The existence of a Christian community in the city of Najran in present-day southwestern Saudi Arabia is attested by several historical sources of the Arabian Peninsula, where it recorded as having been created in the 5th century AD or perhaps a century earlier. According to the Arab Muslim historian Ibn Ishaq, Najran was the first place where Christianity took root in South Arabia.
In the early 6th century, the Christians were persecuted by the Himyarite king Dhu Nuwas. These events caused widespread reactions among Christians in the Roman Near East, and Jacob of Serugh composed and sent them his Letter to the Himyarites to console the community during their hardships. Dhu Nuwas was eventually defeated after foreign intervention from Abyssinia. In the 7th century, Christians of Najran interacted with the Islamic prophet Muhammad, who allowed them to worship in his mosque. There is evidence that the community continued to thrive until the 9th century; the community no longer exists today.
Before the advent of Islam, from indications in the Qur'an it would appear that the Jews to the West of the Himyarite Kingdom, in western Arabia, maintained some form of rabbinical organisation, possibly connected to late antique Judaism, and were not wholly cut off from their brethren elsewhere in the Middle East. [1] One source speaks of rabbis from Tiberias itself enjoying the hospitality of Dhu Nuwas's court. [2] The apparent conversion of local Himyarite rulers to Judaism, or some form of a Judaic monotheism, [2] as early as the late fourth century under the Tabbāi'a dynasty, [2] is indirect evidence that suggests that effective Jewish proselytization was active in the region. [1]
The Christians of Najran followed a form of Miaphysitism. [3] The Christians had suffered a brief stint of persecution with the advent of the new dynasty under the Himyarite ruler Shurihbi'īl Yakkuf (or Sharahbil Yakuf, c.468-480). [2] The Jewish faith had strong roots within the Himyarite kingdom when Dhu Nuwas rose to power, and it seems that several synagogues had been built not only in Zafar, but in Najran also. [2]
Najran was an oasis, with a large population of Arab Christians and a significant community of Arab Jews. [3] Unlike most Ṣayhadic people of that zone, had only come under the authority of the Himyarite Kingdom in the early fifth century, more or less around the time that a local merchant, one Hayyān by name, had visited Constantinople and underwent conversion at al-Hīra, during a later journey. On his return to his native town, he began to proselytise on behalf of the new religion. [2]
The bishops of Najran, who were probably Miaphysites, came to the great market of Mina and the Sūq ʿUkāẓ, and preached, each seated on a camel as in a pulpit. The Church of Najran was called the Ka'aba Najran. (Several shrines in Arabia were called ٱلْكَعْبَةkaʿba "cube" for their shape). The Ka'aba Najran at Jabal Taslal drew worshippers for some 40 years during Pre-Islamic Arabia. The Arabian sources single out Khath'am, as a Christian tribe which used to perform the pilgrimage to the Christian Ka'aba of Najran. When Najran was occupied by Dhu Nuwas, the Ka'aba Najran was burned together with the bones of its martyrs and some 2,000 live Christians within it.
Commercial reasons probably induced Christians to explore the possibilities in the area at an early period but the first attested Christian mission dates to that of Theophilos the Indian, an Arian Christian active during the reign of Constantius II, who was reported to have converted the Himyarites around 354/5. [4]
In the first quarter of the sixth century, a variety of records refer to a tragic episode in which a local king, Dhu Nuwas, who had converted to Judaism and subjected the local Christian community to persecution, reportedly in retribution for the burning of a synagogue. [1] The events comprised episodes involving a massacre of Ethiopians in a Yemen garrison, the destruction of churches, punitive expeditions in several regions and attempts to constrain communities to undergo conversion to Judaism. The most infamous episode concerns the martyrdom of the Christian denizens in the great oasis of Najrān, culminating in the execution of Arethas, [5] an incident alluded to in the Qur'an, in Sura 85:4-8, where however the Christians are described as Believers martyred for their faith. [6] These circumstances have a geopolitical dimension as well, in that there are indications that these Jewish communities had connections with the Iranian Sassanid kingdom, while the Christians, though Monophysites, were linked to Byzantine interests. [1]
After coming to the throne through a coup d'état, Dhu Nuwas launched a campaign which swept away an Aksumite garrison in Zafar, where a church was put to the torch, and then invaded the Tihāma coastal lowlands where a partially Christianized population dwelt, and where he took over key centres as far as the Bab el-Mandeb. He sent one of his generals, a Jewish prince, north to Najran in order to impose an economic blockade on the oasis by cutting off the trade route to Qaryat al-Faw in eastern Arabia. [7] The Christians of Najran were massacred in 524 by the Himyarite king, Yusuf As'ar Dhu Nuwas. An Sabaic inscription commissioned by one of the kings army commanders, Ja 1028, celebrates the massacre.
When Dhu Nuwas invaded, he called upon its people to abandon Christianity and embrace Judaism. When they refused, he had them thrown into burning ditches alive. Estimates of the death toll from this event range up to 20,000 in some sources.[ who? ] Some sources[ who? ] say that Dus Dhu Tha'laban from the Saba tribe was the only man able to escape the massacre of Najran, who fled to Constantinople to seek help and promptly reported everything.
Dhu Nuwas' reign, and his persecution of Christians, was brought to an end after he was defeated by an Ethiopian army. The emperor of Byzantium, Justin I, requested his ally, the Abyssinian ruler Kaleb of Axum, to invade Najran, kill Dhu-Nuwas, and annex Himyar. [8] According to the Book of the Himyarites , Najrani Christian refugees (including one by the name of Umayyah) arrived in Aksum and requested aid from its king. In either case, the Abyssinians sent an army of 7000 men led by Abraha, the Christian viceroy of the Negus of Axum, defeated Dhu Nuwas's forces and restored Christian rule in Najran.
In his 524 AD letter describing the Najran persecutions in detail, the West Syrian debater Bishop Simeon of Beth Arsham describes how female martyrs rushed in to join "our parents and brothers and sisters who have died for the sake of Christ our lord".
In one exchange, reminiscent of the Acts of Marta and her father Pusai, a freeborn woman of Najran named Habsa bint Hayyan taunts Dhu Nuwas with the memory of her father: [9]
Habsa told him, "I am the daughter of Hayyan, of the family of Hayyan, the teacher by whose hand our lord sowed Christianity in this land. My father is Hayyan who once burned your synagogues". Masruq the Crucifier (Dhu Nuwas), said to her, "So, you have the same ideas as your father? I suppose you too would be ready to burn our synagogues just as your father did." Habsa told him, "No! I am not going to burn it down because I am prepared to follow quickly this path of martyrdom in the footsteps of my brothers in Christ. But we have confidence in the justice of Jesus Christ our Lord and our God, that he will swiftly bring an end to your rule and make it disappear from amongst mankind: he will bring low your pride and your life, and he will uproot your synagogues from our lands, and build there holy churches. Christianity will increase and rule here, through the grace of our Lord and through the prayers of our parents and brothers and sisters who have died for the sake of Christ our Lord. Whereas you and all who belong to your people will become a byword that will cause future generations to wonder, because of all that you, a godless and merciless man, have wrought upon the holy churches and upon those who worship Christ God."
The persecution of Christians in Najran has left a legacy in both Christian literature as well as in the Qur'an.
Simeon of Beth Arsham's Second letter preserves yet another memorably gruesome episode. After seeing her Christian kinsmen burned alive, Ruhm, a great noblewoman of Najran, brings her daughter before the Himyarite king and instructs him: "Cut off our heads, so that we may go join our brothers and my daughter's father." The executioners comply, slaughtering her daughter and granddaughter before Ruhm's eyes and forcing her to drink her blood. The king then asks, "How does your daughter's blood taste to you?" The martyr replies, "Like a pure spotless offering: that is what it tasted like in my mouth and in my soul." [10]
The martyrs of Najran are mentioned in the Surat al-Buruj of the Q'uran 85:4–8, where the persecutions are condemned and the steadfast believers are praised:
...slain were the men of the pit (Al-Ukhdood),
the fire abounding in fuel, when they were seated over it, and were themselves witnesses of what they did with the believers. They took revenge on them because they believed in God
the All-mighty, the All-laudable...
The stories of the Najran deaths spread quickly to other Christian realms, where they were recounted in terms of heroic martyrdom for the cause of Christ. Their martyrdom led to Najran becoming a major pilgrimage centre that, for a time, rivaled Mecca to the north. The leader of the Arabs of Najran who was executed during the period of persecution, Al-Harith, was canonized by the Roman Catholic Church as St. Aretas. [11]
The Martyrdom of the Christians of Najran is celebrated in the Roman Calendar on the 24 October; in the Jacobite Menologies on 31 December; in the Arabic Feasts of the Melkites on 2 October; in the Armenian Synaxarium on the 20 October, and in the Ethiopian Senkesar on November 22.
Starting in the 7th century, Islam spread in Arabia. The Christians of Najran would interact with Muhammad and later Muslims.
Around 631, Muhammad began sending letters to various communities, inviting them to convert to Islam. Such a letter was also sent to the Christians of Najran; it was delivered by Khaled ibn al-Walid and Ali ibn Abi Talib. When the Christians did not convert, Muhammad sent Al-Mughira to explain Islam further to Christians of Najran. In response, the Christians sent a delegation of 60 people (including 45 scholars) to visit Muhammad in Medina. [12] Among them were Abdul Masih of Bani Kinda, their chief, and Abdul Harith, bishop of Bani Harith. Muhammad permitted Christians to pray in his mosque, which they did turning towards the east. [13]
When the delegation arrived, Muhammad allowed them to pray in his mosque. [13] Some Muslims were reportedly uncomfortable with Muhammad allowing the Christians to pray in a mosque. [14] The Christians are said to have prayed facing the East. Muhammad also provided them with a place to stay. [12]
The Christians delegation tried to convert Muhammad to Christianity and the two sides entered into a debate. [14] Muhammad concluded that some Christian teachings were incompatible with Islam and that Islam was the true religion. [15] Though both sides failed to convince the other, they nevertheless worked out a mutually acceptable relationship, [14] and entered a treaty of peace.
The Treaty of Najran guaranteed to the Christians security for "their lives, their religion and their property". [16] It gave Christians freedom of religion, [17] stipulating that there would be no interference in the practice of Christianity, nor would any cross be destroyed. [16] While the Christians were required to pay a tax ( jizya ) they would not have to pay a tithe ( ushr ). [18] The tax on them was not to exceed the means of a Christian. [19] Muhammad also stated "The Muslims must not abandon the Christians, neglect them, and leave them without help and assistance since I have made this pact with them on behalf of Allah." [19]
The treaty was significant politically and economically. By leaving local leaders intact, Muhammad cultivated new allies and facilitated tax collection. [18]
There are reports that the second Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab ordered Christians of Najran to vacate the city and emigrate out of the Arabian peninsula, based on Muhammad's orders. [20] However, the historicity of this is disputed, and there is historical evidence that Christians continued to live in the area for at least 200 more years. [20] It may be that the orders of Umar were not carried out or might have applied only to Christians living in Najran itself, not to those settled round about. Some migrated to Syria, likely in the district of Trachonitis (the Lajat plain) and around the extant city of Najran, Syria; but the greater part settled in the vicinity of Al-Kufa in predominantly Christian Southern Iraq, where the colony of Al-Najraniyyah long maintained the memory of their expatriation.
The Christian community of Najran still had considerable political weight in the late ninth century. [20] According to a Yemeni Arab source, the first Zaydite Imam of Yemen, al-Hadi Ila l-Haqq Yahya ibn al-Hussain (897–911) concluded an accord with the Christians and the Jews of the oasis on 897, at the time of the foundation of the Zaydite principality. [21]
A second Yemeni source alludes to the Christians of Najran in muharram 390 (999–1000). The oasis was still one third Christian and one third Jewish, according to the testimony of the Persian traveller, Ibn al-Mujawir. [22]
Eventually the Old Najran which was Christian disappeared, and is now represented by Al-Ukhdood, a desolate village, while another the Najran which is Islamic, has now appeared in its vicinity. [23]
The history of Yemen describes the cultures, events, and peoples of what is one of the oldest centers of civilization in the Near East. Its relatively fertile land and adequate rainfall in a moister climate helped sustain a stable population, a feature recognized by the ancient Greek geographer Ptolemy, who described Yemen as Eudaimon Arabia meaning "fortunate Arabia" or "Happy Arabia". Yemenis had developed the South Arabian alphabet by the 12th to 8th centuries BC, which explains why most historians date all of the ancient Yemeni kingdoms to that era.
The Himyarite Kingdom was a polity in the southern highlands of Yemen, as well as the name of the region which it claimed. Until 110 BCE, it was integrated into the Qatabanian kingdom, afterwards being recognized as an independent kingdom. According to classical sources, their capital was the ancient city of Zafar, relatively near the modern-day city of Sana'a. Himyarite power eventually shifted to Sana'a as the population increased in the fifth century. After the establishment of their kingdom, it was ruled by kings from dhū-Raydān tribe. The kingdom was named Raydān.
Dhū Nuwās,, real name "Yūsuf Asʾar Yathʾar", "Yosef Nu'as", or "Yūsuf ibn Sharhabīl", also known as "Masruq" in Syriac, and Dounaas (Δουναας) in Medieval Greek, was a Jewish king of Himyar reigning between 517 and 525–530 AD who came to renown on account of his persecutions of peoples of other religions, notably Christians, living in his kingdom.
Abraha, also known as Abraha al-Ashram, was a viceroy for the Kingdom of Aksum who ruled the Himyarite Kingdom of Yemen and much of the Arabian Peninsula in the 6th century. He is famous for the tradition of his attempt to destroy the Kaaba, a revered religious site in Mecca, using an army that included war elephants, an event known as Year of the Elephant. During his reign, Christianity was the most populous of all.
Najran, is a city in southwestern Saudi Arabia It is the capital of Najran Province. Designated as a new town, Najran is one of the fastest-growing cities in the kingdom; its population has risen from 47,500 in 1974 and 90,983 in 1992 to 246,880 in 2004 and 381,431 in 2021. The population mostly originates from the ancient tribes of Yām,
The Banu al-Harith is an Arabian tribe which once governed the cities of Najran, Taif, and Bisha, now located in southern Saudi Arabia.
It is believed that Jews began immigrating to the Arabian Peninsula in as early as the 6th century BCE, when the Babylonian conquest of Judah triggered a mass Jewish exodus from Judea in the Land of Israel. Over time and through successive exiles, the local Jewish tribes, who were concentrated in the Hejaz and partly in South Arabia, established themselves as one of the most prominent ethno-religious communities of pre-Islamic Arabia. Likewise, Judaism, which had been introduced as one of the few monotheistic religions in the region, stood as a deviation from the typical polytheistic practices of Arabian paganism. These Jewish tribes continued to have a presence in Arabia during the rise of Muhammad, who founded Islam in the 7th century CE. Muhammad's interaction with the Jewish community is documented to a considerable degree in Islamic literature, including in many ahadith. The Jewish tribes of the Hejaz are seen in Islam as having been the offspring of the Israelites/Hebrews Two of Muhammad's wives were Jewish: Safiyya bint Huyayy and Rayhanah bint Zayd, both of whom belonged to the Banu Nadir by birth, though Rayhanah's status as a wife instead of a concubine is disputed.
Jewish history in the territory of modern Saudi Arabia begins in classical antiquity.
Abū Karib As’ad al-Kāmil,, called "Abū Karīb", sometimes rendered as As'ad Abu Kurayb, full name: Abu Karib As'ad ibn Hassān Maliki Karib Yuha'min, was king of the Himyarite Kingdom. He ruled Yemen from 390 CE until 420 CE, beginning as a coregency with his father Malkikarib Yuhamin followed by becoming sole ruler in 400. As'ad is cited in some sources as the first of several kings of the Arabian Peninsula to convert to Judaism, although contemporary historians have ascribed this transition to his father. He was traditionally regarded as the first one to cover the Kaaba with the kiswah.
The Aksumite–Persian wars were a protracted series of armed engagements between the Sasanian Persian Empire and the Aksumite Empire for control over South Arabia in the 6th century CE. After a decisive victory at the Battle of Hadhramaut in 570, the Sasanian forces marched on and besieged Sana'a, following which the Aksumites were largely expelled from the Arabian Peninsula, however they still had direct control of Najran. The Persians instated the former Himyarite king Sayf ibn Dhī Yazan as the governor of the new Sasanian province of Yemen. However, Yazan was murdered by his Ethiopian servants four years into his reign, after which the Aksumites re-established their power in the region. Following the death of Yazan, the Sasanian army mounted a second invasion and re-conquered Yemen by 575–578, marking the end of Axumite rule in Arabia. After Sasanian control was firmly established in the region, the Persian military general Wahrez was installed as the direct governor of Yemen.
People of the Ditch is a story mentioned in Surah Al-Burooj of the Qur'an. It is about people who were thrown into a ditch and set afire, due to their belief in Allah.
Christianity was one of the prominent monotheistic religions of pre-Islamic Arabia. The spread of Christianity into Arabia has historically been understood through the lenses of Christian literary texts and Byzantine historiography which typically describe the conversion of Arabs to Christianity in the context of interactions with monks and other holy men, followed by renunciations of polytheism and idols. Many of these events are described as having been followed up with the construction of a church. Such descriptions appear in narratives of the bishop Ahudemmeh, the abbot Euthymius the Great, the ascetic Simeon Stylites, and the shrine of St. Sergius at Rusafa patronized by Al-Mundhir III, leader of the Christian Arab Ghassanid tribe. Behind the literary nature of these accounts, which are overwhelmingly Syriac and Iraq in origins, Christianization emerged as a real phenomena in the Arabian peninsula and sites of Christian organization such as churches, martyria and monasteries were built and formed points of contact with Byzantine Christianity as well as allowed local Christian leaders to display their benefaction, communicate with the local population, and meet with various officials. At present, it is believed that Christianity had attained a significant presence in Arabia by the fifth century at the latest, that its largest presence was in Southern Arabia (Yemen) prominently including the city of Najran, and that the Eastern Arab Christian community communicated with the Christianity of the Levant region through Syriac.
The Al-Qalis Church was a Miaphysite Christian church constructed sometime between 527 and the late 560s in the city of Sanaa in modern-day Yemen. The church's lavish decorations made it an important place of pilgrimage, placing it in competition with Kaaba in Mecca. According to the National Museum of Saudi Arabia in Riyadh, Abraha built Al-Qullays in Sana'a. He also built a similar one in Najran for Bani Al-Harith, the House of Allat in Taif for the tribe of Thaqeef, the House of Yareem and the House of Ghamdan in Yemen.
Judaism has been practiced as a religion in the Arabian Peninsula since at least the first century BCE. It is also the pre-Islamic monotheistic religion to be practiced in Arabia. Arabian Jews were linguistically diverse and would have varied in their practice of the religion. The presence of Jews is best attested in Northwestern and Southern Arabia. Judaism would briefly become politically relevant in the fourth century, when the rulers of the Kingdom of Himyar converted to Judaism.
The Kinda, or Kindah, were an Arab tribe from South Arabia.
The Book of the Himyarites is an anonymous Syriac account of the persecution and martyrdom of the Christian community of Najran in the Kingdom of Himyar around 523 AD and the ensuing Aksumite interventions. It was written sometime between the sixth and tenth centuries in a Syriac Orthodox milieu.
The Aksumite invasion of Himyar consisted of a series of two invasions from 518 to 525 fought between the Christian Kingdom of Aksum and the Jewish Himyarite Kingdom. The wars functioned as proxy wars waged by the former on behalf of the Roman Empire during the Roman-Persian Wars with the ultimate goal of establishing an anti-Sasanid bloc in Arabia Felix.
Sharhabil Yakkuf also known in Arabian folklore as Tubba' ibn al-Hassan, was a Himyari king who ruled between the years 465 until 480 CE. He succeeded Sharhabil Yafar in kingship, although a portion of his first year of rule was with the regent Abdul Kulal ibn Muthawwib due to health complications.
The Letter to the Himyarites was composed by Jacob of Serugh and sent to the Christian community of Najran as they were persecuted by the Jewish monarch Dhu Nuwas, then-king of the Himyarite Kingdom. Some related compositions were produced during this time period, such as Simeon of Beth Arsham's Letter on the Himyarite Martyrs, although Jacob's letter was addressed directly to that community.
