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The Abasēnoi spoken of by Stephanus was located by Hermann von Wissman as a region in the Jabal Hubaysh (perhaps related in etymology with the ḥbš [[triliteral|root]]). Other places names in Yemen contain the ḥbš root, such as the Jabal Habashi (Ḥabaši), whose residents are still called al-Ahbuš (pl. of Ḥabaš).<ref name="Encyc2">Herausgegeben von Uhlig, Siegbert, [[Encyclopaedia Aethiopica]]: D-Ha. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2005. pp. 949.</ref> The location of the Abasēnoi in Yemen may perhaps be explained by remnant Aksumite populations from the 520s conquest by [[Kaleb of Axum|King Kaleb]]; [[Ezana of Axum|King Ezana's]] claims to Sahlen (Saba) and Dhu-Raydan (Himyar) during a time when such control was unlikely may indicate an Aksumite presence or coastal foothold.<ref>Munro-Hay. ''Aksum'', p. 72.</ref> Traditional scholarship has assumed that the Habashat were a tribe from modern-day Yemen that migrated to Ethiopia. However, the [[South Arabian alphabet|Sabaic]] inscriptions only use the term ḥbšt to the refer to the Kingdom of Aksum and its inhabitants, especially during the 3rd c., when the ḥbšt (Aksumites) were often at war with the Sabaeans and Himyraites.<ref name="Encyc2" />
===South Arabian/Sabean Origin theory===
[[File:Thequeenofsheba.jpg|left|thumb|205px|Nigist (Queen) [[Queen of Sheba|Makeda]] of [[Sheba]]]]
The Sabean theory was the most common one explaining the origins of the "Habashat" (Habesha) before the 20th century. It was first suggested by Hiob Ludolf and revived by early 20th century Italian scholar Conti Rossini. The theory states that at an early epoch South Arabian tribes, including one called the "Habashat" emigrated to the opposite African coast. According to this theory, Sabaeans brought with them South Arabian letters and language, which gradually evolved into the Ge'ez language and [[Ge'ez alphabet]]. However, though the Ge'ez alphabet did develop from [[South Arabian alphabet|Epigraphic South Arabian]] (whose oldest inscriptions are found in both Ethiopia and Eritrea and Yemen), it is now known that Ge'ez is not descended from any of the Old South Arabian languages.<ref name=Geez/>
In the large corpus of South Arabian inscriptions, however, there has never been mention of migration to the west coast of the Red Sea, nor of a tribe called "Habashat." All uses of the term date to the 3rd century AD and later, where they are always used in reference to the people of the Kingdom of Aksum.<ref>Matthew C. Curtis, "Ancient Interaction across the Southern Red Sea: cultural exchange and complex societies in in the 1st millennium BC", in ''Red Sea Trade and Travel'' (Oxford: Archaeopress, 2002), p. 60</ref><ref>A. K. Irvine, "On the identity of Habashat in the South Arabian inscriptions" in ''Journal of Semitic Studies'', 10 (1965), pp. 178-196</ref> In recent times, this theory has largely been abandoned.<ref>Stefan Weninger. "Ḥäbäshat", ''Encyclopaedia Aethiopica: D-Ha''.</ref>
==Culture==
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