Yarīm Aymān

Yarīm Aymān was a prince of the tribe of Ḥāshid. He was the first of a dynasty of kings of Sabaʾ from the lineage of Bataʿ-and-Hamdān (second half of the 2nd cent. CE).

The long political career of Yarīm Aymān (Sab. Yrm ʾymn) is well documented by Sabaic inscriptions. Born in the first quarter of the 2nd century CE, during the reign of Ilīsharaḥ Yaḥḍub king of Sabaʾ and dhū-Raydān (Gr 184), this member of Sabaean tribal aristocracy was from the banū Hamdān lineage. In the 130s, he became a prince (qayl) of the tribe of Ḥāshid, centred on the city of Nāʿiṭ, in the northern highlands of Yemen (Ir 4).

During the following two decades, South Arabia was ravaged by incessant epidemics and conflicts between all the kingdoms (Robin 1992, Bron 2002, Arbach et al. 2021). It is in this context that Yarīm Aymān managed, around 155-159 CE, to negotiate a truce between the belligerents (CIH 315).

Around 160, he fought Ḥimyar and the Arab nomads with the king of Sabaʾ, Wahabʾīl Yaḥuzz (Ja 561 bis).

In a game of musical chairs in which the princes of Sabaean tribal aristocracy succeeded each other on the throne, Yarīm Aymān was associated with the throne by Karibʾīl Watār Yuhanʿim king of Sabaʾ (Ja 565, RES 4190), then reigned alone, probably in the 170s. For the next four to five decades, the throne of Sabaʾ remained the prerogative of the princes of the lineage of Hamdān allied with those of Bataʿ.

In the 10th century, the Yemeni encyclopaedist Abū al-Ḥasan al-Hamdānī preserved the memory of Yarīm (Aymān), whom he says descended from the prince Dhū al-Mariʿ (Hamdānī/Fāris 1938: 96).

Mounir Arbach

References and suggested reading

Sources

• al-Hamdānī / ed. Faris, N.A. 1938. The Antiquities of South Arabia, being a translation from the Arabic with Linguistic, Geographic, and Historic Notes of the Eighth Book of al-Hamdâni ’s al-Iklīl. Edited by N.A. Faris. Princeton.

Studies

• Arbach, M. & J. Schiettecatte 2017. Inscriptions sabéennes du Jabal Riyām (Yémen) et nouvel éclairage sur les rois de Sabaʾ au II^e siècle de l’ère chrétienne. Sem. Clas. 10: 179–93. DOI: 10.1484/J.SEC.5.114953.
• Arbach, M., J. Schiettecatte & M. al-Hajj 2021. The kingdom of Sabaʾ in the second century CE — A reassessment, in C. Darles, L. Khalidi & M. Arbach (eds) Contacts between South Arabia and the Horn of Africa from the Bronze Age to Islam: 69–84. Toulouse: PUM.
• Bron, F. 2002. La crise du royaume de Sabaʾ au II^e siècle de notre ère. Orientalia 71–4: 417–23.
• Robin, C.J. 1992. Guerre et épidémie dans les royaumes d’Arabie du Sud d’après une inscription datée (II^e siècle de l’ère chrétienne). CRAI 1992: 215–234. DOI: 10.3406/crai.1992.15088.
• Robin, C.J. 2013. Matériaux pour une prosopographie de l’Arabie antique, in C.J. Robin & J. Schiettecatte (eds) Les préludes de l’Islam: ruptures et continuités dans les civilisations du Proche-Orient, de l’Afrique orientale, de l’Arabie et de l’Inde à la veille de l’Islam (O&M, 11): 127–270. Paris: De Boccard.

_{Alternate spellings: Yarîm, Yarim, Aymân, Ayman, Yrm ʾymn}