Sheba

QUEEN OF SHEBA AND BIBLICAL SCHOLARSHIP 143
Jizan province along with Asir were annexed in a 1930s Saudi military
campaign by the future King Faisal. Driving out from Jizan, you will
encounter a wadi or gulley stretching up to Abu Arish, where a dam has
been built to provide irrigation for agriculture. Along the way there are
small volcanic cones, the area strewn with lava. At one point a massive lava
flow (its significance will be discussed later) has blocked the wadi and just
beyond that there is an abandoned tell (a hill composed of the accumulated
ruins of successive settlements) overlooking a small village. The tell is
quite high and at its summit there are lots of broken blue pottery pieces. No
one knows what lies further down. The tell is just one of many unexplored
ancient settlements dotted over the southern part of Saudi Arabia.
From Jizan the main road follows the coastal strip, and then climbs up
the spectacular jagged escarpment to Abha in highland Asir. Here again are
a substantial number of untouched archaeological remains. The early
history of the area has always been a mystery, yet it must have once
prospered from its control of the land trade routes from India to the
Mediterranean through Sabaea.
In 1977, a three volume Gazette of Place Names was published in
Saudi Arabia. 8 It not only listed place names but also the locations of Saudi
tribes and clans. Its publication prompted Christian Arab historian
Professor Kamal Salibi of the American University of Beirut to examine it
for clues to the southern region’s early history. To his astonishment he
found himself looking at hundreds of biblical place names in an area
approximately 600 by 200 kilometers, not in Palestine but in the southern
part of modern Saudi Arabia in the provinces of Asir, Jizan, and Hijaz. The
names of several Saudi tribal groups also matched ancient Hebrew ones.
Salibi took the unvocalized place names of Saudi Arabia and compared
them to the unvocalized Old Testament Hebrew names. Naturally there was
not a perfect match because of metathesis, the linguistic process described
earlier, which has probably been responsible for many changes. Salibi is a
scholar with a considerable international academic reputation to defend and
did not reach his conclusions lightly. He is also a very courageous man who,
during the most dangerous and lawless period in Beirut’s history, publicly
denounced the kidnapping of foreigners in Lebanon. Salibi systematically
re-examined the unvocalized Hebrew text and plotted events of the Old
Testament narrative against the map references he had obtained from Saudi
Arabia. His conclusions, though startling, make a lot more sense of biblical
history, particularly because the place names occur in exactly the same area