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ancient Arab Kingdom (3rd century BC - 106 AD)
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The Nabataean Kingdom (Nabataean Aramaic: 𐢕𐢃𐢋𐢈, romanized: Nabāṭū), also named Nabatea was a political state of the Nabataean Arabs during classical antiquity. The Nabataean Kingdom stretched south along the Tihamah into the Hejaz, up as far north as Damascus, which it controlled for a short period (85–71 BC). Nabatea controlled many of the trade routes in the region and remained an independent political entity from the mid-3rd century BC until it was annexed in AD 106 by the Roman Empire, which renamed it to Arabia Petraea. The Arab Nabataean kingdom centered around the three cities of Hijr (Mada'in Salih), Petra, and Bosra (Bostra).
The Nabataeans were among several Arab tribes that originally led a nomadic existence in the Arabian Desert, migrating with their herds along established routes in search of pasture and water. Their survival depended on intimate knowledge of seasonal resources, especially in years of drought or insufficient rainfall.
The origin of the specific tribe of Arab nomads remains uncertain. One hypothesis locates their original homeland in today's Yemen, in the southwest of the Arabian Peninsula, but their deities, language and script share nothing with those of southern Arabia. Another hypothesis argues that they came from the eastern coast of the peninsula. It has also been suggested that they came from the Hejaz area, which is considered to be more convincing, as they share many deities with the ancient people there; nbṭw, the root consonant of the tribe's name, is found in the early Semitic languages of Hejaz. Linguistic similarities between the late Nabataean Arabic dialect and those attested in Mesopotamia during the Neo-Assyrian period, along with Assyrian records listing a group called "Nabatu" among rebellious Arab tribes in the region, indicate another possible connection. This evidence suggests that the Nabataeans may have originated in Mesopotamia and migrated westward between the 6th and 4th centuries BC, eventually settling in northwestern Arabia and much of present-day Jordan.
Nabataeans have been falsely associated with other groups of people. A people called the "Nabaiti", who were defeated by the Assyrian King Ashurbanipal, were associated by some with the Nabataeans because of the temptation to link their similar names. Another misconception is their identification with the Nebaioth of the Hebrew Bible, the descendants of Ishmael, Abraham's son.
The literate Nabataeans left no lengthy historical texts. However, thousands of inscriptions have been found in their settlements, including graffiti and on minted coins. The Nabataeans appear in historical records from the 4th century BC. Up to that time, the Qedarites dominated the area and likely controlled the lucrative frankincense trade. Aramaic ostraca finds indicate that the Achaemenid province Idumaea must have been established before 363 BC, after the failed revolt of Hakor of Egypt and Evagoras I of Salamis against the Persians. The establishment of the province meant a significant loss of territory for the Qedarites who had joined the failed revolt and consequently also lost their privileged position in the frankincense trade, where they were presumably replaced by the Nabataeans. It has been argued that either the Nabateans lived mainly outside Idumea and functioned as middlemen to the Persian incense trade, or that the Persians lost interest in Idumea after 400 BC, allowing the Nabataeans to gain prominence in that area. These changes would have allowed the Nabataeans to control the frankincense trade from Lihyan to Gaza.
The first historical reference to the Nabataeans of significant length is by Greek historian Diodorus Siculus who lived around 30 BC. Diodorus refers accounts made 300 years earlier by Hieronymus of Cardia, one of Alexander the Great's generals, who had a first-hand encounter with the Nabataeans. Diodorus relates how the Nabataeans survived in a waterless desert and managed to defeat their enemies by hiding in the desert until the latter surrendered for lack of water. The Nabataeans dug cisterns that were covered and marked by signs known only to themselves. Diodorus wrote about how they were "exceptionally fond of freedom" and includes an account about unsuccessful raids that were initiated by Greek general Antigonus I in 312 BC.
neither the Assyrians of old, nor the kings of the Medes and Persians, nor yet those of the Macedonians have been able to enslave them, and... they never brought their attempts to a successful conclusion. - Diodorus.
After Alexander the Great's death in 323 BC, his empire split among his generals. During the conflict between Alexander's generals, Antigonus conquered the Levant, and this brought him to the borders of Edom, just north of Petra. According to Diodorus, Antigonus sought to add "the land of the Arabs who are called Nabataeans" to his existing territories of Syria and Phoenicia. The Nabataeans were distinguished from the other Arab tribes by wealth. The Nabataeans generated revenues from the trade caravans that transported frankincense, myrrh and other spices from Eudaemon in today's Yemen, across the Arabian Peninsula, passing through Petra and ending up in the Port of Gaza for shipment to European markets.
Antigonus ordered one of his officers, Athenaeus, to raid the Nabataeans with 4,000 infantry and 600 cavalry, and loot their herds. Athenaeus learned that every year the Nabataeans gathered for a festival during which women, children, and elders were left at "a certain rock" (later interpreted by some as the future city of Petra, by others as Es-Sela) Athenaeus attacked "the rock" in 312 BC while the Nabataeans were away trading; the inhabitants were taken by surprise, and tonnes of spices and silver were looted. Athenaeus departed before nightfall and made camp to rest 200 stadia away, where they thought they would be safe from Nabataean counter-attack. The camp was attacked by 8,000 pursuing Nabataean soldiers and—as Diodorus describes it—"all the 4,000 foot-soldiers were slain, but of the 600 horsemen about 50 escaped, and of these the larger part were wounded"; Athenaeus was killed. The army had deployed no scouts, a failure that Diodorus ascribes to Athenaeus's failure to anticipate the rapidity of the Nabataean response. After the Nabataeans returned to their rock, they wrote a letter to Antigonus accusing Athenaeus and declaring that they had destroyed his army in self-defence. Antigonus replied by blaming Athenaeus for acting unilaterally, intending to lull the Nabataeans into a false sense of security. But the Nabataeans, though pleased with Antigonus' response, remained suspicious and established outposts on the edge of the mountains in preparation for future attacks.
Antigonus' second attack was with an army of 4,000 infantry and 4,000 cavalry led by Antigonus' son Demetrius "the Besieger". The Nabataean scouts spotted the marching enemy and used smoke signals to warn of the approaching army. The Nabataeans dispersed their herds and possessions to guarded locations in harsh terrain—such as deserts and mountain tops—which would be difficult for the Demetrius to attack, and garrisoned "the rock" to defend what remained. Demetrius attacked "the rock" through its "single artificial approach", but the Nabataeans managed to repulse the invading force. A Nabataean called out to Demetrius pointing out that his aggression made no sense, for the land was semi-barren and the Nabataeans had no desire to be their slaves. Realizing his limited supplies and the determination of the Nabataean fighters, Demetrius accepted peace and withdrew with hostages and gifts. Demetrius drew Antigonus' displeasure for the peace, but this was ameliorated by Demetrius' reports of bitumen deposits in the Dead Sea, a valuable commodity.
Antigonus sent an expedition, this time under Hieronymus of Cardia, to extract bitumen from the Dead Sea. A force of 6,000 Arabs sailing on reed rafts approached Hieronymus's troops and killed them with arrows. These Arabs were almost certainly Nabataeans. Antigonus thus lost all hope of generating revenue in that manner. The event is described as the first conflict caused by a Middle Eastern petroleum product. The series of wars among the Greek generals ended in a dispute over the lands of modern-day Jordan between the Ptolemies based in Egypt and the Seleucids based in Syria. The conflict enabled the Nabataeans to extend their kingdom beyond Edom.
Diodorus mentions that the Nabataeans had attacked merchant ships belonging to the Ptolemies in Egypt at an unspecified date, but were soon targeted by a larger force and "punished as they deserved". While it is unknown why the wealthy Nabataeans turned to piracy, one possible reason is that they felt that their trade interests were threatened by the gradual understanding of the nature of monsoon in the Red Sea from the 3rd century BC onward (see Periplus of the Erythraean Sea).
The Nabataean Arabs did not emerge as a political power suddenly; their rise instead went through two phases. The first phase was in the 4th century BC (ruled then by an elders' council), which was marked by the growth of Nabataean control over trade routes and various tribes and towns. Their presence in Transjordan by the end of the 4th century BC is guaranteed by Antigonus' operations in the region, and despite recent suggestions that there is no evidence of Nabataean occupation of the Hauran in the early period, the Zenon papyri firmly attest the penetration of the Hauran by the Nabataeans in the mid-3rd century BC, and according to Bowersock it "establish[es] these Arabs in one of the principal areas of subsequent splendor". Simultaneously, the Nabataeans had probably moved across the 'Araba to the west into the desert tracts of the Negev. In their early history, before establishing urban centers the Nabataeans demonstrated on several occasions their impressive and well organized military prowess by successfully defending their territory against larger powers.
The second phase saw the creation of the Nabataean political state in the mid-3rd century BC. Kingship is regarded as a characteristic of a state and urban society. The Nabataean institution of kingship came about as a result of multiple factors, such as the indispensabilities of trade organization and war; the subsequent outcomes of the Greek expeditions on the Nabataeans played a role in the political centralization of the Nabatu tribe. The earliest evidence of Nabataean kingship comes from a Nabataean inscription in the Hauran region, probably Bosra, which mentions a Nabataean king whose name was lost, dated by Stracky to the early 3rd century BC. The dating is significant, since the available evidence does not attest the existence of Nabataean monarchy until the 2nd century BC. This nameless Nabataean king perhaps could be linked with a reference from the Zenon archive (the second historical mention of the Nabataeans) to deliveries of grain to "Rabbel's men", Rabbel being a characteristically royal Nabataean name, it is thus possible to link Rabbel of the Zenon archive with the nameless king of Bosra's inscription, though it is highly speculative.
A recent papyrological discovery, the Milan Papyrus published in 2001, provides further evidence. The relevant part of the Lithika section of the papyrus describes an Arabian cavalry of a certain Nabataean king, providing an early 3rd century BC reference to a Nabataean monarch. The word Nabataean stands alone beside a missing word that start with the letter M; one of the suggested words for filling the gap is the traditional name of Nabataean kings, Malichus. Furthermore, the anonymous Nabataean coins dated by Barkay to the second half of the 3rd century BC, found mainly in Nabataean territory, support such an early date of the Nabataean Kingdom. This is in line with Strabo's account (whose description of Arabia derives ultimately from reports by 3rd century BC Ptolemaic officials) that the Nabataean kingship was old and traditional. Rachel Barkay concludes "the Nabataean economy and political regime were in existence by the 3rd century BC". The kingship of the Nabataeans was, in the view of Strabo, an effective one, where the Nabataean kingdom was "very well governed" and the king was "a man of the people". For more than four centuries the Nabataean kingdom dominated, politically and commercially, a large territory and was arguably the first Arab kingdom in the area.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Nabataean Kingdom”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.