Mukarrib Explained

Mukarrib (Old South Arabian: {{script|Sarb|, romanized:) is a title variously defined as "priest-kings" or "federators"; the mukarribs may have been the first rulers of the early South Arabian states. Sometime in the fourth century BCE, the title was replaced by Malik, typically translated as "king".^[1]

Scholarly interpretations

Stuart Munro-Hay writes that the title of mukarrib "indicates something like 'federator', and in southern Arabia was assumed by the ruler who currently held the primacy over a group of tribes linked by a covenant."^[2] Thus, mukarrib can be regarded as a South Arabian hegemon, the head of confederation of South Arabian sha`bs headed by "kings" ('mlk). In the 1st millennium BCE there was usually one mukarrib in South Arabia, but many "kings".^[3]

Joy McCorriston took a slightly different viewpoint:

See also

• List of rulers of Saba and Himyar

Bibliography

• Andrey Korotayev. Ancient Yemen. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995. .

Notes and References

1. Book: Gzella, Holger. Holger Gzella

   . Holger Gzella. Languages from the World of the Bible. 2011. Walter de Gruyter. 978-1-934078-63-1.

2. Book: Munro-Hay, Stuart. Stuart Munro-Hay

   . Stuart Munro-Hay. Ethiopia, the Unknown Land: A Cultural and Historical Guide. 2002. I.B.Tauris. 978-1-86064-744-4.

3. E.g. Korotayev A. Apologia for ‘the Sabaean cultural-political area’. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 57/3 (1994), 469-474.