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24-541: South Arabia is inhabited by people possessing distinctive linguistic and ethnic affinities, as well as traditions and culture, transcending recent political boundaries. There are two indigenous language groups: the now extinct Old South Arabian languages and the unrelated Modern South Arabian languages , both members of the Semitic family . The term Yamnat was mentioned in Old South Arabian inscriptions on

48-400: A Central Semitic group; leaving Modern South Arabian and Ethiopic in a separate group. This new classification is based on Arabic, Old South Arabian and Northwest Semitic ( Ugaritic , Aramaic and Canaanite ) sharing an innovation in the verbal system, an imperfect taking the form * yVqtVl-u (the other groups have *yVqattVl ); Nebes showed that Sabaean at least had the form yVqtVl in

72-584: A Semitic philologist for his South Arabian studies, particularly A Descriptive Grammar of Epigraphic South Arabian (1962) and A Sabaic Grammar (1980). He has also made important contributions to the study of the Ancient South Arabian history. Other major works include his contribution to the catalogue of the Persian, Turkish, Hindustani and Pushtu manuscripts in the Bodleian, his studies of

96-708: A closer relationship between Minaic and Hadramitic with the Ethiopian Semitic and Modern South Arabian branches. The four main Sayhadic languages were: Sabaean , Minaeic (or Madhabic), Qatabanic , and Hadramitic . Sayhadic had its own writing system, the Ancient South Arabian Monumental Script , or Ms nd , consisting of 29 graphemes concurrently used for proto-Geʿez in the Kingdom of Dʿmt , ultimately sharing

120-485: A common origin with the other Semitic abjads , the Proto-Sinaitic alphabet . Inscriptions in another minuscule cursive script written on wooden sticks have also been discovered. The last inscription of these languages has been dated to 554 CE, 60 years before the appearance of Islam. Old South Arabian comprised a number of languages; the following are those that have been preserved in writing (the dates follow

144-404: A very formal and precise wording and expression, whereas the style of the wooden inscriptions written in the cursive script is much more informal. Although the inscriptions from ancient South Arabia were already known by the 18th century, it was Wilhelm Gesenius (1786–1842) and his student Emil Rödiger who finally undertook the deciphering of the script, actually independently of each other, in

168-657: Is a group of four closely related extinct languages ( Sabaean/Sabaic , Qatabanic , Hadramitic , Minaic ) spoken in the far southern portion of the Arabian Peninsula . The earliest preserved records belonging to the group are dated to the beginning of the 1st millennium BCE. They were written in the Ancient South Arabian script . There were a number of other Old South Arabian languages (e.g. Awsānian), of which very little evidence has survived, however. A pair of possible surviving Sayhadic languages

192-402: Is also a feature of Yemeni Arabic attributable to a Sayhadic substrate). There are however significant differences between the languages, so much so that Stein proposes a relationship between Sabaic and Aramaic, with a primary split setting it apart from the other Sayhadic languages on the basis of the h/s isogloss in the formation of the personal pronouns and the causative stem further positing

216-508: Is attested in the Razihi language and Faifi language spoken in far north-west of Yemen , though these varieties of speech have both Arabic and Sayhadic features, and it is difficult to classify them as either Arabic dialects with a Sayhadic substratum , or Sayhadic languages that have been restructured under pressure of Arabic. It was originally thought that all four members of this group were dialects of one Old South Arabian language, but in

240-623: Is related to yamn or yumn , meaning "felicity" or "blessed", as much of the country is fertile. The Romans called it Arabia Felix (fertile Arabia ), as opposed to Arabia Deserta (deserted Arabia). Classical Latin and Greek writers used the name "India" to refer to South Arabia (ancient Yemen). The use of the term "India" arose from the fact that the Persians called the Abyssinians whom they came into contact in South Arabia by

264-666: The British Museum , which he attempted to decipher by means of an appendix in James Theodore Bent 's Sacred City of the Ethiopians , asking for a Koran and Arabic dictionary as school prizes. In 1929 he entered Christ Church, Oxford , already determined to become a librarian in oriental studies; in 1933 he got a first in Arabic and Persian. In 1935, during the course of his D.Phil. under D. S. Margoliouth , on

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288-456: The Sassanid dynasty, c.575, who also arrived by sea. A half-century later, in the year 6 A.H. (628), the region converted to Islam . Ancient kingdoms and appellations: Pre-Islamic foreign occupiers: Yemen: Beyond Yemen: Old South Arabian languages Old South Arabian (also known as Ancient South Arabian (ASA) , Epigraphic South Arabian , Ṣayhadic , or Yemenite )

312-565: The 1970s with the discovery of wooden cylinders on which Sabaean has been written with a pen. The unknown script and numerous incomprehensible words present Sabaean studies with new problems, and to this day the wooden cylinders are not completely understood. In the German-speaking world, Old South Arabian is taught in the framework of Semitic Studies, and no independent university chair has been dedicated to Old South Arabian (or Sabaean) Studies. Learning Old South Arabian at least furthers

336-455: The Arabic language, namely The Arabic Language Today (1970) and Written Arabic: An Approach to Basic Structures (1968), and editions and translations of classical texts including al-Baidawi's Commentary on Sura 12 of the Qur'an (1963) and The Singing Girls of al-Jahiz (1980). Despite this primary focus, however, his knowledge of languages ranged from Welsh and Hungarian to Chinese. In 1965 he

360-489: The famous dam at Marib , the cosmopolitan incense trade , as well as the legendary Queen of Sheba . Two thousand years ago the Himyarites became the masters of South Arabia, dominating the region for several centuries. The Ethiopian Kingdom of Aksum invaded South Arabia first in the 3rd–4th centuries, then later in the 6th under King Kaleb who subjugated the region, c. 520. They were displaced by Persian forces of

384-469: The imperfect. Even though it has been now accepted that the four main languages be considered independent, they are clearly closely related linguistically and derive from a common ancestor because they share certain morphological innovations. One of the most important isoglosses retained in all four languages is the suffixed definite article -(h)n , another proposed common innovation being the formation of 1st and 2nd person perfect verbal forms with -k (which

408-455: The mid-twentieth century, linguist A.F.L. Beeston finally proved that they did in fact constitute independent languages. The Old South Arabian languages were originally classified (partly on the basis of geography) as South Semitic, along with Modern South Arabian and Ethiopian Semitic ; more recently however, a new classification has come in use which places Old South Arabian, along with Arabic, Ugaritic, Aramaic and Canaanite / Hebrew in

432-655: The name of the Cushitic people who lived next to them, i.e. , Indians . Southern Arabia was part of Indian Ocean trade routes for millennia. With the advent of the Omani Empire, ties were strengthened between India and the Eastern Coast of Africa and Madagascar. Three thousand years ago, several ancient states occupied the region of South Arabia, being M'ain , Qataban , Hadhramaut , and Saba . In these ancient times South Arabia claimed several notable features:

456-640: The so-called long chronology). Besides these, at least Razihi may be a surviving Old South Arabian language. Old South Arabian was written in the Old South Arabian script, a consonantal abjad deriving from the Phoenician alphabet. Compared with other parts of the ancient world, Palestine for instance, the number of surviving inscriptions is very high. Something in the region of 10,000 inscriptions exist. The Sabaean lexicon contains about 2,500 words. The inscriptions on stone display

480-459: The student’s knowledge of the characteristics of Semitic by introducing him or her to a less well-preserved example of the group. Students normally begin to learn the grammar of Old South Arabian and then they finally read a few of the longer texts. Short introductions and overviews Grammars Dictionaries Collections of texts Alfred Felix Landon Beeston Alfred Felix Landon Beeston , FBA (23 February 1911 – 29 September 1995)

504-659: The subject of several Sabaic inscriptions, he accepted a post at the Bodleian Library . He completed the thesis in 1937. He served in the Intelligence Corps between November 1940 and April 1946, stationed in Palestine . After his return to the Bodleian, he became Sub-Librarian and Keeper of Oriental Books and Manuscripts. In 1957 he was elected Laudian Professor of Arabic at Oxford, which chair he held until retirement in 1979. Beeston achieved renown as

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528-457: The title of one of the kings of the second Himyarite Kingdom known as Shammar Yahrʽish II. The term was probably referring to the southwestern coastline of the Arabian peninsula and the southern coastline between Aden and Hadramout. One etymology derives Yemen from ymnt , meaning "South", and significantly plays on the notion of the land to the right ( 𐩺𐩣𐩬 ). Other sources claim that Yemen

552-591: The years 1841/42. Then in the second half of the 19th century Joseph Halévy and Eduard Glaser brought hundreds of Old South Arabian inscriptions, possible tracings and copies back to Europe. On the basis of this large amount of material Fritz Hommel prepared a selection of texts in 1893 along with an attempt at a grammar. Later on the Sabaean expert Nikolaus Rhodokanakis made especially important steps towards understanding Old South Arabian. A completely new field of Old South Arabian script and texts has opened up since

576-436: Was an English Orientalist best known for his studies of Arabic language and literature, and of ancient Yemeni inscriptions, as well as the history of pre-Islamic Arabia. His works were generally published under the name A. F. L. Beeston . Beeston was born at Barnes in southwest London , and educated at Westminster School where he was a King's Scholar. At age 14 he grew fascinated with South Arabian inscriptions at

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