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Sargon II › Who Was
Definition and Origins
Sargon II (reigned 722-705 BCE) was one of the most important kings of the Neo-Assyrian Empire as founder of the Sargonid Dynasty which would rule the empire for the next century until its fall. He was a great military leader, tactician, patron of the arts and culture, and a prolific builder of monuments, temples, and even a city. His greatest building project was the city of Dur-Sharrukin (`Fortress of Sargon ', modern day Khorsabad, Iraq) which became the capital of the Assyrian Empire under his reign.
He was the son of Tiglath Pileser III (reigned 745-727 BCE) and possibly the younger brother of Shalmaneser V (reigned 727-722 BCE). He was not the chosen heir but took the throne from his brother under circumstances which remain unclear. It is likely, however, that he orchestrated a coup after he had grown tired of what he saw as his brother's inept reign. Like the great Sargon of Akkad (2334-2279 BCE), whom he modeled himself after, his throne name of Sargon means `true king' which scholars have interpreted as his means of legitimizing himself following the coup. His birth name is unknown as is whatever position he held at court prior to assuming the throne. Although regions of the empire revolted when he took control, and he does not seem to have had the support of the court, Sargon II maintained the policies and strategies initiated by his father, improved the military and economy, and brought the Assyrian Empire to its greatest height politically and militarily. His reign is considered the peak of the Neo-Assyrian Empire.
EARLY REIGN & CONQUESTS
Sargon II was middle-aged when he came to the throne. What role he played in his father's administration is unknown as no inscriptions identify Tiglath Pileser III's younger son by name. The only reason scholars know Sargon II was Tiglath Pileser III's son is from Sargon II's own inscriptions and court documents from his reign. Sargon II also refers to Shalmaneser V as his brother by blood and not `brother' as an honorary title. Shalmaneser V tried hard to hold his father's empire together and expand on it, which he succeeded in to a degree, but his military exploits were not carried out with the speed and efficiency that had marked his father's reign and his taxation and labor policies were unpopular with the people. The Assyrian records are silent on how he died. Historian Susan Wise Bauer comments on this, writing :
At this point [in history] the Assyrian accounts blink. When they reopen, Shalmaneser V – only five years on the throne and carrying on two sieges simultaneously – is dead. A new king has taken the throne under the royal name Sargon II. If Shalmaneser had died in battle [the records] would likely have said so. Most likely his successor Sargon II was a younger son of Tiglath Pileser, taking advantage of his brother's weakness to seize power; those long and apparently fruitless sieges cannot have been popular with the army and Shalmaneser V had also made himself unpopular back home by trying to introduce an obligation of forced labor to the people of Assur. This had not gone over well (374).
SARGON II BROUGHT THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE TO ITS GREATEST HEIGHT POLITICALLY AND MILITARILY.
Sargon II took the throne, abolished the taxation and labor policies, and ended the sieges his brother's administration had prolonged. He conquered Samaria and destroyed the kingdom of Israel. Sargon's inscriptions record that he deported 27,290 Israelites from their homeland and re-settled them to regions throughout the empire from Anatolia across to the Zagros Mountains. In doing so, he was simply following Assyrian political and military procedure which had been initiated by the king Adad-Nirari I (1307-1275 BCE) and practiced ever since. This particular incident involving the Assyrian re-settlement policy resulted in the famous loss of the Ten Tribes of Israel. Bauer notes that, however well cared for the deportees may or may not have been treated,
Deportation was a kind of genocide, murder not of persons, but of a nation's sense of itself. These Israelites became known as the `lost ten tribes' not because the people themselves were lost, but because their identity as descendants of Abraham and worshippers of Yahweh was dissipated into the new wild areas where they were now forced to make their homes. (375)
With Israel conquered and his brother's military campaigns brought to a conclusion, Sargon II turned his attention to the regions of the empire which had revolted against him.
Neo-Assyrian Empire
MILITARY CAMPAIGNS
In 720 BCE he marched on the city of Hamat (in the region of Syria ) and destroyed it. He then continued on to crush the other cities which had joined the rebellion, Damascus and Arpad, at the Battle of Qarqar. With order restored in the Syrian regions, he marched back to his capital at Kalhu and ordered the deportation and resettlement of those Assyrian communities in the region which had failed to support his ascent to the throne or had actively rebelled against him. Over 6,000 “ungrateful citizens” were deported to Syria to rebuild Hamat and the other settlements and cities destroyed in Sargon II's campaign.
At this time, word reached the court that a tribal chief named Merodach-Baladan had seized rule in the city of Babylon.Sargon II left Kalhu at the head of his army and met the combined forces of Babylon and Elam in battle on the plains outside of the city of Dur. Sargon II's army was repelled by the Elamites (the Babylonians arrived too late to have any effect) and left the field; and so lost the city of Babylon and the regions of the south.
Sargon II again returned to Kalhu and set his administration in order. In c. 717 BCE he first conceived of the idea of his own capital city built on virgin land and commissioned that it be built. This city would become Dur-Sharrukin, a central preoccupation of the king throughout his reign. He personally designed the city and chose the location but then again was drawn away by military matters. He appointed his son, the crown prince Sennacherib, as his administrator and then set out on campaign.
The city of Carchemish was the capital of a very wealthy kingdom which had long enjoyed prosperity due to its location on a trade route. In 717 BCE, Sargon II accused the king of Carchemish of intrigue with the enemies of Assyria and invaded the city with his entire army. There was no army to speak of which Carchemish could field and so the city was easily taken. Sargon II sent captives and the massive treasury of the city back to Kalhu. So rich was this treasury in silver that it “changed the Assyrian economy from a bronze-based to a silver-based financial economy which relied on silver according to the standard of Carchemish” (Radner, 1). In 716 BCE he conquered the Mannaeans (a people of present-day Iran) and looted their temples and, in 715 BCE, he marched through Media conquering those cities and settlements and sending wealth and captives back to Kalhu.
All during this time, however, a persistent problem had been presenting itself in the north. The Kingdom of Urartu had been conquered by his father but never completely so. During the reign of Shalmaneser V Urartu had risen again and was making incursions into Assyria from bases along the border. In 719 and 717 BCE Sargon II had to send troops at his borders against the Urartians who had invaded and instigated conflict among the settlements. In 715 BCE Urartu mounted a full-scale invasion and took 22 Assyrian cities along the border. Sargon II retaliated by re-taking the cities, driving the Urartian forces out of Assyrian lands, and razing their southern provinces along the border. He understood, however, that these kinds of invasions would continue and he would have to repeatedly expend time and resources in dealing with them. In order to secure his empire against future incursions, Sargon II had to decisively defeat Urartu. The difficulty lay in their strategically located kingdom which was nestled in the foothills of the Taurus Mountains and heavily defended. It was for this reason that the previous Assyrian kings who had fought against Urartu had never fully defeated them. The Urartian forces were always able to slip away into the mountains after an engagement, re-group, and then return to harass the empire.
Archer Relief, Khorsabad
THE URARTU CAMPAIGN OF 714 BCE
The Kingdom of Urartu (also known as the biblical Kingdom of Ararat and Kingdom of Van) had grown in power throughout the 13th to the 11th century BCE. The Temple of Haldi, in the holy city of Mushashir in Urartu, had been an important pilgrimage center since the 3rd millennium BCE and the offerings from kings, princes, nobility, and merchants filled its treasury. The Urartians had grown in wealth from trade and from caravans of pilgrims coming to visit Mushashir. To ensure continued prosperity, the Urartians tried to keep the lowlands around their kingdom under their control. From their fortress in the mountains they continually raided and annexed territories in the lowlands. The Urartians were fierce warriors who bred some of the best horses in the region and raised them specifically for combat. Shalmaneser I (1274-1245 BCE) first mentioned Urartu in Assyrian inscriptions in relating his conquest of the kingdom but, since his time, the Urartians showed themselves resilient and resourceful in that, each time they were beaten, they rose again. Sargon II writes of them respectfully, even though they were his enemies, as noted by Bauer:
Sargon's own accounts speak admiringly of the Urartian king Rusas and the network of canals and wells which he built; of the herds of well-bred and guarded horses, raised in protected valleys until they were needed for war; of the splendid efficiency of Urartian communication, with watchtowers built high on mountain peaks, guarding heaps of fuel that could be lit at a moment's notice. One beacon, lit, flared up on its mountaintop into an enormous bonfire that appeared as a spark to the next distant post, where the next bonfire could then be lit. They shone like `stars on mountaintops,' in Sargon's own words, and spread news of invasion faster than a messenger could ride (376).
Sargon II understood that the only way to defeat them would be to surprise them. He launched his invasion of Urartu in 714 BCE. Leading the army himself, he marched east, skirting the Urartu stronghold, and hoping to bring his forces, unnoticed, up through the flat lands to surprise Urartu from the rear. The Assyrians were a lowland people with no experience in mountain warfare. The previous Assyrian kings who had fought Urartu drove them from the lowlands but never ascended the slopes into the mountains. Sargon II's forces encountered “looming and unfamiliar slopes covered with thick forests where unknown enemies waited…The cedar forests on the mountain slopes, like those into which Gilgamesh had ventured so many years ago, sheltered an enemy which was more terrifying because it was unseen” (Bauer, 376). Sargon II, therefore, set the vanguard of his army to clearing a path for his forces to proceed. Sargon II describes this himself in a letter he wrote to the god Ashur in which he also makes clear the great challenges he faced in his campaign:
Mount Simirria, a great mountain peak that points upwards like the blade of a lance, and raises its head over the mountain where the goddess Belet-ili lives, whose two peaks lean against heaven on high, whose foundations reach into the midst of the netherworld below, which, like the back of a fish, has no road from one side to the other and whose ascent is difficult from front or back, ravines and chasms are deeply cut in its side, and seen from afar, it is shrouded in fear, it is not good to climb in a chariot or with galloping horses, and it is very hard to make infantry progress in it; yet, with the intelligence and wisdom that the gods Ea and Belet-ili destined for me and who broadened my stride to level the enemy land, I made my engineers carry heavy bronze axes, and they smashed the peaks of the high mountain as if it were limestone and made the road smooth. I took the head of my army and made the chariots, cavalry, and battle troops that accompany me fly over it like eagles. I made the support troops and foot solders follow them, and the camels and pack mules jumped over the peaks like goats raised in the mountains. I made the surging flood of Assyrians easily cross over its difficult height and on top of that mountain I set up camp (Van De Mieroop, 216).
The army had, by this time, been marching through hard terrain in early summer and, though they had been resupplied and watered by previously conquered Medes, they were exhausted by the time they made final camp. Sargon writes how, “their morale turned mutinous. I could give no ease to their weariness, no water to quench their thirst.” He selected a battlefield and deployed his troops just as King Rusas arrived with his forces for battle; but Sargon's army would not fight. They had traveled too far and endured too much on the march and now, with the objective before them, they refused to engage the enemy.
Sargon II had come too far and expended too many resources to simply retreat or surrender. He called his personal bodyguard around him and then, as Bauer writes:
He led them in a frantic and suicidal attack on the nearest wing of Rusas's force. The wing gave ground in the face of his desperate savagery; and according to his own account, Sargon's army, seeing him fling himself into the line, took courage and followed him in. The Urartian army wavered, broke, and began to retreat. The retreat turned into a rout. The Assyrian army chased the disintegrating enemy westwards, past Lake Urmia and into their own territory. Rusas abandoned any attempt to hold his own capital city, Turushpa, and fled into the mountains (377).
With Urartu defeated, and fearing that his troops would mutiny if he led them further into the mountains in pursuit, Sargon II turned his forces around and headed back towards Assyria. He paused at the city of Mushashir, however, sacked it, and plundered the holy temple of Haldi carrying off literally tons of gold, silver, and precious gems. Sargon writes that, when King Rusas heard of the sack of Mushashir, “The splendor of Assur overwhelmed him and with his own iron dagger he stabbed himself through the heart, like a pig, and ended his own life.” The Urartians were defeated, and in less than six months of campaign, and so Sargon II returned to Kalhu at the head of his army in glory, carrying with him the immense wealth of Mushashir.
Servants at Dur-Sharukkin (Khorsabad)
DUR-SHARRUKIN & BABYLON
To celebrate his victory, and create a lasting monument to his campaign, he turned his attention to the construction and adornment of his city Dur-Sharrukin in the year 713 BCE. The city would be decorated with reliefs depicting Sargon II's conquests and, especially, the sack of Mushashir. He took personal interest in every aspect of the city's construction. His official letters, which were found in the archives of Kalhu and Nineveh, make the level of his involvement in the project clear.In one letter he writes:
The king's word to the governor of Kalhu: 700 bales of straw and 700 bundles of reed, each bundle more than a donkey can carry, must arrive in Dur-Sharrukin by the first of the month Kislev. Should one day pass by, you will die.
For three years Sargon II supervised the building of Dur-Sharrukin while also entertaining envoys from Egypt, Nubia, and other nations at his palace in Kalhu. He controlled the whole north of Mesopotamia, Anatolia, and had subdued the Kingdom of Urartu; but he had not yet taken Babylon and the lands of the south back from Merodach-Baladan. The last time he had marched on Babylon and her Elamite allies he had taken a straight-forward approach and been defeated; this time he decided on another tactic.
In 710 BCE, Sargon II left the building of Dur-Sharrukin and the administration of the empire in the hands of Sennacherib and marched at the head of his army east into Elam. He lay waste the villages and cities and then turned in a half-circle to come at Babylon from the southeast. Merodach-Baladan fled the city with as many riches as he could carry including his royal furniture: a silver bed, throne, table, the royal ablution-pitcher, and his own necklace (Bauer, 379). He sent these as gifts to the king of Elam asking for sanctuary. Sargon II's inscription regarding what followed reads: “The Elamite scoundrel accepted his bribe but feared my military power; so he blocked Merodach-Baladan's way and forbade him to go into Elam.” Merodach-Baladan fled to his native city of Bit-Yakin on the Persian Gulf where Sargon II's forces followed him, attacked, and destroyed the city. Sargon II reports, “I burned it with fire and even its foundations were torn up.” He allowed Merodach-Baladan to live, however, and this decision has mystified historians and scholars ever since. This same Chaldean chief would later emerge to cause trouble for Sargon II's successor, Sennacherib.
FINAL YEARS & LEGACY
Having conquered the south, Sargon II marched to Babylon and claimed kingship. He now ruled all of Mesopotamia and the Assyrian Empire was at its greatest expanse, wealth, and might to date. He chose to reside at Babylon and entertained the envoys of other kings and nations, including those of the king Mita of Phrygia who is identified by some scholars as King Midas, famed for his golden touch. For three years Sargon II remained in Babylon, regularly receiving updates from Sennacherib back in Kalhu on the progress of Dur-Sharrukin and then, in 707 BCE, he received word his city was completed.He left Babylon and moved into his palace at Dur-Sharrukin in 706 BCE. He made his new city the Assyrian capital and engaged in building projects, commissioning art work, and writing of his conquests. Bauer notes how, “The reliefs in his new palace at [Dur-Sharrukin] show his greatness; his huge figure pushes even the forms of the gods into the background. He was the second Sargon, the second founder of the empire, the king of a second Assyria with new borders, a new capital city, and a newly fearsome power” (381). He finally had the city which he had wanted built in his honor; but he would not enjoy it for long.
Sargon II Basalt Stele
The people of Tabal, a province in central Anatolia, had broken away from the empire and Sargon II needed to bring the region back under control. Instead of sending someone else to handle the campaign, Sargon II again left Sennacherib in charge of the government and led his army across Mesopotamia and into Anatolia. Tabal put up a strong resistance to the Assyrian forces and Sargon II was killed in battle. The fighting was so fierce that his body could not be retrieved and was lost to the enemy. The Assyrians were driven from the field and returned home without their leader.
The death of the king and loss of his body were considered an enormous tragedy and an evil omen. Somehow, it was thought, Sargon II had committed some sin in order for the gods to have abandoned him so completely on the battlefield. Dur-Sharrukin was abandoned immediately and the capital moved to Nineveh by Sargon's successor, Sennacherib. The new king, who had been repeatedly left at home while Sargon II embarked on glorious campaigns, clearly resented his father as he wrote nothing and built nothing to honor his memory. None of Sennacherib's inscriptions mention his father at all and no building or monument was raised in his name. Sargon's skill as a military leader and politician enlarged the Assyrian Empire and brought it to its peak as the greatest empire of the Near East and yet his death in battle, and his son's refusal to acknowledge him after his death, marred his accomplishments for those who came immediately after him. Dur-Sharrukin with its great reliefs and paintings stood empty as everything which could be moved was brought to Nineveh. It is from Sargon's own inscriptions and the writings of later chroniclers that the exploits and achievements of King Sargon II are known today and it is from these that his legacy as a great king has come to be recognized. Directly after his death, however, the people seem to have been encouraged to forget that such a king had ever reigned.
Kingdom of Saba › Antique Origins
Definition and Origins
Saba (also given as Sheba) was a kingdom in southern Arabia (region of modern-day Yemen) which flourished between the 8th century BCE and 275 CE when it was conquered by the neighboring Himyarites. Although these are the most commonly accepted dates, various scholars have argued for a longer or shorter chronology with the earliest date of c. 1200 BCE; most agree on the terminus of c. 275 CE, however.
The kingdom is probably best known today from the biblical narrative in the Book of Kings 10:1-13 and II Chronicles 9:1-12 of the visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon ; a story also told, though with significant differences, in the Aramaic Targum Sheni, the Quran (Sura 27), and the Ethiopian Kebra Negast (though this last places Sheba in African Ethiopia, not southern Arabia). The Queen of Sheba is also referenced in the Christian New Testament books of Matthew (12:42) and Luke (11:31), and Saba appears in other books of the Old Testament (among them, Job 1:13-15, Isaiah 45:14, and Joel 3:4-8) and the Quran (Sura 34).
In its prime, however, Saba was known as a wealthy kingdom which grew rich through trade along the Incense Routes between southern Arabia and the port of Gaza on the Mediterranean Sea. Most of the biblical and quranic references – including the tale of the famous queen – reference Saba's wealth and success in trade.
Prior to the 8th century BCE, trade in the area seems to have been controlled by the Mineans of the kingdom of Ma'in but c.950 BCE the Sabeans dominated the region and taxed the goods heading north from their southern neighbors of Hadramawt, Qataban, and the port of Qani. Sabean trade suffered during the Ptolemaic Dynasty of Egypt (323-30 BCE) when the Ptolemies encouraged sea routes over land travel, and Saba's prestige declined until they were conquered by the neighboring Himyarites.
THE QUEEN OF SHEBA
Identified as Sheba, Saba is the kingdom of the queen who travels to Jerusalem to experience first-hand the wisdom of King Solomon (c. 970-931 BCE) of Israel. In the biblical tale, she brings him a gift of 120 gold talents (approximately $3,600,000.00) among other gifts (I Kings 10:10). The lavish presents of the queen would be in keeping with the wealth of the Sabean monarchy, which was legendary, but there is no evidence outside of the Bible, and the later works mentioned, that she ever existed.
THE LAVISH PRESENTS OF THE QUEEN OF SHEBA WOULD BE IN KEEPING WITH THE WEALTH OF THE SABEAN MONARCHY BUT THERE IS NO EVIDENCE OUTSIDE OF THE BIBLE THAT SHE EVER EXISTED.
The story in the Targum Sheni, an Aramaic translation of the Book of Esther with commentary, is a highly embellished version of her visit, and this version, with some differences, is repeated in the Quran, which is thought to have been written later. The story then appears in the Ethiopian Kebra Negast which adds to it by having Solomon seduce the queen who then gives birth to a son who will later transport the Ark of the Covenant from Jerusalem to Ethiopia.
The identification of the Queen of Sheba with the Kingdom of Saba has led some to conclude that she was an Ethiopian queen from central Africa since there was a Saba in Africa which seems linguistically, or at least culturally, associated with the kingdom in Arabia. Whether she was or was not cannot be answered, but it is most likely that if such a queen did exist c. 970-931 BCE, she came from the region of southern Arabia which was growing wealthy at that time from the Incense Routes it controlled.
THE INCENSE ROUTES & SABA
The Incense Routes (also known as the Spice Routes) were the paths taken by merchants from southern Arabia to the port of Gaza on the Mediterranean. These trade routes were most profitable between the 8th/7th century BCE and 2nd century CE but were established earlier and still in use later. The Incense Routes covered 1,200 miles (1,931 km) and took 65 days to travel one way. Caravans would stop at a different city at the end of each day, exchange goods and rest their camels, and continue on the next morning.
Although many goods passed along these routes, the most highly prized were the shipments of frankincense and myrrh. The coast of southern Arabia cultivated these aromatics from the sap of trees but also seem to have had access to others from India through the port of Qani (also given as Qana and Qade, modern-day Bi'r `Ali, eastern Yemen). Goods were transported from the coastal kingdoms north to Ma'in and from there onwards to Gaza.
Shivta
The most successful merchants on these routes were the Nabateans (best known today for their capital city of Petra in Jordan) who were able to best their competitors through control of water supplies. The Nabateans dug wells which filled with rainwater and then disguised them so that only members of their caravans could recognize and make use of them. This enabled them to travel more quickly, and cheaply, as they did not have to stop at cities or towns to barter for water. In time, the Nabateans became so wealthy that they were able to control important cities along the routes such as Avdat, Haluza, Mamshit, and Shivta, all of which became thriving trade centers in their own right.
The Nabateans and others who profited from the routes could not have done so without a central distribution center, and, initially, this seems to have been the Kingdom of Ma'in from which the Mineans controlled the incense trade. The Sabeans of Saba were already in the same region as Ma'in at this time and most likely participated in trade but it is not until c. 950 BCE that the Kingdom of Saba dominates trade and not until the 8th century BCE that they are firmly in control.
THE RISE OF SABA
The Sabeans supplanted the Mineans in orchestrating trade and quickly became the wealthiest kingdom in southern Arabia.Goods were sent from Saba to Babylon and Uruk in Mesopotamia, to Memphis in Egypt, and to Byblos, Sidon, and Tyrein the Levant and, from the port at Gaza, even further. By the time of the reign of the Assyrian king Sargon II (722-705 BCE), their trade routes required his permission to operate in his realm and extend through Assyrian lands. The Egyptians had been trading with the land of Punt (modern-day Puntland State of Somalia) since their 5th Dynasty (c. 2498-2345 BCE), as well as their southern neighbor Nubia but had since initiated trade with southern Arabia. Gold from Nubia traveled north to the capital of Egypt at Memphis and then overland east and south down to Saba.
Sabean kings (known as mukarribs ) rose to power and commissioned great building projects from their capital at Ma'rib (modern-day Sana'a, Yemen). The most famous of these projects is the Ma'rib Dam, the oldest known dam in the world, blocking the ravine of Dhana (the Wadi Adanah). The mountainous ravine would flood during the rainy season and the dam was built to control and divert the water to the low-lying farms in the valley.
Ma'rib Dam
Irrigation of these farmlands was so successful that Saba was consistently remarked upon as a “green country” by ancient historians such as Pliny the Elder (c. 23-79 CE) who called the region Arabia Eudaemon (“Fortunate Arabia”), a term later used by the Romans as “ Arabia Felix ”. The dam, considered one of the greatest engineering feats of the ancient world, was built under the reign of the Sabean mukarrib Yatha' Amar Watta I (c. 760-740 BCE).
The economy depended on the trade of the Incense Routes but also on agriculture. The Marib dam provided such ample irrigation to the fields that crops were plentiful and were harvested twice a year. These crops were dates, barley, grapes, millet, wheat, and assorted fruits. Wine was pressed from the grapes and exported as well as consumed locally. The most important crop, however, were the trees whose sap provided the people with the aromatics of frankincense and myrrh which made the kingdom so wealthy. The historian Strabo (1st century CE) writes:
By the trade in these aromatics both the Sabaeans and the Gerrhaei have become the richest of all the tribes, and possess a great quantity of wrought articles in gold and silver, as couches, tripods, basins, drinking-vessels, to which we must add the costly magnificence of their houses; for the doors, walls, and roofs are variegated with inlaid ivory, gold, silver, and precious stones. ( Geography, XVI.4)
Although Strabo was writing much later, Saba seems to have enjoyed a high level of prosperity from at least the 7th century BCE if not earlier. Great cities rose across the landscape and stone temples were erected in these cities and also outside their walls. Temples outside the cities were used by merchants and nomadic tribes and those within the walls were reserved only for the citizens of that city. The king seems to have also been a high priest and would have presided over religious festivals and supervised the operations of the temple.
SABEAN RELIGION
The religion of the people was in many ways similar to that of Mesopotamia. The gods were thought to have created the world and the people and provided them with all good gifts. The Sabean moon god Almakah was the king of the gods and similar in many ways to the Mesopotamian moon god Nanna (also known as Sin, Nannar, Nanna-Suen), one of the oldest deities in the Mesopotamian pantheon. In the neighboring kingdom of Hadramawt, in fact, Almakah was known by the Mesopotamian name of Sin. The greatest temple in Saba – known as Mahram Bilqis, near the capital of Ma'rib – was dedicated to Almakah and was revered as a sacred site in the region long after the Sabean Kingdom itself was gone.
Almakah's consort (or daughter) was Shamsh, goddess of the sun, who shares many of the attributes of the Mesopotamian sun god Utu-Shamash, another of the oldest gods of the Mesopotamian pantheon dating to c. 3500 BCE. Other deities of the Sabean pantheon, about which very little is known, seem to be aspects of Almakah and Shamsh or Almakah only. These Sabean deities, as elsewhere in the ancient world, each had their own area of expertise, and offerings would be made to them by supplicants which included incense, livestock, and tracts of land. It is possible that, as in Egypt, this practice would have resulted in a very wealthy priestly class.
Mahram Bilqis
It is unknown how the priests performed their duties or if there was a priestly class, though it is assumed there was. If so, the priests would most likely have followed the same model seen in Mesopotamia and Egypt, in which the priests and priestesses cared for the gods in their temples and attended to them, not to the people. As in other civilizations, the Sabeans believed the gods were their constant companions through life and into the world which was to come after death.
People would then have forged their own personal relationship with their gods and most likely only engaged in public worship during festivals. The people believed in divination and that the gods and, perhaps, the spirits of the dead, could send messages to the living. The dead were embalmed and buried with grave goods after being anointed with myrrh, and frankincense was burned in the temples, but beyond that, little is known of the religious practices of the Sabeans.
Although the Sabeans were literate, they left very little behind by way of written history. Scholar Kenneth A. Kitchen comments:
Once the kings of Saba, Ma'in, and elsewhere began to build monumental architecture – mainly stone temples – they soon began to adorn these with suitably monumental texts, often in quite large Old South Arabian lettering.But (unlike Egypt and Assyria ), interestingly, scenes and reliefs played very little part, and seem to disappear after the early 8th century BCE, leaving only texts. (Millard, 182)
These texts, however, are temple dedications, royal decrees, and acts of the court; they are not history. They do not illuminate religious practices or beliefs, the lives and achievements of the kings, the birth and activities of the gods, and how the divine interacted with the mortal realm or any aspect of the culture beyond the most basic information. If the texts were accompanied by illustrations in reliefs it might expand upon their meaning but, as Kitchen observes, they are not. They do, however, outline the basic reign of the kings and the military campaigns which expanded Sabean influence in the late 6th century.
MILITARY CONQUESTS & DIPLOMACY
There were 31 makarribs between the reign of Yatha' Amar Watta I and the man considered the greatest of the Sabean monarchs, Karib'il Watar (7th/6th century BCE). Karib'il Watar is the first ruler to reign under the title of Malik (translated as 'king') rather than the earlier makarrib designation; future kings of Saba would continue this practice.
KARIB'IL WATAR IS THE FIRST RULER TO REIGN UNDER THE TITLE OF MALIK (TRANSLATED AS 'KING').
Malik Karib'il Watar was accorded the epithet “He Who Destroys Buildings” in the course of his military campaigns against the Kingdom of Awsan and was also known as “He who Carries Out the Will of El” following his slaughter of the nomadic tribes and establishment of the borders of Saba. The “El” in this latter epithet refers to the god Almakah. Following Almakah's divine will, Malik Karib'il Watar slaughtered thousands in Awsan and then invaded Ma'in where he killed an equal number of Mineans and then imposed a tribute on them which further enriched the great temple of the god near his capital.
If it is true that the king of Saba was also the high priest of the god, then this action would have made Malik Karib'il Watar incredibly wealthy. However the king profited personally, however, there is no doubt the Kingdom of Saba benefited greatly from these wars; the kingdom is regularly referenced for its opulent wealth. Caravans from southern Qataban and Hadramwat, which had to stop in Saba on their way north, were required to pay an exorbitant tax on their goods to Almakah, as is attested to through complaints by these merchants which have been preserved.
DECLINE & FALL
Saba continued to thrive until the Ptolemaic Dynasty of Egypt began favoring water routes for trade over land routes. Sea and river travel was nothing new and was actually favored by the ancient civilizations because one could travel faster on water than on land. Trade up and down the Nile and across the Red Sea had been going on for millennia by this time and was engaged in throughout the height of the Incense Routes. What suddenly made a difference to Saba was Egypt's decision to cut out the middleman and deal directly with the coastal city of Qani.
Instead of goods flowing into and out of Egypt by way of Alexandria -Gaza, an Egyptian barge could now sail down the Red Sea, around the southern coast of Arabia between Punt in Africa and Qataban in Arabia, and arrive at Qani to trade directly with merchants from the Far East; Saba was no longer necessary. During the reign of Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285-246 BCE), Egyptian colonies were founded on the western coast of the Red Sea which could easily conduct trade with Qataban, Hadramawt, and Qani on the southern Arabian coast without ever bothering with the kingdoms inland. Saba began to decline along with the Incense Routes which had made it wealthy.
Hellenic Trade Routes, 300 BCE
The end of Saba was not economic decline, however, but military conquest. The Himyarites of the region around Raidan on the Arabian Peninsula began to gain in power, perhaps through trade, c. 200 CE and conquered their neighbors in Qataban.Once they had consolidated their rule, they then turned on Saba which fell c. 275 CE, and then Hadramawt was taken c. 300 CE. The Himyarite monarchs took the title “King of Saba and of Raidan”, rejected polytheism, and embraced Judaism. As Christian missionaries made more converts in the region, the Himyarite kings launched a policy of persecution and may have slaughtered thousands of Christians. In c. 525 CE the Christian kingdom of Aksum in Africa invaded and conquered the Himyarites, establishing Christianity.
In c. 575 CE the Ma'rib dam failed and Saba was flooded. The Quran attributes the flood to an act of God (Surah 34:15-17) as punishment for the Sabeans refusing to accept his gifts. If so, said punishment was severe and resulted in the abandonment of towns and cities as the people were forced to leave the area or starve. A more rational explanation for the dam's failure is simply its age and lack of maintenance, although secular legends claim it was due to rats weakening the dam's supports by chewing on them.
Saba as a kingdom was long gone by the time the dam failed but the flood ensured that any coherent history of the culture would be wiped away for future generations. The Arab Invasion of the 7th century CE, establishing Islam, further obscured Sabean history which only began to attract the interest of scholars and archaeologists in the 19th century CE. At its height, however, Saba was one of the greatest kingdoms in antiquity and ruled over a land that, to many, was considered blessed by the gods.
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Article based on information obtained from these sources:with permission from the Website Ancient History Encyclopedia
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