Dark Side History: Nabatea, The Greek Arabian Kingdom!

Nabatea (4th century BC-106 AD) was an ancient Arabian kingdom in what is modern day Jordan, Palestine, Nagav in Israel, the Sinai in Egypt and parts of Saudi Arabia and Syria. A kingdom that through its wealth became an early example of north Arabian urbanized civilization that took great influence from the Greeks who had come into prominence after the rise of Alexander the Great (336-323 BC). This is a video about this now gone kingdom.
Please don't be afraid to comment or voice any questions as I love interacting with you my dear viewers and I will try to respond as quickly as possible to you. Also, please like, subscribe & click the bell icon as those actions helps this channel grow!
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This video is part of the dark side history series • Dark Side History , And can also be seen in the all history playlist: • All history
Sources and further reading:
Al-Abduljabbar, Abdullah (1995). The rise of the Nabataeans: sociopolitical developments in 4th and 3rd century BC Nabataea (PhD). Indiana University.
Benjamin, Jesse. "Of Nubians and Nabateans: Implications of research on neglected dimensions of ancient world history." Journal of Asian and African Studies 36, no. 4 (2001): 361-82.
Bowes, Alan R. (1998). The Process of Nabataean Sedentarization: New Models and Approaches. Department of Anthropology, University of Utah.
Bowersock, Glen Warren (1996). Roman Arabia (4. print ed.). Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Castro, Mariana. 2019. The Function of the Roman Army in Southern Arabia Petraea. Oxford: Archaeopress.
del Rio Sánchez, Francisco, and Juan Pedro Monferrer Sala. 2005, Nabatu: The Nabataeans through their Inscriptions. Barcelona: University of Barcelona,.
Hatke, George & Ruzicka, Ronald 2021. South Arabian Long-Distance Trade in Antiquity : “Out of Arabia.” Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Konstantinos,Politis D. 2015. The World of the Nabataeans. Vol. 2 : Volume 2 of the International Conference the World of the Herods and the Nabataeans Held at the British Museum 17-19 April 2001. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag.
Millar, Fergus (2001). The Roman near east, 31 BC - AD 337: based on Carl Newell Jackson lectures (4. print ed.). Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Sartre, Maurice (2005). The Middle East Under Rome. Harvard University Press.
Taylor, Jane (2001). Petra and the Lost Kingdom of the Nabataeans. I.B.Tauris.
#Nabatea #Jordan #History #ArabianHistory #arabhistory #Nabat #Petra #Nabataea

[@theculturedjinni]

I hope you found this video regarding the ancient kingdom of Nabataea interesting. Please, don't be afraid to comment or voice any questions as I love interacting with you my dear viewers and I will try to respond as quickly as possible to you. Also please like, subscribe & push the bell icon as those actions helps this channel grow!

[@theculturedjinni]

@@vardekpetrovic9716 The nabateans did trade in slaves but what makes you state that they were the main slave trading state? Slavery could have been used to carry away the rock and is even likely (though free labor was also used a lot to for menial tasks even in societies with rather large slave populations), but besides them if I remember correctly we do have inscriptions of the artisan workers as a kind of respectful gesture and among them one of the earliest attestation of the name 'abd allah, this is not something that would be done for slaves.

[@theculturedjinni]

@@vardekpetrovic9716 Sounds reasonable, the red sea is not an easily navigable sea and thus the land route would be preferable as this has been used to argue for Mecca actually being an important city (with slave ships sailing directly to the Arabian peninsula rather than traversing north through the red sea) and this would be even more the case especially in even earlier times. I did know that slaves were sold though without a large coastal political entity to take the slaves such as the Axumite empire in sub-Saharan Africa I was/am a bit unsure about the scale of the slave trade being so large. I could imagine for example more slaves being sold from Nubia by being sent downstream on the Nile for example. But still regardless, slavery was very much a large part of the trade for Nabatea.

[@RollingMayonnaise2.0]

This is actually a really interesting video! I had no idea that the Nabateans even existed until now. It’s definitely an obscure ancient civilisation that’s for certain.

[@theculturedjinni]

I am glad you found it interesting 👍, and it is also the intent of my channel to bring to light these parts of history that have fallen into the dark, hence the series name "dark side history" and thus I like that you noticed the rather obscure nature of the history around this civilization/kingdom.

[@liammagner7614]

The algorithm has blessed me with this video and your channel. I only know about Nabatea from conquering them in Total War. Keep up the great work!!

[@theculturedjinni]

I am glad you liked it 👍 and it makes me happy that you also took the time to comment about your appreciation for my video/channel. I am not that surprised that you only knew Nabatea from total war (very good game series that I appreciate myself a lot too) as Nabatea is part of the type of history that often gets into the shadows of more popular history, hence why I included it in this "Dark Side History" series where I discuss history that often is a bit overlooked hence "dark" like "dark horse". And, I will continue with making videos, of that you can be sure!👍

[@liammagner7614]

@@theculturedjinni Awesome, I love it! Keep up the good work!

[@carefullychristian8657]

You never make it clear that arabs refer to desert dwellers They were divided into three Northern...include petras Were a result of esau ishmaelites and ketrah sons all Abraham descendants in area you ecplain clearly 2.arabia deserter hijaz were mecca mediba are 3.arabua fflux prosperous yemeni fromm which mogamed descends So not all arab desert dwellers were of abraham

[@theculturedjinni]

@@carefullychristian8657 It is true that the word arab does ultimately refer to desert dweller, or rather those that cross areas i.e. nomads, and is actually also related to the word for hebrews if you go back far enough in etymology but also going into tribal history with the forefathers of Adnani and qahtaani arabs would be kind of a side thing, also I think a lot of that history is more legendary mythology than real history. In any case my use of Arabian (which I use instead of Arab) is more related to the linguistic ethnic use of the term as a speaker of central ishmailite language and as people living on the Arabian peninsula. I hope this clarified the matter.

[@AnwarAliyambath]

Are you familiar with sura feel of quran. I have a gut feeling it refers to these people and reference of aad or samud. As it is described they carved houses on rocks. And the incident referred as tairan ababeel as a volcanic eruption.

[@theculturedjinni]

It is possible and good hypotheses from your side 👍, though some medieval sources/chroniclers/interpreters of the quran do refer to the people of Aqd as having lived in the same land as the people of Qahtan, which would indicate southern Arabia rather than the area of Nabatea, and there are quite similar carved rock structures there as well. The people of thamuud we do know from archeological and historical evidence did live in the areas of the central hijaaz and parts of the known areas did overlap and the madaa'in Saalih for example is in both and it is not unlikely that the nabateans are descendants of them that went further north. Maybe the birds throwing rock description could be a volcano that too is possible (could actually also have been that you had birds that had been trained to drop rocks as a tactic of harassment, I have if my memory is not mistaken I actually remember about something like that being done in a later siege in Europe, with trained birds) I am glad you took the time to comment as these were interesting hypotheses. 👍

[@AnwarAliyambath]

@@theculturedjinni Thanks for the reply. Lot of information in it. tair does not literally mean bird I guess. A projectile or anything that floats / fly in air can be described as tair isn't it?

[@AnwarAliyambath]

And those rock forts do have statues of elephants . Reason may be why the reference of ashabul feel. Did you came across any other verse in quran referring to volcanic eruption or similar kind of incidents? s​@@theculturedjinni

[@theculturedjinni]

@@AnwarAliyambath Tayr does normally mean bird, but it can due to how Arabic works with the root system also be interpreted as a smaller flying thing, though it is very rarely used as such, I have not encountered it used as such but I can see it being used in that way in poetry and such. Well the Quran does refer to volcanic eruptions in Quran 99:1-2, which is the clearest example I could find.

[@ibnismail3386]

You are exaggerating. First, the Greek culture itself is a collection of many cultures. Second, The nabateans themselves made many innovations which you totally ignored.

[@theculturedjinni]

Yes Greek hellenistic culture was an amalgamation of several influences. But, how am I exaggerating and which innovations did I totally ignore?

[@ibnismail3386]

@@theculturedjinni Nabateans had pottery, architecture and culture of their own not some people who just adopted others' cultures.

[@theculturedjinni]

@@ibnismail3386 Sure, I am not denying that, never claimed that they did not have their own culture, and I do mention for example their step architecture in the video. The only thing I claimed was that they were heavily influenced by Greek culture, not that they did not have their own.

[@ibnismail3386]

@@theculturedjinni Could you provide examples of Nabatean architecture.

[@theculturedjinni]

@@ibnismail3386 Well as I did mention in the video, the staircase structure decoration on the upper parts of the buildings is quite distinctly Nabatean and can be seen on several nabatean buildings but can be best seen in madaai'in Saalih (though similar do exist in Yemen too so it might have either been taken from there or traveled down there). In the architecture you can also see various carvings dedicated to the local gods which are quite distinct in form from Greek temples and art in the high amount of animal & symbolic images rather than in personified anthropomorphic deities. The fact that they carved rock into buildings (seen in almost all major nabatean settlements) rather than carved out blocks to make buildings off is quite distinct (though not entirely unique as again you see similar in southern Arabia, but also in certain greek settlements). They built quite intricate underground water storage & distribution systems with underground reservoirs, tunnels and terracotta pipes too (again not entirely unique but still noticeable). These are some of the things on the top of my head. I hope you found this answer sufficient.👍

[@user-xs2zx7fk4d]

Some people say the nabataeans are arameans

[@theculturedjinni]

They are not wrong, since aramaic as a language was used as the language of trade and transactions in the greater middle east (and was spoken as a main language in some of the areas controlled by nabatea particullarly in the western and northern parts), so the nabateans used both nabatean and aramaic and we do have inscriptions in both languages available from the the nabatean area. Their native language was in most cases nabatean (excluding the aramaic dominated areas) but if you define arameans as any speaker of the language then yes they were arameans too. I hope this clarified this matter.

[@user-xs2zx7fk4d]

@@theculturedjinni than why most historians say they are arabs

[@Kain-h8e]

He means that the nabateans were arabs by race and arameans by language all the evidences say the nabateans are arab their language was old arabic but they wrote in aramic because it was the most common language of the middle east back then and even the persian and jews used it most of there names spicely the kings names were old arabic such as aretas and obodas the religion was old arabic other than language there is nothing to tie the nabateans to the arameans most people who say the nabateans are arameans, are arameans nationalest who have weak or no evidence at all to sporet their clames

[@theculturedjinni]

@@Kain-h8e Yes pretty much this.

[@theculturedjinni]

@@user-xs2zx7fk4d because they were arabian in origin, cultural aspects, names & native language. It is just that their language in use was at times aramaic together with nabatean.

[@Dajjal-chan]

Awesome video! One correction, AsSyrian and Babylonian were Eastern semitic languages. But Sumerian is considered a language isolate. Whose writing system happened to be adopted by the akkadians. Sumerian was Highly syllabic, whereas all the semitic Languages are consonant focused, So so the sumerian system was rather clumsy in renderin semitic languages. Interesting note, Before the phoenician/kana'ni/ Paleo Hebrew Writing system became dominant a Highly simplified abjadic version of cuneiform form. was also used for ugaretic, A language part of the Central semitic kana'ni/ Paleo Hebrew/is phoenician Language/dialect continuum. Ugaritic cuneiform Abjad Atrested as soon is thirty 3 Or thirty four centuries, ago

[@theculturedjinni]

I am glad you found the video awesome! You are 100% correct in your claims about the languages, but where did I claim that Sumerian was a Semitic language? Or claim AsSyrian and Babylonian were not eastern/north Semitic languages?

[@Dajjal-chan]

@theculturedjinni You're absolutely Correct I simply Misheard assyrian as Sumerian when I listened to the video The first time. Very sorry about that. It's good to know at least that my memory of Central semetic languages is still correct Thank you for that reassurance. I previously studied the historical linguistics of indo, European and Afro-Asiatic languages. Very much looking forward to watching more of your videos! ( I need to use voice to text due to the limited ability of my hands. Sorry about the bad formatting that leads to

[@theculturedjinni]

@@Dajjal-chan 👍No issue, it can also be that I simply is not that good at pronunciation, which does not help hearing, due to the fact that I am not a native English speaker. The historical linguistics of indo, European and Afro-Asiatic languages are fascinating and something which I have studied too (when I was studying Arabic at the master's level at university and was studying comparative linguistics)

[@jayartz8562]

Excellent.

[@theculturedjinni]

I am glad you liked the video and also showed your appreciation by your comment!👍

[@matthewalexandergamero8529]

Nice factual video. But Israelis told me there were no arabs in the levant until the muslim arabs colonized the land. So not sure who to believe. Gonna go with your video tho that's actually based on real history :)

[@theculturedjinni]

👍, I am glad you liked it and yes Arabian people have been in the area for a long time!

[@رانا-ث8ر]

اقراء التاريخ من المؤرخين الحقيقين مثل الإغريق والرومان القدماء وليس من الشعب السارق المزيف حتى التوراه تحدثت عن العرب في الشام حتى جنوب تركيا ومصر وشمال أفريقيا وإيران والعراق ووسط آسيا ..😂😂😂😂... اترك التاريخ لاهل التاريخ وليس بمن ليس لديهم أي تاريخ وحتى كتابهم التوراه لا يعرفونه

[@theculturedjinni]

@@رانا-ث8ر 👍 أتفق معك في همة معرفة مصادرالقدماء في هذه الأمور وجهادي في هذه القانة على الجهل مثل الذين يزعمون الباطل وهم بلا قاعدة في معرفة التآريخ وهدفي التنوير العلمي و زيادة العلم عند الناس عموما بهذه الفيديوهات التعليمية البسيطة

[@lindayo49]

Nabataean kingdom was not Greek, but got Hellenized.

[@theculturedjinni]

You are correct in that they were not Greek as they spoke mostly Nabatean and Aramaic, but did become very hellinized due to the cultural influence coming from the Hellenized middle East.

[@ibnismail3386]

They did not get hellenized, they rather maintained their Arab identity.

[@theculturedjinni]

@@ibnismail3386 Hellenized does not necessarily mean that they become fully Greek speakers (they still retained their Nabatean Arabian language in addition to Aramaic), but rather that they took Greek influences, which is obvious in the architecture & in their art.

[@رانا-ث8ر]

​@@theculturedjinni لماذا ليس العكس ؟؟؟ ..لأن مملكه عربايا ...اقدم من الغزو الاغريقي والروماني ..وهي اصلا هكذا ؟؟. 😂... إذا صمت أهل الحق عن الحق توهم أهل الباطل انهم على حق ..

[@theculturedjinni]

@@رانا-ث8ر 👍 أظن أن سؤالك بلاغي لكني سأرد عليه. نعرف أن التأثير الفني والمهندسي المعماري الاغريقي حصل عقب الغزوات الاغريقية في المنطقة لأن الآثار القليلة الفنية و المهندسية المعمارية التي قبله لا تُبدي هذا التأثيرالمبين الإغريقي إلا عقب حضور الاغريقي بالقرب منه بل تبدو يمنية أو محلّية في أصلها وبدون تأثير اغريقي. على أي حال أتفق معك في صمت أهل الحق أمام أهل الباطل (أو بالأحرى صمت أهل الحكم و العلم و المعرفة أمام أهل الجهل إذ الحق صعب معرفته أحيانا و من المهم كوننا مفتوحين لتغير أفكارنا لو خطأنا ولسنا على الحق بل نحن الجهلة بشيء ما فالأفضل التواضع والكلام بالأقرب إلى الحق فيما نعرف مأسسا الحجج على المنطق و الادِلّة ) 👍

[@ResearcherofArabPagans]

Great work🎉 Have you visited Madaen Saleh in Saudi? I used to live there, if you have questions let me know!

[@theculturedjinni]

Thank you, I appreciate your nice comment! And, no I have not visited that part of Saudi, though I kind of wish that I had, it certainly would be easier than some of the places in Yemen that I would wish to visit too. Did you live close to the ruins and did you visit them often?

[@المنتزهاتي11]

Not greek

[@theculturedjinni]

But certainly Greek influenced, just like a lot of other cultures were Greek influenced( compare our use of the term Greco-Roman for the Roman cultural world for example).

[@elshebactm6769]

🗿👍

[@theculturedjinni]

👍 thumbs for the thumb idol!