Roads of Arabia

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ROADS OF ARABIA
Antiquity
4. Ezekiel 27:20–23, English Standard Version.
’Adan, in the peninsula, and was probably one of the most prosperous and safe since, unlike
many other towns of the period, such as Najran, it had no town wall.
There is unanimous agreement that during the fifty years before the Hegira Arabia was a devastated
and ruined land, but this unanimity does not exist when it comes to defining the origins of
the disaster. Do the roots of the crisis extend back several centuries, or was it caused by a sudden
collapse following wars, massacres and epidemics (like the famous “Plague of Justinian”)?
On one hand, the climate of Arabia, which had become progressively drier over several
thousands of years, began to affect the vegetation and make agriculture in many regions of the
Arabia Deserta uncertain.
On the other, it is possible that the ecological crisis had been magnified by a natural cataclysm,
such as a large volcanic eruption that might have caused climatic mayhem and brought
several years of food shortages. As a matter of fact, several sources relate that during the tenth
year of Justinian’s reign (536), the sun was so veiled over a period of eighteen months that
it resembled the moon.
In short, during the second half of the 6th century Arabia experienced a crisis following
unpredictable and sudden events while also suffering an increasingly dry climate. It was an age
of unrest, destitution, confusion and apocalyptic expectation reflected by the term “Age of
Ignorance” (Jahiliyya), coined by the first historians of the Muslim period.
The remarkable history of the principalities and kingdoms of the Arabia Deserta
The factual history of the many political entities in Arabia mentioned by the sources is not known
in detail. We are, however, well informed about the principalities that benefited from the caravan
trade of the 1st millennium BC thanks to the combination of important archaeological remains
and epigraphic texts. The tribal kingdoms that took over from these principalities around the start
of the Christian era have left hardly any trace, with the exception of Qaryat al-Faw.
Najran
The name Najran has always known great renown in the Arabian Peninsula. A stay in this vast
and well-watered oasis is made even more pleasant by the fact that the heat is relatively
tempered by the altitude. Many times over, throughout history, its agricultural wealth and geographical
location made Najran a leading political and commercial centre and an obligatory
stop over for caravans travelling between Yemen and the Near East. Actually, the etymology of
the name Najran expresses the idea of a “lock”. In practice, Najran is the “lock” of the door that
gives access to Yemen.
History in Najran began around 700 BC. The oasis, which already bore the name Najran,
fell within the small kingdom of Muha’mir. Its fame had already spread across the borders of
Arabia as Ragmat, its capital, is twice mentioned in the Bible under the form “Ra’mah”. For the
prophet Ezekiel (6th century BC), it was clearly an economic power associated with Saba’:
“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.” 4
Around 700 a ruler of Saba’ tried to take possession of Muha’mir but he failed and had
to be satisfied with pillaging the kingdom and imposing a tribute upon it. In the inscription
written to commemorate his victories, he claims to have killed five thousand men, to have captured
twelve thousand and to have seized two hundred thousand camels, cows, donkeys and
small livestock, numbers that reflect the abundance of the oasis.
Muha’mir, whose name is only mentioned in the inscriptions found in Yemen and the
‘Awad al-Zahrani excavations in Najran, had a very long history as its name was still cited
around the 5th century BC. We know the names of three of its kings.
Like most of the tribes, at that time the tribe of Najran worshipped its own gods. The most
important was dhu l-Samawi (“The One of the heavens”). A temple named Ka’bat – whose
name survived among Arabic-Muslim traditionists as “Ka’ba of Najran”, was consecrated
to him. The inscriptions also mention the god Yaghuth and the goddesses Allat and al-’Uzza,
all three of which appear in the Quran.
The Najran inscriptions are generally written in Sabaic using the Sabean alphabet, more
rarely in Ma’inic. But it seems that the languages were not spoken by the local population,
which probably used a variant of North Arabic.
Towards the start of the Hellenistic period, or a little earlier, control of the Najran oasis was lost
by Muha’mir to Amir, an allied tribe. Around the same period – it is not possible to say to what extent
the two events were linked – Najran became a tributary of the small Yemenite kingdom, Ma’in.
In 26 or 25 BC, a Roman army with the intention of conquering the country of incense
took Najran without difficulty. Two centuries later it passed into the hands of the Yemenite
kingdom of Saba’, and then to Himyar (which annexed Saba’ around 275). At the start of the
3rd century, the Abyssinians who had invaded western Arabia, seized the oasis and maintained
control of it for several years. When it was reconquered by the Sabeans (before 250), the Sabean
kings “killed nine hundred and twenty-four and took captive five hundred and sixty-two men
in the municipality of Najran, and looted sixty-eight towns in the two valleys named Najran”.
The number sixty-eight is very close to the seventy-three villages that Najran numbered when
it pledged allegiance to Muhammad in 630.
But Najran’s great fame is linked above all to the tragic events of the 6th century AD.
Christianity had appeared in the oasis about the middle of the 5th century. The proselytism of
the followers of the new religion antagonized the king of Yemen, who had a certain Azqir executed
around 475. The kings of Yemen, who had rejected polytheism back in 380, were at that
time favourable to Judaism.
Fifty years later, in 523, Najran refused to recognize the authority of a new king who officially
claimed to be a follower of Judaism. This king, named Joseph (Yusuf), is better known
by his Arabic appellation of dhu Nuwas.
Joseph sent a powerful army to capture Najran. The oasis at first resisted, then offered to
surrender in exchange for a promise that the lives of the rebels would be spared, but Joseph did
not keep his promise. He burned down the church in which the clerics and faithful were assembled,
had the city notables beheaded and killed a large number of Christians. The best known
of his victims was the famous al-Harith b. Ka’b, who is celebrated as a martyr by most Christian
churches, particularly those of the Syriac, Greek and Ethiopian languages. Al-Harith b. Ka’b is
the ancestor of the tribe of the same name which still exists today.
Nearby Ethiopia took the massacre as a pretext for invasion, and during the disembarkation
of their troops, Joseph was killed. Yemen was entirely conquered and given a Christian
Yemenite king to rule over it. A number of Christian kings succeeded one another until
570–575, of which the most famous was the Ethiopian Abraha (535–c. 565).
At the birth of Islam, Najran was still an important financial and commercial centre, apparently
the largest after Mecca, with which its economic ties seem to have been strong. It is reported
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