37 Preface أَهُم خَيرٌ أَم قَومُ تُبَّعٍ وَالَّذينَ مِن قَبلِهِم ۚ أَهلَكناهُم ۖ إِنَّهُم كانوا مُجرِمينَYusuf AliWhat! Are they better than the people of Tubba1 and those who were before them? We destroyed them because they were guilty of sin.2Tubba' is understood to be a title or family name of Himyar kings in Yemen, of the tribe of Hamdan. The Himyar were an ancient race. At one time they seem to have extended their hegemony over all Arabia and perhaps beyond, to the East African Coast. Their earliest religion seems to have been Sabianism, or the worship of the heavenly bodies. They seem at different times, later on, to have professed the Jewish and the Christian religion. Among the Embassies sent by the Prophet in A.H. 9-10 was one to the Himyar of Yemen, which led to their coming into Islam. This was of course much later than the date of this Sūra.In prehistoric time the Himyar and Yemen seem to have played a large part in Arabia and even beyond: see last note. But when they were intoxicated with power, they fell into sin, and gradually they ceased to count, not only in Arabia but even in Yemen.