Editing Sheba (section)

=== The tribe ===
In the South Arabian tribal system, a fictitious shared ancestor was created and members of the tribe are referred to as the sons of the national god (in the case of Saba, they are "sons of Almaqah"). Allied states and tribes are called "brothers". Tribes were divided into lineages and sub-lineages, reflected by the names of members. The individual proper name appears along with the patronymic, the lineage name, and the name of the tribe, with the exception of funerary inscriptions, where the individual name is attested alone. In areas closer to the desert, the family name was more privileged and commonly mentioned, with the tribal name becoming less mentioned. Personal identity only went back to the name of the father, unlike in North Arabia in the same time period or the later Islamic period where a long sequence of ancestors is used to identify a figure. Identity was also in reference to the kingdom that one belonged to (Sabaeans, Qatabanians), not to a broader geographical construct (like "South Arabian").{{Sfn|Avanzini|2016|pp=57–60}}