There are various views of scientists on the origins of the Nabataeans. Some views that they came from the south of the Arabian Peninsula, they came from the north or northeast of Najd, they came from the north of the Gulf region, they come from Hejaz area, north-west of the Arabian Peninsula and some others opine that they are from Edom. However, the Assyrian Annals and Torah indicated that they lived in areas to the south of the territories of Beni Qeidar and the Greek historian Diodorus of Sicily described them as Bedouin shepherds who did not know agriculture i.e. they were unstable, they did not drink wine and their lands were mostly rough and rocky.

Accordingly, we can say that they were Arab Bedouin tribes that worked originally in handicrafts and grazing and then turned to trade and became experts in locating water and its utilization by digging canals and collecting it in large and deep tanks.

They also recorded many of their workings in the Aramaic writing. However, they developed this type of writing and connected its letters together which made it easy to spread. Their language was northern Arabic in terms of vocabulary and names though it included some Aramaic vocabulary and forms.

The Nabataeans settled in southern Levant where they founded an Arab Kingdom called the Kingdom of Nabataeans and took “Salaa” (Petra) as the capital of their kingdom. The kings of Nabataeans adopted a traditional approach in the government and were able to make great political achievements as their state extended to Damascus. However, the King of the Jews Herod with the help of the Romans establish a Jewish state in 31 AD, that included some lands of the Kingdom of the Nabataeans across the Jordan River which led to the division of the Kingdom of the Nabataeans.

Jews made many attempts to cement ties with the Nabataeans including the marriage of King Herod of the Jews to the daughter of King Al-Harith IV, to marry the daughter of his uncle and his stepbrother’s wife Herodia, erupting war between the Jews and the Nabataeans that resulted in the defeat of the Jews.

King Rab El II (70 – 106 AD) reached an agreement with the Romans where they do not attack him in his life and get on top of the Kingdom of the Nabataeans after his death. However, they broke the agreement for reasons that still unknown and controlled the Kingdom of the Nabataeans in 106 AD putting an end to rule of Rab El II. The Roman ruler in Syria Cornelos Palma became ruler of the Kingdom of Nabataeans on behalf of Emperor Trajan.

Nabataeans did not leave any written history with the exception of some inscriptions that speaks in most cases on personal matters. Many of their news came to us from foreign historical sources which are not particularly written for them, but they talked about them in a casual way through their relations with other nations and people such as Seleucids and Ptolemaic. Such relations were describe as sometimes friendly and sometimes hostile according to the existing conditions.

Back to Madain Saleh