Merchant and marauder—The adventures of a Sabaean clansman

Abstract

Ten years ago, a Sabaean inscription on a votive plaque of bronze was made known—immediately attracting the attention of the scholarly world because of its historical implications. This text, which has been given the sigla BL‐Nashq ? and Demirjian 1, respectively, by the editors, speaks—among others—about a commercial journey of its author to the north of the Arabian Peninsula—as far as Gaza, Judah, and even Cyprus. While the key message of this account is quite clear, a controversial discussion has evolved around the date of the “war between Chaldaea and Greece” mentioned in the text, thus yielding inconsistent proposals stretching from the seventh up to the early fourth century BC. In the search for possible synchronisms of the events mentioned in the text, however, clear parallels from Ancient South Arabia have almost been neglected. In a number of mostly Minaic inscriptions, first of all RES 3022, some striking lexical and formulaic isoglosses with the Sabaic text can be made out which can hardly be explained by coincidence. A thorough reconsideration of these texts will demonstrate that the events described in BL‐Nashq ? = Demirjian 1 could have found resonance in other documents from the region—resulting in a consistent chronological framework for all involved texts. In conclusion, we may watch the story of a Sabaean official in his commercial and diplomatic involvement with northern Arabia and the Levant in the shadow of political tensions within the Achaemenid Empire in the late fifth–early fourth century BCE.

A Sabaic inscription from Wādī al‐Jawf during the Era of Yadaʿʾil Bayyin, son of Yaṯaʿʾamar, King of Sabaʾ

“…196-204, who connect the inscription with the war between the Persians and Euagoras, king of Cyprus, between 386 and 381). 9 In a comprehensive philological study, Multhoff (2019) pleads again for a date of B-L Nashq? in the beginning of the fourth century BC.…”

New evidence for diplomacy between the Mediterranean and South Arabia

“…Some South Arabian inscriptions (e.g., BL Nashq? = Demijian 1/13‒14) attest to direct trade contacts between the two regions in the mid‐first millennium BCE (for a discussion, see Bron & Lemaire, 2009, c .600 BCE; and Multhoff, 2019, with a later dating to the late fifth‒early fourth centuries BCE). Inscriptions RES 3570 = M 349 (second half of the second century BCE from Delos), Ma‘īn 93 = M 392 and RES 3427 = M 338 (dates uncertain) confirm that these contacts were quite intensive in the second half of the first millennium BCE (Graf, 2013: 200, 203).…”