آثار اليمن ونقوشه ( المسند والزبور)

The Financial revenues in old Yemen

Study through inscriptions and archeology

Be. Anwar Al-haeer

Abstract:

The financial system is a true reflection of the political, social and economic system in society, and the financial system in ancient Yemen has the characteristics and general characteristics that distinguish it from other financial systems, as it reflects the effect of religious teachings on all transactions in it and explains the effects of the reflection of those teachings on it. Which provides the real reason for this rapid progress and development in ancient Yemen since the early Sabian era, which confirms that the tools of the old financial system have achieved all their objectives and performed all their functions to the fullest in both the public revenues and the state's public expenditures.

The study tried to trace those financial resources, their names and their sources (agricultural, animal, and commercial), on which these financial dues were imposed by the state represented by the temple, through inscriptions discovered to date, and to identify the role of the religious authority in those resources, and to know the party responsible for collecting them. And how to spend it on public projects, such as temples, dams, city walls, paving roads, constructing ports, etc.

- We know through archaeological inscriptions and evidence that there are gigantic projects that have taken place in the field of construction, such as dams, temples, city fences, and other agricultural and commercial projects, whose completion required large funds from the state treasury represented in the temple, although these inscriptions did not include detailed information about those financial resources in Ancient Yemen, but the researcher tried to compare it with the financial resources in the civilizations of Mesopotamia, the Nile Valley and the Levant, in terms of names and amounts - (the imposed value) - and the legislation regulating these resources.

- Although the mega projects financed by the financial resources in ancient Yemen formed a prosperous civilization as a whole, these resources did not gain the interest of researchers and study them in a special study, and the absence of any previous study that dealt with the subject, prompted the researcher to choose this topic for a doctoral thesis, to get acquainted with these resources Financial from various economic aspects, depending on inscriptions and monuments as a material and a source of information that was available to the researcher and was able to obtain it.

This study explains and confirms the important role that financial resources played in shaping the political, economic and social life of the ancient Yemeni society.

This study aims to identify these financial resources in ancient Yemen (Saba, Moin, Hadramout, Qataban), from the earliest inscriptions (Al-Musnad, Zabour) until the sixth century AD, in terms of their names, types (cash, in kind), and the employees working on them, The amount of their prices, the legislation related to them, the date of their submission, the social groups imposed on them, the places where they are deposited and presented, the nature of their spending in the face of state public expenditures, the penalties for failure or failure to provide them, and the religiously imposed ones, which are still until the Islamic era.

This financial resources had a special importance in various economic, political and cultural aspects in the kingdoms of ancient Yemen, from 1200 BC to 600 AD, and we will follow in this study the inductive and comparative approaches.

This study is divided into four chapters and a conclusion, which are:

The first chapter deals with the study of financial resources in the civilizations of the ancient Near East, Mesopotamia (Iraq), legislation, laws and temple authority, as well as financial resources in the Nile Valley civilization (agricultural, commercial) and other resources, as well as financial resources in the Levant (agricultural, commercial) and other That, in addition to the money in the Levant.

The second chapter is devoted to studying religious authority and economic activity in ancient Yemen, in terms of ancient geographical location, religious authority and its relationship to financial resources and their spending, in addition to studying economic activity (agriculture, irrigation, livestock, trade, crafts and industry, in order to identify financial resources in Yemen. the old.

The third chapter deals with the study of legislation and orders that impose financial resources in the old Yemen (Saba, Ma'in, Qataban, Hadramout), in addition to financial work and job titles. In dealing with the inscriptions of this chapter and the fourth chapter, the researcher relied on the inscriptions code (dasi), at the disposal of the researcher.

The fourth chapter: a study of the financial resources in ancient Yemen through the inscriptions (Saba, Ma'in, Qataban, Hadramout) the ten, the branch and other resources, in addition to a summary of the currencies used and their names at that time.

As for the conclusion, it included a presentation of the most important results that have been reached, and the study is appended to a list of sources, references, and appendices that include a list of inscriptions cited in this study, economic expressions and temple indexes, then maps, figures and paintings. The most important findings of the study with recommendations.