Sheba

62
THE QUEEN OF SHEBA
followers refer to the One True God as Rahman, but eventually abandoned
the attempt as they were too used to Allah. Charles Cutler Torrey,
describing inscriptions from a southern Arabian monument associated with
Rahman, noted:
Here we find clearly indicated the doctrines of the divine forgiveness of
sins, the acceptance of sacrifice, the contrast between this world and the
next, and the evil of “associating” other deities with the Rahman. 3
The political confederation in the early Yemenite confederation
consisted of a core of Sabaeans ruling non-Sabaean `s 2C b who were referred
to as w-gwm, meaning other non-Sabaean communities. The
Sabaeans/Shebans were known as s 2C b Saba’ and referred to on inscriptions
as SB or ‘SB’N.
By 500 B.C.E. this Sabaean confederation had contracted, and the
leaders of the core Sabaean element no longer styled themselves mkrb.
After that date communities associated with the concept of Sabaea were
often not Sabaeans themselves but drawn from non-Sabaean `s 2C b. The
Sabaeans established a center in Marib, but political control over the rest of
Yemen and respect for the Sabaean deity Almaqah, a moon god whose
prestige must have eclipsed the queen’s sun god Shams, fluctuated to such
an extent that it would be a misnomer to term this arrangement a state;
rather an area sharing a common culture and association with a long
established political institution of local origin whose earlier power had
considerably waned. It is reasonable to conclude that the long-standing
respect accorded to the Sabaean ruling dynasty stemmed from the early
Ancient period when it was at its most powerful and prosperous. This
matches the biblical account of the Queen of Sheba’s visit to Jerusalem,
when it was clear that her realm controlled considerable wealth.
The Sabaeans developed an extensive irrigation system that later
included the massive earthen dam at Marib and supported what in Arabia
was a relatively prosperous agricultural economy. Much of their society
was based on cooperation in controlling and allocating water supplies, a
system that became more complex as the Arabian interior began to dry up
around 2000 B.C.E. Trade routes realigned themselves to the more fertile
highland escarpments that also sustained cash crops exported to Egypt and
to the Mediterranean region. Domestication of the camel in about 1300
B.C.E. enabled the Sabaeans to engage in long-distance overland trade,