VOL 5.10

At last it was the turn of the last of the youths from that line of

kings, Zur'ah Dhu Nuwas b. Tuban As'ad Abi Karib b. Malki Karib

b. Zayd b. 'Amr Dhi al-Adh'ar the brother of Hassan. 483 Zur'ah had

been only a small boy when his brother was killed, and had grown

up into a fine and handsome youth, with an attractive appearance

and intelligence. Lakhi’athah Yanuf Dhu Shanatir sent for him in

order to do with him as was his wont with the princes of the royal

house before him. When the messenger came to Zur'ah, he realized

what Lakhi’athah intended to do, so he took a slim-bladed,

sharp knife and placed it between his sandal and the sole of his

foot. Then he set out to Lakhi’athah with the latter's envoy. When

Lakhi’athah was alone with Zur'ah in that upper chamber of his,

he locked the door on the two of them and pounced upon Zur'ah.

But Dhu Nuwas leaped on him first with the knife and stabbed

him with it until he had killed him. Then he cut off his head and

stuck it in the window niche of that upper chamber of

Lakhi’athah's, from where he was accustomed to show himself to

his guards and troops. He took that toothpick of Lakhi’athah's and

stuck it in the latter's mouth, and went forth to the people. They

said to him, "Dhu Nuwas — was it wetness or dryness?" He -

483. Unlike Lakhi'athah, Dhu Nuwas is a fully historical figure, mentioned in

Byzantine sources, e.g., in the Greek of the Maityiium Aiethae as Dounaas. An

Arabic etymology for his name is given in the Arabic sources, e.g., Abu al-Faraj al- Isfahanl, Aghani 3 , XXII, 318, and Nashwan al-Himyari, Die auf Siidaiabien

beziiglichen Angaben Naswans, 106, as "the man with the dangling forelock, long

hair," but again is more likely to relate to a place name, or possibly to a deity. See

on him further, nn. 486, 488, 506 below, and Noldeke, trans. 174 n. 3, who also

notes that Zur'ah is likewise a historically-attested name, since one of the local

princes of Yemen who sent to the Prophet in autumn of the year 9/630 offering

their acceptance of Islam, was Zur'ah Dhu Yazan, quite possibly a descendant of

Dhu Nuwas; it was to him that Muhammad sent a group of $adaqah collectors

headed by Mu'adh b. Jabal. See Ibn Hisham, Skat al-nabi, ed. Wustenfeld, 955—57 - ed. al-Saqqa et al., IV, 235-36, tr. 642-44.

Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak 191

answered, "Ask n.kh.mas 484 — ’s.t.r.t.ban Dhu Nuwas — ’s.t.r.t.ban

Dhu Nuwas — [he is] unharmed ( la ba's )." They went off to look

when he called to them in these terms, and lo, there was the

severed head of Lakhi’athah Yanuf Dhu Shanatir in the window

niche, with his toothpick in his mouth, which Dhu Nuwas had

jammed there! Himyar and the guards went off after Dhu Nuwas

until they caught up with him and told him, "The only fitting

person to rule over us is yourself, since you have rid us of this

abominable fellow." They therefore made him king, and Himyar

and the tribes of Yemen rallied round him. 485 He was the last of

the kings of Himyar. He became a convert to Judaism ( tahaw -

wada), and the Himyarites followed him in this path. He adopted

the name of Yusuf (i.e., Joseph) and reigned for a considerable

time. 486

484. According to Ibn Hisham's gloss, Shat al-nabi, ed. Wiistenfeld, 20 - ed.

al— Saqqa et al., I, 31, tr. 14, n.khmas was a Himyari word for "head." The rest of this puzzling saying clearly has an obscene reference, as the word seemingly figuring in it — ist, "anus" — implies, explicit in Abu al-Faraj al-I?fahani, AgbanP, xxii, 3 * 9 -

485. This story comes also in Ibn Hisham, Shat al-nabi, ed. Wiistenfeld, 1 9-20 -

ed. al-Saqqa et al., I, 30-31, tr. 13-14; idem, Kitab al-tijan, 300-301; Abu al-Faraj

al-I?fahani, AgbanP, xxii, 318-19.

486. The questions of the date of the appearance of Judaism in Yemen, the

extent of that faith's spread from the ruler and nohles downward to the generality

of the population, and the nature and quality of that Judaism, have excited much

discussion.

There seems no reason to doubt the reports (al-Tabari, I, 892, 902, 905, pp. 145,

165-66, 170-71 above: one of Ibn Ishaq's informants for these seems to have been

Abu Malik b. Tha'labah b. Abi Malik al-Qura?i, whose grandfather had been a

Jewish client of Kindah and who had migrated from Yemen to Yathrib; see M.

Lecker, "Abu Malik 'Abdallah b. Sam of Kinda, a Jewish convert to Islam," 280-82 1 that Abu Karib As' ad accepted the Jewish faith in some form or other when he was at Yathrib in the first half of the fifth century and that the faith was already known at the Himyarite court in the time of his father Malki Karib, i.e., the end of the fourth century, when paganism was abandoned for monotheism. The implantation of a genuine Judaism there around that time would be parallel to the contemporaneous consolidation of the Christian community at Najran, for which see n. 487 below. See Smith, "Events in South Arabia in the 6th Century a.d.," 462-63; J. Ryckmans, "Le Christianisme en Arabie du Sud prdislamique," 417-19. 426-28, 447; Lecker, "The Conversion of Himyar to Judaism and the Jewish Banu Hadl of Medina," 129-36.

There is epigraphic evidence for the existence of adherents of Judaism in Yemen

proper during the later fifth century, in that the Bayt al-Ashwal I inscription was

erected at ?afar by a man called Yhwd’ Ykff Yehuda Yakkuf (for Yankuf ), clearly a native South Arabian, who invokes "the Lord of Heaven and Earth" and "His

192

Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

There were in Najran remnants of people who adhered to the

religion of Isa (Jesus), followers of the Gospel, virtuous and upright . 487

They had a head, of this same faith, called 'Abdallah b. al-

Thamir. The place where that faith originally took root was Najran,

which at that time was in the center of the land of the Arabs;

people (s 2 'b) Israel" and who mentions the king Dhara’ ’amar Ayman (II), who ruled in the later fourth century. See Muller, "Eine hebraeisch-sabaeische Bilinguis aus Bait al-ASwal," 117-23; Robin, in L’Ambie antique de Kaiib’il a Mahomet, 145- 46. Judaism seems to have made rapid advances at the Himyarite court, with three of the leading noble families, those of Hamdan, Yaz’an, and Hasbah, becoming converts. There was in the later fifth and early sixth centuries an important Jewish trading community on the island of Yotabe (not yet specifically located, but somewhere near the mouth of the Gulf of 'Aqabah; see Smith, "Events in South Arabia in the 6th Century a.d.," 428-29,- Z. Rubin, "Byzantium and Southern Arabia — the Policy of Anastasius," 388-89), which was controlled by a local chief called Amorcesos and which probably served as a base for mercantile activities down the Red Sea as far as the shores of Yemen.

We cannot judge how far below the level of the royal family and that of the great

nobles this adherence to Judaism may have penetrated; but more controversial is

the nature and quality of the faith as implanted in South Arabia — was it recognizably Rabbinical Judaism or was it an aspect of the monotheistic faith "Rahmanism," another aspect of which may have been the ascetic monotheism of the hanifs during the period just before Muhammad's call to prophethood? After ca. a.d. 450-60 the South Arabian inscriptions begin to give the "Lord of Heaven and Earth" the proper name of Rahmanan, one equally used by the Christian monotheists and, in the early seventh century, by Muhammad's rival among the Banu Hanifah of al-Yamama, Musaylimah. It does seem that, sixty or so years later, a ruler like Yusuf As'ar Dhu Nuwas was an enthusiastic Jewish believer. Jacques Ryckmans stressed that the name Rahmanan in South Arabia must have come originally from a Jewish milieu, almost certainly the Jewish communities of Medina and the settlements of the Wadi al-Qura, since the term stems from the Aramaic Rahmana, frequent in the Babylonian Talmud and sporadically found in the Jerusalem one, while rare in Christian texts of the time. But he went on to suggest that Rahmanan became generalized in South Arabian monotheistic usage, not least

among Christians, via the Christian community in Najran, by the end of the fifth

century, since it appears in an inscription of the Christian king Sumu-yafa' ASwa',

installed by the Ethiopians after the death of Dhu Nuwas (see n. 5 18 below), for the first person of the Trinity. See Ryckmans, "Le Christianisme en Arabie du Sud

preislamique," 436-40; Shahid, Byzantium and the Arabs in the Fourth Century,

100-06; Beeston, "Judaism and Christianity in Pre-Islamic Yemen," 271-78; idem,

"Himyarite Monotheism," 149-54; Rubin, op. cit., 387-88; Robin, in op. cit., 145-

47; idem, in Supplement au dictionnaize de la Bible, s.v. Sheba. II, cols. 1115-16,

1190-92.

Concerning the length of Dhu Nuwas's reign, tradition gives him one of thirty-

eight years, a vastly exaggerated number; see n. 488 below.

487. In Muslim ees, Christianity had in general degenerated by the time of the

Prophet's coming, leaving only "remnants" such as those mentioned here. Cf.

Noldeke, trans. 177 n. 2.

Shahid has propounded that Najran at this time came definitely within the

Holders of Power after Ardashlr b. Babak

193

its people, like all the rest of the Arabs, were (originally) idol

worshipers. At that point, a man called Faymiyun, from the -

Arabic cultural and liguistic sector of the Arabian Peninsula rather than the

Sabaean-Himyarite one, on the basis of the Arabic names of the Martyrs of Najran

and the existence there in the sixth century of a school of Arabic poets; but this

suggestion is rejected by such experts on South Arabian languages as W. W. Muller.

The advent of Christianity to Najran was part of a general percolation of mono-

theistic religions, specifically Judaism and Christianity, into the Arabian Penin-

sula (for Judaism in western and southern Arabia, see n. 486 above, and for Judaism at Najran specifically, where the community seems to have been an old, established one, see Lecker, "Judaism among Kinda and the Ridda of Kinda," 635-36).

Already in the mid-fourth century, the king of Himyar had received a diplomatic

mission sent by the Byzantine emperor Constantius n (r. 337-61) under Theo-

philus "the Indian" (who was actually from the island of Socotra, the whole region

of South Arabia and the Gulf of Aden shores being often referred to vaguely in

Byzantine sources as "India"), an Arian in faith like his master, and the king had

undertaken to build three churches within his dominions. Later in that same

century, Abu Karib As'ad and others of his family adopted a monotheism that

involved some form of Judaism (see n. 486 above). There may well have been some political factors at work here, since the Abyssinian kingdom of Axum was at this time adopting Christianity and the faith was also spreading among the Arabs of the northern and eastern fringes of the Peninsula. The Himyarite rulers may have wished to counter a possible threat of intervention on religious grounds from outside — intervention which was, indeed, to materialize when the power of the Himyarite monarchy went into decline in the early sixth century. J. Ryckmans

opined that both Nestorianism and Monophysitism were represented within the

Najran Christian community, but that the former was likely to have been more

favorably regarded by the Jewish or Judaizing Himyarite kings of the eighty years or so before the Abyssinian intervention in favor of Monophysitism, and that the

celebrated persecutions at Najran were essentially of the Monophysites there, with

the Nestorians merely looking on, if not actively encouraging the Himyarite

rulers; see his "Le Christianisme en Arabic du Sud prdislamique," 448, 450-52.

Through Abyssinian enthusiasm for Monophysitism, and a distinct Byzantine

preference for it over Nestorianism (see n. 511 below), Najran itself became the

focus in the sixth century for something like an Arabian national chinch, Monophysite in theology. From the time of the Byzantine emperor Anastasius I (r. 491- 518), the Himyarites had a bishop of their own, probably a Syrian and Monophysite in theology, called Silvanus, and we know the names of two Monophysite bishops, both named Paul, consecrated for Najran itself around this time (see below). During the early Islamic period, despite the deportations of Christians from Najran to Iraq by the second caliph 'Umar b. al-Khaftib, the faith was to survive there (as also in the island of Socotra, in the Gulf of Aden) into mediaeval Islamic times. The Nestorian Church in Iraq had contacts with Christians in southwestern Arabia for some three centuries after the advent of Islam: the Patriarch Timothy ordained a bishop for Yemen and $an'a’ in ca. 800, and John TV answered questions from a priest "of the people of Yemen" in ca. 900. See Fiey, Assyiie chi 6 tienne, HI, 230; Beaucamp and Robin, "Le Christianisme dans la p6ninsule arabique d'apr&s l'6pi- graphie et l'arch£ologie," 56-57 ; EP, s.v. Nadjran (Irfan Shahid).

But before the consolidation of Christianity in Najran under Byzantine and

Abyssinian influence came about, the desire of the Himyarite ruling strata to

194

Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

remnants of the adherents of that faith had come among them; he

summoned them to his religion and they adopted it.

Hisham related: [He was] Zur'ah Dhu Nuwas, but when he became

a convert to Judaism, he assumed the name of Yusuf . 488 It

preserve their national identity and culture between the two powerful Christian

realms of Byzantium and Abyssinia, had inevitably entailed a growing hostility

toward the indigenous Monophysite Christian community, even if for political

rather than strictly religious reasons. There was persecution under Sharahbi’il

Yakuf (known to have been reigning in 472), when we know from an Ethiopic

hagiographical work that the missionary Azqlr (whose name Ryckmans linked,

through deformed transcriptions, with the Yazdln of a Persian romance centered

round one of the Persian Christian martyrs; Beeston suggested a possible connection with Arabic al-Dhaklr "the famed, reputed one") was killed, possibly for proselytizing but certainly with some sort of Jewish involvement in the deed (see Ryckmans, op. cit., 441-43; Beeston, "The Martyrdom of Azqir," 5-10; Rubin, "Byzantium, and Southern Arabia — the Policy of Anastasius," 387-88); and Paul, the first bishop of Najran, was martyred at the Himyarite capital Zafar, stoned by the Jews there, at an unknown date before 52r but possibly before 504, as is known from the Syriac martyrological literature. Intervention by Abyssinia was not long in coming, and it seems that Yusuf As’ar Dhu Nuwas's predecessor Ma'dI Karib Ya'fur was placed on the throne of Himyar by the Abyssinians in late 518 or early 519, as part of a direct extension of Abyssinian influence into Yemen, involving even a permanent mission in Zafar, where (judging from their names) Abyssinian representatives built a palace for themselves during the reign of Ma'di Karib Ya 'fur's predecessor Marthad ’ilan Yanuf. The stage was thus set for the culmination of what had probably been a series of persecutions of the Christians of Najran, the most notorious being that in the proto-nationalist, pro-Jewish reaction, which intensified under Yusuf As’ar Dhu Nuwas ; see the following note. On the vestiges Arabian Christianity has left in the epigraphy and archaeology of the peninsula, see Beaucamp and Robin, op. cit., 45-61; on the position of Christianity in the politics and diplomacy of southwestern Arabia at this time, Robin, "Le royaume hujride," 699-702; and on the faith there in general, the references in the following note.

Noldeke, trans. 177 n. 3, thought that Faymiyun was most likely a shortened

form of Euphemion, so that this Greek name would point to a man coming from

the Byzantine lands. But since his time there has been further investigation of the

origins of this story of the introduction of Christianity to Najran, in particular, by

A. Moberg. Moberg traced the story of the Arabic sources, with its theme of the

wandering ascetic from Syria, to Persian Christian romantic legends of Yazdin-

Pethion, involving the martydom in Persia in 447 of Pethion, whose name yielded

the Arabic form Faymiyun. See the discussion of his views in J. Ryckmans, op. cit., 441-42.

The story of 'Abdallah b. al-Thamir is given in al-Tabari, I, 923-25, pp. 200-202

below.

488 . The actual name of Dhu Nuwas (this being a nickname or cognomen, see n.

483 above), of the family of Yaz’an, emerges from an inscription dating from the

month of Dhu Madhra'an 633 of the Himyarite era/June-July 523. His name is

given in the inscription as Yusuf/Yusuf (replacing Yanuf ?) As’ar Yath’ar, with the title "king of all the tribes, 's 2 'b n ," a much more modest one than the usual

grandiloquent ones of the Himyarite kings, such as "king of Saba’, Dhu Raydan,

Hadramawt, and Yamanat, together with the Arabs of the Tawd and the Tihamat"

(see nn. 3 14, 417 above) and one which seems to reflect the fact that, as an usurper, his rule was illegitimate.

Dhu Nuwas replaced the last Tubba' ruler Ma'di Karib Ya'fur between June 521

and June 322, and was defeated by the Abyssinians soon after Pentecost 525, killing himself shortly afterward (see al-Tabari, I, 927-28, p. 207 below). Whatever the nature of his commitment to Judaism (see n. 486 above)— and Shahid has suggested that he may well have started off as a Christian and as the designated successor of Ma'di Karib (but see above) — he embarked in 523 on his campaign to eliminate the Abyssinians and the indigenous Christians of southwestern Arabia.

The eight hundred-strong Abyssinian community in Zafar was put to death and

the Abyssinian-held fortresses in Shamir taken. Tihamah was conquered, and

Najran compelled to give hostages and to endure a blockade. Then in November of that same year 523, Najran was attacked and occupied, its Christian population

massacred, the churches burned down, and Greek and Abyssinian traders there

killed. See R. Bell, The Origin of Islam in Its Christian Environment, 33-63;

Smith, "Events in South Arabia in the 6th Century a.d.," 459-60; G. Ryckmans,

"Le Christianisme en Arabie du Sud preislamique, " 413-53; Altheim and Stiehl,

Die Araber in derAlten Welt, V/i, 373-85; idem, Christentum am Roten Meer, I,

442-43; Shahid, The Martyrs of Najrdn. New Documents, 266-68; Trimingham,

Christianity among the Arabs in Pre-Islamic Times, 297-99; Miiller, "Survey of

the History of the Arabian Peninsula," 129; Robin, in op. cit., 151-52; El 2 , s.w.

Dh u Nuwas (M. R. Al-Assouad), Mathamina (Chr. Robin); n. 506 below.

The chronology adopted here for these events, including the actual martyrdoms

at Najran and the happenings following on from them, is that put forward, after a

very thorough sifting of the evidence (from Byzantine Greek and Syriac sources and from contemporary South Arabian inscriptions) by Francois de Blois, that the

martyrdoms took place at the traditional date of 523 and not in 518, as argued by,

e.g., Rubin and Shahid. See de Blois, "The Date erf the "Martyrs of Nagran," 1 10- 27-

Holders of Power after Ardashlr b. Babak

195

was he who had the trench ( al-ukhdud ) dug out at Najran and

killed the Christians . 489

There related to us Ibn Humayd — Salamah — Muhammad b.

Ishaq — al-Mughirah b. Abi Labid, a freedman of al-Akhnas —

Wahb b. Munabbih al-Yamani , 490 who related to them that the

489. Traditional Qur’anic exegesis regarded the a$hdb al-ukhdud, "companions

of the trench," of LXXXV, 4-8, as being the Christian martyrs of Najran, praised for their steadfastness in the face of immolation or, occasionally, connected with the three men in Nebuchadnezzar's fiery furnace of Daniel, iii. i3ff. Joseph Hal6vy, on his pioneer expedition into Yemen in 1869-70 sponsored by the Acad6mie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, found that the Najran of that time was called Madinat al-Khudud (< Ukhdud); see his "Rapport sur une mission archtologique dans le Y6men, " 37-40. The connection with the martyrs of Najran was upheld by older generations of Western scholars, e.g., Noldeke, in his Geschichte des Qorans, 1/ 97 n. 3, and (originally) Richard Bell in his The Origin of Islam in Its Christian Environment, 38, 68. But it is now generally recognized as being not a specifically historical reference but, rather, an eschatological one, the "companions of the trench" being unbelievers destined for Hell Fire because of what they had done to the believers (v. 7}. See Bell, ed. Bosworth and M. E. J. Richardson, A Commentary on the Qur'an, II, 517,- EP, s.v. Ashab al-ukhdud (R. Paret).

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Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

implantation of that religion (sc., Christianity) in Najran arose

from the fact that there was a man from the remnants of the

followers of the faith of Isa b. Maryam called Faymiyun,— a pious

man, a zealous fighter for the faith and an ascetic, one whose

prayers were answered by God . 491 He used to wander forth, staying

in villages. As soon as he became known in one village (sc., as a

holy man and wonder worker), he would leave it for another village

 where he was not known. He lived entirely off what his own

hand gained; he was a builder, who worked with mud brick. He

used to keep Sunday holy, and when this day came round would

do no work but would go out into a desert place and pray and

worship there until it was evening. He was once in one of the

villages of Syria, performing those rites of his away from human

gaze, when a local man called Salih realized what sort of an exalted

religious state Faymiyun had attained and felt a love for him

such as he had never felt for anything previously . 492 He followed

Faymiyun around wherever he went, unperceived by Faymiyun,

until on one occasion Faymiyun went forth into the desert on

Sunday, as was his custom, followed by Salih, unbeknown to

Faymiyun. Salih sat down in a place where he could see

490. The Tabi' or Successor Abu 'Abdallah Wahb b. Munabbih (b. ca. 34/654-

55, d. 110/728 or 114/732) was one of the most knowledgeable of Umayyad period historians, especially regarding the "Stories of the Prophets" and regarding South Arabian lore, having been himself bom, of Persian stock, at Dhimar to the north of §an'a\ He seems to have been able to draw on both Jewish and Christian traditions (in the latter case, notably for the story of the events here at Najran); it is regrettable that his Kitab al-muluk al-mutawwajah min Himyar wa-akhbarihim waqisa$ih wa-quburihim wa-ash'arihimm is only known through later citations,

including extensively in the first part of Ibn Hisham's Kitab al-taj, which depends

heavily on Wahb. See Krenkow, "The Two Oldest Books on Arabic Folklore, " 5 6ff Sezgin, GAS, I, 305-307; EP, s.v. Wahb b. Munabbih (R. G. Khoury).

491. Noldeke, trans. 177 n. 3, regarded the following tale of Faymiyun and Salih,

and its sequel, the tale of 'Abdallah b. al-Thamir, as nothing but pious legend, but

Trimingham, Christianity among the Arabs in Pre-Islamic Times, 294-95,

thought that they should not be discounted as complete inventions but should be

considered as reflections of later Islamic attempts to iluminate the background of

the Prophet's life and to elucidate supposed Qur’anic references to events in Najran (but see on these references, n. 489 above).

492. The name $alih has connotations of "piety, God-fearingness," and also

evokes the name of the Qur’anic native Arabian prophet sent to warn Thamud. As

a personal name, it seems to be very rare in pre-Islamic usage. See EP, s.v. $alih (A.

Rippin).

Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

197

Faymiyun, but in a place concealed from Faymiyun, not wishing

the latter to know where he was. Faymiyun started praying, but

while he was preoccupied with this, a tinnin, a serpent with seven

heads, slid up to him . 493 On seeing it, Faymiyun called down a

curse on it, and it died. Salih saw the tinnin, but did not know

what had happened to it, and feared for Faymiyun's safety. Hence

he was overcome with concern for him and cried out, "O

Faymiyun, a tinnin has just come up to you!" But Faymiyun paid

no attention to him and kept on with his worship and prayers

until he had completed them. Evening having come on, he re-

turned, knowing that he had been recognized; $alih likewise knew

that Faymiyun had seen where he was. $alih addressed him, saying,

"O Faymiyun, God knows that I have never loved anything as

much as I love you,* I want to accompany you and be with you

wherever you may go." Faymiyun replied, "As you wish. You see

what my work is, but if you believe that you are strong enough to

undertake it yourself, well and good." Salih accordingly remained

with him closely, but the people of the village were on the verge of

discovering Faymiyun's real nature. For when one of God's servants

with some disease suddenly crossed his path, Faymiyun

prayed for him, and he was cured; but when he was summoned to

a sick person, he refused to go. Now one of the people of that

village had a son who had some affliction [darir ], 494 and he asked

about Faymiyun's conduct. He was told that he never came when

expressly summoned but that he was a man who did building

work for people in return for his hire. So the man went along to

that son of his, and put him in his room and threw a garment over

him. Then he went to Faymiyun and asked him, "O Faymiyun, I

want some building work done in my house, so come back with

me and have a look at it, so that I can discuss conditions with

you." Faymiyun went back with him and entered the room. He

next said, "What do you want done in your house?" The man

replied, "So-and-so," and whisked away the garment from of the

lad, saying, "O Faymiyun, one of God's servants has been afflicted

as you can see; so pray to God for him!" Faymiyun exclaimed

493. The tinnin appears as a seven-headed dragon in Jewish Haggadic lore, taken

over subsequently into the Islamic qi$a? al-anbiya' stories; see, e.g., W. M.

Thackston Jr., The Tales of the Prophets of ahKisa’i, Boston 1978, 201.

494. Thus in the context, rather than "blind."

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Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

when he saw the boy, "O God, Your enemy has entered into the

sound health which You bestowed on one of your servants in order

to destroy it, so cure him, restore him to health and protect him

from the Devil!" The boy thereupon got up and was completely

free of any defect.

Faymiyun now realized that he was recognized, so departed

from the village, with Salih accompanying him. On one occasion,

he was walking somewhere in Syria and passed by a large tree. A

man called down to him from the tree, saying, "Is that

Faymiyun?" The latter replied, "Yes." The man said, "I have been

continuously awaiting you and have kept saying, 'When is he

coming?' until I heard your voice and knew that you were its

owner. Don't go away until you have prayed over my grave, for I

am now at the point of death." He related: He did die at that

moment, and Faymiyun prayed over him and buried him. 495 Then

[922] he departed, accompanied by Salih, until the two of them set foot

in part of the land of the Arabs. But the Arabs swept down on

them, and a caravan of some Arab group snatched them up, carried

them off, and finally sold them in Najran.

At that period, the people of Najran followed the religion of the

Arabs, worshiping a lofty date palm in their midst. Every year they

had a festival, when they hung on that tree every fine garment

they could find and also women's ornaments. Then they went

forth and devoted themselves to worship of it for the whole day. 496

One of the nobles of Najran purchased Faymiyun, and another

man purchased Salih. Now one night Faymiyun stood up in a hut

( bayt ) his master had allotted to him, praying, when the whole hut

495. The man in the tree was presumably a dendrite, a tree-dwelling ascetic,

with a way of life analogous to that of a stylite or pillar dweller.

496. The worship of sacred trees was a standard feature of ancient Semitic

religion, attested among the Canaanites, Phoenicians, etc. In Arabia, as well as this date palm at Najran, there was the acacia tree ( samurah ) at al-Nakhlah, between Mecca and al-Ta’if, embodiment of the goodess al-'Uzza, and the great tree at Hunayn called dhat anwat "(treej on which date baskets, etc., are hung," to which the people of pre-Islamic Mecca used to resort and bring gifts. See Robertson Smith, Lectures on the Religion of the Semites. First Series. The Fundamental Institutions, 1 8 5 f f; J. Wellhausen, Reste arabischen Heidentums 2 , 36, 104-105; H.

Lammens, Le berceau de l’lslam, 7-72; Buhl, Das Leben Muhammeds, 79-80;

Fahd, Le pantheon de V Arabic centrale d la veille de l’Mgire, 31-32,58. Noldeke,

trans. 1 8 1 n. 1 , attributed the hanging of women's ornaments on the tree to the fact that the word for date palm, ndkhlah, is of feminine gender in Arabic.

Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

199

was filled with light as if from a lamp, until it was completely

illuminated but without the presence of any lamp. Faymiyun's

master saw this, and the sight filled him with wonder. He asked

Faymiyun about his religion, and the latter told him about it.

Faymiyun explained to him: "You people are completely in error;

this date palm can neither harm nor benefit, and if I were to invoke

against it the One whom I worship, He would destroy it. He

is God, the One, without any partner." 497 He related: His master

told him, "Do that, and if you can bring that to pass, we will

embrace your religion and abandon the one we used to hold." He

related: Faymiyun arose, purified himself, prayed two rak'ahs , 498

and then invoked God's curse on the date palm. God sent a wind

that tore it up from its roots and cast it down. At that, the people of

Najran followed Faymiyun and adopted his religion. He instructed

them in the law ( shaiFah ) of the faith of isa b. Maryam. But after

that, various innovations ( ahdath ) 499 came into their faith, as into

that of their coreligionists in every land. From this center, the

Christianity of Najran spread in the land of the Arabs — all this

being the report of Wahb b. Munabbih concerning the people of

Najran. 500

There related to us Humayd — Salamah, who said: There related

to us Muhammad b. Ishaq — Yazid b. Ziyad, a freedman of the

Banu Hashim — Muhammad b. Ka'b al-Qurazi. 501 He said: There

related to us also Muhammad b. Ishaq from a man of the people of

497. Anticipating, in its Qur’anic phraseology regarding God's unity, tawhld,

Muhammad's denunciation, in his later years at Mecca, of the "Daughters of

Allah," the three pagan goddesses worshiped by Quraysh, as having no spiritual

efficacity, either positive or negative. See on this last episode, involving the so-

called Satanic verses, Watt, Muhammad at Mecca, 100- 109.

498. Looking forward to the rak’ah, the act of bowing and bending, which forms

part of the Muslim §aldt.

499 This seems to be the sense here of afydath, rather than the general one of

"events, happenings."

500. This tale, of no direct relevance to the drama of political and military

events in South Arabia that swirled around such figures as Dhu Nuwas and Abra-

hah, is given in Ibn Hisham, SIrat al-nabi, ed. Wiistenfeld, 20-22 - ed. al-Saqqa et

al., I, 32-35, tr. 14-16.

501. Muhammad b. Ka'b (d. 118/736), descended from the Medinan Jewish clan

of Qurayzah, was a Successor famed both as an early Qur’an commentator and as a retailer of akhbai, historical traditions, and in this last utilized by Ibn Ishaq. See

Sezgin, GAS, I, 32.

200

Holders of Power after Ardashlr b. Babak

Najran: The people of Najran were polytheists who worshiped

idols. In one of their villages near Najran— Najran being the major

urban center there, in which the people of that region used to

come together — there was a sorcerer who used to teach magic to

the Najran youths. When Faymiyun took up residence in Najran

(He related: They did not call him by the name which Wahb b.

Munabbih gives him, but they simply said "a man took up residence

 there"), he put up a tent between Najran and that village

where the sorcerer lived. The people of Najran began to send their

boys to that sorcerer, who then taught them magic. Hence al-

Thamir sent his son 'Abdallah b. al-Thamir, together with the

other youths of the people of Najran. When ‘Abdallah b. al-Thamir

passed by the man in the tent, he was astonished by what he saw

of the man's praying and acts of devotion, and began to sit with

him and listen to him, until he surrendered himself to God

(aslama), acknowledged God's unity, and worshiped Him. He set

about asking the man about the Greatest Name (of God), but al-

though the man knew it, he concealed it from him with the words,

"O my nephew, you will not be able to bear it; I fear you are too

weak for it ." 502 He therefore refused to tell him. Meanwhile, al-

Thamir, the father of 'Abdallah, had no idea that his son 'Abdallah

was not going along [regularly] to the sorcerer just as the other

youths were doing. When 'Abdallah saw that his master had kept

the knowledge [of God's Greatest Name] from him and was afraid

for his weakness, he took a number of arrows and gathered them

together . 503 Every name of God that he knew he wrote on an

arrow, every name on a single arrow. When he had counted all the

502. This is what became the Islamic equivalent of the Jewish name of God, the

tetragrammaton yhwh, ha-shem ha-msforash, known only to the High Priest, who

was only allowed to pronounce it once a year. In Islam, the secret name of God

becomes a word of power, whose possessor can wreak with it mighty, supernatural deeds. See Noldeke, trans. 183 n. 1.

503 Arrows were used for oracular and divinatory purposes in some sectors at

least of ancient Semitic religion, as in Ezek. xxi. 21, where the king of Babylon

consults his divining arrows. In Qur’an, V, 4/3, al-istiqsam bi-al-azlam, "division

[of a sacrificial offering] by means of arrows," which is said to have been practiced in the Ka'bah of pre-Islamic times before the image of the god Hubal (see Ibn al- Kalbi, Kitab al-asnam, 17, tr. Klinke-Rosenberger, 44 and 114-15 n. 256, tr. Faris 23-24; al-Tabari, I, 1075-78), is denounced as a relic of paganism. See Fahd, La divination aiabe, 181-82; EP-, s.v. Istiksam (T. Fahd).

Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak 201

names, 504 he lit a fire for this special purpose and began to throw

the arrows on it one by one, until he finally reached the arrow

with the Greatest Name of God jon it]. He threw it on the fire, but

it immediately sprang out completely undamaged. He went up to

it and grasped it, and then went to his master and informed him

that he had now come to know the name his master had concealed

from him. His master questioned him about it, and the youth

replied that it was such-and-such. His master said, "How did you

come to know it?" The boy told him how he had set about

discovering it. He related: He then said, "O my nephew, you have

got it correctly, but keep it to yourself — yet I don't think you

actually will."

Thereafter, whenever 'Abdallah b. al-Thamir came to Najran

and met any sick person there he would invariably say, "O servant

of God, will you confess the unity of God and adopt my religion, so

that [if you do], I may invoke the blessing of God and He will cure

you of your affliction?" The sick person would assent. 'Abdallah

would thereupon proclaim God's unity, submit himself to God,

and pray to Him, so that the man was then healed. In the end,

there was no sick or maimed person left in Najran who did not

come to him and then followed him in his faith; 'Abdallah in-

voked God's blessing on the sick person and he was healed. Ultimately,

the news of his activity reached the king of Najran. He

sent for 'Abdallah and accused him: "You have corrupted the people

of my town and have set yourself against my religion and that

of my forefathers; I shall inflict exemplary punishment on you!"

'Abdallah replied, "You have no power to do that." The king set

about dispatching him to a high mountain, from whose summit

he was hurled down; but he fell to the ground totally unhurt.

Next, the king had him consigned to some waters at Najran, [deep]

stretches of water out of which nothing had ever emerged alive.

He was thrown into them, but again came out unharmed.

Having thus triumphed over the king, 'Abdallah b. al-Thamir

told him, "By God, you will never be able to kill me until you

confess the unity of God and believe in my own system of belief;

but if you do that, you will be given power over me and will be able

504. A total formalized in later Muslim piety as the "Ninety-nine Most Beauti-

ful Names" of God. See EP-, s.v. al-Asma’ al-husna (L. Gardet).

202

Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

to kill me." That king thereupon confessed the unity of God and

bore witness to the creed of 'Abdallah b. al-Thamir. He then

struck him with a staff he had in his hand, striking his head with a

blow of only moderate violence, thereby killing him; but the king

himself then dropped dead on the spot. The people of Najran accepted

the faith of 'Abdallah b. al-Thamir en masse, and henceforth

held fast to the gospel and the law that Jesus son of Mary had

brought. Subsequently, they were affected by the events that also

affected their coreligionists. This was the origin of Christianity at

Najran. 505

Such is the report of Muhammad b. Ka'b al-Qurazi and another

scholar of Najran knowledgeable about that event; but God is the

most knowledgeable [about all this].

He (i.e., Ibn Ishaq) related: Dhu Nuwas marched against them

with his forces of the Himyarites and the tribes of Yemen. He

gathered the people of Najran together, and summoned them to

the Jewish faith, offering them the choice between that and being

killed. They chose being killed, so he dug out for them the trench

[ al-ukhdud ). He burnt some of them with fire, slew some violently

with the sword, and mutilated them savagely until he had

killed nearly twenty thousand of them. 506 Out of them there -

505. There was pointed out to Hal6vy, at the ruins of the old town of Najran, a

mosque built at the tomb of 'Abdallah b. Tamir (sic), described to him as the first

Muslim apostle to the district, although scholars in Najran attributed the tomb to

a saint of pre-Islamic times; see his "Rapport sur une mission arch^ologique dans

le Y6men," 39-40. Today, there is a police post in the Wadi Najran named Qasr

'Abdallah b. Thamir after the nearby supposed tomb of the wall of this name, see

Beaucamp and Robin, "Le Christianisme dans la peninsule arabique d'aprfcs l'6pi-

graphie et l'archeologie," 53—54 and n. 49.

506. Ibn Ishaq has more detail here than Ibn al-Kalbl on the actual martyrdom of

the Christians. Although the Syriac Book of the Himyarites, composed in the

second quarter of the sixth century and therefore very close to the time in question, i.e., 523, mentions nothing about the Christians being put in a pit, the recently discovered Syriac "new" letter of Simeon of Beth Arsham specifically says that two thousand Christians were immolated when their church was burned. See Shahid's edition, translation, and study, The Martyrs of Najran. New Documents.

Dhu Nuwas's policy here may not have been one that he conceived and pursued

entirely of his own accord, in isolation from outside considerations, given the

possible background of his conversion to some form of Judaism (see n. 486 above).

That it was aimed at countering an extension of Christian Abyssinan influence in

Yemen is clear, but Dhu Nuwas may have looked for support in another quarter of

Arabia. M. J. Kister has suggested, with impressive documentation, that the

Lakhmid king of al-Hirah al-Mundhir DI (on whom see nn. 362, 409 above) exerted a measure of control across Najd as far as Medina, with the bacldng of his suzerains the Sasanids, for whom an 'amil collected taxes in Medina at this time; see his " Al- Hira. Some Notes on Its Relations with Arabia," 144-49. From this possibility of an alliance between the pagan Lakhmid rulers with the Jewish tribes in Medina, who were still dominant over the local Arabs of the Yathrib oasis during the first half of the sixth century, Shahid and Altheim and Stiehl have gone on to suggest that Dhu Nuwas, in his anti-Abyssinian and anti-Christian policies at Najran and in Yemen, looked to al-Mundhir for at least moral and perhaps diplomatic backing, given the apparent connection of the later Himyarite kings' Jewish tendencies or sympathies with Medina (cf. the tale, in al-Tabari, I, 901-905, pp. 164-70 above, of Tuban As'ad Abu Karib's espousal of Judaism when passing through Medina, and also n. 486 above). Furthermore, Hamza al-I$fahani, Ta’rikh, 113, states that "Dhu Nuwas halted at Yathrib when once he was passing through, and was favorably impressed by the Jewish faith. Hence he adopted it for himself, and the Jews of Yathrib incited him to attack Najran and to inflict trials and tribulations on the Christians there." Al-Mundhir, for his part, would have welcomed an opportunity to counteract Abyssinian power over southwestern Arabia. See Noldeke, trans. 183 n. i; Bell, The Origin of Islam in Its Christian Environment, 36-39; Altheim and Stiehl, Die Araber in det Alten Welt, V/i, 359-61; eidem, Christentum am Roten Meet, I, 440-41; Shahid, The Martyrs of Najrdn, 266-68; Trimingham, Christianity among the Arabs in Pre-Islamic Times, 297; Rubin, "Byzantium and Southern Arabia — the Policy of Anastasius," 401-402.

However, by the time the Abyssinians appeared in Yemen in 52$ in order to

avenge the Martyrs of Najran and the Abyssinians slain in southwestern Arabia, al- Mundhir was in no position to offer any military help, being hard pressed by his rivals of Kindah and being shortly afterward ejected, albeit temporarily, from his own capital al-Hirah by the Kindi al-Harith b. *Amr (see n. 362 above).

Holders of Power after Ardashlr b. Babak

203

escaped only one man, called Daws Dhu Tha'laban, on one of his

horses, who traveled through the sands until he threw his pur-

suers off . 507

He related: I have heard a certain man from the people of Yemen

say that the man who escaped from them was a man of Najran

called Jabbar (var. HayyanJ b. Fayd. He related: In my view, the

more authentic of the two reports is that of the man who narrated

to me that it was Daws Dhu Tha'laban.

Dhu Nuwas returned with his forces to San'a’ in the land of

Yemen . 508 Concerning Dhu Nuwas and his troops, there narrated

507. Dhu Tha'laban was the name of one of the eight great noble families of

Himyar, influential either during the period of independent Himyarite royal power

or during that of Abyssinian and then Persian domination over southwestern Ara-

bia that followed the extinction of the Himyarite ruling dynasty, Tha'lab being

apparently a tribal name. Epigraphic evidence does support the fact that the Dhu

Tha'laban came from the Najran area. See Noldeke, trans. 186 n. i, El 2 , s.v. al-

Mathamina (Chr. Robin).

508. §an'a’ emerges into prominence only in the inscriptions of the third -

century a . d ., although it doubtless had a history before that time. It was a hgr/hajaT or town in what was at that time the petty kingdom of Samay, which was seemingly linked in some sort of federal arrangement with Saba’. It was a military center, as the probable connection of its name with the Sabaean root s.n.\ "to fortify ja place]," indicates (al-Hamdani, $ifat jazuat al-'Arab, 81, states however that the town's ancient name was Azal). San'a’ seems to have reached a peak of importance within the wider Sabaean state at this time, with one of its kings, Ilisharah Yahdab, named in Islamic sources (e.g., Yaqut, Buldan, IV, 210). As builder of the famous castle of Ghumdan (see al-Tabari, I, 928, p. 209 and n. 520 below). After this, $an'a’ suffered a temporary eclipse when power shifted to the Himyarite dynasty of the Tubba's, with their capital at Zafar (see n. 47 s above). Neither $an’a’ nor Ghumdan figure in inscriptions dating from the fourth to the sixth centuries. The town does nevertheless seem to have had within it during pre-Islamic times a mhrm/mahiam, a place to which access was prohibited or restricted, usually for religious or cultic reasons, and R. B. Serjeant suggested that the pre-Islamic hijrah or sacred area of San'a’ may have existed in parallel with the Haram of Mecca. One can therefore easily comprehend that the profanation of the Christian church built atSan'a’ by Abrahah (see al-Tabari, I, 934, 943, pp. 217, 232-33 below) was a particularly heinous action if, as seems possible, the church was situated in the mahtam area. See Shahid, "Byzantium and South Arabia," 81-83; Beeston, "Pre-Islamic $an'a’," 36-38; Serjeant, "San'a’ the 'Protected', Hijrah," 39-40; EP, s.v. §an'a’ (G. R. Smith).

204

Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

to us Ibn Humayd — Salamah b. al-Fadl — Muhammad b. Ishaq,

who said: God sent down to His Messenger the words "Slain were

the Men of the Trench, with the fire abounding in fuel," to His

words "... and God, the Mighty, the Praiseworthy." 509 It is said

that 'Abdallah b. al-Thamir, their leader and imam, was among

those whom Dhu Nuwas killed, but it is also said that 'Abdallah b.

al-Thamir was killed before that event, killed by a previous ruler.

He was the founder of that faith [at Najran], and Dhu Nuwas only

slew adherents of 'Abdallah's religion who came after him.

As for Hisham b. Muhammad, he says that the royal power in

Yemen was handed down continuously, with no one venturing to

contest it until the Abyssinians ( al-Habashah ) seized control of

their land in the time of Anusharwan. He related: The reason for

their conquest was that Dhu Nuwas the Himyarite exercised

royal power in Yemen at that time, and he was an adherent of the

Jewish faith. There came to him a Jew called Daws from the people

 of Najran, who told him that the people of Najran had unjustly

slain his two sons; 510 he now sought Dhu Nuwas's help against

509. See n. 489 above.

510. Noldeke thought that, given the deeply rooted hostility of Eastern

Christians toward Jews, this incident was perfectly possible.

Holders of Power after Ardashlr b. Babak

205

them. The people of Najran were Christians. Dhu Nuwas was a

fervent partisan of the Jewish faith, so he led an expedition against

the people of Najran, killing large numbers of them. A man from

the people of Najran fled and in due course came to the King of

Abyssinia. He informed the king of what the Yemenis had committed

 and gave him a copy of the Gospels partly burned by the

fire. The King of Abyssinia said to him: "I have plenty of men, but

no ships [to transport them]; but I will write to Qaysar (i.e., the

Byzantine Emperor) asking him to send me ships for transporting

the soldiers." Hence he wrote to Qaysar about this matter, enclosing

the [partly] burned copy of the Gospels, and Qay§ar dispatched

a large number of ships . 511

5 1 1. Refugees from Najran and the other places in Yemen and Haqbamawt

where there had been persecutions (the Syriac Book of the Himyarites mentions

that these occurred in five towns, Zafar, Najran, "the town of Hadramawt," Marib,

and [Hajjjaren; see Shahid, "Byzantium in South Arabia," 38) probably managed to escape to Abyssinia and possibly to Byzantine territory at the head of the Red Sea.

At all events, the news speedily reached the Christian kingdoms of Axum and

Byzantium, and the sufferings of the Najranites entered their martyrologies (the

Ethiopian Church adopted into its calendar the commemoration of the sama'tata

Ne$ran, "witnesses of Najran," on 26 November,- see H. M. Hyatt, The Church of

Abyssinia, 32). The martyrdoms at Najran involved essentially, as noted in n. 487

above, the local Monophysites, and the Church of Abyssinia was also Monophysite. Byzantium was Melkite, and persecuted Monophysites within the empire's boundaries, but southwestern Arabia was sufficiently far from the imperial heartlands for theological niceties not to count in the face of a Judaizing ruler and his persecution of Christians. Justin halted his own persection of the Monophysites within his dominions, and utilized the Monophysite Patriarch of Alex- andria as his intermediary with the Abyssinian Najashl or Negus in Axum.

Eventually, a fleet of some sixty merchant ships commandeered by the Byzan-

tine authorities set out from Adulis, the port of Axum on what is now the Eritrean

coast under the leadership of the king in Axum, Kaleb, who had the regnal name of £lla A$b6ha (rendered by Procopius, The Persian War, I.xx.1-13, as Hellesthaios for Hellesbaios; in a South Arabian inscription T$bh). This was probably in the spring or summer of 525. Kaleb's activities as the restorer of Christianity in South Arabia were to earn him great renown with in the church. After disposing of Dhu Nuwas, £lla A?bfiha seems to have erected a victory inscription in Ge’ez, one which is unfortunately only fragmentary legible, at Marib. He very probably engaged in a campaign of revenge, slaughtering great numbers of Himyarites and destroying their idols and temples. He certainly embarked upon an extensive program of church building in southwestern Arabia, details of which are given in the Greek— possibly with a Syriac Vorlage — hagiographical Vita Sancti Gregentii, whose extensive information here has been made the subject of a close study by Irfan Shahid. See Noldeke, trans. 188 n. i> Smith, "Events in South Arabia in the 6th Century a.d.," 454 - 55 ; Murad Kamil, "An Ethiopian Inscription found at Mareb," 56-57,- Altheim and Stiehl, Die Araber in deiAlten Welt, V/i, 385-91, • eidem, Chzistentum am Roten Meei, I, 445-57? Shahid, "Byzantium in South Arabia," 23-94.

206

Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

The narrative returns to that of Ibn Ishaq. There related to us Ibn

Humayd — Salamah — Muhammad b. Ishaq — 'Abdallah b. Abi

Bakr b. Muhammad b. 'Amr b. Hazm, who related that there was a

man from the people of Najran in the time of 'Umar b. al-

Khattab 512 who dug up one of the ruined sites of Najran intending

to utilize it, and found [the body of] 'Abdallah b. al-Thamir inside

a hollow there that had become filled with sand [dafn, difn ). He

was in a sitting position, with his hand covering the wound from

the blow to his head, holding it firmly with that hand. When his

hand was lifted off, the wound began to flow with blood, but when

his hand was released, he placed it back on the wound and the flow

of blood ceased. On [the finger of] his hand was a seal ring, with

the inscription "My lord is God." A report was sent to 'Umar

telling him the story, and he wrote back to them: "Leave him

[927] alone, and replace the grave that was over him," so they did

that. 513

When Daws Dhu Tha'laban threw off his pursuers in this manner,

he pressed onward until he came to Qaysar, the ruler of al-

Rum. 514 He requested his help against Dhu Nuwas and his troops,

and told him what his people had suffered from them. Qaysar

replied, however, "Your land is distant from our own and too

remote for us to be able to reach it with our own armies, but I will

write on your behalf to the king of Abyssinia, for he is a Christian

also. He is nearer than us to your land, hence can give you aid,

protect you, and exact vengeance on your behalf from those who

oppressed you and who violently shed the blood of you and your

coreligionists."

Qaysar sent back Daws with a letter to the king of Abyssinia in

which was mentioned Daws's moral entitlement to help and what

he and his coreligionists had endured, and Qaysar commanded the

king of Abyssinia to provide Daws with succor and the means for

512. That is, in the later 630s or early 640s.

513. This same story of the discovery of 'Abdallah b. al-Thamir's corpse is found

in al-Hamdanl, Iklil, 134-35, tr. 80-81.

514. Here the narrative returns to the account of Ibn al-Kalbi broken off by this

parenthesis from Ibn Ishaq.

Holders of Power after Ardashlr b. Babak

207

him to exact vengeance for these who had treated him and his

fellow Christians wrongfully.

When Daws Dhu Tha'laban presented Qaysar's letter to the

Najashi, 515 ruler of Abyssinia, the latter sent a force with Daws of

seventy thousand Abyssinian troops, appointing as commander

over them one of their number, an Abyssinian called Aryat (?

Arethas). 516 He laid upon him the following charge: "If you secure

the victory over (i.e., Dhu Nuwas and the Yemenis), kill a third of

their menfolk, lay waste a third of their land, and capture and

enslave a third of their women and children." Aryat set out with

his troops. Among these last was Abrahah al-Ashram ("the man

with a cut-off nose tip"). 517 He crossed the sea with Daws Dhu

Tha'laban until they landed on the coast of Yemen. Dhu Nuwas

heard of their approach, and he collected together at his side

Himyar and those tribes of Yemen owing him obedience, but there

were many dissensions and divisions in their ranks on account of

the approaching end of the period {appointed by God], the suffering

of hardships, and the coming down of punishment. There ensued

no real battle and Dhu Nuwas was only able to engage in a certain

amount of skirmishing, and then his troops were put to flight and

Aryat overran the land with his forces. Hence when Dhu Nuwas

saw what had befallen him and his supporters, he headed his horse

toward the sea; he whipped it onward and it went into the sea,

bearing him through the shallows until it carried him into the

deep water. He urged it onward into the open sea, and that was the

last ever seen of him. 518

515. An accurate rendering of Ethiopic Nigasi, "ruler, king," used also as a

regnal title (and Anglicized as Negus). The Najashi figures extensively in the Sirah of the Prophet, in the first place in connection with the two hijrahs of the first Muslims from Mecca to Abyssinia. See EP, s.v. al-Nadjashi (E. van Donzel).

516. The reading of this name is uncertain; the manuscripts have Aryat and

Arbat, but other renderings are possible. See the detailed discussion of the evidence from parallel Greek sources in NOldeke, trans. 190 n. 3.

5 17. Abrahah is the Arabic form of Ethiopic Abrfcha.

$18. Dhu Nuwas seems in reality to have been killed by the Abyssinians in

battle; this final touch about the mode of his death must be a romanticizing, South

Arabian one, as remarked by Nbldeke, trans. 191 n. 2.

The events of the years immediately after Dhu Nuwas's death are somewhat

obscure. De Blois has suggested that the Abyssinian invaders, having disposed of

Dhu Nuwas, set up a puppet Christian king called Abraham (not to be confused

with the subsequent Abrahah) and then withdrew the bulk of their troops back

across the Bab al-Mandab. But the Ethiopian hold in Yemen was clearly a precarious one, for within a short time, the anti- Abyssinian party in Yemen apparently got the upper hand once more, necessitating a second Abyssinian invasion at the end of 530 or the beginning of 531 on the pretext of Jewish persecution of the Christians there. This was once more successful. Procopius records the expedition, and his information is confirmed by the Hisn al-Ghurab inscription (CIH 621) of 640 Himyarite era/A.D. 530-31, in which a local potentate, the Christian Sumuyafa' ASwa', records the killing of a local king of the Himyarites and his own subordination to the HbSt: This local potentate is Procopius's Esimiphaios, now appointed king of Yemen under Abyssinian suzerainty. In any event, Sumu-yafa' A§wa’ cannot long have reigned before the usurpation of the former slave Abrahah (see al-Tabari, I, 93off., pp. 2i2ff. below). All this implies that there were in fact three Abyssinian invasions of South Arabia within two decades: one ca. 518; a second one between 525 and 527, resulting in the overthrow of Dhu Nuwas and the setting-up of Abraham; and a third one at the end of 530 or beginning of 531 after Abraham's death and the temporary resurgence of the anti-Abyssinian party, resulting in the establishment of Esimphaios. See de Blois, "The Date of the 'Martyrs of Nagran,'" 119-20. For other reconstructions of events at this time, see Smith, "Events in South Arabia in the 6th Century a.d.," 455-56; Altheim and Stiehl, Christentum am Roten Meei, I, 446-47; Robin, in Supplement au dictionnaire de la Bible, s.v Sheba, n, col. 1143; El 2 , s.v. Abraha (A. F. L. Beeston).

The story of the persecutions of Najran and the Abyssinian invasion appears also

in Ibn Hisham, Shat al-nabi, ed. Wustenfeld, 24-26 = ed. al-Saqqa et al., I, 37 - 39 / tr. 17-18; idem, Kitab al-tijdn, 301-02; Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahanl, AghdnP, XVII,

303-305.

208

Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

Aryat marched across Yemen with the Abyssinian army, killing

a third of its menfolk, devastating a third of the countryside, and

sending back to the Najashi (the Negus) a third of the captured

women and children. He remained there, imposing firm control

over the land and reducing it to submission. A certain poet of the

Yemenis has said, recalling how Daws Dhu Tha'laban had imposed

upon them the yoke of the Abyssinians:

[Do not let anyone act] like Daws, and not like what he has

fastened on his saddlebag [for us] (i.e., the yoke of the

Abyssinians),

that is, what he brought down on them in the shape of the Abyssinians;

this has remained a proverbial saying in Yemen up to this

day.

Dhu Jadan al-Himyari 519 recorded the following lines, mentioning

 Himyar and the humiliations it now suffered after its former

5 19. This poet, much cited by al-Hamdam in his lklil, appears in Nashwan al-

Himyari, passim, as 'Alqamah Dhu Yazan and 'Alqamah b. Dhi Jadan. This name

would connect him with Dhu Jadan, one of the eight leading noble families of

Himyar ( see n. 5 07 above and n. 5 8 5 below), specifically from the Marib region. See al-Hamdani, Iklil, index s.v. (usually cited simply as '"Alqamah"); O. L6fgren, "'Alqama b. DI Gadan und seine Dichtung nach der Iklil- Auswahl in der Biblioteca Ambrosiana," 199-209; EP, s.v. al-Mathamina (Chr. Robin).

Holders of Power after Ardashlr b. Babak

209

glory, and [recalling] the fortresses of Yemen Aryat had destroyed,

in addition to his devastation of the countryside, that is, Silhin,

Baynun, and Ghumdan, castles without parallel among

mankind : 520

Gently, [O woman!]. Tears cannot bring back what has gone by,

and do not destroy yourself out of grief, recalling those who

are dead.

After Baynun, of which there is no visible trace and vestige, and

after Silhin, shall men ever construct [such] buildings

again?

Dhu fadan al-Himyari further said in this connection:

Leave me alone [O woman], may you be deprived of your father!

You will not be able to deflect me from my resolve — may

God heap shame on you, you have dried up my spittle!

When, to the music of singing girls, we became exhilarated by

wine, and when we were given to drink the finest vintage,

[that was indeed good].

Consuming wine is no shame for me, since my d rinking

companion does not reproach me at all for it.

520. These were former castles of pre-Islamic Yemen, and are mentioned as

such by authors like al-Hamdani in the eighth book of his Iklil devoted to the

castles and fortresses of South Arabia, and Nashwan al-Himyari. Silhin or Salhln,

in South Arabian inscriptions slhm, was the royal palace of the kings of Saba’ at

Marib, the minting center for Sabaean coins and the building in South Arabia most frequently mentioned in the inscriptions. Ghumdan [gadn, gmdn ) was originally the royal residence at §an'a’ of the Dhu Gurat family, and is particularly frequently cited by the post-Islamic poets as an example of the transience of human achievement; in fact, although allegedly destroyed by the Abyssinian viceroy Abrahah or the Islamic caliph 'Uthman, it was several times refortified in the early Islamic centuries. Baynun is located by al-Hamdani in the eastern part of the lands of the Banu 'Ans. See al-Hamdani, Iklil, 3-5, 12-21, 48-5 1,54-57, tr. 8-9, 14-19, 36-38, 40; Nashwan al-Himyari, Die auf Sudaiabien beziiglicben Angaben NaSwans, 10, 50, 8i; Yaqut, Buldan, I, 535-36, HI, 235, IV, 215-16; Muller, "Ancient Castles Mentioned in the Eighth Volume of Al-Hamdani's Iklil and Evidence of Them in Pre-Islamic Inscription," 141-43, 145 - 47 ; Serjeant and R. Lewcock, "The Church (al-Qalis) of $an'a’ and Ghumdan Castle," 44; EP, s.v. Ghu mdan (O. Lofgren).

210

Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

No one can hold back the onslaught of death, even though he

were to drink a healing remedy together with sniffing a

perfumed medicament.

Nor can any monk in a cell (ustuwdn, literally, doorway,

portico ] 521 whose walls [are so lofty that they] abut on to

the nests (literally, "eggs") of the vulture.

Ghumdan, of which you have been told, and which they

constructed with a high roof 522 on a mountain top,

With skilled carpenter's (or smith's) work, and its lower part of

hewn stone and choicest damp and smooth clay.

Lamps filled with oil shine forth within it at eventide, like the

gleaming of lightning flashes,

Its date palms are planted up against it, and the fresh dates

almost bend the branches down to earth with their clusters.

Yet this once-new fortress has now become a pile of ashes, and

the consuming flames have transformed its former beauty.

Dhu Nuwas gave himself over to impending death, and he

warned his people of the afflictions that were to come upon

them . 523

Ibn Dhi’bah al-Thaqafl 524 recited, remembering Himyar when

the black troops swept down on it and what the Himyarite people

suffered from them:

By your life, there is no escape for a man when death and old

age overtake him!

By your life, a man has no open space to which he can flee, nor

indeed, any refuge!

What moralizing example can there be, after what came upon

Himyar's tribes one morning , 525

52 1. For this word 1 < Greek stoa), see Dozy, Supplement, I, 22.

522. Reading, with al-Azraqi, Akhbar Makkah, I, 87, musmak an text, n. a).

523. As Noldeke observed, trans. 194 n. 1, the poet seems to echo the implica-

tion of the prose accounts by Ibn al-Kalbi and Ibn Ishaq, that Dhu Nuwas was

inadequately supported by his own followers, hence willingly sought his own

death.

524. Ibn Hisham's gloss in his Siiat al-nabi, ed. Wiistenfeld, 27 - ed. al-Saqqa et

al., 1 , 41, tr. 695, says that Dhi’bah was this poet's mother's name and that his own name was Rabi'ah b. 'Abd Yalil b. Salim . . . Nothing seems to be known about this poet of al-Ta’if.

525. One could alternatively translate, "Can there be anything after there came

upon Himyar's tribes one morning a cause for bitter tears,," reading, with the Cairo edition, n, 117, dhat al-'abar for the text's dhat cd-'ibai.

Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

21 1

Namely, a swift-moving gathering of warriors 526 and spearmen,

[gleaming in the sun] like the heavens just after rain,

With battle cries deafening the charging horses, and with their

putting to flight the warriors with their stink, 527

Witches, 528 like the very grains of sand in number, who make

the tender branches of trees dry up [at their approach].

As for Hisham b. Muhammad, he asserts that when the ships

sent by Qay§ar reached the Najashi, the latter transported his

army by means of them, and the troops landed on the coast of al-

Mandab. 529 He related: When Dhu Nuwas heard of their approach,

he wrote to the local princes (maqawil ) 530 summoning them to  

provide him with military support and to unite in combating the

invading army to repel it from their land. But they refused, saying,

"Let each man fight for his own princedom j maqwalah) and

526. Following the emendation bi-alb ulub™ of Addenda et corrigenda, p.

dxci, cf. Glossarium, p. clxxxvu.

527. Following the bi-al-dbafar of text, n. e, as also in al-Azraqi and Ibn Hisham;

the black Abyssinian warriors are depicted, as often in early Islamic writings on

blacks, as stinking.

$28. sa'ald, sa'al *“• pi. of si'lat, often regarded as the female counterpart of the

ghul, a malevolent, demonic being, hence with the characteristics of a succubus or

sometimes as a sdhirah or witch, enchantress. See G. van Vloten, "Damonen,

Geister und Zauber bei den altem Arabem. Mitteilungen aus Djihitz' Kitib al-

haiwin, " Part 1 , 179-80; Wellhausen, Reste arabiscben Heidentums 2 , 152; ET 1 , s.v. Ghul (D. B. Macdonald-Ch. Pellat).

529. That is, in the neighborhood of the Bab al-Mandab, the straits connecting

the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea. South Arabian inscriptions speak of mdbn and its s 1 s 1 lt or s 1 s 3 lt • silsilah ( a chain across an inlet or harbor? ) in connection with the events of this period. Al-Hamdani mentions only the Bab al- Mandab as a headland dangerous for seamen but locates a town of al-Mandab on or near the Tihimah coast at an unidentified spot between Farasan and the territory of the Banu Majid b. Haydan; see his $ifat jazhat al-'Arab, 67, 72, 205, 258, and cf.

EP-, s.v. Bab al-Mandab (G. RentzJ. Beeston, "The Chain of al-Mandab," 1-6,

discussed the passages of the Arabic historians and al-Hamdani, and the mentions

in the Byzantine Greek Martyrion Aretha, regarding the chain of al-Mandab and

the landing(s) of the Abyssinians (since the latter source speaks of two landings, at spots widely apart). He concluded that the reports of an actual chain are fully

historical, and thought that its location was at the Khdr Ghurayrah, the inlet

immediately behind the Cape of al-Mandab; see his map at p. 4.

530. Sing, miqwal, reflecting the mqwl of South Arabian inscriptions, with the

sense "prince, minor ruler," or the residence of such a ruler, and cognate with qayl

(on which see n. 473 above). See Beeston et al., Sabaic Dictionary, no; Biella,

Dictionary of Old South Arabic, Sabaean Dialect, 449.

212

Holders of Power after Ardashlr b. Babak

region." When Dhu Nuwas saw that, he had a large number of keys

made, and then loaded them on to a troop of camels and set out

until he came up with the [Abyssinian] host. He said: 'These are

the keys to the treasuries of Yemen, which I have brought to you.

You can have the money and the land, but spare the menfolk and

the women and children." The army's leader said, "I will write to

the king," so he wrote to the Najashi. The latter wrote back to the

leader ordering him to take possession from the Yemenis of the

treasuries. Dhu Nuwas accompanied them until, when he brought

them into San'a’, he told the leader, "Dispatch trusted members of

your troops to take possession of these treasuries." The leader

divided up his trusted followers into detachments to go and take

possession of the treasuries, handing over the keys to them.

[Meanwhile,] Dhu Nuwas's letters had been sent to every region,

containing the message "Slaughter every black bull within your

land." Hence they massacred the Abyssinians so that none were

left alive except for those who managed to escape.

The Najashi heard what Dhu Nuwas had done and sent against

him seventy thousand men under the command of two leaders,

one of them being Abrahah al- Ashram. When they reached San'a’

and Dhu Nuwas realized that he had not the strength to withstand

them, he rode off on his horse, came to the edge of the sea amd

rushed headlong into it; this was the last ever seen of Dhu Nuwas.