Bashamum

Basham^um is an Ancient South Arabian god. He was probably the main deity of the city of Ḥalzaw (today Hajar Lajiya) in the Wādī Markha around the turn of the Christian era, but his cult is attested even earlier in the Jawf region. His name means 'balsam'.
Basham^um (Bs²m^m) is a minor Ancient South Arabian male god, attested in some fifteen inscriptions as the recipient of dedications and requests for the protection of persons and goods. Priests (rs²w) and priestesses of the god are also known.
Most of the references to Basham^um come from the Qatabanian area, where the local calendar also featured a month called ḏ-Bs²m^m, probably named after the god. Few texts mentioning Basham^um come from the core of Qatabān. His cult is mainly confirmed in inscriptions from the wādī Markha, dated between the first cent. BCE and the first cent. CE. Textual sources locate two sanctuaries of the god named Ḫrf and Nʿlm in the city of Ḥalzaw (modern Hajar Lajiya) (RÉS 4336; Prioletta 2013). Basham^um is also sporadically mentioned in the Jawf area, in Minaic and Sabaic inscriptions. Texts such as Gajda 2001 (fig. 1) and CIH 545, dating back to the mid-first millennium BCE at the latest, indicate an earlier cult of the god with respect to Qatabanic sources.
The name Basham^um is related to the Semitic root BŚM, passed on to Greek βάλσαμον and Latin balsămum, indicating the scented liquid produced from certain plants (and therefore more generically used to mean 'perfume', 'aroma'). In particular, the Arabic word bishām points to the Commiphora opobalsamum odoriferous tree, which grows in Yemen (Lane 1863).

Irene Rossi

References

• Lane, E.W. 1863. An Arabic-English Lexicon. London: Willams & Norgate.
• Prioletta, A. 2013. The town of Ḥalzaw (Ḥlzwm) between Qatabān, Radmān and Ḥimyar: an essay on political, religious and linguistic history. Sem. Clas. 6: 109–30, DOI: 10.1484/J.SEC.1.103729.
  _{Alternate spellings: Bs²mm; Bs2mm; Bšmm; Bašamum}