View source for Ma'in

{{short description|Ancient Yemeni kingdom}}
{{for|the language|Minaean language}}
{{for|the village in Iran|Main, Iran}}
{{Expand language|topic=|langcode=ar|otherarticle=مملكة معين|date=December 2024}}
{{Infobox former country
| demonym                = Minaean(s)
| capital                = [[Qarnawu]]
| s1                     = 
| year_start             = 8th century BCE{{sfn|Arbach|Rossi|2012}}
| year_end               = 1st centuries CE{{sfn|Weimar|2021|p=1–2}}
| government_type        = [[Monarchy]]
| image_map              = Kingdom of Ma'in.png
| religion               = [[Religion in pre-Islamic Arabia|Pre-Islamic Arabian religions]]
| common_languages       = [[Minaean language]]
| native_name            = {{lang|ar|مملكة معين}}
| area_km2               = 
| conventional_long_name = Kingdom of Ma’in
| today                  = 
| HDI_year               = 
| HDI                    = 
| GDP_PPP_year           = 
| GDP_PPP                = 
| area_rank              = 
| p1                     = 
}}
{{History of Yemen}}

'''Ma'in''' ({{langx|inm|𐩣𐩲𐩬}}; {{langx|ar|معين|Maʿīn}}) was an ancient [[South Arabia]]n kingdom in modern-day [[Yemen]]. It was located along the strip of [[desert]] called [[Ramlat al-Sab'atayn|Ṣayhad]] by medieval [[Arab]] geographers, which is now known as Ramlat al-Sab'atayn. [[Wadd]] was the [[national god]] of Ma'in. The spoken language was [[Minaic]]. The kingdom appears in the historical record in the 8th century BCE, and transition from a city-state to kingdom in the last quarter of the 7th century BCE.{{Sfn|Arbach|Rossi|2012}} The date of the end of Ma'in is heavily disputed, but the most popular hypothesis places its demise in the 1st century CE.{{Sfn|Weimar|2021|p=1–2}}

The Minaean people were one of four ancient Yemeni groups mentioned by [[Eratosthenes]]. The others were the [[Sabaeans]], [[Hadhrami people|Ḥaḑramites]] and [[Qataban|Qatabānians]]. Each of these had regional kingdoms in ancient Yemen, with the Minaeans in the north-west (in [[Al Jawf Governorate|Wādī al-Jawf]]), the Sabaeans to the south-east of them, the Qatabānians to the south-east of the Sabaeans, and the Ḥaḑramites further east still.{{Sfn|Hoyland|2002|p=40}}

==History==
[[File:قرناو.jpg|thumb|Ruins of the western gate of [[Qarnawu]]]]
[[File:Barakisk flickr01.jpg|thumb|Ruins of Yathill ([[Baraqish]])]]
Ma'in appears in the 8th century BCE, not yet as a kingdom, settled in the town of [[Qarnawu]] (modern-day [[Al Jawf Governorate|Jawf]]). This was one of many city-states of the Jawf region, and it shared with the other Jawf states its language, writing school, art, architecture, social and political institutions, and religion. The city-state was ruled over by a king selected from its influential families. Ma'in enjoyed peaceful relations with the more well-established [[Kingdom of Saba]]. Thanks to this, and the Sabaean defeat of [[Nashshan]] kingdom in the 7th century BCE, Ma'in's power grew and the Minaeans were able to project their power into nearby territories, transforming them into a kingdom. Inscriptions from the [[Temple of Shaqab al-Manaṣṣa]] record the names of many of the kings from this period. As the seventh century BCE closed, and the sixth century BCE opened, the alliance with Saba broke down. Ma'in joined [[Yathill]] to form a confederation and established alliances with other South Arabian kingdoms. This laid the basis for Ma'in's ability to manage an international frankincense in the coming centuries.{{Sfn|Arbach|Rossi|2012|p=333}} 

A chronological historical reconstruction of what happened from the fifth centuries BCE onwards is still not possible, although plenty of information is known about it.{{Sfn|Arbach|Rossi|2012|p=334}} One apparent fact is that in this time, Ma'in becomes the most active of the South Arabian kingdoms in land trade. The kingdom of Ma'in in this time was mainly based on an alliance between two cities: Ma'in and Baraqish. Inscriptions from these cities end with invocations to the gods and the tribes of the two cities. Other tribes and cities also entered into the orbit of the Minaean kingdom, but only played a secondary role compared to these cities. The most prominent example is Nashshan, the most important city of the Jawf valley. It was absorbed under the dominion of the Kingdom of Ma'in between the 6th and 4th centuries BC. This event also coincided with the replacement of the traditional pantheon of Nashshan with the one from Ma'in, although Nashshan was to restore its old pantheon when Ma'in eventually fell.{{Sfn|Arbach|2023}}{{Sfn|Avanzini|2016|p=120, 155–156, 171}} Another religious development was the spread of the high god of [[Najran]], [[Dhu Samawi]], throughout the Minaean kingdom, from [[Baraqish]] in the north, to Sawam in the south, presumably due to the outsized role placed by the Najran oasis in trade.{{Sfn|Robin|2010|p=47}}

After the collapse of the Minaeans, the [[Nabataean Kingdom]] took over long-distance trade in the region, as part of their expansion southwards from their capital city [[Petra]].{{Sfn|Finster|2017|p=68}}

==International trade==
The Minaeans were the only one of the South Arabian kingdoms to describe their trade in their known inscriptions. Ruling over a small kingdom, they focused on commerce, neglecting the rounds of war and coin minting that their neighbours were engaged in. Ma'in was famous for its trade in [[aromatics]], with Greco-Roman observers naming aromatic products in reference to them, an example being "Minaean frankincense".{{Sfn|Hoyland|2002|p=41}} The caravans of Ma'in reached Central and Northern Arabia, Egypt, Palestine, Phoenicia, Mesopotamia and Greece. The importance of Minaean traders is mentioned in a legal document from the capital of the capital of [[Qataban]].{{Sfn|Arbach|Rossi|2012|p=326}} The Ma'in trade surpassed that of the [[Sheba|Saba]] by the mid-1st millennium BCE.{{Sfn|Prioletta|Arbach|2024|p=1}} Ma'in also took control over the commercial caravan route along the [[Red Sea]] (from the [[Hejaz|Hijaz]], to [[Dedan (Bible)|Dedan]], to the [[Mediterranean Sea]]), from Saba. At the same time, it had to begin contending with attacks by Sabaeans against its caravans, particularly on the route from Ma'in to [[Najran]], but Saba ultimately suffered from this development.{{Sfn|Avanzini|2016|p=161–162}} 

Minaean trade extended throughout Arabia and even extended to more distant, international polities, where colonies were set up to manage trade with Ma'in and the revenue that it brought in. The main evidence for this is a group of about seventy discovered monumental inscriptions beyond the borders of the Kingdom of Ma'in composed in the Minaic script, which was the written form of the [[Minaean language]]. A study of these inscriptions shows that the Minaeans established communities in these far-flung regions to manage their international trade apparatus. The Minaean communities set up abroad were able to retain their cultural and political identities in the process. The majority of these inscriptions are from northwest Arabia, at the oasis of [[al-Ula]] in the [[Lihyan|Lihyanite Kingdom]], numbering about fifty. Two inscriptions are also known from a trading station the Minaeans set up at [[Qaryat al-Faw]], located in Central Arabia. One read: "Hạ̄niʾ and Zaydʾīl of (the clan of) Ḫaḏab set up the altar of Waddum and the gods of Maʿīn in Delos. (Greek) (Belonging to) Oddos, the god of the Minaeans. For Oaddos." These inscriptions have also been discovered as far as [[Egypt]] and at the Greek island of [[Delos]]. The Delos inscriptions show that Minaean merchants had set up an altar for their national god, [[Wadd]], and composed the inscription in Minaic.{{Sfn|Rossi|2014}}{{Sfn|Sorenson|Geus|2023}}

== Political structure ==
As the Kingdom of Ma'in was not a military or political power, the king (assisted by his council) was invested with limited powers. The king did not mint coins, was not involved in the construction of walls or fortifications around the major cities, and did not have a palace. Instead, Ma'in remained a merchant republic that emerged out of an alliance of polities.{{Sfn|Robin|2010b|p=84}}

==See also==
*[[Ancient history of Yemen]]
*[[Ancient South Arabian art]]
*[[Yemen]]
*[[Sabaean Kingdom]]
*[[Qataban]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
*{{Cite journal |last=Arbach |first=Mounir |last2=Rossi |first2=Irene |date=2012 |title=From city-state to kingdom: History and chronology of Ma'īn between the VIII and the VI centuries BC |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43078067 |journal=Orientalia |volume=81 |issue=4 |pages=318–339}}
*{{Cite web |last=Arbach |first=Mounir |date=2023 |title=Nashshān [Kingdom and Tribe] |url=https://ancientarabia.huma-num.fr/dictionary/definition/nashshan-kingdom-and-tribe |website=Thematic Dictionary of Ancient Arabia}}
*{{Cite book |last=Avanzini |first=Alessandra |title=By land and by sea: a history of South Arabia before Islam recounted from inscriptions |date=2016 |publisher=L'Erma Di Bretschneider}}
*{{Cite book |last=Finster |first=Barbara |title=A Companion to Islamic Art and Architecture |date=2017 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |editor-last=Flood |editor-first=Finbarr Barry |pages=61–88 |chapter=The Material Culture of Pre‐ and Early Islamic Arabia |editor-last2=Necipoğlu |editor-first2=Gülru |chapter-url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781119069218.ch2}}
*{{Cite book |last=Hoyland |first=Robert |title=Arabia and the Arabs: From the Bronze Age to the Coming of Islam |date=2002 |publisher=Routledge}}
*{{Cite journal |last=Prioletta |first=Alessia |last2=Arbach |first2=Mounir |date=2024 |title=Minaeans at Ḥimā: The Epigraphic Corpus and Its Historical, Linguistic and Cultural Implications |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/aae.12261 |journal=Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy |pages=1–24}}
*{{Cite book |last=Robin |first=Christian Julien |title=Juifs Et Chretiens En Arabie Aux Ve Et Vie Siecles: Regards Croises Sur Les Sources |date=2010 |publisher=Peeters |editor-last=Beaucamp |editor-first=Joelle |pages=39–106 |chapter=Nagrān vers l'époque du massacre : notes sur l'histoire politique, économique et institutionnelle et sur l'introduction du christianisme (avec un réexamen du Martyre d'Azqīr) |editor-last2=Briquel-Chatonnet |editor-first2=Francoise |editor-last3=Robin |editor-first3=Christian Julien |chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/27059122}}
*{{Cite book |last=Robin |first=Christian Julien |title=Roads of Arabia. Archaeology and History of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia |date=2010b |publisher=Musée du Louvre |editor-last=Al-Ghabban |editor-first=Ali Ibrahim |pages=80–99 |chapter=Antiquity |editor-last2=Andre-Salvini |editor-first2=Beatrice |editor-last3=Demange |editor-first3=Francoise |chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/37659446|editor-last4=Juvin|editor-first4=Carine|editor-last5=Cotty|editor-first5=Marianne|author-link=Christian J. Robin}}
*{{Cite journal |last=Rossi |first=Irene |date=2014 |title=The Minaeans beyond Ma‘īn |url=https://www.academia.edu/8279492 |journal=Supplement to the Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies |volume=44 |pages=111–124}}
*{{Cite journal |last=Sorenson |first=Soren Lund |last2=Geus |first2=Klaus |date=2023 |title=Minaeans in the Mediterranean. Reevaluating two Old South Arabian inscriptions from Delos |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/aae.12229 |journal=Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy |volume=34 |issue=1 |pages=128–132}}
*{{Cite journal |last=Weimar |first=Jason |date=2021 |title=The Minaeans after Maʿīn? The latest presently dateable Minaic text and the God of Maʿīn |journal=Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy |volume=32 |issue=376–387 |pages=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/aae.12176}}

==External links==
{{commons}}
*[https://www.britannica.com/place/Main-ancient-kingdom-Yemen Ma'in] ([[Encyclopædia Britannica]])

[[Category:Tribes of Arabia]]
[[Category:Ancient history of Yemen]]
[[Category:Former kingdoms]]