Himyar I

  General Description   In 115 BCE the Himyarites were a tribe from the southwestern highlands of Yemen. They formed, with Saba, the dual kingdom of Saba and Dhu-Raydan ^{[1] [2]} after the Roman attacks in 25 BCE emboldened the Himyarites who "siezed the Sabaean homelands and made the population subject to a new Saba-Himyar regime." ^[3] They used the royal title ’king of Saba and dhu-Raydan’ with Raydan later becoming known as Qataban. ^[4] Dhu-Raydan (Zafar), the Himyarite capital, was located in the highlands near modern Yarim. ^[5]
The Roman discovery of the Indian Ocean trade winds around 100 CE signaled the end of many great civilizations in South Arabia that used overland trade routes; ^[6] but the Himyarite state was initially an exception, and prospered. For a time the Himyarites were a subject tribe of the Romans ^[7] and they possessed colonies which seeded the Abyssinian Kingdom in Ethiopia. ^[8] The wealth of the Himyar state, similarly acquired as other local kingdoms from the trade of incense and spices, came from trading overseas routes. While during the second millennium CE Saba split from Himyar the Himyarites later benefited immensely at the expense of their rival kingdoms as the overland routes became increasingly less efficient and disrupted by warfare, especially in the third century CE, which involved Himyar, Saba, Hadramawt and Aksum.
The Himyarites had a much more centralized polity than Saba throughout the early first millennium ^[9] but could not hold back the Abyssinians who invaded and occupied the tihama (Red Sea littoral) from the 2nd century CE; the Ethiopians conquered the Himyarite capital in 240 CE, but agreeing an alliance with Himyar withdraw from the Arabian peninsular ^[10] in about 270 CE. ^[11] The Himyar-Abyssinain alliance or vassalage ended about 298 CE. ^[12] Himyar "reached the peak of its power in the third century as a result of a successful series of wars against the local heathen tribes and the African realm of Ethiopia." ^[13] Between 270-280 CE the Sabaean Kingdom was annexed by the Himyarites. ^[10] Hadramawt was conquered by 300 CE. ^[14] Throughout this period the profits from the incense trade were in a progressive decline as the rise of Christianity in the west had reduced demand for a product that was most commonly used in pagan rituals. When in 395 CE the Roman emperor Theodosius declared Christianity to be the official state religion of the Roman Empire the trade ceased entirely. ^[15]
At this same time Himyarites also were undergoing their own seismic shift in religious belief system - rapidly converting from their pagan polytheistic belief system to monotheistic religious doctrines by the late 4th century CE. ^[16] "There is significant archaeological evidence of the abandonment of pagan temples toward the conclusion of the fourth century and of the almost complete disappearance of expressions of devotion to the old tribal gods shortly thereafter." ^[17] "From the 4th century on the Himyarite kings were either full members or sympathizers of Judaism" and the Jewish faith became "the dominant religion" in South Arabia. ^[18] In the later fourth century there was a Jewish dynasty of kings known as the Tabbai’a. ^[19] A list of Himyarite’s known Jewish kings include: Yassirum Yohre’am (from 270 CE); ’Amr-Shlomo ben David (325-330 CE); Malki Kariba Juha’min (378-385 CE); Abu Kariba As’as (385-420 or 445 CE); Shurihbi’il Yakkuf (468-480 CE); Martad Ilan (’Judaized’ 495-515 CE); Yusuf Ash’ar Dhu Nuwas (515-525 CE). ^{[20] [19]} The Himyarite army adopted Judaism as its official religion at the start of the fifth century CE. ^[20]
Christianity also was present in Himyar at least from the first half of the 4th century ^[21] when the Christian missionary Theophilus arrived and "complained that he found a great number of Jews". ^[17] By 350 CE Christian communities were becoming established and over the next 100 years, "missionaries systematically converted many Arabian tribes from their traditional polytheistic practices to monotheistic Christianity". ^[15] It is also suggested that the rulers were not Jewish but Monophysite Christians. According to Friedman (2006) Himyarite colonists, the Axumites, in the land of Cush (Ethiopia) "which they renamed Axum ... converted to Monophysite Christianity at the beginning of the fourth century. Between 340 to 378, the Axumites returned to Yemen and imposed their rule and religion over the Himyarites. Although the interregnum was short-lived, the impact of the Axumites was very profound. Yemen was a Christian land, with churches and a cathedral in San’a, and all but one of the restored Himyarite monarchs (378-525) were Monophysite Christians. The lone heretic was Dhu-Nuwas who, for unknown reasons, hated Christians and converted to Judaism." ^[22] However, Christians appear to have been repressed due to a perceived association with influence of the Byzantine Empire: "in the 470s ... a priest named Azqir was executed for active proselytisation in Najran". ^[23] Hitti also mentions the 340-378 CE period of Abyssinian rule. ^[14]
An inscription dated to 378 CE claimed "the completion of buildings by a Himyar monarch had been accomplished ’through the power of their lord of sky and heaven,’ and phrases such as ’the owner of the sky and earth,’ and the expression ’the Merciful’ also were used. ^[17] It has been suggested that the Himyarite "profession of monotheism, and later full-fledged Judaism, distanced the Himyarites from the Christianity of the Byzantines and their Ethiopian allies and the Zoroastrianism of the Persians" ^[17] so that their strategically located state had an independent or neutral identity. Written sources mention the presence of synagogues in Zafar and Najran. ^[19]
As trade revenues flatlined, the increasing persecution and then massacre of Christians by king Dhu Nuwas ^[6] lead to a foreign intervention. The Byzantine Empire in alliance with the Aksumite Kingdom invaded the Himyarite kingdom and Dhu Nuwas was removed. Himyar and the Red Sea Coast was thereafter ruled directly by the Christian Ethiopians until the Persian conquest in 570 CE, interrupted by the Christian Ethiopian governor-general Abraha’s declaration of independence between 550-553 CE. ^[24]

[1]: (Burrows 2010, 140) Robert D Burrows. 2010. Historical Dictionary of Yemen. Second Edition. The Scarecrow Press, Inc. Lanham.

[2]: (Bryce 2009, 602) Trevor Bryce. 2009. The Routledge Handbook of the Peoples and Places of Ancient Western Asia. The Near East from the Early Bronze Age to the fall of the Persian Empire. Routledge. Abingdon.

[3]: (McLaughlin 2014, 136) Raoul McLaughlin. 2014. The Roman Empire and the Indian Ocean: The Ancient World Economy and the Kingdoms of Africa, Arabia and India. Pen and Sword Military. Barnsley.

[4]: (Hitti 2002, 55) Philip K Hitti. 2002 (1937). History of the Arabs. 10th Edition. Palgrave Macmillan. Basingstoke.

[5]: (Burrows 2010, 161) Robert D Burrows. 2010. Historical Dictionary of Yemen. Second Edition. The Scarecrow Press, Inc. Lanham.

[6]: (Burrows 2010, xxiii) Robert D Burrows. 2010. Historical Dictionary of Yemen. Second Edition. The Scarecrow Press, Inc. Lanham.

[7]: (Friedman 2006, 105) Saul S. Friedman. 2006. A History of the Middle East. McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. Jefferson.

[8]: (Hitti 2002, 56) Philip K Hitti. 2002 (1937). History of the Arabs. 10th Edition. Palgrave Macmillan. Basingstoke.

[9]: (Korotayev 1996, 47) Andrey Vitalyevhich Korotayev. 1996. Pre-Islamic Yemen. Socio-political Organization of the Sabaean Cultural Area in the 2nd and 3rd Centuries AD. Harrassowitz Verlag. Wiesbaden.

[10]: (Caton 2013, 45-46) Steven C Caton ed. 2013. Yemen. ABC-Clio. Santa Barbara

[11]: (Orlin et al. 424) Eric Orlin. Lisbeth S Fried. Jennifer Wright Knust. Muchael L Satlow. Michael E Pregill. eds. 2016. The Routledge Encyclopedia of Ancient Mediterranean Religions. Routledge. New York.

[12]: (Syvanne 2015, 133) Ilkka Syvanne. 2015. Military History of Late Rome 284-361. Pen and Sword. Barnsley.

[13]: (285) Norman Roth ed. 2016. Routledge Revivals: Medieval Jewish Civilization (2003): An Encyclopedia. Routledge.

[14]: (Hitti 2002, 60) Philip K Hitti. 2002 (1937). History of the Arabs. 10th Edition. Palgrave Macmillan. Basingstoke.

[15]: (Romano 2004, 13) Amy Romano. 2004. A Historical Atlas of Yemen. The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc. New York.

[16]: (Kaye 2007, 168) L E Kogan. A V Korotayev. Epigraphic South Arabian Morphology. Alan S Kaye ed. 2007. Morphologies of Asia and Africa. Volume 1. Eisenbrauns. Winona Lake.

[17]: (Maroney 2010, 93) Eric Maroney. 2010. The Other Zions: The Lost Histories of Jewish Nations. Roman & Littlefield Publishes, Inc. Lanham.

[18]: (Tubach 2015, 363-365) Johann Jurgen Tubach. Aramaic Loanwords In Geez. Aaron Michael Butts. ed. 2015. Semitic Languages in Contact. BRILL. Leiden.

[19]: (Haas 2014, 38-39) Christopher Haas. Geopolitics and Georgian Identity in Late Antiquity: The Dangerous World of Vakhtang Gorgasali. Tamar Nutsubidze. Cornelia B Horn. Basil Lourie. eds. 2014. Georgian Christian Thought and Its Cultural Context. Memorial Volume for the 125th Anniversary of Shalva Nutsubidze (1888-1969). BRILL. Leiden.

[20]: (Brook 2006, 264-265) Kevin Alan Brook. 2006. The Jews of Khazaria. Second Edition. Rowman & Littlefield Publishes, Inc. Lanham.

[21]: (Tubach 2015, 363-363) Johann Jurgen Tubach. Aramaic Loanwords In Geez. Aaron Michael Butts. ed. 2015. Semitic Languages in Contact. BRILL. Leiden.

[22]: (Friedman 2006, 106) Saul S. Friedman. 2006. A History of the Middle East. McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. Jefferson.

[23]: (Hoyland 2001, 51) Robert G Hoyland. 2001. Arabia and the Arabs: From the Bronze Age to the Coming of Islam. Routledge. London.

[24]: (Caton 2013, 47) Steven C Caton ed. 2013. Yemen. ABC-Clio. Santa Barbara