Obodas I

Obodas I was a Nabataean king who ruled over the kingdom from 96 to 85 BC. Celebrated by his people for having defeated both Hasmonean and Seleucid forces who invaded Nabataea, he was worshipped and possibly deified after death - though this may be based on a faulty understanding of Nabataean religious practices which remain largely obscure to modern scholarship. A Nabataean inscription honouring him in Ein Avdat is considered to be one of the oldest examples of poetic verse in the Arabic language, transcribed in Nabataean script. The town of Avdat was named for him.