Najran ( ; ), is a city in southwestern Saudi Arabia. It is the capital of Najran Province. Today, the city of Najran is one of the fastest-growing cities in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. As of the 2022 census, the city population was 381,431, with the population of the governorate of Najran being 592,300. Today, the population is primarily Ismaili with a Sunni minority.
The ancient city of Najran is now largely in ruins, the archaeological site Al-Okhdood, located south-east of the present-day city. In ancient times, this Najran was a major urban, agricultural, industrial (cloth, leather), and trade (incense) center, located in the midst of a fertile wadi (valley), called the Wadi Najran. Najran was also located at the intersection of two main caravan routes: one running from Hadhramaut, to the Hejaz, to the Eastern Mediterranean, and another running from the northeast through Al-Yamama and into Mesopotamia. Its pre-Islamic history is notable for its Christian community, including its central role in South Arabian Christianity and the massacre of this community by the king Dhu Nuwas.
Name According to the Martyrdom of Arethas, Najran derives from a Hebrew term meaning both "thundering city" or "invincible lock". According to Christian J. Robin, this source is well-informed but not exact: in ancient times, the oasis was called both Najran and Rgmt, with the latter deriving from the Hebrew Raʿma, meaning "thundering city", while the Arabic najrān means "invincible lock". The "lock" etymology is based on Najran's place in travel and trade on the peninsula, as Najran acts as the "lock" that gives access to Yemen. The Hebrew name for the site is used in the Old Testament (Genesis 10:7, 1 Chronicles 1:9, Ezekiel 27:22), where it is associated with the South Arabian kingdom of Sheba.
The name Najran is used in local Sabaic inscriptions, as well as Greek, Latin, Nabataean, and Ge'ez sources. Minaean and Jawf inscriptions prefer Ragmatum (Rgmtm), which appears to derive from the name of an old royal residence. In the second-third centuries, the main settlement of the oasis briefly came to be called either Najran or Ẓirbān, before the name returned to just Najran by the sixth century. Najran, however, always remained the name of the oasis as a whole.
Geography The Najran oasis stands 4,500 feet above sea-level. Its tallest point is 2,000 feet high in the oasis, or 6,500 feet above sea-level. The length and width of the oasis is 15 and 2 miles, respectively. The oasis has a layer of sandstone lying above igneous rocks (basalt and granite). This sandstone belt stretches over a considerable area across the oasis and has historically facilitated the movement of peoples through Najran (compared with the surrounding granite mountains), enabling both trade and invasion. Many trade routes cross through this area, where many graffiti have been found. In the middle of an arid environment, it hosts rich soil and abundant water resources, and it is an obligatory passageway to reach Yemen when entering from the Hejaz or the Arabian Gulf.
History
Early history
In the early 1st millennium BC, Najran was controlled by a commune called Muhamirum, which in alliance with other communes, especially Amirum, formed a federation. The great Sabaean mukarrib Karib'il Watar conquered this federation in the early 7th century BC as part of a series of conquests that he described in a lengthy Sabaic inscription that commemorated the achievements of his reign. The federation survived under the tutelage Sabaean domination, and an inscription from the late 7th century BC describes its failed attempt to break away from the kingdom. The major role already played by Najran in trade in this time is reflected by a passage mentioning it in the biblical Book of Ezekiel (27:20–23):Dedan [today al-Ula in the Hijaz] traded in saddlecloths with you. Arabia and all the princes of Qedar [today al-Jawf in the north of Arabia] were your favoured dealers in lambs, rams and goats. In these they did business with you. The merchants of Sheba [Saba’ in Yemen] and Ra‘mah [Najran] traded with you; for your wares they exchanged the finest of all kinds of spices and precious stones, and gold. Haran, Kanne and Eden traded with you, and merchants of Assur and Media traded with you.In this time, the inhabitants of Najran likely spoke some variant of North Arabic, while the inscriptions are in the Sabaic script (and more rarely, in Minaic). Three centuries later, another inscription shows continuing Sabaean rule over Najran. As the dominance of Sheba in the region waned, Najran entered into an alliance of small, trade-focused kingdoms under the leadership of the Kingdom of Ma'in. By the 2nd century BC, Amirum eclipsed Ma'in in the Jawf area and took control of Najran. During this period of time, the considerable role played by Najran in the caravan trade led to the great god, Dhu Samawi, being adopted across Yemen, including by the earlier Ma'in kingdom. The only other gods affiliated with Najran in this time are Athtar and the "Master of Mkntn". In later periods, some longer deity lists enumerate all the gods of Najran.
In 24 BC, the Roman Empire briefly conquered Najran during the siege of South Arabia led by the Roman prefect Aelius Gallus. According to the geographer Strabo, Aelius "came to the town of Negranes [Najran], a peaceful, fertile region. The king fled and the town was taken by assault" (Geography 16.4.24). Najran was then used as a launching point to put Marib, the Sabaean capital, under siege. However, the Romans had to retreat from the area shortly afterwards. In the second century, Ptolemy described Najran as a "metropolis" (Geography 6.7.37).
In the second and third centuries AD, rule over Najran switched multiple times. A briefly revitalized Sabaean kingdom retook it, before it passed into the hands of the Himyarite Kingdom during its conquest of Saba. In the first decades of the third century, the Ethiopian Kingdom of Aksum was able to conquer and hold on to it, as described both by Sabaean and Ethiopian sources. By the mid-third century, Himyar regained control over the area. Later in the fourth century, the Namara inscription records that the Lakhmid king Imru al-Qays I waged a campaign against Najran, which it describes as the "city of Shammar" (or Shammar Yahri'sh, the Himyarite king). The campaign by Imru al-Qays may have been waged on behalf of the Roman emperor, Constantine, and it has been suggested that a triggering factor for the conflict involved Shammar's expansion into the territory called Arabia Deserta.
Najran had a local prince/king who held the title ʿāqib as far back as the 2nd century AD. The person holding this office had a civilian purpose, being the administrator of the city and the one maintaining public order, but apparently did not play a military role. This title was also used for the local ruler of other settlements in South Arabia. One named chief, Arethas of Najran (also known as Ḥārith ibn Kaʿb), was one of the victims of the famous massacre of the Christians of Najran. The prestige of the role he played in the city, tied with his martyrdom, led to his clan renaming itself by his name, and their ascendancy in Najranite politics. However, this family lost its power soon after the Islamic conquests.
Christian period
Christianity may have been introduced into Najran in the fifth century, and from there, it became Christianity's central city in South Arabia and through it Christianity was introduced into the rest of South Arabia. The entrance of Christianity into the city plausibly happened via trade routes. Several late sources suggest different beginnings for the Christianity 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 and other members of the community 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 that Fimiyyun was ministering to, and another centered on a secret conversion of a Himyarite king. Though the details about Christianity's introduction into the area cannot be recovered, an involvement of the trade routes of Al-Hira are possible. 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. Many of these contain Christian iconography, including large and ornate crosses, establishing a notable Christian community in the region which had produced them. For example, Ḥimà-al-Musammāt PalAr 5 contains a cross and describes a figure named "῾Abd al-Masīḥ" ("the servant of Christ").
The Christian community of Najran experienced waves of persecution before the massacre of the Jewish king Dhu Nuwas, likely beginning around 470. The Martyrdom of Azqir reports that Najran's first priest, Azqir, was transferred to the Himyarite capital Zafar where he was beheaded on the advice of a group of rabbis to create an example against introducing a new religion into the region. The first bishop of Najran, named Paul, was stoned to death sometime afterwards but before 500. Ethiopian sources describe a persecution of Najran's Christians during the reign of the Himyarite king Sharhabil Yakkuf (468–480 AD). Later, the Syriac poet Jacob of Serugh wrote a letter of consolation to the Christian community of Najran (his Letter to the Himyarites), sometime before his death in 521, indicating another wave of persecution prior to the massacre of 523. Finally, the Book of the Himyarites says that an (unidentified) bishop named Thomas appealed to the aid of the Kingdom of Aksum in the face of the Himyarite persecution of the Najran Christians.