountain in the territory of the Kinaidokolpitai. It has been identified with the Jabal Shār in
Midian Midian (; ; , ''Madiam''; Taymanitic: 𐪃𐪕𐪚𐪌 ''MDYN''; ''Mīḏyān'') is a geographical region in West Asia, located in northwestern Saudi Arabia. mentioned in the Tanakh and Quran. William G. Dever states that biblical Midian was ...
(north of Yanbu). The Kinaidokolpitai next appear as one of the peoples subdued by the
king of Aksum The kings of Axum ruled an important trading state in the area which is now northern Ethiopia and Eritrea, from 400 BC to 960 AD. Sources Various regnal lists of Axumite monarchs have survived to the present day via manuscripts or oral traditio ...
according to the Adulis throne inscription, which dates from some time between the mid-2nd and early 3rd century. It is possibly contemporary with or even a little earlier than Ptolemy. There are two slightly different ways of translating this inscription:
I sent both a fleet and an army of infantry against the Arabitai and the Kinaidocolpitai who dwell across the Red Sea, and I brought their kings under my rule. I commanded them to pay tax on their land and to travel in peace by land and sea. I made war from Leuke Kome to the lands of the Sabaeans.
And I sent a fleet and land forces against the Arabitae and Cinaedocolpitae who dwelt on the other side of the Red Sea, and having reduced the sovereigns of both, I imposed on them a land tribute and charged them to make travelling safe both by sea and by land. I thus subdued the whole coast from Leuce Come to the country of the Sabaeans.
Regarding the location of the Kinaidokolpitai, the inscriptions says only that it lay between former
Nabataea The Nabataean Kingdom (Nabataean Aramaic: 𐢕𐢃𐢋𐢈 ''Nabāṭū''), also named Nabatea () was a political state of the Nabataeans during classical antiquity. The Nabataean Kingdom controlled many of the trade routes of the region, amassin ...
n port of
Leuke Kome Leuke Kome () was a Nabataean port city located on the Incense Route. It may have been in the vicinity of the village now known as Aynuna (), Saudi Arabia, but other theories suggest that it was located at al-Wajh. History The port is known fr ...
and the land of
Saba Saba may refer to: Places * Saba (island), an island of the Netherlands located in the Caribbean Sea * Sabá, a municipality in the department of Colón, Honduras * Șaba or Șaba-Târg, the Romanian name for Shabo, a village in Ukraine * Saba, ...
, as did that of Arabitai. These latter people are not otherwise attested and their name seems to be a doublet of ''Arabes'' (
Arabs Arabs (,  , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of yea ...
), although some scholars have identified them with the Kassanitai of Ptolemy. Von Wissman thought the Kinaidokolpitai were the coast-dwellers and the Arabitai the
Bedouin The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu ( ; , singular ) are pastorally nomadic Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia (Iraq). The Bedouin originated in the Sy ...
of the interior.
Cosmas Indicopleustes Cosmas Indicopleustes (; also known as Cosmas the Monk) was a merchant and later hermit from Alexandria in Egypt. He was a 6th-century traveller who made several voyages to India during the reign of emperor Justinian. His work '' Christian Topogr ...
, who copied the now lost inscription in 548 or 549, glosses Arabitai and Kinaidokolpitai as "the inhabitants of
Arabia Felix Arabia Felix (literally: Fertile/Happy Arabia; also Ancient Greek: Εὐδαίμων Ἀραβία, ''Eudaemon Arabia'') was the Latin name previously used by geographers to describe South Arabia, or what is now Yemen. Etymology The Latin term ...
", which is uninformative.


History

In the '' Collection of Chronologies'', written in 235, presents the Kinaidokolpitai as colonists from Midian. The author has probably identified them with the
Kenites According to the Hebrew Bible, the Kenites/Qenites ( or ; ) were a tribe in the ancient Levant. They settled in the towns and cities in the northeastern Negev in an area known as the "Negev of the Kenites" near Arad, Israel, Arad, and played an ...
of the Bible (
Septuagint The Septuagint ( ), sometimes referred to as the Greek Old Testament or The Translation of the Seventy (), and abbreviated as LXX, is the earliest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible from the original Biblical Hebrew. The full Greek ...
''Kinaioi''), an identification he may have found strengthened by the spellings in
Josephus Flavius Josephus (; , ; ), born Yosef ben Mattityahu (), was a Roman–Jewish historian and military leader. Best known for writing '' The Jewish War'', he was born in Jerusalem—then part of the Roman province of Judea—to a father of pr ...
(''Kenetidai'' and ''Keneaidai''). Nevertheless, the lands of the Kinaidokolpitai may at some point have extended northwest into former Nabataean lands. The earliest reference to the Kinaidokolpitai is an
ostrakon An ostracon (Greek: ''ostrakon'', plural ''ostraka'') is a piece of pottery, usually broken off from a vase or other earthenware vessel. In an archaeological or epigraphical context, ''ostraca'' refer to sherds or even small pieces of stone ...
found at Maximianon in Egypt and dated to 118 or perhaps closer 150. It records that two soldiers of the garrison, probably cavalrymen, were sent out on the 20th of the month
Tobi Tobi may refer to: Palau * Tobi (island), island in the Palauan state of Hatohobei * Tobian language, the language of Tobi * Hatohobei, an island and the southernmost of Palau's sixteen states Media and entertainment * ''Tobi!'', a 2009 te ...
"with a diploma (official missive) concerning the Chinedakolpitai". The implication of the Adulis throne inscription is that in the middle of the 2nd century or early in the 3rd, the Kinaidokolpitai were raiding the
incense route The incense trade route was an ancient network of major land and sea trading routes linking the Mediterranean world with eastern and southern sources of incense, spices and other luxury goods, stretching from Mediterranean ports across the Levan ...
, both its sea-lanes and overland roads, that connected
South Arabia South Arabia (), or Greater Yemen, is a historical region that consists of the southern region of the Arabian Peninsula in West Asia, mainly centered in what is now the Republic of Yemen, yet it has also historically included Najran, Jazan, ...
and the
Horn of Africa The Horn of Africa (HoA), also known as the Somali Peninsula, is a large peninsula and geopolitical region in East Africa.Robert Stock, ''Africa South of the Sahara, Second Edition: A Geographical Interpretation'', (The Guilford Press; 2004), ...
with the
Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...
. The main Aksumite port of
Adulis Adulis (Sabaic, Sabaean: 𐩱 𐩵 𐩡 𐩪, , ) was an ancient city along the Red Sea in the Gulf of Zula, about south of Massawa. Its ruins lie within the modern Eritrean list of cities in Eritrea, city of Zula. It was the emporium (antiquit ...
, where the throne inscription was found, was located on the incense route. The Kinaidokolpitai are listed in
Stephanus of Byzantium Stephanus or Stephen of Byzantium (; , ''Stéphanos Byzántios''; centuryAD) was a Byzantine grammarian and the author of an important geographical dictionary entitled ''Ethnica'' (). Only meagre fragments of the dictionary survive, but the epit ...
's ''Ethnika'' (5th century). All his information is derived from other written sources, such as Ptolemy and Marcian of Heracleia (who wrote at an unknown date). He gives the capital of the Kinaidokolpitai as Zadrame and quotes Marcian placing the Kinaidokolpitai alongside the Zadramites. His testimony cannot be taken as evidence for the continued existence of the Kinaidokolpitai in his time.


Notes


References


Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * {{refend Tribes of Arabia Semitic-speaking peoples History of Hejaz History of the Red Sea