Article table of contents: D
-
In the first millennium BCE, Dadan was one of the main oasis settlements in northwest Arabia and a major trade station on the northern section of the Incense Road. By the mid-6th century BCE, it had become the seat of a local kingdom controlling the oasis of al-ʿUlā. In the second half of the first millennium, Dadan was ruled by the kings of Liḥyān and hosted a Minaean trading colony. It had a specific script and language, known as Dadanitic.
-
Script variant of the Ancient North Arabian (ANA) script family that was used to write inscriptions in and around the ancient oasis of Dadan (modern-day al-ʿUlā) in the northwest of the Arabian Peninsula between the 6th and 1st centuries BCE. Dadanitic is also commonly used to refer to the language of the inscriptions written in Dadanitic script.
-
Region and tribe in the southern highlands of Yemen (modern Yāfiʿ) and name of a small kingdom in the 8th-7th cent. BCE.
-
A dam is an engineering structure that completely blocks a watercourse, either permanently or temporarily, in order to raise its level and create a reservoir (Brunet et al. 1993: 61). A dam consists of two main elements: a retaining wall and facilities to discharge liquids and solids accumulated in its reservoir.
-
Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera)
The date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) is an emblematic plant of the arid regions of the Arabian Peninsula where it constitutes the key species in traditional date palm gardens. It has been grown by local populations for almost 5000 years and might even have been domesticated in this part of the Middle East.
-
See Text typology
-
Ancient Arabian tribe that formed a confederation with the tribes of Amīr and Muhaʾmir around the 2nd cent. BCE.
-
Dhamarʿalī Yuhabbir son of Yāsir Yuhaṣdiq
Ḥimyarite ruler who reigned in the middle of the 2nd century CE (ca. 135-165 AD).
-
Dhat Ḥimyam is an ancient South Arabian goddess. She was one of the major deities of the Sabaean pantheon, attested since the earliest written documentation in Arabia and in the Ethio-Sabaean settlements. She was also worshipped in Ḥaḍramawt, where she was the patron goddess of two major temples at Raybūn. Her cult is sporadically attested in Qatabān as a protector of sanctuaries, while the few mentions in the Minaic corpus are all related to a Sabaean influence.
-
The Dhofar region can be identified with the historical area of Saʾkalhān/Saʾkalān, referred to by a variety of ancient sources from the 2nd-1st centuries BCE to the 9th century CE, including South Arabian inscriptions, classical and early Islamic sources. The main cultural features of the region, from the Bronze Age to Late Antiquity, define a coherent cultural archaeological horizon.
-
Group of Sabaean tribes (s²ʿb), under the authority of the princes banū Hamdān, then dhu-Hamdān.
-
See Water management
-
See Baḥrayn (al-)
-
Diversion walls are linear earth and/or stone structures that divert part of a watercourse into a canal to supply an irrigation system.
-
Dūmat al-Jandal [ancient Adummatu]
This oasis of northern Arabia (Jawf province, Saudi Arabia) played a major role in the Transarabian caravan trade between the Hedjaz, the Southern Levant and Mesopotamia during the pre-Islamic period. It was also the target of three campaigns led by Prophet Muḥammad and his companions against the local ruler Ukaydir in the Early Islamic Period.
-
This entry presents the Nabataean deity Dūsharā from a very general point of view with a focus on the Arabian Peninsula.