Cambridge linguist and anthropologist Roger Blench sees the Solubba as the last survivors of Palaeolithic hunters and salt-traders who once dominated Arabia.
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Generally, they were seen as unbelievers and suffered Wahhabi raids, with a notorious massacre in ĘżArĘżar valley.
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Those peoples may have engaged in trade across the Red Sea with speakers of Cushitic or Nilo-Saharan.