Shabwa

Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (R)

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Map of Yemen

Shabwa was an ancient city and the capital of the Kingdom of Hadhramaut at the South Arabian region of the Arabian Peninsula. The ruins of the city are located in the north of modern Shabwah Governorate of the Republic of Yemen. Pliny the Elder and Strabo refer to the city as Sabota, formerly a royal city with multiple local temples.

Variants

• Sabota (Pliny.vi.32)
• Shabwah
• Shabwat
• Ḥaḑramitic: 𐩦𐩨𐩥𐩩,
• romanized: ŠBWT, Šabwat;
• Arabic: شَبْوَة, romanized: Šabwa

Jat clans

• Sabarwal

History

Shabwa was first settled in 13th century BC, and was destroyed by the Himyarites at the end of the 3rd century AD.

Ruins

Within the walls of the city are the remains of:

• the royal palace named Shugair

• the temple of goddess Sian Dhu Aleen

Mention by Pliny

Pliny while describing Arabia mentions....We then come to a promontory, from which to the mainland of the Troglodytæ it is fifty miles, and then the Thoani, the Actæi, the Chatramotitæ, the Tonabei, the Antidalei, the Lexianæ, the Agræi, the Cerbani, and the Sabæi³⁷, the best known of all the tribes of Arabia on account of their frankincense; these nations extend from sea to sea.³⁸ The towns which belong to them on the Red Sea are Marane, Marma, Corolia, and Sabatha; and in the interior, Nascus, Cardava, Carnus, and Thomala, from which they bring down their spices for exportation. One portion of this nation is the Atramitæ³⁹, whose capital, Sabota, has sixty temples within its walls. But the royal city of all these nations is Mariaba⁴⁰; it lies upon a bay, ninety-four miles in extent, and filled with islands that produce perfumes.

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37 Their country is supposed to have been the Sheba of Scripture, the queen of which visited king Solomon. It was situate in the south-western corner of Arabia Felix, the north and centre of the province of Yemen, though the geographers before Ptolemy seem to give it a still wider extent, quite to the south of Yemen. The Sabæi most probably spread originally on both sides of the southern part of the Red Sea, the shores of Arabia and Africa. Their capital was Saba, in which, according to their usage, their king was confined a close prisoner.

38 The Persian Gulf to the Red Sea.

39 The modern district of Hadramaut derives its name from this people, who were situate on the coast of the Red Sea to the east of Aden. Sabota, their capital, was a great emporium for their drugs and spices.

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