Ma'in

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Kingdom of Ma’in مملكة معين
8th century BCE[1]–1st centuries CE[2]
Capital	Qarnawu
Common languages	Minaean language
Religion	Pre-Islamic Arabian religions
Demonym(s)	Minaean(s)
Government	Monarchy
History
• Established	8th century BCE[1]
• Disestablished	1st centuries CE[2]

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Ancient history Kingdom of Awsan (c. 800 – c. 700 BC) Kingdom of Saba' (c. 1200 – c. 275 CE) Kingdom of Ḥaḑramawt (c. 1000 – c. 290 BCE) Kingdom of Qatabān (c. 1000 – c. 200 AD) Kingdom of Ma'in (c. 600 – c. 150 BCE) Kingdom of Ḥimyar (c. 110 – c. 525 CE) Axumite Yemen (c. 517 – c. 570 ) Sasanian Yemen (c. 570 – c. 630 )
Islamic history First Islamic State (c. 622 – c. 632) Rashidun Caliphate Umayyad Caliphate Abbasid Caliphate Ziyadid dynasty Najahid dynasty Sulayhid dynasty Ayyubid dynasty Rasulid dynasty
Modern history Ottoman Eyalet Qasimid state Aden Protectorate Ottoman vilayet Mutawakkilite Kingdom Unified Yemen (1990-present)
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Ma'in (Minaean: 𐩣𐩲𐩬; Arabic: معين, romanized: Maʿīn) was an ancient South Arabian kingdom in modern-day Yemen. It was located along the strip of desert called Ṣayhad by medieval Arab geographers, which is now known as Ramlat al-Sab'atayn. Wadd was the national god of Ma'in. The spoken language was Minaic. The kingdom appears in the historical record in the 8th century BCE, and transition from a city-state to kingdom in the last quarter of the 7th century BCE.^[1] The date of the end of Ma'in is heavily disputed, but the most popular hypothesis places its demise in the 1st century CE.^[2]

The Minaean people were one of four ancient Yemeni groups mentioned by Eratosthenes. The others were the Sabaeans, Ḥaḑramites and Qatabānians. Each of these had regional kingdoms in ancient Yemen, with the Minaeans in the north-west (in Wādī al-Jawf), the Sabaeans to the south-east of them, the Qatabānians to the south-east of the Sabaeans, and the Ḥaḑramites further east still.^[3]