The Minaeans from Arabic (المعينيون Maeeneyyoon) or (معين Maeen) (also spelled Ma`in) were an ancient Arab group in Yemen during the 1st millennium BC. Their Minaean Kingdom Arabic (مملكة معين Mamlakat Maeen) was one of the major kingdoms in ancient Yemen and Southwestern Arabia. Their capital was Qarnawu/Qarnaw (NW Yemen) along the strip of desert called Sayhad by medieval Arab geographers. The Minaean people were one of four ancient Yemenite groups (Greek ethnos) classified by Eratosthenes. The others were the Sabaeans, Hadramites and Qatabanians. Each of these had regional kingdoms in ancient Yemen, with the Minaeans in the north-east (in Wadi al-Jawf), the Sabeans to the south-east of them, the Qatabanians to the south-east of the Sabaeans, and the Hadramites east of them. The Minaeans, like some other Arabian and Yemenite kingdoms of the same period, were involved in the extremely lucrative spice trade, especially frankincense and myrrh.[1]
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