Abīyathaʿ

Around the 3rd-2nd centuries BCE, the name Abīyathaʿ / Abīyathaʿ Ghaylān recurs repeatedly in the region of Najrān, Qaryat al-Faw, and in Eastern Arabia. These mentions may correspond to one or more rulers who had authority over eastern and/or south-western Arabia.

Abīyathaʿ Ghaylān son of Abīʾanʿam is mentioned in two short inscriptions from the outskirts of Yaghrū temple in the wādī al-Shuḍayf (Upper Jawf, Yemen) (inscriptions Kortler 6a, 6b). This temple was dedicated to the tutelary deity of Najrān, dhū-Samāwī. The same Abīyathaʿ Ghaylān is mentioned in two texts from the jabal Kawkab region, between the oases of Najrān and Qaryat al-Fāw (R 2525, aṣ-Ṣammāʾ 2017).

At the same time, a ruler by the name of Abīyathaʿ is mentioned in several documents discovered in the same region of Najrān and Qaryat al-Fāw, although it is not possible to determine whether Abīyatha is one or more homonymous persons. These documents are:

• An inscription from Qaryat al-Fāw, Said ZorA 2018 (ca. 2nd cent. BCE), with a mention of Wahbdhūsamāwī Dhubyān, son of Abīyathaʿ, king of Dhākir, ʾAmīr and Muhaʾmir;
• An inscription on a wooden plaque from Qaryat al-Fāw (Sijill 2016: inv. 4923-2-4-1).
• Two short inscriptions discovered not far from al-Ukhdūd (Najrān), at Qarn az-Zaʿfarān, authored by a caravan leader in the service of “his lord Abīyathaʿ” (Ja 1012m and Ja 1013j).
• Two silver coins imitating the coinage of Alexander the Great, from Qaryat al-Fāw (F1/466, F9/114), struck in the name of Abīyathaʿ (al-Anṣārī (ed.) 2019, vol. 4: 370-1).

As far as these coins are concerned, they belong to a well-known series attested at several sites in eastern Arabia (Thāj, al-Hufūf, Faylaka, and Mleiḥa) and were most probably struck there. It is generally considered that the Abīyathaʿ they mention was a king of Hagar or another eastern Arabian kingdom. Therefore, there were most probably at least two distinct Arabian kings by the name of Abīyathaʿ in the last three centuries BCE: the father of a king of Dhākir, ʾAmīr and Muhaʾmir (in the region of Najrān and Qaryat al-Fāw), and a king of Hagar (in Eastern Arabia). In the current state of knowledge, however, we cannot totally rule out the possibility that they represent one and the same person, or members of the same dynasty, who would have ruled over both regions.

Mounir Arbach

References and suggested reading

Siglum

• aṣ-Ṣammāʾ 2017: unpublished inscription.
• Ja 1012m, Ja 1013j: Jamme 1966.
• Kortler 6a, 6b
• R 2525: fac-simile in Robin & Prioletta 2013, fig. 5.

References

• al-Anṣārī, A. (ed.) 2019. Qaryat (al-Fāw). Vol. IV. Ṣūra li-l-ḥaḍāra al-ʿarabiyya qabla al-islām fī al-Mamlaka al-ʿArabiyya al-saʿūdiyya. Al-Maskūkāt. Dirāsa wa-taḥlīl wa-iʿdād ʿI. Qādūs, A. Ghazāl & F. Al-ʿĀmir. Riyadh: King Saud University, al-Hayʾa al-ʿĀmma li-l-siyāḥa wa-l-turāth al-waṭanī.

• Jamme, A. 1966. Sabaean and Hasaean Inscriptions from Saudi Arabia (Studi Semitici 23). Rome: Università di Roma, Istituto di studi del Vicino Oriente.

• Macdonald, M. 1994. Supplement to the Pre-Islamic Coinage of Eastern Arabia (Carsten Niebuhr Institute Publications, 16). Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum.

• Robin, C.J., A. al-Ghabbān & S.F. al-Saʿīd 2014. Inscriptions antiques récemment découvertes à Najrān (Arabie séoudite méridionale) : nouveaux jalons pour l’histoire de l’oasis et celle de l’écriture et de la langue arabes. CRAI 2014: 1033–1127.

• Robin, C.J. & A. Prioletta. 2013. Nouveaux arguments en faveur d'une identification de la cité de Gerrha avec le royaume de Hagar (Arabie orientale). Sem. Clas. 6: 131–185.

• al-Saʿīd, S.F. 2018. The kingdom of Dhākir, ʾAmīr, and Muhaʾmir in the light of a new inscription from al-Fāw, Saudi Arabia. ZOrA 11: 404–411.

• Sijill, 2016. Sijill al-quṭaʿ al-athariyya, qism al-Āthār. 2 vols. Riyadh, King Saud University.

_{Alternate spellings: Abīyatha', Abîyatha', Abiyatha', Abiyatha, Abiyata', Abiyata, Abuyata, Abuyatha, Abuyata', Abuyatha'}