history of

• Arabia
  • 
    Inhistory of Arabia: Central and northern Arabia

    The oasis of Taymāʾ in the northern Hejaz emerged briefly into the limelight when the Neo-Babylonian king Nabu-naʾid (Nabonidus, reigned c. 556–539bce) took up his residence there for 10 years and extended his power as far as Yathrib. A few important monuments of this time are known.

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• Arabian religions
  • InArabian religion: North and central Arabia

    …the North Arabian oasis of Taymāʾ, stelae written in Aramaic and dated to the 5th centurybce name the local deities. In the 5th centurybce the oasis of Dedān (al-ʿUlā) was the capital of a short-lived Dedānite kingdom; then, from the 4th century to the 1st centurybce, it…

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• Babylonia
  • 
    Inhistory of Mesopotamia: The last kings of Babylonia

    …552 and to reside in Taima (Taymāʾ) in northern Arabia. There he organized an Arabian province with the assistance of Jewish mercenaries. His viceroy in Babylonia was his son Bel-shar-uṣur, the Belshazzar of the Book of Daniel in the Bible. Cyrus turned this to his own advantage by annexing Media…

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