How could Royal Power Exist without Royal Taxation? (Material Sources of Middle SabaeanRoyal Power)Author(s): Andrey KorotayevSource: Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies, Vol. 26, Papers from the twenty-ninth meeting of the Seminar for Arabian Studies held in Cambridge, 20-22 July, 1995(1996), pp. 75-78Published by: ArchaeopressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41223572 .

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How could Royal Power Exist without Royal Taxation? (Material Sources of Middle Sabaean Royal Power)

Andrey Korotayev

It is difficult to find convincing evidence for the existence of anything like a regular system of central taxation in the Middle Sabaean cultural-political area (SCPA throughout) of the 2nd-3rd centuries AD.

We have a considerable amount of data on something which could fulfil this role, the tithe, which was regularly collected on behalf of the Middle Sabaean "federal" deity, °LMQH bcl JWM, "Almaqah, the master of Awwäm."1 Since this deity was venerated by almost all the inhabitants of the SCPA (and not simply by the members of a small number of tribes), this suggestion is not entirely implausible.

However, the decisive counter-argument against the hypothesis that the tithe paid to Awwäm was a hidden form of central taxation is as follows: this tithe could also be paid in a form of one's statue dedicated to Almaqah, the lord of Awwäm2 i.e. its recipient was the temple and not the state.

The absence of evidence for any regular central taxation does not seem to be fortuitous as the centre of the Middle Sabaean political system appears not to have needed any regular taxation at all. There was a considerable number of alternative sources of goods and manpower to supply the needs of the Sabaean royal authority.

a. Military Service Compulsory military service provided the Sabaean kings with the manpower as well as the necessary material resources for the maintenance of their military forces. The evidence for this specific kind of taxation is abundant. There are dozens of the references to the service (s2wc) which the Middle Sabaeans provided to their kings, participating in different campaigns undertaken by the Middle Sabaean royal power.

b. "Lands of the Army" ( °rdthmsn).

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76 How could royal power exist....

°rdt hmsn, "the lands of the army", are mentioned by the authors of Ja 647, the royal maqtawis, "personal assistants", in the following context (lines 25-30):£/ °syt hwsyw cmr°-hmw cmlkn b-kl syt hwsy-hmw b-ml°t sb ct hryftm w-b-kl mqwlt-hmw w-syt- hmw b-MRBw-SNWw-b-N^QMw-N^N w-b-kl mqbltw-nfd-hmw b-°rdthmsn b- dctn w-sqyn, "all assignments which their lords, the kings, assigned to them, in all assignments which they assigned to them during the period of seven years and in all their duties [as qayh] and their assignments in Märib and Sancä5 and in Nashq and Nashän and in all [the assignments concerning] leased lands and their crops in the lands of the army grown both with and without artificial irrigation".

This passage leads one to suppose that there were certain lands (most probably in the areas of Märib, San^, Nashq and Nashän) which were granted on lease by special royal officials; and the rent received from these lands is most likely to have been used for the maintenance of the regular army (hms). This appears very probably to be the way in which royal power managed to cover effectively what was apparently the most significant item of its expenses.

c. Royal Clients Judging by the number of inscriptions installed by the Middle Sabaean royal clients3 their number was really significant and it is most likely to have exceeded that of the clients of any of the qaylite clans. Hence, one would expect that the revenues the kings received in the form of the personal rent paid to them by their clients must also have been significant and its general amount is most likely to have exceeded that of any of the qaylite clans.

d. Royal Lands The presence of the royal lands is well attested for the Ancient Period4. For the Middle Period the only direct evidence for the continuing existence of the royal lands in the SCPA seems to be C 604 = as-Sawda 51,2; the fact that royal power retained certain land possessions (even in the territories of the non-Sabaean tribes) seems to be also illustrated by the practice of the royal grants (watfs) when the Sabaean kings granted certain lands to the tribes and their leaders, qayh5, no doubt with the object of securing their support. Hence, one would suppose that royal power must have continued to receive some revenues from the royal lands in the Middle Period. Yet this very practice of royal land-grants must have significantly reduced the actual extent of royal lands.

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Korotayev 77

e. "Reciprocal Assistance" at the Kingdom Level As qayh were supposed to help their tribesmen when they undertook significant construction, the kings seem to have had similar obligations with regard to their direct subjects6. Qaylite help evidently implied that the tribesmen would help their qayh when they constructed their castles, irrigation structures etc7. This leads one to the supposition that the direct subjects of the kings (i.e. the qayh, Sabaeans and the royal clients) must have had similar obligations with regard to the kings (though we have very little direct evidence for this). The relative imbalance of these obligations suggest that this might be another source of the material resources and manpower required by the central administrative sub-system.

f. Booty Beeston has drawn attention to the fact that "as the Arabic lexicographers tell us (under the heading rbc), pre-Islamic practice was to allot one quarter of the booty to the leader, leaving only three quarters instead of the Islamic four-fifths for general distribution. As we learn from J.586, Sabaean practice in this matter matched that described by the lexicographers: one quarter of the booty was allocated to the king as commander-in-chief l8

The Middle Sabaeans were almost continually engaged in wars, which usually took place in the territories of their enemies, and the Sabaeans often managed to capture considerable amounts of booty as a result of the sacking of such rich cities as Shabwah, the ancient Hadrami capital, Qana^, the thriving Hadrami port, or Qaryat Dhät Kähil, the Kindite capital9 (Er 13; Fa 75; 102; Ja 632; 634; 635; 636; 637; Ry 533 &c). Hence, one would suppose that this was a source of significant, though not entirely regular, revenue for royal power.

g. Original Qaylite Possessions All the Middle Sabaean kings of whose origins we know, were powerful qayh before their accession to the throne. The Middle Sabaean kings seem often to have retained special relations with their original tribes. Hence, one would suppose that the kings might retain at their disposal the huge revenues received by their original qaylite bayts.

Conclusion In any case it is likely that the Middle Sabaean kings had a sufficient number of sources of material revenues which provided the necessary amounts of manpower and material resources for the governing sub-system of the SCPA (i.e. the royal power). The needs of the central government could be supplied without the

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78 How could royal power exist....

establishment of any developed, artificial, system of regular central taxation, or the appropriation of the main part of the tithe, collected by the "central" temple.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to express my gratitude to the Seminar for Arabian Studies and the Russian Foundation for Research in the Humanities for the financial support (Grant N 95- 06-18928) which made it possible for me to take part in the 29th Seminar for Arabian Studies at Cambridge in July 1995 and to deliver this paper to its participants.

Notes

1 Er 22/1 ; Ja 656, 1 7; Na NAG 1 1 [= Er 25], 9&c.

2 Er 26/1; Ja 615, 9; 617, 4; 650, 4-5; Na NAG 11 [=Er25]9&c.

3 C 397; 398; 399; 531; 534; 535; 544; Er 16 = M.Bayhân 7; Fa 102 = M. Bayhân 9; Ja 570; 694; 723; 784; 812; 2112; [ = CIAS II 39.11/o2 N7]; 21 15 [ = CIAS II 39.11/o8 NI]; 2223; R 4142; 4188; 4636; YM 350 [CIAS I 39. 1 l/o6 N5] «fee.

4 e.g. Ja 541; R 3946; 4085

5 C 599; R 4646/?/; Ry 522/?/&c.

6 i.e. first of all before the Sabaeans and the qayls: C 1 , 4-6; R 47 1 3 = Na NNSQ 70= Ja 496, 2; Ry 540, 1-2; see also C40, 4; 41, 4; Er 40 [from the South]; Gl 1 197, 3-4; R 4106, 1; Ry 404, 2-4 &c.

7 In certain cases the tribesmen could expect to get assistance from their qayls. But in such cases qayls could also expect to get significant "help" [rdc] from their subjects.

8 Beeston, A.F.L. 1976. Warfare in Ancient South Arabia [2nd and 3rd centuries A.D.]. London (Qahtän: Studies in old South Arabian Epigraphy. Fasc.3): 14-15.

9 Er 13; Fa 75; 102; Ja 632;634;635;636;637; Ry 533 &c.

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