An ancient skull is embedded above the entrance, which bears
Sabaean chiselling.
Yet Yemen, situated on the south west corner of the Arabian Peninsula, cradled successive, significant civilisations: being ruled by Minean,
Sabaean and Himyarite civilisations, each depending for their fabulous wealth on the incense trade.
He claimed to have been Joseph Halevy's guide on his journey to collect
Sabaean inscriptions in Yemen and to have made many of the inscriptions for Halevy.
All will gain thrills treading on ground which is the site of the
Sabaean dynasty of the time of the fabled Queen of Sheba.
Between Al Balid - a medieval ruin, itself built on the ruins of an ancient
Sabaean city - and Sultan Qaboos's Al Hisn Palace, concrete niches have replaced stalls roofed with palm fronts, but vendors of 'luxuries and incense' display open sacks of frankincense crystals, as they must have done for centuries.
It does so by explicitly extending its protection to all religious believers, including "Christians, Yazidis, [and]
Sabaean Mandeans," (217) by forbidding the establishment of parties that advocate takfir (the practice of declaring someone an infidel), (218) and by ensuring that believers are free not only to assert but also to practice their faiths.
The small Mandaean
Sabaean religious community reportedly faced intensifying harassment and repression by authorities.
The
Sabaean kingdom flourished between 1400 and 900 B.C.
Then the victor gives thanks to the gods above: his whole priesthood loads altars with
Sabaean myrrh in honor of the king's homecoming and raises opened hands to the heavens.
Christian writers "placed great emphasis upon dying in the odour of sanctity" which lent credence to the notion of Eden being found, as Milton later put it, among the "
Sabaean odours from the spicy shore/of Arabie blest."