Invading Hadramaut, c.305 AD

[Duncan Head]

Battle: Invading Hadramaut, c. 305 AD

Kingdom of Saba and Himyar vs Kingdom of Hadramaut

Background
Ancient South Arabia, roughly modern Yemen, was occupied in the early centuries AD by several contending kingdoms, until the kingdom of Himyar eventually overcame all the others. The campaign dealt with here was one of many military clashes between the South Arabian kingdoms that are known through inscriptions on votive statuettes, dedicated in thanksgiving to a local deity – usually, as in this case, the Sabaean national god Almaqah.

Numbers reported
Saba, 820; Hadramaut 3,625

Sources 
Inscription "Jamme 665"; inscription XXX in Beeston (1976), punctuation etc slightly modified.

(Dedicated by) Sa'dta'lab' YTLF of Gadan, kabīr (commander?) of the Arabs of the king of Saba ...
(in the reign of) Yasir Yuhan'im and his son Dhara'amar 'Ayman, kings of Saba and Raydan (Raydan is a synonym for Himyar) and Hadramaut and Yamanat ...

... when they were ordered by their lords the kings to campaign as a vanguard force for their lords the kings into Hadramite territory.

Their lord Yasir had ordered them to campaign in the vanguard of the king's forces, with his trained band consisting of the Arabs of the King of Saba, and Kindah, and the militia of Nashq and Nashān. So they marched to al-'Abr, and the whole of their contingent assembled and mustered, totalling 750 troops mounted on camels and 70 horse. Then they went up from the mustering place and detached 30 camel-riders and four horse as vanguard. These vanguard troops came into contact with 70 men, mounted on camels, from Hadramaut, whom the king of Hadramaut had detached with a view to their taking prisoners from the Nashq-Nashān-Marib column. Battle was offered with these by the Sabaean vanguard and some of the main Sabaean contingent at 'RK, and the Sabaeans killed or captured them all; out of those Hadramites only one mounted officer and three men on foot escaped.

Subsequently, they re-mustered their contingent, and conducted a raid into Dubr and Rakhyah, inflicting casualties and taking prisoners and captives, as well as camels, oxen, cows and sheep, amply sufficient for the contingent.

Next they turned back and conducted operations in the depression of the HRS wells; but then, in the darkest part of the night, they were assaulted by the Hadramite forces, comprising 3,500 mounted men and 125 horse under the joint command of Rabi'ah bin Wa'il and Dhuhl al-Wa'ili, with Afsay bin Guman the mercenary captain of the camel-riders, and the qayls and kabīrs of Hadramaut. However, the Sabaeans defeated them, killing 850 of them in hand-to-hand fighting and taking prisoner Afsay the mercenary captain and Gusham the mercenary captain of the cavalry and 470 soldiers serving as mercenaries under the qayls and chieftains of Hadramaut. They also seized 45 of their horses but slaughtered 30 others, and seized 1,200 riding camels and their equipment.

Subsequently they were alerted that their main force had been exposed to an offensive from the contingent of BS: so the dedicant went to their relief, supported by 35 cavalrymen from their own contingent, and defeated the enemy, seizing all their water-transport animals and riding-camels; there only escaped, along with BS, any particularly swift horse or camel.

Thus their whole contingent returned safely and with glory, having inflicted casualties and taken prisoners and prizes of horses, riding-camels and cattle. So they praise the might and power of the deity: and may He continue to grant them safe return, them and their contingent. Out of their contingent only one officer was lost from among those who set forth.

Commentary
Language and identity
The Sabaeans, Hadramites, and the people of the other South Arabian kingdoms were not Arabs. They did not speak Arabic - this inscription is in Sabaean, one of the Old South Arabian languages, which are classed as South Semitic (while Arabic is in the Central Semitic group). And they did not identify as "Arab" – they restricted that term to the peoples of Central Arabia, such as the tribal auxiliary troops mentioned in the inscription.

The Sabaean script, like Arabic and other Semitic scripts, includes consonants only, so the vocalisation of some words, especially place-names, is uncertain. Hence the names in block capitals, or BLCK CPTLS, in the account. The kings whom I have given as Yasir Yuhan'im and Dhara'amar 'Ayman, after Kitchen's spelling, are YSR YHN'M and DR' 'MR 'YMN in Beeston, and the officer who dedicated the inscription is S'DT'LB YTLF.

Dating
South Arabian chronology has been much debated; inscriptions such as this are dated only by the reign of the king(s) involved, often not even to a specific year of the reign. Beeston dates all the texts included in his study, obviously including this one, to the second-third centuries. Kitchen dates the joint reign of these kings to c.300-310.

Armies
The Sabaean troops involved are the levies of the two towns of Nashq and Nashān, and some Arab auxiliaries in royal service; the mercenaries on the Hadramite side may perhaps be of similar Arab origins. Troops on both sides are described as "mounted", but only a few are horsemen; the bulk of the Sabaeans are specifically said to be mounted on camels, and while the 3,500 Hadramites are plain "mounted", that must mean the same thing. The only weapons mentioned in the inscriptions (none are mentioned here at all) are lances and daggers. Ancient Yemeni art certainly also shows swords and battle-axes; Beeston thinks bows were used only as hunting-weapons.

Significance
At this point Saba seems to have been ruled by the kings of Himyar but not completely to have lost its identity, and the combined realm was the most powerful of the remaining South Arabian kingdoms. Retsō p.552 suggests that this action was part of a campaign by the kings of Saba to reconquer Hadramaut, which had previously been under Sabaean control – hence the titles claimed for the kings in this inscription – but had broken away.


References 

Beeston Warfare in Ancient South Arabia (Qahtan: Studies in old South Arabian Epigraphy, Fasc. 3, 1976)

Kitchen, K A, Documentation for Ancient Arabia, Part I: Chronological Framework and Historical Sources (1994)

Retsō, Jan, The Arabs in Antiquity: Their History from the Assyrians to the Umayyads (2003) – I have only consulted one passage of this, online.

[nikgaukroger]

The number of camels compared to horses is somewhat surprising.

One thing did catch my eye that in the initial skirmish "out of those Hadramites only one mounted officer and three men on foot escaped." - the Hadramite force for this is "70 men, mounted on camels, from Hadramaut" so I wonder if it is an indication of some of the camel riders dismounting to fight?

[Duncan Head]

I suspect, as does Beeston, that the camel-riders usually dismounted to fight, though the lack of tactical detail in the inscriptions makes it difficult to be sure. He thinks also that some references to "men on foot" may be poorer men without camels who would ride double on another man's camel on the march.

[Tim]

Duncan, thank you for that - very interesting.