Tabūʿa (

Old Arabic Old Arabic is the name for any Arabic language or dialect continuum before Islam. Various forms of Old Arabic are attested in scripts like Safaitic, Hismaic, Nabataean alphabet, Nabatean, and even Greek alphabet, Greek. Alternatively, the term ha ...

: ; ) was a queen regnant of the Nomadic Arab tribes of

Qedar The Qedarites () were an ancient Arab tribal confederation centred in their capital Dumat al-Jandal in the present-day Saudi Arabian province of Al-Jawf. Attested from the 9th century BC, the Qedarites formed a powerful polity which expande ...

. She ruled in the 7th century BC, circa 675 BC. She succeeded queen Te'el-hunu.

Life

Tabua was the fifth of six Arab queens to be attested (as ''sarratu'') in Assyrian documents between Tiglath-pileser III and

Assurbanipal Ashurbanipal (, meaning " Ashur is the creator of the heir")—or Osnappar ()—was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 669 BC to his death in 631. He is generally remembered as the last great king of Assyria. Ashurbanipal inherited the th ...

, who were Zabibe, Samsi, Yatie, Te'el-hunu, Tabua and Adia, the first five of them rulers. Tabua's early life is not well-known, except for the fact that she was raised by

Sennacherib Sennacherib ( or , meaning "Sin (mythology), Sîn has replaced the brothers") was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 705BC until his assassination in 681BC. The second king of the Sargonid dynasty, Sennacherib is one of the most famous A ...

as his daughter to be the new queen of the Arabs. Some have theorized that Tabua was Te'el-hunu's and Sennacherib's child, who was born during the captivity of the former; however this theory remains highly speculative. During the rule of

Esarhaddon Esarhaddon, also spelled Essarhaddon, Assarhaddon and Ashurhaddon (, also , meaning " Ashur has given me a brother"; Biblical Hebrew: ''ʾĒsar-Ḥaddōn'') was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 681 to 669 BC. The third king of the S ...

, Tabua was sent back to

Dumat al-Jandal Dumat al-Jandal (, ), also known as Al-Jawf or Al-Jouf (), which refers to Wadi Sirhan, is an ancient city of ruins and the historical capital of the Al Jawf Province, today in northwestern Saudi Arabia. It is located 37 km from Sakakah. ...

to rule as a queen and partner of the new vassal king of Qedar,

Ḫazaʾil Ḫazaʾil () was a Qedarite king regnant who ruled in the 7th century BCE. He was a contemporary of the Neo-Assyrian kings Sennacherib and Esarhaddon. Life Hazael was a Qedarite king regnant and an associate of the queen of Qedar, Teʾelḫunu ...

.Saleh, Abdulaziz:
Kitab Tarikh Shibh al-Jazirat al-Arabiyat fi Usuriha al-Qadima
'. Anglo-Egyptian Library; Egypt. ISBN 9770515795 The idols of the Qedarites, which included

al-Lat Al-Lat (, ), also spelled Allat, Allatu, and Alilat, is a pre-Islamic Arabian goddess, at one time worshipped under various associations throughout the entire Arabian Peninsula, including Mecca, where she was worshipped alongside Al-Uzza and ...

, were also returned back to them. She had a short reign, which may either mean she had died, retired, or the Qedarites had overthrown her and replaced her with another queen.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tabua Arab queens Midian Ancient queens regnant 7th-century BC monarchs in Asia 7th-century BC women 7th-century BC Arab people Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown Ancient Near Eastern women