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Hadramaut


Hadhramaut, Hadhramout, Hadramawt or Ḥaḍramūt (Arabic: حضرموت‎‎ Ḥaḍramawt) is a region on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. The name is officially retained in Hadhramaut Governorate of the Republic of Yemen. The people of Hadhramaut are called Hadhrami and speak Hadhrami Arabic.

The origin of the name "Ḥaḍramawt" is not exactly known, and there are numerous competing hypotheses about its meaning.

The most common folk etymology is that the region's name means "death has come," from حضر /ḥaḍara/ (Arabic for "he came") and موت /mawt/ ("death"), though there are multiple explanations for how it came to be known as such. One explanation is that this is a nickname of 'Amar ibn Qaḥṭān, a legendary invader of the region, whose battles always left many dead. Another theory is that after the destruction of Thamūd, the Islamic prophet Ṣāliḥ relocated himself and about 4,000 of his followers to the region and it was there that he died, thus lending the region its morbid name "death has come." A third related etymology posits that حضر refers to the inhabitants of the area, themselves, and hints that the way of life of the ancient Hadhrami people was severe and ascetic in the eyes of the bordering kingdoms situated in today's North Yemen.

Ḥaḍramawt is also identified with Biblical Hazarmawet (Genesis 10:26 and 1 Chronicles 1:20). There, it is the name of a son of Joktan (who is also identified with Qahtan), the ancestor of the South Arabian kingdoms. According to various Bible dictionaries, the name "Hazarmaveth" means "court of death," reflecting a meaning similar to the Arabic folk etymologies.


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