The Christians of Najran were the most notable community of Christians in pre-Islamic Arabia, rising in the period of Arabia in late antiquity. Christianity appears to have spread into the region by the fifth century, if not earlier. In some Islamic tradition, Najran is thought to have been the site that allowed Christianity to first get a foothold in South Arabia. Najran was the home of several Christian bishops as well, including the legendary Quss Ibn Sa'ida al-Iyadi, a contemporary of and possible influence on Muhammad. Some traditions suggest the existence of a Kaaba of Najran, which had a similar architectural style to the Kaaba of Mecca.
The Christians of Najran are best known for having been persecuted and massacred during the reign of the Jewish Himyarite king, Dhu Nuwas. The outrage that followed in the international Christian community made this what has described as "the most widely broadcast episode of the early sixth century," with the works written on it now forming an important source for the history of the community. The massacre also instigated an invasion of the Himyarite Kingdom by its Christian neighbour, the Ethiopian Aksumite Kingdom, ushering in an era of Christian rule over South Arabia during much of the sixth century. The Christians of Najran persisted, and are said to have sent a delegation that met with the Islamic prophet Muhammad, who allowed them to worship in his mosque, and their interaction is believed to be the occasion in which Surah 112 of the Quran was revealed. The Quranic story of the People of the Ditch in Surah 85 is also often interpreted as recounting the massacre of Najran's Christians.
Primary sources The Christian sources that talk about the Christian community at Najran primarily revolve around the persecutions of this community in the early sixth century by Dhu Nuwas. These sources include two letters attributed to Simeon of Beth Arsham, Jacob of Serugh's Letter to the Himyarites, the Book of the Himyarites, and the Martyrdom of Arethas.
Introduction of Eastern Christianity Historically, the introduction of Eastern Christianity into Najran must have occurred by the fifth century, possibly through trade routes. Several late sources suggest different beginnings for the Christians of Najran. According to the Chronicle of Seert, Christianity was introduced into the area around 450 when a Christian merchant from the city named Hannan travelled to Constantinople, and then Al-Hira, where he converted and was baptised. Upon returning to Najran, he began sharing his faith with others in the community, who also began to convert. Ibn Ishaq offers a different story: a Christian Syrian named Fimiyyun ended up as a slave in Najran. His manner of praying shocked the Najran community, leading to a mass conversion. Other versions of the story also permeated the Arab-Islamic tradition, some focusing on the miracles of a man named Abdallah ibn Tahmir, to whom Fimiyyun ministered, and another centered on the secret conversion of a Himyarite king. Another legend attributes the founding of the Christian community of Najran to a man named Phemion. Though the details about Christianity's introduction into the area are unclear, it is possible that it was passed along the trade routes of Al-Hira. Several explicitly Christian inscriptions are known from the Hima Paleo-Arabic inscriptions, located at a site near Najran, with the texts dates covering the late fourth to early fifth centuries.
Bishops and holy sites
The first mention of bishops of Najran is in a letter from Simeon, the bishop of Beth Arsham, written in 524. According to Simeon, Philoxenus of Mabbug consecrated two bishops, both called Mar Pawlos (Paul). Both died during the massacre, the first during the siege of Zafar, and the second in Najran before its final surrender to Dhu Nuwas. The consecration being done by Philoxenus, a leading member of the Syrian Orthodox Church, indicates a Miaphysite, non-Chalcedonian Christianity at Najran. Other bishops are mentioned in Islamic sources, including the legendary Quss Ibn Sa'ida al-Iyadi, a contemporary of Muhammad, who came to preach the great market of Mina and the Sūq ʿUkāẓ.
The Church of Najran was called the Kaaba of Najran. This Kaaba drew worshippers for some 40 years during Pre-Islamic Arabia. The Arabian sources single out Khath'am, a Christian tribe which used to perform the pilgrimage to the site.
Persecutions and massacre The Christians had suffered a brief stint of persecution with the advent of the new dynasty under the Himyarite ruler Sharhabil Yakkuf.Christopher Haas, 'Geopolitics and Georgian Identity in Late Antiquity: The Dangerous World of Vakhtang Gorgasali,' in Tamar Nutsubidze, Cornelia B. Horn, Basil Lourié(eds.),Georgian Christian Thought and Its Cultural Context, BRILL pp.29-44, p.36.:'inscriptions with divine epithets having clear affinities to Judaism indicate that the Himyarite king, Malkīkarib Yuha'min (c.375.400) along with his son and successor, Abīkarib As'ad (c.400-445), embraced, if not Judaism, then a Judaistic monotheist religion.' In the Martyrdom of Azqir, a missionary known as Azqir tried to convert the king, and was instead ordered executed for "introducing a new religion." After concluding the story of Azqir's life and execution, the Martyrdom reports that around 40 other Christians had also been martyred, including bishops, priests, monks, and lay people.
After the death of the king, Yusuf As'ar Yath'ar (known as Dhu Nuwas for his sidelocks) was appointed to the throne. In a reversal of policy, Yusuf launched a campaign which massacred an Aksumite garrison in Zafar, where a church was set on fire, then invaded the Tihāma coastal lowlands and 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.Norbert Nebes, 'The Martyrs of Najrān and End of the Ḥimyar: On the Political History of South Arabia in the Early Sixth Century,' the Angelika Neuwirth, Nicolai Sinai, Michael Marx (eds.), The Qur'ān in Context: Historical and Literary Investigations Into the Qur'ānic Milieu, BRILL 2010 pp.27-60, p.45.
In 523, Dhu Nuwas killed nearly hundred thousand Christians in Najran, reportedly in retribution for the burning of a synagogue.Jonathan Porter Berkey, The Formation of Islam: Religion and Society in the Near East, 600-1800, Cambridge University Press, 2003 p.46. These circumstances had a geopolitical dimension as well; Jewish communities and Nestorian Christians had connections with the Iranian Sassanid kingdom, while the Miaphysite Christians were linked to Byzantine and Aksumite interests. When Dhu Nuwas ordered the Himyarites to provide him troops, the Miaphysite Christians of Najran refused. Dhu Nuwas sent out officials to offer a truce in exchange for voluntary surrender. Instead, once the representatives for the community identified themselves, Dhu Nuwas ordered the execution of the rebels and their families. Their bodies were piled in a church and burned. The prefect of Najran, Arethas, was among those killed. He is remembered as a saint in the Catholic tradition and as a martyr in Islam.Joëlle Beaucamp, Françoise Briquel-Chatonnet, Christian Julien Robin, La persécution des chrétiens de Nagrân et la chronologie himyarite, ARAM 11:1, 1999 PP.15-83, p.15. There are three Sabaic inscriptions which refer to the event: Ry 507, Ry 508, and Ja 1028.
The details of this incident are debated, and the event itself has been heavily mythologized. This effect can be seen in the death toll, which varies widely from 200, as recorded shortly afterward, to 70,000 in sources written centuries later. Popular religious narratives purport that Dhu Nuwas gave the Christians of Najran the choice of conversion to Judaism or death, and that when they refused to renounce their faith, they were burned alive. Modern scholarship questions both the religious motive and the manner of execution. It is possible that those killed were executed by sword and their bodies burned afterward. Inscriptions written Himyarite military officers make no reference to the religion of the Najranites. 21st century scholars have understood this massacre as an episode of brutal political repression, rather than religious persecution.
Fall of Dhu Nuwas Dhu Nuwas's military campaign against the Byzantine-allied Christians of Najran brought swift retribution. The emperor of Byzantium, Justin I, requested his ally, the Abyssinian ruler Kaleb of Axum, to invade Najran, kill Dhu Nuwas, and annex Himyar. 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 7,000 men led by Abraha, the Christian viceroy of the Negus of Axum, defeated Himyarite forces. Dhu Nuwas is said to have ridden his horse into the sea rather than be killed by Byzantine forces. The seizure of the throne by Abraha signified a return to Christian rule in Najran, and with it a period of retaliatory persecution against Himyar's Jews.
Memory and legacy The persecution of Christians in Najran has left a legacy in both Christian literature as well as in the Quran.
Simeon of Beth Arsham's second letter on the Najran massacre is unique for its focus on the women martyrs, who he says rushed to join "our parents and brothers and sisters who have died for the sake of Christ our lord." According to one memorably gruesome episode mentioned in it, 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 woman replies, "Like a pure spotless offering: that is what it tasted like in my mouth and in my soul."
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:
The martyrs of Najran are often thought to be mentioned in the Quran (85:4–8):
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."Najran, in Yemen, was the scene, in 523, of a massacre of Ethiopians and other Christians by Jews and Arabs. A leader among the victims was the chief of the Banu Harith, St. Aretas (see: Elesbaan)."
The Martyrdom of the Christians of Najran is celebrated in the Roman Calendar on 24 October; in the Jacobite Menologies on 31 December; in the Arabic Feasts of the Melkites on 2 October; in the Armenian Synaxarium on 20 October, and in the Ethiopian Senkesar on 22 November.
Islamic era Starting in the 7th century, Islam spread in Arabia. The Christians of Najran would interact with Muhammad and later Muslims.
Delegation to Muhammad