The Himyarites are a race or group of races in Arabia, regarded as descendants of Himyar, one of the mythical ancestors of the Arabs. According to tradition they became the dominant race in Yemen about 3000 years before Mohammed, and spread to the Euphrates on the one hand and Abyssinia on the other. Their most successful period appears to have been from about 100 BC until 629 AD, when they succumbed to Mohammedanism. The Himyaritic language, not now spoken, formed, with the Arabic and Ethiopia, the southern branch of the Semitic family of tongues. During the 19th century hundreds of Himyaritic inscriptions were collected, and deciphered by means of alphabets with the corresponding Arabic letters which had been preserved. The Mahrah tribes of south Arabia are the direct descendants of the ancient Himyarites. Research Himyarites
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