Kamna / Kaminahū (Kingdom and tribe)

Kaminahū (Sab. Kmnhw) was an important tribe and city-state in the Jawf Valley in the 8th–6th centuries BCE.

Territory, pantheon and institutions

The history of Kaminahū is known from some sixty ancient South Arabian inscriptions, most of which are dated to the 8th-6th centuries BCE. The tribe of Kaminahū formed a small kingdom, consisting of the homonymous city (see Kamna) and its surroundings: the site of al-Naṣāʾib and the Banāt ʿAd temple (Kamna 7; Arbach & Darles 2019), and for some periods of time, the site of Ḥarāshif, as well as the cities of Manhayat (now Ḥizmat Abī Thawr) and al-Ṣanaf, east of al-Bayḍāʾ (MAFRAY-aṣ-Ṣanaf 1) (Robin 1992, Schiettecatte 2011: 70–73; Arbach & Rossi 2015).

The city of Kaminahū was one of the city-states of the Jawf Valley, and was characterised by the use of the Minaic language. It had its own pantheon: Nabʿal, Madahū, Ildalīl, ʿAthtar dhū-Raḥbah and ʿAthtar Ḥagr (Robin 1992, 2002).

Decision-making in the city was collegial, with a Council of Twelve (ʾhl ṯny ʿs²rn) assisting the king in his public decisions. At the same time, the inscriptions reflect the importance of the religious institution and its close links with political institutions (Robin 2002; Arbach & Rossi 2014). Ministers (qyn) of the king performed the role of priests (s²wʿ, e.g., Kamna 10, 24, 25). An assembly/congregation (ʾhl) was in charge of the cult of ʿAthtar Raḥbah (Kamna 26); the leadership of the cult of Nabʿal was assumed by a personage bearing the title of ‘king’ (mlk ʾhl Nbʿl - MṢM 3645); a council of the god Madahū issued decrees with the deity (MṢM 3634).

The city-state in the 8th century BCE

During the first half of the 8th century BCE, the small kingdom of Kaminahū was allied with the neighbouring city-state Nashshān. On the bas-reliefs of the intra muros temple of Nashshān, Nabʿal, the tutelary god of Kaminahū is depicted alongside the deities of Nashshān and those of the other Jawf city-states (Arbach & Audouin 2004). The first known rulers of Kaminahū certainly date from this period, although the inscriptions do not explicitly refer to them as kings. They are Dhahabʾamar Rawyān son of Alīmyadaʿ (MAFRAY-aṣ-Ṣanaf 1) and Yahzaḥ Radʿān son of Sumhūsamīʿ, builder of the Yasmaʿqahal temple (al-Jawf 04.5, 04.6). His son, Ilīsamīʿ Amar, succeeded him and undertook work on the temple of Nabʿal (Kamna 28).

The authority exercised by Kaminahū at that time over the upper Jawf and al-Ṣanaf may have posed a threat to the kingdoms of Nashshān and its ally Sabaʾ. This would explain the military intervention of the Sabaean ruler (mkrb) Yathaʿʾamar Watār son of Yakrubmalik against Kaminahū. This event is reported in a dedication to Aranyadaʿ in his intra muros temple in Nashshān (AO 31929): ‘when Aranyadaʿ* came back from Kaminahū to Nashshān, at the time of Yathaʿʾamar, and when Yathaʿʾamar established the territories of Aranyadaʿ and Nashshān and avenged Nashshān against Kaminahū’ (Caubet & Gajda 2003). The event is also mentioned in the account of the Sabaean ruler Yathaʿʾamar Watār in Ṣirwāḥ (DAI Ṣirwāḥ 2005-50), where Sabaʾ is said to take possession of Manhayat, until then under Kaminahū’s authority (Nebes 2016: 9–38).

After this intervention, the city-state of Kaminahū seemed to fall within Sabaean influence, yet remained autonomous, as reflected by the permanence of its kings and its pantheon. The Sabaeans settled on the site. The cult of the Sabaean tutelary god Almaqah was introduced there and a temple may have been dedicated to him (Kamna 30A, 30B, 31, 32, 33). Finally, the Sabaean rulers Yadaʿʾīl and Yathaʿʾamar Bayān are invoked alongside the rulers of Kaminahū (Kamna 30A, 30B, 31 and 32). These synchronisms date the few rulers of Kaminahū to the second half of the 8th century BCE (Arbach & Rossi 2015).

Kaminahū in the 7th-6th centuries BCE

At the beginning of the 7th century BCE, during the reign of Nabaṭʿalī – probably Nabaṭʿalī Dharḥān son of Yashhurmalik (Kamna 26) –, the city-state of Kaminahū was the ally of Sabaʾ in the military campaigns led by the Sabaean ruler Karibʾīl Watar against Nashshān (RES 3945). The territories formerly under Nahshān control reverted to him.

A text that appears to be from this period dates the presence of a governor (ʿqb) of Sabaʾ at the head of the city of Kaminahū for seven months during the crushing of Nashshān (Kamna 34). The city nevertheless seems to have retained its autonomy.

During the second half of the 7th and probably the 6th centuries BCE, a few texts were authored by kings of Kaminahū: Ilīsamīʿ Nabaṭ son of Nabaṭʿalī, who fortified the city of Nashq (now al-Bayḍāʾ), then under Sabaean control (CIH 377), and Ilīsamīʿ in co-regency with Dhamarkarib (MṢM 3645).

The end of the kingdom of Kaminahū

During the 6th–5th centuries BCE a king of Kaminahū (e.g., MṢM 4573, FR-Ṣanʿāʾ 5) alternated with a Sabaean governor (DhM 383). The second half of the first millennium BCE is very poorly documented. Only a king of Kaminahū is known there, Wahab son of Masʿūd, ca. 2nd century BCE, mentioned in an inscription from Haram (Haram 38).

Like several other cities in the Jawf Valley, Kaminahū was devastated by the Roman army of Aelius Gallus in 26–25 BC. (Plin. HN VI.32.160).

In the tenth century CE, Kamna is mentioned as a ruin (kharibat) (al-Hamdānī/Müller, Ṣifa 167).

List of the rulers of Kaminahū

Mounir Arbach

See also Kamna (site)

References and suggested reading

Sources

• al-Hamdānī/Müller, Ṣifa: Müller, D.H. (ed.) 1884. Al-Hamdānī’s Geographie der arabischen Halbinsel, nach den Handschriften von Berlin, Constantinopel, London, Paris und Strassburg zum ersten Male herausgegeben von David Heinrich Müller. 2 vols. Leiden: E.J. Brill.
• Plin., HN: Rackham, H. (ed.) 1941. Pliny’s Natural history. With an English translation. Volume II. Libri III-VII. Cambridge (Mass.), London: Harvard University Press, W. Heinemann.
• Strabo, Geog.: Seubert, P. 2020. Du Tigre au Nil, la Syrie et l’Arabie de Strabon : édition, traduction et commentaire du livre XVI de la Géographie. PhD, Paris: Sorbonne Université.

Studies

• Arbach, M. & R. Audouin 2004. Un panthéon de l’Arabie du Sud en images. Le temple I d’as-Sawdāʾ. Sana’a: CEFAS-FSD.
• Arbach, M. & Ch. Darles 2019. Architecture et épigraphie des temples des cités-Etats du Jawf dans les Basses-Terres du Yémen : chronologie et spécificité, in G. Hatke & R. Ruzicka (eds) Ancient South Arabia through History: Kingdoms, Tribes, and Traders: 234–317. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Lady Stephenson Library.
• Arbach, M. & I. Rossi 2014. Kamna, une cité prospère du Jawf du Yémen du VIII^e au VI^e siècles avant J.-C.  Sem. Clas. 7: 45–61. DOI: 10.1484/J.SEC.5.103517.
• Arbach, M. & I. Rossi 2015. Nouveaux documents sabéens provenant de Kamna du VIII^e au VI^e avant J.-C.  AAE 26: 16–27. DOI: 10.1111/aae.12052.
• Arbach, M. & I. Rossi 2022. The city-states of the Jawf at the dawn of ancient South Arabian history (8th-6th centuries BCE) (Arabia Antica, 17), 3 vols. Rome: "L’Erma" di Bretschneider.
• Avanzini, A. 1995. As-Sawdāʾ (Inventario delle iscrizioni sudarabische, tomo 4). Paris, Rome: AIBL, IsMEO.
• Caubet, A. & I. Gajda 2003. Deux autels en bronze provenant de l’Arabie méridionale. CRAI 2003: 1219–1242. DOI: 10.3406/crai.2003.22639.
• Nebes, N. 2016. Der Tatenbericht des Yiṯaʿʾamar Watar bin Yakrubmalik aus Ṣirwāḥ (EFAH, 7). Tübingen, Berlin: Wasmuth.
• Prioletta, A. 2014. Nouvelles inscriptions maʿīniques de Kamna au Musée Militaire de Ṣanʿāʾ. Sem. Clas. 7: 191–201. DOI: 10.1484/J.SEC.5.103527.
• Robin, Ch. 1992. Inabbaʾ, Haram, al-Kāfir, Kamna et al-Ḥarāshif (Inventaire des Inscriptions sudarabiques, tome 1). Paris, Rome: AIBL, IsMEO.
• Robin, Ch. 2002. Vers une meilleure connaissance de l’histoire politique et religieuse de Kaminahū (Jawf du Yémen), in J.F. Healey & V. Porter (eds) Studies on Arabia in honour of Professor G. Rex Smith (JSS Supplement, 14): 191–213. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Schiettecatte, J. 2011. D’Aden à Zafar. Villes d’Arabie du sud préislamique (O&M, 6). Paris: De Boccard.

_{Alternate spellings: Kaminahū, Kaminahu, Kaminahū, Kaminahû, Kamna}