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Saba: the ancient South Arabian kingdom

Region
Marib and Sanaa region / South Arabia / modern Yemen

An ancient South Arabian kingdom centered in present-day Yemen and prominent in the first millennium BCE; its attestation does not establish the Queen of Sheba's biography.

Copper-alloy votive plaque with a Sabaean dedicatory inscription, South Arabia, late first millennium BCE. A witness to Sabaean writing, not to the queen's identity. Met 1993.169; public domain
Copper-alloy votive plaque with a Sabaean dedicatory inscription, South Arabia, late first millennium BCE. A witness to Sabaean writing, not to the queen's identity. Met 1993.169; public domainThe Metropolitan Museum of Art; Pfeiffer Fund, 1993. · Public domainObject record

Text

Saba was a historical South Arabian kingdom and people associated with the regions of Marib and Sanaa in present-day Yemen. The Metropolitan Museum's chronology places it from approximately the beginning of the first millennium BCE into the first centuries CE. These are approximate bounds for the kingdom, not a precisely documented foundation date. Sabaean inscriptions preserve part of its written record. [1][2]

First Kings refers to the Queen of Sheba, while the QuranQuranCentral text of Islam, used here as evidence of its religious discourse.Glossary · Click to read the explanation names Saba in the hoopoe's report to Solomon and speaks elsewhere of the people of Saba. These texts matter for the history of religious memory. The kingdom's attestation and inscriptions do not, on their own, document the biography of the queen in those narratives. [3][4]

References and notes

  1. The specified source portion only; this does not imply reading the entire book. Regional chronology and key-events passages read. Return to the text ↑
  2. The specified source portion only; this does not imply reading the entire book. Object identification, date, provenance and rights fields read; inscription not transcribed by archive. Return to the text ↑
  3. The specified source portion only; this does not imply reading the entire book. 1 Kings 10:1–13 read. Return to the text ↑
  4. The specified source portion only; this does not imply reading the entire book. Quran 27:22 and identification of Saba read; Quran 34:15 displayed translations checked separately. Return to the text ↑

Research history

Substantive changes are retained here. Minor copy edits remain in the internal operational log.

  1. Edition 3 · 14 October 2026 · aladmin

    Substantive record update

    Read this revision in its original language (Arabic)

  2. Edition 2 · 14 October 2026 · editor:aladmin

    Substantive record update

    Read this revision in its original language (Arabic)

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Cite this record

IL Archive, «Saba: the ancient South Arabian kingdom», Edition 3, https://ilarchive.com/en/sites/saba-ancient-kingdom