South Arabian Christianity:

A Crossroads of Late Antique Cultures

Dr. George Hatke
Institut für Orientalistik, Universität Wien

Center for Religious Studies, CEU Budapest 12 November 2015

 1. Major Kingdoms of
Ancient South Arabia
1.1. Sabaʾ (ca. 850 BCE-280 CE)

1.2. Qatabān (ca. 800 BCE-175 CE)

1.3. Maʿīn (ca. 700-100 BCE)

1.4. Ḥaḍramawt (ca. 800 BCE-225 CE)

1.5. Ḥimyar (ca. 110 BCE-570 CE)

(Source: Schiettecatte 2008)
The Ḥimyarite Empire
ca. 450 CE
(Source: Yule 2007)
2. Traditional South Arabian Pantheism
2.1. The primary evidence is epigraphic (inscriptions dating ca. 1000 BCE-300 CE).

2.2. Each South Arabian kingdom had its own “state” god(s):
2.2.1. Sabaʾ  ʾĪlmuquh
2.2.2. Qatabān  ʿAmm
2.2.3. Maʿīn  ʿAthtar
2.2.4. Ḥaḍramawt  Siyān
2.2.5. Ḥimyar  Wagīl and Sumūyadaʿ

2.3. The god ʿAthtar was worshipped in various forms throughout South Arabia.

2.4. Religious life:

2.4.1. Characterized by private dedications and/or sacrifices to a deity.
2.4.2. No priestly class as such. Officials only served as “priest” (rs2w) for set terms, and even
then in conjunction with other administrative duties.
2.4.3. Pilgrimage to the major temples was the main collective religious event.
The Temple of ʾAwwām, the main sanctuary of ʾĪlmuquh at the Sabaean capital
of Mārib
3. The Introduction of Christianity
3.1. Main primary source: the Ecclesiastical History of Philostorgius (d. ca. 439 CE):

3.1.1. Constantius II (r. 337-361) sent an evangelizing mission to South Arabia under the
leadership of Theophilus Indus, an Indian convert to Christianity.

3.1.2. According to Philostorgius, the Ḥimyarite king “inclined towards faith” (=conversion?).
The king is not named but was undoubtedly Thaʾrān Yuhanʿim (r. ca. 324-375).

3.1.3. Philostorgius also states that the king built three churches in his realm, one of them at
the capital of Ẓafār, one at Aden, and the third at an unnamed “Persian emporium”
(Περσικόν ἐμπόριoν) which might be Qāniʾ on the south coast of Yemen.
3. The Introduction of Christianity (cont’d)
3.2. John Diakrinomenos:
3.2.1. early 6th- century Miaphysite author
3.2.2. States that the Ḥimyarites were “originally Jews” but had embraced Christianity in the
time of Anastasius I (r. 491-518), from whom they received a bishop named Silvanos.

3.3. Gadla ʾAzqīr “The Contendings of ʾAzqīr”:

3.3.1. Medieval Geʿez translation of a lost Arabic hagiography recounting the life story and
martyrdom of a foreign priest named ʾAzqīr.
3.3.2. Credits ʾAzqīr with introducing Christianity to Najrān in the reign of the Ḥimyarite king
Shuraḥbiʾīl Yakkūf (ca. 465-485).
3. The Introduction of Christianity (cont’d)
3.4. The Chronicle of John of Nikiu (7th century) attributes the evangelization of South Arabia
to Theognosta, a nun from somewhere on the Roman Empire’s Arabian frontier who was
taken as a captive to South Arabia (probably) during the reign of Constantius II.

3.5. The Chronicle of Seʿert (11th century?) credits a merchant from Najrān named Ḥayyān
who, after his conversion at al-Ḥīra in south-central Iraq during the reign of the Sāsānid
emperor Yazdegird I (r. 399-420), preached the Gospel throughout South Arabia.

3.6. Al-Ṭabarī’s Tārīkh al-Rusul wal-Mulūk (early 10th century), relying on Ibn al-Kalbī (d. 819)
and Ibn Isḥāq (d. 768), preserves traditions about two evangelists: 1) Faymiyūn, an ascetic
and healer who made his living as a brick-layer and was brought to South Arabia as a captive;
and 2) ʿAbd Allāh bin al-Thāmir, a Najrānī boy who converted at the hands of an elderly
recluse.

Ḥimyarite seal-ring and impression
with a representation of a
menorah, inscribed in musnad with
the name Ḥayyū bin ‘Awḍum, from a
private collection
(Source: Robin 2004)
4. Early Ḥimyarite Judaism
4.1. According to Philostorgius, Ḥimyarite Jews
strongly opposed the mission of Theophilus Indus.
4.2. A signet-ring of 1st- or 2nd-century CE date,
engraved with an image of a Torah shrine and
bearing the name Yiṣḥāq bar Ḥanīna in Aramaic, was
found at Ẓafār.
4.3. At the Jewish cemetery of Bēth Sheʿarīm in
lower Galilee, a 3rd- or 4th-century CE tomb is labeled
in Greek Ὁμηριτῶν “(property of) the Ḥimyarites”.
One of the Ḥimyarite Jews buried at Bēth Sheʿarīm, a
certain Menaḥēm, is identified as a “tribal leader of
Ḥimyar” (qyl Ḥmyr) in a Sabaic graffito, and
“community elder” (πρεσβύτερος) in Greek.
5. Epigraphic Evidence
5.1. The earliest monotheistic inscriptions from South Arabia date from the 330s, i.e. before
Theophilus’ visit to Ḥimyar.

5.2. Invocations of the old gods, such as ʿAthtar, appear in ʿAbadān 1 (Müller 2010: 54),
dating from 360. An unpublished dedicatory inscription from the ʾAwwām temple at Mārib
(MB 2004 I-147) dates from as late as 379 (Zaid and Maraqten 2008: 337-8).

5.3. Thereafter, polytheistic references cease. Exception: MAFY-Banū-Zubayr 2, dating from

402/3, records some repair work on a cistern said to be located “by the gate of the temple of
(the god) Taʾlab” (b-hlf mḥrm Tʾlb) (Müller 2010: 60) without, however, stating that the
temple was still in use or that the cult of Taʾlab was maintained.

5.4. Although Jewish inscriptions are attested throughout the so-called “Monotheist Period”,
no unambiguously Christian inscriptions in Sabaic are attested before the 6th century, when
Christians gained political power in Ḥimyar.

Oldest known monotheistic inscription: Ag 3
Date: ca. 330 CE
Site: Ḍayq Buraʿ al-Aʿlā
(Source: http://dasi.humnet.unipi.it/)
1.ʾbydʿ Yws2ʿ D-Ḍrn w-Gmln 2.w-ʾḥrm
ʿqb Dtnt tqdm m3.qṣʿtn dt ʿṣbyn l-
ṣhrm 4.mqldtn l-mqḥ ʾmrʾ-hmw
(S1ʿ)dm 5.Yhs1kr w-bny-hw ʾlht Ḥṣ6.bḥ
w-ʾln bʿl s1myn l-yrdʾn-hmw.
1.ʾAbīyadaʿ Yuwashshiʿ Dhū-Ḍarrān
and Gumlān 2.and ʾAḥram, governor
of Dathīna, has taken charge of the
ex3.traction of polished stones for the
facing of 4.the basin, for the success
of their lords Saʿdum 5.Yuhaskir and
his sons, they of Ḥaṣ6.baḥ. And may
ʾĪlān, Lord of Heaven, aid them.
Note: There is nothing specifically
Christian or Jewish in this inscription.
5. Epigraphic Evidence (cont’d)
5.5. There is no indication of violence associated with the transition to monotheism:
5.5.1. Ḥimyarite military operations in the Ḥaḍramawt region in the early 4th century were
responses to local rebellions, not religious issues.
5.5.2. Not until the reign of the Jewish Ḥimyarite king Yūsuf ʾAsʾar Yathʾar (ca. 522-525) are
there any allusions to religious persecution in Sabaic inscriptions.

5.6. The ruling elite of Ḥimyar came to embrace Judaism in some form in the mid-5th century:
5.6.1. The extent and nature of their commitment to Judaism is obscure, and there is no
evidence that they adhered to rabbinic Judaism.
5.6.2. By contrast, private inscriptions contain more explicitly Jewish references (e.g.
references to Jews and Israel, and loanwords from Hebrew or Jewish Aramaic).
5. Epigraphic Evidence (cont’d)
5.7. Names for the deity in monotheistic inscriptions:

5.7.1. Rḥmnn: “the Merciful One” (<Aramaic raḥmān[ā], cf. Arabic al-Raḥmān)
5.7.2. Mrʾ S1myn: “Lord of Heaven”
5.7.3. Mrʾ S1myn w-ʾrḍn: “Lord of Heaven and Earth” (cf. Qurʾān 13:16 rabbu l-samawāti wal-
arḍi; 2nd-century CE pantheistic Sabaic inscription Quṣayr 1/9-10: ʾlʾlt ʾrḍm w-s1mym “gods of
earth and heaven”)
5.7.4. ʾln: “the God”
5.7.5. ʾʾlhn: “the God” (grammatically plural, cf. Hebrew ʾElōhîm)*
5.7.6. Rb Yhd: “Lord of the Jews”*
5.7.7. Rḥmnn d-b-S1myn w-Ys3rʾl: “the Merciful One Who is in Heaven and Israel”*

*Attested only in Jewish inscriptions.

6. Literary Evidence for Christian Communities
6.1. Synodicon orientale:
6.1.1. Syriac text dating from the late 8th century but based on older sources, which
documents the synods of the Nestorian church which were held in the Sāsānid Empire.
6.1.2. Lists one Moses of Ḥimyar (‫ )ܚܡܝܪ‬among the attendees of a Nestorian synod in 486.

6.2. The Christian Topography:

6.2.1. Christian apologetic work, written in Greek in the first half of the 6th century with the
purpose of refuting the “pagan” idea that the earth was round but was instead shaped like the
tabernacle of Moses.
6.2.2. The author was an anonymous Nestorian Christian, known from the Middle Ages
onwards as Cosmas Indicopleustes, who visited Ethiopia ca. 518.
The Christian Topography on Dioskorides, i.e. Soqoṭrā (§3.65.6-13):
“[...] on the island called Dioskorides, situated in the same Indian sea, and whose inhabitants, colonists
established by the Ptolemies, the successors of Alexander of Macedon, speak Greek, there are clerics ordained
in Persia and sent to these regions, and a multitude of Christians. This island I coasted around but did not stop
at, though I spoke with some Greek-speaking natives of that country who had come to Ethiopia.”

*Note: Greek Dioskorides < Sabaic *D-S3krd (Dhū-Śakūrid)

Vestiges of Christianity on Soqoṭrā
Crosses in graffito near Sūq, northern
Soqoṭrā 

 Greek graffito from the grotto of Ḥōq,

northern Soqoṭrā:
1.μνηθῇ 2.Ἀλέξαν3.δρoς Πέτ[ρ]4.oς
“Let Alexandros, [son of] Petros, be
remembered” or
“Let Alexandros, [baptised] Petros, be
remembered” or
“Let Alexandros be remembered. Petros”
(Bukharin in Strauch 2012: 144).

Possible survivals in the Soqoṭrī language (Müller 1999: 189-90):

1. toponyms Kaleesa and possibly Qalansiyya (<Greek ἐκκλησία “cathedral” cf. Sabaic qls1)
2. mikliséne “unmarried, living in solitude” (<Greek ἐγκλϵιστός “recluse, hermit”?)
7. Material Evidence for Christianity in Ḥimyar

Mother and child statue, thought to depict the Re-used capital at the Great Mosque of Ṣanʿāʾ, possibly
Virgin Mary and Jesus (National Museum, Ṣanʿāʾ) taken from ’Abrehā’s cathedral. Note the still intact cross.
8. The Introduction of Christianity to Ethiopia
8.1. Aksum had occupied parts of western Yemen
and Arabia’s Red Sea littoral in the 3rd century CE.
*Adulis 8.2. Frumentius, a Syrian-borne captive,
*Aksum introduced Christianity to Aksum in the mid-4th
century, according to Rufinus of Aquileia (d. 410).
8.3. This is confirmed by material from the reign of
the Aksumite king ʿĒzānā (r. 330-370): invocations
of a “Lord of Heaven” in Geʿez (RIE 189) and of
Jesus and the Trinity in Greek (RIE 271), as well as
coins bearing, for the first time, the Cross.

Above: The approximate territorial extent of the

kingdom of Aksum in the early 4th century.
Right: Coins of ʿĒzānā, post conversion
9. Earliest Anti-Christian Trends in South Arabia
9.1. Gadla ʾAzqīr:
9.1.1. Describes the earliest wave of persecutions of Christians, during the reign of Shuraḥbiʾīl
Yakkūf, with a focus on the Najrān.
9.1.2. Represents Ḥimyarite Jews as aiding and abetting the persecution and eventual
execution of ʾAzqīr, together with thirty-eight of Najrān’s bishops, priests, deacons, and
monks, together with lay people, both men and women.

9.2. Letter of Jacob of Serūg to the Ḥimyarites:

9.2.1. Written by the Syriac poet and theologian Jacob of Serūg (d. 521) to the Christian
community of Najrān.
9.2.2. Alludes to the “different sorrows, together with the various afflictions and continuous
persecutions which you endure every day in your country” (ḥaššē prīšē ʿam ūlṣānē mptakē
wa-rdūpyē ammīnē d-kūll yōm msaybrīn attōn b-atarkōn), but is otherwise devoted almost
entirely to theological matters and says nothing about the political situation in Ḥimyar at that
time.
10. Aksumite Intervention in South Arabia
10.1. 518: In response to the persecution of Christians in South Arabia, King Kālēb of Aksum (r.
ca. 510-540) sent an army across the Red Sea to set things right. While in South Arabia, the
Aksumite force brought to power a Christian Ḥimyarite, Maʿdīkarib Yaʿfur.

10.2. 521: Maʿdīkarib Yaʿfur undertook a military campaign to restore Ḥimyar’s protectorate
in Central Arabia. In so doing, his forces clashed with the Lakhmids, the Sāsānids’ Arab clients,
who exercised loose control of much of North and East Arabia from southern Iraq.

10.3. 522: Yūsuf ʾAsʾar Yathʾar, a Jewish Ḥimyarite rebel, came to power, overthrew the
regime established by the Aksumites in South Arabia, and embarked on an anti-Christian
campaign, targeting in particular the Miaphysite Christians. This culminated in a massacre of
the Christians of Najrān in the autumn of 523.

10.4. 525: The Aksumites invaded South Arabia again, this time led by Kālēb in person. They
killed Yūsuf and brought to power another Christian Ḥimyarite, Sumūyafaʿ ʾAshwaʿ.
RIE 195 II
Fragment of an Aksumite inscription in
Geʿez from Mārib, recording Kālēb’s
invasion of South Arabia in 525
Main points:
1. Allusion to “the vanquished king of Ḥimyar” (nǝgūśa Ḥamēr sǝʿūr)
in line 17.
2. Allusion to the burning of “the palace of Sabaʾ” (tāʿǝkā Sabāʾ) in
line 18, possibly the palace of Salḥīn at Mārib known from Sabaic and
Arabic sources.
3. Quotations from the Old Testament:
3.1. “Come listen to me and I shall tell you the extent of what He has
done for my soul, that I cried to Him with my mouth and shouted
with my tongue” (Psalms 66:16-17) in lines 21-23.
3.2. “I shall give him the glory of David and He shall exercise power,
and there is none who shall refuse to serve him. And I shall appoint
him as a ruler of a secure land, and I shall place him on the throne of
glory of his father’s house” (Greek version of Isaiah 22:22-3) in lines
23-25.
3.3. “Now they have horses and chariots, but we shall be great by the
name of God our Lord; they have stumbled and fallen but we have
risen and acted righteously” (Psalms 20:8-9) in lines 26-28.
4. The use of Old Testament material in RIE 195 II indicates that Kālēb
sought to present his invasion of South Arabia in Biblical terms,
casting the Aksumites in the role of a new Israel.
Ist 7608 bis
Inscription from the reign of Sumūyafaʿ ʾAshwaʿ, found at
Ḍāf in the central highlands of Yemen and now kept at the
Ancient Orient Museum in Istanbul
(Source: http://dasi.humnet.unipi.it/)
Christian references:
1.[... ... w-mn]fs1 qds1 S1myfʿ ʾs2wʿ mlk S1[bʾ w-D-
Rydn w-Ḥḍrmt w-Ymnt w-ʾʿrb-hmw Ṭwdm w-Thmt
2.... ʾ]ḥṣn w-S1myfʿ ʾs2wʿ bny S2rḥbʾ[l ... ... 3.... ...
ʾm]rʾ-hmw ngs2t ʾks1mn brʾw w-hwṯ[rn ... ...]
1.[… … and the] Holy Spirit, Sumūyafaʿ ʾAshwaʿ,
King of Sabaʾ and Dhū-Raydān and Ḥaḍramawt
and Yamanāt and their Arabs of Ṭawdum and
Tihāmat 2.…ʾA]ḥṣan and Sumūyafaʿ ʾAshwaʿ, the
sons of Shuraḥbiʾ[īl ... ... 3.... ... their lo]rds the
kings of the Aksumites, they built and laid the
founda[tions … …]
16.[...
...]s1m Rḥmnn w-bn-hw Krs3ts3 ġlbn [... ...]
16.[… …..] Raḥmānān and his son, Christ the
victorious [… …]
Foreign loanwords:
*mnfs1 qds1 < Geʿez manfas qǝddūs
*Krs3ts3 < Geʿez Kǝrǝstōs < Greek Χριστός
11. ʾAbrehā: Ethiopian Christian king of Ḥimyar
11.1. Originally a slave of a Roman merchant, he rose through the ranks to become a general
and, in that capacity, accompanied the Aksumite army in its invasion of Ḥimyar in 525.

11.2. Sometime ca. 535 ʾAbrehā seized power and overthrew Sumūyafaʿ ʾAshwaʿ. After Kālēb
made two unsuccessful attempts to remove him from power, Kālēb’s successor Wāʿzēb
allowed ʾAbrehā to remain in power so long as he paid tribute.

11.3. As king of Ḥimyar, ʾAbrehā maintained diplomatic relations with Aksum, Rome, Sāsānid
Iran, the Lakhmids, and the Ghassānids. He also restored and extended Ḥimyarite rule over
the Ḥijāz, Najd, and East Arabia.

11.4. ʾAbrehā reigned until ca. 560, when he was succeeded by his two sons, first Yaksūm and
then Masrūq. His dynasty came to an end in 570, when the Sāsānids invaded and conquered
South Arabia.
CIH 541
A 136-line inscription from the dam at Mārib (now kept in the Mārib Museum),
recording ʾAbrehā’s suppression of a revolt in the Ḥaḍramawt, his repairs to the dam,
and his reception of foreign envoys.

Christian references:
1.b-hyl w-[r]dʾ w-rḥ2.mt Rḥmnn w-Ms13.ḥ-hw w-rḥ [q]ds1

“1.By the power and [a]id 2.and mercy of Raḥmānān and his Mes3.siah
and the Holy Spirit.”
65.ʿdyw hgrn M66.rb w-qds1w b-ʿt 67.Mrb k-b-hw qs1s1m ʾb-ms1tl-hw
“65.He (i.e. ʾAbrehā) returned to the city of Mā66.rib and celebrated
Mass in the church of 67.Mārib when it had a priest, a father of its
mysteries(?).”

Foreign loanwords:
*Ms1ḥ < Syriac mšīḥā “messiah” (cf. Arabic masīḥ; Qurʾān 3:45, 4:157, 4:171-2, 5:17,
5:72, 5:75, 9:30-1)
*rḥ qds1 < Syriac rūḥā d-qūddšā “holy spirit” (rūḥ al-qudus; Qur’ān 2:87, 2:253, 5:110,
16:102)
*qds1 < Syriac qaddeš “to consecrate”
*qs1s1 < Syriac qaššīšā “priest”
*ʿt < Syriac ʿettā “church”
*ms1tl < possibly Greek; Müller (2010: 187) compares ϴϵίων μυστηρίων ἰϵρϵύς
“Priester der göttlichen Mysterien” (Nilus of Ancyra, Narratio 6.20)
 Murayghān 3
from Biʾr Murayghān. Note the cross.
(Source: Robin and Ṭayrān 2012)

1.mlkn ʾbrh Zybmn mlk S¹bʾ w-D-Rydn w-Ḥḍrmt w-Ymnt 2.w-ʾʿrb-hmw Ṭwdm w-Thmt s¹ṭrw dn
s¹ṭrn k-qflw bn ʾrḍ Mʿdm 3.k-s¹tqḏw ʾʿrb Mʿdm ʿ(m)[-n M]drn w-ṭrdw ʿmrm bn Mdrn w-s¹4.tqdw kl
ʾʿrb Mʿdm [w-H]grm w-Hṭ w-Ṭym w-Yṯrb w-Gz(m)
1.The king ʾAbrehā Zybmn, King of Sabaʾ and Dhū-Raydān and Ḥaḍramawt and Yamanāt and
2.their Arabs of Ṭawdum and Tihāmat, wrote this inscription when he returned from the land of

Maʿaddum, 3.when he seized the Arabs of Maʿaddum fro[m Mu]dhdhirān and drove out ʿAmrum,
son of Mudhdhirān, and he 4.seized all the Arabs of Maʿaddum, Hagarum, Khaṭṭ, Ṭayyum, Yathrib
and Guzām.
Dramatis personae
1.mlknʾbrh Zybmn mlk S¹bʾ w-D-Rydn w-Ḥḍrmt w-Ymnt 2.w-ʾʿrb-hmw Ṭwdm w-Thmt s¹ṭrw dn s¹ṭrn k-qflw bn ʾrḍ
Mʿdm 3.k-s¹tqḏw ʾʿrb Mʿdm ʿ(m)[-n M]drn w-ṭrdw ʿmrm bn Mdrn w-s¹4.tqdw kl ʾʿrb Mʿdm [w-H]grm w-Hṭ w-Ṭym w-
Yṯrb w-Gz(m)
1.The king ʾAbrehā Zybmn, King of Sabaʾ and Dhū-Raydān and Ḥaḍramawt and Yamanāt and
2.their Arabs of Ṭawdum and Tihāmat, wrote this inscription when he returned from the country of Maʿaddum,
3.when he seized the Arabs of Maʿaddum, fro[m Mu]dhdhirān and drove out ʿAmrum, son of Mudhdhirān, and he
4.seized all the Arabs of Maʿaddum, Hagarum, Khaṭṭ, Ṭayyum, Yathrib and Guzām.

*Maʿaddum: collective name for a confederation of tribes, the territory of which extended over
much of Najd and the Ḥijāz
*Mudhdhirān: the Lakhmid king al-Mundhir III (r. 504-554), whom the Sāsānid king Khusraw
Anūshīrwān (r. 531-579) had appointed to rule over Oman, Baḥrayn (i.e. the Gulf littoral), the
Yamāma, and the Ḥijāz.
*ʿAmrum, son of Mudhdhirān: son of al-Mundhir III who later came to the Lakhmid throne as
ʿAmr III (r. 554-569)
*Guzām: Most likely the Arab tribe of Judhām, based in the southern borderlands of Roman
Palestine.
Arabia during
ʾAbrehā’s Reign
(Source: Robin and Ṭayrān 2012)

ʾAbrehā’s Cathedral at Ṣanʿāʾ
(Source: Yule 2007)
Known only from medieval Arabic sources:
1. Muḥammad bin ‘Abdallāh al-Azraqī (d. ca.
865) provides the most detailed description,
on which the reconstruction on the left is
based.
2. Medieval Muslims scholars claim that
ʾAbrehā built the cathedral in order to divert
pilgrims from Mecca, and that the
defecation by a Ḥijāzī Arab inside the
cathedral prompted ʾAbrehā’s ill-fated
attack on Mecca.
Location:
1. Yemeni tradition associates the cathedral
with Ghurqat al-Qalīs in Ṣanʿāʾ.
2. Medieval Arabic sources, however, locate
the cathedral in the area of the Great
Mosque, which might incorporate certain
architectural elements of the cathedral.
 A Record of ʾAbrehā’s Cathedral in Sabaic?

CIH 325
Latest dated Sabaic inscription, from
559/560 CE
Provenance unknown; currently kept in
the Ancient Orient Museum, Istanbul
(Source: Robin 2015b)

1. CIH 325 records construction activities of some sort. Robin (2015b) puts forward the hypothesis that the
inscription records the construction by ʾAbrehā of a cathedral at Ṣanʿāʾ.
2. This is possible, but:
2.1. What survives of the (admittedly incomplete) text contains no mention of a cathedral (qls1 in Sabaic) or of
Ṣanʿāʾ, nor even of ʾAbrehā. It is not impossible that the inscription postdates his reign.
2.2. The text alludes to the toponyms Jabal Himwam and Ḥagūrum and the tribe ʿAkkum, which suggests western
Yemen and the Tihāma, rather than Ṣanʿāʾ, as a context for CIH 325.
2.3. Even Robin (2015: 125) concedes that CIH 325 could also refer to construction work at the palace of Ghumdān
at Ṣanʿāʾ rather than ʾAbrehā’s cathedral.
12. Christian-Jewish Relations in South Arabia:
A Working Hypothesis
12.1. Foreign Christian sources portray Jewish-Christian relations in South Arabia as hostile, but
was this always the case? (Note: Contemporary Jewish sources are silent on the matter.)

12.2. Most monotheistic inscriptions in Sabaic are doctrinally ambiguous and could with equal
probability be Jewish, Christian, or even possibly Judaeo-Christian, suggesting a shared core of
religious terminology and concepts. Note the phenomenon of Jewish Christians and Judaizing
“God-fearers” in the Roman Near East and Eastern Mediterranean during Late Antiquity.

12.3. That explicit Christian references appear for the first time in Sabaic inscriptions in the 6th
century could have been the result of persecution of Christians by the Jewish/Judaizing elite,
as well as military intervention by Christian Aksum, both of which led to a sharpening of
hitherto nebulous boundaries between the Christian and Jewish communities.
13. Implications for the Rise of Islam
13.1. ʾAbrehā’s Christianity:
13.1.1. In contrast to inscriptions from Sumūyafaʿ ʾAshwaʿ’s reign, which employ Christian
terms of Geʿez derivation, the Christian terminology in ʾAbrehā’s inscriptions is Syriac and, in
one case, possibly Greek. This corresponds with the use of foreign loanwords in the Qurʾān,
where Syriac loanwords far outnumber the Geʿez. Although an Ethiopian by birth, ʾAbrehā
seems to have adhered to a Christianity deriving from a source rather different from that of
Sumūyafaʿ ʾAshwaʿ.
13.1.2. A transition to a different conception of the role of Jesus can also be observed in
ʾAbrehā’s inscriptions. While Jesus is referred to as Raḥmānān’s son and “Christ the victorious”
in Ist 7608 bis from Sumūyafaʿ ʾAshwaʿ’s reign, he is referred to as Raḥmānān’s Messiah in
inscriptions from ʾAbrehā’s reign.
13.1.3. The Christology which prevailed during ʾAbrehā’s reign might have influenced
Muḥammad’s teachings, as suggested by Robin (2014: 76-7), in view of the manner in which
Jesus is presented in the Qurʾān as the Messiah (al-Masīḥ) but not the son of God.
13. Implications for the Rise of Islam (cont’d)
13.2. Ḥimyar’s empire in Arabia:
13.2.1. By the mid-5th century CE, Ḥimyar had brought much of Central Arabia within its
sphere of political influence, ruling through their Arab clients, the Kinda.
13.2.2. During the 520s, the Christian Ḥimyarite king Maʿdīkarib Yaʿfur fought against the
Sāsānids’ Lakhmid clients and led his army to Mesopotamia.
13.2.3. During the 550s, ʾAbrehā managed to bring most of the Arabian Peninsula within
Ḥimyar’s sphere of influence.
13.2.4. Conclusion: The idea of unifying Arabia politically did not originate with Muḥammad
but was the product of a long history of Ḥimyarite military expansion.

13.3. Why Muḥammad succeeded where ʾAbrehā failed:

13.3.1. ʾAbrehā and his successors failed to make a common cause with Arabian Christians in
the Ḥijāz or in East Arabia. Consequently, a truly Christian empire in Arabia never formed.
13.3.2. Muḥammad, by contrast, established a degree of unity among Arabian tribes based on
a shared allegiance to Islam and a common cause of military expansion in the name of Islam.
14. Postscript
14.1. Christianity in South Arabia during the early Islamic period:

14.1.1. In 631 (AH 10), Muḥammad received a delegation of sixty Najrānī Christians at
Medina and concluded a treaty with them. The caliph ʿUmar bin al-Khaṭṭāb (r. 634-644),
however, expelled all Christians from Najrān and resettled them in Syria, southern Iraq, and
Hajar in the oasis of al-Hufūf in East Arabia. A new settlement, al-Najrāniyya, developed in
the area around Kūfa in southern Iraq.

14.1.2. Some Christians remained in Yemen. In the Syriac Book of the Governors, Thomas of
Margā refers to one Peter who was bishop of Yemen and Ṣanʿāʾ ca. 837-50.

14.1.3. The Arabic Collectio canonum, written by the Nestorian primate of Damascus Īliyā al-
Jawharī at the turn of the 10th century, alludes to the Nestorian community of South Arabia in
a list of bishops under the authority of the Persian metropolitan (muṭrān) and mentions
Soqoṭrā and *Sīrān (‫)سيران‬. Fiaccadori (1985: 195) emends the latter toponym to Samarān
(‫ )سمران‬and derives this from Simrā(n), the Middle Persian name for South Arabia.
The Nestorian World during the Early Middle Ages
14. Postscript (cont’d)
14.2. Christianity in Soqoṭrā:

14.2.1. Omani sources speak of a Christian revolt against 9th-century Omani occupation of the
island, in the course of which the governor appointed by the Ibāḍī imām al-Ṣalt bin Mālik al-
Kharūṣī (r. 851-886) was killed.

14.2.2. The Venetian traveler Marco Polo (d. 1324), though he never visited Soqoṭrā himself,
reports that the Nestorian patriarch, at that time residing in Baghdad, was still dispatching
bishops to the island.

14.2.3. During their occupation of Soqoṭrā 1507-1511, the Portuguese encountered local
Christians, long cut off from the rest of the Christian world. According to the chronicler João
de Barros (d. 1570), they still held three religious services daily, corresponding to Matins,
Vespers, and Compline, during which they chanted in “Chaldaean” (caldeu = Syriac?). By the
17th century, all known Christian practices on Soqoṭrā had ceased. With that, the last outpost
of Arabian Christianity finally fell.
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Thank you for your attention