Roni Geer

Hadhramaut is a region in South Arabia, comprising eastern Yemen, parts of western Oman and southern Saudi Arabia. The name is of ancient origin, and is retained in the name of the Yemeni Governorate of Hadhramaut. The people of Hadhramaut are called Hadhrami. Pliny has mentioned it as Atramitae.

The origin of the name of Ḥaḍramawt is not exactly known, and there are numerous competing hypotheses about its meaning. The most common folk etymology is that the region's name means "death has come," from Arabic: حَضَر, romanized: ḥaḍara, lit. 'he came' and Arabic: مَوْت, romanized: mawt, lit. 'death', though there are multiple explanations for how it came to be known as such. One explanation is that this is a nickname of 'Amar ibn Qaḥṭān, a legendary invader of the region, whose battles always left many dead.

Another theory is that after the destruction of Thamūd, the Islamic prophet Ṣāliḥ moved with about 4000 of his followers to the region and there he died, thus lending the region its morbid name "death has come."

A third related etymology posits that حضر refers to the inhabitants of the area, themselves, and hints that the way of life of the ancient Hadhrami people was severe and ascetic in the eyes of the bordering kingdoms situated in today's North Yemen.

Ḥaḍramawt has also been identified with Biblical Hazarmaveth (Biblical Hebrew: חֲצַרְמָוֶת; Genesis 10:26 and 1 Chronicles 1:20). There, it is the name of a son of Joktan (who is identified with Qahtan in Islamic tradition), the purported ancestor of the South Arabian kingdoms. According to various Bible dictionaries, the name "Hazarmaveth" means "court of death," reflecting a meaning similar to the Arabic folk etymologies.

Scholarly theories of the name's origin are somewhat more varied, but none have gained general acceptance. Juris Zarins, rediscoverer of the city claimed to be the ancient Incense Route trade capital Ubar in Oman, suggested that the name may come from the Greek word ὕδρευματα hydreumata, i.e. enclosed (and often fortified) watering stations in wadis. In a Nova interview, he described Ubar as:

Though it accurately describes the configuration of settlements in the pre-7th century Wadi Ḥaḍramawt, this explanation for the name is anachronistic and has gained no wider scholarly acceptance. Already in the period before the advent of Islam in the 7th century CE, variations of the name are attested as early as the middle of the First Millennium BC. The names ḥḍrmt (𐩢𐩳𐩧𐩣𐩩) and ḥḍrmwt (𐩢𐩳𐩧𐩣𐩥𐩩) are found in texts of the Old South Arabian languages (Ḥaḍramitic, Minaic, Qatabanic, and Sabaean), though the second form is not found in any known Ḥaḍramitic inscriptions. In either form, the word itself can be a toponym, a tribal name, or the name of the kingdom of Ḥaḍramawt. In the late fourth or early third century BC, Theophrastus gives the name Άδρραμύτα, a direct transcription of the Semitic name into Greek.

As Southern Arabia is the homeland of the South Semitic language subfamily, a Semitic origin for the name is highly likely. Kamal Salibi proposed an alternative etymology for the name which argues that the diphthong "aw" in the name is an incorrect vocalization. He notes that "-ūt" is a frequent ending for place names in the Ḥaḍramawt, and given that "Ḥaḍramūt" is the colloquial pronunciation of the name, and apparently also its ancient pronunciation, the correct reading of the name should be "place of ḥḍrm." He proposes, then, that the name means "the green place," which is apt for its well-watered wadis whose lushness contrasts with the surrounding high desert plateau.

The Hadhrami are referred to as Chatramotitai in ancient Greek texts. Hadhramautic texts come later than Sabaean ones, and some Sabaean texts from Hadhramaut are known. Greek, Latin, Sabaean and Hadhramautic texts preserve the names of a large number of kings of Hadhramaut, but there is as yet no definitive chronology of their reigns. Their capital was Shabwa in the northwest corner of the kingdom, along the Incense Route. Eratosthenes called it a metropolis. It was an important cult centre as well. At first the religion was South Arabian polytheism, distinguished by the worship of the Babylonian moon god Sin. By the sixth century the monotheistic cult of Raḥmān was followed in the local temple.

The political history of Hadhramaut is not easy to piece together. Numerous wars involving Hadhramaut are referenced in Sabaean texts. From their own inscriptions, the Hadhrami are known to have fortified Libna (modern-day Qalat ) against Himyar and to have fortified Mwyt (Ḥiṣn al-Ghurāb) against the Aksumites in the period following the death of Dhū Nuwās (525/7).The kingdom ceased to exist by the end of the third century AD, having been annexed by the Himyarite Kingdom. Hadhramaut continued to be used in the full titulature of the kings of Sabaʾ and Dhu Raydān (Himyar).

Early Islamic authors believed the nomadic Kinda tribe that founded a kingdom in central Arabia were originally from Hadhramaut, although distinct from the settled Hadhrami population.

Miqdad ibn Aswad al-Bahrani, a companion of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, was reportedly from Hadhramaut. A number of prophets before them are believed to have dwelt here, including Houd of ʿAad. He is thought to be buried at Qabr Hud, which is also called Shiʿb Hud.

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.

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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