Ancient South Arabian civilization has been largely ignored by anthropologists in their comparative study of complex cultures. This omission of South Arabia from the catalogue of civilizations is difficult to explain considering that during the first millennium BC this region gave rise to an economy based on long-distance trade in luxury goods and a complex division of labour which supported an urban culture and mature state politics manifest in a social structure based on class, a developed ritual life, and a military organization which conducted full-scale warfare with other regional civilizations. This paper deals with the evolution of the state in South Arabia and distinguishes the key factors which define a specifically South Arabian political culture. Besides the monopoly on the incense and spice trade between the Indian East and the Mediterranean region, South Arabian civilization was characterized by a dynamic tribe-state relationship; this dialectic promoted the rise and fall of numerous polities, as well as competition between ritual centres and peripheries. Overall, South Arabian political culture provided a rich and complicated background to the rise Of monotheism in the peninsula, an inter-civilizational competition for control over the Red Sea shipping lanes, and the appearance of Islam.