Explorations in Bible lands during the 19th century - H. V. Hilprecht

726 EXPLORATIONS IN BIBLE LANDS
on the coast of South Arabia, whence he brought back
squeezes and photographs of the inscription there, long
known but not accurately copied. Of these and of his inquiries,
in the winters of 1895—96 and 1896—97, among the
natives in Aden concerning the regions of Dathina, 'Awaliq
and El-Hadina comparatively still
unknown, he has given a
full report in his Arabicvz, no. 4 (Leiden, 1897). ^ n no -
5, of the same publication, which appeared in the fall of
1898, he continues these inquiries, giving us new and most
surprising information about the exact location of Baihan,
Maryama, Raidan, Harib, Timna c , the Wahidi land, and
Shabwa, the ancient capital of Hadhramot.
In December, 1898, the expedition of the Vienna Academy
to Shabwa, conducted by Count Landberg and accompanied
by the Viennese Orientalist D. H. Muller, departed
from Bal-Haf. But it failed to get farther than 'Azzan in
the Wadi Maifa'at, whence it had to return to the coast.
Although unsuccessful in its attempt to reach Ansab and
Shabwa, bv the mediation of Count Landberg the Vienna
expedition succeeded in securing a new squeeze of the
inscription found near Naqb el-Hajar and in
copying there
two more inscriptions hitherto unknown. From these it
was proved that the people in the Wadi Maifa'at in antiquity
were devoted to the worship of the god cAmm (J.
e.,
the Moon as the divine "uncle" or protector) and were
therefore probablv mere subjects of the powerful kingdom
of Oataban, which must have extended farther eastward than
was formerly supposed. In Aden, in consequence of disagreements
with Muller, Count Landberg quit the expedition
; while the former with some other scholars from
Vienna, mostly naturalists, proceeded (February, 1899) to
the island of Socotra, to study with Dr. Jahn the dialect of
the island, which is related to the Mahra language. Rich
as it is in ruins and inscriptions, Shabwa is still unvisited by
Europeans, awaiting exploration in the twentieth century.