Cerbani
| Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (R) |
Cerbani was an Arabian tribe mentioned by Pliny[1].
Variants
Jat Gotras Namesake
- Kerapa = Cerbani (Pliny.vi.32)
- Serbal = Cerbani (Pliny.vi.32)
Mention by Pliny
Pliny[2] mentions Arabia....We then come to a promontory, from which to the mainland of the Troglodytæ it is fifty miles, and then the Thoani, the Actæi, the Chatramotitæ, the Tonabei, the Antidalei, the Lexianæ, the Agræi, the Cerbani, and the Sabæi37, the best known of all the tribes of Arabia, on account of their frankincense; these nations extend from sea to sea.38
37 Their country is supposed to have been the Sheba of Scripture, the queen of which visited king Solomon. It was situate in the south-western corner of Arabia Felix, the north and centre of the province of Yemen, though the geographers before Ptolemy seem to give it a still wider extent, quite to the south of Yemen. The Sabæi most probably spread originally on both sides of the southern part of the Red Sea, the shores of Arabia and Africa. Their capital was Saba, in which, according to their usage, their king was confined a close prisoner.
38 The Persian Gulf to the Red Sea.
Mention by Pliny
Pliny[3] mentions Arabia....We also learn from the same source (Ælius Gallus) that the Cerbani and the Agræi excel in arms, but more particularly the Chatramotitæ;65 that the territories of the Carrei are the most extensive and most fertile; but that the Sabæi are the richest of all in the great abundance of their spice-bearing groves, their mines of gold,66 their streams for irrigation, and their ample produce of honey and wax. Of their perfumes we shall have to treat more at large in the Book devoted to that subject.67
65 Another form of the name of Atramitæ previously mentioned, the ancient inhabitants of the part of Arabia known as Hadramant, and settled, as is supposed, by the descendants of the Joctanite patriarch Hazarmaveth.
66 Arabia at the present day yields no gold, and very little silver. The queen of Sheba is mentioned as bringing gold to Solomon, 1 Kings, x. 2, 2 Chron. ix. i. Artemidorus and Diodorus Siculus make mention, on the Arabian Gulf, of the Debæ, the Alilæi, and the Gasandi, in whose territories native gold was found. These last people, who did not know its value, were in the habit of bringing it to their neighbours, the Sabæi, and exchanging it for articles of iron and copper.
67 B. xii.
68 The "mitra," which was a head-dress especially used by the Phrygians, was probably of varied shape, and may have been the early form of the eastern turban.