Sabaeans
<p>The origin of the Sabaean Kingdom is uncertain. Kenneth Kitchen dates the kingdom to around 1200 BCE<sup id="cite_ref-11" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabaeans#cite_note-11">[11]</a></sup> while Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman write that "the Sabaean kingdom began to flourish only from the eighth century BCE onward"<sup id="cite_ref-12" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabaeans#cite_note-12">[12]</a></sup> and Jan Ratso writes that there is "hardly any evidence" for such a kingdom until the ninth or eight century.<sup id="cite_ref-13" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabaeans#cite_note-13">[13]</a></sup> Afterwards, Saba' was conquered by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himyarite_Kingdom" title="Himyarite Kingdom">Himyarites</a> in the 1st century BCE; but after the disintegration of the first <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himyarite_Kingdom" title="Himyarite Kingdom">Himyarite Kingdom</a> of the Kings of Saba' and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zafar,_Yemen" title="Zafar, Yemen">Dhū Raydān</a>, the Middle Sabaean Kingdom reappeared in the early 2nd century.<sup id="cite_ref-14" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabaeans#cite_note-14">[14]</a></sup> The Sabaean kingdom was finally conquered by the Ḥimyarites in the late 3rd century and at that time the capital was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ma%27rib" title="Ma'rib">Ma'rib</a>. It was located along the strip of desert called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayhad" title="Sayhad">Sayhad</a> by medieval <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab" class="mw-redirect" title="Arab">Arab</a> geographers, which is now named <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramlat_al-Sab%60atayn" class="mw-redirect" title="Ramlat al-Sabatayn">Ramlat al-Sabatayn</a>.
The Sabaean people were <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabian_peninsula" class="mw-redirect" title="Arabian peninsula">South Arabian</a> people. Each of these had regional kingdoms in ancient Yemen, with the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minaeans" title="Minaeans">Minaeans</a> in the north in Wādī al-Jawf, the Sabeans on the south western tip, stretching from the highlands to the sea, the Qatabānians to the east of them and the Ḥaḑramites east of them.
The Sabaeans, like the other <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yemen" title="Yemen">Yemenite</a> kingdoms of the same period, were involved in the extremely lucrative <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spice_trade" title="Spice trade">spice trade</a>, especially <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankincense" title="Frankincense">frankincense</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myrrh" title="Myrrh">myrrh</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-15" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabaeans#cite_note-15">[15]</a></sup>
They left behind many inscriptions in the monumental <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Arabian_alphabet" class="mw-redirect" title="South Arabian alphabet">Musnad</a> (Old South Arabian) alphabet, as well as numerous documents in the cursive <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Arabian_alphabet#Zabur_script" class="mw-redirect" title="South Arabian alphabet">Zabūr</a> script. The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Job" title="Book of Job">Book of Job</a> mentions the Sabaens for slaying his livestock and servants.<sup id="cite_ref-16" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabaeans#cite_note-16">[16]</a></sup></p>