Due to their hegemony of the Red Sea some Sabaeans lived in northern Ethiopia and Eritrea during the Sabaean-influenced kingdom of D`mt. Most modern historians consider this civilization to be indigenous,<ref>Stuart Munro-Hay, ''Aksum: An African Civilization of Late Antiquity''. Edinburgh: University Press, 1991, pp.57. </ref>, but some still view, as in the past, D`mt as the result of a mixture of "culturally superior" Sabaeans and indigenous peoples;<ref>Taddesse Tamrat, ''Church and State in Ethiopia: 1270-1527'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1972), pp.5-13.</ref> a very small minority even views the kingdom as wholly Sabaean and Ethiopians as the descendents of ancient Sabaean immigrants, but with little evidence.<ref>Megalommatis, Mohammed K.P. "[http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/8-4-2005-74197.asp Yemen’s Past and Perspectives are in Africa, not a fictitious 'Arab' world]"</ref>
Sabaeans were an ancient polytheistic people who worshiped the heavenly host, living in what is now Yemen. (Although they may have had a form of monotheism under the Queen of Sheba). The ancient Sabaean Kingdom lasted from the early 1st millennium (ca. 9th century BC) to the 1st century BC. In the 1st century BC it was conquered by the Himyarites who claimed to be the true Sabaeans, but after the disintegration of the first Himyarite empire of the Kings of Saba' and dhu-Raydan the Middle Sabaean Kingdom reappeared in the early 2nd century. It was finally conquered by the Himyarites around 280 CE. The kingdom of Himyar was the dominant state in Arabia until 525 CE.
Sabaeans may also refer to the monotheistic followers of [[Abdullah ibn Saba]]. A derogatory term for the Shiah, reflecting the claim that Shi'ite Islam was invented by Abdullah ibn Saba, a Yemenite or Persian Muslim-Jew who lived in the time of Caliph Uthman. He may have been a true Quranic Sabian opposing reforms to islam made by the Caliphate. Even so modern Shiah islam shares more in common with Sunni islam than with Seboghatullah.
==Noahide Sheba==
The people of Sheba were polytheistic but are frequently but erroneously confused (by those who know little better) with the [[Sabians]] mentioned in the Qur'an whose etymology is completely unrelated being spelled with an initial Arabic letter "Sad" instead of the initial letter "Sin" (hebrew Shin).
The issue was confused by Mohammed Marmeduke Pickthal in his translation of the Quran because at least one tribe of Sheba, the [[Ansar]] comprised a deaconate of the Hanif priesthood (like the Ethiopian Jew Heman ben Shalim). As a result of this, [[Hanif ]] priests used to run an altar (Kraba) in Mecca (Mekraba) called The Great Altar (as talked about in the Talmud Masechet Menuchot) during the reign of the Kingdom of Sheba. Thus the Shevaite people were regarded by Jewish authorities as Noahides from the time of the First Temple, when trade routes developed under Solomon.
When they were chased out of Mecca, the altar was taken over by the Himyar idol worshippers.