Nashshan (

Minaean Ma'in (; ) was an ancient South Arabian kingdom in modern-day Yemen. It was located along the strip of desert called Ṣayhad by medieval Arab geographers, which is now known as Ramlat al-Sab'atayn. Wadd was the national god of Ma'in. The sp ...

: romanized: , ; modern day Kharbat Al-Sawda', ) is the name of an ancient

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, ...

n city in the northern al-Jawf region of present day

Yemen Yemen, officially the Republic of Yemen, is a country in West Asia. Located in South Arabia, southern Arabia, it borders Saudi Arabia to Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, the north, Oman to Oman–Yemen border, the northeast, the south-eastern part ...

, originally independent but later subsumed into the territory of the ancient Kingdom of Ma'in between the 6th and 4th centuries BC. Like many other city-states of the Jawf, ''Nashshan'' functioned as the name of both the city and the tribe. The city was called Nestum in the ''Natural History'' book that was written by

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/24 79), known in English as Pliny the Elder ( ), was a Roman Empire, Roman author, Natural history, naturalist, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the Roman emperor, emperor Vesp ...

. The main god of Nashshan was called Aranyadaʿ.

History

8th century BC

Nashshan is considered the most important city of the Jawf valley. Originally autonomous and independent from its neighbours, it was allied with the

Kingdom of Saba Sheba, or Saba, was an ancient South Arabian kingdoms in pre-Islamic Arabia, South Arabian kingdom that existed in Yemen (region), Yemen from to . Its inhabitants were the Sabaeans, who, as a people, were indissociable from the kingdom itself f ...

in the 8th century BC, as attested by documents from the time of the Sabaean king

Yatha' Amar Watar Yatha' Amr Watar bin Yakarib Malik (d. 710 BC) was one of the ancient Mukarrib of Saba, who ruled in the last two or three decades of the eighth century BC. He is the author of the oldest and most important ancient historical documents related ...

and his royal Nashshanite contemporary, Malikwaqah. Together, the two states fought and subjugated common enemies, like the city-state of Kamna and the

Kingdom of Awsan The Kingdom of Awsan, commonly known simply as Awsan (; ), was a kingdom in Ancient South Arabia, centered around a wadi called the Wadi Markha. The wadi remains archaeologically unexplored. The name of the capital of Awsan is unknown, but it is ...

. A stela of

called AO 31929, from around this time, speaks of a pact of alliance between Saba and Nashshan:

Yatha amar Watar son of Yakrubmalik mukarrib of Saba dedicated to Aranyada' the patron when Aranyada came back from the territories of Aranyada' and of Nashshan and avenged Nashshan at the expense of Kaminahu because Nashshan had maintained the alliance of Almaqah and of Aranyada', of Yatha amar and of Malikwaqah, of Saba of Nashshan, because of ... of god and parton of pact and alliance.

Conflict with the Kingdom of Saba

Over the subsequent decades, relations began to complicate between Nashshan and Saba. This may have been caused by the growing power of Nashshan, and its rising influence over the Jawf, since the relevant deed reports do not mention any infractions of loyalty or other hostilities. In this process, documents from Saba begin to portray Nashshan as among the worst enemies of Saba. In the 7th century BC, the great Sabaean ''

mukarrib Mukarrib (Old South Arabian: , romanized: ) is a title used by rulers in ancient South Arabia. It is attested as soon as continuous epigraphic evidence is available and it was used by the kingdoms of Saba, Hadhramaut, Qataban, and Awsan. The tit ...

'' and conqueror,

Karib'il Watar Karibʾīl Watār Yahanʾm ( Sabaean: , romanized: ; 7th century BCE), sometimes distinguished as was probably the most important ruler of the early days of the Sabaean Kingdom. He is sometimes regarded as the founder of the kingdom proper, as ...

, launched a campaign that successfully overpowered and defeated Nashshan. This campaign was described in a large inscription called RES 3945, which documents a series of eight campaigns launched over the course of Karib'il's reign. The fifth and sixth campaigns of the eight described are about Nashshan. The battle was difficult, and involved setting Nashshan to a three-year siege. After victory, all dissidents were killed and Saba imposed the cult of

Almaqah Almaqah or Almuqh (; ) was national deity of the Sabaeans of the pre-Islamic Yemeni kingdom of Saba', representing the Moon or Sun god. He was also worshipped in Dʿmt and Aksum in Ethiopia and Eritrea. The main center for his worship was at th ...

, their own

national god A national god or tribal god is a guardian deity whose special concern is supposed to be the safety and well-being of an 'ethnic group' (''nation''). This is contrasted with other guardian figures such as family gods responsible for the well-be ...

, onto Nashshan: a temple to Almaqah was built in the city after their defeat. Sabaeans were settled into the city. Control over the irrigation systems previously held by Nashshan were handed over to loyalist states. Cities like Nashq moved from a dominion under Nashshan to one under Saba in the aftermath of this conflict. There is evidence that Nashshan was not destroyed in the process however, and that it eventually entered into reconciliation with Saba, with the two allying again in later periods and military conflicts.

Joining the Kingdom of Ma'in

Between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE, the Kingdom of Ma'in absorbed the once-powerful city-state of Nashshan into its dominion. The kingdom of Ma'in at the time was composed of a confederation primarily between the cities of Ma'in and Baraqish: Nashshan's position in the kingdom was secondary to these two. The integration of Nashshan under Ma'in also coincided with the replacement of the traditional pantheon of Nashshan with the one from Ma'in. However, the restoration of the Nashshanite pantheon is evident after Ma'in falls.

Culture

Nashshān, was in Wādī Madhāb,Leonid Kogan and

Andrey Korotayev Andrey Vitalievich Korotayev (; born 17 February 1961) is a Russian anthropology, anthropologist, economic history, economic historian, comparative politics, comparative political scientist, demography, demographer and sociology, sociologist ...

: Sayhadic Languages (Epigraphic South Arabian). Semitic Languages. London: Routledge, 1997. Pg. 221. to the north-east of

Ma'rib Marib (; Old South Arabian: 𐩣𐩧𐩨/𐩣𐩧𐩺𐩨 ''Mryb/Mrb'') is the capital city of Marib Governorate, Yemen. It was the capital of the ancient kingdom of '' Sabaʾ'' (), which some scholars believe to be the ancient Sheba of bibl ...

and was a trading center and town in

Pre-Islamic Arabia Pre-Islamic Arabia is the Arabian Peninsula and its northern extension in the Syrian Desert before the rise of Islam. This is consistent with how contemporaries used the term ''Arabia'' or where they said Arabs lived, which was not limited to the ...

. Nashshān, and its neighbours, Haram (Yemen), Kaminahu and Inabba' were similar in that they were civil temple settlements and city states, and inscriptions in all four towns are in the

Minaean language The Minaean language (also Minaic, Madhabaic or Madhābic) was an Old South Arabian or Ṣayhadic language spoken in Yemen in the times of the Old South Arabian civilisation. The main area of its use may be located in the al-Jawf region of Nort ...

References

Sources

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External links

Archive for the study of ancient south Arabian inscriptions in Kharibat as-Sawda
{{Tourist attractions in Yemen Archaeological sites in Yemen City-states