Nabataeans
 |
Petra, the Nabataean capital |
The
Nabataeans were a trading people of ancient
Arabia, whose oasis settlements in the time of
Josephus gave the name of
Nabatene to the borderland between
Syria and
Arabia, from the
Euphrates to the
Red Sea. Their loosely-controlled trading network, which centered on strings of oases and the routes that linked them, had no securely defined boundaries in the surrounding desert.
Lots of graffiti and inscriptions document the area of Nabataean culture and testify to widespread literacy, but no literature has survived, nor was any noted in antiquity, and the temples bear no inscriptions. Classical references to the Nabataeans suggest that their trade routes and the origins of their goods were regarded as trade secrets, and disguised in tales that should have strained outsiders' credulity.
Diodorus Siculus described them as a strong tribe of some 10,000 warriors, pre-eminent among the nomads of Arabia, eschewing agriculture, fixed houses and the use of wine, but adding to pastoral pursuits a profitable trade with the seaports in
frankincense and
myrrh and spices from
Arabia Felix (today's Yemen), as well as a trade with
Egypt in
bitumen from the
Dead Sea. Their arid country was the best safeguard of their cherished liberty; for the bottle-shaped cisterns for rain-water which they excavated in the rocky or clay rich soil were carefully concealed from invaders.
The Nabataean origins remain obscure. On the similarity of sounds,
Jerome suggested a connection with the tribe
Nebaioth mentioned in
Genesis, but modern historians are cautious about an early Nabatean history. The
Babylonian captivity that began in
586 BC opened a power vacuum in
Judah, and as
Edomites moved into Judaean grazing lands, Nabataean inscriptions began to be left in Edomite territory (earlier than
312 BC, when they were attacked at
Petra without success by
Antigonus I).
Petra or
Sela was the ancient capital of
Edom; the Nabataeans must have occupied the old
Edomite country, and succeeded to its commerce, after the Edomites took advantage of the
Babylonian captivity to press forward into southern
Judaea. This migration, the date of which cannot be determined, also made them masters of the shores of the
Gulf of Aqaba and the important harbor of
Elath. Here, according to
Agatharchides, they were for a time very troublesome, as wreckers and pirates, to the reopened commerce between Egypt and the East, until they were chastised by the
Ptolemaic rulers of Alexandria.
The Nabataeans had already some tincture of foreign culture when they first appear in history. That culture was naturally
Aramaic; they wrote a letter to Antigonus in
Syriac letters, and Aramaic continued to be the language of their coins and inscriptions when the tribe grew into a kingdom, and profited by the decay of the
Seleucids to extend its borders northward over the more fertile country east of the
Jordan. They occupied
Hauran, and in about
85 BC their king
Aretas became lord of
Damascus and
Coele-Syria.
Nabataeans became the Arabic name for
Aramaeans, whether in
Syria or
Iraq, a fact which has been incorrectly held to prove that the Nabataeans were originally Aramaean immigrants from
Babylonia. Proper names on their inscriptions suggest that they were true
Arabs who had come under Aramaic influence. Starcky identifies the Nabatu of southern Arabia as their ancestors. However different groups amongst the Nabateans wrote their names in slightly different ways, consequently archeologists are reluctant to say that they were all the same tribe, or that any one group is the original Nabataeans.
|
The Roman province of Arabia Petraea, created from the Nabataean kingdom. |
Petra was rapidly built in the
1st century BC in Hellenistic splendor, yet the Nabataeans were allies of the first
Hasmoneans in their struggles against the
Seleucid monarchs. They became the rivals of the Judaean dynasty in the period of its splendor, and a chief element in the disorders which invited
Pompey's intervention in
Judea. Many Nabataeans were forcefully converted to Judaism by the
Hasmonean king Alexander Jannaeus. It was this King who after putting down a local rebellion invaded and occupied the Nabatean towns of
Moab and
Gilead and imposed a tribute of an unspecified amount. Obodas knew that Alexander would attack, so was able to ambush Alexander's forces near
Gaulane destroying the Israelite army (90BC)
[JosephusThe jewish war 1:87 pg 40 Translated by G.A.Williamson 1959, printed 1981 ].
The Roman military was not very successful in their campaigns against the Nabataeans, since in
62 BC Marcus Aemilius Scaurus accepted a bribe of 300
talents to relieve a siege to Petra, partly because of the difficult terrain and the fact Scaurus had ran out of food provisions. Hyrcanus who was a friend of Aretas was dispached by Scaurus to the King to buy the peace. In so obtaining peace King Aretas retained his whole possessions, including Damascus and became a Roman vassal
[ Josephus 1:61 Pg48].
During the King Malichus II reign, in 32 BC
Herod the Great started a war against Nabatea, with the support of
Cleopatra. The war started with Herod's army plundering Nabataea and with a large cavalry force, and the occupation of
Dium. After this defeat the Neabatean forces amassed near
Canatha in
Syria, but were attacked and routed.
Athenio (Cleopatra's General) sent Canathans to the aid of the Nabateans, and this force crushed Herod's army which then fled to
Ormiza. One year later, Harod's army overran Nabataea.
[ Josephus 1:363-377 pg 75-77 ]After an earthquake in Judea, the Nabateans rebelled and invaded Israel, but Herod at once crossed the Jordan river to Philadelphia and both sides set up camp. The Nabateans under
Elthemus refused to give battle, so Herod forced the issue when he attacked there
camp. A confused mass of Nabateans gave battle but were defeated. Once the defeated had retreated to there defences, Herod laid seige to the camp and over time some of the defenders surrendered. The remaining Nabatean forces offered 500 talents for peace but this was rejected. Lacking water, the Nabateans were forced out of their camp for battle, but were defeated in this last battle.
[ Josephus 1:377-391 pg 78-79 ]As allies of the
Romans the Nabataeans continued to flourish throughout the first century. Their power extended far into Arabia along the
Red Sea to
Yemen, and
Petra remained a cosmopolitan marketplace, though its commerce was diminished by the rise of the Eastern trade-route from
Myoshormus to
Coptos on the
Nile. Under the
Pax Romana they lost their warlike and nomadic habits, and were a sober, acquisitive, orderly people, wholly intent on trade and agriculture.
They might have long been a bulwark between Rome and the wild hordes of the desert but for
Trajan, who reduced
Petra and broke up the Nabataean nationality as the short-lived Roman province of
Arabia Petraea.
By the third century the Nabateans had stopped writing in
Aramaic and begun writing in Greek instead, and by the fourth century they had converted to Christianity. The new Arab invaders who soon pressed forward into their seats found the remnants of the Nabataeans transformed into
peasants.
List of Nabatean kings
See Rulers of Nabatea.*
# -
The Nabateans: A Historical Sketch - Jean Starcky# -
Nabataea.net, Dan Gibson's comprehensive Nabataean site# - Johnson, Paul,
A History of the Jews, George Weidenfeld & Nicolson Limited, London, 1987# -
The Nabateans by Professor Avraham Negev*
Bulletin of Nabataean Studies: links on Petra and the Nabataeans
*
The Nabateans in the Negev*
NABATÆANS*Graf, David,
Rome and the Arabian Frontier: from the Nabataeans to the Saracens*"Nabat,"
Encyclopedia of Islam, Volume VII.
