Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Jewish People - Rafapal

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REALMS OF SILENCE 193 Himyar's confirmed rival was the Ethiopian kingdom of Aksum across the Red Sea, which periodically sent forces across the strait to blockade its wealthy neighbor. A possible visit by the Himyarites to the Holy Land was suggested by some tombs in Beit She'arim near Haifa, uncovered in 1936. A Greek inscription engraved over one of the niches describes the interred as "people of Himyar." We know they were Jews, because one of them was named "Menah[em], Elder of the Congregation," and two characteristic Jewish emblems, a candelabra and a ram's horn, were carved beside the inscription. No one knows how these Himyarite tombs, dated probably to the third century CE, came to be in Beit She'arim. 2 The Arian Christian historian Philostorgius wrote that in the middle of the fourth century, Constantius II, emperor of the eastern Roman Empire, sent a mission to the Himyarites to convert them to Christianity. The mission was resisted by the local Jews, but in the end the Himyarite king accepted Christianity, says Philostorgius, and even built two churches in his kingdom. The story has not been verified. However, it was at about that time that the Ethiopian kingdom became Christian, and it is possible that there was a struggle between the contending religions in Himyar at that time. Possibly one of the kings converted to Christianity, but if so, the victory was short-lived. There is much archaeological and epigraphic evidence, some of it newly discovered, that indicates with near certainty that toward the end of the fourth century CE the Himyar kingdom abandoned paganism and adopted monotheism, but it was not Christianity that it chose. In 378 CE, Malik Karib Yuhamin built structures on which were discovered such inscriptions as "By the might of their Lord, Lord of Heavens." There are also inscriptions reading "Lord of the Heavens and the Earth" and "Rahmanan" (the Merciful). The latter is a characteristic Jewish term; it appears in the Talmud in its Aramaic form, Rahmana, and was only later, in the early seventh century, adopted by the Muslims as one of the names of Allah. Christians in the Arab world also used the term, but they invariably added "the Son and the Holy Spirit." If researchers disagreed about the character of this pioneering monotheism, the issue was more or less resolved when another inscription was discovered in the city of Beit al-Ashwal, dedicated to the son of Malik Karib Yuhamin. It says, in Hebrew, "written by Yehudah, the well-remembered, amen shalom, amen," and, in Himyari, "by the power and grace of his lord, who 2 On the discovery of the tombs in Bait-She'arirn, see the extensive work of Haim Ze'ev Hirschberg, Israel in Arabia: The History of the Jews In Hedjaz and Himyar, Tel Aviv: Byalik, 1946 (in Hebrew), 53-7.
194 THE INVENTION OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE created his soul, lord of life and death, lord of heaven and earth, who created all things, and with the financial help of his people Israel and the empowerment of his lord." 3 Whether or not this inscription was ordered by the royal house itself, it praises the king on the terms of the Jewish religion, and its author clearly assumes that this religion is shared by the ruler. Himyar was ruled from the last quarter of the fourth century CE to the first quarter of the sixth—that is, between 120 and 150 years, almost as long as the duration of the Hasmonean kingdom—by a strong, monotheistic Jewish monarchy. Muslim tradition associates the Judaization of the Himyarite kingdom to Abu Karib Assad, Malik Karib Yuharnin's second son, who apparently ruled between 390 and 420 CE. Legend has it that this king went to war in the north of the peninsula but, instead of fighting, returned with two Jewish sages and began to convert all his subjects to Judaism.' 4 At first the subjects rejected the new religion, but were eventually persuaded and entered the covenant of Abraham. There is also evidence from 440 CE that confirms the Jewish faith of Surahbi'il Yaffur, Assad's son. The great dam of Ma'rib, repaired and rebuilt by this king, bears an inscription with his name and titles, and the help given him by the "lord of heaven and earth." Another epigraph dating from the same time includes the expression "Rahmanan," the divine tide that recurs in inscriptions of successive kings. The story of the execution of Azqir, a Christian missionary from the city of Najran in northern Himyar, indicates that "Rahman Judaism" had become the hegemonic religion. There are many Arabic legends about the killing of this preacher, described in Christian hagiography as a martyr at Jewish hands. This occurred in the reign of the Himyarite king Surahbi'il Yakkaf. After Azqir built a chapel with a cross on top, he was arrested by agents of the kingdom and the chapel was destroyed. The king tried to persuade him to abandon his belief in the redeemer, but Azqir refused and was sentenced to death. At the advice of a rabbi close to the king, it was decided to carry out the sentence in Najran, as an example to others. Christianity had made some headway in the city, and it was felt necessary to deter the local populace. Before he was put to death, the martyr Azqir performed some miracles that impressed the public and were recorded in the tradition of the church. 5 3 The word "people" here denotes a religious community, not a national one. See the article by Shlomo Dov Goitien, "A Himyarite-Hebrew 'bilingual' inscription," Tarbiz 41 (1972 [in Hebrew]), 151-6. 4 See the article by Michael Lecker, "The Conversion of Himyar to Judaism and the Jewish Banu Hadl of Medina," in Jews and Arabs in Pre- and Early Islamic Arabia, Aldershot: Ashgate, 1998, 129-36; see also in this volume "Judaism among Kinda and the Ridda of Kinda," 635-50. 5 A Christian document telling this story was translated by Ze'ev Rubin in his excellent
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The Invention of the Jewish People
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English edition published by Verso
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Contents PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH-LAN
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Preface to the English-Language Edi
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PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH-LANGUAGE EDI
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CHAPTER TWO Mythistory: In the Begi
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CHAPTER FIVE The Distinction: Ident
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Acknowledgments I am deeply gratefu
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316 INDEX Aulus Plautius, 171 Ausch
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3l8 INDEX La Création des identit
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320 INDEX 251-54, 259, 261-62, 265-
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324 INDEX Jews and Arabs in Pre- an
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330 INDEX Sarah, 110, 153 Satires (
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332 INDEX xenophobia, 50 Yaari, Ehu
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Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Jewish People - Rafapal

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