Lihyan
Lihyan, also called Dadān or Dedan, was an ancient Arab kingdom that played a vital cultural and economic role in the north-western region of the Arabian Peninsula and used Dadanitic language. The kingdom flourished for at least a century and a half, at some point between the 5th and 1st centuries BC. The Lihyanites ruled over a large domain from Yathrib in the south and parts of the Levant in the north.
In antiquity, the Gulf of Aqaba used to be called Gulf of Lihyan, a testimony to the extensive influence that Lihyan acquired. The term "Dedanite" usually describes the earlier phase of the history of this kingdom since their capital name was Dedan, which is now called Al-'Ula oasis located in northwestern Arabia, some 110 km southwest of Teima, both cities located in modern-day Saudi Arabia, while the term "Lihyanite" describes the later phase. Dadan in its early phase was "one of the most important caravan centers in northern Arabia". It is also mentioned in the Hebrew Bible.
The Lihyanites later became the enemies of the Nabataeans. The Romans invaded the Nabataeans and acquired their kingdom in 106 AD. This encouraged the Lihyanites to establish an independent kingdom to manage their country. This was headed by the King Han'as, one of the former royal family, which governed Al-Hijr before the Nabataean expansion.
Terminology
The term Dedan appears in ancient texts exclusively as a toponym, while the term Lihyan appears as both a toponym and an ethnonym. Dedan appears initially to have referred to the mountain of Jabal al-Khuraybah. In Minaean language inscriptions, the two terms appear together, the former indicating a place and the latter a people. Nonetheless, in modern historiography, the terms are often employed with a chronological meaning, Dedan referring to the earlier period and Lihyan the later of the same civilization.The adjectives "Dedanite" and "Lihyanite" were often used in the past for the Dadanitic language and script, but they are now most often used in an ethnic sense in analogy with the distinction between "Arab" and "Arabic".
Dadān represents the best approximation of the original pronunciation, while the more traditional spelling Dedan reflects the form found in the Hebrew Bible.
History
Timeline
Scholars have long grappled to establish a reliable timeline for the kingdoms of Lihyan and Dadan; numerous attempts were made to construct a secure chronology, but none of them so far came to fruition. This important chapter in the region's history remains fundamentally obscured. The main source of information regarding the date of the Lihyanite kingdom emanates from the collection of inscriptions within the precinct of Dadān and its contiguous environs. Thus, when attempting to piece together the history of the kingdom, previous historians have heavily relied on epigraphic records and sometimes scant archaeological remains due to the lack of comprehensive excavations. The absence of specific references to well-dated external events in these local inscriptions has made it challenging to establish a definitive and uncontested chronology. In the pursuit of a resolution, two notable chronologies were formulated: a short one proposed by W. Caskel, now discarded in contemporary scholarship, and a longer chronology put forward by F. Winnett, which is widely adopted despite the acknowledged chronological dearth.File:Qaynu-king-of-Qedar-votive-bowl.jpg|thumb|right|300px| A silver phiale, late 5th century BC, dedicated to the Arabian goddess al-ʾIlāt by Qainū son of Gešem, king of Qedar. His father, Gešem, is equated with both Biblical Geshem the Arab and Dadanitic Gashm bin Shahr
In his long chronology, F. Winnett agrees with Caskel that the Lihyanites succeeded an earlier, lesser-known local dynasty whose members were referred to as ‘king of Dadān’, which he places its beginning in the 6th century BC.
The Lihyanites, on the other hand, appeared in the 4th century BC and disappeared in the 2nd century BC. To date the beginning of the Lihyanite kingdom, a key inscription discovered north of Dadān is widely considered, which reads: nrn bn ḥḍrw tṭ b-ʾym gšm bn šhr wʿbd fḥt ddn brʾ.... Notably, the inscription likely concluded with the name of a king, under whom Gashm b. Shahr and ʿAbd held their positions. Significantly, Winnett observed that the text references a governor of Dadān, without any mention of Lihyan, indicating that the Lihyanite kingdom did not exist at that time, given that Dadān is widely considered the capital of their realm. Moreover, based on the appearance of the word fḥt, which is understood as a title known only from the time of the Achaemenid empire, the inscription was dated by Winnett to the Achaemenid period and interpreted to be an allusion for a Qedarite rule over Dadān and elsewhere in northern Arabia as agents of the Achaemenid administration in the region. Winnett identified Gashm b. Shahr with Geshem the Arab who opposed Nehemiah's reconstruction of Jerusalem in 444 BC and accordingly narrowed the dating of the text to the second half of the fifth century BC. Later scholars supported this dating by equating both Dadanitic Gashm and Biblical Geshem with Geshem, father of Qainū king of Qedar, who is mentioned on a votive bowl from Tall al-Maskhūṭah, in Sinai, dated around c. 400 BC. If we accept these two main assumptions — the interpretation and tentative dating of the text to the Achaemenid period and the equation of Gashm b. Shahr with Geshem the Arab and Geshem father of Qainū — then we have a likely limit in the second half of the fifth century BC after which the Lihyanites must have emerged as an independent kingdom, possibly due to the fragmentation of the Qedarite realm. Such assumptions, however, are tenuous; for Achaemenid presence in northern Arabia is more difficult to ascertain since pḥt is shown to be used in Aramaic well before the Achaemenid period and was customary for regional governors in the Assyrian empire centuries prior. This fḥt could very well be a Qedarite governor of Dadān on behalf of the Neo-Babylonian ruler Nabonidus after the kings of both Taymāʾ and Dadān were slain in his enigmatic Arabian campaign. Indeed, only during Nabonidus' brief tenure in Tayma was the Hijaz explicitly under foreign control. It is in this time when the Aramaic term pḥt was likely introduced for officials in the region. As for the latter assumption, it has been criticised by several scholars, pointing out the frequent use of the name gšm in northern Arabia does not warrant this identification.
Overall, what we can discern is that the Lihyanite kingdom most likely came into being after the arrival of Nabonidus in north-west Arabia in 552 BC, as 'king of Dadān' is still mentioned during his Arabian campaign. Although no more precise terminus post quem can be provided to us by the Dadanitic inscriptions, they do grant us, however, the means to estimate the minimum duration of the Lihyanite kingdom. This estimation can be arrived at by simply summing the regnal years of all the 'kings of Lihyan' mentioned in the Dadanitic corpus. At present, our knowledge encompasses at least twelve such kings with a combined reign spanning 199 years. Consequently, this calculation establishes a terminus post quem for the kingdom's end. If we establish that the kingdom could not have come into existence before 552 BC, it logically follows that its downfall could not have transpired before 353 BC. Therefore, the earliest conceivable time range for the kingdom of Lihyan falls between the mid-sixth and the mid-fourth centuries BC.
Takeover of Dadān
Situated in Wadi al-Qura within modern al-ʿUla, al-Khuraybah is believed to be ancient Dadān—a significant hub of culture and commerce in ancient northwest Arabia. It thrived in the 1st millennium BC, fostering through the development of long-distance trade along the ‘Incense Road,’ acting as an important and strategic trade link connecting ancient South Arabia with Egypt, the Levant, and Mesopotamia. Dadān served as the capital for two successive kingdoms: the local kingdom of Dadān, in the early/mid-1st millennium BC, and the larger kingdom of Lihyan, which ruled over a broader domain in northwest Arabia.Biblical accounts refer to Dadān as early as the sixth century BC, mentioning its ‘caravans’ and ‘saddlecloth’ trade. At this time, Dadān is a place of undoubted significance, as it was also mentioned by Nabonidus in his Arabian campaign, where he claimed to have defeated ‘king of Dadān’. However, neither the king’s identity nor how Nabonidus dealt with him are known. It’s plausible that he had him killed as he did to it-ta-a-ru, king of Taymāʾ. Only few Dadanite kings are known—two funerary inscriptions of interest are that of Kabirʾil b. Mataʿʾil, who is called ‘king of Dadān’, and Mataʿʾil b. Dharahʾil, who may have been his father. It’s possible that Kabirʾil inherited his position from his father Mataʿʾil, in a dynastic tradition of paternal succession. While Mataʿʾil was not explicitly referred to as ‘king of Dadān’, a Dadanitic inscription found on the top of Ithlib mountain asks for the protection of both Mataʿʾil and Dadān by a man named Taim b. Zabīda, suggesting his likely kingship. More recently, a Dadanitic inscription discovered in a secondary context near the main temple at al-Khuraybah introduces another king, ‘ʿĀṣī, king of Dadān’, and has a dedication to a deity named Ṭaḥlān. ʿĀṣī might have been the son of Mataʿʾil and the brother of Kabirʾil. These internal and external sources were taken as an indication of the existence of a “well-organized state” in the region before the mid-1st millennium BC.
File:National Museum of Saudi Arabia 43.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Fragment of a coloured wall painting of a notable, flanked on both sides with maidens who are crowning him with a wreath of grapes. Inscribed to the right is the word “Zaki”, 1st–2nd century AD, 53x36, Qaryat al-Faw, residential district
Despite weighty chronological challenges, it’s evident that the kingdom of Dadān was succeeded in al-ʿUla by the kingdom of Lihyan. It is not clear, however, when this transition occurred. The earliest reference to Lihayn appears in a Sabaic document recounting the travels of a Sabaean merchant to Cyprus through Dadān, the ‘cities of Judah’, and Gaza. Yadaʿʾīl Bayān, the king of Sabaʾ, later tasked him with a diplomatic mission to various lands of Arabia: Ḏkrm, Lḥyn, ʾbʾs, and possibly Ḥnk. Dated to the first half of the 6th century BC due to a mention of ‘war between Chaldea and Ionia,’ interpreted as a Neo-Babylonian campaign in Cilicia, the text treats Lihyan separately from Dadān; this suggests that they might have been a tribe at that time, conceivably part of the Qedarite federation, not yet established as a kingdom with Dadān as its capital.
Lihyan’s emergence as a kingdom is traditionally dated to the 4th century BC on the basis of a widely considered key inscription which mentions a fḥt of Dadān and a prominent figure named Gashm b. Shahr. Since the word fḥt is understood as title known only from the time of the Achaemenid empire, the inscription was dated to the Achaemenid period and interpreted to be an allusion for a Qedarite rule over Dadān and elsewhere in northern Arabia as agents of the Achaemenid administration in the region. Identifying Gashm b. Shahr with Geshem the Arab, Winnett narrowed the dating to the second half of the 5th century BC. He also noted that the inscription references a governor of Dadān without any mention of Lihyan, indicating that the Lihyanite kingdom did not exist when the text was written. Hence, the inscription is commonly regarded as a terminus post quem for the emergence of the Lihyanite kingdom. Nevertheless, these assumptions pose two main challenges—the first being that the word fḥt actually occurs in Aramaic well before the Achaemenid period. It might denote a Neo-Babylonian governor during Nabonidus’ reign, perhaps even a Lihyanite official, as suggested by an inscription recently published from Taymāʾ mentioning a pḥt in the service of a Lihyanite king. Although suggesting a provincial governor in the royal capital seems unusual, still, there is a possibility that Lihyan was a nomadic or itinerant tribe who employed governors in the oases they controlled; this, however, cannot be proved, but a graffiti from Dadān-Taymāʾ shows, at the very least, that the Lihyanite kings used to travel between their domains.
The second challenge arises with the association of Gashm b. Shahr with biblical Geshem the Arab. Given the widespread occurrence of the name gšm in northern Arabia, this association is doubtful and does not provide a reliable basis for dating the text. Therefore, not only is JSLih 349 not necessarily connected to an alleged Achaemenid suzerainty over Dadān, but it also lacks a definitive date.
Considering the acknowledged scarcity of any secure chronological anchors, current academics generally adhere to the traditional date for the establishment of the Lihyanite kingdom. It is imperative to remember, however, that discussions are still ongoing over the historical reconstruction of this kingdom. Recent archeological digs over the past ten years have allowed this long-held historical timeline to be contested. According to M. C. A. Macdonald, J. Rohmer and G. Charloux persuasively argued for a revised chronological scheme where the Lihyanite kingdom lasted from the late 6th to the mid-3rd century BC in light of the new finds.