AFRICANS IN ARABIA FELIX:

AKSUMITE RELATIONS WITH IMYAR IN THE SIXTH CENTURY C.E.

Vol. I

George Hatke



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Advisor: Michael Cook



January 2011




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iii

ABSTRACT

This dissertation argues that Ethiopia had a greater role in South Arabian history in late pre-
Islamic times than scholars have hitherto believed. The two states involved in the power struggle
in the southern Red Sea during this period were the Christian kingdom of Aksum in northern
Ethiopia and the Jewish kingdom of imyar in Yemen. Aksum invaded South Arabia several
times during late antiquity, the invasions of 518 and 525 in the reign of the Aksumite king Klb
being the main focus of this dissertation. It is contended here that the Aksumite-imyarite
conflict in the sixth century was not, as is often assumed, a series of proxy wars through which
the Romans and Ssnids sought to gain rival spheres of influence in South Arabia, with the
Romans supporting their Ethiopian coreligionists against an alleged imyarite-Ssnid axis.
Rather, the evidence indicates that there was no competition between the Romans and Ssnids
for influence in South Arabia either before or during the period 518-525. In place of a Great
Game theory that explains Red Sea history in terms of the Romano-Ssnid conflict, this
dissertation posits that Klb simply sought to establish Aksumite supremacy on both sides of
the sea, and that he used both religious and irredentist rhetoric to justify what was nothing more
than a war of Aksumite expansion into South Arabia. The evidence for the use of religious
rhetoric survives in Syriac texts as well as in Geez inscriptions erected by the Aksumites
themselves, in which Klbs invasions of imyar are compared to the Israelite invasions of
Canaan or are said to be inspired by religious zeal. Klbs irredentist claims to South Arabia are
evident in his use of imyarite royal titles, as well as in his orders that copies be made of an
inscription in which a third-century Aksumite king records in Greek his conquests in Arabia. By

iv

emphasizing the role of politics and ideologies specific to the sixth-century Red Sea region, this
dissertation seeks to give credit to non-western Christendomin this case Ethiopiain shaping
the geopolitical map of Arabia on the eve of Islam.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Volume 1.
Abstract iii
Table of Contents v
Acknowledgements vii
Authors Note ix
Introduction 1
Part I: Prolegomena
Chapter 1 28
Aksum and South Arabia before the Sixth Century
Chapter 2 66
Chronology

Part II: The Aksumite Invasion of 518 and the Establishment of a Christian Regime in imyar
Chapter 3 85
Religion, Ideology, and Politics in the Southern Red Sea, c. 500-521

vi

Volume 2.
Part III: Klbs Invasion of imyar in 525 and its Aftermath
Chapter 4 180
Ysuf Asar Yathars Rise to Power in imyar and the Aksumite Question
Chapter 5 247
Aksum Strikes Back: Klbs Invasion of imyar as Recorded in Graeco-Roman Sources
Chapter 6 298
South Arabian Sources for the Aksumite Invasion and the Reign of Sumyafa Ashwa
Chapter 7 329
The Aksumite Invasion of imyar as Holy War: Klbs Campaign in Syriac and Geez Sources

Conclusion 405
Bibliography 425

vii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This dissertation is the result of several years of research and writing. It would never have
become a reality had it not been for the many people who helped see it through the long process
of writing, editing, and rewriting. With this in mind I would like to acknowledge the pains taken
by my advisory committee. To this committeeMichael Cook (my main advisor), Peter Brown,
Glen W. Bowersock, and John HaldonI owe my deepest gratitude. Their insights and advice
were of inestimable benefit to this dissertation, and the work has benefitted immensely through
their attention to details. Any errors or shortcomings which remain are mine.
In addition to my advisory committee, I would like to extend my gratitude to the many
others who helped along the way. These include the scholars who have either read parts of the
draft of my dissertation (in one of its several recensions) or provided helpful suggestions or
advice, namely Emmanuel Papoutsakis, Wendy Belcher, Robert Hoyland, Patricia Crone, Witold
Witakowski, and Jairus Banaji.
I owe particular thanks to my wife, Hajar Moutawakkil, for her continuous
encouragement and support throughout the process of writing this dissertation, despite the long
hours it entailed. I would also like to thank my friendsgraduate students and faculty alikein
Princetons Department of Near Eastern Studies and Department of History who lent also their
support and encouragement in one way or another while I wrote my dissertation, among them
Mehmet Darakcioglu, Jack Tannous, Amr Osman, Alden Young, Michael Woldemariam,

viii

Hisham Mahmoud, Nancy Coffin, Gregory Bell, Heba Elkhateeb-Musharraf, William Blair, and
Tarek Elsayed. Finally, for the technical aspects of putting the finished product out on paper, I
am greatly indebted to Princeton Universitys New Media Center.

ix

Authors Note

All translations of primary sources in Arabic, Syriac, Sabaic, and Geez are mine, except
where otherwise noted. Wherever possible the original text is given in transliteration. In the case
of Greek texts I have had to rely on the translations of other scholars. Unless otherwise stated, all
dates given are in the Common Era (CE, i.e. AD). Every effort has been made to achieve
consistency in nomenclature. For geographical names, the following conventions have been
adopted: Ethiopia refers to both the modern-day nation of that name as well as the broader
Ethiopian culture area, which includes Eritrea as well as modern Ethiopia but excludes Djibouti
and Somalia. The ancient Ethiopian kingdom of Aksum is a bit ambiguous as the name Aksum
can refer to both the kingdom and its capital, and survives today as the name of the modern town
that occupies the site of the old capital. I distinguish between the kingdom of Aksum and the
city of Aksum wherever possible, and use the gentilic Aksumite as a shorthand term for the
inhabitants of the ancient kingdom as a whole, even though this has the unfortunateif
unavoidableeffect of obscuring the kingdoms ethnic diversity. South Arabia is understood as
encompassing the entire present-day Republic of Yemen (including Soqotra), together with
neighboring areas of southwestern Saudi Arabia and the province of ufr in western Oman. As
for ancient polities, the Roman Empire or simply Rome will be used in place of
Byzantium and the Byzantine Empire, as this empire was known to its inhabitants as
Rhmana, and was not commonly called Byzantium, the old name for the city of
Constantinople, until the seventeenth century. Likewise, the last Iranian empire of antiquity will
be called the Ssnid Empire, by which is meant the entire area controlled by the kings of the
Ssnid Dynasty (224-651), not simply their Iranian homeland.

There is some disagreement among scholars regarding the nomenclature of the Arab
clients of the Roman and Ssnid empires. Though historians have long called the Arab clients of
Rome Ghassnids, Ghassn was a large confederation, many of whose tribes lived well beyond
the Roman frontier. The Jafnids who ruled the Arabian borderlands of the Roman Near East on
behalf of their patrons in Constantinople constituted only one of the lineages within the
confederation of Ghassn. Similarly, the Arab clients of the Ssnids have typically been called
the Lakhmids, even though it was more specifically the Narid clan of Ban Lakhm which
ruled southern Mesopotamia on behalf of the Ssnids. Although Jafnid and Narid are
gaining favor among scholars as the names of these two Arab polities, Ghassnid and
Lakhmid will be retained in the present study in the interest of convention. As for the ancient
kingdoms of South Arabia and Ethiopia, these will be referred to as they are in ancient
inscriptions, thus Saba, Man, Qatabn, aramawt, imyar, Dimat, and Aksum.
It is now common practice to refer to the languages of these kingdoms as Sabaic, Minaic,
Qatabnic, aramitic, and imyaritic respectively,
1
while the terms Sabaean, Minaean,
Qatabnian, aram, and imyarite are used in a non-linguistic sense. This distinction will be
adhered to in the present study not only in keeping with this practice but also because in many
respects the linguistic map of the southern Red Sea region in antiquity does not correspond to the
political map. Thus the imyarites, though possessing a imyaritic language of their own,
wrote in Sabaic, which the result that a Sabaic inscription may be of either Sabaean or imyarite
origin. Turning to the Ethiopian kingdom of Aksum, the Ethio-Semitic language in which its
kings erected inscriptions has long beenand often still iscalled Ethiopic, but here we will
call the language by its indigenous name, Geez.

1
As a group these languages constitute Ancient (or Old) South Arabian. The term Sayhadic which Beeston (1987
(a)) proposed for this group has not gained general acceptance.

INTRODUCTION

Seas divide as well as unite, and the Red Sea is no exception. If one is struck today by the
cultural contrast between the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa, it bears noting that the
two shores of the Red Sea have been in contact since prehistory.
1
Throughout antiquity and the
Middle Ages relations between Ethiopia and Arabia wavered between amicable interaction and
armed confrontation, punctuated by periods of obscurity during which the historical record is
silent. Thus it happened that in times of peace and prosperity the northern Ethiopian kingdom of
Aksum maintained trade relations with its South Arabian neighbors and exchanged diplomatic
missions, while at other times it sent its armies against these same neighbors and even brought
large parts of South Arabia under Ethiopian ruleif only through the appointment of local client
rulers. Yet even in times of war Aksum could always count on finding sympathetic elements in
South Arabia, be they a ruler seeking help against a rival orfollowing the introduction of
Christianity to the southern Red Sea region in the fourth centurycoreligionists in need of
deliverance from an oppressor.
What is striking about the history of Ethiopian relations with South Arabia is that
linguistic and cultural influences on the one hand and political influences on the other developed
along totally different trajectories. Semitic speech was introduced to the Horn of Africa during
the Late Bronze Age by ancient South Arabian immigrants, to which was added a South Arabian
cultural package of writing and monumental art and architecture by the mid-first millennium

1
This is due in part to the fact that, unlike the northern Red Sea, where the prevailing wind blows from the north all
year long, the southern Red Sea benefits from monsoon winds and rains of the western Indian Ocean region
conducive to long-distance sailing, while harbors along the Eritrean coast are well positioned to link the highlands
with the sea (Curtis 2008: 337). It is significant in this regard that, while South Arabia and Ethiopia forged
significant cultural ties in antiquity, the main cultural ties of pharaonic Egypt were with Nubia rather than with its
Arabian neighbors across the Red Sea.

BCE. The cultural and linguistic impact of Ethiopia on South Arabia, however, was quite limited
during all periods of history. The political picture is totally different, for even as South Arabians
settled in Ethiopia, no South Arabian kingdom ever established rule over the country. Aksum,
however, invaded South Arabia several times during its history, as a result of which the South
Arabians were brought under Ethiopian rule and made to pay tribute to Aksum. It is this latter
history, that of the Aksumite impact on South Arabia, which is the subject of the present
dissertation.
Already in the third century Aksum had become involved in the internal political turmoil
of South Arabia and, in the process, managed to carve out a piece of territory of its own along
the Tihma coast. The infusion into Ethiopian politics of universalist religious traditions with
claims of a monopoly on truth would not, however, become conceivable until the Aksumite king
zn (c. 330-360) converted to Christianity around 347-9, and it was not until nearly two
hundred years after this conversion that the union of Ethiopian Christianity with politics would
be felt across the Red Sea in the South Arabian kingdom of imyar. Though Christianity had
also gained a following in imyar between the fourth and sixth centuries, it had to contend with
a rival in the form of Judaism.
2
When Jewish elements in imyar found favor with the ruling
power there by the fifth century, the local Christians came under attack. Two Ethiopian invasions

2
Claims by some scholars of a Jewish presence in Aksumite Ethiopia that was significant enough to influence
Ethiopian Christianity are without basis. The theory of an Aksumite abstention from pork which Haas (2008:109)
surmises on the basis of the alleged absence of pig bones from Aksumite sites is weakened by the lack of excavation
of domestic areas at most Aksumite sites and does not take account of the discovery of what may (or may not) be a
bone of a domesticated pig during excavations at Aksum (Cain 2000: 76). Apart from the possibility that pigs may
not have been economically viable livestock in Aksumite Ethiopia, it may have been the case, as in pre-Islamic
Arabia (Rodinson 1965 (a): 1057), that pigs were not that common in Ethiopia to begin with. Furthermore, Haas
claim that the Ethiopian Falashathe more appropriate name for them is in fact Bta Esrlare the product of
South Arabian Jewish influence, if not migration, before the establishment of Christianity in Ethiopia (Haas 2008:
110) is at odds with recent studies of Ethiopian Judaism, which place the ethnogenesis of the Bta Esrl in the
fifteenth or sixteenth centuries (Abbink 1991; Kaplan 1992). Significantly, the Jews who appear as enemies of the
Christian state during the reign of Amda eyn (1312-1342) are described in Ethiopian chronicles as recent
converts from Christianity (Rodinson 1964: 15).

of imyar during the reign of the Aksumite king Klb (c. 510-540)the first in 518, the second
in 525gave stability to South Arabian Christianity through the appointment of imyarite
Christians as client rulers of Aksum as well as through the construction of churches. The Romans
had been watching this development with keen interest, though it was not until the reign of
Justinian (527-565) that a concerted effort was made through diplomacy to pull the Aksumites
and imyarites into the Romans war with the Ssnid Empire. Before Justinian it was between
Ethiopia and South Arabianot the Roman and Ssnid Empiresthat the geopolitical fault-
line ran. Thus it happened that, after Klbs first invasion of South Arabia, local resistance to
Aksumite influence surfaced in an uprising led by a imyarite Jew named Ysuf Asar Yathar
(c. 522-525). Ysufs persecution of South Arabias Christian population sent shock waves
throughout the Christian Near East, though his regime was finally crushed by Klb in 525.
Ironically it was not an indigenous Jewish uprising but the revolt of one of Klbs generals, an
Ethiopian named Abreh, which contributed to the ultimate decline of Aksumite rule in South
Arabia by the end of Klbs reign. Abreh was eventually allowed by the Aksumites to remain
in power in imyar with the understanding that he would pay tribute to Aksum, and in this way
Ethiopian rule continued under his sons Yaksm and Masrq until 570, when the Ssnids
conquered South Arabia.
For the purposes of this study we will focus on the Aksumite occupation of South Arabia
in the reign of Klb, treating earlier periods only in order to give a suitable background. To
date, much of what has been written about Aksumite intervention in South Arabia has taken as
its starting point the premise that events on the Asiatic and African frontiers of the late antique
world can be explained in terms of events at its Mediterranean and Fertile Crescent center. Due
to the popularity of this paradigm, many scholars have been tempted to look for connections

between local conflicts and the wars between the Roman and Ssnid Empires. As a case in
point, the Arabian Peninsula has long been viewed as an arena for Romano-Ssnid competition,
with the Aksumite invasions of South Arabia in 518 and 525 functioning as proxy wars waged
by Aksum on behalf of its Roman patrons. According to this view, the goal of these proxy wars
was the establishment of a strategic anti-Ssnid bloc in Arabia and the western Indian Ocean.
Thus, if the Roman and Persian superpowers reached a geopolitical impasse in the Eurasian
north, each side could then seek to outdo the other in the far south by influencing Aksumite and
imyarite politics. To be sure, both the Romans and the Ssnids sought ways in which they
could manipulate frontier peoples to their advantage, and to that extent they were indeed heavily
invested in frontier regions. As a result, the frontier between the Roman and Ssnid Empires
was a highly contentious region whose geopolitical significance had far-reaching impacts on
peoples from the Armenians, Georgians, and Turks in the north to the Arabs of Mesopotamia in
the south. By virtue of their living in troubled frontier zones, these peoples were sought after as
allies by the Romans and Ssnids.
The strategic significance of the southern Red Sea region, however, is a rather trickier
issue for historians of late antiquity in that neither Aksum nor imyar were located anywhere
near the frontiers of the Roman and Ssnid Empires. Indeed, such South Arabian cities as
Najrn and afr, both of which figure prominently in accounts of the anti-Christian persecutions
in sixth-century imyar, lie over a thousand miles from the Romano-Ssnid frontier in
Mesopotamia. Furthermore, it must not be forgotten that Aksum and imyar were not client-
states of the Roman and Iranian superpowers of the day in the way that the Ghassnids of Syria-
Palestine were for the Romans or the Lakhmids of southern Mesopotamia were for the Ssnids.
What made Ethiopia and South Arabia special was a history not of subjugation to the geopolitics

of the Fertile Crescent but rather of more localized political, diplomatic, and economic contact
between the two sides of the Red Sea.
Nevertheless the theory that the war between Aksum and imyar during the sixth century
was essentially a frontier dispute between the Romans and Ssnids retains its appeal. In his
recent biography of the Prophet Muammad, Donner writes:
The Byzantine political presence in Yemen was mainly established through the
intermediary of their ally, the Christian kingdom of Axum. On the urging of the
Byzantine emperor Justin, the Axumite king Ella Asbeha invaded Yemen around
523 C.E. and established a Christian ruler there. This invasion may have been in
part a reaction to the activities of a Jewish king of the Himyarites, Dhu Nuwas,
who had just beforehand engaged in a series of bloody clashes with Yemenite
Christians, or it may have been mainly in order to facilitate Byzantine commerce
with India.
3

Though it provides a convenient backdrop for the rise of the early Islamic state in a part of the
Near East already exposed to great power politics, the scenario sketched by Donner owes little to
the primary sources for Aksumite warfare in sixth-century imyar. Apart from the chronological
oversights in the passage quoted abovethere were in fact two Aksumite invasions of imyar in
the sixth century, the second of which was launched in 525, not around 523there is no
evidence that the Romans had a political presence in South Arabia at any point during the
period covered by the present study. Though Justin I (518-527) encouraged his fellow Christian
Klb to make war on imyar, it was not until 531 that a Roman ambassador was sent to
imyar, six years after Klbs second invasion of imyar. Despite the lack of evidence for the
incorporation of South Arabia into the sphere of Roman political influence before Justinians
time, it is only as an ally of Rome that Aksum merits any mention in Donners book. This is
because, according to Donner:

3
Donner 2010: 34.

in general our knowledge of Axum is very limited, and in any case Axumite
culture did not contribute much to Islamic tradition, whereas both Byzantium and
Sasanian Persia did. Hence, most of our attention hereafter will be devoted to
describing the Byzantine and Sasanian empires.
4

Certainly, few would contest Donners statement that Aksumite history is nowhere nearly as well
documented as that of the Roman and Ssnid empires, but this in no way means that a careful
scrutiny of the numismatic, literary, archaeological, and numismatic evidence for the Aksumite
occupation of imyar is not worth the effort. Likewise, it need hardly be stressed that there was
indeed little Aksumite influence on Islamic tradition, barring a handful of Geez loanwords in the
Qurn, the Ethiopian origin of which often eluded even medieval Muslim exegetes.
5
The
reasons why Roman and Ssnid influences had such an impact on early Islamic culture, while
Ethiopian influences left scarcely a trace, are historical. The Muslim conquest of the Roman
Near East and the Ssnid Empire led to the employment of scribes, belle-lettrists, and artisans
trained in the Graeco-Roman and Persian traditions. That Ethiopians seldom secured such posts
in the lands of medieval Islam may explain the lack of Ethiopian influence on early Islamic art,
architecture, and literature; had Ethiopia been incorporated into the Islamic Empire the story may
well have been different.

4
Ibid.: 4.
5
In some cases words which are said to be Geez (bil-abashiyya) are in fact not Geez at all, while in other
instances genuinely Geez loanwords are mistakenly attributed to other languages and explained by dubious
etymologies. According to al-Suy (1988: 130-1), the word used in the Qurn for Jesus disciples, awriyyn
(Qurn 3:52; 5:111, 112; 61:14), is derived from a Nabataean (i.e. Aramaic) word meaning washermen
(ghasslna, ghasslna lil-thiyb). In fact, this word is derived from the Geez awryn (sing. awr), the
misattribution to Aramaic being no doubt the result of a false etymology from the Syriac verb awwar, meaning to
whiten, to bleach, or to clean. In al-Mutawakkil al-Suy also cites several authorities to the effect that bala,
attested in the Qurn (11:44) in the imperative form, ibla, means to drink in the language of India (bil-lughat
al-Hind) (al-Suy, loc. cit.: 101-2). Bala, though, is a good Geez word meaning to eat. In fact al-Suy was
aware of other traditions which held that bala was of Ethiopian origin, and cites them together with the spurious
Indian etymology in his al-Durr al-Manthr and al-Itqn f-ulm al-Qurn without giving any indication as to
which traditions he favored (al-Suy 1970: III: 335; idem. 1996: II: 396). To cite yet another example, the word
tbt, though ultimately of Egyptian origin, whence it entered Hebrew and Aramaic, appears to have been borrowed
by the Arabs from the Geez tbt. The theory that this is the likely route by which this word entered Arabic is
strengthened by the fact that in one verse in the Qurn (2:248), tbt refers to the Ark of the Covenant, just as the
Geez tbt does. Medieval Muslim scholars, though, invariably treat it as an Arabic word (Jeffery 2007: 88-9).

The habit of interpreting the history of late-antique Ethiopia and South Arabia in light of
the grand narrative of Romano-Ssnid warfare is an old one. As early as 1847 the French
Arabist Armand-Pierre Caussin de Perceval wrote of the Romans promotion of Christianity in
the Red Sea that le but de Constance
6
tait de se fortifier contre les Persans lalliance des
Himyarites.
7
The Austrian orientalist Eduard Glaser, one of the first Europeans to explore
Yemen and record its ancient inscriptions, echoed this sentiment when, writing nearly fifty years
after Caussin de Perceval, he said of Red Sea politics in late antiquity:
Die rmische Politik der damaligen Zeit, die gegen Persien die Hegemonie im
vorderen Orient anstrebte, musste darauf bedacht sein, auch in den Uferlndern
des Rothen Meeres den Persern entgegenzuarbeiten, weil nur durch allseitige
Schwchung des persischen Einflusses der Sieg Roms angebahnt werden konnte.
Dazu nun boten die Axumiten die Hand. Zuvrderst natrlich gegen die
Himjaren, da diese zur Partei der Perser (Sassaniden) gehrten.
8

Indeed Glaser went so far as to suggest that [d]ie ganze Geschichte und Politik jener sdlichen
Mittelstaaten (i.e., imyar and Aksum) dreht sich frmlich um das rmisch-persische Pivot!
9

Then in the middle of the twentieth century the thesis of a Red Sea history of late antiquity
indelibly tied to the Romano-Ssnid conflict was given new life by the Russian Byzantinist
Alexander Vasiliev, who in his history of the reign of Justin I wrote:
The Byzantine emperor at that time, especially in Abyssinia, was acting not only
as protector of Christians everywhere and not only as a sovereign interested in
developing commercial relations with Abyssinia and, through the latter, with
south Arabia, but he also showed interest and participation in the war between
Abyssinia and the Himyarite kingdom of Yemen which fell within the network of
international politics of that epoch, where Persia, the permanent rival and foe of
the Byzantine Empire, played the most essential part. Byzantium hoped through

6
The Roman emperor Constantius II (337-361), in whose reign the missionary Theophilus Indus set out to
evangelize Ethiopia and South Arabia.
7
A.-P. Caussin de Perceval, Essai sur lhistoire des Arabes avant lIslamisme, pendant lpoque de Mahomet, et
jusqu la rduction de toutes les tribus sous la loi musulmane, Paris, 1847:112 (quoted in Bowersock 2004: 265).
8
Glaser 1895: 174.
9
Ibid.

Abyssinia to bring the Arabian tribes under the influence of the empire and use
them against Persia.
10

Vasiliev claimed that the common cause of Christianity and common political interests united
[Aksum and the Roman Empire] and made them allies and friends.
11
At the same time, he was
careful to acknowledge that Roman policy was by no means dictated by religionmuch though
religion might be appealed to in order to legitimate warfare against the Ssnidsbut that the
Romans main interests in the war between Aksum and imyar were strategic in nature.
Arabia was becoming a flank for military operations, the right flank for
Byzantium, the left for Persia. Thus, viewed against the background of the general
political situation of the first half of the sixth century, the events in far-off
Abyssinia and Yemen lose their local character and are drawn into the lengthy
and strenuous struggle between the two empires. Byzantium was alarmed at the
prospect of imminent Persian penetration into Arabia and made an attempt to bar
it through Abyssinia; and the alarm of Constantinople before the impending
Persian peril to south Arabia proved fully justified by subsequent events. In 570-
572 Yemen was actually conquered by the Persians.
12

Adopting Vasilievs approach might seem an honorable way of securing a place for the relatively
understudied histories of Ethiopia and South Arabia within the broader framework of late
antiquity. But it is only a small step from this to the dismissal of these histories as nothing more
than a backdrop to the history of the Roman and Ssnid Empires, rather than as independent
subjects of study in their own right. We find traces of this attitude in the writings of Shahid, who
in his article on the diplomatic conference between Rome and the Lakhmids at Ramla in 524
claims that, in the Red Sea, religion itself is nothing more than a handmaid of international
politics. Thus he states that:
South Arabia had been the battleground of Judaism and Christianity for centuries,
and its allocation to one or the other of these two religions could decide its

10
Vasiliev 1950: 290.
11
Ibid.: 283.
12
Ibid.: 291.

political orientation in the history of the Near East with its two contending parties,
Byzantium and Iran.
13

To the extent that it emphasizes the attempt by King Ysuf of imyar to eliminate the Christian
element in his domain as part of his broader political goals, Shahids article sheds some valuable
light on the interconnectedness of religion and politics in sixth-century South Arabia.
14
But by
subordinating religion to the grand geopolitical scenario posited by Vasiliev, Shahid ultimately
succeeds only in equating Christianity with a pro-Roman stance and Judaism with a pro-Ssnid
one. Neither are sound suppositions and, quite apart from the lack of evidence that the Ssnids
even considered invading South Arabia before 570much less as a strike against Romethey
overlook the perspective of the Aksumites and imyarites themselves, both of whom had very
different reasons for going to war with each other which need not have had anything to do with
Romano-Ssnid geopolitics.
Religion was indeed an important ideological element in the war between Aksum and
imyar, yet all too often this has been interpreted in light of geopolitics. In this regard the
influence of Garth Fowdens Empire to Commonwealth: Consequences of Monotheism in Late
Antiquity
15
has been particularly significant. While this work provides much valuable insight for
the political and cultural connections between the Roman World and the Christian East,
Fowdens argument for a Christian commonwealth bounded by the Caucasus on the north and
the highlands of Yemen and Ethiopia on the south subordinates local Christianities to Rome in a
grand narrative similar in its effects to that which reads all late antique warfare in terms of great
power politics. That said, Fowden is quite right in his argument that Christian universalism
provided Rome with an outlet for expressing its expansionist ideology in lieu of actual military

13
Shahid 1964: 124.
14
Ibid.: 124, 125.
15
Fowden 1993.

10

expansion, if only because universalist ideologies need not be universally accepted. But at the
same time one must credit local Christianities like that of Aksumite Ethiopia with the
development of their own sense of mission and purpose, distinct from Romes. As Peter Brown
has observed:
What is remarkable about the Christian kingdoms which emerged along the
periphery of the Roman Empire is that, despite extensive borrowings from local
Roman practice and occasional diplomatic relations with the court of
Constantinople, they did not wish to see themselves exclusively as miniature
Romes. Because they were Christian, they could also claim to belong to a history
without Rome.
16

It is true that Aksums role as a middleman in Romes India trade from the end of the third
century opened the door for Christianity, such that, within a few decades of Constantines
conversion at the Battle of Milvian Bridge in 312, missionaries from the Roman Empire were
already making inroads into Ethiopia and South Arabia with the blessings and support of the
emperor. Christian Aksums dependence on Rome, or more precisely Roman Egypt, is
understandable given the Ethiopians continued need for qualified clergymen and theological
instruction. Yet Aksums was a Christianity foreign to Rome not only doctrinally but culturally,
and it must not be forgotten that, however close Aksum and Rome may have been
diplomatically, the Ethiopians had an ancient past of their ownone which owed nothing to
Rometo look back upon as a model.
While scholars have always been aware of the close connections between Ethiopia and
Arabia in antiquity, and while Ethiopian activities in the southwestern part of the Arabian
Peninsula are treatedat least in passingin most general accounts of pre-Islamic South
Arabia, the last monograph devoted to the subject of ancient Ethio-Arabian interaction was

16
Brown 2003: 139.

11

Glasers Die Abessinier in Arabien und Afrika auf Grund neuentdeckter Inschriften, published in
1895. As this work is over a century old and barely mentions the sixth-century conflict between
Aksum and imyar, there has long been a need for an up-to-date study focusing on Aksumite
intervention in South Arabia. The present study seeks to achieve this by re-examining the history
of Aksumite military intervention in sixth-century South Arabia as the outgrowth of an Ethiopian
tradition of warfare in the Red Sea which can be traced back to the third century. There is no
denying that Justinian would later seek to involve the Ethiopians and South Arabians in the war
against the Ssnid Empire, but this, it will be argued, was the product of a later political
development, not the raison dtre of Aksumite warfare in South Arabia from the very
beginning. The format of this dissertation will be as follows:
In Part I: Prolegomena (Chapters 1 and 2) we will deal with preliminary matters which,
while not the focus of the dissertation, are essential to understanding the historical, cultural, and
ideological background of Klbs war with imyar. Chapter 1 will present an overview of
Aksumite activities in South Arabia during the third century, the evidence for which is
exclusively epigraphic and includes South Arabian inscriptions in Sabaic and the Greek
Monumentum Adulitanum II from Adulis in present-day Eritrea. The latter inscription survives
solely in a transcription by a sixth-century Nestorian traveler, Cosmas Indicopleustes, preserved
in his Christian Topography. Those sections of this chapter treating the third-century material
(1.3-1.4) offer what is less an interpretive than a descriptive study of the evidence. Ours differs
from similar studies of third-century Aksumite intervention in Arabia
17
in that it calls into
question Roman involvement, so often taken for granted in works dealing with the Red Sea in
late antiquity. Thus it will be argued in the concluding portion (1.6) that the dry narrative

17
Se in particular Robin 1989.

12

derived from inscriptions substantiates the thesis that Aksumite expansion in the Arabian
Peninsula is a product of Ethiopian, rather than Roman, political ambitions. At the same time,
Chapter 1 will critically examine the claims made by fourth-century Aksumite kings to rule
South Arabia, arguing that the inclusion of the South Arabian kingdoms of Saba and imyar in
Aksumite royal titles during the fourth century was a political fiction (1.5). This in itself is not a
ground-breaking argument,
18
though the evidence against the supposed rule of South Arabia by
Aksum in the fourth century
19
has never before been systemically presented. Chapter 2 is also
essentially descriptive in nature, being a summary of the evidence for the chronology of the
events in sixth-century South Arabia. In this we follow the school that upholds 110 BCE as the
beginning of the so-called imyarite Era, as has been argued persuasively by Beaucamp,
Briquel-Chatonnet, and Robin
20
and is now almost universally accepted by scholars. As part of
our discussion of matters chronological, it will also be argued in Chapter 2 (2.3) that there were
in fact two invasions of imyar by Klb, the first in 518, the second in 525.
In Part II: The Aksumite Invasion of 518 and the Establishment of a Christian Regime in
imyar, we will, having presented a historical background and chronological framework,
commence our examination of the primary sources for the two Aksumite invasions of imyar,
the history of which constitutes the main bulk of this dissertation. Chapter 3, Religion, Ideology,
and Politics in the Southern Red Sea, c. 500-521, treats the first two decades of the sixth century
leading up to Klbs first invasion of imyar in 518, the invasion itself, and the Aksumites
establishment shortly thereafter of a client regime in South Arabia under the leadership of a
imyarite Christian named Madkarib Yafur (518-523). For the period preceding the Aksumite

18
Cf. Beaucamp et al. 1999-2000: 39 (n. 101); Sima 2003/2004.
19
Accepted as historical by Shitomi 1997 and Pankhurst 1998: 33.
20
Beaucamp et al. 1999-2000.

13

invasion, evidence for an increasing Aksumite presence in South Arabia will be presented, and it
will be argued that this occurred at a time when the boundaries between religious communities in
the southern Red Sea became sharper (3.2). This background is essential to our understanding
of the Aksumite invasion which took place in 518. Though scholars have long been aware that
there was more than one Aksumite invasion of imyar in the sixth century, the evidence for the
invasion of 518 has never been systematically studieda gap which Chapter 3 seeks to fill
(3.3).
The scarcity of documentation is the main reason why such a study has not been
attempted before. A sixth-century Syriac text, the Book of the imyarites, described the invasion
of 518 in some detail, but the relevant chapters are now lost and the sole evidence of their
existence is the books table of contents (3.3.1). It will be argued that an inscription erected by
Klb at Aksum (RIE 191) refers to this first invasion of imyar and that, based on the religious
references in the inscription, Aksumite warfare in South Arabia was by this point already taking
on religious overtones (3.3.2). That RIE 191 records the construction of a church in imyar
during the Aksumite campaign there, as well as of another church, perhaps at Aksum itself,
following the campaign, is indicative of this Christianizing trend in warfare. While earlier studies
have interpreted the promotion of Christianity in South Arabia as a result of the expansion of the
Roman sphere of influence there, the evidence presented in Chapter 3 indicates instead that
Klbs invasion is an example of Aksumite military expansion wedded to religious and
irredentist ideology (3.3.2.3; 3.4). Despite this, Aksumite rule over imyar was at this stage
(c. 518-521) only nominal, as is clear from the epigraphic record of the Christian potentate,
Madkarib Yafur, whom the Aksumites brought to power (3.5). Klb seems to have allowed
Madkarib to pursue his own campaign of expansion into central and northern Arabia, in the

14

course of which the imyarite army reached the banks of the Euphrates. The generous degree of
autonomy which Klb granted Madkarib need not reflect a decline in the Aksumite kings
interest in Arabian affairs following the invasion of 518, for Aksum continued to keep troops and
civilians in imyar. Rather, it will be suggested in Chapter 3 (3.5) that Klb needed a strong
Christian king in South Arabia who could rule in sympathy with Aksumite aims, but who was
allowed to expand his territory to the north as a means of deflecting the imyarites military
energies away from the Red Sea.
Part III: Klbs Invasion of imyar in 525 and its Aftermath, is divided into three
chapters, reflecting the fact that the period beginning in 522, the date at which Ysuf Asar
Yathar is first attested epigraphically as king of imyar, is far better documented in both
epigraphic and literary sources than the period which precedes it. Chapter 4, Ysuf Asar
Yathars Rise to Power in imyar and the Aksumite Question, focuses on the textual evidence in
Syriac and Sabaic for the military campaigns of Ysuf, the Jewish king of imyar known for his
persecution of the Christian population of South Arabia, most famously of the town of Najrn. It
does so, however, not to present an exhaustive account of Ysufs reign, something already
achieved with great mastery by Christian Robin,
21
but to draw attention to Ysufs campaigns as
an exercise in anti-Aksumite policy (4.2.1.2; 4.2.2; 4.2.3). To date, most studies of Ysuf
have either posited Romano-Ssnid competition in Arabia and the Indian Ocean or Judaization
as an instrument of political control as the key factors in the imyarite kings reign. While
Chapter 4 does not question the social and political impact of Judaism on sixth-century
imyarite society, it argues that Ysufs massacre of the Christian communities of imyar was
part of his broader attempt to counter Aksumite influence in South Arabia. The emphasis in

21
Robin 2008.

15

South Arabian inscriptions (4.2.2) on the attacks by Ysufs army on imyars Ethiopian
community, and on the strengthening of coastal defenses in the Red Sea against Ethiopia, attest
to the importance of what one might call the Aksumite question during Ysufs reign.
Chapters 5 to 7 deal with Klbs second invasion of imyar, launched in 525 in
response to Ysufs aggressions, and with the regime with which Klb replaced that of Ysuf.
A text-critical approach will be adopted in an effort to prove that the Aksumite invasion of 525
was not a proxy war fought on behalf of Rome but reflects instead Klbs effort to establish
Aksumite supremacy in the southern Red Sea, using holy war as a means of legitimating the
endeavor. Chapter 5, Klbs Invasion of imyar in 525 as seen from Rome, examines the three
main Greek sources from the sixth century that describe the Aksumite invasion: Procopius
(5.2), John Malalas (5.3), and the anonymous Martyrium Arethae (5.4). The last of these isso
titled after al-rith (=Arethas) the leader of Najrns Christian community, and was translated
into Arabic, Geez, Georgian, and Armenian during the Middle Ages.
22
The relative merits and
limitations of each of these three sources will be weighed, with special emphasis being given to
the Martyrium, as this is by far the most detailed source. The references in the Martyrium to the
Aksumite invasion of imyar as a Christian holy war (5.4.2) also make the text an interesting
parallel to the religious references in Klbs inscription RIE 191, as well as in such Syriac
works as the Book of the imyarites (7.2.2). We will see that the Martyrium also contains some
interesting data regarding foreign aid to the Aksumite invasion, as well as statistics indicating its
scale (5.4.3). In addition to the three sixth-century Greek sources, we will examine a fourth

22
On the transmission and translation of the Martyrium Arethae, see Binggeli 2007: 163-77. It should be borne in
mind that these eastern versions of the Greek text were translations only in a loose sense, and are best thought of as
renditions of the narrative to which have been added extraneous elements not found in the Greek Vorlage. The
Geez version of the text and at least one Georgian version are in fact not based on the original Greek at all but on
Arabic translations.

16

Greek text of tenth-century date, known to scholars as the Bios of Saint Gregentios, a fictitious
bishop of afr (5.5). Since such scholars as Shahid
23
have made extensive use of this text, and
since the recent publication of a new edition and translation by Berger
24
have made it more
available to historians, a critical examination of the Bios is a necessary part of any study of
Aksumite involvement in sixth-century South Arabia, the conclusion reached in this dissertation
being that this text is of dubious historical value.
Chapter 6, South Arabian Sources for the Aksumite Invasion and the Reign of Sumyafa
Ashwa, brings together two fragmentary Sabaic inscriptions recording the invasion of 525
(Istanbul 7608 bis and Wellcome A 103664) (6.2), with a thirdbetter preserved yet
chronologically somewhat ambiguousSabaic inscription (CIH 621) from in al-Ghurb
(6.3) in an effort to shed light on how the invasion was perceived by imyarite elements
sympathetic to the Aksumites. In keeping with South Arabian epigraphic tradition these three
inscriptions are formulaic and a bit opaque, but since Jewish imyarite records of the Aksumite
invasion have not survivedif they ever existedthese inscriptions are our only sources for an
authentic South Arabian perspective. Fragmentary though they are, Istanbul 7608 bis and
Wellcome A 103664 are particularly important in that they allude to the political order
established by the Aksumites in imyar as well as to the Christian faith of the imyarite
nobleman, Sumyafa Ashwa (525-540?), whom Klb brought to power as a client ruler of
South Arabia, much as he had Madkarib Yafur some years earlier. Here too we will see that
any hints of a connection between the war between Aksum and imyar and the contemporary
conflict between the Roman and Ssnid Empires are conspicuously absent.

23
Shahid 1979.
24
Berger 2006.

17

Finally in Chapter 7, The Aksumite Invasion of imyar as Holy War: Klbs War in
Syriac and Geez Sources, we will examine in detail two bodies of material which, more than
any of the other primary sources, treat Klbs imyarite campaign in 525 as a holy war aimed
at establishing Christian supremacy in South Arabia at the expense of Judaism. Two texts in
particular, the Syriac Book of the imyarites and the Geez inscription from Mrib in Yemen
(RIE 195:I+II), emphasize the religious aspects of the campaign by citing Scripture and, in so
doing, casting the Aksumite army in the role of Gods chosen people, analogous to the Israelites
(7.2.2; 7.4.1.2). Once again, the distant Romano-Ssnid conflict which has for so long served
as the point of departure for the study of Klbs war with imyar will be seen to have not left so
much as a ripple in the Syriac and Geez accounts of the war. Even the Book of the imyarites,
itself a product of the Monophysite Syriac culture of Roman Syria, makes no mention of Rome.
We will conclude Chapter 7 with a study of the references to Klbs imyarite campaign in the
Kbra Nagat, a fourteenth-century Geez text about whose sixth-century references much ink
has been spilled (7.5). It will be argued that, though some topoi in the Kbra Nagat may date
as far back as the seventh century, the book as a whole is, like the Greek Bios of Saint
Gregentios, of little historical value. Rather, its importance lies in the fact that it testifies to the
impact which the Aksumite invasion of imyar in 525 had on later generations of Ethiopians as
a holy war that fixed Ethiopias destiny as an expansionist Christian nation.
It should be borne in mind that the evidence for Ethiopian activities in South Arabia is
patchy even during those periods for which there is otherwise abundant epigraphic and literary
documentation. No extant chronicle produced either by the Ethiopians themselves or by
foreigners records in full the Aksumite invasions of South Arabia during Klbs reign. We have
nothing, then, to compare with the documentation for such later Ethiopian kings as Amda eyn

18

I (1314-1344) or Twdrs II (1855-1868), whose military campaigns are described in detail by

indigenous chronicles, supplemented in the case of Twdrs by European accounts. The sources
at our disposal for the sixth-century Aksumite invasions of South Arabia are limited to accounts
of the martyrdom of the Christians of Najrn, general histories of the Near East in late antiquity,
and a small number of inscriptions recording political events in Aksum and imyar. Similarly,
there is a general dearth of archaeological evidence of an Aksumite presence in South Arabia,
apart from Aksumite coin hoards found in Yemenmost of which have not been uncovered in
controlled archaeological excavationsand Aksumite pottery found at the ancient port of Qni
on Yemens south coast. Architectural fragments from ancient churches have also been
discovered at different sites in Yemen, though their attribution to churches built by the
Aksumites is not always certain. Future excavations in Yemen may uncover the remains of
Aksumite public works, whether religious or secular, as well as Aksumite domestic habitations
all of which are alluded to in literary sources and inscriptions. But for the time being the
evidence at our disposal for Aksumite rule in South Arabia is predominantly textual. There is
also the puzzling silence of the fifth century, during which time even the textual sources for
Ethiopian ties with Arabia fail us. Some coins of such fifth-century Aksumite rulers as En,
Ebana, Nezana, and Nezol have been identified in the hoard of al-Madhriba,
25
though it is not
clear when these coins reached South Arabia and it cannot be excluded that, having already been
in circulation for several decades, they were used during Klbs time as bullion with which to
pay Ethiopian troops in imyar.
Such primary sources that do exist for the history of sixth-century relations between
Aksum and imyar vary considerably in quality, and it is to the relative merits and limitations of

25
Munro-Hay 1989 (a): 85, 90-8.

19

these that we now turn our attention. Our focus in the present study will be on those sources in
Greek, Syriac, Sabaic, and Geez dating from the sixth century itself. To be sure there is no
shortage of Arabic material on sixth-century South Arabia, though this is based on at best
second-hand information, and the fact that it dates several centuries after the events described
significantly reduces its historical value. Thus the Arabic sources will be dealt with only to
provide parallels to older material, as texts to be used as a last resort when all other evidence is
lacking, or as examples of later texts whose historicity can be confirmed by earlier sources.
26
The
documentation for Klbs second invasion of imyar launched in 525 is far more abundant than
that available for his earlier invasion in 518. For this earlier invasion we have only three
available sources: 1) the table of contents of the Book of the imyarites referring to now lost
chapters on the invasion; 2) a passing reference in the Christian Topography of Cosmas
Indicopleustes to the preparations for the invasion; and 3) a few lines in the inscription in
unvocalized Geez erected by Klb at Aksum (RIE 191), in which the invasion of imyar and
the construction of a church there are briefly mentioned.
Of the sixth-century sources describing Klbs second invasion of imyar, those in
Syriac and Greek provide the most details. Procopius history gives the most succinct,

26
Medeieval Muslim authors writing in Arabic had only the vaguest notion of Aksum. The ninth-century author al-
Azraq is aware of a land of Aksum (bild Aksm), which he refers to as the domain of the najsh, but regards it
as only one of several regions in a greater Ethiopia, not the former capital of a kingdom with a history worth telling
(al-najsh malik al-abasha bi-ar Aksm min bild al-abash) (al-Azraq 1965: 137). Nor did commercial
contact between the Islamic world and Ethiopia ever produce a Cosmas Indicopleustes able to copy inscriptions, and
while the Persian scholar Muammad b. Amad al-Birn made a serious study of Sanskrit and Indian culture,
Ethiopia was never blessed with a Muslim scholar who took an interest in its heritage. Significantly, the sixteenth-
century Fut al-abasha, a history by the Yemeni scholar Shihb al-Dn b. Abd al-Qdir Arabfaqh of the jihd
against the Christian highlands of Ethiopia by the imm Amad b. Ibrhm al-Ghz of Adal between 1529 and
1543, has much to say about warfare, but mentions Aksum only as a source of booty for the Muslim invaders.
Though Arabfaqh makes a brief note of the ancient funerary stelae of the city, which he calls pillars of stone
(amida min ajar), he is as much in the dark about the citys history as al-Azraq. To the extent that he steps back
from his narrative to add anything on this history at all, he says only that Aksum is said to be an ancient city; it is
not known who built it; it is said that Dhl-Qarnayn (i.e., Alexander the Great) built it, though only God knows the
truth of this (Aksm yuql lah madna mutaqaddima wa-lam yuraf man banh wa-yuql banh Dhl-Qarnayn
wallh yalam bi-aqqa
t
dhlika) (Arabfaqh 1974: 322).

20

unembellished account of the imyarite persecutions and the subsequent Aksumite invasion
while, at the opposite end of the spectrum, the Martyrium Arethae is the most detailed and is
heavily imbued with hagiographical material. For his part, John Malalas adds some interesting
information on the economic factors involved in Ysufs policies while, however, incorporating
a great deal of spurious material. The sixth-century Syriac sources, like those in Greek, are
limited to literary works, only two of which speak of the Aksumite invasion in 525, to wit the
letter of Simeon of Bt Arsham and the Book of the imyarites. A third Syriac text, an
anonymous letter published by Shahid,
27
immediately predates the invasion of 525 but is still
important for the light it sheds on the Ethiopian presence in imyar before and during the reign
of Ysuf, as well as the Aksumite role in the exchange of intelligence concerning South Arabian
affairs. Simeons letter, though speaking at great length about the suffering of Najrns
Christians at the hands of Ysuf, is, like Procopius, very concise concerning Aksumite activities
in South Arabia. Though often cited for its extensive quotations from an earlier (now lost) letter
regarding the Najrn martyrs, it is of interest to our study of the Aksumite invasion of 525 for
the brief account it gives of the fall of Ysufs regime at the hands of the Aksumites. In contrast
to the letter of Simeon of Bt Arsham and the anonymous letter, the Book of the imyarites more
closely parallels the Greek Martyrium Arethae in its strongly hagiographical character. Like the
Greek text, the Book of the imyarites presents Klbs invasion of imyar in 525 as very much
a holy war.
The Sabaic material for the sixth-century conflict between Aksum and imyar is
exclusively epigraphic, and includes inscriptions from the reigns of not only Ysuf but also of
the two Christian imyarite potentates, Madkarib Yafur and Sumyafa Ashwa, whom the

27
Shahid 1971.

21

Aksumites brought to power in South Arabia as client rulers. Two inscriptions carved in
Madkarib Yafurs name are known, Ry 510 in Wd Msil and Ja 2484 from al-Sda, both in
Saudi Arabia; neither of these, however, have anything to say about Aksum, much less the
Madkaribs relationship with Klb. The inscriptions from Ysufs reign (Ry 507, Ja 1028, and
Ry 508) were erected by members of the imyarite elite at Bir im and Kawkab in
southwestern Saudi Arabia and record the course of the Jewish kings campaigns in South
Arabia, by which he consolidated his rule and in the process sought to eliminate all rivals by
killing imyars resident Ethiopians and the indigenous Christians. Only three Sabaic
inscriptions can be assigned to the period between Klbs campaign and the rise of an
autonomous Ethiopian regime in South Arabia under Abreh some years later, all of which can
be dated to the reign of Sumyafa Ashwa. These are the inscription from in al-Ghurb (CIH
621) and fragments of what may be a single inscription, or at least two closely related
inscriptions (Istanbul 7608 bis=RES 3904 and Wellcome A 103664), the original provenance of
which are not known. CIH 621 was carved in honor of a imyarite nobleman, named Sumyafa
Ashwa like the imyarite king. The king himself is not mentioned in the inscription, but in
light of the date of February 531 (Dh-illa 640 of the imyarite Era), it is clear that it can only
date to his reign. The inscriptions from Sumyafa Ashwas reign are especially important in
that they are the only South Arabian texts which record the Aksumite invasion of 525 and its
aftermath.
The Geez material with which we shall deal is primarily epigraphic. To date all of the
Geez inscriptions recording the Aksumite invasion of 525 have been found in Yemen: RIE 195
(I+II) from Mrib; RIE 263 and RIE 264 from afr; and RIE 265 and RIE 266, both acquired in
Yemen from unknown sources. In contrast to the dry, formulaic style of the Sabaic inscriptions,

22

the Geez inscriptions are highly innovative in their use of Biblical imagery and their quotation
from Scripture. Though badly fragmented, this material is not incomparable in content with the
Martyrium Arethae and the Book of the imyarites, which also couch the narrative of the
Aksumite invasion in religious, often Biblical, terms. The only non-epigraphic text in Geez with
which we shall be dealing is the Kbra Nagat. As a late medieval text that draws on an eclectic
mix of Ethiopian, Coptic, Biblical, apocryphal, rabbinical, and even Arabic sources and presents
a highly embellished account of Klbs war with imyar, the Kbra Nagat is, as stated above,
by no means a reliable historical source and will thus not be treated as such.
There are clear thematic differences between these sources, for whereas Procopius,
Malalas, Simeon of Bt Arsham, and the Sabaic inscriptions are concerned first and foremost
with political events, the Martyrium Arethae, the Book of the imyarites, and the Geez
inscriptions from Yemen (particularly RIE 195:I+II), while not unconcerned with politics,
portray Klbs invasion as a mission with overtly Biblical overtones. Though Klbs record of
his earlier invasion of imyar (RIE 191) hints at similar religious themes through its citation of
the Psalms and its reference to the construction of a church in imyar as part of the campaign, it
is with the invasion of imyar in 525 that the Aksumite idea of holy war enters a new phase in
which the king triumphant took it upon himself to not only defeat the enemies of Christianity but
Christianize the land itself through constructing churches and carrying out mass conversions.
Looking at sixth-century South Arabian history from the standpoint of the secular West, it is easy
to dismiss Christianization as an ideological cover for Klbs desire to establish Aksumite
supremacy in the Red Sea. Yet it was religious ideology which gave Klb and other late antique
rulers like him a basic mode of expression, one which, it will be argued, counted for much more
than the notion of belonging to a Christian commonwealth with Rome at its head.

23

It should be emphasized from the outset that this studys classification of the primary
sources by language is somewhat misleading. John Malalas, for example, wrote in Greek but was
a native speaker of Syriac, while the anonymous author of the Martyrium Arethae, though also
writing in Greek, seems to have relied in part on Syriac sources. As for the Sabaic material
produced by the imyarites, this represents anything but a single viewpoint, for it includes both
the inscriptions left by the followers of the Jewish king Ysuf and those left by the followers of
the Christian kings Madkarib Yafur and Sumyafa Ashwathe two parties having of
course very different attitudes toward the Aksumites. It also must be emphasized that the list of
primary material given above covers only those sixth-century sources that specifically mention
Ethiopians in connection with South Arabia and must not be regarded as an exhaustive survey of
all the available material on the broader history of South Arabian Christianity, or of sixth-century
Aksum. A great deal of this latter history lies beyond the scope of the present study and thus will
not be dealt with.
Regarding the frame of reference of the sixth-century sources, it bears noting that the
very fragmentary Geez inscriptions from Yemen are the only sources which focus solely on the
Aksumite invasion of imyar as such. The rest treat the invasion as nothing more than one
incident in a series of historical events. In the case of Procopius, the invasion is mentioned only
to give background to the subsequent attempt by Justinian to pull Aksum and imyar into
Romes war against the Ssnids, while in the Martyrium Arethae and the Syriac sources it is
framed within a larger narrative focused on Najrn. So far as we know, no chronicle in any
language was ever devoted to Klbs campaign as a historical event in its own right. As for the
Sabaic inscriptions, too much is missing from Istanbul 7608 bis and Wellcome A 103664 for us
to determine the exact frame of reference, though the initial invocation of Sumyafa Ashwa as

24

king of imyar in the Istanbul piece indicates a imyarite viewpoint, according to which the
Aksumite invasion is of significance primarily as the raison dtre of Sumyafa Ashwas rise
to power. CIH 621 is similarly focused on a non-Aksumite, in this case another imyarite named
Sumyafa Ashwa, on account of whose close dealings with the Ethiopians Aksum is
mentioned.
Before bringing to a close our prcis of the primary sources, a few words must be said
about the nomenclature of the main characters in the history of sixth-century relations between
Aksum and imyar. Though the Aksumite ruler whose invasions of imyar dominate this
history will be referred to throughout this study as Klb, it should be remembered that this was
in fact the Christian name borne by the Aksumite king Ella-Abe, adopted perhaps upon his
baptism. Though the king is called Kaleb () in the Syriac Book of the imyarites, there is a
marked preference in Greek sources for his Ethiopian name Ella-Abe, hence Elesbaas in the
Martyrium Arethae, Hellsthaios in Procopius, and Ellatzbaas in Cosmas Indicopleustes. Of the
sixth-century Greek authors only Malalas dissents by giving Klb the inexplicable name Andas.
On the other hand, the Aksumite king remains nameless in the letter of Simeon of Bt Arshm.
Turning to the epigraphic material, Kaleb is referred to as LBH
28
(<Ella-Abe) in the
Sabaic inscription Istanbul 7608 bis but does not make an appearance in CIH 621, which speaks
only of the Ethiopians (B
n
). His name is missing from the fragmentary Geez inscriptions
found in Yemen, and since his earlier inscription from Aksum (RIE 191) gives both of his
names, thus Klb Ella-Abe (KLB L-B), he may have been referred to by either or both
in his inscriptions from Yemen. As for Ysuf, his full name, Ysuf Asar Yathar, is given in Ja

28
The in the Aksumite kings name is mistakenly omitted in the inscription.

25

1028, while Ry 508 settles on simply Ysuf Asar.

29
He is named Masrq in the Book of the
imyarites, as well as in a Syriac translation by Paul, Bishop of Edessa (d. 527), of a Greek
hymn originally composed by John Psaltes, Abbot of Bt Aphthonius (d. 538); and the eleventh-
century Chronicle of Seert. The Martyrium Arethae, however, gives Ysufs name as Dounaas
(o), which, like Malalas Dimnos, is clearly related to the name Dh Nuws (he of the
side-locks), by which Ysuf is most frequently referred to in Arabic sources.
30
Like Klb,
Ysuf is not referred to by name in the letter of Simeon of Bt Arshm. Finally, Sumyafa
Ashwa, the imyarite Christian whom Klb appointed king of South Arabia following his
victory over Ysuf, is called variously LPRN in the letter of Simeon of Bt Arshm, []WR in
the Book of the imyarites, Esimiphaios in Procopius, and Angans () in Malalas.
Let us now conclude with some thoughts on the broader implications of this study. The
present dissertation does not seek to contribute to, nor trouble itself with, the Afrocentrist debate
about Africas contributions to world history. Such politically motivated tracts as Black Athena
31

and The African Origin of Civilization,
32
to name only two of the most influential works of this
genre, do far more damage than good not only through their abuseand often times outright
ignoranceof historical evidence, but also through their wrongheaded implication that African
history is of interest only insofar as Africa can be proven to be the fountainhead of all that is
good and useful. The history of Aksumite intervention in South Arabia does, it is true, provide a
fascinating example of one of the few instances in which an African state has expanded

29
On the etymology of the kings full name, see Robin 2008: 11-12.
30
On the names given to Ysuf in non-South Arabian sources, see ibid.: 44-6.
31
Bernal 1987-2006.
32
Diop 1974.

26

overseas,
33
but it should be remembered that the cultural impact of Aksum on South Arabia was
limited. Klb did indeed take steps to promote Christianity in South Arabia, but this was only
after that religion had already gained a significant following in imyar, quite independently of
Aksumite influence. Furthermore, Klb never sought to make Aksumites out of the imyarites
by imposing Aksums language and culture on South Arabia, and while several hundred
Ethiopian mercenaries, merchants, and priests are known from sixth-century sources to have
taken up residence there, there is no evidence of a systematic colonization of the region by the
Aksumites. So long as the imyarites were ruled by a Christian and paid tribute to Aksum, they
were left in peace. Giving due consideration to the role of Aksumite political and religious
ideology in Klbs war with imyar is nevertheless important in that it allows an independent
Christendom of late antiquity to speak for itself without a Roman intermediary, even if this
Aksumite voice must at times be heard through foreign sources. In this way, we may begin to
appreciate the Christian East of late antiquity as a spectrum of autochthonous cultures rather than
as an outpost of Mediterranean civilization.

33
It was not until the late eleventh century that another African state extended its frontiers beyond the continent, to
wit the Almoravid Dynasty from present-day Mauritania, which at its height controlled over half of the Iberian
Peninsula. In this they were followed by the Almohads, a Berber dynasty from the Atlas Mountains which in the
mid-twelfth century pushed into southern Iberia. One might also cite the example of the Najids, a dynasty of
Ethiopian stock, which ruled the Yemeni Tihma from 1021 until 1156. Since, however, the Najids were
descended from Ethiopian slaves, and were not acting on behalf of any Ethiopian state, their rule of South Arabia
cannot be regarded as an example of an African state that expanded overseas. In antiquity, Carthage conquered large
portions of Mediterranean Europe, while the Ptolemaic Dynasty did the same in western Asia. But since these
empires, though based in Africa, were not of indigenous African origin they too do not qualify as examples of
African states with overseas possessions. Aksum may in fact be regarded as the only genuinely African state which
can be shown to have expanded beyond Africa in antiquity. In this its only possible rival in this regard is the Nubian
kingdom of Kush, which in the late eighth century BCE conquered Egypt and shortly thereafter established a close
political relationship with the coastal cities of the southern Levant. The nature of this relationship is unclear,
however, and it is not possible to determine whether this region was governed by a bilateral treaty or a suzerain-
vassal oath (Redford 2004: 142, 207 (n. 21)).












PART I:
PROLEGOMENA





















28

Chapter 1.
AKSUM AND SOUTH ARABIA BEFORE THE SIXTH CENTURY

1.1. Introduction
Ever since western scholars began studying Ethiopia, the prevailing view has been that
Ethiopia was always at the receiving end of the trans-Red Sea axis. During the late nineteenth
and early twentieth century, these views crystallized in the theory of a South Arabian mission
civilisatrice in the Horn of Africa, whereby Semitic-speaking colonists, drawn by opportunities
for trade, overran the indigenous peoples of the northern Ethiopian Highlands and established
themselves there as rulers. As travel to Ethiopia became easier after the fall of the anti-western
Ethiopian king Twdrs II (1855-1868), Europeans who visited the northern Ethiopian
Highlands came across inscriptions and the ruins of temples similar to those which were being
discovered at roughly the same time in Yemen. If archaeologyalbeit still in its infancyin the
Near East had conditioned scholars to accept that the ancient inhabitants of that region had
developed sophisticated civilizations, the far less charitable attitude toward Africans as a people
incapable of higher culture made it only too easy to believe that the ancient remains in Ethiopia
were the work of outsiders of South Arabian origin. This theory seemed to be confirmed with the
discovery of ancient inscriptions in Yemen that mentioned a people known as the BT
(vocalized abashat), who were readily identified as a South Arabian tribe from the aramawt
region of eastern Yemen that had later settled in Ethiopia.
1

Over the last half century, excavations in Ethiopia have revealed that the South Arabian-
style monuments which struck early travelers so profoundly represent in fact a foreign mode of
expression that had been adopted by a local Ethiopian elite even as the cultural substratum
remained purely African. At the same time, the study of Ethio-Semitic languages has revealed a

1
For a critical review of this school of thought, see Irvine 1965.

29

greater time-depth for the diffusion of Semitic speech to the Horn of Africa from Arabia, and
indicates that this process began before South Arabian styles of art, architecture, and writing
were borrowed by local Africans. Moreover, even though Semitic speech would eventually come
to dominate the northern Horn of Africa, the impact of the more aesthetic aspects of South
Arabian influence of the sort encountered in temples and art was limited. Excavations at Aksum,
the capital of an ancient kingdom which took the citys name, have been particularly
instrumental in elucidating those aspects of ancient Ethiopian culture which owe nothing to
South Arabia. At the same time, advances in our knowledge of the chronology of the ancient
kingdoms of South Arabia have demonstrated that the inscriptions that mention the BT do not
predate the third century CE, at which point Aksum was already a flourishing kingdom.
Moreover, these same inscriptions indicate that it was the Ethiopian BT who established
political control over large parts of western Yemen at that time, but say nothing of the rule of
Ethiopia by any South Arabian kingdom.
Though most scholars today accept that there were South Arabian colonists in Ethiopia in
antiquity, it is now recognized that the most significant and lasting impact of these colonists was
the establishment of a writing system and the introduction of Semitic speechboth of which the
Ethiopians modified considerably. In the present chapter we will treat South Arabian culture as a
foreign commodity from which the Ethiopians were able to freely pick and chose when they saw
fit, rather than an entire civilization imposed by foreign rulers. Viewed in this way, cultural
diffusion from South Arabia to the Horn of Africa was a historical process in which Ethiopians
were participants, not passive recipients. Even after the establishment of a kingdom based at the
city of Aksum, Ethiopian rulers adopted certain aspects of monumental South Arabian culture,

30

primarily in inscriptions, in order to make a political statement that they were the true masters of
the Red Sea with claims to the cultural traditions of South Arabia.

1.2. Before Aksum: The Legacy of Saba in Ethiopia
South Arabia has been in contact with the Horn of Africa since prehistory. If initial
contacts had been characterized by the exchange of raw materials, as for example the importation
by the people in the Yemeni Tihma of obsidian from the northern Horn of Africa as early as the
third millennium BCE,
2
continued contacts led to the diffusion of Semitic speech from South
Arabia to what is now northern Eritrea and Ethiopia by the early first millennium BCE.
3
All
Ethio-Semitic languages, from Geez to Amharic, are the product of this trans-Red Sea diffusion.
Once the kingdom of Saba (Biblical Sheba) had achieved political supremacy in South Arabia
around the early seventh century BCE through a series of campaigns by its king Karibl Watar
b. Dhamaral,
4
Sabaean culture achieved an elite status in the southern Red Sea region.
5
Though
the Sabaean empire built by Karibl Watar would in time fall apart with the rise of such rival
kingdoms as Man, Qatabn, and aramawt, the fame of Saba remained undiminished
witness the Biblical story of the Queen of Sheba. Even after imyar, a kingdom in the Yemeni
Highlands which rose around the turn of the Common Era, finally conquered the Sabaeans in the
third century CE, imyarite rulers styled themselves King of Saba and Dh-Raydn (MLK
SB W-D-RYDN)Raydn being the name of the royal palace at the imyarite capital of afr,
though as a rule it is mentioned after Saba in royal titles.

2
L. Khalidi, The Formation of a Southern Red Seascape in the Late Prehistoric Period: Tracing Cross-Red Sea
Culture-Contact, Interaction, and Maritime Communities along the Tihma Coastal Plain, Yemen, in the Third to
First Millenium BC, in Natural Resources 2007: 35-43.
3
Gragg 2008: 211; Kivisild et al. 2004: 765.
4
De Maigret 2009: 207-10.
5
On the Sabaeization of South Arabian culture, see A. Avanzini, Ancient South Arabian anthroponomastics:
historical remarks, PSAS, 36, 2006: 79-85.

31

The diffusion of Sabaean culture can be seen in the northern Ethiopian Highlands in the
form of temples built in the Sabaean style,
6
dedicated to Sabaean deities who are invoked in
Sabaic-language inscriptions.
7
Though the presence of Sabaean colonists
8
in the northern Horn
of Africa from Karibl Watars time on helped establish Sabaean culture as a medium of
expression for the elite in Ethiopia, recent research suggests that the main bulk of the population
was of indigenous African origin. Not only did the domestic culturemost clearly observable in
potteryremain African,
9
but many of the Sabaic inscriptions also bear traces of Ethiopicisms
not found across the Red Sea in Saba.
10
From this melding of African and South Arabian
elements emerged the kingdom of Dimat, a polity encompassing most of the area of northern
Eritrea and Ethiopia which later made up the heartland of the Aksumite kingdom.
11
Though
Dimat did not survive the mid-first millennium BCE, its adoption of Sabaean culture was to
have a lasting impact on Ethiopia, for the South Arabian musnad script is the basis for the
Ethiopian fdal script. Derived from a cursive form of musnad, the fdal script differs from its
South Arabian prototype in the rounded shapeand in some cases orientationof its characters.

1.3. The Rise of Aksum
With the rise of a new polity based on the city of Aksum between the first century BCE
and the first century CE,
12
the new script was promoted as a medium for writing Geez, the court
language used for inscriptions and until the nineteenth century the classical language par
excellence of Christian Ethiopia. If Dimat had looked to Saba as a civilization to be emulated,

6
Darles 2009: 105.
7
Hfner 1965: 565.
8
Drewes 1980: 43.
9
Lyons and DAndrea 2003: 525; Schmidt et al. 2008: 126.
10
Drewes 1980: 35-8; idem. 1999:128.
11
For a useful summary of the cultural history of Dimat, see Connah 2001: 75-7.
12
Excavations on the hill of Bta Gyrgs to the northwest of the present town of Aksum raise the possibility that
nascent state development in this region can be traced as far back as c. 400 BCE (Fattovich 2004: 74, 80-2).

32

the period of the kingdom of Aksum witnessed the earliest expression of monumental culture in
a distinctively Ethiopian medium, whether in Geez inscriptions or in the palaces and funerary
stelae for which the site of Aksum is famed. Already in the first century CE the Aksumite
kingdom is mentioned in an anonymous Greek sailors guide, the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea,
as a major Red Sea power and an important conduit for trade between the Mediterranean world
and India.
13
By then the kingdom had achieved a status as a powerful state which controlled most
of the northern Ethiopian Highlands as well as the Red Sea coast of todays Eritrea. Adulis, its
main center of foreign trade, located near the Eritrean coast, is mentioned by the Periplus as its
chief outlet for foreign trade.
14

By the end of the third century the Aksumites began minting their own coins based on the
Roman standard,
15
with mottoes in Greek as well as Geez. In addition to providing an
invaluable body of material on which to base the chronology of Aksumite rulers, these coins
substantiate literary references to Aksumite participation in the maritime trade of the east.
Though 90 per cent of Aksumite coins have been found in northern Ethiopia, these tend to be
copper or bronze.
16
By contrast, most of Aksums gold coins have been found outside Ethiopia,
indicating their use in foreign trade.
17
Their gold content made them a favored medium of
exchange for foreign trade and large-scale transactions in South Arabia, which lacked a gold
currency of its own. The discovery of Aksumite coins in Yemen,
18
India, and Sri Lanka,
19

testifies to Aksums economic influence in the Red Sea and western Indian Ocean. The
Aksumites role as middlemen in Roman trade with India from the third to sixth centuries led to

13
Periplus 4:1.19-6:3.6 (tr. L. Casson 1989: 51-5).
14
Ibid.: 4:1.19-4:2.4 (tr. loc. cit.: 51-3).
15
Hahn 2000 (a): 289-91.
16
Connah 2001: 105.
17
Ibid.: 104.
18
Munro-Hay 1989 (a).
19
On the Aksumite coin finds in India and Sri Lanka, see Munro-Hay and Juel-Jensen 1995: 50; Hahn 2000 (a):
287, 288 (n. 25); Tomber 2005: 47; Metlich 2006: 102-3.

33

two important developments. The first was a further modification of the fdal script in the fourth
century in the form of its adaptation to a syllabic system based on the Brhm script of India,
whereby each consonant-vowel pair is indicated by a separate character.
20
The second was the
conversion to Christianity shortly thereafter of the Aksumite king zn, an act borne of
Aksums long-standing contact with the Roman Empire. With zns conversion c. 347-9,
21

advertised on coins by replacing the pagan crescent and moon-disc with the cross, Christianity
was established as the state religion of Ethiopia, a status it has retained down to the present.
Let us begin with the development of a Geez syllabary, taking the phoneme /b/ to
illustrate how the system operated. In the musnad script of South Arabia /b/ was written ,
which represented /b/ as a consonant but could not represent any vowels which might follow it.
In the fdal syllabary, however, the basic shape of this letter was retained, but was altered for
each possible consonant-vowel combination, thus giving us ba, b, b, b, b, b,
and b/b. The advantages of a fully vocalized system of writing like the fdal syllabary over
the often ambiguous musnad script are easy to see. In addition to the structural similarities of the
Geez and Brhm syllabaries, there is evidence for direct contact between the peoples who used
them. Brhm graffiti and unvocalized graffiti in the Ethiopian fdal script have been found
together in the grotto of q on the Yemeni island of Soqotra,
22
suggesting direct contact
between both groups. A preliminary palaeographical analysis of the 43 Brhm graffiti from q
suggests that they date to the late Kua and early Gupta periods (between the late second and
mid-fourth centuries CE) and were written by visitors of northwest Indian origin, with a

20
For illustrations of early Indian syllabaries, see C. C. Das Gupta, The Development of the Kharo Script,
Calcutta, 1959: 399-456 (Tables I-XVII).
21
On this tentative date, see Hahn 2000 (a): 295.
22
Robin and Gorea 2002: 427-8.

34

possibility of South Indian influence in a few cases.
23
Further hints of a Kua connection with
Soqotra are provided by a drawing of trident at q, which has been compared to the trident-axe
symbols on Kua coins, adopted as a royal emblem during the reign of Kanika I (c. 127-
147).
24
That the merchants of the Kua kingdom traded with the Aksumites not only on
Soqotra but in Ethiopia proper is indicated by the hoard of Kua gold coins dating to the
second century CE, found at Dabra Dam in northern Ethiopia.
25
The discovery of a seal found
during excavations at Adulis at the turn of the twentieth century, inscribed in the syllabic Brhm
script,
26
suggests that the Aksumites observed the use of the Brhm syllabary in Ethiopia itself
and, recognizing how a syllabic system might have been a convenient way of noting vowels in
their own system of writing, modified the fdal script accordingly.
27
Since the earliest
inscriptions in vocalized Geezthat is to say Geez written using the fdal syllabarydate from
the pagan period of zns reign before his conversion c. 347-9,
28
the establishment of a
syllabic system for official use in Aksum can be assigned to sometime during the first half of the
fourth century.

23
Strauch and Bukharin 2004: 135-6.
24
Ibid.: 134.
25
Mordini 1967.
26
Chatterji 1968: 52-3.
27
Since the syllabic system of Geez script is very similar to that of the Brhm script, an independent invention of
such a system in both countries is unlikely, all the more so in that the Aksumites were in direct contact with users of
the Brhm script. Gregersen (1977: 182) has argued that, since Indian syllabaries are attested as early as the third
century BCEfive centuries before the adaptation of the Geez script to vocalic notationthe diffusion of the
syllabic system can only have been from India to Ethiopia and not the reverse. In fact, recent excavations at
Anuradhapur in Sri Lanka have revealed sherds inscribed with Brhm graffiti at an occupation level dating as far
back as the fifth century BCE (Thapar 2000: 450-1 [n. 1]; Ray 2009: 60.). Gragg (2008: 215), while admitting that
an Indian origin cannot be excluded, suggests that Greek influence should be considered in light of the omicron-like
shape of many of the seventh-order character modifications in the Geez script. However, while some Greek
influence on the Geez syllabary is possible in view of the use of Greek in monumental Aksumite inscriptions, as
well as the adoption of Greek numerals by the Ethiopians already in pre-Christian times, attributing the entire
syllabic system to Greek is implausible given that the Greeks themselves never used such a system.
28
RIE 187: 3-4; RIE 188: 5 (Bernard et al. 1991: 255, 260). Both inscriptions invoke the pagan Aksumite god
Marem as zns father, something which would have been inconceivable after the kings conversion.

35

The Ethiopian evidence for the conversion of Aksum to Christianity,
29
the second major
development in zns reign, survives not only in the form of coins but also in royal
inscriptions from Aksum, which henceforth avoid all mention of the state god Marem, from
whom pagan kings of Aksum had claimed descent. In its place zn gives the monotheistic
invocation By the power of the Lord of Heaven who is in Heaven and [on] Earth, the
Victorious (ba-hayla gza Samy za-ba-Samy wa-Mdr Maw).
30
The foreign evidence
for the conversion of Aksum
31
is found in the writings of late Roman ecclesiastical historians,
among them Rufinus and Philostorgius. Tyrannius Rufinus, born in 345 in the small town of
Concordia in northwestern Italy around 345, was particularly interested in spiritual movements
in the Christian East, an interest caused to some degree by the presence in the west of the exiled
patriarch of Alexandria Athanasius (299-373).
32
Following his baptism in 369 or 370, Rufinus
made his way to Egypt, where he studied under the theologian Didymus the Blind (c. 313-398)
and met with a number of monks who lived in the desert. It was during his stay in the east that
Rufinus also came into contact with a presbyter in Tyre named Aedesius, who as a boy was
captured while traveling in Ethiopia with his teacher, a philosopher from Tyre named Meropius,
together with an older boy named Frumentius. From Aedesius Rufinus learned of the conversion
of the Aksumites to Christianity, an event he assigns to the reign of Constantine (306-337). Since
the peace which had been established between Aksum and Rome had been disrupted, for reasons
Rufinus does not make clear, the Ethiopians killed everyone on board Meropius ship save the
two boys. These latter were brought to the Aksumite king, who made Aedesius his cupbearer and
Frumentius his official bookkeeper. When the king died his queen prevailed upon the two youths

29
For an extended discussion of this evidence, see Rodinson 2001:237-54.
30
Bernard et al. 1991: 263 (line 1).
31
Rodinson 2001: 225-37.
32
Rohrbacher 2002: 93.

36

to remain in Ethiopia and assist her in administering the kingdom until her son came of age. In
that capacity Frumentius established links with the community of expatriate Roman Christians
and helped them build churches, thus paving the way for the establishment of Christianity in the
country. When at last the young king came of age and Frumentius and Aedesius were allowed to
leave, Frumentius was appointed by the patriarch Athanasius himself as the first bishop of
Ethiopia. He thereupon returned to Ethiopia, where he appointed priests and continued to build
churches.
33

A letter sent by Constantines son and successor Constantius II (337-361) to the
Aksumite king zn and his brother and coregent Shzn in 356 confirms Athanasius
appointment of Frumentius as bishop of Ethiopia, but treats this as a recent event,
34
which could
hardly have been the case had Frumentius begun his career as bishop in the reign of Constantine.
Based on this chronological inconsistency it has been argued that Rufinus deliberately
misattributed the Christian mission to Aksum to the reign of Constantine, whom he viewed as a
particularly holy emperor, a view he sought to impress upon his readers by whitewashing such
disreputable acts of Constantine as his execution of his own son Crispus.
35
To what extent the
account given to Rufinus by Aedesius can be trusted is uncertain, and it may well be
embellished. It should be noted that Frumentius was by no means the only Christian missionary
who was active in the Red Sea during the reign of Constantius. In this his career parallels that of
his contemporary, the Indian Christian Theophilus Indus, who spent time in both imyar and
Aksum preaching the Gospel.
36
While in the kingdom of imyar he met with opposition from
the local Jews, but in the end managed to convert the imyarite king, who built no fewer than

33
Rufinus 10.9-10.10 (The Church History of Rufinus of Aquileia: Books 10 and 11, tr. P. R. Amidon, Oxford, 1997:
18-20).
34
Ibid.: 47 (n. 20).
35
Rohrbacher 2002: 103.
36
On Theophilus Indus and his missionary activities, see Fiaccadori 1992.

37

three churches in his realm, one of them at the capital of afr.
37
Theophilus then crossed the
Red Sea to Ethiopia, where he is said to have ordered all things there correctly.
38
What this
entailed is not clear, for Philostorgius account of the Aksumite region is considerably briefer
and vaguer than his account of imyar, and it could be that Theophilus simply continued the
work begun by Frumentius. That this was the case can be deduced from the fact that
Philostorgius does not credit the Indian with initiating the evangelization of Ethiopia, but merely
with helping to establish some sort of order there, presumably in the religious sphere. That
Judaism was already well established among the imyarites by Theophilus time is indicated by
a imyarite Jewish mausoleum of third-century date at Beth Shearm in Galilee,
39
as well as a
synagogue at the South Arabian port of Qni pre-dating the fifth century.
40
As we will see in
Chapter 3, it was ultimately Judaism that was to prevail in imyar, even as Christianity remained
the state religion of Aksum.

1.4. Aksumite Intervention in Third-Century imyar
If Aksum and imyar were destined to follow very different trajectories from the fourth
century on as far as the history of religion was concerned, the destinies of the two kingdoms
were very closely tied in the third century. It was during that period that the Aksumites
established themselves as a political and even demographic presence in South Arabia and even

37
Philostorgius III.4 (tr. E. Walford 1855: 443-5). Though the name of the imyarite ruler is not mentioned by
Philostorgius, epigraphic evidence from Yemen suggests that he is to be identified with Tharn Yuhanim (c. 324-
375) (Robin 2003: 154) the imyarite king in whose reign the earliest known inscription (YM 1950) invoking the
new monotheistic deity was erected. YM 1950 is a fragmentary private inscription dated to the month of Dh-
Kharf
an
(=August) in a year during the reign of Tharn Yuhanim of which only the final digit, []3, has been
preserved. In light of the invocation of Tharn Yuhanim with his son and coregent Malkkarib Yuhamin, who
does not appear on the scene till the end of his fathers reign, Robin (2003: 102) has argued that the year in question
is either 473 or 483 of the imyarite Era, i.e. 363 or 373 CE, a date with which Gajda concurs (Gajda 2005: 24). If
Philostorgius is correct in alledging that the imyarite ruler adopted Christianity under Theophilus influence,
Tharn Yuhanim would be a Christian.
38
Philostorgius III.6 (tr. E. Walford 1855: 446).
39
Robin 2004: 836.
40
Bowersock 2004: 267-8.

38

managed to bring most of the Red Sea coast of Arabia under a loose suzerainty. That they did not
meet much in the way of resistance from the kingdoms of South Arabia can be explained by the
unsettled political conditions in the region, which left the coastal areas along the Red Sea
exposed to Aksumite invasions. Saba, whose culture had served as a model for the elite of the
Ethiopian kingdom of Dimat centuries earlier, had regained some of its former glory during the
late second and early third centuries CE by conquering first Qatabn and then aramawt. With
the annexation of these two kingdoms by the Sabaeans, only imyar was left as the main
challenge to Sabaean supremacy in Arabia.
The Aksumites were meanwhile embarking on a campaign of expansion of their own to
the north of Saba, as recorded in a Greek inscription known to scholars as Monumentum
Adulitanum II (=RIE 277),
41
erected at Adulis by an unknown king of third-century Aksum. The
coastal region annexed by that king extended almost as far north as the Gulf of Aqaba, and lay
well beyond the sphere of influence of either Saba or imyar, which were in any event too
involved with fighting each other to concern themselves with new developments elsewhere in
Arabia. But by bringing Arabias Red Sea coast under their control, the Aksumites acquired
greater strategic leverage with which to intervene in South Arabian affairs. In our schematic
overview of Aksumite intervention in third-century Arabia we will treat Monumentum
Adulitanum II in light of epigraphic materials from South Arabia and argue that Aksums
intention was to establish a sphere of influence in the Arabian Peninsula by: 1) supporting
indigenous South Arabian regimes which were deemed amenable to Aksum and 2) creating a
buffer zone along the Red Sea coast with Aksumite settlers in the Yemeni Tihma in the south
and tributary Arab tribes in the north.

41
The Monumentum Adulitanum I was the inscription of Ptolemy III (246-222 BCE). On these two inscriptions, see
Chapter 2 (2.3).

39


1.4.1. An African Red Sea Empire: Monumentum Adulitanum II
By the third century Aksum, though it had not yet started minting its own coins and was
not yet Christian, was already a prosperous, cosmopolitan kingdom whose kings erected
monumental inscriptions in Geez as well as Greek. The most famous of the Greek inscriptions is
Monumentum Adulitanum II, copied by the merchant Cosmas Indicopleustes at Adulis in 518.
42

The original inscription has never been found,
43
but the text is preserved in Cosmas
geographical treatise, the Christian Topography. The name of the Aksumite king who had
Monumentum Adulitanum II erected is missing from Cosmas transcription, perhaps because the
initial part of the inscription which would have contained his name was no longer extant when
Cosmas made his copy. The king, speaking in the first person in the inscription, states that he
erected the inscription in the twenty-seventh year of his reign. This anonymous ruler claims to
have extended Aksumite rule as far north as the borders of Egypt and subdued the inhabitants of
the northern Ethiopian Highlands and the incense-producing regions along the coast of the Horn
of Africa.
44
Whether Aksum ever attempted to subject this entire region (divided as it was by
mountains, desert, and the Red Sea) to direct administration may well be doubted, and for his
part the king says only that he ordered the people he vanquished to pay tribute. Confident in his
hold on much of northeast Africa, he then turned his attention across the Red Sea to Arabia. Of
his military activities there, he says:

42
A third-century date for this inscription is likely in view of the fact that no Aksumite campaigns in Arabia are
attested before that time, either in epigraphic material or in Graeco-Roman sources. Likewise it cannot post-date the
reign of zn (c. 330-360), after whose conversion to Christianity the invocation of pagan deities by a king of
Aksum would have been unthinkable. The persistence of the cross on Aksumite coins from zns reign onwards,
to the total exclusion of the crescent-moon symbol featured on the coins of pagan Aksumite kings, leaves no room
for the possibility of backsliding into the old religion.
43
Some marble fragments found at Adulis were once thought to be vestiges of this monument, though more recent
studies have shown them to be derived from a chancel from a church dating to the fifth or early sixth century
(Lepage 2006: 18).
44
On the identity of these peoples and their territory, see Bernard 2000: 35-40.

40

Likewise, after having sent against the Arabitae and the Kinaidokolpitae who live
beyond the Red Sea a fleet and an army by land, and having subdued their kings, I
ordered them to pay a tribute for their land and to travel in peace on land and sea,
and I made war from Leuke Kome to the territories of the Sabaeans.
45

(K E oo A Ko
o o o
o
o.)
46


It seems that the operations in Arabia were carried out in two stages, the first an attack on the
Arabitae and the Kinaidokolpitae sent by the Aksumite king by land and sea, the second a larger
scale campaign led by the king himself, which took him from the port of Leuke Kome in the
north to the kingdom of Saba in the south. Since Monumentum Adulitanum II is the sole record
of this far-flung Aksumite military venture, the text has proven difficult to contextualize. Though
South Arabian inscriptions from the third century indicate extensive contact with Aksum at that
time, these are not easily cross-referenced with Monumentum Adulitanum II, which indicates that
the main theater of operations of the anonymous Aksumite king was north of the South Arabian
sphere of influence.
How far north is not clear, however. In this regard the Arabitae have been difficult to pin
down, for while their name has been compared with the RB (=Arabic Arab) known from South
Arabian inscriptions, suggesting a location around the area

around Najrn,
47
the only known
Greek reference to the Arabitae, apart from Monumentum Adulitanum II, is Arrians Anabasis, in
which the name is applied to a people encountered by Alexander the Great in August 325 BCE
along the Arabius River (the modern-day Hab River in Sind).
48
Given the great distance of these
people in time and space from Monumentum Adulitanum II, Arrians Arabitae cannot possibly
be identified with those of the Aksumite inscription. Furthermore, since the Indian Arabitae are

45
Translation based on the French translation of Wolska-Conus 1968: I: 376.
46
Top. Chr. II.62.4-9.
47
Rets 2003: 547.
48
J. R. Hamilton, Alexander among the Oreitae, Historia, 21, 4, 1972: 603-8 (esp. p. 603-4 [n. 6]).

41

named after a geographical featurein this case a riverthere is no question of their name
being an ethnic term. As for the Arabitae of Monumentum Adulitanum II, we have a possible
equivalent in the Arab,
49
a tribe belonging to the Hamdn confederation which Yqt locates
along the Red Sea coast of Yemen.
50
According to Yqt, the Arab tribe gave its name to the
district (mikhlf) in Yemen which it inhabited.
51
A coastal location does fit the context of
Monumentum Adulitanum II, which treats the anonymous Aksumite kings Arabian campaign as
one concerned primarily with the Red Sea coast of Arabia. On the other hand, a different group
called the Arab
an
(RB
n
) are mentioned as allies of the imyarites in CIH 621 from in al-
Ghurb, dating to February 531.
52
Robin sees in this name the nisba plural of al-Raba (ancient
Rabat
an
[RBT
n
]), the name of the plain of an,
53
though it could be that in the Greek of
Monumentum Adulitanum II the /T/ of the toponym was retained, thus giving us Arabitae.
The Kinaidokolpitae are known from Ptolemys Geography (c. 150 CE), according to
which their territory stretched along the Red Sea coast of Arabia from the town of Kopar to the
river Baitios, which modern scholars have tentatively identified with al-Jr (a few kilometers
south of modern-day Yanbu al-Bar) and the Wd Baysh (located in Saudi Arabias Jzn
province).
54
A Greek ostracon from al-Zarq in Egypts eastern desert (O.Max. inv. 81), dating
from about 150 CE and thus contemporary with Ptolemys Geography, alludes to a dispatch
concerning the Kinaidokolpitae (o Ko).
55
The origins and connotations
of this epithet have yet to be established to the satisfaction of all scholars, though it may refer to
the Dawat, a tribal confederation which third-century South Arabian inscriptions locate in

49
Bernard 2000: 41.
50
Yqt 1990: I: 174.
51
Ibid.
52
See Chapter 6 (6.3).
53
Robin 2008: 96.
54
Cuvigny and Robin 1996: 701-4.
55
Ibid.: 697-8.

42

roughly the same area as Ptolemy locates the Kinaidokolpitae.
56
The exact location of Leuke
Kome has never been definitively established, and while ancient authors unanimously locate the
town on the northern Red Sea coast of Arabia, modern scholars disagree as to the precise spot,
and have proposed numerous sites along Saudi Arabias west coast. Of these, Aynna (28 05'
08" N/35 11' 13" E) has the most to commend it on account of its extensive Nabataean and
Roman ruins, in contrast to the scarcity if not total lack of ancient remains at the other proposed
sites.
If one accepts the identification of Leuke Kome with Aynna this would mean that the
Aksumites were already active militarily in the northern Red Sea, not far from the Gulf of
Aqaba, during the third century, a suggestion which has been greeted with skepticism by
some.
57
That the Aksumites were capable of sailing into the northern Red Sea can, however, be
argued by analogy with later medieval Arabic accounts of Ethiopian maritime activities. Yqt
describes al-Jr as a port to which ships from Ethiopia come (fura turfa ilayh al-sufun min
ar al-abash),
58
and refers to an island facing the port as the anchorage of the Ethiopians in
particular (mars al-abasha kha
tan
).
59
Al-abar similarly attributes a report to the Prophet
Muammads wife Umm abba,
60
according to which she and the Muslim refugees still
remaining in Ethiopia returned to Madna in 6 AH/627-8 on two Ethiopian ships which anchored
at al-Jr.
61
If Kopar, located by Ptolemy within the territory of the Kinaidokolpitae, is to be
identified with al-Jr, then there is no reason to question Monumentum Adulitanum IIs
implication that the northern Red Sea coast of Arabia was within range of the Aksumite military.

56
Ibid.: 717.
57
Bernard 2000: 40 (n. 215).
58
Yqt 1990:II: 107.
59
Ibid.: 108.
60
Also known as Ramla bint Ab Sufyn, whom Muammad is said to have married in absentia while she was still
in Ethiopia after her first husband, Ubayd Allh b. Jash, converted to Christianity.
61
Al-abar 1961: II: 654.

43

Likewise, though the original inscription has yet to be found,
62
the authenticity of
Monumentum Adulitanum II is supported by a fragment of what seems to be a closely related
text, also in Greek (RIE 269), discovered at Aksum at the turn of the twentieth century by the
Deutsche Aksum-Expedition.
63
Of the eight lines of text that survive, the third reads and the
region beyond the sea ( []),
64
a tantalizing line which can only
refer to Arabia. Littmann compares this fragmentary passage to the lines of Monumentum
Adulitanum II quoted above refering to the region inhabited by the Arabitae and the
Kinaidokolpitae beyond the Red Sea.
65
That some military operation was described in RIE 269 is
suggested in the seventh line, which Littmann cautiously reconstructs as [] [], the
infantry.
66
If this reading is correct, we may have here a reference to the same operations by
land mentioned in Monumentum Adulitanum II in connection with Arabia. Like the latter
inscription, RIE 269 is missing the opening lines in which the kings name would have been
given, thus depriving us of a vital bit of information which would help settle the historical and
chronological context of Monumentum Adulitanum II.
Impressive though a campaign of this scale may sound, its long-term implications are not
clear. Though Monumentum Adulitanum II makes much of the kings imposition of tribute on the
African peoples whom he defeated in battle, the Arabitae and the Kinaidokolpitae are the only
groups in Arabia which he is specifically said to have reduced to tributary status. Though the text
concludes its account of his military exploits with the words all of these peoples I, the first and
only of the kings who preceded me, subdued, this seems to summarize the general course of

62
Though marble fragments found at the site were once thought to be vestiges of this monument, more recent
studies have shown them to be derived from a chancel from a church dating to the fifth or early sixth century
(Lepage 2006: 18).
63
Littmann 1913: 2-3.
64
Ibid.: 2. (tr. Bernard 2000: 3).
65
Littmann 1913: 3.
66
Ibid.: 2.

44

warfare on both sides of the Red Sea, and it is never explicitly stated that the Aksumite ruler
subdued the kings of South Arabia as he did those of the Arabitae and the Kinaidokolpitae, only
that the territories of the Sabaeans was one of the regions on which he made war. As for what
this war might have entailed, we turn now to the epigraphic record from South Arabia.

1.4.2. Aksumite Intervention in Third-Century imyar: The Evidence from South
Arabian Inscriptions
Aksum first makes an appearance in South Arabian records as the member of a coalition
led by King Alhn Nahfn of Saba (c. 195-210) against imyar. The first inscription to
mention them (CIH 308) states that Alhn Nahfn received an ambassador from Gadar, King
of the Ethiopians (GDRT
67
MLK B
n
), who sought to make an alliance with him.
68
Another
inscription (Nm NJ 13+14), which appears to date from shortly after CIH 308, refers to the
participation of nobles, commanders, and tribes of the king of the Ethiopians (QWL W-QDM
W-B MLK BT)
69
in an anti-imyarite coalition led by Saba. This same King Gadar (c.
200-220) is attested epigraphically in the Aksumite realm as well in a brief inscription on a
bronze boomerang-shaped votive object from Ad Galam in Ethiopia (RIE 180), which can be
dated on palaeographic grounds to the third century.
70
Though the interpretation of this
inscription poses difficulties,
71
the words Gadar[], King of Aksm (GDR[T]
72
NGY KSM)
can be made out quite clearly. Diplomatic relations between Gadar and Saba were maintained
by Alhn Nahfns successor Shair
um
Awtar (c. 210-230). In his reign a mission to Ethiopia

67
On the function of /-T/ as a mater lectionis for a final /-/ in foreign names in South Arabian inscriptions, see
Kropp 2004: 260.
68
Robin 1989: 149.
69
Idem. 2006: 128.
70
Sima 2005: 718-19.
71
For some attempted interpretations, see Caquot and Drewes 1955: 32-9; Jamme 1957; Drewes 2000: 186-9.
72
On the function of /-T/ as a mater lectionis for a final /-/ in foreign names in South Arabian inscriptions, see
Kropp 2004: 260.

45

was entrusted to one Qabn Awkn, who in an inscription from Mrib (Ja 631) records his
having made a dedication to the Sabaean state god lmuquh
because he had given aid to his servant Qabn Awkn b. Garat when their
73
lord
Shair
um
Awtar, King of Saba and Dh-Raydn dispatched him on a mission to
the land of the Ethiopians, to Gadar, King of the Ethiopians and the Aksumites.
And he and all his retinue returned in safety. And they brought back to their lord a
satisfactory answer from the nagi to their lord Shair
um
Awtar, King of Saba
and Dh-Raydn, on their every mission, which pleased their lord more than all
the [other duties] with which they had been charged.
(B-DT HW BDHW QB
n
WKN BN GRT B-KN NBLHW MR-HMW R
m

WTR MLK SB W-D-RYDN DY R BT B-[]BR GDRT MLK BT W-
KSM
n
W-TWLW BN-HW B-WFY
m
HW W-KL WHMW W-THBW
MRHMW R
m
WTR MLK SB W-D-RYDN B-KL BLTHMW MN NGY
n

MTBT DQ
m
D-HRW BN KL D-HBLTW.)
74


The significance of the satisfactory answer (MTBT DQ
m
) which Shair
um
Awtar received
from Gadar is not clear, but if it was a message of peace such cordial relations were not to last,
for the Aksumites shortly afterwards began harassing tribes under Sabaean protection like the
Ban Surn, before establishing themselves in the Yemeni Tihma.
75
At some point, either in
Shair
um
Awtars reign or perhaps in the reign of his successor Laathat Yarkham,
76
Qabn
Awkn was summoned again for service, this time in order to take the field against an Ethiopian
army led against afr by Baygat, described as the son of an Aksumite king,
77
the king in
question being probably Gadar.

73
Their here refers to Qabn and his tribe, the Sumhurm Yuhawlid.
74
Sabaic text based on Jamme 1962: 132. Though Jamme sees in this inscription a reference to a Sabaean invasion
of Ethiopia and interprets several passages accordingly (Jamme 1962: 132, 303), there is no evidence of Sabaean
military activities across the Red Sea at this time or at any other, particularly given that Aksum had sided with Saba
against imyar in the reign of Alhn Nahfn. It should be noted that the phrase BLT, which Jamme takes to mean
military duties can refer to diplomatic as well as military missions. Yet even he admits that it seems rather strange
that the alleged campaign against Aksum is described so briefly and without any details (ibid.: 303). It is also
significant in this regard that the account of Qabn Awkns mission to Ethiopia lacks the typical references to
killings made and booty taken, as occur in all Sabaean accounts of military operations.
75
Robin 1989: 150.
76
Ibid.
77
Kitchen (1994:I: 228) regards Baygat as having reigned as a king of Aksum in his own right in Aksum c. 220-230.
Though this is not impossible, we lack for this period the numismatic evidence on which Aksumite chronology from
the end of the third century depends, and as a result we are forced to rely solely on epigraphic evidence. For Baygat
this evidence comes solely from Ja 631 (Jamme 1962: 132-4). Though Baygats royal blood would have made him a

46

And Baygat, son of the nagi, and the army of Ethiopians launched an attack on
the city of afr and set up camp in its vicinity. And Qabn Awkn b. Garat and
their tribe, the Sunhurm Yuhawlid, marched to afr in the direction of an
ambush (?) which had been set [for them] during the night. And the Ethiopians
made a raid [on] some of them by the citadel of those within the city. And Qabn
Awkn b. Garat and their tribe, Sumhurm Yuhawlid, advanced and joined
forces with Liazz
um
Yahnf Yuhadiq, King of Saba and Dh-Raydn and the
nobles and tribes of Dh-Raydn. And they killed, slaughtered, and destroyed the
Ethiopians within the city. And on the third day some of Dhamr, and the
vanguard of the main army, and some of the tribes of Dh-Raydn made a sortie
and by night attacked the camp of the Ethiopians and killed 400 of them
fighting men and wounded. And on the third day Qabn Awkn b. Garat and
their tribe, the Sumhurm Yuhawlid, made a sortie and engaged with the
Ethiopiansand with them were some light cavalry of the Mafir
um
and they
killed some [more] Ethiopians during the engagement. And [others] among the
Ethiopians returned to their camp and after the second day [after the engagement]
the Ethiopians retreated from the afr out of hunger and went down to the
Mahir [tribe].
(W-HRN BYGT WLD NGY
n78
W-MR B
n
DY HGR
n
FR W-YRW B-
HLF HGR
n
FR W-YFN QB
n
WKN BN GRT W-BHMW SMHRM
YHWLD DY HGR
n
FR B-BR QTR WD BN LLY
n
W-B
n
YDWN BN-
HMW BRN R LN WS HGR
n
W-DW QB
n
WKN BN GRT W-BHMW
SMHRM YHWLD WYTTMNN B-M LZZ
m
YHNF YHDQ MLK SB W-D-
RYDN W-QWL W-B D-RYDN W-HRGW W-DKWN W-HSTN B
n

BN WS HGR
n
W-L-TLT
m
YWM
m
YBRRN D-BN DMR W-MNRT HMS
n
W-
D-BN B D-RYDN W-BWW B-LLY
n
YRT B
n
W-YHRGN BN B
n

RB MN
m
SD
m
BW
m
W-L-TLT
m
YWM
m
F-YBRRN QB
n
WKN BN GRT
W-BHMW SMHRM YHWLD W-YTBBNN B-M B
n
W-B-MHMW BN
NDF MFR
m
W-YHRGN BN B
n
B-TBNN W-GBW BN-HMW B
n

YRTHMW W-BD TNY
m
YWM
m
FTWLW B
n
BN HLF FR GW
m
W-
WRDW MHRT
n
.)
79


Here it would appear that the Sabaeans came to the aid of the imyarites against the Aksumites,
who were seeking to attack the imyarite capital of afr itself. This is likely to have been

suitable candidate for the Aksumite throne, it cannot be assumed that he in fact did sit on the throne. The next
Aksumite king after Gadar to be named in South Arabian inscriptions is Adhabah (Ja 576) (ibid.: 68, 69), who
may well have succeeded Gadar directly. If this Adhabah was Baygats older brother who was next in line as king
after Gadar, he may well have been kept at Aksum to be groomed for the throne while Baygat was sent to fight in
South Arabiapossibly as a means of preventing any potential dynastic feud.
78
Note that the typical expression of filiation in Geez, wald, is used here instead of the Sabaic BN. It is hard to
agree with Drewes (1962: 102) that BYGT here refers to the Bja. Though it is true that the unvocalized WLD could
conceivably represent either walda (son of) or wlda (sons of), there is no case of the epithet sons of the nag
being applied in either South Arabian or Aksmite texts to the Aksumites themselves, much less to a group like the
Bja who, when they do appear in Aksumite inscriptions, are said to have had an adversarial role.
79
Sabaic text based on Jamme 1962: 132.

47

nothing more than a temporary truce allowing Saba to rid itself of its Ethiopian rivals before
proceding to annex imyar itself. If Gadar is to be identified with the king who erected
Monumentum Adulitanum II, as has been tentatively proposed by Robin,
80
it could be that he
exceeded his armys capacity by attempting to push the Aksumite conquest of Arabia
southwards, into the imyarite region. While the stateless communities further north in the ijz
acquiesced in the face of the Aksumites military superiority, powerful kingdoms like Saba and
imyar would appear to have resisted far more effectively. This is something which
Monumentum Adulitanum II fails to mention, though it may explain why the Arabitae and the
Kinaidokolpitae are the only Arabian peoples who are specifically stated to have paid tribute to
Aksum. In light of references in South Arabian inscriptions from a slightly later period (c. 240-
250) to the presence of an Aksumite prefect (QB, cf. Geez aqb) at Najrn,
81
it could be that
the area just north of the modern-day border between Yemen and Saudi Arabia marked the
frontier between the tributary regions under Aksumite influence and the kingdoms of Saba and
imyar to the south.
The reference to Baygat in Ja 631 as the leader of the Aksumite forces is interesting in
that it indicates that the campaign was undertaken not by Gadar but by his son. Robins
proposed identification of Gadar with the king who erected Monumentum Adulitanum II could
explain why Monumentum Adulitanum II is strangely silent on military operations in Saba and
imyar, given that it was the royal son Baygat who invaded Saba. It could be that Monumentum
Adulitanum II was erected to commemorate only those campaigns which Gadar led in person.
On the other hand, the attribution of Monumentum Adulitanum II to Gadar is by no means

80
Cuvigny and Robin 1996: 710-11.
81
Robin 1989: 151.

48

certain. Another third-century Aksumite king, Sembrouthes,
82
is known from a brief inscription
which he erected at Daqq Maar in Eritrea (RIE 275), which reads: The King of Kings
83
of
Aksum, the great Sembrouthes, came and erected [this monument]; year 24 of the great king
Se[m]brouthes
84
( o
[o] oo o ).
85
Though the reason for the erection of this
inscription is not known, the reference to a twenty-fourth year of his reign in RIE 275 makes
Sembrouthes a potential candidate for the king who erected Monumentum Adulitanum II, as that
latter inscription dates from the twenty-seventh year of a kings reign, and it is not hard to
imagine that Sembrouthes continued to reign at least another three years after erecting RIE 275.
Whether this means that Sembrouthes was in fact the king who erected Monumentum
Adulitanum II cannot, however, be proven, particularly when we have no evidence of the length
of Gadars reign.
86
Likewise, though the lack of any reference to Sembrouthes in South Arabian
inscriptions does not disprove his having campaigned in Arabia, the fact that we have no

82
There has been much speculation as to the etymology of this name, which may not be Semitic (Bernard 2000: 23-
4). Among the theories that have been put forward to explain this name is that Sembrouthes is related to the
ethnonym Sembritae (Desanges 1978: 219 (n. 16)), which Strabo gives to a people to the south of Mero who had
deserted from the Egyptian army in the reign of the pharaoh Psammitichus (=Psamtik II, 595-589 BCE)
(Geographikon 16.4.8). Desanges (loc. cit.) suggests further that the Sembritae are connected with the Soboridae or
Sabaridae whom Ptolemy locates near Aksum. This would bring the Sembritae geographically closer to
Sembrouthes, though there is no evidence that Sembritae are in fact the Soboridae/Sabaridae and the identification
of any of these peoples with Sembrouthes is unlikely. For now the etymology of the name Sembrouthes remains a
mystery.
83
Strictly speaking, means king out of kings, a rather clumsy phrase which is more likely
the result of incompetence on the part of the scribe than anything else. That the kings name is spelled two different
ways even in this brief inscription suggests as much.
84
Bernard 2000: 23.
85
Littmann 1913: 3.
86
Some have sought to identify Gadar with a ruler mentioned in medieval Ethiopian king-lists under such variant
forms as Agdr, Za-Gedr, and Gedr (Caquot and Drewes 1955: 38). On the attestations of these names, see Conti
Rossini 1909: 280, 286, 296, 299. Since the only list that gives the length of this kings reign assigns him an
implausible one hundred years and derives from eighteenth- to nineteenth-century sources (Conti Rossini, loc. cit.:
284-5, 286), it would be unwise to seek evidence from the king-lists for the length of Gadars reign. King-lists, in
fact, are in general highly unreliable for early periods, as they are invariably very late in date and were composed as
propaganda for the Amhara kings, who sought political legitimacy by commissioning lists that purported to trace
their genealogies back to Aksum and beyond (Rodinson 2001: 242). Since none of the epigraphic attestations of
Gadar from either Ethiopia or South Arabia give any indication of how long he ruled, the length of his reign
remains a moot point.

49

Aksumite material for Gadar apart from the modest votive object from Maqall bearing his
name does not disprove that he was any less important a king than Sembrouthes.
Though the Aksumites may have been unable to annex imyar, much less Saba, they
took advantage of the ongoing war between these two South Arabian kingdoms and began
forming alliances with the tribes of the Yemeni Tihma, referred to in Sabaic as the SHRT
n
.
With this local support the Aksumites managed to settle in the Tihma, as a result of which the
Sabaean king lshara Yaub (c. 240-260) sent his troops there to curb the growing power of a
coalition made up of Ethiopians and the local Akk tribe. An inscription from lshara Yaubs
reign (Ja 575) tells us that the Sabaean troops
attacked those Ethiopians and Akk and those of the Tihma who were with them
in an assault to capture their children and livestock. And they assembled and
undertook military operations against and engaged in pitched battle with those
Ethiopians and.and their children and women, and they killed and took
prisoners. And from there they returned and attacked [them] at a spring and
mounted an offensive on the following day against the rest of the Ethiopians and
Akk and those who had sought help from., inflicting a decisive defeat, killing
and routing an auxiliary force of those Ethiopians and Akk and all those who
were with them from among the tribes of the Tihma.
(RBW HMT B
n
W-K
m
W-D-KWN KWNHMW D-SHRT
m
MWTBT
m
BD
WLDHMW W-QNYHMW W-YTTMW W-TQDMN W-RTN B-M HMT
B
n
W W-WLDHMW W-NTHMW F-HRGW W-SBYW W-BN-HW
F-TWLW W-RBW B-YN
m
W-HN L-D-MHR
m
B-LY-HMW D-SR BN
HMT B
n
W-K
m
W-D-STRW BN WM B-SM W-HRG W-HSTN NT
HMT B
n
W-K
m
W-KL D-KWN KWNHMW BN B D-SHRT
m
.)
87


If, as it appears from the inscription, the Ethiopians had their women and children with them,
then they must have intended not merely to launch attacks on the Sabaeans but to actually settle
in the Tihma. In Ja 576, we read of lshara Yaubs attacking, defeating, and punishing the
war bands of the Ethiopians (HRN W-KR W-NQM ZB BT),
88
giving Adhabah

87
Sabaic text based on Jamme 1962: 64.
88
Ibid.: 67.

50

(=Azb?) as the name of the reigning Aksumite king (MLK KSM
n
) of the time.
89
Though still
acting in concert with groups from the Tihma, the Aksumites were now joined by a imyarite
referred to simply as Shammar of Raydn, together with the tribes of imyar (B MYR
m
)
under his rule. This Shammar appears to be the same individual as the imyarite king Shammar
Yuhaamid mentioned in Inscription No. 5 from al-Misl
90
and appears to be the successor of
the very Liazz
um
Yahnf Yuhadiq who in Shair
um
Awtars reign had sought Sabaean help
against an Aksumite invasion of his realm. With Shammar Yuhaamid it would seem that
imyar had mended ties with Aksum in an attempt to counter the Sabaean threat. Perhaps taking
advantage of a conflict between lshara Yab and Mlik
um
of Kinda, during which the
Sabaean kings attention was focused on the north, the imyarites under Shammar joined forces
with the Aksumites and the tribes of the Tihma, and sent a diplomatic mission to Adhabah,
King of the Aksumites, for help against the kings of Saba (NBL B-BR DBH MLK KSM
n
L-
NR
m
B-LY MLK SB).
91

Shammar likewise sought the help of Germ, referred to in Ja 577 as the son of the
nag (WLD NGY
n
)i.e., Adhabahwho came with Ethiopian war bands and allied tribes
from the Tihma (W-B-MHW ZB BT W-D-SHRT
m
).
92

The king lshara Yaub overtook themand with him were some of his
nobles and one thousand fighting men from their (i.e., his nobles) main army
force, and twenty-six cavalrymen, in order to exact revenge in a battle which they
fought, [for] Shammar of Raydn had embarked on a campaign after he had made
a pact and there had been peace between the kings of Saba and the Ethiopians.
And they attacked five towns from and they took from them the spoils of
those killed, prisoners, booty, and loot in great quantity. And some of the
Ethiopians and Tihms made an offensive against them in the field of Aqad
um
,
and the foot soldiers fought against them, and lmuquh granted that they defeat
and destroy an auxiliary force of those Ethiopians. And lshara Yaub having

89
Ibid.
90
Robin 1981: 333-4.
91
Sabaic text based on Jamme 1962: 68.
92
Ibid.: 77.

51

returned to the city of an with success and glory, and with spoils of battle,
prisoners, loot, and booty in great quantity, and with praise on account of the
defeat and punishment [of his enemies] which lmuquh had granted, Germ
93

son of the nagi, the king of the Aksumitessent a band of men on an embassy
to the kings of Saba.
(HDRKHMW MLKN LR YB W-B-MHW D-BN QWL-HW W-LF
m

SD
m
BN HMSHMW W-ST W-RY FRS
m
L-NQM B-RBT RBW W-
HRN MR D-RYDN BD GZM W-SLM KWN BYN MLK SB W-BT W-
RBW HMST DYR
m
BN W-LFYW BN-HMW MHRGT
m
W-SBY
m
W-
MLT
m
W-NM
m
D-SM W-YHNW BLYHMW D-BN BN W-D-SHRT
m

B-KDNN D-QD
m
W-YTQDMW B-MHMW RGL
m
W-HMRHMW LMQH
HSTN W-TBR NT HMT BN W-YTWLN MLK
n
LR YB W-
QWLHW W-HMSHW DY HGR
n
NW B-WFY
m
W-MD
m
W-LL
m
W-
SBY
m
W-MLT
m
W-NM
m
D-SM W-MD
m
B-D-HMRHMW LMQH KR W-
NQM GRMT WLD NGY
n
MLK KSM
n
B-TNBLT BL SD NBL B-BRHW
MLK SB.)
94


Like Baygat before him, Germ was a royal son who commanded Aksumite forces in South
Arabia; whether he ever reigned as a king in his own right is unknown.
95
It could be that his
mission to the Sabaeans was part of an effort to exact tribute from Saba, thus reducing the
kingdom to the status of the Arabitae and the Kinaidokolpitae further north. With the accession
of the imyarite king Karibl Ayfa around 248-249, however, hostilities between Aksum and
imyar resumed as the Ethiopians made another attempt to capture afr and, to that end,
occupied the region around the city for seven months.
96
Though two battles waged by Karibl
Ayfas successor Ysir Yuhanim (c. 260-270) failed to achieve any decisive results in the
struggle against the Aksumite occupation, a campaign against the South Arabian tribes under

93
In Geez germ means terror, awe, or glory and it is not common as a personal name in Ethiopia today.
94
Sabaic text based on Jamme 1962: 77. A briefer reference to a victory over Germ during a similarif not the
sameencounter is preserved in Ja 585, presented at the temple of lmuquh at Mrib by two brothers, Yaba
Ashwa and Arab
um
, who served lshara Yab (ibid.: 91-2).
95
The name Germ is attested in medieval Ethiopian king-lists in such forms as Germ Asfar(), Germ Safar,
Germ Sfer, and Germ Sr (Conti Rossini 1909: 270, 273, 279, 281, 297, 299, 301), and in one list we find a
Germ who is said to have borne Klb as his royal name (ibid.: 299). Since the order of kings varies somewhat
from list to list, while some lists contain more than one ruler named Germ, it would be hazardous to give much
weight to the king-lists as evidence for the historical Germ known from third-century South Arabian inscriptions.
The only two South Arabian inscriptions that mention Germ (Ja 577 and Ja 585) (Jamme 1962: 77-8, 91-2) refer to
him only as a kings son (WLD NGY
n
). Based on this, Kitchen (1994:I: 228) deduces, as he did with Baygat, that
Germ (whom he calls Garmat) was a king in his own right. As in the case of Baygat, this is not impossible, though
there is no definitive proof of this from the written sources.
96
Robin 1989: 151.

52

Aksumite rule effectively eliminated the Aksumites base of local support in the imyarite
realm.
97

When the Aksumites detained Hawafiathat, a Sabaean ambassador at the Tihm town of
aw, they similarly lost any support which they stood to gain from Saba. Hawafiathats sons,
Yaba Ashwa and Arab
um
, record their fathers ordeal and his subsequent liberation.
He (i.e. lmuquh) granted his two servants Yaba Ashwa and his brother
Arab
um
of the tribes of Abl
um
and Halil [respectively] the return of their father
Hawafiathat Aa Dh-Ghaymn in safety from the city of aw and the Srat
when his lord lshara Yab and his brother Yazil Bayyinthe two Kings of
Saba and Dh-Raydndispatched him on a mission to the Ethiopians. And the
Ethiopians held their father [captive] in the city of aw for one rainy season and
two years, and nearly put an end to the life of their father Hawafiathat Dh-
Ghaymn. And they praised the power and might of lmuquh ThahwnLord of
Awwm
98
because their father Hawafiathat Dh-Ghaymn returned in safety
from that journey, and from the sickness and disease that their father suffered in
that city of aw, and full of praise because lmuquh ThahwnLord of
Awwmgranted their lord lshara Yab and his brother Yazil Bayyin
the two Kings of Saba and Dh-Raydnthe defeat of all the enemies who rose
up against them in the highlands and lowlands, at sea and on land, and because he
(i.e. lshara Yab) defeated [that] one Germ, son of the nagi, the King of
the Aksumites, when he committed a hostile action in war. And that Germ and
the tribes of the Ethiopians were defeated.
(HMR BDYHW YB W W-HYHW RB
m
BNY BL
m
W-HLL B-TWL
n

BHMY WFTT D-YMN B-WFY
m
BN HGR
n
W
m
W-SHRT
n
B-KN
NBLHW MRHW LR YB W-HYHW YZL BYN MLKY SB W-D-
RYDN B-BR B
n
W-HNW B-HMY HWFTT D-YMN B
n
B-HGR
n

W
m
BRQ
m
W-TNY HRF
n
W-KYDW B
n
HGZN GRB BHMY HWFTT D-
YMN W-MDY YB W-RB
m
HYL W-MQM LMQH-THWN-BL-WM
B-DT TWL BHMY HWFTT D-YMN B-WFY
m
BN HYT SBT
n
W-
BN SM L W-MR MR BHMY B-HYT HGR
n
W
m
W-DM
m
B-D-HMR
LMQH-THWN-BL-WM MRYHMW LR YB W-HYHW YZL BYN
MLKY SB W-D-RYDN BNY FR
m
YNHB MLK SB B-W KL RR
YFHMW B-LT
m
W-SFYLT BR
m
W-YBS
m
W-B-DT R S
n
GRMT WLD
NGY
n
MLK KSM
n
B-KN DW B-R
m
W-TKR H S
n
GRMT W-ZB
BT.)
99



97
Ibid.
98
Awwm was the name of the temple of lmuquh at Mrib, where this and many other third-century Sabaic
inscriptions have been found.
99
Sabaic text based on Jamme 1962: 91.

53

After this incident nothing more is heard from the Aksumites in Sabaean records, and following
the reign of Ysir Yuhanim we have a comparable silence from the imyarite side as well, one
which continues until the second decade of the fourth century. Since no further military conflicts
with Aksum are mentioned, it would appear that the Aksumites quietly withdrew from South
Arabia.
100
With the conquest of Saba by Ysir Yuhanim and his successor Shammar Yuharish
between 270 and 280, imyar stood alone as the sole South Arabian power, and from that point
on it was with imyar that Aksum had to deal in its relations with South Arabia. But despite the
withdrawal of its forces from South Arabia, Aksum continued to maintain an interest in the
region.

1.5. Aksum and imyar in the Fourth Century: Royal Titles, Monumental
Scripts, and Political Fictions
The epigraphic record of the third century from both Ethiopia and South Arabia presents
us with a curious paradox in that, whereas South Arabian inscriptions describe an Aksumite
occupation of western Yemen, no Aksumite inscriptions apart from the now lost Monumentum
Adulitanum II mention Arabia at all. In the fourth century, by contrast, South Arabian
inscriptions know of Aksum only as a foreign power with which imyar maintained diplomatic
relations, not as an occupier of South Arabian territory. In fact, fourth-century imyar appears
by all accounts to have been not only an independent kingdom but the sole kingdom in South
Arabia which survived the political turmoil of the third century. Moreover, having already
subdued its Sabaean and aram rivals, imyar now began extending its influence to the north,
into central Arabia. Also paradoxical is the fact that it is now, at the very time when imyar
reigned supreme in South Arabia and was extending its influence to regions further north and

100
Robin 1989: 151.

54

east, that we find two kings of Aksum, Ousanas (c. 305-320) and his son zn (c. 330-360),
styling themselves kings of Saba and imyar in their inscriptions from Aksum.
Given that the opening lines of Monumentum Adulitanum II and its possible counterpart
from Aksum (RIE 269) are missing, it is impossible to tell if this habit of laying claim to South
Arabia is based on third-century Aksumite precedent or is a later innovation. Whatever the case,
it is clear that Ousanas and zn wished to present themselves as the rulers of both sides of the
Red Sea. To reinforce this point, they even erected inscriptions at Aksum in unvocalized Geez,
written not in the fdal script but in the South Arabian musnad script, complete with Sabaic
orthographic devicesalbeit used incorrectly. This is not a relic of Sabaean influence preserved
intact since the Dimat period centuries earlier, as the fdal script had already evolved
considerably during the intervening period. Nor is there any evidence of Aksum being subjected
to significant cultural influence from South Arabia in the fourth century. Rather the titles and
script employed by Ousanas and zn in their respective inscriptions reflect a conscious choice
on their part to borrow aspects of South Arabian monumental culture in an effort to incorporate
South Arabia as an indelible part of Aksums historysomething perhaps taken for granted by
third-century Aksumite kings who still held on to part of South Arabia. As highly visible
monuments, the inscriptions of Ousanas and zn, like the earlier Monumentum Adulitanum II,
were models on which Klb would later base his own ideology of kingship, one which
emphasized the war against imyar as a war through which he restored Aksums lost Arabian
territories.
In the inscription RIE 186 from Aksum, we find Geez written in the South Arabian
musnad script in a version which recent editors of the text have described as excessivement

55

orne,
101
the letters having flared ends similar to those of the musnad script in mid-fourth-
century South Arabia. In addition, every word in the inscription apart from the conjunction w-,
and including even the relative pronoun za-, is given mimation, a suffixation with the phoneme
/m/ which, while common in Epigraphic South Arabian languages, is absent from Ethiopian
Semitic. The title borne by the king is given in RIE 186 as NG
m
KSM
m
W-Z
m
MR
m
W-Z
m

RYDN
m
W-Z
m
SB
m
W-Z
m
SLN
m
W-Z
m
YM
m
W-Z
m
BG
m
W-Z
m
K
m
,
102
which can be
translated as King of the Aksumites and the imyarites and Raydn and the Sabaeans and
Saln and eym and the Beja and Kush. Here, the Aksumite king is said to hold sway over
not only such African peoples as the eym in the northern Ethiopian Highlands, the Beja of
the northern deserts, and the Kushites of Nubia, but also Saba and imyar, together with the
two kingdoms respective royal palaces, Saln at the Sabaean capital of Mrib and Raydn at
the imyarite capital of afr. Though the identity of the king in whose name the inscription was
erected has been a point of contention for many years, both Hahn
103
and Munro-Hay
104
have
argued that the opening of the text should read: W[SN]
m
L
m
MD
m
BS[Y
m
.]N
m
, Ousanas
Ella Amd, the Man of the en.
105
If zns clan-name aln can thus be rejected as the
clan name of the king who erected RIE 186, the clan name born by zns predecessor
Ousanas provides the only possible candidate. On Ousanas coins we find the phrase BICI
ICENE,
106
obviously a Greek transliteration of the Geez formula bsya plus the kings clan

101
Bernard et al. 1991: 251.
102
Ibid.: 251 (lines 1-4).
103
Hahn 1989: 11.
104
Munro-Hay 1989 (c): 27-8.
105
Bernard et al. 1991: 251 (line 1). Littmann had arrived at a very different interpretation many years ago based on
his reading of the first few letters as WLD
m
L
m
MD
m
(the son of Ella Amd). Since zn was known to be
designated as a son of Ella Amd in his inscriptions, Littmann took the element N
m
as a faulty writing of
LN
m
, the final portion of aln, the name of zns clan, rejecting D. H. Mllers earlier reading of in place
of L (Littmann 1913: 20). Recent re-examinations of the text, however, support Mllers reading (Bernard et al.
1991: 251, 253; Drewes 2002-2007: 132).
106
Munro-Hay and Juel-Jensen 1995: 104.

56

name, Gene.
107
Thus the N
m
of RIE 186 can be restored as GN
m
and the inscription
according dated to the reign of Ousanas.
In its fully vocalized Geez version, attested in inscription RIE 187 from Aksum,
zns title reads zn, Son of Ella Amd, the Man of the aln [Clan], King of the
Aksumites and the imyarites and Raydn and the Sabaeans and Saln and eym and the
Beja and Kush, King of Kings, Son of Marem the Invincible (zn walda lla Amd
bsya aln nga Aksm wa-za-mr wa-za-Raydn wa-za-Saba wa-za-Saln wa-za-
ym wa-za-Bg wa-za-Ks nga nagat walda Marm za--ytmaww[]).
108
This title,
which is obviously based on that of his father Ousanas, appears in all of zns inscriptions
109

with variations in the order of the list of ethnonyms and toponyms and the occasional addition of
a name not found in other versions of the list.
110
In other Geez inscriptions from zns reign
(RIE 185:I, RIE 185 bis:I, and RIE 186), the same title is found, though the inscription is, like
that of Ousanas, written in the musnad script. In the case of RIE 185:I, we find not only the use
of the musnad script to write Geez but also the use of the Sabaic words for king (MLK) and son
(BN), in place of their Geez equivalents (neg and wald respectively). The Aksumite kings of
the fourth century evidently wanted the outside world to know of their claims to South Arabia,
for zns Greek inscriptions (RIE 270 and RIE 270 bis) likewise carry the title
A O o P o o T

107
Though Greek had no letter with which to represent the Geez phoneme //, the sigma would have been regarded
as the closest equivalent, in which case it was used to write the name .
108
Bernard et al. 1991: 255 (lines 1-4).
109
In addition to RIE 187 these include RIE 185 (lines 1-3); RIE 185 bis (lines 1-4); RIE 186 (lines 1-4); RIE 188
(lines 1-5); RIE 189 (lines 1-4); RIE 270 (lines 1-4); RIE 270 bis (lines 1-4); RIE 271 (lines 6-9) (Bernard et al.
1991: 246, 251, 255, 259-60, 263; Bernard 2000: 6, 12, 16).
110
Names attested in some versions of zns titulary but not others include the BT (RIE 185:I, line 1; RIE
185:II, line 2; RIE 185 bis:I, line 2; RIE 185 bis:II, lines 2-3), evidently a generic name for the peoples of the
northern Ethiopian Highlands distinct from the region of Aksum proper, as well as the enigmatic RD (RIE 185
bis:I, lines 2-3; RIE 185 bis:II, line 2), who remain unidentified. On the use of the term BT to refer to a people
rather than a country, see Beeston 1987 (b): 6.

57

Bo o Ko, King of the Aksumites and imyarites and Raydn and the
Sabaeans and Saln and eym and the Beja and Kush.
111
In addition, a fragmentary
Aksumite inscription in Greek from Mero in the northern Sudan (RIE 286), erected to record a
campaign against the Nubian kingdom of Kush, bears part of the same title: King of the
Aksumites and imyarites ( A O).
112
Though the name of the
ruler is missing from the extant inscription, RIE 286 is likely of fourth-century date.
113

The claims that were made by Ousanas and zn to the effect that South Arabia was a
vassal region within the kingdom of Akusm appear, however, to have been nothing more than
political fictions. What we find from South Arabian inscriptions is evidence not of Aksumite rule
but instead an unprecedented expansion of the imyarite state into Najd and southeastern
Arabia, as well of a strengthening of imyarite influence in the Tihma at the expense of the
local Akk confederation. The imyarite kings Tharn Ayfa (c. 319-321), Dhamaral
Ayfa
114
(c. 321-324), and Tharn Yu[ha]nim (c. 324-375) are known from an inscription in
the Wd Abadn in southwestern Yemen (known as Wd Abadn 1) to have led a series of
far-flung military campaigns in the mid-fourth century,
115
the same time at which Ousanas and
zn sat on the throne of Aksum.
116
The fact that imyarite troops had already penetrated as
far north as the environs of Riyadh and the steppe-land of al-Siyy to the northeast of Mecca, and
as far east as the Mahra territory in the eastern aramawt and ufr,
117
testifies to the power
wielded by the state of imyar and is at total odds with the theory that imyar was a vassal of
Aksum during this period.

111
FHN, III, 1998: 1095 (lines 1-4).
112
FHN, III 1998: 1068 (line 1); Bernard 2000: 47.
113
That the ruler responsible for RIE 286 is not to be identified with the king who erected Monumentum Adulitanum
II is clear from the fact that the latter king never records a conflict with the Nubians.
114
Also known as Dhamaral Yuhabir.
115
On the date, see Robin and Gajda 1994: 132-3.
116
On the chronology of this period, see Robin 2005 (a).
117
Robin and Gajda 1994: 117-30.

58

Perhaps most significant of all is the fact that Wd Abadn 1 refers to a imyarite
campaign against the Sahratn,
118
the very region of the Tihma in which the Aksumites had
been particularly active back in the third century. However, while the imyarite forces of
Dhamaral Ayfa engaged the Aksumites erstwhile allies the Akk in battle in the Tihma,
119

no conflict with the Aksumites is recorded.
120
Had Aksum continued to occupy the Tihma into
the fourth century one would surely expect them to have clashed with imyarite troops as
imyar continued to expand, particularly given the strategic importance of the Tihma in
Aksums third-century operations in South Arabianot to mention the fact that the Tihma is
the South Arabian region lying closest to Ethiopia. Likewise, it seems hardly credible that an
ever expanding imyarite state would have allowed a continued foreign presence in a region as
close to the imyarite homeland as the Tihma, particularly at a time when the kings of afr
sent their armies to ever more remote regions in the Arabian Peninsula. Indeed, while many of
the peoples and places mentioned in Wd Abadn 1 are located at a far greater distance from
the imyarite heartland than Aksum, Ethiopia and its inhabitants are conspicuous by their
absence from this inscription. Moreover, the kings of imyar maintained control of the Tihma
even after the fourth century, together with much of its hinterland acquired by Dhamaral
Ayfa, and by the fifth century their sphere of influence along Arabias Red Sea coast extended
as far north as the latitude of Mecca.
121

The only logical conclusion can be that the kings of imyar were not vassals of Aksum.
This argument is further strengthened by the development of imyarite royal titles over time.

118
Ibid.: 114 (line 5), 117, 121.
119
Ibid.: 115 (line 27), 118, 124.
120
It might be argued that in the inscription Wd Abadn 1 the Aksumites were subsumed anonymously within the
broader category of peoples of the Sahratn. This is a weak argument for two reasons. Firstly, South Arabian
inscriptions from the third century carefully distinguish the Aksumites by name from the local population of the
Sahratn. Secondly, had Aksum not only occupied the Tihma but actually ruled imyar at this time, why are no
confrontations with the Aksumites mentioned in connection with other regions of South Arabia?
121
Robin 1996: 681.

59

While kings of imyar from the first to the late third century were content to bear the title King
of Saba and Dh Raydn (MLK SB W-D-RYDN), Shammar Yuharish (c. 287-312) initiated
the use of a longer title, King of Saba and Dh Raydn and aramawt and Yamant (MLK
SB W-D-RYDN W-RMWT W-YMNT), while a longer title still, King of Saba and Dh
Raydn and aramawt and Yamant and their Arabs in the awd and Tihma (MLK SB W-
D-RYDN W-RMWT W-YMNT W-RBHMW WD
m
W-THMT), appears in inscriptions of
Abkarib Asad (c. 400-450), towards the end of that kings reign.
122
This latter title is attested
down to the sixth century and affirms imyarite rule over not only the Yemeni Highlands but
also the Arab tribes of the Tihma (THMT), the south coast of the Arabian Peninsula
(YMNT),
123
and central Arabia (WD
m
)
124
a claim which is amply substantiated by records of
imyarite conquests in central and eastern Arabia.
125
It is noteworthy that, though the sixth-
century Aksumite Klb incorporated these names in his titulature in order to cast himself as a
legitimate ruler of South Arabia with claims to the same territories ruled by the imyarite kings
of the fifth and sixth centuries, Ousanas and zn did not even adopt the more modest title
King of Saba and Dh Raydn and aramawt and Yamant which was current in imyar
during their lifetimes. In fact, by proclaiming leadership over the Sabaeans and the palace of
Saln at Mrib on the one hand, and over the imyarites and the palace of Raydn at afar on
the other, these two Aksumite kings were asserting rule over no more than the northern and
southern regions of the South Arabian heartland respectively.
126
Moreover, the very titles on
which Ousanas and zn based even these modest claims are contrived, for imyar and Saln,

122
Idem. 2005: 133.
123
On the location of Yamant, see Chapter 3.
124
On the location of awd
um
see Zwettler 2000: 239 (n. 30).
125
Robin 1996.
126
Korotayev 1994: 215.

60

though well attested in Aksumite royal titulature, are not mentioned in the titles of any imyarite
kings.
That ties between Aksum and imyar were nevertheless maintained during the fourth
century is indicated by an inscription published by al-Iryn (Ir 28).
127
In it we are told of a group
of noblemen (QWL) lead by one Sharaathat Ashwa Dh-ibb, whom the imyarite king
Karibl Watar Yuhanim (c. 312-316) dispatched as ambassadors to the land of the Ethiopians
and the Aksumites, to the nag (K-HMW TNBLT
m
R BT W-KSM
n
B-BR
NGY
n
).
128
The king of Aksum is not named, though the inscription preserves the names of two
individuals, YQ
m
and ZLNS, whom this ruler sent with Sharaathat back to imyar.
129
If the
chronology proposed by Robin for Karibl Watar Yuhanim is correct,
130
the Aksumite king at
this time would have been Ousanas. That the Ethiopians (BT) are distinguished in this
inscription from the Aksumites (KSM
n
) is curious, as the BT appear as a category apart
from KSM
m
only in RIE 185 (I and II) from zns reign, though it could be that in Sabaic
parlance KSM
n
refers only to those Ethiopians living in the city of Aksum and its environs,
while BT encompassed the peoples of the Ethiopian Highlands under Aksumite rule. Since Ir
28 does not refer to diplomatic relations being established with any African power other than
Aksum, there is no reason to suppose that KSM
n
and BT designated separate polities. On
their return from Ethiopia, the imyarite envoys arrived in safety at the port of al-Mukh

127
Al-Iryn 1963: 147 ff.
128
Ibid.: 147.
129
The vocalization of these names is uncertain. Mller (1978: 163) notes a similarity between YQ
m
and the Old
Testament Aqm while pointing out that such a name would more likely have been transcribed as HYQ
m
in South
Semitic, as it is in Ugaritic. Moreover, argues Mller, this latter name is unlikely to be the origin of the YQ
m
in Ir
28 given the rarity of South Semitic names containing the ah- element (cf. Tairan 1992: 59). As for ZLNS, Mller
(loc. cit.) is undoubtedly correct that this name contains the za- element common in Ethio-Semitic names. He is,
however, unable to explain the LNS component of the name, and states that its identification with a monks name,
Lns, found in a later Geez text, is quite out of the question given that the latter is a corruption of Hilarius. The
onomastic record for the Aksumite and pre-Aksumite periods, at least insofar as it can be culled from inscriptions
and foreign sources, does not provide any convincing analogies for either YQ
m
or ZLNS, and it may be that they
are non-Semitic, perhaps Cushitic, in origin.
130
Robin 2004: 896; idem. 2005: 148, 150.

61

(MW B-WFY
m
MHW
n
) after seven days and nights (SBT YMT
m
B-LLT).
131
We are told in
the inscription that the noblemen of the two confederations of irw and Khawln (BNHN
RW W-HWLN), to which Sharaathat belonged, gave praise to their lord lmuquh for his
(i.e., Sharaathats) return in safety and for the Ethiopian ambassadors, [as a result of which] he
had traveled abroad for a period of seven months (MDW MRHMW LMQH K-TWLHW B-
WFY
m
W-TNBLTN BN F-FQ NDN SBT WRH
m
B-BRN).
132

Since the realities of Aksumite relations with imyar in the fourth century were rather
different from what Ousanas and zn made them out to be, what can be said of the non-
political implications of the inscriptions of these kings? Notwithstanding the use of the musnad
script in inscriptions RIE 185:I, RIE 185 bis:I, and RIE 186, these inscriptions do not constitute
cases of genuine bilingualism, for they are all in Geez, a language which, apart from a few
isolated loanwords that entered Sabaic in the third century,
133
South Arabians would presumably
not have known, least of all in the fourth century. This symbolic importance of the musnad script
is worth a closer look. Though it is a well-established fact that the Ethiopian fdal is a cursive
offshoot of the musnad script,
134
the musnad text of RIE 185:I, for example, cannot be said to
represent a stage before the transition from the musnad script used in pre-Aksumite times to the
Aksumite-period fdal, for the two scripts are used side by side in the same inscription. The
differences between the musnad and fdal cannot be due to chronological disparity in this case.
Rather, the use of musnad was a conscious decision on the part of Ousanas and zn to
emulate Epigraphic South Arabian at a time when an independent Geez script had already
developed. That the two scripts had indeed become two different systems by this point is evident

131
Al-Iryn 1963: 147.
132
Ibid.
133
In fact, only a few of the Geez loanwords in Sabaic inscriptions appear in zns inscriptions.
134
Schneider 1983.

62

from the fact that the fdal letters in zns inscriptions had taken on a more cursive form, and
in cases a different orientation, from their musnad prototypes, in addition to which some of the
strokes used in the musnad letters are omitted in their fdal counterparts. Finally, the musnad text
reads from right to left, in accordance with Epigraphic South Arabian tradition, while the Geez
text (RIE 185:II) reads in the opposite direction.
The mimation used throughout these three musnad texts (RIE 270 bis; RIE 185 bis:I; and
RIE 185 bis:II), ostensibly to imitate Sabaic, is indiscrimately applied to proper names, nouns,
pronouns, and even verbs with complete disregard for its proper function in Sabaic grammar.
135

The scribes who composed the inscriptions of Ousanas and zn seem to have been aware of
the use of mimation in Sabaic, where it occurs commonly in proper names, including toponyms
and ethnonyms, but were evidently unaware that only some names take mimation in Epigraphic
South Arabian. The fact that mimation was added in several of these inscriptions to names like
Saba and Raydn, which in Epigraphic South Arabian are always written without mimation,
136

illustrates this point. One pattern is noteworthy, though. Mimation is attested only in texts
written in the musnad script or in unvocalized Geez but is absent from zns fully vocalized
inscriptions (RIE 187; RIE 188; and RIE 189).
137
It would thus appear that the use of mimation
in monumental inscriptions served no practical purposethe inconsistency in its use alone is
enough to prove thisand can only be explained as an attempt to imitate Epigraphic South
Arabian. Since mimation did not survive the transition to the fully vocalized fdal script and, so
far is we know, is limited to inscriptions from the reign of Ousanas and zn, it would appear

135
For an analysis of mimation in fourth-century Aksumite inscriptions, with a list of illustrative examples, see Sima
2003/2004: 276-7.
136
See, for example, B-HMW SB W-MYR
m
W-RBT
n
W-RMT (their tribes Saba, imyar, al-Raba,
and aramawt) (Ja 510/6), in which imyar takes mimation while Saba does not (Robin 1989: 106).
137
Bernard et al. 1991: 255-67.

63

to represent an experimental stage in Aksumite epigraphic tradition which was easily dispensed
with once a viable system was found in the form of a Geez syllabary.

1.6. Conclusion
Though known to historians primarily as the period in which Christianity was adopted as
the state religion of Aksum, the fourth century is also important as a period during which the
memory of Aksumite rule in South Arabia became established as an integral part of royal
ideology. The best evidence for this is the titulature of such fourth-century kings as Ousanas and
zn, whose claims to Saba and imyar indicate the continued impact which memory of
Aksums third-century ventures in Arabia had on the Aksumites self-image vis--vis their Red
Sea neighbors. Aksums intervention in South Arabia lasted some seventy years, from roughly
200 to 270, and is characterized by a certain amount of recklessness. Whenever the Aksumites
established cordial relations with local powers, whether Sabaean or imyarite, they began to
overstep their bounds by seeking to extend their power ever further into the interiora policy
which in the end cost them their friendships with both Saba and imyar. The Aksumites were at
their most effective in the Tihma, where they appear to have settled in some numbers during the
course of the third century.
What about the broader geo-political significance of these developments? Having
reviewed the epigraphic data in both Sabaic and Greek for Aksumite intervention in Arabia
during the third century, we find that Rome is conspicuously absent from the extant corpus. By
the same token, the third-century wars between Aksum and the South Arabian kingdoms of
Saba and imyar went unnoticed by Graeco-Roman authors. To be sure, Aksum continued to
trade with Rome throughout this period, though one cannot on this basis alone view Aksumite
activities in the Red Sea region solely in the context of Roman maritime trade with the east.

64

Rather, Monumentum Adulitanum II and the inscriptions from South Arabia indicate that the
conflict between Aksum and South Arabia was nothing more than a conflict between two centers
of power in the Red Sea. While Roman navigation in the Red Sea called for military aid in some
cases, there is no reason to assume that such precautions called for significant political
involvement in the region during the third century. A bilingual Greek-Latin inscription from the
Farasn Islands, dedicated to the emperor Antonius Pius around 143-144 by a detachment of the
Traiana Fortis legion and its auxiliaries,
138
indicates that Rome maintained a permanent military
presence in the southern Red Sea at least as late as the mid-second century. Though the
establishment of such an outpost may have been the long-term result of a greater assertion of
Roman authority in the Near East beginning in the reign of Trajan (98-117),
139
who annexed
Nabataea and led his troops as far as the northern shore of the Arabian Gulf in the course of his
Parthian campaign,
140
the need for a military outpost in the southern Red Sea may have arisen
from the more mundane matter of curbing piracy.
141
The function of such an outpost during the
following century, when Aksum was waging war in South Arabia, is unknown, and it cannot be
proven that the Romans still occupied the Farasn archipelago at that time.
Also unknown is how effectively the Aksumites were able to maintain control of the
more northerly regions of their Arabian empire, the annexation of which is recorded in
Monumentum Adulitanum II, but it is unlikely to have outlasted the period of Aksums
intervention in South Arabia. Though one is tempted to dismiss Aksums Arabian empire as a

138
On this date, see Philips et al. 2004: 148.
139
That this was indeed a long-term process as far as the Traiana Fortis legion is concerned is clear from the fact
that, though this legion was founded as early as the turn of the second century by Trajan, it was not until the year
128 that it was installed in Egypt, the most obvious region from which any Roman military detachment in the Red
Sea would have been sent (Phillips et al. 2004: 148-9).
140
On Trajans eastern policy, see Bowersock 1983: 79-89; Sidebotham 1986: 146-55; Millar 1993: 90-9; Sartre
2005: 145-6.
141
Phillips et al. 2004: 172-3. That Trajan re-opened the old canal linking the Nile with the Red Sea indicates that
this king took an interest in Red Sea affairs (Young 2001: 75-8).

65

failed experiment, it laid the foundations for a later Red Sea manifest destiny on the part of
Aksum which, when wedded to Christianity, guided King Klb (c. 510-540) in his own, far
more substantial, invasions of South Arabia in the early decades of the sixth century. A robust,
visionary ruler, the likes of which Aksum had never before seen, Klb took the step of
remodeling imyar as a Christian country in the image of Ethiopia. But as we will see the
recollection of Aksums pre-Christian exploits in Arabia was never far from his mind. Our study
of the historical consciousness and religious of sixth-century Aksum involves a leap of a century
and a half from zn to Klb. The omission of the intervening period is unavoidable in that,
following the mid-fourth century, there is no written documentation of contact between the two
sides of the Red Sea until Klbs reign. Though Aksumite kings continued to mint coins, some
of which have in fact come to light in Yemen, no royal inscriptions dating to the period between
the reigns of zn and Klb are known, while South Arabian inscriptions from this period are
silent on Ethiopia. Only with Klbs reign does it become possible to resume the story of
Aksumite relations with South Arabia, a fact which may owe much to Klbs vision as a ruler
who sought to restore Aksumite power after what may have been a period of decline.
66

Chapter 2.
CHRONOLOGY OF THE AKSUMITE CONFLICT WITH IMYAR

2.1. Introduction
The history of the conflict between Aksum and imyar in the first half of the sixth
century is well documented in Greek and Syriac sources from that century. This history, and that
of the persecution of South Arabias Christians by Ysuf, is important not only in its own right
as a turning point in relations between the two sides of the Red Sea in antiquity, but also as an
essential anchor-point on which the chronology of the entire imyarite Era is based. This term
is used by scholars to designate the predominant system of dating
1
employed in the imyarites
Sabaic-language inscriptions
2
between the third and sixth centuries, but which appears to have
taken as its starting point some date in the late second century BCE.
3
Thus by the sixth century
CE, the imyarite Era had entered its seventh century. The era itself is referred to in inscriptions
as that of Mab b. Aba,
4
an individual about whom nothing is known apart from the
implication that he had some special significance for the imyaritesspecial enough, that is, for

1
No standardized dating system existed in South Arabia before the Common Era, a fact which leads Robin (1998:
138) to hypothesize that the use of a calendar for dating events was a product of Hellenistic influence. In addition to
the imyarites, the Ma and Radmn had calendars of their own by which they dated events. On these calendars,
see Robin (ibid.)
2
Though they had their own language, the imyarites appear to have written as a rule in Sabaic (Robin 2001: 519
(n. 39)), a testament perhaps to that languages special status as a classical language, if not a lingua franca.
Regarding imyarite inscriptions in Sabaic, Robin (ibid.: 523) notes that un examen mme superficiel rvle des
particularits dans la lexique, la morphologie et la syntaxe, exceptionnelles avant le IV
e
s., de plus en plus
nombreuses ensuite. In one exceptional case we have a poem of 27 rhymed verses, dating from the end of the first
century CE and found at Qniya in Yemen, which is written in an unknown Semitic language thought to be
imyaritic (ibid.: 516-21).
3
Beaucamp et al. 1999-2000: 17.
4
In its most complete form a date in the imyarite Era gives first the name of the month (WRH), then the year in
cardinal numbers followed by the words of the year[s] of Mab b. Aba (BN HRF MB BN B),
though Mab b. Aba is not mentioned by name after 360 CE and from that time on nothing more than the year
in cardinal numbers is given (Robin 1998: 128). The names of days of the week are never given in inscriptions at
any point in South Arabian history.
67

a calendar to be named after him.

5
This system of dating may in fact have been contrived at a
much later date to confer on imyar, a relative newcomer on the South Arabian political scene, a
legitimacy borne of an ancient past. The ideological need for such a past may have been all the
more acutely felt given that the imyarites do not make it into the historical record until the turn
of the Common Era, while the earliest inscription bearing a imyarite-Era date is no older than
the 253, by which time imyar had become a major South Arabian power.
6
But even if the
imyarite Era is a retrojected innovation of the third century, the consistency with which it was
used by the imyarites to date events makes it a reliable system of absolute dating on which to
base the chronology of South Arabian history down to the mid-sixth century, when it fell out of
use.
Taking the view that the history of Aksumite relations with imyar in the sixth century
can be interpreted as a long-term policy of Aksum aimed at influencing the politics of South
Arabia to its advantage by supporting Christian imyarite regimes, the basic sequence of events
born of this effort can be seen as a cycle. The Christians of South Arabia are subjected to
persecution, after which they are liberated by an Aksumite invasion which places a local
Christian potentate in power. Those elements within the imyarite population who were not so
well disposed to being ruled by a Christian appointed by a foreign power then rise up against the
Christians, and the cycle of events comes full circle with another Aksumite invasion and the
appointment of another imyarite Christian ruler by the victorious Ethiopians. Based on
epigraphic and literary sources this cycle can be said to begin with a wave of anti-Christian
violence towards the end of the second decade of the sixth century, which resulted in an

5
Robin (ibid.: 126-7) cautiously suggests that Mab b. Aba was a imyarite prince who established imyars
independence from the kingdom of Qatabn, while admitting that he is never mentioned by name until 253 CE.
6
Ibid.; De Maigret 2009: 234, 236.
68

Aksumite invasion of imyar in 518 during the reign of Klb and the appointment of a
Christian imyarite named Madkarib Yafur (c. 518-523) shortly thereafter. Sometime around
522, however, a Jewish imyarite named Ysuf Asar Yathar seized power and implemented
religious conformity as the basis of political allegiance. Since such conformity excluded non-
Jews, Ysuf soon turned against the Christians of imyar, to whom he gave the choice of death
or converting to Judaism. Help was a bit slower in coming this second time around due to the
increased scale of the punitive campaign which Aksum was planning, but in the spring of 525 the
Ethiopians returned with Klb leading them in person. Ysuf met his death during the conflict,
and the Aksumites put another Christian imyarite on the throne, this time a certain Sumyafa
Ashwa (c. 525-c. 540?).

2.2. King Ysuf of imyar and the Aksumite Campaign of 525
Because the clash between Jews and Christians in sixth-century South Arabia attracted a
great deal of attention in foreign circles, it has long been accepted that the dates given in foreign
sources for the anti-Christian campaign led by the Jewish imyarite king Ysuf Asar Yathar
and the subsequent Ethiopian invasion by King Klb of Aksum correspond with the imyarite-
Era dates assigned to the same events in imyarite inscriptions. In this way, nineteenth-century
scholars using the anonymous Greek Martyrium Arethae as their base text were able to identify
the date of 525 given in that work
7
for the death of Ysuf with Dh-illat
an
(February) 640 of
the imyarite Era, given in CIH 621, a imyarite inscription from in al-Ghurb on the south

7
The Martyrium dates events according to the Seleucid Era, which began 312 BCE. The persecutions of the
Christians of Najrn are said in the Martyrium to have begun in the autumn of 523 (i.e. 835 of the Seleucid Era),
while Klbs preparations for the invasion of imyar took place in the winter of the third indiction (i.e. the winter
of 524-5), the invasion itself being launched shortly after the Pentacost, which in 525 would have fallen on May 18,
525 (Gajda 2009: 259-60; Martyrium 29, 30).
69

coast of Yemen which speaks of the arrival of an Ethiopian military expedition and the death of
an unnamed imyarite king, whom these scholars were quick to identify with Ysuf.
8
On the
basis of this identification, it was calculated that the imyarite Era had commenced in 115 BCE,
thus providing a firm starting-point based upon which all inscriptions dated according to the
imyarite Era could be assigned a precise date in the Common Era.
The trouble is that, whereas the Martyrium Arethae gives 835 of the Seleucid Era, i.e.
523 CE, as the date for the beginning of the persecution of the Christians of Najrn by Ysuf, the
Syriac writer Jacob of Serg, who died in 521, already refers to a wave of persecutions in South
Arabia during his time in his letter to the imyarite Christians.
9
The problem posed by the
Seleucid-Era date in the Martyrium is not one which can be explained away as an error on the
part of the author, for he carefully cross-references the date of 835 with the fifth year of the nine-
year reign of Justin I (518-527),
10
which would be 523 CE. In addition, the same date of 523 for
Ysufs attack on the Najrn Christians is supported by a contemporary author, the bishop
Simeon of Bt Arsham whose diplomatic visit on behalf of Rome to the court of the Lakhmid
dynasty of in southern Mesopotamia brought him into contact with informants who had been to
imyar, and whose letter to an unnamed individual (said in variant versions of the letter to have
been Simeon of Gabbla in the province of Antioch)
11
regarding the Christian martyrs of Najrn
carries the date of 835 of the Seleucid Era, i.e. 523.
12
Likewise, even when later authors like
Michael the Syrian mistakenly date the beginning of the persecution to the fourth year of Justin,

8
For a list of these early studies of imyarite chronology, see Beaucamp et al. 1999-2000: 17-18 (n. 6).
9
Beaucamp et al. 1999-2000: 25-6. For the text of Jacobs letter, see Olinder 1952: 87-102. On Jacob and his works,
see Wright 1894: 67-72; Ignatius Aphram I Barsoum 2003: 255-61.
10
Martyrium Arethae 1.1-2 (2007: 184).
11
Beaucamp et al. 1999-2000: 53.
12
Ibid.: 22.
70

they still adhere to the date of 835 of the Seleucid Era.

13
The only conclusion one can draw is
that the religious persecution in imyar to which Jacob of Serg refers must have been a
separate incident from the one which the Martyrium and Simeon of Bt Arsham date to the year
523.
An anonymous Syriac text, the Book of the imyarites,
14
resolves this problem for us in
its table of contents, where we read of an earlier wave of persecutions of South Arabias
Christians, in response to which the king of Aksum sent a military expedition to imyar. This
expedition is referred to in the books table of contents as the first of two Aksumite invasions.
Unfortunately the relevant chapter does not survive in the extant text, and no date can be
assigned to this first Aksumite expedition against imyar based on the Book of the imyarites.
We know from Simeon of Bt Arshams letter that the Aksumites had appointed a Christian
imyarite king to rule over South Arabia, but that he had died right as the Jewish imyarite
Ysuf came to power. From Cosmas Indicopleustes Christian Topography we know of an
Aksumite military expedition launched by Klb at some point prior to 525, most probably
518.
15
Leaving aside for the moment the evidence supporting a date of 518 for this earlier
campaign, it suffices to say that such a campaign would have provided the most obvious
opportunity for such an unprecedented political intervention in imyar on the part of Aksum,
particularly when Aksumite invasions in the third century are known from South Arabian
inscriptions to have brought local rulers to power. Thus we can confidently assume that the
establishment of the Christian ruler in power occurred as a result of the expedition of 518. The
persecution of Christians in 523 which Simeon assigns to the period after the death of the

13
Ibid.: 44.
14
Book of the imyarites 1924.
15
On this date, see below, 2.3.
71

Christian imyarite king would thus represent not the beginning of an anti-Christian campaign
in South Arabia but a resumption of it.
But if the evidence for an earlier Aksumite invasion of imyar in 518 does not affect the
argument for 115 BCE as the beginning of the imyarite Era, the case for 115 BCE is
undermined by three inscriptions found in 1951 to the north of Najrn by the Belgian mission to
Saudi Arabia led by the epigrapher Gonzague Ryckmans. Aided by the British traveler Harry St.
John Philby, through whose friendship with King Ibn Sad the team was granted permission to
explore the area between Jidda, Najrn, and Riyadh over a period of three months for evidence of
ancient South Arabian influence,
16
the Belgians discovered two imyarite inscriptions in Sabaic
at the site of Bir im (Ry 507 and Ja 1028) and another at Jabal Kawkab (Ry 508). Of these
Ryckmans published Ry 507 and Ry 508,
17
while Ja 1028 was published fifteen years later by
Albert Jamme.
18
All three of the inscriptions date to 633 of the imyarite Era, but describe the
same massacre of Ethiopians at afr, the destruction of churches, and the launching of an
invasion against Najrn which the Martyrium Arethae dates to 523. This would imply that the
imyarite Era began in 110 BCE. What has ensued for the better part of a half century is a fierce
debate among scholars as to which year115 or 110 BCEis the correct date for the
commencement of the imyarite Era. The difference of only five years between the two dates is
not at all trivial for a field as insistent on precision as chronology. This is particularly true given
that only a few years separate the two Aksumite invasions of imyar, making all the more acute
the need to determine which of the two are referred to in which sources.

16
De Maigret 2009: 106-10.
17
Ryckmans 1953: 285-7, 296-7.
18
Jamme 1966: 39.
72

In what is the most thorough assessment of the available literary and epigraphic data,
Beaucamp, Briquel-Chatonnet, and Robin have presented a very persuasive thesiswhich is
accepted in the present studythat 110 BCE was the starting-point for the imyarite Era.
19

While conceding that the date is probably a contrived, retrojected starting-point, they argue that,
since Dh-Thbit
an
(corresponding with April) was the first month of the imyarite calendar,
20

the beginning of the imyarite Era can be assigned even more precisely to April of 110 BCE.
21

Inscriptions from the period of Ethiopian rule in South Arabia support this latter date, most
notably the Dam Inscription of Abreh (CIH 541), which records the Ethiopian kings reception
of foreign envoys sent by the Ghassnids, Lakhmids, Romans, and Persians between Dh-
urb
an
(October) in 657 of the imyarite Era and Dh-Diw
an
(January) in 658. By adopting
110 BCE as the inception of the imyarite Era the reception of these embassies can be assigned
to the period between October 547 and January 549, which corresponds perfectly with the period
after the end of hostilities between the Roman and Ssnid Empires in 546. If it is easy to see
Abreh establishing stable diplomatic relations with these hitherto antagonistic powers during
such a period, adopting 115 BCE as the inception of the imyarite Era would force us to date his
reception of the foreign envoys between October 542 and January 544, when war was still raging
between the Romans and Ssnids
22
a war, it should be noted, which also involved their
respective Arab clients, the Ghassnids and Lakhmids.
Before moving on to the dating of Klbs first imyarite campaign, we must deal with
one remaining loose end, to wit the reference in the inscription CIH 621 from in al-Ghurb to
the death of a imyarite king at the hands of the Ethiopians. The authors of this inscription were

19
Beaucamp et al. 1999-2000.
20
For a list of the months of the imyarite calendar with their western equivalents, see ibid.: 32-3.
21
Ibid.: 69.
22
Ibid.: 71-2.
73

one Sumyafa Ashwa of the lineage of Kal

an
and his sons Shurabil Yakmul and
Madkarib Yafur, who were allies with a host of tribes drawn primarily from the aamawt,
with some from the Yemeni island of Soqotra and from the region of ufr in western Oman. As
noted at the beginning of this section, this inscription dates to February in Year 640 of the
imyarite Era, and since the Martyrium Arethae dates the death of King Ysuf of imyar to
525, it would indeed be tempting to identify the unnamed king in CIH 621 with Ysuf. If so,
then one could argue that 115 BCE marks the beginning of the imyarite Era based on this
apparent correspondence between the date of 525 CE given in the Martyrium and 640 of the
imyarite Era given in CIH 621. If, on the other hand, one takes 110 BCE as the starting point,
this would force us to concede that Ysuf died in February 531 on the basis of CIH 621. While
giving Ysuf a much longer reign than hitherto supposed is not in itself a problem, such a high
date for his death as 531 is obviously incompatible with the date of 525 given in the Martyrium.
Also problematic is the identity of the Sumyafa Ashwa who authored this inscription.
One theory holds that this individual is none other than the imyarite of that name to whom
Procopius refers, under the Grecianized name Esimiphaios, as the Christian imyarite brought to
power by Klb after the latters defeat and killing of Ysuf.
23
Against this hypothesis, however,
several arguments can be made. Firstly, Sumyafa Ashwa is not an uncommon name in sixth-
century imyar, and hence need not in all cases refer to the ruler of that name,
24
all the more so
in that the Sumyafa Ashwa who authored CIH 621 bears no royal title. Many South Arabian
names were borne by king and commoner alike, and in this regard it is worthy of note that a man
named Madkarib Yafur should also appear in CIH 621, when this name was also borne by the

23
Beeston 1954: 40.
24
Beaucamp et al. 1999-2000: 37.
74

Aksumites previous appointee on the throne of imyar. Secondly, CIH 621 clearly states that it
was the Ethiopians who killed the anonymous imyarite king, though neither Procopius nor
Simeon of Bt Arsham claim that the ruler Sumyafa Ashwa had a role in killing any ruler.
Thirdly, none of the sources say anything about Ysufs reign overlapping with that of King
Sumyafa Ashwa, as Beestons reading of CIH 621 would imply. The Sumyafa Ashwa of
this inscription must therefore have been a imyarite official or nobleman, whose own religious
affiliation is nowhere stated, and who merely happened to have the same name as the Christian
imyarite whom the Aksumites established as king over South Arabia.
25

Could King Sumyafa Ashwa, then, have alternatively been the anonymous ruler
whose death at the hands of the Ethiopians is mentioned in CIH 621? If so, we would have to
posit the scenario that he was appointed by the Aksumites as king of imyar only to be later
killed by them for some unstated misdemeanor. This, too, is quite impossible, as King
Sumyafa Ashwa appears to have still been alive after February 531, when CIH 621 was
carved, because Roman sources tell us that Justinian sent an embassy to Esimiphaios at some
point between April and September of 531.
26
If, however, we eliminate the Christian king
Sumyafa Ashwa as the ruler killed by the Ethiopians, we are left with no possible candidate
apart from Ysuf, as there is no evidence in either literary or epigraphic sources of another king
of imyar who was put to death in the course of an Aksumite invasion. The cause of the problem
has nothing to do with the date of February 531 itself but rather its interpretation. Scholars have
long taken this as the date for all of the events alluded to in the inscription, when it fact the date
refers only to the time at which repairs to the fortress of in al-Ghurb were completed, at some

25
Ibid.: 37, 63.
26
Ibid.: 63.
75

point following the establishment of a garrison there in the aftermath of the death of Ysuf. That
several years elapsed between the death of Ysuf and the carving of CIH 621 is not a problem
since the former event was a pivotal one in South Arabian history and would have been a natural
point of reference. As we will see in Chapter 6, the establishment of fortifications for the
maintenance of order in South Arabia is mentioned in an inscription from the reign of the
Christian imyarite king Sumyafa Ashwa (Istanbul 7608 bis+Wellcome A 103664), a project
in which the kings namesake would thus have been in part responsible. With this, the final
argument which one might make in favor of establishing 115 BCE as the beginning of the
imyarite Era can be safely discarded, leaving us with the date of 110 BCE. It is on the basis of
this date that the chronology of the events dealt with in this study rests. Having dealt with this
thorny issue we will now examine the evidence for the dating of Klbs first invasion of
imyar, an event which will be assigned to 518 on the basis of the Christian Topography of
Cosmas Indicopleustes.

2.3. A Nestorian Christian at King Klbs Court: The Date of the First Aksumite
Campaign (518)
We have seen that the Book of the imyarites refers to an Aksumite invasion of South
Arabia before that of 523, one which was presumably launched in response to the persecution of
the countrys Christians described by Jacob of Serg. With this first invasion we encounter a
problem of a different sort in that this event went unrecorded in South Arabian inscriptions and
thus cannot be dated in reference to the imyarite Era. Our sole authority for the dating of this
earlier campaign of Klb is a shadowy Nestorian Christian merchant known commonly as
76

Cosmas Indicopleustes.
27
The sixth-century Christian Topography attributed to this man has long
been regarded by scholars as an important source on Aksumite history. But despite the attention
given to this text, its author remains elusive. His occupation as a merchant is reflected in the
epithet Indicopleustes, meaning literally the one who sailed to India. Though doubts have
been raised as to whether Cosmas ever visited India proper,
28
the epithet bestowed on him is a
reflection of the broader sense in which India was used in late antiquity, as a geographical term
not only for South Asia but Ethiopia and even South Arabia as well.
29
Nevertheless, while the
reference to an o on a sixth-century ostracon from the Roman fort at Ab Shaar,
near Egypts Red Sea coast,
30
attests to the use of this epithet in the sixth century, there is no
hard evidence that the author of the Christian Topography was known as Cosmas Indicopleustes
in his own lifetime.
31
All the same, the mercantile activities of Cosmasas we shall call him for
lack of any better alternativeare clear from the interest he shows in the gold trade between

27
That Cosmas was a Nestorian is clear from the Christological references contained in the Christian Topography
(Wolska-Conus 1962: 105-11), as well as his cosmological ideas, which are drawn from Nestorian tradition, in
particular the teachings of Mr Aba (the catholicus of Persia from 542 to 552) and Thomas of Edessa (ibid.: 38-40;
63-85; cf. Parker 2008: 237). Cosmas is likely to have encountered such teachings by attending the lectures on
theology and cosmology which Patricius (i.e., Mr Aba) gave in Alexandria (Anastos 1946: 76). From the Chronicle
of Seert we know that Mr Aba and Thomas of Edessa visited Alexandria and jointly taught a course there on the
work of Theodore of Mopsuestia (c. 350-428) (ibid.: 77), regarded by modern scholars as the true codifier of what
would come to be known as Nestorian doctrine (Brock 1996; cf. Wolska-Conus 1968: I: 39).
28
Wolska-Conus 1962: 4-9; idem. 1968: 17.
29
Mayerson 1993.
30
Nappo 2007: 238. It would be pushing speculation too far to identify this particular traveler with the famous
Cosmas, particularly since Egypts Red Sea coast was the typical place from which merchants from the
Mediterranean world embarked for the Indian Ocean, in which case there must have been many candidates for the
epithet o. The sizeable quantity of pottery from Roman Egypt at Qni, South Arabias main port for
the India trade in late antiquity (Ballet 1998: 47-50), gives some indication of the scale of Roman Egypts maritime
trade.
31
In his Christian Topography he describes himself only as a Christian, without giving his name, and it is not
until as late as the eleventh century that Cosmas Indicopleustes is first attested in manuscripts of the text as a
name of the author (Wolska-Conus 1968: I: 15-16). In fact, the seventh-century Armenian Geography attributed to
Ananias of irak cites as a source the Christian Topography of one Constantine of Antioch, whom Wolska-Conus
regards as the author of the text attributed to Cosmas Indicopleustes (ibid.: 15 (n. 3)).
77

Aksum and the country of Sasu, thought to be located in western Ethiopia.

32
While in Ethiopia,
he also met with Greek-speaking merchants who hailed from Soqotra,
33
an island with long-
standing ties to India. His Christian Topography, which seeks to refute the claim by pagan
scientists that the earth was round and prove that the earth was instead flat and shaped like the
Tabernacle of Moses described in the book of Exodus,
34
is culled from information which he
collected in the course of his travels in the Red Sea region, and survives in three copies, one of
ninth-century date and the other two dating to the eleventh century.
35

Cosmas efforts to substantiate his geographical theory led him to study such primary
textsincluding inscriptionsas gave evidence of the extent of the world as known to the
ancients. The merchant did, however, have something of an interest in ancient inscriptions as
curiosities in their own right, as is suggested by his reference to some ancient graffiti found in
the Sinai, which he associates with the Exodus of the Israelites.
36
The real value of Cosmas
Christian Topography, however, lies not in his theories on the shape of the earth but in the
geographical and ethnographical details he provides as tangents to his main thesis.
37
Moreover, it
was in his capacity as a scribe trained in Greek that Cosmas was called upon to copy two Greek
inscriptions at the Aksumite port of Adulis, one of them an inscription of Ptolemy III of Egypt
(246-222 BCE), recording that kings campaigns in western Asia and known to scholars as
Monumentum Adulitanum I, the other the famous third-century CE Aksumite inscription treated

32
Chr. Top. 2.51-2. The region of Sasu to which the governor of Agaw is said to have sent trading expeditions every
other years was probably located either in the Wambarya area to the southwest of Gojjam, or in the Ban Shangl
region in western Ethiopia, in both of which there are large gold deposits (Pankhurst 1997: 29-30).
33
Chr. Top. 3.65.6-13.
34
Exodus 25:9-22.
35
Parker 2008: 135.
36
These graffiti are believed to have actually been the Nabataean graffiti found in Sinai in the Wd Mukattab and
the Jabal al-Mukattab (Bengtson 1955: 151).
37
Ibid.
78

in the previous chapter, Monumentum Adulitanum II (RIE 277).

38
As we have seen, the latter
inscription records a series of military campaigns against various peoples in the Horn of Africa
and across the Red Sea along the western coast of Arabia. Writing of his visit to Adulis in Book
II of the Christian Topography, Cosmas says:
When I was in those regions some twenty-five years ago, at the beginning of the
reign of the Roman Emperor Justin, Ellatzbaas, at that time king of the Axumites,
who was about to go to war against the Homerites beyond [the Red Sea], wrote to
the governor of Adulis to copy the inscriptions on the Chair of Ptolemy and on the
tablet, and to send them to him. Then the governor, one Asbs, having summoned
me and another merchant called Mnaswho later became a monk at Raithou,
39

and who recently passed awayordered us to go and copy the inscriptions. One
of the copies we gave to the governor, keeping for ourselves a duplicate which I
now insert in this book as a contribution to our knowledge of these countries, their
inhabitants, and their distances.
40

( o o o o o o o
o o Ioo o P
A E o

38
Cosmas seems to have confused the two texts. In one place (Top. Chr. 2.54.6-18) he states that the Ptolemaic
inscription was carved on a o (usually translated as throne) of white marble, resting on four columns set on a
square base. Medieval recensions of the Christian Topography contain illustrations of this throne, which may well
reflect illustrations in the original text. For a reproduction of one of these, see Wolska-Connus 1968: I: 367. It is
clear from Cosmas references to illustrations that his original text contained images, and given the revival of
Byzantine interest in Classical art during the tenth century, the illustrations in the medieval texts of the Christian
Topography could easily be based on those in the original sixth-century manuscript (Parker 2008: 137). Behind this
throne, according to Cosmas, there stood a stele (Top. Chr. 2.55). Both the throne and the stele were entirely
covered in Greek characters (o ) (ibid.: 2.55.8-9; tr. Wolska-Connus 1968: I:
366). Later, however, Cosmas claims that the Ptolemaic inscription was carved on the stele (Top. Chr. 2.58-9), and
gives the text of Monumentum Adulitanum II as that of the throne (ibid.: 2.60). Since the erection of symbolic
thrones is known from later inscriptions dating to the reign of zn (RIE 188:24; RIE 189:39 (Bernard et al. 1991:
260, 264)) to have been an Aksumite custom, this latter identification of Monumentum Adulitanum II with the throne
seems correct. If, however, it is true that Cosmas copied the Ptolemaic and Aksumite inscriptions at Adulis twenty-
five years before incorporating their respective texts in his Christian Topography, it is not difficult to see how he
forgot or confused the details of the towns antiquities. The several stone thrones still standing at Aksum (Phillipson
1997: 123-54) give us a sense of what Monumentum Adulitanum II may have originally looked like. Of interest is
Cosmas use of the word o, whereas o is the more common word for throne. In Greek, o can refer
not only to a throne, a seat, or a couch, but also a litter, a chariot-board on which two people can stand, and even a
chariot itself. (I owe this point to G. W. Bowersock.) It could be that the throne on which Monumentum
Adulitanum II was placed was an emblem of the Aksumite kings power that was carried by the Aksumite army on
campaigns, and was set down only when it came time to erect an inscription commemorating the campaign.
39
Known to the Arabs as Rya, Raithou was located on the southwestern coast of the Sinai about 250 km south of
Qulzum, with which it made up a single district (Mouton 2000: 40). Though harassed by nomadic raiders in the fifth
century, the monastic community at Raithou appears to have recovered in the sixth century, at which time Justinian I
rebuilt the monks living quarters (MacCoull and evenko 1991).
40
Chr. Top. 2.56 (translated from the French translation of Wolska-Conus 1968: 368).
79

o O o o Ao
o o o .
K A o
M o o Po o oo o
.
o o
oo
.)
The Ellatzbaas to whom Cosmas refers is none other than the Aksumite king Ella Abe
(literally, He who has brought the dawn),
41
who also bore the Biblical name Klb, by which he
is known in medieval Ethiopian tradition.
42
That Ella Abe and Klb are indeed one and the
same is confirmed by the kings inscription in unvocalized Geez from Aksum (RIE 191), in
which he is referred to as Klb Ella Abe son of Tezen.
43
Nowhere does Cosmas state that
Klb led his army against imyar in person, and we know from both the Syriac Book of the
imyarites and Klbs own inscription from Aksum that the invasion was led by one ayyn,
of whom more will be said in the next chapter.
Regarding chronology, the two key data from the passage quoted above are the twenty-
five years which Cosmas, at the time when he was writing, says had elapsed since his visit to
Ethiopia, and the reference to this visit having taken place at the beginning of Justins reign
(518-527). Though the beginning of Justins reign is a bit imprecise as a chronological anchor-
point, such a period can be safely assumed to refer to the first few months in which Justin ruled
as emperor. Since Justin came to the throne immediately upon the death of Anastasius I on 10

41
The relative pronoun ella is grammatically plural, here understood to be the royal plural. The same phenomenon
is also attested under Abreh, of whom Sima (2002: 129) writes Bekanntlich spricht Abraha in seiner
Damminschrift CIH 541 von sich selbst in der 3. Pers. Pl.; in der Sabistik wird dieses Phnomen allgemein als
Majesttsplural gewertet.
42
Memory of the name Klb is also preserved by Nashwn b. Sad al-imyar (d. 1178?), though only as the name
of a general of the Ethiopian king of the time, not of the king himself (Robin 2005 (b): 7), while all other Muslim
writers refer to Klb anonymously. The Arabic translation of the Martyrium Arethae, this text follows its Greek
prototype by calling the king Alasbs () after the Greek E.
43
Schneider 1974: 771 (lines 7-8), 772-3.
80

July 518, the Aksumite invasion of imyar would therefore have occurred towards the end of
that year. Thus, if Cosmas was writing about twenty-five years later, as he claims in the passage
cited above, this would give us a date of 543 for at least this portion of his Christian
Topography. However, a problem arises in that, while still in the process of writing Book VI of
his treatise, Cosmas notes two eclipses,
44
which have been identified with those of February 6
and August 17 in the year 547. Subtracting twenty-five years from that date would then give us a
date of 522 for Cosmas visit to Ethiopia,
45
which in turn means that the Aksumite invasion
mentioned by Cosmas must have also taken place in 522. Which date, then, is the correct one:
518 or 522?
In addition to the obvious objection that 522 would have been more towards the middle
of Justins reign than at its beginning, two arguments can be made in favor of 518 as the date of
Cosmas visit to Adulis, and thus Klbs first invasion of imyar. The first of these concerns
the text of the Christian Topography itself. If the sighting of eclipses provides irrefutable
evidence as to when Cosmas was writing Book VI, Cosmas statement in Book II that he visited
Ethiopia twenty-five years earlier is a bit ambiguous. Apart from the possibility that Cosmas was
simply off in his estimation of the number of years which had elapsed since his journey, he may
well have written his Christian Topography over a period of several years. If so, then Book II, in
which Cosmas gives an account of his visit to Adulis, may well have been written in 543
(twenty-five years after his visit to Ethiopia), while Book VI, in which he records the two lunar
eclipses, was written in 547. Thus one could still argue that Klbs war against the Homerites
can be dated to 518.

44
Top. Chr. 6.3.
45
Beaucamp et al. 1999-2000: 32. On these eclipses, see Wolska-Connus 1968: I: 16.
81

Nevertheless this line of reasoning is of merit only insofar as it leaves room to

accommodate a journey to Ethiopia in 518, without decisively proving that it occurred in that
year. It is for this reason that we turn now to the second and stronger argument in favor of 518,
one provided by Syriac and Sabaic sources. In his epistle regarding the martyrdom of the
Christians of Najrn by King Ysuf of imyar, Simeon of Bt Arsham quotes a letter sent by the
imyarite king to the Lakhmid ruler al-Mundhir (III) b. Imril-Qays (505-554), in which he says
that the king whom the Ethiopians had appointed in imyar had died; Ysuf claims to have then
seized the throne and begun persecuting the Christians of his realm.
46
Though Simeon never
gives the name of this king whom the Aksumites had appointed, he later states that he was a
Christian and had sent an embassy to al-Mundhir before he died.
47
From the Book of the
imyarites and the anonymous Syriac letter about the Najrn martyrs published by Shahid, we
learn that the king who preceeded Ysuf was name Madkarem, which can only be a corruption
of the Madkarib Yafur known from inscriptions.
48
A monumental inscription from Madkarib
Yafurs reign, Ry 510, in the Wd Msil (or Masal al-Jum), is dated to the month of Dh-
Qay
an
in the imyarite year 631 (=June 521) and records a imyarite expedition against the
Arab tribes of northern Arabia and their Lakhmid supporters. Though this is the only dated
inscription from this kings reign,
49
its date of June 521 still provides conclusive evidence that

46
On Simeons visit to the Lakhmid realm, in the course of which he heard of Ysufs excesses, see below.
47
Guidi 1881: 8 (Syriac text).
48
Book of the imyarites 1924: 43; Shahid 1971: xxvii.
49
The only other known inscription of Madkaribs (Ja 2484) bears only a month-name. On this inscription, see the
next chapter (3.2.2.). There are no grounds for Kitchens attribution of such private inscriptions as Yanbq 47 and
Madkaribs reign (Kitchen 1994: I: 221). Yanbq 47, dating to Dh-Thbit
an
625 (=April 515) (Bfaqh and Robin
1979: 49-50), is too early for his reign, and in fact does not refer to any king at all. Also, given that Madkarib was
not an uncommon name in imyar, it cannot be assumed that the Madkarib Yamgad named in Yanbq 47 is
Madkarib Yafur before his accession to the throne. As for Viaillard 1 (Robin 1981: 43-7), this inscriptions date of
Dh-Mubakkir
an
629 (=May 519) would be allow us to assign it to Madkarib Yafurs reign according to the
chronology adopted in this study. However, since it does not refer to Madkaribnor indeed to any kingit has no
value as an independent source for the chronology of Madkarib Yafurs reign. As for the dates of c. 505-517,
proposed for this king by Kitchen (loc. cit.), these cannot be sustained on the basis of the Syriac evidence for his
82

Madkarib Yafur came to the throne before the year 522 which some might posit for Klbs
first invasion of imyar based on an alternative dating of Cosmas visit to Ethiopia to 522. Since
all the known instances of Aksum appointing vassal kings to rule imyar, whether in the third
century or the sixth, occurred as a result of Aksumite invasions of imyar, we can assume that
Madkarib Yafur was brought to power by an invasion launched in 518. Moreover, no
epigraphic or literary source indicates that Klb sent another military expedition against imyar
while Madkarib was in power, a fact which would further disqualify 522 as a date for such an
expedition.
518 is thus the most plausible date for Klbs first invasion. We can narrow down even
further the period in which such an invasion would have been launched in light of the
information provided by Cosmas as well as weather patterns in the Red Sea. As we have seen,
Cosmas states that Klb was preparing to invade imyar at the beginning of Justins reign, and
since Justin came to the throne on July 10, 518 the invasion could only have occurred at some
point after that date. At the same time it could not have occurred that long thereafter, for the
system of winds in the Red Sea make crossing difficult from October to April,
50
a phenomenon
alluded to by Ysuf in his letter to the Lakhmid king al-Mundhir in 523, wherein he remarks that
winter had come and the Ethiopians were consequently unable to invade South Arabia.
51

Allowing for the time it would take for news of Justins accession to reach Cosmas, as well as
the time Klb allotted his army to cross the Red Sea and return before the winds began to pick

reign. Simeon says that he left the Lakhmid capital of al-ra for al-Mundhirs desert camp on 20 Kann ry of the
Seleucid year 835 (=January 24, 524), after which the Christian imyarite envoys sent by Madkarib to al-Mundhir
first heard of death of their king. In light of this, Madkarib Yafur could not have possibly died as early as 517.
50
Beaucamp et al. 1999-2000: 56.
51
Guidi 1881: 2 (Syriac text).
83

up in October, a reasonable hypothesis would be that the Aksumites invaded imyar sometime
between August and late September of 518.

2.4. Conclusion
The epigraphic and literary evidence weighs in favor of 110 BCE as the beginning of the
so-called imyarite Era. The fact that Klbs campaign against imyar in 525 is so well
documentedand well datedmeans that we have not only a firm chronological foundation for
the study of the Aksumite invasion but also one of the rare instances in which an event in South
Arabian history can be independently verified by external sources. Indeed, this link between the
imyarite calendar and the Common Era makes it possible to arrive at a date of 110 BCE for the
inception of the imyarite Era in the first place. In light of the data provided by Syriac and
Sabaic sources, Cosmass Christian Topography emerges as a chronological anchor allowing us
to assign a date of about 518 to Klbs first South Arabian campaign. This is of vital importance
in that it provides a precise date for the campaign, something which no other source provides.
Taken together with the literary and epigraphic material assembled for the chronology of Ysufs
rise to power and Klbs second campaign against imyar, we can reconstruct the following
chronological sequence: 1) Late summer 518: the Aksumites invade imyar; 2) Late summer-
early autumn 518: Madkarib Yafur comes to the imyarite throne with Aksumite help; 3) June
521: Madkarib Yafur, now safely in power, invades northern Arabia. Having established this
framework, we will next examine the historical sources for the religious and political background
to the Aksumite campaign of 518, the campaign itself, and its aftermath.







PART II:
THE AKSUMITE INVASION OF 518 AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A CHRISTIAN
REGIME IN IMYAR

















85

Chapter 3.
RELIGION, IDEOLOGY, AND POLITICS IN THE SOUTHERN RED SEA,
c. 500-521


3.1. Introduction
Throughout Late Antiquity the union of Christianity and politics had given a religious
gloss to warfare, and if it is easy enough for us to interpret this warfare in terms of political,
strategic, and economic interests, it must not be forgotten that, for those involved, the wars of
late antiquity were a struggle between good and evil. The ongoing war between the Roman and
Ssnid Empires reinforced this ideology in the minds of many Christians within the Roman
sphere of influence. It was an attractive ideology in that, if the outright conquest of the Ssnid
Empire appeared logistically implausible to the Romans, the messianic element within
Christianity always left room for an ultimate victory. There were already elements of this
messianism in Romes desire, never totally dormant, to replicate the conquests of Alexander the
Great in the East. If such an idea was at the back of Trajans mind when he led the Roman army
to the shores of the Arabian Gulf in the course of his Parthian campaign in 116,
1
Constantines
conversion to Christianity gave a new direction to Romes eastern policy in that it presented
Rome with a way in which to cast itself as the protector of the Christians living in the countries
beyond the eastern frontier.
However, much though the idea of a Christian commonwealth has been championed by
scholars like Fowden,
2
late antique Christendom lacked the political cohesion of a coalition with
common goals, capable of acting as a united force. In addition, there were many elements within

1
Upon reaching the Gulf, Trajan is said to have seen a merchant ship leaving for India and thought of Alexander the
Greats conquests in the east, while on his return journey Trajan stopped along the way at Babylon to offer a
sacrifice in honor of Alexanders memory (Millar 1993: 101; Ball 2000: 16).
2
Fowden 1993.

86

eastern Christendom which did not regard themselves as part of such a commonwealth, no matter
how cordial their relations with Rome. It will be argued in the present chapter that Aksums
actions in imyar in the early sixth century were the result of an Aksumite royal ideology which
sought validation from a past history of Aksumite military intervention in Arabia. Though it has
long been fashionable, particularly as a result of the studies of Romano-Arabian relations by
Vasiliev and Shahid, to view Aksums wars with imyar as part of an effort by Rome to
strengthen Christian influence in Arabia as a bulwark against Ssnid influence there, adhering
too rigidly to this hypothesis runs the risk of overlooking the Aksumite perspective. That such a
perspective has indeed been overlooked is the product both of the undue focus on the Romano-
Ssnid war as the driving force behind the late antique history of the Christian East, and of the
fragmentary nature of the Aksumite data. However, by using what primary data survives it will
be argued here that when the Aksumite king Klb (c. 510-540) launched his first military
expedition against imyar in 518, he did so to restore territory which he considered Ethiopias
by ancient right. Historical basis for this claim was sought in the so-called Monumentum
Adulitanum II, the Greek inscription which an anonymous third-century king of Aksum had
erected at Adulis to commemorate his victorious military campaigns in Arabia and Africa. While
Klbs governor of Adulis ordered a passing Roman merchant, Cosmas Indicopleustes, to make
a copy of this text, the inscription itself says nothing about Rome. Nor does Klbs own
inscription from Aksum (RIE 191) indicate that his invasion of imyar in 518 was anything
other than a purely Aksumite venture.
Christianity also played an important role in this ideology of irredentist warfare, but for
all that Klb was not the product of a Christian commonwealth under Roman protection. Thus,
while he quotes from the Book of Psalms in his inscription, he does so in the medium of Geez,

87

not Greek. If the Aksumites had made an appearance in the third century as a foreign power to be
reckoned with, they now in Klbs reign sought nothing less than a total transformation of
South Arabian politics for their ends, whether through regime change or through fostering the
growth of South Arabian Christianity. The invasion of 518 marks the first step towards that goal.
Were the history of Aksum better known it might be possible to chart the development of
Christian ideology as an expression of royal power in Aksum from the conversion of zn c.
347-9 until the reign of Klb, as well the renewal of Aksumite interest in South Arabia. As it
happens, though, the fifth century is a historical blank as far as Ethiopia is concerned, the
Aksumite kings of the time being little more than names on coins. Consequently, it is to South
Arabia that we must turn for data on the decades leading up to the Aksumite invasion of 518.

3.2. Religious Strife and Political Relations between Aksum and imyar
Though South Arabia had been torn by military conflict between rival kingdoms in the
third century, it was not until the fifth that religion emerged as a basis for political conflict in the
region. What evidence we have suggests that religion for most of the history of pre-Islamic South
Arabia was a highly personal affair.
3
As a result, it was never the rallying point for political
action, and while each South Arabian community, from the town level to the level of an entire
kingdom, had its own patron deity, ones place in society at large was not determined by
religious faith. With the introduction of Judaism and Christianity to South Arabia during the
third and fourth centuries, however, the idea caught on that some could have monopoly on
truth through affiliation with one religion as opposed to another. If South Arabians had in
earlier times seen themselves sociallyat least insofar as we can tell from their inscriptionsin
terms of their tribal affiliations, the adoption of imported religious traditions established a supra-

3
De Maigret 2009: 259-61, 296.

88

tribal basis for identity,
4
which could not but have a significant impact on society at large. In this
way, the competition between pro-Christian and pro-Jewish elements in South Arabia came to a
head in the second half of the fifth century, when we first find evidence of religious persecution.
It is hardly surprising that Aksum, as the Christian Red Sea power par excellence, would get
involved with this conflict. It did so, however, only at the turn of the sixth century, at which time
Marthadl
an
Yanf (c. 504-518?), a king with Christian sympathies, occupied the imyarite
throne. After examining a medieval source for fifth-century imyarite history, we will take a
look at the fragmentary evidence for the reign of this king and argue that his accession marks a
turning point in Aksumite relations with imyar.

3.2.1. A Christian Martyr in Fifth-Century imyar
Though the anti-Christian campaign of Ysuf in the first quarter of the sixth century is by
far the best documented instance of religious persecution in the Arabian Peninsula during Pre-
Islamic times, it was by no means the first. The Gadla Azqr,
5
a Geez translation of a now lost
Christian Arabic text,
6
takes the history of state-sanctioned persecution back to the mid-fifth

4
Due to its vagueness and inconsistent use, tribe is a highly problematic category, as pointed out long ago by
Southall (The Illusion of Tribe, Journal of Asian and African Studies 5, 1-2, 1970: 28-50). The problems of its use
in studies of societies in the Arabian Peninsula have been highlighted by Al Rasheed (1991: 17-19). Despite this, the
term tribe will be retained in this studyif only for lack of any better termas a shorthand for a group which
coheres through shared social interests and gives its name to its members. As we will see, these shared social
interests were not rationalized by South Arabians through genealogies as they were by other so-called tribal groups
in the Arabian Peninsula. In defining tribes thus, it should be borne in mind that the existence of social groups
cohering as tribes is in no way an indication of a lack of political centralization. Speaking on this point, Dresch
points out that, while tribes are popularly supposed to come first and be less significant than statesin Yemen, as
in most Middle Eastern regions, this evolutionary axis does not hold. If tribes somehow lead to states, then states
lead as often to tribes; and in any case they coexist over long periods (P. Dresch, Imams and Tribes: The Writing
and Acting of History in Upper Yemen in Tribes and State Formation in the Middle East, P. S. Khoury and J.
Kostiner (ed.), Berekeley: University of California Press, 1990: 253).
5
For a discussion of this text and its implications for South Arabian history, see Beeston 1985.
6
Judging at least from the spelling of proper names, as well as the glosses of Arabic words. In the latter case, a
desert which Saint Azqr travels across is called Gawn, which the text explains as an Arabic word meaning
hunger (sic) (Gawn bahla ba-nagara rab trg
w
mh rahb bhl) (Conti Rossini 1910: 732-3 [Geez text,
lines 68-9]). The reference here is clearly to the Arabic word j (hunger), jawn being colloquial Arabic for
hungry.

89

century.
7
The text is a hagiographical work recounting the life and martyrdom of a Christian
priest of Najrn named Azqr, whom it describes as the one who first taught the Christians in
the city of Najrn and publicly proclaimed the Christian faith in the time of Sarabhl Dnkef,
King of imyar (za-mahara Krstyna qadm ba-Ngrn hagar wa-aghada hymnta
Krstyn ba-mawla Sarabhl Dnkf nga amr).
8
This ruler is easily recognizable as
the imyarite king Shurabil Yakkf (c. 465-485), the corruption of his name being explained
by metathesis in the case of the /b/ and // (>/h/) and a confusion between the letters (ye) with
(d), while the assimilated /n/ in Yakkuf is restored in keeping with Arabic orthography.
9

Christianity in South Arabia, first attested in literary sources in the fourth-century report by
Philostorgius of an evangelizing to Aksum and imyar, undertaken by the Indian Christian
Theophilus Indus,
10
had achieved some growth by Shurabils time, for imyarite pilgrims are
reported to have visited the Christian ascetic Simeon Stylites (d. 459) in the borderlands between
Syria and Cilicia at about this time.
11
Though it presents Azqr as the initiator of the
Christianization of Najrn, the Gadla Azqrs reference to priests, deacons, and bishops in
Najrn in his time
12
suggests a greater time-depth for the history of Christianity there.
According to Azqrs hagiography, the town of Najrn, which would later be the focal
point of Ysufs anti-Christian campaign, was already well on its way in the fifth century to
becoming an important center of Christianity in South Arabia. It is there that Azqr first falls
foul of the imyarite authorities as he pitches a tent as an oratory, from which he preaches his
faith. For this he is promptly thrown into prison by the local governors, only to attract some fifty

7
Conti Rossini 1910.
8
Ibid.: 729 (Geez text: lines 4-6).
9
Thus the Shurabl b. Yankf of al-Hamdn (1966: 79).
10
Philostorgius III.4 (tr. E. Walford 1855: 443-5).
11
Christides 1970: 82.
12
Conti Rossini 1910: 737 (lines 155-61).

90

followers, whom he manages to baptize once the gates of the prison are miraculously flung
open.
13
Hearing of the priests success, King Shurabil Yakkf orders him brought to the
imyarite capital of afr that he might interrogate him. Once Azqr arrives at afr, the king
asks him, What is this new teaching which you have brought to my country? (mnt z tmhrt
adds za-amka wsta brya).
14
To this Azqr replies, This doctrine is not new but [is
that which] the prophets and the Torah have preached (znt-ssa tmhrt -kna addsa za-
nbala sabak nabyt wa-rt).
15
Azqr thereupon enters into a debate with the Jews
regarding the Scripture, after which the exasperated Shurabil tries to cajole the priest with
offers of wealth and promises that no harm would come to him if only he renounces Christ.
Azqr refuses to recant and is sent back to Najrn to be crucified and then burned before his
Christian kin (azmdh Krstyn). Here again the miraculous element intervenes as the ropes
binding Azqr to the wooden post are loosened and he stands unscathed by the fire.
16
At this
point a imyarite Jewish man and his family begin casting stones at him but miss each time.
Despite their failure to stone Azqr, they are later visited upon by divine punishment when the
stomach of the mans son bursts open as his father looks on, while his wife is eaten alive by
worms (wa-wt wald mta ba-qdma abh nza ynr wa-naqa kar wa-mta wa-
bst-n nza ywt aayat).
17
Not until the Jews take a sword from a Najrni Christian
does Azqr consent to execution, as do some thirty-eight of the citys bishops, priests, deacons,
and monks, as well as lay people, both men and women.
18


13
Ibid.: 729-30 (Geez text: lines 6-33).
14
Conti Rossini 1910: 734 (Geez text: lines 93-4).
15
Ibid. (lines 95-6).
16
Ibid.: 735-6 (lines 108-34).
17
Ibid.: 736 (lines 135-41).
18
Ibid.: 736-7 (lines 144-61).

91

Once the miraculous and hagiographical elements of the text are weeded out, the Gadla
Azqr can be read as an account of a mounting anti-Christian movement in late fifth-century
imyar. Though it has been suggested that the attribution of some of the events in the Gadla
Azqr to his reign may in fact result from retrojection of events in Ysufs reign onto an earlier
period,
19
the Gadla Azqr bears little structural or thematic similarity to the better known
accounts of the martyrdom of the Christians of Najrn apart from the fact that it shares with the
latter a Najrn setting. Since the purpose of the hagiography is to commemorate the martyrdom
of Azqr, no attempt is made to relate the subsequent political events in imyar.
In contrast to hagiographical literature, South Arabian inscriptions are far more opaque in
matters of religious faith. However, while they say nothing about attacks on Christians in the
fifth century, these inscriptions do indicate the growing influence of Judaism in imyar during
that period.
20
While fourth-century inscriptions speak in somewhat vague terms of a Lord of
Heaven (MR SMY
n
),
21
a proper name for this deity, Ramn
an
(literally, the Merciful),
appears for the first time in inscriptions once Abkarib Asad came to the throne around 400.
22

Ramn
an
is also encountered in three private inscriptions (CIH 543, Ja 1028, Ry 515) as Lord
of the Jews (RB-YHD, RB-HD, and RB-HWD).
23
At some point between the reigns of
Malkkarib Yuhamin and Abkarib Asad this Judaizing trend crystallized in the formation of a
new social category in imyar, the so-called people of Israel (B YRL), a development to
which Robin draws attention in a recent study on imyarite Judaism.
24
The earliest reference to
this socio-religious entity is found in an inscription dating between 380 and 420, left by one

19
Christides 1972: 128.
20
For the corpus of Jewish imyarite inscriptions, with translations and commentary, see Robin 2004: 882-94.
21
YM 1950, dating to the reign of Tharn Yuhanim (c. 324-375) (Gajda 2005: 22); Garb Bayt-al-Ashwal 2 and
RES 3383, both dating to the month of Dh-Diwn in Year 493 of the imyarite Era (=January 384) (Robin 2004:
857).
22
Robin 2003: 170, idem. 2004: 113-15.
23
Robin 2003: 115-17.
24
Idem. 2004: 852-5.

92

Yahda Yakkf at afr to commemorate the construction of a palace with the prayer of the
People of Israel (B-LT B YRL).
25
The assistance (RD) of the People of Israel is
mentioned in another inscription recording the building of a house, dating to the month of Dh-
Thabat
an
in Year 580 of imyarite Era (=April 470) during the reign of Shurabil Yakkf, the
very king mentioned by name in the Gadla Azqr.
26

The term B is used in South Arabian inscriptions to refer to tribal and territorial
communities of varying size.
27
In antiquity no less than in modern times, ones place in South
Arabian society was dictated by ones tribal affiliations, whether at the level of a clan or a
confederation, which in the latter case might embrace an entire kingdom. Judging from their
inscriptions, the peoples of ancient South Arabia were less concerned than their North Arabian
counterparts with genealogies,
28
for while they often indicate the tribe or confederation to which
they belong in their inscriptions, they seldom record their ancestry beyond their father or, at
most, their grandfather.
29
What made tribes cohere in South Arabia was not genealogywhether

25
Ibid.: 883-4.
26
Ibid.: 882.
27
Ibid.: 852-3.
28
The rhetoric of tribal ties was expressed in terms of genealogy in northern Arabia, where the nomadic and
sedentary peoples who left graffiti in Safaitic between the first century BCE and the fourth century CE on rock faces
in the steppelands of present-day Jordan, southern Syria, and northwest Saudi Arabia prided themselves on their
long genealogies, which in some cases extend back for twelve generations (Winnett and Harding 1978: 20) and in
one case as many as fifteen (Macdonald 1993: 384). If medieval ansb literature presents an impressive genealogical
depth for South Arabian tribes, including many tribes whose names are attested in Epigraphic South Arabian
inscriptions, this is a function of the social milieu of early Muslim society, in which competition between tribal
groups gave rise to a tendentious re-writing of tribal history. In such a situation political ties between two tribes
might be rationalized through the creation of an ancient genealogical connection between them. As part of this
process many non-Arab South Arabian groups like the imyarites were incorporated into the genealogical web as
Arabs and were given the long genealogies, so foreign to pre-Islamic South Arabian tradition, which had
characterized tribal society in more northerly parts of Arabia since the period in which the Safaitic inscriptions were
made. As the product of a political and social milieu far removed from that of ancient South Arabia, ansb literature
tells us more about the tribal history of the early Islamic period than that of earlier times. On the role of the early
Islamic dwn system in shaping Arab genealogies, see Zwettler 2000: 289.
29
Thus in one instance a Qatabnian is named as Sharaathat son of Abdl son of Tanzb
um
in a mid-second-
century BCE inscription from al-Jadda in Yemen (RES 3552=Gl. 1119) (Conti Rossini 1931: 87 (no. 86)), while a
king of the Sumay confederation is referred to in a Sabaic inscription from the late third to early second century
BCE, found at adaqn (CIH 37) as Yuhain Dh-Bayyin son of Yasmal son of Sumhukarib (ibid.: 62 (no. 52)).

93

real or imaginedbut rather the ties of clientage which bound individuals to their patrons
(QYL, sing. QYL) residing at the tribes political center (HGR).
30
Here a temple to the tribes
patron deity (YM) could be found to which members of the tribe might periodically repair for a
ceremonial feast at which the tribal bonds were symbolically reinforced.
31
While a B might be
designated by a name in the manner of the present-day tribal communities of Yemen, it may also
in cases indicate communal ties with a deity, hence the people of [the god] Athtar (B
TTR).
32
That Israel emerged as a B with which imyarite Jews claimed affiliation in place
of other nameswhether tribal or territorialillustrates the extent to which religion came to
define ones identity by the mid-fifth century. If adherence to a specific regional deity had been
but one of several ways by which members of a B cohered in the past, identifying the B with
a religious community was new to South Arabia and allowed political frictions to evolve into
religious frictions. The reign of Shurabil Yakkf might mark a turning point in this trend at
which Judaism became increasingly militant.
The extent to which the ruling elite of imyar adhered to Judaism is not clear, however.
While epigraphic evidence indicates that Judaism enjoyed a significant following in imyar at
least as early as the third century CE, it is only in private inscriptions that one finds explicitly
Judaic references.
33
Royal inscriptions, by contrast, allude to only a vague monotheism.
34

Though scholars in the past were wont to posit the existence of an autochthonous South Arabian
monotheism, Robin has argued against this view
35
and has drawn attention to the fact that

Apart from such rare cases as these of naming ones grandfather, most Epigraphic South Arabian inscriptions do not
record an individuals ancestry beyond the father.
30
This is still the case in agricultural areas of present-day Yemen, in which the term tribesman (qabl) functions
as a label for an individual a subordinant socio-economic status vis--vis a landlord (Dresch 2000: 24).
31
On the tribal structure of pre-Islamic South Arabia, see Robin 1982: 17, 74 ff.
32
Robin 2004: 853.
33
Ibid.: 882-92.
34
Ibid.: 859.
35
Robin 2003: 153.

94

religious themes are also absent from pre-Islamic Arabic poetry composed by Jews
36
as they
are indeed from pre-Islamic Arabic poetry in general. In place of a neutral, home-grown
monotheism, Robin posits that there existed in imyar two degrees of adherence to Judaism.
Le premier degr serait une adhsion aux valeurs et aux croyances des juifs, avec
participation leurs rites et leurs ftes, mais sans observer les prceptes qui
impliqueraient de rompre avec le mode de vie et avec les solidarits traditionnels.
Le second degr correspondrait la conversion veritable, avec changement
didentit et entre dans la communaut juive.
37


Robin sees the imyarite kings from Abkarib Asad (c. 400-440) until the end of the fifth
century as adhering to a nominal Judaism of the first degree, while Ysuf Asar Yathar (c. 522-
525) adhered to that of the second degree.
38
Even if the kings of fifth-century imyar were
nominal adherents to a religion of which they might have known very little, there can be no
doubt that their Jewish subjects must have benefitted greatly from official support which, if the
Gadla Azqr is to be believed, came to be at the expense of imyars Christian community.
Nevertheless, the downturn in the fortunes of South Arabias Christians under Shurabil
Yakkf should not be overemphasized, particularly given that the Gadla Azqr remains our sole
testimony for the wave of persecutions in this kings reign, and tells a highly embellished tale of
the martyrdom of a select group of Christians without indicating how widespread such acts of
religious intolerance were. If Shurabil Yakkfs anti-Christian policy shares some similarities
with the more systematic campaign of persecution launched by Ysuf in the third decade of the
sixth century, a break in this trend seems to have occurred with the accession of Marthadl
an

Yanf to the throne around 500. His reign marks the beginning of a period during which Jewish
and Judaizing inscriptions cease in South Arabia, and which does not end until Ysuf assumed
power in 522 and sought to forcibly re-establish Judaism as the state religion of imyar.

36
Robin 2004: 864.
37
Robin 2003: 148.
38
Ibid.

95


3.2.2. Marthadl
an
Yanf: A imyarite Usurper in Contact with Aksum
The de-Judaized hiatus in South Arabian records, which encompasses the reigns of both
Marthadl
an
Yanf (c. 504-518?) and Madkarib Yafur (c. 518-523), marks a noticeable break
in what appears by all other evidence to have been a steady expansion of Judaism in imyar at
both the elite and the popular level during the fifth century. This phenomenon, and the fact that
neither of these two rulers had any known royal progenitor or coregent like earlier imyarite
kings, has led Robin to suggest that Marthadl
an
Yanf was a Christian imyarite nobleman
whom Aksum had helped come to power, much as it would later bring Madkarib Yafur to
power.
39
In support of this hypothesis Robin cites a imyarite inscription from afr dating to
Marthadl
an
Yanfs reign, which records the construction of a house for a group of Ethiopian
ambassadors, and a fragment of the sixth-century Monophysite author John Diakrinomenos to
the effect that imyar witnessed a large-scale conversion to Christianity at the turn of the sixth
century.
40
A far more ambitious attempt to extend the period of Aksums political influence in
South Arabia before the reign of Madkarib Yafur has been attempted by Shitomi in an article
arguing that Aksum ruled imyar continuously from the third to sixth centuries.
41
Though
Shitomi does not treat either of the texts cited by Robin, his theory that Aksum regularly
appointed kings to rule imyar on its behalf, based on a textual variant of the letter of Simeon of
Bt Arsham, deserves consideration here in that it is directly relevant to the period of
Marthadl
an
Yanfs reign. In the present section we will consider the literary and epigraphic
evidence from the period of this kings reign. The literary sources consist of a fragment of the
sixth-century Monophysite author John Diakrinomenos and the work of the late seventh- to early

39
Robin 2004: 871-2.
40
Ibid.
41
Shitomi 1997.

96

eight-century Yemeni traditionist Wahb b. Munabbih. Of epigraphic material from Marthadl
an

Yanfs reign we have only two private inscriptions (Fakhry 74 [a+b]=Sharaf al-Dn 36 and ZM
679=Ga 32). The second of these inscriptions was left by the Ethiopian ambassadors whose
presence at the imyarite capital of afr is regarded by Robin as key to our understanding of
Aksumite relations with Marthadl
an
Yanfs regime. After reviewing this material a minimalist
view will be put forward, according to which Marthadl
an
Yanf may have sought the political
support of Aksum without necessarily submitting to vassal status.
The fragment of John Diakrinomenos states that the imyarites were originally Jews
[and that] under Anastasius [I (491-518)] they became Christians, demanded a bishop, and
received one.
42
Since Madkarib Yafur did not come to power until after the Aksumite
invasion of imyar in 518, and since the only documented ruler for the period immediately
preceding his reign is Marthadl
an
Yanf, one cannot but agree with Robin that Marthadl
an

Yanf was indeed king during the period to which John Diakrinomenos refers. The Monophysite
author, however, says nothing about a conversion on the part of the imyarite king of the time,
as one would have expected had such a noteworthy event taken place. Such an omission on
Johns part is all the more striking in that Syriac authors regularly mention that Madkarib
Yafur was a Christian, even if they refer to him only anonymously as Ysufs predecessor. By
contrast, these same Syriac authors, including the well-informed Simeon of Bt Arsham, know of
no Christian king of imyar before Madkarib Yafur. Turning to much later Arabic sources we
do find a reference in the version of Wahb b. Munnabihs Kitb al-Tjn f Mulk imyar
transmitted by Ibn Hishm to an enigmatic imyarite ruler named Abd Kll b. Yanf, who is
said to have been a believer in the religion of Jesus but hid his faith (kna mumin
an
al dn

42
Quoted in Robin 2004: 872.

97

s wa-satara mnahu).
43
But apart from his claim that this Abd Kll reigned for an
implausible seventy-three years Wahb gives no information on this king, and since he places
Abd Kll five reigns before Dh Nuws (=Ysuf Asar Yathar) instead of the actual two it
seems unlikely that he had a very accurate idea of imyarite chronology.
44

Neither John Diakrinomenos nor Wahb b. Munabbih allude to Aksumite involvement in
South Arabian politics, though it is easy to imagine that the Aksumites would have quickly
established diplomatic ties with a imyarite king who was favorably disposed to Christianity. As
for the type of Christianity that was preached in imyar in Marthadl
an
Yanfs time, Anastasius
is known to have been an ardent Monophysite, as a result of which we can assume that the
bishop, and by implication the main bulk of imyars Christian population, was Monophysite as
well. Though Aksumite Christians were also Monophysite, John Diakrinomenos account,
laconic though it is, suggests that the imyarites of the time looked to Rome rather than Aksum
for help in promoting Christianity. This is surely not due to lack of interest on the part of Aksum
in foreign affairs, for Marcellinus Comes notes that in 495/6 India sent a diplomatic gift of an
elephant and two giraffes to the emperor Anastasius I
45
a report which may well refer to
Aksum given the late Roman habit of calling Ethiopia India, as well as the fact that the giraffe
is a uniquely African animal. Of course one cannot discount the possibility that Anastasius
encouraged Aksum to send priests to imyar on behalf of Rome. Sixth-century Syriac reports on
the Christian martyrs of Ysufs time refer to Ethiopian men of religion in South Arabia, while
even before this Palladius, writing at some point in the fourth or fifth century,
46
states that a
lawyer from Thebes in Upper Egypt sailed from Ethiopia to Taproban (=Sri Lanka) with a

43
Ibn Hishm 1979: 310.
44
A similarly named Ubayd Kall is treated by amza al-Ifahn with the laconic remark that he was an adherent
of the religion of Christ (kna al dn al-Mas) (amza al-Ifahn 1961: 111).
45
Marcellinus 1995: 32.
46
Schneider 2004: 33, 357, 358.

98

bishop of Adulis named Moses.
47
But if there is good evidence that Aksum initiated a program of
Christianization in South Arabia after Klbs first and second invasions of imyar in 518 and
525 respectively, its role in the evangelism of the country at the turn of the sixth century is
impossible to prove.
The two inscriptions from Marthadl
an
Yanfs reign are of no help in elucidating either
Aksumite influence or Marthadl
an
s own religious faith. The first of these (Fakhry 74
[a+b]=Sharaf al-Dn 36) is a text from Mrib which records the construction of a house called
Yakrb with the help and support of [the god] Ramn
an
(B-NR W-RD RMN
n
) and gives a
date of Dh-Midhra
an
in Year 614 of the imyarite Era (=July 504).
48
Whatever Marthadl
an

Yanfs religion might have been, there is no clear indication of it in this text. Though employed
as a name for God in Jewish imyarite inscriptions, Ramn
an
is also used in Christian
inscriptions from South Arabia, including those erected by Abreh in the middle of the sixth
century. Ramn
an
is likewise invoked by the (presumably Christian) Ethiopian ambassadors in
their inscription ZM 679=Ga 32, found at the village of Bayt al-Ashwal near the site of ancient
afr, from which it undoubtedly originated. However, given that both Fakhry 74 [a+b] and ZM
679 are private inscriptions, not royal inscriptions erected by Marthadl
an
himself, they need not
reflect the religious sentiments of the ruling authority.
Similarly, neither of these two inscriptions shed any light on the political conditions of
imyar during Marthadl
an
s reign, nor on the way in which Marthadl
an
came to power. The
most we can say is that, judging from the titles bestowed upon the king in Fakhry 74 [a+b], he
laid claim to the same domain over which the kings of imyar had ruled since the fifth century,

47
On Palladius account, see Desanges 1969.
48
Sharaf al-Dn (1967: 92 [no. 36]) publishes only a portion of the text, while Fakhrys copy (Fakhry 1952: 109)
contains numerous errors. The complete text can be found in Archologische Berichte aus dem Yemen, Band IV,
1987, Mainz am Rhein, 1988: pls. 14d (Inv. Nr. MA 25=Fa 74b) and 18a (Inv. Nr. MA 59=Fa 74a).

99

namely Saba, Dh-Raydn, aramawt, Yamant, and the Arab population of the awd and the
Tihma (MLK SB W-D-RYDN W-RMWT W-YMNT W-RBHMW WD
m
W-THMT).
49

Since Marthadl
an
Yanfs father is never named, as was customary when referring to rulers in
imyarite inscriptions, it is quite probable that he was not a blood relative of the pro-Judaic
regime which had ruled imyar in the fifth century. Indeed Marthadl
an
Yunim (c. 485-495?),
the last ruler attested epigraphically before Marthadl
an
Yanf came to power, seems to have
actively promoted Judaism in imyar by assisting in the construction of synagogues.
50

The transition from Marthadl
an
Yunims reign to that of Marthadl
an
Yanf is totally
obscure, and it is not impossible that several years intervened between the two reigns. If this was
the case, then it may be that another potentate came to power in the interim. Marthadl
an

Yunims claim to the throne may not have been without problems of its own, for a badly
fragmented inscription from his reign recording construction work (CIH 620) names not only his
father Laat Yanf but also his grandfather, the famous Shurabil Yakkf.
51
In this CIH 620
differs from standard practice in imyarite inscriptions, which when mentioning a king typically
give the name of the kings father as well, but not that of his grandfather. Since Laat Yanf
held power only as Shurabil Yakkfs coregent, not as a full-fledged king in his own right,
Marthadl
an
Yunim undoubtedly sought to establish a direct link with his grandfather to validate
his claims to the throne. That such a situation reflects a power struggle within the imyarite
royal house at this time is alleged by the account of Laat Yanf given by Wahb b. Munabbih,
according to whom Laat was from the imyarite gentry but not from the royal house (laysa

49
Archologische Berichte 1988: pl. 18a (line 4).
50
Gajda 1998.
51
Ibid.: 82-4.

100

min ahl al-mulk wa-lkinnahu min abn al-maqwil).
52
He says further that Laat killed
members of the nobility and jested with the houses of the ruling elite (qatala khiyrahum wa-
abatha buyt ahl al-mulk minhum).
53
Such unsettled political conditions may have made it
easier for an outsider like Marthadl
an
Yanf to come to the throne.
54

Aksum need not have played a role in any of this, however, and it is not until 510, six
years after the erection of Fakhry 74 [a+b], that we find the first reference to a probable
Aksumite presence in South Arabia in Marthadl
an
Yanfs reign. This is the inscription ZM
679=Ga 32 from Bayt al-Ashwal. Insofar as it is preserved, the text can be read as follows:
with praise to Ramn
an
, Lord of Heaven, and with the of their lord, King
Marthadl
an
Yanf: the ambassadors Sheg and his sons Wadf and Abe
built, furbished, and renovated their house of Washba
an
from its foundations to
its roof, and finished off therein the entrance with pecked masonry and plaster, by
the grace of Ramn
an
; the month of Dh-Man, 619 [of the imyarite Era]
(=March 510).

(B-MD RMN
n
BL SMY
n
W-B- MRHMW MLK
n
MRTDL
n
YNWF
G W-BNYHW WDFH W-BH TNBLT
n
BRW W-HQBN W-TWBN
BYTHMW WB
n
BN MWTRHW DY TFRHW W-QBW B-HW MBHT
m
B-
MNHMT
m
W-MWGL
m
B-ZKT RMN
n
WRHHW D-MN D-L-TST R W-ST
MT
m
.)
55


Though the inscription does not explicitly say so, Sheg and his sons have, since Mllers study
of the inscription over thirty years ago, been regarded as Aksumite on the basis of the fact that
one of the sons bears the very Ethiopian name of Abe, borne as well by Klb in the form
Ella-Abe.
56
From this Mller surmises that these three individuals were ambassadors sent

52
This tradition is preserved by Ibn Hishm 1979: 311. On miqwal (pl. maqwil), see Ibn Manr 1988: XI: 353, in
which the term is described as Yemeni in origin, though the etymology given is fanciful; cf. Sabaic QYL (pl. QYL).
53
Ibn Hishm, loc. cit.; cf. al-abar 1961: II: 117.
54
Wahb b. Munabbih, however, knows of no Marthadl
an
Yanf by name, though his reference to a crypto-Christian
imyarite king named Abd Kll b. Yanf, whom he places three reigns before Lakhat (sic) b. Yanf (Ibn Hishm
1979: 310) may preserve some memory of Marthadl
an
Yanf.
55
Tindel 1989: 103.
56
Mller 1978: 163-4. The fact that Sheg and his sons Wadf and Abe lack patronyms, which are standard for
South Arabian names, is further evidence of the ambassadors foreign origin. It is not, however, true that the term
TNBLT
n
is used elsewhere [in South Arabian inscriptions] specifically for Ethiopian envoys, a view which Tindel

101

by Aksum to the imyarite court.
57
Such a scenario fits well with John Diakrinomenos
reference to the expansion of Christianity in imyar at the turn of the sixth century, a
development which may well have encouraged the Aksumites to initiate diplomatic ties with
imyar following decades of Jewish influence there. Archaeological evidence of a
corresponding strengthening of economic ties during this period is suggested by the presence of
Aksumite pottery at the site of Qni, a port on the southern coast of Yemen where most of
imyars trade with India was conducted. While not unattested in fourth-century levels at the
site,
58
this pottery is most abundant in the upper level, dated between the fifth and seventh
centuries.
59
Many Aksumites may have come to Qni to trade, though Sedov, the excavator of
the site, has argued that this pattern indicates that many Aksumites actually settled in the town.
60

His position is supported by the presence of kitchen wares among this material,
61
which are
indicative of permanent settlement rather than seasonal trade.
Nearly two centuries separate the reference in ZM 679 to a permanent Aksumite
diplomatic presence at the imyarite capital of afr from the diplomatic exchange which
according to the inscription Ir 28 took place between Aksum and imyar in the reign of the
imyarite king Karibl Watar Yuhanim (c. 312-316), around the time of Ousanas (c. 305-320)
of Aksum. Since nothing in Ir 28 suggests the long-term establishment of Aksumite ambassadors

incorrectly imputes to Mller (Tindel 1989: 104), since Ir 28 refers to imyarite and Aksumite ambassadors alike as
TNBLT
m
in connection with diplomatic relations between Ethiopia and South Arabia in the reign of the imyarite
king Karibl Watar Yuhanim (c. 312-316), in addition to which the Ssnid ambassadors sent to South Arabia in
the reign of Abreh are described as TNBLT MLK FRS (ambassadors of the king of Persia) in Abrehs Dam
Inscription from Mrib (CIH 541). While there is a similarity between the Sabaic TNBLT and the Geez tanblt,
the plural of tanbal (meaning ambassador, envoy, and messenger), the noun NBL
m
is attested, long before
Aksum became involved in South Arabia, in a Qatabnian inscription with the sense of delegate (Ricks 1989:
102). TNBLT and tanblt would thus represent parallel lexical developments from a cognate root (n-b-l) shared by
Geez and Epigraphic South Arabian.
57
Mller 1978: 163-4.
58
Sedov 2007: 84.
59
Sedov 1996: 22; idem. 2007: 89.
60
Sedov 1996: 22; idem. 2007: 85.
61
Sedov 1997: 377.

102

in imyar, or of imyarite ambassadors in Aksum, while ZM 679=Ga 32 gives no indication as
to when the Aksumite embassy at afr was established, it is likely that the Ethiopian diplomatic
presence in Marthadl
an
Yanfs time was a recent development, not one which extended as far
back in time as the early fourth century. If the lack of Jewish and Judaizing inscriptions from
Marthadl
an
Yanfs reign can be taken as evidence ex silentio for the promotion of Christianity,
such a reorientation of the religious and political character of the imyarite state would have
provided Aksum with a far more amenable environment for establishing a diplomatic presence in
South Arabia. The absence of such a diplomatic presence in earlier centuries may explain the
lack of any references in the Gadla Azqr to an Ethiopian presence in imyar, in stark contrast
to the prominent place given to Ethiopians in Syriac literature for the period following Klbs
invasion of South Arabia in 518. Whether we can go so far as to claim that the Aksumite
embassy established at afr in the reign of Marthadl
an
Yanf served the purpose of exercising
a certain control over the local authorities
62
cannot be determined at present,
63
though it cannot
be excluded that at least part of the Ethiopian community at afr, alluded to in Graeco-Roman,
imyarite, and Syriac sources describing Ysufs anti-Christian campaign, dates back to
Marthadl
an
s time.
On these matters we have no information at all from the Ethiopian side. If the beginning
of Marthadl
an
Yanfs reign can be dated to the turn of the sixth century, this would make him a
contemporary of Klbs father Tzn, accepting that Hahn is at least roughly correct in
assigning the latter king to the period c. 490-510.
64
Tzn
65
is attested in medieval Ethiopian
king-lists (Lists A, B, D, and G) as the predecessor of Klb, and is likely the Tzr attested in

62
Robin 2004: 871.
63
Nothing in ZM 679=Ga 32 suggests that the Aksumite embassy at afr was backed up by a military contingent
capable of enforcing Aksums will, though such a scenario is not out of the question.
64
Hahn 2000 (a): 293.
65
Alternatively Tazn () and Tzn ().

103

Lists E and F.
66
In Aksumite sources, however, he is known only from mottoes on Klbs
coins
67
and from the latters inscription from Aksum (RIE 191), in both of which Klb is called
the son of Tzn (WLD TZN), without giving any information on his fathers origins. By
contrast, no monumental inscriptions from Tzns reign have ever been found, nor is he
referred to by either of his two names in any South Arabian inscription, which makes it
impossible to determine the nature of his relations with Marthadl
an
Yanf of imyar. Likewise,
though Tzns name is attested in its Hellenized form (EZENA or EZENAC) on Klbs
coins, no coins were ever minted solely in the name of Tzn. It may well be the case that, as
his son bore two names, Klb as well as Ella-Abe, Tzn did as well. If so, then Tzn is
most likely to be identified with King Ousana/Ousanas (II), the name being the same one borne
by the father of zn (c. 330-360), and a ruler whose coins Munro-Hay assigns to the period
immediately before that of Klb on iconographic grounds.
68
Gold coins of this sixth-century
Ousanas have been found in the hoard from al-Madhriba in the Yemeni Tihma, as have those
of a King Ousas.
69
Based on the similarity of the names, Munro-Hay suggests that Ousas is
nothing more than an abbreviation of the name Ousana or Ousanas, in which case all these coins
can be assigned to a single reign.
70
If Tzn is indeed to be identified with this king, his use of
Ousana/Ousanasperhaps his throne-nameon coins may have been a means by which he
associated himself with the fourth-century king Ousanas (c. 305-320) who, so it has been
suggested in this study, may have maintained diplomatic ties with imyar and also been the first
Aksumite king to lay claim to South Arabia in his titulature. As will be argued for the reign of
Tzns son Klb, the past provided fertile ground for royal ideology in sixth-century

66
Conti Rossini 1909: 272, 281, 298-301.
67
Munro-Hay and Juel-Jensen 1995: 199, 202-3.
68
Munro-Hay 1989 (a): 99-100.
69
Ibid.: 98-9.
70
Ibid.

104

Aksumite Ethiopia, and without venturing too far into the realm of the speculative it could be
that the adoption of the name of a fourth-century king by Tzn marks the beginning of this
trend.
If Graeco-Roman, South Arabian, and Aksumite sources do not indicate that Aksum had
any role in bringing Marthadl
an
Yanf to powermuch less in an attempt to establish rule over
imyarShitomi sees one possible bit of evidence for Aksumite rule in South Arabia at this
time in a variant of the famous letter of Simeon of Bt Arsham concerning the martyrdom of the
Christians of Najrn by Ysuf Asar Yathar. Simeons letter regarding Ysufs anti-Christian
campaign dates to 835 of the Seleucid Era (=524), the edition published by Guidi in 1881 being
based on two MSS in the British Museum (BM Add 14650 and BM Add 14641) and a MS in the
Borgia Museum (Borgia siriaco 91), now kept in the Vatican Library.
71
The letter was an
important source for later Syriac histories, among them the chronicle of Pseudo-Dionysius of
Tell Mar. Also known as the Chronicle of Zqnn, this chronicle appears to date to the last
quarter of the eighth century, the last entrya reference to the Byzantine emperor Leos
accession to the throne on September 24, 775providing a terminus ante quem. All that the
original letter of Simeon says is that the imyarite king Ysuf wrote to the Lakhmid king of al-
ra in southern Iraq, boasting of how he had seized the opportunity to attack South Arabias
Christians after the Christian imyarite ruler appointed by the Ethiopians died and that, due to
the coming of winter, the Ethiopians had been unable to send a relief expedition in support of
their coreligionists.
72
Ysufs letter to the Lakhmids is quoted in full in Simeons letter. We have

71
Brit. Mus. Add. 14650 dates from 875, making it the oldest of the three MSS examined by Guidi (Beaucamp et al.
1999-2000: 21 (n. 20)). Though these MSS thus post-date the citations of Simeons letter by Pseudo-Zacharias and
even Pseudo-Dionysius of Tell Mar, the MSS are the only sources which preserve the text of Simeons letter in
full, the versions given in Syriac chronicles being abridgements. In light of this, the longer version of the letter
edited by Guidi on the basis of the MSS from the British Museum and the Vatican is also the oldest version (ibid.:
21-2).
72
Guidi 1881: 2 (Syriac text).

105

seen that, based on other Syriac sources as well as South Arabian inscriptions, this Christian king
of imyar is to be identified with Madkarib Yafur, whom the Aksumites placed on the
imyarite throne in the course of their invasion of South Arabia in 518. From Simeons letter it
appears that Madkarib had, before he died, sent an envoy to the Lakhmid court, and that the
envoy learned of his masters death only after reaching al-ra.
73
At no point in his letter does
Simeon state that appointing local kings to rule South Arabia on behalf of Aksum was a long-
established Aksumite practice, nor does the letter of Ysuf which Simeon quotes suggest this.
The relevant part of the Chronicle of Zqnn is a quotation of Ysufs letter to the
Lakhmids in which he says The king of the Ethiopians has died, and winter has come upon
them and they were not able to go forth and establish another king as the Christians were
accustomed (malk da-Ky mt w-adrek satw w-l ekaw d-nepqn w-nebdn malk ak
da-maydn Krstyn).
74
This recension of Ysufs letter was later quoted by Michael the Syrian
in Chapter 19 of the ninth book of his history.
75
It is not, however, an exact reproduction of
Simeons original letter. For example, in contrast to the version of the imyarite epistle quoted
in Simeons letter, the version contained in the Chronicle of Zqnn states that it is not the local
imyarite ruler appointed by the Aksumites but rather the Aksumite king himself who died.
76

The reason for this and other deviations from Simeons text is that the Chronicle of Zqnn,
written over two and a half centuries after Ysufs campaign, relies not on copies of the original
letter of Simeon but on a slightly different recension of it preserved by the sixth-century Syriac
author John of Ephesus.
77
Shitomi is well aware of this problem, and cautions that the variant of

73
Ibid.: 8 (Syriac text).
74
Incerti auctoris 1933: 58.
75
Michael the Syrian: IV: 274 (Syriac text).
76
In fact, Klb, who appointed the Christian Madkarib Yafur to rule over imyar in 518/19, lived on well past
the time-frame of Ysufs anti-Christian campaign in 522-3 and may have died as late as c. 540.
77
Brooks in Zachariah of Mitylene 1899: 5-6. The original history of John of Ephesus survives only in fragments,
but was quoted by later Syriac authors (Beaucamp et al. 1999-2000: 21).

106

King Ysufs letter, as preserved in Pseudo-Dionysius of Tell Mar (=the Chronicle of Zqnn),
may not be authentic. Despite this, he insists that this variant of the letter still serves to illustrate
the fact that to outsiders imyar gave the appearance of being a dependency of Aksum.
78

In support of Shitomi one might cite another Syriac source which he does not mention,
namely the history of Pseudo-Zacharias the Rhetor. A bishop of Mitylene on the island of
Lesbos, the Greek author Zacharias the Rhetor wrote an Ecclesiastical History which seems to
have terminated around 518, though his anonymous Syriac translator (Pseudo-Zacharias) was
writing at least as late as 569 and perhaps even later.
79
According to Wright, the MS in the
British Museum (BM Add 17202) cannot be younger than the beginning of the 7
th
century.
80

Like the later Chronicle of Zqnn and Michael the Syrian, the Ecclesiastical History of Pseudo-
Zacharias states that the Ethiopians were in the habit of appointing local imyarite kings to rule
South Arabia.
81
In light of the early date of Pseudo-Zacharias work, one might be inclined to
accept as authentic the reiterations of this statement in later sources. Moreover, references in
both Syriac and South Arabian sources to the presence of an armed contingent of Ethiopians at
the imyarite capital of afr following Madkaribs accession to the throne with direct
Aksumite assistance suggest that something more than the mere moral support of the Christian
imyarite regime by Aksum was involved. Rather, it would seem that the Aksumites had
established themselves in full military force in South Arabia, and that not only Madkarib but
also a number of his his predecessors were no more than puppets ruling on behalf of Aksum.
This would mean that, until Ysufs rise to power as king of imyar around 522, South Arabia
was indeed a dependency of Aksum.

78
Shitomi 1997: 92.
79
Wright 1894: 107.
80
Ibid.
81
Zachariah of Mitylene 1899: 193 (tr. F. J. Hamilton and E. W. Brooks).

107

Revising our entire understanding of the nature and length of Aksumite rule in South
Arabia based simply on a later textual variant is, however, very risky. One may with good reason
wonder how Simeon of Bt Arsham could have failed to note the alleged Aksumite habit of
appointing kings over imyar, particularly when he was present at al-ra itself in 523/4, when
the letters from the Christian community of South Arabia, describing King Ysufs attack on the
Christians of his realm, first began reaching the Lakhmid court, together with actual envoys from
South Arabia. This would have afforded Simeon the opportunity to learn first-hand about South
Arabian politics, not to mention Aksumite relations with imyar. Since neither John of Ephesus
nor Zacharias the Rhetor, much less the latters Syriac translator, had such direct access to news
on the political environment in South Arabia, one cannot but favor Simeons letter as a primary
source and the most accurate report on South Arabian affairs in the early sixth century. In that
case, we can dispense with Shitomis theory that Aksum exercised some sort of rule over imyar
before 518 and with it Robins suggestion that Marthadl
an
Yanf was brought to the throne with
Aksumite help.

3.2.3. Summary
By second half of the fifth century we find the first signs of religious conflict in imyar,
with the ruling elite siding with the Jews against the Christians. According to the Gadla Azqr
Shurabil Yakkf fully supported the persecution of South Arabias Christian community.
When Marthadl
an
Yanf came to power, however, the political orientation of imyar took a
sudden turn in favor of Christianity, a development which favored the establishment of ties with
Christian Aksum. Given the presence of this powerful Christian kingdom across the Red Sea,
there is a temptation to see an Aksumite hand in Marthadl
an
Yanfs accession. To date,
however, there is no hard evidence of an Aksumite invasion that might have set him on the

108

throne. In this connection it should be noted that, according to John Diakrinomenos, the
imyarites took the initiative in asking Anastasius I for a bishop without the mediation of
Aksum.
At the very most ZM 679, the one bit of epigraphic evidence for contact between
Marthadl
an
Yanfs regime and Aksum, suggests the development of friendly ties between
South Arabia and Ethiopia at the turn of the sixth century. If Marthadl
an
lacked the proper royal
credentials, he may well have cultivated closer diplomatic ties with Aksum out of need for a
strong friend even if he was not brought to power with Aksumite help. As for Marthadl
an
s
religious faith, nothing can be said apart from the possibility that he was a Christian, or was at
least a monotheist in some vague sense who held pro-Christian views, in the same way that his
fifth-century predecessors had held pro-Jewish views. Robins theory that Sheg and his sons
were in afr to exercise control over the local authorities
82
may be reading a bit much into ZM
679, which says only that these men were ambassadors. Even if Marthadl
an
Yanf lacked blood
ties to the royal family it need not follow that he came to power with Aksumite help, any more
than Ysuf Asar Yathar, who similarly lacked royal ancestors, was brought to power by a
foreign-led coup. Diplomatic ties with Aksum need not imply Aksumite rule, and it is thus very
significant that in their inscription from afr Sheg and his sons refer to Marthadl
an
as their
lord (MRHMW), indicating that it was not Aksum but the local imyarite ruling authority to
which they were answerable. Such a situation is difficult to reconcile with the scenario of
Aksumite rule over imyar. One might even argue that the Aksumite king of Marthadl
an

Yanfs time, perhaps Klbs father Tzn, established an embassy in afr out of a desire to
strengthen ties with a fellow Christian, not because he had helped this imyarite ruler come to
power.

82
Robin 2004: 871.

109


3.3. The Aksumite Invasion of imyar in 518
How Marthadl
an
met his end is unknown, as we have no dated inscription from his reign
after the year 510. Some eight years separate the inscription left by the Aksumite ambassadors at
afr from the invasion of imyar launched by Klb in 518. During this period we have no
datable epigraphic material at all. Indeed even the invasion of 518 is not mentioned in any South
Arabian inscriptions. In the following section we will examine the Syriac and Geez sources for
the history of the period of Klbs campaign. These sources indicate that the religious conflict
first documented in the reign of Shurabil Yakkf flared up once again, but that in this case it
took outside intervention by Aksum to re-establish Christian supremacy in imyar. In our
discussion of Aksumite relations with South Arabia in the third century it was observed that
similar political strife, albeit between rival kingdoms rather than religious groups, had allowed
third-century Aksum to intervene militarily in South Arabia. As an indication of the radically
altered role of religion in South Arabian politics, a foreign source, the Syriac Book of the
imyarites, claims that the persecution of Christians by the Jewish imyarites was the leading
cause of the Aksumite invasion of South Arabia in 518 during the reign of Klb. Rather than
accepting at face value the claim made in the Book of the imyarites that the Aksumites invaded
South Arabia solely to liberate their persecuted coreligionists, we will take a different approach
which views sectarian strife as a political situation which Aksum sought to exploit for its own
advantage.
If Klb was only too willing to be seen as a liberator of imyars Christians, he was
equally insistent on re-establishing Aksumite political influence in South Arabia as a way of
restoring Aksums lost Arabian empire. To that end, Klb emulated not only the titles asserting
rule over Saba and imyar borne by his fourth-century ancestors Ousanas and zn, but also

110

the contrived musnad script through use of which those kings had attempted to give a South
Arabian cast to their inscriptions. The idea of irredentist warfare in the context of African
history, to which Reid has recently drawn attention,
83
provides a useful point of departure for the
study of Aksumite military expansion in the reign of Klb, as well as a corrective to previous
scholarship which has treated the entire sixth-century Aksumite experience in South Arabia as a
side-show of the larger Romano-Ssnid war. As we will see, nothing in the available Syriac,
South Arabian, or Geez sources suggests that Rome played any role in the Aksumite invasion of
imyar under Klb in 518. Likewise, whereas Klbs second invasion of imyar seven years
later is documented by such Graeco-Roman authors as Procopius, John Malalas, and the
anonymous Martyrium Arethae, his first is ignored, much as Graeco-Roman sources pass over in
total silence the third-century Aksumite invasions of South Arabia. That Rome looked favorably
upon the occupation of South Arabia by Christian Ethiopians is evident from these latter sources,
but any Roman hopes of Ethiopian aid in the war against Persia were the product of a period later
than the one we are considering in the present chapter, and were not the driving force of
Aksumite policy in Arabia. Rather, what emerges from the primary sources for the Aksumite
invasion of South Arabia in 518 is the impression that the conflict was strictly between two Red
Sea powers and nothing more. Our approach by no means diminishes the importance of the
Klbs military undertaking in South Arabia; it simply seeks to view it on its own terms.

3.3.1. The First Coming of the Ethiopians in the Book of the imyarites
The Book of the imyarites is an anonymous Syriac codex in the Jacobite or sert script,
copied on Nsn 10, 1243 of the Seleucid Era (=April 10, 932) according to the colophon,
84
but

83
Reid 2007.
84
The Stephanos who, at the beginning and end of the text, asks that the reader pray for him seems to have been the
copyist, not the author, of the text (Detoraki 2007: 40).

111

found quite by accident in the binding of a fifteenth-century Syriac manuscript containing
liturgical texts of the Jacobite church.
85
The manuscript had belonged to a Swedish couple, Mr.
and Mrs. E. G. Wirn of Stocksund, who gave it to Axel Moberg, a professor of Semitic
languages at the University of Lund, who in turn published a facsimile of the text with an
English translation in 1924.
86
The Book of the imyarites contains a table of contents, according
to which the text originally contained 49 chapters, of which no fewer than four were devoted to
Klbs campaign of 518, which it describes as the first of two Ethiopian invasions of South
Arabia, and one which preceded Ysufs rise to power. In the table of contents, the first chapters
are as follows:
87

1) An account telling of the Jews and the wickedness of their faithas through
their separation(tat mawdnt al Ydy w-al bt haymnthn
a(y)k d-ba-psqthn).
2) An account telling of the imyariteswho they are and whence they had first
received Judaism (tat mawd al mry man ennn w-men ayk
qabbel(w) (h)waw qadmt Ydyt).
3) An illustration telling of how Christianity began to be sown in the country of
the imyarites (tawt mawd al d-aykn arryat Krsynt d-tezdara
(h)wt b-atr da-mry).
4) An account telling of how the Bishop Thomas went to the Ethiopians and
informed them that they (i.e., the imyarites) were persecuting the Christians
(tat mawd aykn zel (h)w Tawm epsk lwt Ky w-allep ennn
al mry d-rdpn la-Krsyny).
5) An account telling of the marvelous sign which the Lord showed the
imyarites in the ranks of the Ethiopians (tat mawd al t d-tehr d-
aww Mary la-mry b-sedr da-Ky).

85
Pigulewskaja 1969: 190; Detoraki 2007: 40.
86
Book of the imyarites 1924.
87
Ibid.: 3b (Syriac text).

112

6) An account telling of the first coming of YWN and of the Ethiopians
(tat mawd al metyathn qadmyt d-YWN wa-d-Ky).
7) An account telling of the first departure of the Ethiopians from the land of the
imyarites (tat mawd al mezlathn qadmyt d-Ky men ar da-
mry).
Chapters 5 and 6 seem to have placed in reverse order in the table of contents, an error which the
scribe who copied the manuscript sought to rectify by writing the letter above the entry for
Chapter 6 and a above the entry for Chapter 5. The content of Chapters 5 and 6, insofar as it
can be surmised from the table of contents, seems to bear this out, for the miracle observed by
the imyarites in the midst of the Aksumite army could only have followed the armys arrival in
South Arabia. The enthronement of Madkarib Yafur by the Aksumites alluded to by Simeon of
Bt Arsham in his letter does not appear to have been given a chapter of its own, but would
presumably have been dealt with in Chapter 6 or 7 of the Book of the imyarites. Based at least
on its table of contents, the Book of the imyarites regards the spread of Christianity in South
Arabia as a development which followed the Judaization of imyar. In this it is supported by
epigraphic and archaeological evidence of an indigenous imyarite Jewry as early as the third
century.
88
By contrast, no trace exists of a Christian community as early as this, although
Philostorgius, as we have seen, claims that Theophilus won imyarite converts to Christianity in
the fourth century.
After the table of contents we are faced with major lacunae, for the entire text of the first
six chapters of the Book of the imyarites, and all but the concluding portion of Chapter 7, is
missing from the manuscript. In what little remains of Chapter 7 we already find Ysuf (called
Masrq in the text) at afr, giving the Christians of the city false promises that no harm would

88
See Chapter 1 (1.3).

113

come to them if they simply surrendered the town to him.
89
The missing portion of that chapter
would presumably have given some account of Ysufs rise to power. Since Simeon of Bt
Arsham, based on a letter of Ysuf himself, presents the Jewish king as having come to power
only towards the end of Madkarib Yafurs reign around 522-523, the persecutors of the
Christians during the period before the Aksumite invasion of 518 would have belonged to an
earlier anti-Christian movement. Given that the relevant chapters of the Book of the imyarites
are missing, we have no way of knowing who exactly was involved in such a movement. We
have seen that the Gadla Azqr describes in some detail the persecution of Christians by the
ruling authority in imyar in the reign of Shurabil Yakkf, though this could hardly be the
same instance of persecution alluded to in the Book of the imyarites table of contents. Apart
from the obvious fact that over three decades separate the end of Shurabil Yakkfs reign
around 485 from Klbs invasion of imyar in 518, we have to take into account the reign of
Marthadl
an
Yanf, during which no Jewish inscriptions are known, even as imyarite
Christians received a bishop from Anastasius I. If Marthadl
an
Yanf, whether Christian himself
or not, encouraged the growth of Christianity in imyar, any anti-Christian backlash of the sort
implied in the Book of the imyarites would have occurred after his short-lived regime fell from
power.
As noted in our discussion of the chronology for this period in the previous chapter,
Jacob of Serg refers to the persecution of the Christians of South Arabia in his letter to the
imyarite Christians. Much though one might wish to rely on this letter as an independent source
on the persecutions alluded to in the Book of the imyarites table of contents, its scope is
limited almost entirely to the theological. Since Jacobs intention in writing to the imyarite
Christians was to reassure them at a time of persecution, he undoubtedly saw little need to

89
Book of the imyarites 1924: 7a.

114

recount for them the unpleasant events with which they were only too familiar. Thus, while he
alludes to these different sorrows, together with the various afflictions and continuous
persecutions which you endure every day in your country (ayln a pr am ln mptak
wa-rdpy ammn d-kll ym msaybrn attn b-atarkn),
90
Jacob says nothing of the political
situation at the time. He does, however, provide one very valuable datum in the opening of his
letter, in which he addresses the epistle to the elect athletes,
91
the lovers of true martyrdom, the
admirable and the strong, the servants of God, the true believers, our Christian brethren and the
renowned confessors who are in Najrn, the city of the imyarites (l-atl gaby rmay
zkkt arrrt tmh w-ayltn bday Alh mhaymn br da-b-Nagran mdtt da-
mry).
92
Thus we find that the Christian community of Najrn was singled out once again for
persecution, as it had been in the days of Shurabil Yakkf, and as it would be once more in the
reign of Ysuf. Why this particular community was subjected to so much persecution over the
years is not clear, though it may be that the Christians there were simply more numerous than
elsewhere in South Arabia, and that they therefore attracted more attention from the authorities.
Since the Aksumites are nowhere mentioned in the letter, it can be assumed that Jacob
wrote his epistle before the arrival of the Ethiopian army in 518. As we have seen, Jacob died in
521, two years before a new anti-Christian campaign was initiated by Ysuf, in which case it can
be safely assumed that the period of persecution to which Jacob refers was the same that was
described in Chapter 4 of the Book of the imyarites. Given that no ruler is mentioned in the
letter we can only guess at the identity of those responsible for the persecution to which Jacob

90
Jacob of Serg (ed. Olinder 1952: 87-8).
91
The noun atl, derived from the Greek , is commonly used in Syriac literature as a reference to Christian
martyrs, reflecting a common habit among early Christian authors of referring to martyrs as athletes. On this
phenomenon, see V. C. Pfitzner, Paul and the Agon Motif, Leiden, 1967; I. H. Combes, Nursing Mother, Ancient
Shepherd, Athletic Coach? Some Images of Christ in the Early Church, in Images of Christ, eds. S. E. Porter, M. A.
Hayes, and D. Tombs, London and New York, 1997: 113-25 (esp. 120-3).
92
Jacob of Serg (ed. Olinder 1952: 87).

115

refers. At some later point in time a scribe who penned a slightly variant recension of the letter
added a gloss to the opening of the letter after the words the admirable and the strong (tmh
w-ayltn), writing when the affliction of the persecuting Jewish king compassed them (kad
dr l-hn ln d-rdp malk Yhdy).
93
That this is indeed a later interpolation is obvious
from the fact that the Najrn Christians are here referred to in the third person, whereas Jacob
consistently addresses them in the second person throughout his letter. It may be that the scribe
mistakenly believed that Ysuf was the one responsible for persecuting the imyarite Christians
addressed by Jacob, and felt the need to clarify this point for his readers. However, since Ysuf
did not appear on the scene until 522 in the final part of Madkarib Yafurs reign, he cannot be
identified with the nameless persecutor during the period in which Jacob was writing. Nor is
Marthadl
an
Yanf a likely candidate, in light of his friendly relations with Christian Aksum and
the improved conditions of South Arabias Christians in his reign. Rather, it would appear that
some king or kings reigned in the period between Marthadl
an
Yanf and Madkarib Yafur and
that it was during that interim period that Jewish and Judaizing elements in imyar came to the
fore once again and resumed the persecution of the Christians.
South Arabian inscriptions are silent on the matter, and it is only from this silence that we
can make a case for a possible upheaval in imyar following Marthadl
an
Yanfs reign.
Although we have no epigraphic evidence of a imyarite king between the reigns of Marthadl
an

Yanf and Madkarib Yafur, the fact that the Aksumites had to intervene and establish
Madkarib on the throne suggests that the transition between the reigns of these two kings was
anything but smooth. Indeed, given that the last inscription attributable to Marthadl
an
s reign
dates to 510, some eight years before the arrival of the Aksumite army, it is not impossible that
Marthadl
an
diedor perhaps was killedlong before Madkarib Yafur came to power. If

93
Ibid.: 87 (n. 6).

116

Marthadl
an
s reign saw a reversal of fortunes for imyars Christians, it may be that the
renewed wave of anti-Christian violence preceding the Aksumite invasion of 518 was part of a
Jewish uprising against Marthadl
an
. The lack of dated inscriptions might in that case be an
indication of internal disorder in imyar. Even if Christians suffered losses during this period
due to the general disorder, rather than simply on account of their religious beliefs as the Book of
the imyarites suggests, Klb would likely have regarded the unsettled conditions across the
Red Sea as an opportunity to establish order in South Arabia by placing a Christian king of his
choice on the throne of afr.
As for the course of the Aksumite invasion itself, none of the available text of Chapter 7
of the Book of the imyarites sheds any light on the subject, nor does it give any indication of
the arrangements which Klb would presumably have made before returning to Ethiopia, such
as the establishment of Madkarib Yafur on the imyarite throne, as well as the stationing of
Ethiopian troops and the building of a church at afr which are referred to in those later parts of
the manuscript which have survived intact. Since the manuscript published by Moberg is the
only known copy of the Book of the imyarites, the lack of these chapters is a serious loss to our
study of the first Aksumite invasion, which is at best alluded to in other literary sources.
Regarding the importance attributed in the Syriac text to this Aksumite invasion and its
implications for the broader history of the late antique Near East nothing definite can be said.
But in her discussion of the documentation of the persecution of South Arabias Christian
community under Ysuf, Detoraki draws attention to a certain interest in Ethiopia on the part of
the anonymous author of the Book of the imyarites and contrasts this with the total lack of any
references to the Roman Empire or any of its rulers in the extant text.
94
Though we should not
lose sight of the fact that the first chapters of the text are missing, the absence of Rome from the

94
Detoraki 2007: 43.

117

surviving text is suggestive of a far more circumscribed vision of the war between Aksum and
imyar than the grand-strategy scenario assumes. To be sure, this largely hagiographical work is
not without its problems, most notably in the matter of Ysufs name, which it mistakenly gives
as Masrq. Misinformation, though, is quite different from a total lack of information, which is
why the absence of Romeand, one must also add, the Ssnid Empirefrom the extant text is
highly problematic for those who would argue, like Vasiliev and Shahid, that the on-going war
between Aksum and imyar in the sixth century was nothing more than a by-product of the
contest between the Roman and Ssnid superpowers for establishing spheres of influence in
Arabia. That Aksum and its ruler, Klb, play such an important role in the Book of the
imyarites suggests instead that, as far as the anonymous Syriac author was concerned, the war,
whether in 518 or in 525, was essentially a conflict between two rival Red Sea powers and
nothing more.
To this point it should be added that even Roman historians state that it was not until after
525, when Klb invaded imyar in person and put an end to Ysufs regime once and for all,
that the Romans began encouraging both Aksum and the Christian regime it had set in place in
South Arabia to take sides with them in the conflict with the Ssnid Empire. The Roman role in
the Aksumite invasion of imyar in 525 had been limited to sending ships to strengthen Klbs
navy and nothing more, with no apparent strings attached and no hint that the invasion was part
of a greater struggle against Ssnid influence in Arabia. While it cannot be totally excluded that
the Romans had similarly assisted Klbs campaign in 518 in some way, the fact that Cosmas
Indicopleustes says nothing of this in his account of his visit to Ethiopia in 518 suggests
otherwise. Indeed, the fact that Cosmas Christian Topography is the only foreign source apart
from the Book of the imyarites which mentions the Aksumite campaign of 518 implies that the

118

conflict between Ethiopia and South Arabia at that time was of little geopolitical interest to
Rome. Even Procopius makes no mention of the campaign in his account of Ethiopian rule in
South Arabia.
Judging from the table of contents of the Book of the imyarites a bishop named Thomas
was responsible for bringing news of the plight of imyars Christians. As far as we can tell, he
is not mentioned in any other text, which makes it impossible to identify him. That he was not a
bishop of Ethiopia is, however, clear from the reference to his having gone to the Ethiopians
(ezal lwt Ky), implying that he was at the time residing somewhere outside Ethiopia,
presumably in South Arabia. Likewise, Thomas does not appear to have been the bishop of
Najrn, which figures in the Gadla Azqr as an important Christian center in the reign of
Shurabil Yakkf, and also figures prominently in the Greek and Syriac accounts of Ysufs
anti-Christian campaign. The anonymous Syriac letter published by Shahid names only two
bishops of Najrn, both named Paul and both consecrated by Philoxenus of Mabbg (d. 523).
95

The letter states that they were both dead by the time of Ysufs attack on Najrn, dated by the
Greek Martyrium Arethae and the anonymous letter to the autumn of 523,
96
and that Ysufs
troops exhumed the bones of the first Paul and burned them together with the still living second
bishop named Paul.
97
This first bishop Paul is stated in the letter to have been the first bishop of
Najrn (epsqp qadmy l-Ngran),
98
leaving no place for a putative Bishop Thomas before
him. The same letter mentions two Thomases among the Christians of the aramawt who were
killed by Ysufs troops, but confers on both the title of priest (qa), not bishop (epsqp).
99

That he cannot be identified with any bishop from Najrn need not trouble us here, for though

95
Shahid 1971: vi-vii.
96
Martyrium Arethae XX.34-5; Shahid 1971: iv (Syriac text).
97
Shahid 1971: vi-vii.
98
Ibid.
99
Ibid.: iv-v.

119

the Gadla Azqr describes Jewish imyarite attacks on Najrn Christians, it should not be
assumed that such attacks were limited to Najrn, and it may well be the case that Thomas was
the bishop of another town in South Arabia, such as afr. In light of the inscription of Sheg
and his sons from Bayt al-Ashwal (ZM 679=Ga 32), one cannot help but wonder whether Klb
was not also motivated in part to take up arms to defend the Aksumite expatriate community in
imyar. He does not, however, appear to have led his army in person, but rather to have
delegated the task to an individual whom the Book of the imyarites calls YWN. This same
individual appears in Klbs inscription from Aksum (RIE 191), to which we will now turn our
attention.

3.3.2. Klbs Inscription from Aksum: RIE 191
Klbs inscription from Aksm (RIE 191), written in unvocalized Geez, is of vital
importance in that it is both the first Aksumite historical inscription since the reign of zn
and, more importantly for the subject at hand, the only Aksumite source dealing with Klbs
military activities in South Arabia. Though RIE 191 treats the campaign of 518 in only the most
laconic manner, the inscription is innovative in its explicitly Biblical opening in line 1 with the
words of Psalm 23:8:
100
God, strong and powerful; God, strong in battle (GZBR HYL W-
N GZBR HYL WST B=gzbr hayyl wa-n gzbr hayyl wsta ab).
101

This is followed by a lengthy invocation of God and Christ:
By the power of God and the grace of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Victorious
in whom I have believed, Who has given me a strong kingdom with which I might
subdue my enemies and tread upon the heads of my adversaries, Who has
protected me since my childhood and placed me on the throne of my fathers. I
have taken refuge in Christ that I might prosper on all of my paths and live
through that which pleases my soul, and with the aid of the Trinity, the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Ghost.

100
The number of the citation is that of the Septuagint, on which the Geez Bible is based.
101
Bernard et al. 1991: 272 (lines 1-2).

120

(B-HYL GZBR W-B-MWGS YSS KR[S]TS WLD GZBR MW Z-MK
BT [D]-WT WHBN MNGT N B-Z GRR RY W-KYD RST LTY D-
WT QBN M-NSY W-BRN WST MNBR BWY TMNK HBH L-KRSTS
KM SR B-KL FNWY W-YW B-Z YDM L-NFSY W-B-RDT L-LS L-B
W-WLD W-MNFS QDS=ba-hayla gzbr wa-ba-mgasa yss Krsts
walda gzbr za-amank bt za-wt wahaban mangta na ba-za
grr arya wa-akayyd arsta altya za-wt aqaban m-nsya
wa-a[n]baran wsta manbara abawya tamank habh la-Krsts kama
ssar ba-k
w
ll fannwya wa-yaw ba-za yddm la-nafsya wa-ba-
radt la-lls ab wa-wald wa-manfas qdds).
102


This is the first occasion on which explicitly Christian references are made in a Geez text.
During the reign of zn, the first Christian king of Aksum, it is only Greek inscriptions that
begin with the words In the faith in God and the power of the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit, to Him who has protected my kingdom for me by the faith in His Son Jesus Christ (E
o o o o o o o
o o o o Io Xo).
103
In his Geez inscriptions, by contrast,
zn refers to the Christian deity only as a vague Lord of Heaven, Who is in Heaven and [on]
Earth, the Victorious (hayla gza samy za-ba samy wa-mdr maw), with no mention of
Christ or the Trinity. The appearance of these Christian ideas in monumental Geez inscriptions
for the first time in the reign of Klb may well owe a great deal to the translation of the Bible
from Greek into Geez, probably during the sixth century,
104
as a result of which religious

102
Ibid.: lines 2-5.
103
RIE 271: 1-4 (Bernard et al.: 1991: 265).
104
A sixth-century date for the translation of the Bible into Geez is likely given that no quotations of the Bible in
Geez exist before that date. That the Greek Septuagint was the basis for the earliest translation has been argued on
the grounds that the Geez Bible contains numerous transliterations from Greek, as well as mistakes which can be
explained only in terms of Greek, which attest to the use of Greek as the point of departure for Biblical translation
into Geez (Knibb 1999: 19). Given that Greek enjoyed a special status as a written language in Aksumite Ethiopia,
finding translators for the Bible would not have been difficult during the sixth century. Since there is no evidence for
the knowledge or use of Greek in post-Aksumite times, any translation from Greek into Geez, at least within
Ethiopia, would had to have been undertaken during the Aksumite period. That a Greek Vorlage was used for the
translation of the Bible into Geez during the sixth century receives support from the attestation of the enclitic ssa
in RIE 195:II from Mrib, thought to date from the reign of Klb, in which it is used for fronting major sentence
constitutents in Biblical quotations (Gragg 2008: 234). In such cases ssa corresponds to the Greek constructions
and (ibid.).

121

concepts formerly expressed in Greek found a new medium.
105
The quotation of Psalm 23:8 in
the opening lines of RIE 191 indicates that this portion at least of the Bible had been translated
by Klbs time. This is supported by the quotation of other Psalms in a Geez inscription from
Mrib which seems to also date from Klbs reign.
106
Such a quotation is significant as well in
that it casts warfare in a religious light, allowing the Aksumite king to characterize the enemies
of his realm not merely as rebels, as they are portrayed in earlier inscriptions, but as enemies of
God Himself. A first step had thus been taken towards formulating an Aksumite ideology of holy
war, the full impact of which would be felt in the aftermath of Klbs campaign against imyar
in 525.

3.3.2.1. Klb as King of South Arabia
In lines 7 to 10 we encounter the first South Arabian references in the inscription with the
words I am Klb Ella-Abe, son of Tzn, a man of [the clan of] Lzn, King of Aksum
and imyar and Dh-Raydn and Saba and Saln and awd
um
and Yamant and the Tihma
and aramawt and all of their Arabs, and of the Beja and the Nubians and the Kushites and
eym and the DRBT
107
(N KLB L B WLD TZN BS LZN NG KSM W-MR W-Z-
RYDN W-SB W-SLN W-DM W-Z-YMNT W-THMT W-RMWT W-KL RBM W-Z-
BG W-NB W-Z-KS W-YM W-Z-DRBT=ana Klb lla-Ab walda Tzn bsya

105
Based on the different wording of Greek and Geez inscriptions, Caquot and Nautin (1970: 273) speculate that
the vaguer monotheism alluded to in Geez reflects a desire on zns part to express his Christian faith in a more
acceptable manner to his still mostly pagan subjects, an interpretation which Bernard follows (Bernard 2000: 19).
While this is possible, the likelihood that, as in most pre-industrial societies, only a small minority of zns
subjects would have been able to read in the first place makes the hypothesis advanced by Caquot and Nautin
relevant only for the literate elite of Aksum. Moreover, the fact that, upon converting to Christianity, zn
replaced the pagan moon-disc and crescent on his coins with the cross indicates that the king had no qualms about
advertising his faith, particularly when one considers that Aksumite coins are found not only in the residences of
Aksums elite but also in the residential areas of humbler folk, whom one would imagine to have been the main
repositories of traditional, pre-Christian Aksumite culture.
106
See Chapter 2.
107
This last group remains unidentified; hence the vocalization of the name is unknown.

122

Lzn nga Aksm wa-mr wa-za-Rayd wa-Sab wa-Saln wa-awdam wa-Yamant
wa-Thmt wa-aramawt wa-k
w
ll Arabm wa-za-Bg wa-Nb wa-za-Ks wa-eym
wa-DRBT).
108
This titulature is of great interest for two reasons. For one, it proves that the Klb
of Ethiopian tradition is identical with the Ella-Abe known from Greek sources in such
forms as E, E, and Eo.
109
Christian Ethiopians have long had the
tradition of bearing two names, a world nameusually an epithet or descriptive appellation
given to a child at birth and a Christian name bestowed upon baptism.
110
If this tradition was
already observed in the sixth century, it could be that Ella-Abe (literally, he who has
brought the dawn) was the kings world name, while Klb, being a good Biblical name
( ), was his Christian name given upon his baptism. Alternatively, Klb could have been the
kings throne-name, which Ethiopian rulers in later centuries assumed at the time of their
coronation.
111
Klbs titulature, as presented in RIE 191, is also important in that it indicates
that the king was far better informed about the imyarite royal titles of his day than his fourth-
century predecessors Ousanas and zn and thus bespeaks a direct acquaintance with
imyarite royal protocol. While the latter two were, as we have seen, content to style themselves
kings of South Arabia using titles which do not correspond to any known imyarite royal titles,
Klb appended to his titulature toponyms and ethnonyms derived directly from the so-called
very long title borne by imyarite kings beginning in the latter part of the reign of Abkarib
Asad (c. 400-450): King of Saba and Dh-Raydn and aramawt and Yamant and their

108
Bernard et al. 1991: 272 (lines 7-10).
109
Schneider 1974: 773.
110
Walker 1933: 7-8. Traditionally, baptism of male childrenand thus the bestowal of the childs Christian
nametakes place on the fortieth day after birth, while the baptism of female children takes place on the eightieth
day after birth (ibid.: 4). Whether this was common practice in Aksumite times is unknown.
111
Shack 1974: 39.

123

Arabs of the awd and the Tihma (MLK SB W-D-RYD
n
W-RMWT W-YMNT W-
RBHMW WD
m
W-THMT).
Klbs status a king of Aksum, however, necessitated a modification of the very long
royal title of imyar to accommodate the names of the African peoples over whom the
Aksumites ruled. For the purposes of the present study we will concern ourselves with the South
Arabian references in Klbs title. As observed in the first chapter,
112
neither Saln nor imyar
occur in the titles of any South Arabian rulers, though they are consistently attested in the titles
borne by Ousanas and zn back in the fourth century. This fact, and the fact that Klbs
inscription is written not in the vocalized fdal used as early as zns reignand indeed used
as well in the Geez inscriptions datable to Klbs reign from South Arabia itselfbut in the
musnad script employed by Ousanas and zn before the creation of the Geez syllabary
during the latter kings reign, suggest that Klb wished to be seen not just as a king of imyar
but as the heir to the glorious era of his fourth-century predecessors. Even the orthography of
those parts of Klbs title which are based on the very long title of the imyarite kings is
heavily affected by Ethiopicisms. Thus the Sabaic relative pronoun D- in Dh-Raydn is written
Z- in accordance with Geez orthography (za-), and is bestowed as well upon Yamant, which in
Sabaic is never prefixed by D-. The transcription of the Sabaic RBHMW, their Arabs as
RBM in the unvocalized Geez of RIE 191 is also in keeping with Geez orthography, according
to which the possessive suffix of the third person plural is invariably m, in contrast to the
Sabaic HMW.




112
1.5.

124

3.3.2.2. YN SLBN Z-SMR: The Leader of the Aksumite Invasion
After describing Klbs victories over such African foes as the Ag
w
zt of the
northeastern Ethiopian Highlands, the text appears to describe a similar campaign across the Red
Sea in South Arabia in lines 34 to 36. Of the text of lines 34 and 35, WT WHBN SM BY [K]M
B MR W-FNWK YN SLBN Z-SMR MSL ZBY W-TKLK MQDS B-MR,
113
the first
part can be reconstructed with reasonable certainty as wt wahaban sma abya [ka]ma
b mr, He granted me great renown
114
that I might fight imyar. Since the previous
line contains the words God gave me this which He had (ZNT WHBN GZ BR Z-
KYH=zanta wahaban gzbr za-kyh),
115
we can be sure that God was intended as the
one who gave Klb his great renown in line 34. Though the word following BY is damaged,
its plausible reconstruction by Bernard et al. as KM (kama),
116
in order that, means that B
can only be read as b, the subjunctive form of abb, I fight/will fight, and not, as
Schneider suggested in his initial publication of RIE 191, ab, the broken plural of ab
(war, battle, campaign).
117
[K]M B MR can thus be vocalized as kama b mr,
that I might fight imyar. Support for this reading comes from the vocalized Geez
inscriptions from Yemen, with which we shall deal in Chapter 7, wherein mr is given as the
name for imyar. The lack of a /Y/ in RIE 191 to indicate a mater lectionis for the long vowel
// in mr is not a problem, since the name is as a rule written MR in unvocalized Geez
inscriptions from the fourth century.

113
Bernard et al. 1991: 273.
114
Or perhaps, He gave me a great name.
115
Bernard et al. 1991: 273.
116
Ibid.
117
Schneider 1974: 776.

125

The next few words in line 35 of RIE 191, W-FNWK YN SLBN Z-SMR MSL
ZBY,
118
eluded scholars for some time, but are crucial in understanding the historical and
chronological contact of the inscription. Since W-FNWK can easily be read as wa-fannawk,
and I sent, and MSL ZBY as msla azbya, with my troops, the portion of text in
between YN SLBN Z-SMRwould presumably be a proper name. Such a possibility
initially escaped Schneider, who in his publication of RIE 191 in 1974 could make out only W-
FNWK .YN ..N ZSMR MSL BY,
119
noting only that la premire moiti de la ligne est de
lecture douteuse.
120
Four years later, Drewes published a new reading, W-FNWK YN ..BN Z-
SMR MSL ZBY, and drew attention to the similarity of YN to the name YWN preserved
in the Book of the imyarites.
121
This YWN is mentioned in the table of contents in the latter
text in the title of a chapter: An account telling of the first coming of YWN and of the
Ethiopians (tat d-mawd al metaythn qadmayt d-YWN wa-d-Ky).
122
Since the
chapter itself is missing from the sole extant manuscript of the Book of the imyarites, it is
difficult to determine who this YWN was. Shahids suggestion that the Syriac YWN
() is a mistranscription of (the venerable or simply the bishop) which he takes
to be an epithet for the Bishop Thomas whom the preceding chapter of the Book of the
imyarites claims to have first informed the Aksumites of Ysufs persecutions,
123
is highly
unlikely. To begin with, such a hypothesis leaves unanswered the question as to why Thomas
would be referred to by name in one chapter but only by an epithet in another. Secondly, the
identity of the YWN of the Book of the imyarites can be cross-referenced, independently of

118
Bernard et al. 1991: 273.
119
Schneider 1974: 772.
120
Ibid.: 776.
121
Drewes 1978.
122
Book of the imyarites 1924: 3 (Syriac text).
123
Shahid 1971: 146.

126

RIE 191, with Arabic sources. While Jabbr ( or ) appears in al-abar as a South
Arabian Christian who went to Ethiopia to seek the help of the Aksumite king against the
imyarite Jews,
124
and in the Arabic version of the Martyrium Arethae as the traveling
companion of a son of the Najrn martyr al-rith on the mission to Ethiopia,
125
this name can
also be read as ayyn (), and in fact appears as such in variants to al-abars text.
126

Orthographically this poses no problems for our identification of this individual with the
YWN of the Book of the imyarites and the YN of RIE 191, since the unvocalized Geez of
RIE 191 does not indicate long vowels, while the /w/ () in the Syriac YWN can be explained
as a mater lectionis. If this identification is correct, then the campaign against imyar which RIE
191 states was dispatched by Klb under YN is identical with the first coming of the
Aksumite army to South Arabia in 518.
As they are considerably later in date than the Book of the imyarites and RIE 191, the
Arabic sources have preserved only an imperfect memory of the campaign of 518. To begin
with, the ayyn in al-abar and the Arabic Martyrium is treated not as the leader of this
campaign but as an individual who brought to Ethiopia the news of the persecution of his fellow
Christians. In this he seems to have assumed the role attributed to Bishop Thomas in Chapter 4
of the Book of the imyarites. Secondly, both al-abar and the Arabic Martyrium present Dh
Nuws (=Ysuf Asar Yathar) as the imyarite ruler at the time of ayyns visit to Ethiopia,
when we know from epigraphic sources that Ysuf did not come to power until around 522, four
years after Klbs first campaign against imyar. One might seek to explain away this
inconsistency by hypothesizing that ayyn, in addition to leading the Aksumite troops against
imyar in 518, also brought news to Klb concerning the renewed imyarite persecution of

124
Al-abar 1961: II: 123.
125
Martirio di Areta 29.5 (2006: 72 [Arabic text], 73 [Italian translation, A. Bausi]).
126
Al-abar 1961: II: 123 (n. 1); Drewes 1978: 29.

127

Christians under King Ysuf in 522-3. One might in that case cite as evidence the title of the
chapter of the Book of the imyarites which refers to the campaign of 518 as the the first coming
of not only the Ethiopians but also of YWN. This would imply that YWN came back a
second time, perhaps in the Aksumite campaign of 525. Against such a hypothesis, it should be
pointed out that, though it is not inconceivable that ayyn was responsible for informing the
Aksumites of the renewed anti-Christian campaign in in South Arabia in 522-3, the Book of the
imyarites knows of YWN only in connection with Klbs first campaign, and none of the
other sixth-century sources which describe in detail the second campaign and the events leading
up to it make any mention of ayyn. Rather, these sources are unanimous in stating that it was
Klb himself who led the campaign of 525. Indeed the reference to the first coming of
YWN with the Ethiopians in the Book of the imyarites table of content is a bit ambiguous,
given that no reference is made in either the table of contents or the extant text of the narrative to
a second coming of YWN. It could be that by the first coming of YWN and of the
Ethiopians the Syriac author meant only that the campaign of 518 marked the Aksumites first
military venture in imyar during the sixth century, and that YWN happened to be part of it.
As for the claim made in Arabic sources that ayyn was responsible for relaying to
Aksum the news of the persecution of imyars Christians by Ysuf in 522-3, this would seem
to be a medieval innovation and not the product of a corpus of authentic historical material
dating back to the sixth century. While ayyn b. Fay makes his first (and only) appearance in
Chapter 29 of the Arabic version of the Martyrium Arethae just before the Romans sent ships for
Klbs campaign against imyar in 525,
127
he is absent from the corresponding passage in the
original Greek text on which the Arabic version is based. Indeed, the Greek Urtext makes no
mention of a ayyn at any point. Since Arabic sources know of only one Aksumite war with

127
Martirio di Areta 29.5 (2006: 72 [Arabic text], 73 [Italian translation, A. Bausi]).

128

imyar, that against Dh Nuws, it would appear that in Arabic tradition the two Aksumite
invasions of imyar in the reign of Klb were collapsed into one, as a result of which ayyn,
involved with the campaign of 518, came to be grafted onto the period of Ysufs renewed
persecution of the South Arabian Christian community. Thus, our argument that the invasion of
imyar mentioned in RIE 191 is identical with the first coming of the Ethiopians in 518 would
still stand.
But there is another problem presented by the Arabic sources in that al-abar relates an
alternative tradition according to which the imyarite Christian who brought to Ethiopia the
news of his coreligionists suffering was named Daws Dh-Thalabn. Citing a tradition
preserved by Ibn Isq, al-abar says that Daws took his case to the Roman emperor (qayar)
himself, only to be told that Yemen was too remote for him to send his army, but that he would
write instead to the king of Ethiopia (malik al-abasha), calling on him to avenge the persecuted
Christians of imyar.
128
But a variant tradition attributed by al-abar to Hishm b. Muammad
al-Kalb states that an anonymous man of Najrn went to Ethiopia directly to seek the help of the
Aksumite king.
129
This latter tradition is a bit confused in matters of nomenclature, for it gives
Daws as the name of a Najrn Jew who brought to Dh Nuws a report that the Christians of
Najrn had wrongfully killed two sons of his, as a result of which the imyarite king attacked
the town. On the other hand, Hishm b. Muammad presents a more plausible scenario than Ibn
Isq in his assertion that, following Dh Nuwss attack on Najrn, the Christian Najrn
messenger went not to Rome but across the Red Sea to Ethiopia.
As Daws is known to us only from later Arabic sources, one would be tempted to dismiss
him altogether as another medieval innovation were it not for the fact that his clan name,

128
Al-abar 1961: II: 124-5.
129
Ibid.: 123-4.

129

Thalabn, does suggest a certain similarity to the SLBN element in the name of ayyn given in
line 35 of RIE 191: YN SLBN Z-SMR. Could it be that SLBN is nothing more than a faulty
transcription of Thalabn? We have seen that Arabic tradition is not at all consistent in the
names it gives to the individuals associated with the persecution of South Arabias Christians. In
some cases it is ayyn b. Fay who brings news of the persecutions to Ethiopia, while in others
it is Daws Dh-Thalabn; and in one case Daws is presented not as a Christian messenger to the
Christian rulers of Rome and Ethiopia but as a Jewish messenger to the imyarite king! Yet
another tradition, recorded by the scholar-sultan of medieval Yemen Umar b. Ysuf (647/1250-
694/1295), goes so far as to make Daws Dh-Thalabn a king (malik) of Najrn.
130
One point
worthy of note, though, is that ayyn b. Fay belongs to a separate set of traditions from those
involving Daws Dh-Thalabn. The two never appear in the same tradition, in the way that
ayyn b. Fay is said to have traveled to Ethiopia in the company of a son of the Najrn al-
rith, for example.
131
It could be argued that with the traditions about ayyn b. Fay and
Daws Dh-Thalabn we are dealing with nothing more than two names for the same person,
ayyn (Dh-)Thalabn, and that this is the same as the YN SLBN named in RIE 191. It is
not at all inconceivable that the corruption of his name over time led to the creation of two
individuals in Arabic tradition, one a ayyn b. Fay, the other a Daws Dh-Thalabn, as this
very phenomenon has been noted in the treatment of other figures of South Arabian history in
medieval Arabic sources.
132


130
Umar b. Ysuf 1949: 48.
131
There is no evidence that the Arabic translator of the Martyrium Arethae identified ayyns traveling
companion with Daws, as the son of al-rith who journeys to Ethiopia with ayyn remains nameless in the
account.
132
Out of the name of the early third-century Sabaean king Alhn Nahfn, al-Hamdn created two kings, Alhn
and Nahfn (Robin 2005 (b): 25, 38). Al-abars older contemporary Ibn Qutayba might occupy a neutral position
in that he gives Dh-Thalabn alone as the name of the South Arabian Christian who went to Ethiopia to raise
awareness of the plight of his coreligionists (Ibn Qutayba 1969: 637), without the Daws element. This could

130

Support for our understanding of YN SLBN in line 35 of RIE 191 as ayyn Thalabn
comes from the transcription of what appears to be the clan-name Thalabn in the Gadla Azqr.
The third chapter of this text notes that, when the imyarite king Shurabl Yakkf sent Azqr
back to his Christian kin (azmdh Krstiyn) in Najrn, he wrote to two governors who
resided in Najrn, one of whom is called Dh-Thalabn (Za-Slbn), telling them to
condemn Azqr publicly. Medieval tradition regards Thalabn as a imyarite clan,
133
and its
association with the region of Najrn is documented epigraphically, a Dh-Thalabn being
attested in an inscription from Najrn (Ja 857) as well as in graffiti in the desert north of
Najrn.
134
The difference in vocalization between Thalabn and SLBN is not a problem here,
since Geez lacks the phoneme /t/ found in Epigraphic South Arabian and Arabic, and as a rule
uses /s/ in its place. As for the absence of the musnad sign in RIE 191, which corresponds to
the ayin () in Thalabn () and the sign in Slbn (), one explanation could
be that the ayin in Thalabn was omitted in RIE 191 because in Klbs time its Geez
equivalent was beginning to lose its pharyngeal character. Against this, however, it should be
noted that, while this pharyngeal does become in many cases a long vowel in Amharic,
135
we
have no evidence for this in early Geez, in addition to which the original voiced pharyngeal is
preserved as such in Tigr and Tigrinya,
136
the two Ethio-Semitic languages closest to Geez, and
spoken in what used to be the Aksumite heartland.
137
Another, likelier explanation could be that
the Aksumite scribe was working from a handwritten prototype and that, being one of the smaller
letters of the musnad script used in RIE 191, the musnad was simply overlooked during the

represent an earlier body of traditions which remembered the Christian messenger to Ethiopia as belonging to the
Thalabn clan but did not give his personal name.
133
Ibn al-Kalb 1988: II: 535.
134
Robin 2008: 27-8; Rodinson 1970: 179.
135
Thus, for example, the Geez verb saama (), meaning to kiss, becomes sm () in Amharic.
136
As it is as well in Arabic.
137
On a possible example of Tigr influence on sixth-century Geez, see Schneider 1974: 779.

131

carving of the inscription. Since Arabic orthography is of course quite different, such a mistake
would not have occurred when the individual who translated the Gadla Azqr from Arabic into
Geez transcribed Thalabn as Selebn. Such omissions of letters are not uncommon in
monumental Aksumite inscriptions, and in fact an example of this is found in line 5 of RIE
191.
138
Nor is this the only instance of an error in the spelling of a foreign name in a sixth-
century inscription from the southern Red Sea region, for the somewhat later Sabaic inscription
Instanbul 7608 bis renders Klbs alternative royal name Ella-Abe LBH, without the
necessary .
139

Making the ayyn of RIE 191 a Thalabnid on the basis of his surname SLBN poses
no problems from the point of view of South Arabian history. Despite the role played by
Shurabl Yakkfs Thalabnid governor in the Christian persecutions of the mid-fifth century,
other members of the clan appear to have been either Christian or at least favorably disposed
toward Christians for, according to the Sabaic inscription Instanbul 7608 bis, several members of
the Thalabn assisted the Aksumite army in its conquest of imyar in 525.
140
According to
Umar b. Rasl, Thalabn al-Akbar was one of the noble imyarite clans which provided qayls,
i.e. the tribal leaders who acted as intermediaries between the tribes and the ruling power.
141
If
this is an accurate reflection of conditions in sixth-century imyar, it could be that our ayyn
was of noble birth.
As for the remaining part of ayyns name given in RIE 191, this may in fact not be
part of his name at all but rather an epithet, Dh-Shamr, transcribed in unvocalized Geez as Z-
SMR. This hypothesis was first advanced by Rodinson on the basis of the toponym MR,

138
In that instance,anbaran, he set me [on the throne], is written BRN. Though this could reflect an assimilation
of the /n/ to the /b/, such a phenomenon is otherwise not attested in Geez.
139
See Chapter 6 (6.2).
140
(6.2).
141
Umar b. Rasl 1949: 49.

132

corresponding to the present-day Shamr in the Yemeni Tihma.
142
If ayyn held some sort of
authority at Shamr, the fact that he led Klbs troops in the invasion of imyar in 518 may
explain why Shamr was one of the places whose fortresses (MN) were attacked by Ysuf
sometime in 522, according to the imyarite inscription Ry 507 from Bir im.
143

Acknowledging the speculative nature of such a line of reasoning, one could posit that ayyn,
if not himself from Shamr, had held some sort of administrative or military office there, and
that, when the Christians of imyar were faced with persecution following Marthadl
an
Yanfs
death or fall from power he turned to Aksum for help.
It would appear, then, that YN SLBN Z-SMR, though regarded in both RIE 191 and the
Book of the imyarites as the leader of the Aksumite invasion of South Arabia in 518, was of
South Arabian, not Ethiopian, origin. The hypotheses advanced above for associating him with
the clan-name Thalabn and the town of Shamr must, however, remain tentative in light of the
lack of any mention of him by name in South Arabian inscriptions, by which one might cross-
reference RIE 191. Though cognate names like YW and YW
m
are attested in Sabaic
inscriptions,
144
we have no matches for our YN SLBN Z-SMR. The Book of the imyarites,
however, refers to two ayyns in connection with Najrn, but spells their name ()
145

differently from that of the YWN ()
146
referred to in the table of contents in connection
with Klbs first invasion of South Arabia. These two ayyns are mentioned by a Christian
woman from Najrn named aba (cf. Arabic afa) who, at the time when Ysuf was killing
the towns Christians, told the Jewish king, I am the daughter of ayyn, son of the family of
ayyn the Great, through whose hands Our Lord sowed Christianity in our land (en barteh-

142
Rodinson 1965 (b): 134; cf. Beaucamp et al. 1999-2000: 39-40 (n. 102).
143
See Chapter
144
Tairan 1992: 105-6.
145
Book of the imyarites 1924: 32b.
146
Ibid.: 3b.

133

n d-ayyn bar arbteh d-ayyn rabb haw d-b-d dleh zra mran Krsynt b-atran).
147

Memory of ayyn the Great may be preserved in the Chronicle of Seert, which attributes the
conversion of imyar to a merchant named annn who lived in the days of Yazdegird I (399-
421),
148
annn (

) being perhaps a mistranscription of ayyn (). This merchant, says the

chronicle, had gone to Constantinople before traveling to the Ssnid Empire. It was in the latter
region that he came to the Lakhmid capital of al-ra, where he made the acquaintance of some
Christians and was baptized, after which he brought others to his new-found faith and then, with
their help, converted imyar and the regions near Ethiopia to Christianity (ittaala bihi qawm
wanhu al naql ahl imyar wa-nawiyahu al-muqriba li-balad al-abasha il l-
Narniyya).
149

That reference to a Christian evangelist named ayyn is already made in a sixth-century
work like the Book of the imyarites strengthens our confidence in at least this portion of the
Chronicle of Seert. Granted, the Chronicle of Seert gives a very different account of the
evangelization of South Arabia from that presented in the Gadla Azqr, which knows of no
ayyn. The spread of Christianity in South Arabia was, however, undoubtedly the result of
efforts by many individuals, and if one accepts the accounts given in both the Chronicle of Seert
and the Gadla Azqr as historical, these might indicate nothing more than parallel developments,
not incompatible stories. As we have seen, the Gadla Azqr, though attributing Najrns
conversion to Azqr in the reign of Shurabil Yakkf (c. 465-485), describes the town as
already full of bishops, priests, deacons, and monks, suggesting a longer period of
Christianization which may well have extended as far back as the time of Yazdegird I some
decades earlier. As for the account of the life of annn/ayyn given in the Chronicle of Seert,

147
Ibid.: 32b.
148
Nesorian Chronicle (=Chronicle of Seert) 1910: 330-1.
149
Ibid.: 331.

134

the text, while stating that the merchant spent time in the land of Najrn of Yemen (kna f ar
Najrn al-Yaman),
150
also emphasizes his activities in the regions near Ethiopia, suggesting a
more southerly locale.
151

In the Book of the imyarites, aba says of her father, named ayyn after the familys
illustrious ancestor, only that he had at one point burned the synagogues of the imyarite Jews
(awqed ba-zban bt kntkn).
152
Given the different spelling of the names, it is not clear if this
latter ayyn is the same individual as the YWN mentioned in the texts table of contents
and thus the YN SLBN Z-SMR of RIE 191. The time-frame is correct, and if the Aksumite
campaign of 518 was presented by Klb, at least to the Christians of South Arabia, as a
campaign for their liberation as well as for the punishment of the Jews, one would expect the
destruction of synagogues to have taken place, all the more so in that the same course of action
was taken by Klb in his subsequent campaign of 525. But since abas family had age-old
ties to Najrn, making YN SLBN her father would imply that he too was from Najrn. It has
been argued above that the name Thalabn is preserved in the name of a Najrn official
mentioned in the Gadla Azqr as Za-Slbn, but since that man is said to have aided the Jews
of South Arabia and their friends among the imyarite elite against the local Christians it is
unlikely that he shared more than a tribal affiliation with YN SLBN, which need not imply that
the latter was from Najrn. The Arabic translation of the Martyrium Arethae regards ayyn b.
Fay as a Najrn,
153
but since this work, like other Arabic sources but unlike the Greek text on
which it is based, appears to have grafted this ayyn onto a period later than the one in which
he was active, it hardly qualifies as a reliable source. At the very least the fact that the leader of

150
Ibid.: 330.
151
The regions near Ethiopia could be the Farasn Islands or even Soqotra, both of which had Christian populations
since pre-Islamic times.
152
Book of the imyarites 1924: 32b.
153
Martirio di Areta 29.5 (2006: 72 [Arabic text], 73 [Italian translation, A. Bausi]).

135

the Aksumite campaign of 518 bore the name ayyn gives this otherwise opaque individual a
bit of local color as the bearer of the name of an early Christian evangelist in South Arabia.
In drawing our discussion of the identity of RIE 191s YN SLBN Z-SMR to a close, we
can conclude from the available evidence that he is the same as the YWN known from the
table of contents of the Book of the imyarites and that he is the basis of the individual known to
the Arabic sources as ayyn b. Fay. We can tentatively interpret his name as given in RIE 191
as ayyn Thalabn of Shamr, allowing us to identify him as not an Aksumite but a native
South Arabian with ties, at least through his Thalabnid origins, to Najrn and the possibility of
some sort of connection with the town of Shamr in the Yemeni Tihma. In the process of his
transformation by the Arabic sources, however, his original role as the leader of the Aksumite
invasion of imyar in 518 was quite forgotten, and he became a mere messenger to Ethiopia on
behalf of South Arabias Christiansand then during the period of persecutions initiated by
Ysuf in 522, not the earlier wave of persecutions preceding the Aksumite invasion in 518. In
that regard ayyn would appear to have assumed the role given in the Book of the imyarites to
Bishop Thomas. Although we have no specific references to his religious affiliations in what
little material survives, ayyn can be confidently assumed to have been a Christian, if only
because of the highly parochial character of the conflict between Aksum and imyar, as a result
of which one could hardly expect Klb to have entrusted a military expedition to South Arabia
to anyone but a Christian. Sending an army to imyar under the leadership of ayyn seems in
fact to have been the limit of Klbs role in this expedition, for there is no indication in RIE 191
that the Aksumite king accompanied his troops across the Red Sea. The identification of YN
SLBN Z-SMR with the YWN of the Book of the imyarites is of considerable importance for
establishing a chronological context for the events described in RIE 191. Since this individuals

136

involvement in the subsequent Aksumite invasion in 525 is not mentioned in any of the available
sources, his appearance in RIE 191 allows us to date this inscription to the immediate aftermath
of the invasion of 518.
Before examining the remaining portion of RIE 191 which deals with South Arabia, it
may be worth pausing to consider what this inscription does not tell us about the campaign of
518. Though Madkarib Yafur is known from his own inscriptions in Sabaic as well as from
Syriac sources regarding the Najrn martyrs, he is not mentioned once in RIE 191, despite the
fact that the non-royal ayyn is referred to by name. This apparent paradox is easily explained
by Klbs wish to claim imyar for Aksum, a claim which is emphasized by his adoption of a
modified form of the very long imyarite royal title, but which he may have felt would be
undermined by any reference to delegating direct administrative duties to a local prince like
Madkarib. This is why RIE 191 gives no indication of what sort of provisions Klb made for
the maintenance of order in imyar following his campaign.
From references in Syriac sources to a contingent of armed Ethiopians at afr when
Ysuf came to power, it would appear that Klb established an Aksumite military presence at
the imyarite capital to protect Madkarib and the local Christian community. The Book of the
imyarites refers to no fewer than three hundred warriors (tltm abday qrb) in the company
of the Ethiopian archbishop of afr,
154
which is close enough to the 280 Ethiopians whom
Ysuf boasts of killing in his letter to al-Mundhir, as preserved by Simeon of Bt Arsham, to
suggest the these warriors were of Ethiopian origin, though in the latter epistle it is stated that the
Ethiopian community consisted of monks as well as laymen (gabr bnay qym w-lmy).
155

Another reference to this or perhaps other contingents of Ethiopian troops in South Arabia is

154
Book of the imyarites 1924: 7b (Syriac text).
155
Guidi: 2 (Syriac text).

137

preserved in the anonymous Syriac letter, according to which the so-called ezb were among
the recipients, together with aramawt, Saba, Yamant, and Najrn, of Ysufs proclamation
announcing his seizure of power and demanding allegiance.
156
ezb is clearly related to the
Geez ezb, whose plural form, azb (Sabaic ZB) was the term used in South Arabian
inscriptions from the third century uniquely to refer to Ethiopian war bands.
157
Though the
singular form ezb is not attested in any such inscription, no other community is referred to by
this term in South Arabian records, and its use during the sixth century is attested in RIE 191 in
the form ZBY (=azbeyya), my troops. As we will see in our discussion of Ysufs
campaign against the Christians of South Arabia in the following chapter, the epigraphic and
literary sources give variant figures for the Ethiopians who died at the hand of the Jewish kings
troops, but all agree that they numbered in the hundreds. In light of the Book of the imyarites
and the anonymous letter, some of these Ethiopians would appear to have been part of Klbs
original invasion force which stayed on in order to provide Madkarib with the necessary
support.

3.3.2.3. Building a Church in imyar
Taking 518 (or sometime shortly thereafter) as our date for RIE 191 allows us to assign to
this period the construction of a church in imyar by the Aksumites, referred to in lines 35 and
36 of the inscription. If earlier Aksumite kings like zn were in the habit of erecting symbolic
thrones in foreign territories, the construction of a house of worship in a vanquished region by
Klb is indicative of a shift in Aksumite state ideology, which during his reign came to be
expressed in explicitly Christian terms. We have seen the effects of this ideological shift in the

156
Shahid 1971: iii (Syriac text).
157
Though Aksumite texts use the term azb to refer to non-Ethiopian groups like the Nubians (RIE 189: 7-9;
Bernard et al. 1991: 263), there is no evidence that the Sabaic ZB ever referred to any group other than the
Aksumites.

138

opening lines of RIE 191, wherein Psalm 23:8 is quoted to emphasize divine support for the
Aksumite king in battle. Establishing the location of the church built by Klb in imyar,
however, poses some difficulties, which Syriac and Sabaic references to a church in the
imyarite capital of afr provide no assistance in elucidating. Our aim in the present section is
to resolve this confusion.
That the Ethiopians built a church at afr has long been known. A letter sent by Ysuf
to the Lakhmid king al-Mundhir (III) b. Imrl-Qays, quoted in full by Simeon of Bt Arsham in
his own epistle, mentions a church which the Ethiopians published abroad that they had built in
our country (dt hy d-sabbar(w) (h)waw l-hn da-bnaw b-atran), and which he converted
into a synagogue after killing the Ethiopians whom he found guarding it.
158
Though Ysufs
letter does not explicitly state where the Ethiopians built this church, inscriptions from his reign
(Ry 507, Ry 508, and Ja 1028) locate it at the imyarite capital of afr.
159
According to
Philostorgius, the imyarite kingperhaps Tharn Yuhanim (c. 324-375)
160
whom
Theophilus Indus converted to Christianity built a church in the city,
161
in which case the church
attributed to the Ethiopians may have been a restoration of an earlier structure which had fallen
into disuse or had been destroyed after imyars ruling elite embraced Judaism in the fifth
century. In the area surrounding the modern-day hamlet of afr, remains of what may have
been a church have been tentatively identified in the form of columns and capitals from the hill
of al-Asab and the neighboring village of Mankath, some of which are said to bear Ethiopic

158
Guidi 1881: 2 (Syriac text).
159
See Chapter 2.
160
Robin 2003: 102-3, 154. I find it hard to agree with Robins argument (ibid.: 104) that Philostorgius naffirme
nullement que le souverain imyarite sest converti au christianisme when the ecclesiastical author states quite
clearly that the prince of the [imyarite] nation, by sincere conviction, came over to the true religion (i.e.,
Christianity) (Philostorgius III.4 (tr. E. Walford 1855: 445)). It is true that, as Robin points out, no baptism is
mentioned, though this is no more reason to doubt the imyarite kings conversion than the postponed baptism of
the Roman emperor Constantine on his deathbed in 337 gives us reason to doubt the Roman emperors conversion
twenty-four years earlier.
161
Philostorgius III.4 (tr. E. Walford 1855: 445).

139

monograms.
162
Since, however, Klb is said in the Martyrium Arethae to have built (or
perhaps restored) a church at afr following his defeat of Ysuf in 525,
163
it is impossible to
determine whether the material from afr is derived from this church, or from the earlier one
built by the Ethiopians and mentioned in Ysufs letter to al-Mundhir.
Turning now to RIE 191, we find in lines 35 and 36 the following passage: W-TKLK
MQDS B-MR B-QNL QNY BNT SM WLD GZ BR Z-MNK BT.
164
When
transliterated into vocalized Geez, this passage can be readily seen as referring to the
construction of a church in imyar (wa-takalk maqdasa ba-mr = and I established a
church in imyar), an act which Klb seems to say was for the name of the Son of God, in
whom I have put my faith (ba-nta sma walda gzbr za-amank bt). The exact
location of the church seems to be stated in the phrase which ties these two statements together:
B-QNL QNY. However, the meaning of this is difficult to determine. That QNL is a place-
name is indicated by the preoposition B- (=ba), in, though no such place is known from the
region around afr. In an attempt to identify QNL, Drewes cites Fragment II of RIE 195, the
vocalized Geez inscription from Mrib dated by most scholars to the reign of Klb, the
seventeenth line of which reads nl nga mr sr wa-
165
(? the vanquished king
of imyar and).
166
The -nl element is interpreted by Drewes as the final portion of the
place-name QNL.
167
Drewes further suggests that QNL is to be identified with the port of
Qni on Yemens southern coast, on the grounds of a similarity to Acana, a town at which

162
Fiaccadori 2006: 55.
163
Martyrium Arethae, XXXVIII.3-4.
164
Bernard et al. 1991: 273.
165
Ibid.: 286.
166
Drewes 1978: 30.
167
Ibid.

140

Klb founded no fewer than three churches according to a tenth-century source, the Bios of
Saint Gregentios, and which Drewes identifies with Qni.
168

The trouble with this theory is that RIE 191 refers to the foundation of only one church at
QNL, whereas the Bios attributes no fewer than three churches at Acana to Klb. In addition,
the Bios assigns the construction of the three churches at Acana to the period after Klbs defeat
of Ysuf in 525, which in light of the evidence assembled above would be some years after RIE
191 was erected. Since, however, the Bios is a text far removed both temporally and
geographically from sixth-century South Arabia and, as will be argued in Chapter 5, is not a very
reliable source, one could dismiss the conflict between this text and RIE 191 regarding the
chronology of Klbs program of church construction. Even so, Drewes attempt to identify the
QNL of RIE 191 with Qni would still leave unexplained the addition of the initial ayin and
final L to Qni. More recently it has been proposed that QNL is to be identified with the port
known to Graeco-Roman authors as Oklis,
169
located on Yemens Red Sea coast just north of
the Bb al-Mandab. The discovery of Aksumite gold coins at the nearby site of Shaykh Sad,
located in Khawr Ghurayra, with which Oklis has been identified by scholars,
170
indicates
Aksumite activity there, as does Yqts reference to a port in the same area by the name of al-
Abra to which the Ethiopians brought their wares.
171
The Arabic version of the Martyrium
Arethae similarly refers to an Abr as the place to which the Romans sent ships to aid Klb in
his second invasion of imyar in 525.
172
However, though the evidence of Aksumite commercial
and military activities in the Bb al-Mandab region gives credence to the identification of QNL

168
Ibid.
169
Beaucamp et al. 1999-2000: 40; Robin 2008: 16. For a list of the Graeco-Roman references to this port, see
Rodinson 1965 (b): 137.
170
Hahn 2000 (a): 285 (n. 13).
171
Yqt 1990: IV: 88.
172
Martirio di Areta 29c.4-29d.1(Bausi and Gori 2006: 254).

141

with Oklis, we still lack definitive proof to that effect. Thus Robin, while accepting Drewes
identification of the nl of RIE 195 with QNL, has recently suggested that QNL is an
Ethiopian name not for a specific site, but rather for an entire region, such as the Tihma.
173

What, then, of the references in Ysufs letter to al-Mundhir and in inscriptions from his
reign to an Ethiopian church at afr? Important though Oklis may have been as an Ethiopian
anchorage in South Arabia, it seems hard to believe that a church built there would be mentioned
in RIE 191 while a church built at the imyarite capital and, according to Ysufs letter, well
publicized by the Aksumites does not even merit a passing reference. This conflict between
sources is only apparent, however, for in light of the continued existence of an Ethiopian
community at afrmentioned in Syriac and Sabaic sourcesup to the time Ysuf came to
power around 522, the church in the imyarite capital may well have been built at some point
after RIE 191 was erected by Klb at Aksum. As for the church of QNL mentioned in RIE
191, it may have been that this was erected by the Aksumite army on its return from the
campaign of 518, particularly if it was located at Oklis, a likely final stopping place in South
Arabia before crossing the Red Sea back to Ethiopia. Though this structure is not mentioned in
any of the sources describing Ysufs destruction of churches, it could be that it shared the fate
of other churches in the course of Ysufs campaign along the Red Sea coast, recorded in the
Sabaic inscriptions from his reign.
174

Before taking leave of the passage in lines 35 and 36, QNY, the word following the
place-name QNL, must be considered. Superficially it suggests an identification with Qni, the
name of the famous South Arabian port on the Gulf of Aden at which Aksumite pottery and
coins have been found. One might therefore posit that RIE 191 records the construction of two

173
Robin 2008: 16.
174
See Chapter 2.

142

churches, one at Oklis and the other at Qni. But if that were the case one would expect not B-
QNL QNY, as our text has it, but B-QNL W-QNY, in Oklis (?) and Qni. It is more
reasonable to read QNY as the perfective active participle qanya (from qana, to be
zealous) meaning I being zealous or I being seized by zeal. If so, then W-TKLK MQDS B-
MR B-QNL QNY BNT SM WLD GZ BR Z-MNK BT can be tentatively translated as
and I established a church in imyar, being seized by zeal on account of the name of the Son of
God. Such a statement not only fits well with the Christian sentiment of RIE 191 but is also
echoed in the entry on Klb in the fifteenth-century Ethiopian Synaxarium (20 Genbt=29
May),
175
which describes Klbs zeal in the context of his second campaign against imyar in
525, again using the verb qana (>qana). Thus when Klb hears of the persecution of the
Najrn Christians by the imyarite Jews, he is said to have been seized by divine zeal (qan
qnata malaktwta).
176
Then when Klb is about to set out to fight the imyarites, he tells
God: Behold, I will go forth to kill Your enemies by the power of the Cross of Your unique
[Son] and Messiah, for I am zealous for You, my brothers, and my fathers the believers (wa-
nh wa qtlm la-altka ba-hayla masqal la-wdeka wa-la-maska sma
qank la-ka wa-la-ahwya wa-la-mahymnn abawya).
177
That the allusions to Klbs
zeal in the Synaxarium reflect an image of the Aksumite king already current in the sixth century
is evident from the Martyrium Arethae,
178
wherein we are told that Klb embarked on his
campaign against imyar driven by an exceptional divine zeal (
oo).
179
If the interpretation of lines 35-6 of RIE 191 offered here is correct, the motif of

175
On the date of the Ethiopian Synaxarium, see Munro-Hay 2001: 46.
176
Patrologia Orientalis, Vol. 47, Fasc. 3, no. 211, Le synaxaire thiopien: mois de Genbot (ed. Colin), 1997: 298
(Geez text).
177
Ibid.: 108 (Geez text).
178
It is likely that the Synaxariums account of Klb is at least in part derived in from Greek sources like the
Martyrium Arethae (Fiaccadori 2007 (b): 329).
179
Martyrium Arethae I.18-19 (tr. Beaucamp 2007: 184).

143

Klbs zeal as a Christian warrior-king is of Aksumite origin and dates back to his earlier
invasion of imyar in 518.
That the construction of churches in imyar was part of a larger project of promoting
Christianity in the Red Sea is hinted at in lines 36-9 of RIE 191: W-GBZ-H NK W-QDSK B-
HYL GZ BR W-RYN GZ BR QDSH W-NBRK DB Z-MNBR ZYW W-MKW HB
GZ BR GBR SMY W-MDR (=wa-Gabaza-h anak wa-qaddask ba-hayla gzbr
wa-arayan gzbr qddsh wa-nabark dba z-manbar ZYW wa-amak haba
gzbr gabbr samy wa-mdr), which can be translated as now the Gabaz I built and
sanctified by the Power of God, and God showed me [how to] sanctify it; and I remained on this
throne
180
and placed [it] under the protection of God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth.
181

The name Gabaz recalls the Geez noun gabaz, which among other things can mean guard, or
keeper, as well as the verb gabaza, to delimit, to measure, and is attested in other contexts
as a toponym in Ousanas inscription from Aksum (RIE 186), according to which Ousanas made
a pact with a king of Gabaz, together with several other provincial kinglets.
182
Possibly related to
this Gabaz is a custom-house of Gabaza (o ) which is located on a map of the
Aksumite realm, preserved in one of the medieval copies of Cosmas Indicopleustes Christian
Topography (Vat., fol. 15
r
) though not mentioned in the text itself.
183
Gabaza is also mentioned
in the Greek Martyrium Arethae as a dependency of Adulis and as the port at which Roman
merchant ships arrived just in time for Klbs campaign against imyar in 525.
184
Though the
location of Gabaza has yet to be established, the material evidence strongly suggests the Galala

180
ZYW has defied explanation. Schneider (1974: 777) believes that the initial Z- is a relative pronoun, but is at a
loss to explain the following YW which, as he points out, is unattested elsewhere.
181
Bernard et al. 1991: 273.
182
Ibid.: 252 (line 11).
183
Wolska-Conus 1968: I: 366 (n. 55
2
).
184
Martyrium Arethae, XIX.7.

144

hills on Eritreas coast. Here, as at Adulis itself, large quantities of sixth-century Aqaba ware,
imported from the Roman port of Ayla.
185
A sedimentological survey of this area indicates that
the Red Sea coastline was much closer to the Galala hills than is the case today, and if the
circular stone structures in the hills were the footings of towers, these would have afforded a
commanding view of the coastal waters and the surrounding plain.
186
The occupation of this spot
by Ethiopian troops during the Eritrean-Ethiopia War of 1998-2000 testifies to the strategic
potential of the Galala hills,
187
which might explain why a name like the Guardian was given
to the site in Aksumite times.
188

In addition, a late Aksumite ruler named Ella Gabaz is known from coins found at
Aksum and Adulis.
189
Exact dates are not available for Aksumite kings from this period, though
Ella Gabazs coins are typologically similar to those of Arma, an early seventh-century king
of Aksum and the last Aksumite ruler to issue coins.
190
Though Fiaccadori interprets the name
Ella-Gabaz as [tax]-collector,
191
it is far more likely, in light of the sense of gabaza in
Classical Geez, that the kings name means something like He who guards (or demarcates).
On the other hand, the reference to a king of Gabaza in Ousanas fourth-century inscription
raises the possibility that in times of political upheaval regional rulers asserted themselves, in
which case Ella-Gabaz may have been a governor of the region of Gabaza who seized power at
a time when Aksum was in decline. Given the strategical as well as economic importance of the

185
Peacock and Blue 2007: 33-4.
186
Ibid.: 43.
187
Ibid.: 33.
188
Gabaz can also mean riverbank, and there is indeed a gully between the Galala hills which, though now dry,
may have once flowed with water, judging from the smooth, fresh rocks found on the surface (loc. cit.: 34). It is not
impossible that the port of Gabaza was named thus due to its location by a stream of water, though such a stream,
even if it provided water for the site, is more likely to have been a secondary feature of what was first and foremost
a strategic and commercial outpost on the Red Sea coast. At the present time, too little is known of the relationship
of the ancient settlement to the gully for any conclusions to be made.
189
Munro-Hay 1989 (c): 35.
190
Hahn 2000 (a): 298-9.
191
Fiaccadori 2005: 262.

145

port of Gabaza, it is quite conceivable that Klb sought to develop or perhaps fortify it,
particularly after returning from a campaign in imyar. But RIE 191 describes Gabaz not as a
place at which a structure was built, but rather as the name of the structure itself. That this
structure was of a religious nature is evident from the reference to its consecration by Klb,
indicating that this Gabaz was a church.
Though the location of the church of Gabaz is not mentioned in the inscription, its name
closely parallels that of the cathedral of Our Lady Mary of Zion at Aksum, known as Gabaza
Aksm (the Guardian of Aksum). In addition to the Aksumite-style columns, capitals, and
other architectural elements later incorporated into the reconstructed cathedral and adjacent
buildings, the stepped podium on which the cathedral of Our Lady Mary of Zion was erected is
typically Aksumite in construction,
192
and may well date back to Klbs reign. Evidence for a
connection with Klb is provided by a brief inscription from the cathedral which reads This
stone [marks] the entryway of Lzn (z-bn gabgab za-Lzn).
193
This Lzn is the name of
the clan to which Klb belonged, hence the reference to the king as the man of Lzn (bs
Lzn) in line 8 of RIE 191. In light of this, it is likely that the Gabaz church mentioned in
Klbs inscription was located on the site now occupied by the present cathedral of Our Lady
Mary of Zion at Aksum, and since its consecration is the last act of Klb mentioned in RIE 191
it can easily be seen as an act through which the Aksumite king expressed his gratitude for divine
assistance in the battles he waged on both sides of the Red Sea. On another level, it is not
without significance that the original cathedral at Aksum closely follows the Church of the Holy
Sepulchre in Jerusalem, founded by Constantine in 325/6 in both its proportions and its five-aisle

192
Phillipson 1997: 169-71.
193
Mller 1972 (b): 130.

146

plan.
194
If the foundation of this structure can indeed be dated to Klbs reign, we might have
here evidence of an attempt to establish a symbolic bond between Aksum and the Holy Land as
well as perhaps achieving for Klb a certain Constantinian status as the initiator of a new era for
Ethiopian Christianity.
One can easily imagine Klb building churches in gratitude for what he would have seen
as divine aid in defeating the Jewish imyarites and establishing a Christian imyarite prince on
the throne of afr. This much is implied in the table of contents of the Book of the imyarites,
according to which a whole chapter was devoted to the marvelous sign which the Lord showed
in the ranks of the Ethiopians (t d-tehr d-aww Mary la-mry b-sedr da-Ky).
195

On the other hand, we have also seen that the sixth century was a period during which Ethiopian
Christianity entered a new phase, one which was marked by the first use of Biblical allusions in
monumental inscriptions in Geez. The older tradition of setting up symbolic thrones inscribed
with records of military victories was no longer sufficient.
196
Now it was the construction of
churches which became the preferred way of expressing Aksumite royal power, a development
which was to have even greater significance during and after Klbs second campaign in 525.
This explains why the construction of a church in imyar is mentioned in RIE 191, as opposed
to the appointment of a local ruler to whom Klb was obliged to delegate power. As a Christian
ruler, Klb was proud to claim that he had liberated his South Arabian coreligionists and
established a church as a memorial of this act, just as he was equally proud to claim, as the heir
of the great warrior-kings of third- and fourth-century Aksum, that he ruled South Arabia
directly.

194
Heldman 1992: 228.
195
Book of the imyarites 1924: 3b (Syriac text).
196
This tradition did not die out, however, for it was revived by Klbs son Wazb (c. 540-550), who in his
inscription from Aksum (RIE 192) records the erection of a throne (M[N]BR=ma[n]bar) following one of his
military victories (Bernard et al. 1991: 276 (line 38)); for a commentary, see Schneider 1974: 784).

147

In closing, a few points about the impact of the Aksumite invasion of imyar should be
made. We have no record from South Arabia of the invasion, much less of how it was perceived
locally. However, a hint of its effect on non-Christians is given in the anonymous Syriac letter
regarding the persecution instigated by Ysuf in 522-3. According to the letter, the Jewish
imyarite king had narrowly escaped from death at the hands of the Ethiopians during the
invasion of 518. This bit of information is attributed to a Christian woman of Najrn named
My who, when Ysuf set about exterminating her coreligionists, taunted the king, all of the
imyarites know of the merchant GSN from al-ra of Numn who acted towards you in an
unseemly manner because he delivered you from death at the hands of the Ethiopians at the time
of the war (GSN tggr d-men rt d-Naman ydn kllhn mry behtt da-sar
lwtk mel d-payk men mawt d-Ky b-haw zabn da-qrb).
197
Who this merchant
from al-ra was and what type of unseemly act he performed is not stated. Shahid takes
as a corruption of (gayys), meaning robber,
198
though such a
reconstruction does not suit the syntax of the passage. A simpler and less speculative solution
would be to take GSN as a proper name, perhaps related to the Arabic Jashn (>Syriac
*Gasn).
Since Ysufs attack on Najrn predates his encounter with the Aksumites in battle in
525, we can assume that the war (qrb) referred to here is Klbs earlier invasion of imyar in
518. After quoting the words allegedly spoken by My to Ysuf, the author of the anonymous
letter takes a step back from his characters dialogue to explain that GSN had happened to be
in South Arabia at the time of the invasion when he found the Ethiopians about to kill Ysuf.
Now this GSN, he says, stood up and swore by the holy Gospel on his (i.e., Ysufs) behalf

197
Shahid 1971: xxi.
198
Ibid.: 56.

148

that he was a Christian, and on account of this the Jew made his escape from death (Qm dn
hn GSN w-m lpaw b-ewangelyn qadd da-Krsyn lam taw wa-b-hd ellt
etpalla h hn Ydy men mawt).
199
He says further that once Ysuf, some five years later,
made war on the Christians of Najrn, he sent a portion of the Christians confiscated wealth to
his erstwhile liberator in gratitude, an act which earned GSN the enmity of South Arabian
Christians.
200

While it is not made clear in the text whether GSN was himself a Christian,
201
the
allegation that Ysufs life was saved by a concealment of his Jewish identity would
undoubtedly have provided the author of this letter with a powerful rhetorical device by which
the willingness of the Najrn Christians to die for their faith could be favorably contrasted with
Ysufs cowardice in the face of religious persecution by the Ethiopians. Seen in this light, the
Ethiopians take on a special significance as Ysufs ultimate enemies. At the same time, this
rhetorical device succeeds only insofar as it is tied to the historically documented event of the
invasion of imyar by Klb in 518, and to that end this passage provides the only direct
reference in Syriac literature, apart from the Book of the imyarites, to this invasion. Though it
was as a result of the invasion that the Christian imyarite Madkarib Yafur was brought to
power, the anonymous author of the letter is either unaware of this fact or regarded it as not
important enough to warrant a mention in his letter. For him the most important of Ysufs
enemies was not the Christian imyarite king but the Aksumites. Like RIE 191 the anonymous
letter suggests that the Aksumite invasion of 518 was in part an attempt to strengthen
Christianitys hold on South Arabia, whether by building churches or by eliminating the non-

199
Ibid.: xxi.
200
Ibid.
201
That he is said to have sworne by the Gospel in order to save Ysufs life does not exclude the possibility that
GSN was also a non-Christian.

149

Christian elementspecifically the Jewswhom the Book of the imyarites regards as the
persecutors of South Arabias Christians. According to al-Hamdn, the family of Ysuf (whom
he, like all Muslim authors, calls Dh Nuws) served as governors of Mafir, Mrib, and
aramawt on behalf of the imyarite kings,
202
in which case the incident of Ysufs close
encounter with death at the hands of Ethiopians may have been part of an attempt by the
Aksumite invaders to kill off leading representatives of the imyarite regime then in power.
Though we are still no closer to finding direct evidence of how the Aksumite invasion was
perceived by imyarite Jews, the anecdote about the young Ysuf given in the anonymous
Syriac letter, if historical, suggests the extent to which the experience of the 518 invasion by the
Ethiopians was a highly personal affair for the future imyarite king. If so, then the anti-
Christian campaign begun by Ysuf in 522, though best documented for the massacre of the
Najrn Christians in the autumn of the following year, had far more to do with Aksum than with
any of South Arabias indigenous Christian communities.
The Martyrium Arethae may allude to this early confrontation between Ysuf and the
Aksumites which the anonymous letter associates with Klbs invasion in 518. In its second
paragraph the Martyrium states that the Jewish king of the imyarites ( O
oo ) took refuge in the mountains following his defeat by Klbs forces, and that
afterwards Klbhere referred to as Elesbaas after his Ethiopian name Ella-Abe
returned to his country, leaving an army and a general behind in South Arabia to guard the
recently conquered territory there.
203
The Ethiopians whom Ysuf is reported by Syriac and
Sabaic sources to have massacred a few years later would presumably have included these

202
Al-Hamdn 1966: II: 114.
203
Martyrium Arethae II.4-8 (tr. Beaucamp 2007: 186).

150

troops. As for their general, the ayyn whom Klb sent to imyar at the head of his army is
the likeliest candidate.
The author of the Martyrium seems a bit confused about Ysuf, however. Robin is
undoubtedly correct to identify the Jewish king of the imyarites with Ysuf,
204
as the
Martyrium mentions no other Jewish kingor indeed any imyarite rulerapart from him. But
as Robin points out, the statement in Paragraph 2 of the Martyrium that the Jewish king fled to
the mountains is later contradicted in Paragraph 27, in which we are told that Ysufreferred to
as Dounaaswas in fact placed on the throne by Elesbaas!
205
Robin rightly dismisses the latter
claim and suggests that the accession of Ysuf and the first outbreak of violence in imyar
provoked the Aksumite invasion led by ayyn.
206
But if, as has been argued in the present
study, Klbs first invasion of imyar can be dated to 518, this would mean that Ysuf came to
power several years before the earliest inscriptions from his reign, which refer to events only as
far back as June 522. A solution to this problem would be that Ysuf was part of what one might
call the Jewish resistance to the pro-Christian regime of Marthadl
an
Yanf and that the author of
the Martyrium mistakenly assumed that Ysuf was already king when he fled from the
Aksumites in the course of Klbs first invasion. As for the claim in Paragraph 27 that Ysuf
was appointed king by Klb, this error undoubtedly arose from a confusion with the
appointment of Madkarib Yafur by the Aksumites. The author of the Martyrium does not seem
to have known of Madkarib, as he is never mentioned in the text, though he may well have
heard of the appointment of a imyarite king by the Aksumites and, not knowing of any other
imyarite king, assumed that this was Ysuf.


204
Robin 2008: 51.
205
Ibid.
206
Ibid.

151

3.3.3. Summary
In summary, RIE 191 provides a unique Aksumite record of the campaign sent by Klb
to South Arabia in 518 and confirms the identification of leader with the YWN known from
the Syriac Book of the imyarites and alluded to an anachronistic context in Arabic sources as
ayyn.
207
If the interpretation of ayyns name proposed here is correct, he would have been
not an Ethiopian but a South Arabian. Since the Book of the imyarites knows of this individual
as the leader of only the first of Klbs two invasionsat least, ayyn is not mentioned in
connection with the second invasionRIE 191 can be dated to some time after 518 and before
the launching of the second invasion in 525. Given that the relevant chapter in the Book of the
imyarites is missing we have no idea of the details of the campaign of 518, which is referred to
only in the most laconic manner in RIE 191. From what we can gather Klb, being content to
send his army across the Red Sea with ayyn, was not present on this campaign as he was on
his second.
This, however, in no way diminishes the importance which the invasion of imyar in 518
had for Klb, for he proudly records his construction of a church in South Arabia in the same
context as his reference to building a church at Aksum itself. This program of church
construction is said in the inscription to reflect the kings zeal for the name of the son of God, a
statement one would expect from a ruler convinced that God was on his side in battle. The
anonymous Syriac letter published by Shahid adds an interesting sidelight on this issue by
presenting the young Ysuf, in his days before seizing power, as a victim of religious
persecution by Ethiopian Christians. In light of this, the Book of the imyaritesinsofar as we

207
It should be noted that in his most recent review of the epigraphic and literary material, Robin (2008: 16) also
believes that RIE 191 pre-dates Klbs victorious expedition against Ysuf in 525, though he does not provide a
time-frame for the invasion recorded in RIE 191 and seems to think that this invasion had as its goal the suppression
of Ysufs uprising (ibid.: 51). Though the anonymous Syriac letter on the Najrn martyrs does suggest that the
future Jewish king did encounter the Ethiopians during Klbs first invasion of imyar, there is no evidence that
Ysuf was the leader of the anti-Christian movement at that time.

152

can tell from its table of contentsmay not be far off in presenting Klbs invasion as an
instance of religious warfare.
Conspicuously absent from all the primary sources on the Aksumite invasion of imyar
in 518 is any reference to the world beyond the Red Sea. Though it has become fashionable in
modern scholarship to read the conflict between Christianity and Judaism in South Arabia as the
growing influence of pro-Roman sentiment in the form of Christianity on the one hand and local
resistance to this, expressed through Judaism, on the other, there is no evidence that anything
more than a conflict between two rival Red Sea powers was involved in the events of the first
two decades of the sixth century. Similarly, there was more to the invasion than Klbs religious
fervor, for while the Aksumite king was intent on promoting Christianity on both sides of the
Red Sea he was cognizant of his countrys history as an occupying power in Arabia. In the
following section it will be argued that Aksumite attitudes to this past played a key role in
shaping the rhetoric of empire advanced by Klb.

3.4. The Past as Propaganda
From the royal titles he bears in RIE 191 it is clear that Klb wanted to be an up-to-date
king of South Arabia whose domain embraced the same regions over which the imyarites had
ruled since the fifth century. Yet he wanted to do so on Aksumite terms, not by slavishly copying
imyarite royal titles but rather by incorporating them into an already well-established Aksumite
titulature. Though RIE 191 lacks the contrived mimation and Sabaic vocabulary found in several
fourth-century Aksumite inscriptions, the conscious use of unvocalized Geez in the musnad
script, at a time when a fully developed Geez syllabary had been in existence for nearly two
centuries and indeed was used in Klbs subsequent Geez inscriptions in South Arabia, points
to a desire on the part of Klb to emulate his fourth-century predecessors Ousanas and zn.

153

His sense of connection to the past is alluded to in lines 4 to 5 of RIE 191, in which Klb says
of Jesus Christ He has guarded me from my childhood and placed me on the throne of my
fathers (QBN M-NSY W-BRN WST MNBR BWY=aqaban m-nsya wa-a[n]baran
wsta manbara abawya).
208
If Klbs father Tzn is to be identified with the sixth-century
ruler Ousanas who, on the basis of his coins, preceded Klb on the throne, then it could be that
Tzns adoption of a name borne by a fourth-century Aksumite king is representative of an
interest in Aksums past on the part of its ruling elite. In the case of Tzn, this would have
taken the form of adopting the name of the fourth-century king Ousanas.
If Tzn left no monumental inscriptions as far as we can tell, his son Klb carried on
the tradition of imitating fourth-century royal inscriptions with his use of the pseudo-musnad
script employed by Ousanas and zn. In light of this, and in light of the reference in RIE 191
to his being established on the throne of his fathers, Klbs desire to have the third-century
Monumentum Adulitanum II copied just before sending his military expedition to South Arabia
takes on greater significance as part of an attempt to use the Aksumite past to validate his plans
to annex Arabia. There is no hint in the Book of the imyarites, the Christian Topography, or
RIE 191 that Klbs campaign of 518 was motivated even in part by Roman interests. Far from
being undertaken as part of an attempt to aid Rome against Ssnid Persia in the Indian Ocean
arena, it was a matter that involved only Aksum and imyar. To be sure Klb would have had
carefully calculated reasons for going to war with imyar. If, judging from Marthadl
an
Yanfs
lack of direct blood-ties to the royal house of imyar, political conditions in South Arabia were
in flux during this period, Klb might well have sought to intervene in order to protect
Aksumite interests there, such as commerce. He might also have regarded himself as the
protector of the Red Seas Christians, in which case reports like those brought by Bishop

208
Bernard et al. 1991: 272.

154

Thomas, to the effect that the Christians of South Arabia were being persecuted, may well have
been exploited by him as a convenient casus belli. Nevertheless, the fact that the persecution of
Christians in the reign of Shurabil Yakkf described in the Gadla Azqr had not provoked a
similar punitive campaign by Aksum suggests that military intervention in South Arabia had less
to do with the welfare of its Christians than with the personality of the Aksumite king at the time.
With this in mind it will be argued in the present section that Klb presented himself not
only as a liberator of South Arabian Christians but also as a king intent on reclaiming for Aksum
the Arabian territory over which it had once ruled. If as a Christian he viewed his victory as a
sign of divine favor, as an Aksumite king he viewed it as a restoration of the status quo.
Adopting the perspective of warfare as irredentist violence, we will examine the account given
by Cosmas Indicopleustes of his visit to Aksum as evidence for Klbs politicized use of the
Aksumite past at a time when his war with imyar demanded it. In addition to shedding new
light on how the Aksumites perceived the conflict with imyar in the sixth century, this
perspective raises the issue, until now neglected, of Aksumite historiography.

3.4.1. History Politicized: The Campaign of 518 as Irredentist Warfare
Though antiquarianism in the ancient world has been the subject of a number of studies
over the past decade,
209
Ethiopian attitudes to the past have generally received little attention
from scholars. Despite this, it is well known that relics of Ethiopias ancient past have long been
accorded a special significance and have been intentionally preserved. As examples one can cite
a stone basin inscribed with an Aksumite inscription, reused in the baptistery of the church of

209
See in particular I. J. Winter, On Art in the Ancient Near East, Volume II: From the Third Millenium B.C.E.,
Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2010: 461-79; The Past in the Past: Concepts of Past Reality in Ancient Near Eastern and Early
Greek Thought, eds. H. M. Barstad and P. Briant, Oslo: Novus Press, 2009; Negotiating the Past in the Past:
Identity, Memory, and Landscape in Archaeological Research, ed. N. Yoffee, Tuscon: University of Arizona Press,
2007; and Archaeologies of Memory, eds. R. M. Van Dyke and S. E. Alcock, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2003.

155

Arbata Enses at Aksum, or the inscribed antiquities which have been carefully kept in the
church of Dogi to the south of Aksum.
210
Likewise, a recent study by Smidt draws attention to a
medieval Arabic inscription on a gravestone from K
w
a in Tigray, which local Christians,
knowing no Arabic, have re-interpreted as a Hebrew text giving proof of their Israelite origins.
211

Though more ethnographic work needs to be done on the role of antiquities, particularly
inscriptions, in shaping Ethiopian traditions about the past, examples of this interest in ancient
remains from later periods indicate that sixth-century Aksumite interest in the past is not an
isolated phenomenon.
212

In the case of Aksum, scholars have long seen in Cosmas account evidence of Klbs
efforts to find documentation justifying his invasion of imyar, but have either not developed
the idea further or else have misread Cosmas in an attempt to justify their a priori assumptions.
Smith was the first draw attention to Klbs interest in Monumentum Adulitanum II as a form of
politically motivated antiquarianism based on the memory of earlier Aksumite rule in Arabia,
and suggested that Klb saw this inscription as a document proving ancient right to lost
territory.
213
This was brilliant intuition on Smiths part, though since the subject of his study
was the sixth-century political and military history of South Arabia, Smith did not dwell on the
ideological aspects of the war between Aksum and imyar. More recently Shitomi has revived
the theory that Monumentum Adulitanum II was used by Klb as a document demonstrating the
legitimacy of his rule over Arabia,
214
but like Smith he does not expand upon the implications
of this.

210
Drewes 1962: 69.
211
Smidt 2004.
212
Another valuable study which sheds light on the attitudes of Christian Ethiopians towards their countrys past is
Munro-Hay 2004.
213
Smith 1954: 455.
214
Shitomi 1997: 98.

156

Shahids article on the Kbra Nagat
215
presents a far more elaborate examination of the
place of Monumentum Adulitanum II in sixth-century Aksumite historiography, but in doing so
hinders rather than benefits the attempt to make sense of the raison dtre of the inscription.
Though the ideological significance of Monumentum Adulitanum II for Klb is highlighted by
Shahid, his tendentious attempt to identify Solomonid motifs in Aksumite court culture causes
him to misread Klbs interest in his countrys past intervention in Arabia as a desire to
establish a dynastic link with the Queen of Sheba, and hence with King Solomon.
216
Against this
thesis there stands the lack of evidence that any Aksumite king claimed descent from a union
between King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, a political fiction which did not take root in
Ethiopia until the Middle Ages.
217
Neither Solomon nor the Queen of Sheba are mentioned in
Monumentum Adulitanum II or in any other Aksumite inscriptions, nor even in Chapter 2 of the
Christian Topography, the portion of Cosmas book in which he describes his efforts to copy the
inscription at Adulis. In fact the only instance in which Cosmas mentions the famous queen at all
is in an unrelated passage regarding the incense producing regions, where he glosses Saba
(=Sheba) as imyar ( o o Oo, Saba, that is to say of the imyarite
[country])
218
and notes the Somali coast
219
and Ethiopia only as regions from which the queens
merchants acquired aromatics, ebony, gold, and monkeys.
220
There is no evidence here of the
tradition, canonized in the Kbra Nagat, that the Queen of Sheba was an Ethiopian, nor does
Cosmas alledge that Klb held such a view. To this it should be added that we have no evidence
from South Arabia itself, even from Jewish imyarite inscriptions, that the Queen of Sheba had

215
Shahid 1974.
216
Ibid.: 154.
217
Munro-Hay 2001.
218
Top. Chr. 2.50.2.
219
Referred to in the text as Barbaria.
220
Top. Chr.: 2.50.4-7.

157

any particular significance in pre-Islamic times. Nor do foreign sources from the sixth century in
Greek and Syriac allude to local traditions about her in the context of the war between Aksum
and imyar. This being the case, there are no grounds for supposing either that Klb claimed
descent from Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, or that such a claim would have carried any
weight in the context of his war against imyar. What is needed is to consider Monumentum
Adulitanum II on its own terms as a document on which Klb could base his claims to imyar.
The importance which this inscription had for Klb can be judged from the fact that he
entrusted the governor of Adulis himself with the task. This could be explained by the central
role played by administrative officials in the transmission of the official history of the ruling
regime in pre-industrial societies. In reference to the practice of history writing in the Muslim
sultanate of Bornu in the central Sudan, Holl notes that, far from being a neutral quest for
knowledge about the past, the collection of historical traditions and documents was an integral
part of the process of competition for ideological and effective control of power and political
legitimacy.
221
Thus in Bornu during the mid-nineteenth century, officials with access to such
material wielded great influence, and consulted old chronicles as a means of determining the
proper course of state policy. Holl gives the example of al-jj Bashr b. Amad b. Tirb, the
vizier of the sultan Shaykh Umar and the de facto ruler of the kingdom, who consulted the
chronicle of the rival Sayfawa dynasty in order to locate its former capital and determine whether
it was worth conquering.
222

Asbs, as the governor of Adulis, operated in a similar manner by seeking out such
inscriptions as Monumentum Adulitanum II in order to find a written record providing a
precedent for Aksumite intervention in Arabia. As we have seen, the claims made by Ousanas

221
Holl 2004: 205.
222
Ibid.: 204.

158

and zn to rule South Arabia indicate that the ideology of Aksumite rule in Arabia was
periodically resurrected at times when Aksum enjoyed political and military strength. That Klb
recognized the ideological importance of Monumentum Adulitanum II for his imyarite
campaign and the need to have it copied suggests that at some level he may already have been
aware of the references to Arabia contained in the inscription. There is nothing implausible about
the preservation of this written history in oral tradition, for in his study of oral tradition among
the Jordanian Bedouin Shryock cites a case in which several lines of poetry inscribed on the
gravestone of a warrior-poet who died in 1823 were preserved orally with reasonable accuracy
long after graves location was forgotten, and indeed until the stone was rediscovered 167 years
later.
223

It is not impossible, then, that memory of Aksums third-century conquests in Arabia, as
recorded in Monumentum Adulitanum II, was preserved in a similar manner, particularly given
that the 167-year period between the erection of this Bedouin warrior-poets gravestone and its
subsequent rediscovery is roughly the same as that between the erection of Monumentum
Adulitanum II around the mid-third century and its rediscovery in the reign of Klb. The fact
that the past was all around the Aksumites in the form of monuments and inscriptions ensured
that their ancient claim to South Arabia was preserved down to Klbs time. Viewed from this
perspective, Asbs request that Cosmas copy inscriptions for Klb right as he was about to go
to war with the imyarites was not a random instance of antiquarianism but was part of a
calculated attempt to justify Aksumite intervention in South Arabia. By citing written evidence
of earlier Aksumite conquests in Arabia, Klb could publicize his campaign as not only a holy
war to avenge the persecuted Christians of South Arabia but also and perhaps more importantly
as irredentist warfare. Klb may have been a staunch Christian, but in this case, far from

223
Shryock 1997: 97-100.

159

rejecting Aksums pre-Christian past as a dark age whose memory had to be repressed, he drew
on key themes from this history to present the war against imyar as an act of restoring lost
territory to Aksum.
224

Writing of the phenomenon of what he calls restorative violence in early modern
Africa, Reid notes that across eastern Africa, violence was frequently historicized, rooted in
pasts real or imagined, surrounded by myth and historical symbolism.
225
Reid refers to Christian
Ethiopian memory of conflict with the Muslims as an illustrative example of this phenomenon,
pointing out that the invasion of the Ethiopian Highlands by Amad b. Ibrhm was still vividly
recounted by Christian Ethiopians in the nineteenth century.
226
Known to the Christian Amhara
as Amad Gr (Amad the Left-Handed), the imm Amad is still regarded in the Ethiopian
Highlands as a historical reference point, an individual to whom many stone monuments,
including some of prehistoric origin, are attributed by locals.
227
Indeed the popular re-
interpretation of the Arabic gravestone from K
w
a as a Hebrew relic was itself borne of this
conflict between a past marked by Muslim invasions and a contrived Biblical past presupposing
the status of Ethiopian Christians as Gods chosen people. As a result of this conflict between
pasts the gravestone was placed in the sanctuary of a church rebuilt following the Christian
victory over Amads forces; that the stone was in fact inscribed in Arabic for a deceased
Muslim adds an ironic twist to the re-interpretation of this artifact.
228
The influence of this
memory of warfare with the Muslims in the political sphere is nowhere better attested than in the
life of the Ethiopian emperor Twdrs II (1855-1868), who made it his lifes goal to destroy

224
A similar blending of Aksumite revivalism and Biblical ideology is evident in coronation rituals at Aksum
between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries (Munro-Hay 2004).
225
Reid 2007: 22.
226
Ibid.: 25.
227
Smidt 2004: 265-6.
228
Ibid.: 266.

160

Mecca and restore Jerusalem to Christian rule. Klbs goals in his campaign of 518 were
considerably more modest but were nevertheless born of a similar ideology of irredentist
warfare. Like the re-used Arabic tombstone from K
w
a, Monumentum Adulitanum II served as a
document legitimizing such warfare.
229


3.4.2. Klb and the Publication of Monumentum Adulitanum II: A Question of
Audience
At whom might Klb have directed his propaganda of irredentist warfare, based on his
reading of Monumentum Adulitanum II as a document verifying Aksumite claims to Arabia
based on historical precedent? Visiting envoys and merchants from the Roman Empire could of
course have read the text of Monumentum Adulitanum II, as could members of the Aksumite elite
who were literate in Greek. As early as the first century CE, the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea
reports that the Aksumite king Zoskales was well versed in reading and writing Greek,
230
and
in light of Aksums political and economic ties with the Mediterranean world in later centuries
this is hardly likely to have been a unique case. Klbs message may well have been aimed at
both groups, but for different reasons.

229
In passing we should note that a similar theory has been posited by some scholars (most recently Shahid 2004:
226-8, 238-43) to the effect that, in the course of their wars with the Romans, the Ssnids were intent on restoring
the Achaemenid Empire. The proof-texts adduced in support of this thesis are the third-centuries histories of Cassius
Dio and Herodian, in which it is claimed that the Ssnid emperor Ardashr I (224-240) sought to re-establish
Persian rule over the lands once ruled by the Achaemenid Dynasty (c. 550-330 BCE). For the relevant passages, see
Potter 1990: 370-1 (n. 3). (I owe this reference to Peter Brown.) In neither case, however, are the bases for this
assertion verifiable for, in contrast to Cosmas Indicopleustes, who actually travelled to Ethiopia and was in direct
contact with such Aksumite officials as the governor of Adulis, neither Dio nor Herodian are known to have been in
contact with the sort of informants who might have provided information on Ssnid ideology (ibid.: 370-1). Nor
does RIE 191 have any Ssnid counterpart. No Ssnid emperor ever erected inscriptions in Achaemenid
cuneiform as Klb erected his in musnad. Moreover, the Achaemenids are absent from the inscriptions of Ardashr
I himself, while the inscriptions from the reign of his son and successor Shpr I (240/2-270/2), recording warfare
with Rome, say nothing about a desire to reclaim Achaemenid land from the Romans; indeed they say nothing of the
Achaemenids at all (ibid.: 372-6).
230
Periplus 5:2.19-22.

161

It is easy enough to understand how an Ethiopian might have been motivated to take up
arms against imyar in order to recover long-lost Arabian territory for Aksum. Rome was
another issue, for while the Romans were both fellow Christians
231
and valued trading partners,
there is no reason to assume that Klb saw his realm as a miniature Christendom which was at
Romes beck and call in some greater geopolitical scheme. Rather, he may have sought to keep
Rome out of the Red Sea by sending a message that Aksum was still the unrivalled power there,
just as it had been back in the third century, and that any war waged in South Arabia by
Ethiopian troops was for the benefit of Aksum, not Rome. The Romans had already attempted to
conquer South Arabia in 26/25 BCE
232
and, much though Klb would benefit from the use of
Roman merchant ships in the subsequent war against imyar in 525, the wisdom of his desire to
limit direct military intervention by a third party can be appreciated considering that a later
imyarite appeal for Ssnid help against the Ethiopians would result in a full-fledged Ssnid
conquest of South Arabia in 570. Klbs desire to keep Romes political influence out of the
Red Sea can be understood in light of a somewhat later reference in John of Epiphania to the
Ssnid conquest of South Arabia. After returning from a diplomatic visit to the Ssnid Empire
in the 590s, John of Epiphania produced a history of the Roman war with the Persians from 570
on,
233
in which he stated that the Homerites (i.e., imyarites) were subjects of the Romans whom
the Persians had attempted to stir up in revolt.
234
A seasoned diplomat who had learned first-hand
about eastern politics from none other than the Ssnid emperor Khusraw II (590-628) himself,

231
Albeit Chalecedonian Christians and not Monophysites like the Aksumites, the anomalous case of the
Monophysite emperor Anastasius I being excepted.
232
On this campaign, see Bowersock 1983: 46-9; Sidebotham 1986: 120-30; Sartre 2005: 65-7.
233
On John of Epiphanias history and its preservation by Theophylact Simocatta in the early seventh century, see
Whitby and Whitby, Introduction, in Theophylact Simocatta 1986: xxi; Whitby 1988: 222-3, 245; Alemany 2000:
179-80.
234
Theophylact Simocatta 1986: 85 (iii.9.3-6), tr. Whitby and Whitby.

162

John of Epiphania is unlikely to have inserted so blatant a political fiction as the claim that
imyar was subject to the Romans without some pressing ideological need to do so.
The age-old rhetoric of universal Roman rule, extending to South Arabia, may explain
John of Epiphanias remark. That the Roman expedition of 26/25 BCE had failed as a military
venture in no way dashed Roman hopes of establishing a future empire extending all the way to
the Bb al-Mandab, if not beyond. In the Aeneid, Virgil makes an allusion to Augustus victory
at Actium in 31 BCE, saying that when Augustus patron deity Apollo aimed his bow at Romes
enemies, all the Egyptians, Indians, Arabians, and Sabaeans, terrified at this sight, turned in
flight.
235
The adoption of Christianity as the state religion of the Roman Empire by Constantine
(306-337) infused this discourse of empire with a new, messianic sense of entitlement as the
Roman emperor assumed the role of protector of the worlds Christians. Already in
Constantines reign, accounts of imagined conquests were produced by publicists to support
claims that the emperor was destined to rule the world and in so doing forge a universal Christian
empire. Constantines biographer, the bishop Eusebius of Caesarea, describes the emperor as
campaigning from Britain to India and as far south as Ethiopia, illuminating with beams of light
of true religion the ends of the whole inhabited earth.
236
Another author of Constantines reign,
Publilius Optatianus Porfyrius, includes both Arabians and Ethiopians among the peoples of the
world who came to pay homage to Constantine as the sole ruler and conqueror of the east.
237

That these sentiments were alive and well in the sixth century is indicated not only by the
passage from John of Epiphanias history but also by the history of John Malalas in his account
of the war between Klb and Ysuf in 525. According to Malalas, Klb, after triumphing over
his imyarite adversary, promptly sent two of his officialswhom Malalas calls senators

235
Virgil, The Aeneid, tr. Sarah Ruden (New Haven and London, 2008): 188 (8.704-6).
236
Quoted in Fowden 2006: 377-8.
237
Ibid.: 389.

163

and a contingent of two hundred men to Alexandria with a request that the Romans send a bishop
and clergy to baptize him and instruct his people in Christian doctrine.
238
Through this, says
Malalas, the whole of India (i.e., South Arabia) would pass under Roman rule.
239

While scholars have been quick to seize upon such material as evidence of the conception
of a late antique Christian commonwealth,
240
it should not be forgotten that there were many
rulers within this commonwealth who, no matter how cordial their relations with the Roman
Empire, sought to carve out their own, autonomous territories in which they could create a
microcosm of a spiritual empire. Klb may have sought to achieve just this by adding South
Arabia to his kingdom, and by justifying his actions as not just holy war but a war which restored
to Aksum what had once been and was hoped would always remain Aksumite territory. Having
Monumentum Adulitanum II copied was a subtle way of sending this message to the Romans,
particularly when those commissioned with the task of copying the text, namely Cosmas and
Mnas, were Romans whom he might have expected to carry this message back home with
them.
241
If Klbs predecessors had been content to send the Romans such exotic curiosities as

238
Malalas 18.15 (1986: 251), tr. E. Jeffreys et al.
239
Ibid.
240
Fowden 1993.
241
If Monumentum Adulitanum II was of considerable importance to Klb, the reasons why he sought a copy of the
inscription of Ptolemy III (Monumentum Adulitanum I) as well are nowhere stated in the Christian Topography and
it is not clear whether Klb actually requested that a copy be made of the Ptolemaic text. By copying both
Monumetum Adulitanum I and II on behalf of the Aksumite governor of Adulis, Cosmas and Mnas may simply
have been trying to be thorough, particularly if they were not altogether certain what sort of inscription they were
looking for at Adulis. Despite devoting an entire article to the subject of Cosmas interest in, and knowledge of,
Ptolemaic history, Bengtson (1955) does not consider the significance of Monumentum Adulitanum I for Klb, and
his argument that Cosmas relied on Josephus as a source for Ptolemaic history (ibid.: 156) is dubious (Bowersock,
pers. commun.). Ptolemy IIIs only connection to the Red Sea region was his foundation of outposts of Berenike-
kata-Sabas and Berenike-epi-Deires, both named after his wife and located somewhere along the coasts of present-
day Sudan and Eritrea, together with an outpost named after his mother Arsino near the Bb al-Mandab in either
Djibouti or northern Somalia (Hu 2001: 366; Cohen 2006: 310, 313, 315-16). In contrast to his father, Ptolemy III
does not appear to have maintained important ties with Arabia. (On Ptolemy IIs activities in Arabia, see W. W.
Tarn, Ptolemy II and Arabia JEA 15, 1/2, 1929: 9-25.) Even if he had it is unlikely that he, as a non-Ethiopian,
would have been as significant a role model for Klb as the third-century Aksumite king who erected Monumentum
Adulitanum II. Nor does Ptolemy IIIs military record in Asia suggest an obvious precedent for Aksumite
intervention in South Arabia. While Justin may have wished to see a Christian power in place in South Arabia as a
means of curbing Ssnid influence in Arabia, Ptolemy IIIs invasion of Mesopotamia had been aimed at a Seleucid,

164

elephants and giraffes, he himself was much more insistent that Aksum be seen as Romes
equala powerful, robustly independent kingdom with a proud history of its own. To that end
Klb sought to present his invasion of imyar as a restoration of lost territory to Aksum, and
not as an extension of Roman strategic control into the Indian Ocean. Even as a liberator of
imyars Christian Klb acted as first and foremost an Aksumite, for the language in which
Christian ideas were conveyed in monumental inscriptions was no longer Greek but Geez.

3.4.3. Summary
When viewed as irredentist warfare on the part of Aksum, a campaign which scholars
have long viewed as an initial step in the contest between the Romans and Ssnids for
supremacy in South Arabia acted out through their respective Aksumite and imyarite allies,
turns out on closer scrutiny to have been a highly localized affair. Far from acting in the name of
his Roman coreligionists in his invasion of South Arabia, Klb can be seen as having sought to
restore to Aksum territory which it had lost after the third century. To the extent that Christian
solidarity was involved at all, it affected only the Christians of Aksum and imyar, and even this
display of solidarity on the part of Klb may have been nothing more than his attempt to regain
control of South Arabia, if only by putting a local Christian on the imyarite throne. The
persecution of the Christian community of South Arabia, alluded to in the table of contents of the

not Persian, foe, and it is unlikely that he ever undertook the campaign against Iran and Bactria which his inscription
at Adulis (Top. Chr. 2.59) attributes to him (Hu 2001: 345). In fact, it cannot be taken for granted that Ptolemy IIIs
inscription was originally erected at Adulis, particularly since excavations there have yet to produce any material of
Ptolemaic date (Cohen 2006: 318 [n. 2]) and it may instead have been brought from one of the ports established by
Ptolemy III on Africas Red Sea coast. The use of foreign objects, including inscriptions, as status symbols is
attested elsewhere in Africa. As an example one can cite a stele from the reign of the Egyptian pharaoh Amenemt
III (c. 1855-1808 BCE), discovered at Kerma in Sudanese Nubia, which may have been brought from elsewhere in
an attempt on the part of an illiterate king to impress his equally illiterate subjects with an object whose inscribed
characters connoted high culture (W. Y. Adams, Nubia: Corridor to Africa, Princeton, 1977: 210-11). Likewise, the
bronze jug bearing the personal badge of King Richard II of England (1377-1399), kept by the Asante court of
Ghana, is also suggestive of this phenomenon (J. Goody, Asante: Kingdom of Gold, Royal Anthropological
Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 44, 1981: 8). It cannot be excluded that the acquisition of such objects was
one means by which the Aksumites sought to give their port an illustrious early history and a connection to the
Graeco-Roman world.

165

Book of the imyarites and in the letter of Jacob of Serg to the imyarite Christians, may have
given him a convenient way of justifying this invasion to his South Arabian neighbors, but this
need not have been the leading cause. If, as argued in this chapter, imyar was in a state of
political turmoil in the early sixth century, this may have provided Klb with an opportunity to
reassert Aksumite influence there. The archaeological evidence of demographic growth in the
region of Aksum during this period may provide us with a reason why the renewal of this
influence occurred when it did.
By placing the invasion in the context of later Ethiopian ideas of irredentist warfare, we
can understand Klbs efforts as part and parcel of a distinctively Aksumite revival in the early
sixth century. If the initial stages of this revival can be perceived in Tzns apparent adoption
of Ousanas as a throne name after that of zns father, we see its full fruition in Klbs
imitation in RIE 191 of the script used in the inscriptions of Ousanas and zn back in the
fourth century. To be sure, Klb made necessary modifications in his royal title and for the first
time in the history of Geez added specifically Christian references, including a quotation from
the Book of Psalms. But this Christianization of Aksumite royal inscriptions in Geez, which had
hitherto expressed Christian religious ideas only as a vague monotheism, is also part of the
innovative trend in sixth-century Ethiopian culture which, rather than seeking to emulate Rome,
developed a new way of conveying such ideas not in Greek but in a local language. If Aksumite
coins still bear Greek mottoes, Greek is no longer used in monumental inscriptions in Klbs
time or at any point thereafter, and the likelihood that the Bible was first translated into Geez
during the early sixth century
242
indicates the extent to which the Aksumites wanted to make
Christianity their own.

242
As suggested by the fact that no Biblical quotations or references are attested in Aksumite inscriptions before the
reign of Klb.

166

There is no question here of Aksum seeking a place in a Christian Commonwealth with
Rome at its head. As far as Klb was concerned, Aksum was an empire with its own history and
its own destiny, even as it maintained close commercial and political ties with Rome. Klb
initiated war with imyar without any prompting by Rome, much less as part of some greater
geopolitical plan aimed at forestalling the formation of a Ssnid-imyarite axis. Rather, Klb
took advantage of political and social disorder in imyar in order to establish a sphere of
influence through the graces of the local Christians. Moreover, he justified his invasion of
imyar by invoking a historical document of past Aksumite conquests in Arabia, preserved in
Monumentum Adulitanum II. The question which remains to be answered is to what extent the
claims made by Klb to South Arabia mirrored the actual political situation. To answer this
question we must turn now to the documentation for the Aksumites protg in South Arabia, the
Christian imyarite king Madkarib Yafur.

3.5. Madkarib Yafur: A Christian King of imyar
We have already encountered Madkarib Yafur in connection with our discussion of the
chronology of sixth-century South Arabian history. Though the anonymous letter published by
Shahid and the Book of the imyarites are the only foreign sources in which Madkarib is
mentioned by name,
243
it is from the letter of Simeon of Bt Arsham that we learn that he was a
Christian king whom the Ethiopians had appointed in the land of the imyarites (malk
Krsyn d-amlek(w) (h)waw Ky b-atr da-mry).
244
On the basis of the name given in
the anonymous Syriac letter and the Book of the imyarites, this king can be identified with the
Madkarib Yafur who is named in two inscriptions, the first Ry 510 in the Wd Msil (or

243
Even in these texts his name is corrupt, being rendered Madkarem in the anonymous letter and Madkarem in
the Book of the imyarites.
244
Guidi 1881: 8 (Syriac text).

167

Masal al-Jum), located 240 km west of modern Riyadh, and the second Ja 2484, found by
Jamme near the village of al-Sda, about 38.5 km due west of Khams al-Mushay in Saudi
Arabias Asr Province. Chronological support for this identification is provided by the date of
Dh-Qay
an
in the imyarite year 631 (=June 521), given at the end of Ry 510, which would be
some three years after the Aksumite invasion of 518 which placed him on the throne and would
thus fit the timeframe allotted to Madkarib in Syriac sources. Like his predecessor Marthadl
an

Yanf, Madkarib Yafur does not appear to have been a descendant of any king, for no royal
progenitor is mentioned after his name in any inscription, as had been customary for imyarite
rulers until then. Again like Marthadl
an
Yanf, Madkaribs reign may have marked a decline
in the fortunes of imyars Jewish community, as there are no Jewish or Judaizing inscriptions
from his reign. But while the nature of Aksumite relations with Marthadl
an
Yanf is ambiguous,
the letter of Simeon of Bt Arsham leaves us in no doubt that Madkarib came to power with
Aksumite help.
We have seen that in his inscription from Aksum (RIE 191) Klb revived the old royal
titles borne by Ousanas and zn, in which Saba and imyar, together with their respective
power centers of Saln and Dh-Raydn, are claimed as Aksumite possessions. But if Klb
lends a bit of authenticity to this claim through his attempt to update this title with the inclusion
of such names known from the very long royal titles of imyar as aramawt, the Tihma,
and Yamant, RIE 191 is noticeably silent on the sort of political structure he left in place in
South Arabia. If RIE 191 and Cosmas account of the copying of Monumentum Adulitanum II
can be interpreted as evidence of an ideology of irredentist warfare in Klbs reign, this silence
is easy to explain, for such an ideology could allow for no sharing of power between Aksum and
another polity.

168

In reality, though, direct rule of South Arabia was not an easy task. It will be recalled
that, extensive though the Arabian campaigns mentioned in Monumentum Adulitanum II may
have been, they do not appear to have been very intensive. Likewise, such South Arabian
inscriptions as refer to Aksumite activities in that region do not suggest that Aksumite
occupation extended beyond the coastal region. Ruling South Arabia would have meant ruling a
region with a society very different from that of the northern Ethiopian Highlandsa society,
moreover, with a long history of independent kingdoms of its own, which might not have taken
well to the idea of rule by Aksum. Thus, while Klb left an Ethiopian contingent behind in
imyar following the invasion, the establishment of an Aksumite sphere of influence there could
not but rely on support in that endeavor from a sympathetic local potentate. Madkarib Yafur
fulfilled that role, but he was no mere puppet. Judging from his inscription Ry 510 in the Wd
Msil, he was a military leader who sought to restore imyarite political influence in central
Arabia, and to that end took the unprecedented action of carrying imyarite arms as far as
Mesopotamia. The inscription reads as follows:
Madkarib Yafur, King of Saba and Dh-Raydn and aramawt and Yamanat
and their Arabs of the awd and the Tihma, commanded that this inscription be
executed
245
at Masal al-Jum in the course
246
of a military expedition in the Irq
of Kth for the purpose of
247
this suppressing by him
248
of the Arabs who were

245
For a discussion of the verb WTF, see Rodinson 1966: 133-4.
246
Robins interpretation, already proposed by Beeston, of LY MHN as au cours de based on the analogy with
the Arabic wahn (middle) and mawhin (middle of the night) (Robin 1996: 687) makes much better sense than
Rodinsons attempt to relate MHN to the Arabic mihan (operations), leading him to propose the somewhat
awkward translation of LY MHN as au cours de des oprations (tribulations?) de la campagne (Rodinson 1966:
132, 134).
247
Unable to make sense of LHM, Rodinson (ibid.: 134-5) suggests GHM as a possible reading, noting that the
musnad letters L and G have the same form in this inscription. As possible cognates of such a word, Rodinson cites
several verbs in Modern South Arabian languagesjiheme in Mahr, jhem in khawr (Jibbl), and gehem in
Soqotrall of them referring to morning or midday or some type of activity done at those times, together with
jaham, a verb in the dialect of Dathna meaning to attack in the morning. Though this fits the context well, it does
not suit the syntax. A possible solution would be to read LHM as consisting of L- (for) with HM as a noun derived
from the root h-m-m, cf. Arabic hamm (intention, goal), thus giving us for the purpose of. Since gemination is
not noted in Epigraphic South Arabian such a hypothesis poses no orthographic problems.
248
In place of the earlier reading D-NDYN, which Rodinson (1966: 136) seeks to explain in light of various Semitic
cognates meaning to push or to expel, Robin (1996: 688) reads DN (this) DYN-HMW, the latter word being a

169

in revolt. And Mundhir made war on him, so he undertook a military campaign
with his tribal confederations of Saba and imyar and Rabat
an249
and
aramawt and Yamant, together with his Arabs, the Kinda and Madhij, and
with the Ban Thalaba, the Muar, and the Sab(?).
250
[Dated to] the month of
Dh-Qay
an
in [the imyarite year] 631 (=June 521).

(MDKRB YFR MLK SB W-D-RYDN W-RMT W-YMNT W-RBHMW
WD
m
W-THMT WRW W-WTF DN MSND
n
B-MSL
m
GM
n
LY MHN
SBT
m
B-RQ KT L-HM DN DYNHMW RB
n
QSD
m
W-RBHMW MDR
m
W-
SBW B-BHMW SB W-MYR
m
W-RBT
n
W-RMT W-YMN B-M
RBHMW KDT W-MDG
m
W-B-M BNY TLBT W-MR WSB B-WRH
n
D-
QY
n
D-L-D W-TLTY W-ST MT
m
.)
251


This is not the first time that the imyarite army had penetrated the northern desert. We have
seen in the first chapter that, as early as the first half of the fourth century, the imyarite kings
Tharn Ayfa (c. 319-321), Dhamaral Ayfa (c. 321-324), and Tharn Yu[ha]nim (c. 324-
375) had led their troops as far north as the environs of Riyadh and the steppe-land of al-Siyy to
the northeast of Mecca. In this they were emulated by the imyarite kings Abkarib Asad (c.
400-440) and his son and coregent an Yuhamin (c. 440-448), who left an inscription on the
right side of the Wd Masal (Ry 509) recording an expedition to the land of the Maadd
confederation, in which they fought and brought under [their] authority both the local tribes and
those of the aramawt, Saba, and the Mrib region (SBW W-LLW R MD
m
[B-]MW
NZL
m
BN BHMW W-B-BHMW RMWT W-SB [W-]BNY MRB).
252

Now with Madkarib Yafur imyarite military expansion became a truly international
affair. Kth, though unknown in the toponymy of the Arabian Peninsula, is attested already in

verbal noun with the royal third-person plural suffix (-HMW). Though the verb WTF, which has Madkarib Yafur
as its subject, is grammatically singular, the use of the third-person plural suffix in reference to the king is found
elsewhere in this inscription in connection with his tribes (BHMW) and Mundhirs making war on him
(RBHMW MDR
m
).
249
This is the name by which the communities around an were known, and survives in the name al-Raba, given
to the plain around the modern-day Yemeni capital (Robin 2008: 93).
250
If this reading is correct, SB might refer here to the Sab, a division of the Hawzin (Robin 1996: 690; idem.
2008: 94).
251
Robin 2008: 93; idem. 1996: 686 (cf. Rodinson 1966: 132).
252
Robin 1996: 675, 677-8.

170

Akkadian texts, in the form Kt, as an important city in southern Mesopotamia,
253
and is
regarded in Arab tradition as the birthplace of Abraham.
254
If one accepts Robins interpretation,
adopted here, that the phrase RQ KT means the Irq of Kth, which Robin explains as
referring in this case to the region of Iraq around Kth, we would also have here the earliest
known attestation of the name Iraq.
255
Though Madkaribs expedition brought the imyarites
into direct confrontation with the Lakhmids of al-ra, Madkarib seems to have regarded this
territory as legitimately imyarite, for the Arab tribes which his army fought there are said to
have been in revolt (QSD
m
), implying some previous state of subjugation which they
subsequently shook off. In light of fifth-century imyarite campaigns into the heart of Arabia
and the establishment of a loose hegemony there, this is not a totally baseless claim. The
Mundhir of Ry 510 is Lakhmid king al-Mundhir (III) b. Imriil-Qays (505-554), whose own
hegemony over the tribes of central Arabia clashed with the hegemony which Madkarib was
trying to establish. As clients of the Ssnids,
256
the Lakhmids were provided by the former with
Persian mercenaries (al-wai), sent to al-ra to serve there in yearly shifts,
257
while the
Lakhmids kept the young boys of the Arab tribes under their rule as hostages (al-rahin) in the
city to ensure good behavior on the part of the Arabs along the Ssnids Arabian frontier.
258

For his part Madkarib elicited the support of rival tribes in his campaign against the
Lakhmids, as recorded in Ry 510. These included the Kinda confederation, which during the
reign of Abkarib Asad had been brought under the imyarites sphere of influence, and
whose chieftains the imyarites regarded as vassal rulers.
259
The size of the Kindites territory

253
Ibid.: 687-8.
254
Yqt 1990: IV: 554.
255
Robin 1996: 688.
256
Abl-Baq 2000: I: 106.
257
Ibid.: 109, 113.
258
Ibid.: 109.
259
Robin 1996: 692-5.

171

shifted over time depending on how effectively they were able to hold sway over other tribes, but
during periods of stability it stretched from the ijz to the Arabian Gulf, and from Yamma to
the Euphrates.
260
Memory of Kindas role in Madkaribs campaign may be preserved by
medieval Muslim authors, according to whom the Kindite ruler al-rith b. Amr was sent by the
imyarites with an army against al-ra.
261
amza al-Ifahn even alleges that the Kindites
under al-rith remained in control of the Lakhmid capital until the rule of al-Mundhir (III) b.
Imriil-Qays was restored there by the Ssnids.
262
The participation of the Ban Thalaba in
Madkaribs anti-Lakhmid campaign is significant in light of this tribes history of fighting the
Lakhmids. Writing in 507, Pseudo-Joshua the Stylite
263
notes that in the summer of 503:
The Arabs from the Roman territory who are called the Ban Thalaba, went to
al-ra of al-Numn and came upon a caravan which was heading there, and the
camels that they (i.e., the caravaneers) were bringing there had settled down,
264


260
Ibid.
261
Al-abar 1961: II: 89-90; cf. Ibn al-Athr 1997: I: 374. In these Arabic accounts the name of the imyarite king
who sent al-rith is given as Tubba b. assn, which is in fact an amalgam of tubba, a fictitious title bestowed on
imyarite rulers by later Arab authors, and the name of Abkarib Asads son an Yuhamin. It could be that
Arab tradition has at this point telescoped the history of imyarite relations with Kinda in the fifth and sixth
centuries, as a result of which Madkarib Yafur was reduced to a nameless tubba who, given that he reigned some
time after an Yuhamin, was transformed into ans son. Al-abar (1961: II: 89) claims that Tubba b.
assn, after being possessed by jinn (al-jinn istahmathu), lost his throne to the crypto-Christian Abd Kull
Muthawwib, only to later re-emerge from his possessed state and reclaim the throne, whereupon he sent the Kindite
al-rith against the Lakhmids. If Abd Kull represents the historical imyarite king Marthadl
an
Yanf, the
legend in which Tubba b. assn succeeded him may be the product of an attempt to assimilate Madkarib Yafur
to an earlier imyarite king. The confusion of the overall chronology of these events is evident from the reference in
both Ibn al-Athr and al-abar to al-Numn (I) b. Imriil-Qays (388-418) as the Lakhmid king of al-ra at this
time.
262
amza b. al-asan al-Ifahn 1961: 91-3.
263
On the identity of this individual, see The Chronicle of Pseudo-Joshua the Stylite, tr. F. R. Trombley and J. W.
Watt, Liverpool 2000: xxiv-xxvi.
264
This is a very problematic passage. Though Wright (1882: 46) reads , which he takes to be some substance
that the camels were bringing, he admits that he cannot understand this word and suggests that it might be a
corruption. Other proposed emendations include Brockelmanns (lavsonia inermis, the name of a plant dye)
and Dolabanis (wheat) (The Chronicle of Pseudo-Joshua the Stylite, tr. F. R. Trombley and J. W. Watt,
Liverpool 2000: 69 (n. 328)). If, however, the text is corrupt at this pointas seems likelythen one might emend
the text to (to go down), with the camels (gaml) as its subject. Such an emendation poses no orthographic
problems, since plural verbs are often written without the final waw in Pseudo-Joshuas text. The emendation of this
word to was already suggested by Martin (1876: L), though he translates this passage rather differently than
the present author, as et trouvant une caravane qui sy rendait, monte sur des chameaux

172

and they fell upon them and captured the camels. But they were not able to
capture al-ra because [the citys inhabitants] had gone into the inner desert.
265


(p ayyy d-Bt Rhmy d-metqrn d-Bt Talb ezalw lwt rt d-Naman
w-eka rt d-slq lwth w-gaml d-masqn leh net wa-npalw layhn wa-
rabw ennn wa-l-gaml baw leh dn d-rt l qmw mel d-alat (h)wt leh
l-madbr gawwy).
266


Perhaps aware of their military capabilities, Madkarib Yafur sought the help of the Ban
Thalaba in what was intended as a campaign against the Lakhmid capital of al-ra itself. The
participation of Madhij in Madkaribs campaign is also significant in light of that
confederations ties to Najrn, whose ruling elite, the Banl-rith, belonged to Madhij.
267

Since his rule could hardly have been popular with Jewish imyarites, Madkarib Yafur
understandably would have relied on a base of support from Christian South Arabians, as is
indicated in the anonymous Syriac letter. The Christians of Najrn may have been particularly
supportive of Madkaribs rise to power given their previous suffering at the hands of the
imyarite Jews, as recorded in the Gadla Azqr and the letter of Jacob of Serg. In the
anonymous Syriac letter we learn that, after Ysuf had a well-to-do Christian woman from
Najrn named Rhayma put to death, he was reproached by the Najrn elite, who told him:
This woman has done many good things for everyone, for the king, for the nobles,
and for the poor. And she acted thus in the time of Madkarib, who was king
before you in this country, and who was in need and borrowed from her 12,000
dnrs.

(Att lam hd aybwt saggt bdn lh lwt kll-n wa-lwt malk wa-
lwt rawrbn wa-lwt meskn. W-hkann ebdat ba-zban Madkarem (sic)
haw d-men qdmaykn (h)w malk b-atr hn d-estneq (h)w w-zep menh
tresar alpn dnrn.)
268



265
Wrights interpretation of this sentence is adopted here, though Wright also suspects that the text is corrupt at this
point (Wright 1882: 46).
266
Martin 1876: 49 (Syriac text).
267
Al-Umayr, n.d.: 53.
268
Shahid 1971: xxvii.

173

Madkarib thus had direct dealings with the Christians of Najrn. This fact, and the fact that so
much wealth was concentrated in the hands of a Christian community in this strategically
important region in South Arabia, would later make Najrn a natural target for Ysuf in his
campaign to establish control over imyar. Before she met her fate, Rhayma had told her
captors of her wealth in gold, silver, slaves, bondmaids, and crops (t l dahb w-sm w-abd w-
amht w-alt), adding that she still had 40,000 stamped dnrs in her treasury, together with
the treasury of her recently martyred husband and jewelry made of pearls and rubies (t l arbn
alpn dnr da-tmn w-smn bt gazz dl sar men bt gazzeh d-gabr w-elt margnyt
w-yqnt).
269
Allowing for a bit of exaggeration here, it is clear that a fair amount of wealth was
in the hands of the Najrn Christians, and in light of the passage quoted above some of this may
have been used to support Madkarib Yafurs regime.
That Madkarib was indeed active in the region of Najrn is confirmed by an inscription
(Ja 2484) found by Jamme near the village of al-Sda, about 38.5 km due west of Khams al-
Mushay in Saudi Arabias Asr Province. In this inscription Madkarib is given the so-called
very long title borne by imyarite kings since the fifth century and is said to have assembled
the horses which Dhara
an
brought (GM BGWD
n
[L]N SB DR
n
).
270
This Dhara
an
is not
attested in other inscriptions,
271
though this is not surprising if, according to the interpretation of

269
Ibid.
270
In his publication of this inscription, Jamme (1972: 85) reads kgm/blwdn/[l]n/sb/drn, which he takes to
mean when he annexed the provinces which had fought Darn. But in Sabaic, the verb GM always means to
assemble or to bring together (cf. Arabic jamaa), not to annex. As for Jammes blwdn, which he interprets
as a plural of the qutl form meaning provinces on the basis of the Arabic balad (pl. bild), this might instead be
read BGWD
n
. Orthographically such a reading is quite possible given the close similarity of the letters L and G in
the musnad script of the sixth centuryso close, in fact, that it is often impossible to tell the two apart. BGWD
n
also
fits the military context, for in Arabic bajd (pl. bujd) refers to a group of a hundred or more horses (Ibn Manr,
1988: 317). It is in this sense that we can tentatively propose cavalry units, with the possibility that it might also
refer to a group of infantry. [L]N is the demonstrative pronoun for the masculine plural (cf. Geez llnt)
meaning those who, which in this case would refer to the BGWD
n
. As it is plural, this pronoun cannot be the
subject of the verb SB, which is singular. Rather, DR
n
would be the subject of this verb.
271
It seems unlikely that the tribe of al-Dharin of the Sarw
u
imyar mentioned by al-Hamdn (1974: 177-8) are
intended here, in light of the location of Ja 2484 in a region much further to the north of the Sarw
u
imyar.

174

the passage proposed here, he had the minor role of providing horses to the imyarite army.
272
It
is tempting to suggest that this inscription is related in some way to Ry 510 in the Wd Msil.
One would certainly expect a delivery of horses to have happened if Madkaribs army passed
through the regions of Asr and perhaps Najrn as well on its way to Iraq. Unfortunately the date
of this inscription as read by Jamme, wrhn/drfn/drn, is problematic, since there is no month
in the imyarite calendar called RF
n
DR
n
and the drawing of the inscription which Jamme
provides
273
is not helpful in elucidating whether the text is corrupt at this point or has perhaps
been written over. DR
n
might be taken as a fragment of D-MDR
n
(Dh-Madhra
an
), but this
would leave unexplained the omission of the initial M, as well as the presence of the name RF
n
.
In addition, Dh-Madhra
an
corresponds to the month of July, which would mean that if Ja 2484
is indeed related to Ry 510 it would date from one month after the latter inscription, and thus
after Madkaribs campaign against the Lakhmids. In that case, one would have to imagine that
Dhara
an
provided horses to the imyarite army only after its return from its campaign to the
north!
Not until the Muslim invasion of Iraq in the seventh century would such a military
manoeuvre be achieved by any Arabia-based polity, though Abreh may well have sought to
attack Mesopotamia in his campaign of 552. There is no indication in the epigraphic or literary
sources that Klb helped orchestrate Madkarib Yafurs military operations in any way. The
fact that Madkarib bore the same very long imyarite royal title which Klb used in his own
titulature is an indication of what little political influence Aksum actually had in Arabia at this
time. If Klbs rhetoric of irredentist warfare sought to win the support of his Ethiopian subjects
for the campaign against imyar, the Aksumite king was reluctant to involve himself in

272
On the wealth of the tribes of Asr in horses, see A Handbook of Arabia, Vol. I: General, London: Admiralty
War Staff, Intelligence Division, 1916: 422, 443, 463-4.
273
Jamme 1972: pl. 19 (2484).

175

imyarite affairs at this point beyond putting a fellow Christian in power with a small contingent
of Ethiopians at his service. Judging from the fact that Ry 510 mentions only Arab mercenaries,
it would appear that even these Ethiopians stationed by Klb in imyar did not participate in
Madkaribs campaign against the Lakhmids.
It cannot be claimed, then, that Klb sought to extend Aksumite influence as far as
Mesopotamia with Madkaribs help. Nor was there anything specifically Christian about this
far-flung military expedition. Apart from an invocation of the god Ramn
an
in Ja 2484, there are
no religious references at all in Madkaribs inscriptions, much less quotations from Scripture
or references to the foundation of churches as in Klbs inscription from Aksum (RIE 191).
Rather, Madkaribs campaign was a continuation of a long-standing imyarite traditionquite
independent of Aksumof intervention in the Arabian interior, a tradition initiated in fact by his
Judaizing predecessors in the fourth and fifth centuries. Though seeking to restore South Arabia
to Aksum in some nominal way, Klb was perfectly content to let Madkarib reestablish
imyars hold on the tribes of central and northern Arabia. If the break in imyarite royal
succession with the accession of Marthadl
an
Yanf is indicative of political upheaval in South
Arabia, it is likely that imyars influence over the Arab tribes of the north had fallen into
abeyance after the fifth century.
What did this mean to Aksum? Allowing Madkarib Yafur to embark on a campaign to
restore and extend imyarite authority in the far north may have been Klbs way of appeasing
a powerful protg, while at the same time deflecting the military energies of imyar away from
the Red Sea. Given the freedom with which Madkarib embarked on his military expansion,
Klbs claim to rule South Arabia as expressed in RIE 191, appears to have been largely a
political fiction. Though Aksum may well have felt safer with a Christian on the imyarite

176

throne, the campaign of 518 by which Klb achieved this was less a strategic than an
ideological move. In the early sixth century Aksum had entered a period of prosperity after a
poorly documented lull in the fifth century, and reestablished political influence in South Arabia
as a way of asserting its power. To that end Klb left Ethiopian troops in imyar and built a
church as a symbol of Christianitys triumph over the imyarite Jews. But at no point do we hear
of the establishment of an Aksumite bureaucracy in South Arabia, and though the imyarites
may have been expected to pay some sort of tribute to Aksum, Aksumite political authority
probably weight lightly upon imyar. The rhetoric of empire, then, would have had greater
resonance in Ethiopia than in South Arabia.

3.6. Conclusion
The accession of Marthadl
an
Yanf around 500 marks a reversal in the fortunes of South
Arabias Christians. What role Aksum had in his accessionif anyremains uncertain, though
the openness of the imyarite regime to Christianity at that time facilitated the establishment of
an Aksumite embassy in the imyarite capital of afr. The increase in the quantity of Aksumite
pottery in sixth-century levels at the South Arabian port of Qni may also be tied to the
development of a more hospitable political environment for Aksumites in imyar. Sometime
between 510 (the date of the last inscription which can be attributed to Marthadl
an
) and 518 (the
date of Klbs invasion of imyar) there appears to have been an uprising by the imyarite
Jews against the local Christians, perhaps as a result of the favoritism the Christians had enjoyed
under Marthadl
an
. The Aksumite invasion in 518 put an end to the persecutions and established
Christianity on a firmer foundation than ever before through placing a Christian imyarite,
Madkarib Yafur, in power and by building churches. One of these churches is mentioned in
Klbs inscription from Aksum (RIE 191), and another one, located at afr itself, was built

177

shortly thereafter by the Ethiopians who stayed on in imyar following the invasion. Madkarib
Yafur embarked on a campaign against the Arabs of central and north Arabia in 521, an
undertaking which brought the imyarite army to southern Mesopotamia. By 523, however,
Madkarib was dead and the Jewish king Ysuf Asar Yathar, having embarked on a campaign
of expansion in 522, was firmly in power and reinitiated the persecution of South Arabias
Christians.
What emerges from this skeletal chronology is a history of conflict between Christian and
Jewish elements in South Arabia, with the Aksumites naturally taking the side of their Christian
coreligionists. There is no evidence that either the Romans or the Ssnids were directly
involved in South Arabian politics, and it would be several decades before Justinian I (527-565)
attempted to bring South Arabia and Aksum into Romes war with the Ssnids. Indeed the only
Roman we hear about in connection with Klbs invasion of imyar in 518 is the merchant
Cosmas Indicopleustes, who merely happened to be passing through Ethiopia at the time. It has
been argued in this chapter that the conflict between Aksum and imyar was the product of
social, religious, and political developments specific to the Red Sea, not to the conflict between
Rome and Persia. Even Aksumite Christianity, though undeniably the product of Ethiopian
contact with Rome, seems to have taken an indigenizing turn during this period in light of the
rendition of Biblical verses in Geez for the first time, the evidence for which (in the form of RIE
191) dates from Klbs reign. As a result of this, the overt expressions of Christian faith which
in fourth-century Aksum were rendered only in Greek now appear for the first time in Geez in
Klbs inscription from Aksum. They do so, moreover, in the context of the records of the
kings foreign conquests, suggesting a link between religious and political ideologies.

178

At the same time, the conflict with imyar cannot be reduced to a simple war between
two rival religious groups in the sixth century, for Aksum had a long history of intervention in
South Arabia, the earliest evidence for which dates back to the third century. It was in that
century that an anonymous Aksumite king erected an inscription in Greek at the Ethiopian port
town of Adulis in which he records his military victories on both sides of the Red Sea. That a
request was made from the highest level for this inscription to be copied right when Klb was
about to invade imyar indicates that the inscription was no mere curiosity for him. Rather it
was a valuable document in which Klb was able to find a precedent for his invasion. Thus, far
from being a military manoeuvre giving Rome unhindered strategic access to the Indian Ocean
through the establishment of a Christian ruler in South Arabia, Klbs campaign against imyar
was framed as a restoration of Aksums Arabian empire, and in this endeavor Rome, its cordial
relations with Aksum notwithstanding, had no place. We will conclude this chapter where it
began, with the idea of a Christian commonwealth in late antiquity. While not excluding that the
Aksumites could have felt a connection with Christian Rome, a review of the available evidence
suggests that as far as Aksum was concerned the most meaningful Christian commonwealth was
one limited to the southern Red Sea region, and that this commonwealth was one in which Klb
sought to establish a leadership role for Aksum. Klbs second invasion of imyar in 525
would be a continuation of this program.


AFRICANS IN ARABIA FELIX:
AKSUMITE RELATIONS WITH IMYAR IN THE SIXTH CENTURY C.E.
Vol. II

George Hatke



A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO
THE FACULTY OF PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE
OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY



RECOMMENDED FOR ACCEPTANCE BY THE DEPARTMENT
OF NEAR EASTERN STUDIES
Advisor: Michael Cook



January 2011









Copyright by George Hatke, 2011. All rights reserved.










PART III:
KLBS INVASION OF IMYAR IN 525 AND ITS AFTERMATH



















180

Chapter 4.
YSUF ASAR YATHARS RISE TO POWER IN IMYAR AND THE
AKSUMITE QUESTION

4.1 Introduction
Klbs invasion of imyar in 518 marks an effort to reduce the threat of a rival Red Sea
power through military force, legitimated on the one hand as a restoration of Aksums lost
Arabian empire and on the other as a liberation of the persecuted Christian community of
imyarall of this being presented in Aksumite and foreign sources as a mission blessed with
divine favor. Klbs invasion of imyar in 525 gave greater weight to religious ideology as
against irredentist warfare but can nevertheless be seen as a continuation of the same
expansionist trend. The invasion receives attention in foreign sources (in Greek and Syriac) from
the sixth century as a war to liberate the Christians of South Arabia from persecution at the hands
of Jews. In these sources there are indications that the Aksumite invasion was also seen as a
military undertaking comparable to those of the Israelites, though it is only in the fragmentary
Geez records that this theme is more fully developed. Though it may well be that Klb saw
himself as the caretaker of Christians not only in Ethiopia but also across the Red Sea in imyar,
the liberation of South Arabias Christians is likely to have been his main pretext for his
expansionist ends.
The period with which we are concerned in the present chapter lasts roughly a decade and
its major events can be outlined as follows: Around 522 the Jewish imyarite king Ysuf Asar
Yathar (c. 522-525), taking advantage of the weakness of the Aksumites Christian client
Madkarib Yafur, launches an attack on the Ethiopians residing in the imyarite capital of
afr, who had been stationed there by Klb during the Aksumite invasion of 518. Over the

181

following thirteen months Ysuf continues his campaign, attacking the towns of the Yemeni
Tihma where, as at afr, the Ethiopians had established themselves. The culmination of the
campaign is the siege of Najrn, an important Christian settlement in the north of the kingdom of
imyar. In the autumn of 523, Najrn is stormed by Ysufs troops and its Christians put to the
sword. Only by converting to Judaism are some Najrns able to escape death, though
hagiographical sources claim that most accept martyrdom. News of the persecutions begins to
trickle out of Arabia by the beginning of 524 and sends shock waves throughout Aksumite
Ethiopia and the Roman Near East, and in the following year Klb himself leads an invasion of
imyar which results in the defeat and death of Ysuf. In the Jewish kings place Klb appoints
the Christian imyarite Sumyafa Ashwa to rule imyar on behalf of Aksum and render
tribute annually. Over the course of the seven months which he is reported by the Book of the
imyarites to have spent in South Arabia Klb sees to the restoration of churches destroyed by
Ysufs troops and the foundation of new ones, as well as the re-conversion of those Christians
who had been forcibly converted to Judaism. New converts to Christianitywhether by choice
or under compulsionare also likely to have been gained during this period. His work in South
Arabia complete, Klb returns to Ethiopia and, at least according to the Greek Martyrium
Arethae, abdicates to spend the rest of his days there as a monk.
That the history of the confrontation of Aksum and imyar in the sixth century is so well
documented testifies to the impact it had on the late antique world. Since the renewal of
Aksumite interventionism in South Arabia after two and a half centuries of apparent peace
coincides with the heightened state of warfare between the Roman and Ssnid empires, scholars
have long viewed Klbs war with imyar within a greater geopolitical context, a southern
counterpart as it were to the the conflict in the frontier regions of the two great powers in

182

Mesopotamia and the Caucasus, not to mention the competition between the Romans and
Ssnids for allies in Central Asia as well. Justinians attempt, duly reported by Procopius, to
draw the Ethiopians and South Arabians into the war with the Ssnids has been repeatedly cited
as evidence that Klbs activities in imyar were part of Romes attempt to extend its sphere of
influence into South Arabia, at the expense of the Ssnids. According to this interpretation, the
war between Christian Rome and Zoroastrian Persia was played out in South Arabia in the
military encounter between a Christian Aksum allied to Rome and a Jewish imyar allied to
Persia.
But as argued in the previous chapter Klbs war with imyar is deeply rooted in the
Aksumites sense of their pasta past, moreover, which had nothing to do with either Rome or
Persia. It was argued as well that the Aksumites notion of of irredentist warfare was wedded to a
parallel ideology of religious warfare during the reign of Klb. This development may owe a
great deal to the special circumstances of this kings reign, which saw the return of Aksumite
armies to Arabia after a hiatus of two and a half centuries, coupled with the earliest Biblical
allusions in inscriptions. In the present chapters discussion of the Aksumite invasion of South
Arabia in 525 we will see that the primary sources in Greek, Syriac, Sabaic, and Geez say
nothing of an anti-Ssnid Romano-Aksumite axis in the reign of Justinians predecessor Justin I
(518-527). If these sources speak at all of Roman involvement in Klbs campaign they state
that the Romans sent ships to strengthen Aksums maritime power and clergymen to aid in
Aksums program of restoring and extending Christian influence in South Arabia. Justin clearly
supported the efforts of Klb to promote Christianity, but does not appear to have viewed this as
a step towards undermining Ssnid influence in Arabia. It is only with his successor Justinian I
(527-565) that an ultimately futile attempt was made to involve Ethiopia and South Arabia in the

183

war with Persia. As for Ysuf, his ties with the Ssnids and their Arab clients the Lakhmids
were limited to his having sent letters to both, calling on them to take up arms against their
Christian subjects. Nothing is said in the sources of a response by either the Ssnids or the
Lakhmids and, while John of Ephesus mentions a diplomatic mission sent by an Aksumite king
to the Ssnid court for the release of some local Monophysites, the only sixth-century South
Arabian ruler who is known to have had direct dealings with Ssnid ambassadors is the
Ethiopian Abreh.
Easy though it is for us to regard the Arabian Peninsula as a geopolitical unit to be fought
over by outside powers seeking supremacy, it must not be assumed that it appeared as such to
either the Romans or the Ssnids. Nor can it be assumed that Romano-Ssnid involvement in
north Arabian politicswith Rome supporting the Ghassnids and the Ssnids the Lakhmids
had a counterpart in South Arabia in Klbs time. Noteworthy in this connection is the lack of
evidence that Klbs war with imyar involved anything more than the southwestern corner of
Arabia. Klb never sent his army northward in the direction of Lakhmid Mesopotamiaas
Abreh later wouldnor eastward toward the Ssnid-controlled Arabian Gulf. There is a
striking contrast here with the raids on both sides of the Romano-Ssnid frontier launched by
the great powers respective Arab clients. The argument that Rome viewed Aksum as its proxy in
establishing a sphere of influence in South Arabia is further weakened by the fact that the
Ssnids themselves do not seem to have shown much interest in South Arabia at this point in
time. That Ysufs attempts to incite a systematic persecution of Christians in the Ssnid realm
would fall on deaf ears indicates that neither the Ssnids nor their Lakhmid clients were willing
to be swayed by a king of remote imyar in their dealings with their Christian subjects. In our
study of Aksumite relations with imyar we will therefore take as our point of departure the

184

hypothesis that Ethiopian activities in South Arabia during Klbs reign belong to an era in
which the Romano-Ssnid conflict had not yet had an impact on the region.
Relevant in this regard is the discord between the timing of the two Aksumite invasions
of South Arabia on the one hand and the periods of warfare between the Roman and Ssnid
Empires on the other. While the two great powers were at war from 502 to 506, and again from
528 to 532,
1
the Aksumite invasions of South Arabia in 518 and 525 occurred between these two
periods of Romano-Ssnid warfare, at a time when the Romano-Ssnid relations were adhering
to a truce, concluded in 506. The peace established by this truce was a wary one to be sure but
certainly nothing which necessitated the establishment of rival spheres of influence in the far
south. That either of the great powers sought to disrupt their truce by involving outside polities
like Aksum and imyar is unlikely, particularly when both sides did their best to prevent raids
into each others territories by their respective Arab clients, the Ghassnids and Lakhmids. As
for the alleged Ssnid-imyarite axis, it was King Ysuf of imyar who initiated diplomatic
contact with the Ssnids Lakhmid clientsnot the other way aroundand since his attempt to
incite the Lakhmids to follow his example in putting to death the Christians of their realm
ultimately bore no fruit, his actions in South Arabia cannot be viewed as part of a greater Ssnid
plan to undermine Roman influence in that region through the annihilation of imyars
Christians.
In place of treating the Aksumite invasion of 525 as a proxy war launched at Romes
behest, we will treat it instead as a second and final stage in Klbs long-term project to
establish Aksumite supremacy in the Red Sea, a stage marked by the final elimination of all
South Arabian rivals. This meant not only replacing the Jewish imyarite king Ysuf with the

1
Jeffreys 2010: 171; cf. Whittow 1996: 41.

185

Christian imyarite king Sumyafa Ashwa but also replacing Judaism with Christianity as the
state religion of imyar. It was a loose system of rule, and so long as the imyarites paid their
yearly tribute to Aksum, Klb saw no reason to involve himself further by imposing the
language and culture of Aksum on its population. To him, Aksumite supremacy in the Red Sea
was never a question of making Ethiopians out of South Arabians. It did, however, call for an
ideology that legitimated the Aksumite enterprise, and this Klb found in Christianity, acting as
he did as its chief guardian and promoter in South Arabia.
The role of religious ideology will therefore play a central part in our discussion of
Klbs invasion of imyar in 525. Since late antique thought took the role of God as a given,
2

any study of the role of warfare and rulership in late antique society must take into consideration
the religious frame of reference. If holy war has fallen out of favor in many scholarly circles as
a useful category, objections to the use of the phrase often amount to little more than
disingenuous attempts to absolve religious faith from any connection with warfare, and are the
product not only of western modernity, which seeks to reduce religion to a private, personal role
largely divorced from politics,
3
but also of the general disesteem in which warfare is now held.
Yet warfare was indelibly intertwined with religion in pre-industrial societies, and the Arabian
Peninsula was no exception. From the Muslim wars of expansion in the seventh century
4
to their
eighteenth-century counterparts in the early Saudi state,
5
religion has shaped the ideology of
warfare in Arabia. Despite this, the role of religious ideology in Aksumite warfare in South
Arabia has never before been studied, though its study holds much potential in establishing a
prehistory as it were for jihd.

2
Crone 2003: 189.
3
Ibid.: 189-92.
4
Donner 2010: 39 ff.
5
Cook 1989: 675-9.

186

The hypothesis that Aksumite expansionism was the driving force behind Aksums
relations with sixth-century imyar has several advantages. Firstly, giving Aksum its due credit
as an independent political power with a destiny of its own avoids the monocausal reading of late
antique South Arabian history which attributes all political, economic, and even cultural,
developments to the Romano-Ssnid conflict, to the point that the Aksumite conquest and
Christianization of imyar is reduced to a step towards imyars incorporation within a
Christian commonwealth dominated by Romea commonwealth, moreover, which is thought to
have cohered in part through common opposition to Persia. Secondly, a proper consideration of
Aksumite motives in warfare helps us better understand why, though Christian sources from the
Roman world view Ysufs military activities as a prelude to his attack on Najrn, South Arabian
inscriptions from Ysufs reign emphasize instead the elimination of Ethiopian elements and
their sympathesizers in South Arabia, as well as the defense of imyar against Aksum. Thirdly,
the Aksumite war with imyar, with all of its ideological trappings, has great (and yet to be
exploited) potential for illuminating the military expansion of medieval Christian Ethiopia,
which sought legitimacy through a strikingly similar ideology of the victory of Gods chosen
over the infidels.

4.2. The Aksumites and the Anti-Christian Pogrom of 522-523
As observed in the previous chapter, the fifth century witnessed a Judaizing trend among
imyars ruling elite, a trend which led to a clash between Christian and Jewish elements during
the reign of Shurabil Yakkf (c. 465-485) if the Gadla Azqr is to be believed. This text
speaks of a growing Christian community at Najrn during the reign of Shurabil Yakkf, the
Christians re-emerging again in the Syriac Book of the imyarites in the context of renewed

187

persecutions, corresponding to the period between the end of Marthadl
an
Yanfs reign
6
and the
appointment of Madkarib Yafur by the Aksumites in 518. Yet it is the third wave of
persecutions initiated by Ysuf Asar Yathar sometime in 522 and continuing for nearly two
years thereafter which is best documented, being recorded by imyarite inscriptions in Sabaic as
well as by foreign sources in Syriac and Greek. Not until after Klbs eventual victory over
Ysuf in 525 do Geez sources make an appearance in the epigraphic record, and since these
describe the Aksumite campaign rather than the Christian persecutions which preceded it they
will not be dealt with until Chapter 7.
From Sabaic as well as Syriac sources we know that the victims of Ysufs anti-Christian
campaign included Ethiopians as well as indigenous South Arabians. As our concern in this
study is the history of Aksumite relations with South Arabia we will focus on the Ethiopians, a
group seldom considered in the context of religious persecution in Ysufs reign. What is
particularly striking is that, while literary sources speak at great length of the events at Najrn,
the epigraphic material from South Arabia lays much greater emphasis on Ysufs attempts to
strengthen the maritime borders of imyar that face Ethiopia. By contrast, Najrn is treated in
these inscriptions only insofar as the city was besieged in response to its refusal to render
hostages. As for Romano-Ssnid relations, these were a matter for the distant great powers to
sort out, and it cannot be assumed that the affairs of imyar and Persia were intimately linked
simply because both powers were faced with enemies which happened to be Christian. As for the
Romans, it is easy enough to make the case against the theory that Justin I (518-527) sought to

6
Though the beginning of Marthadl
an
Yanfs reign can be plausibly set at c. 504, the latest inscription attributable
to his reign dates from 510 (3.3), eight years before Madkarib Yafur was brought to power with Aksumite help.
What happened during this eight-year interrum is unknown, and it is not impossible that there was a gap of several
years between the two kings, during which time imyar may have split up into rival parties that left no trace in the
epigraphic record. For now this theory is impossible to prove, though political turmoil may well have made
imyars Christians vulnerable as the state could no longer ensure their protection.

188

establish a Roman sphere of influence in South Arabia as a counterpoise to the Ssnid sphere of
influence in eastern Arabia. We know from the historical record that, though Justins reign was
not free from tensions with Romes eastern neighbor,
7
a truce with the Ssnids had been in
effect since 506, and it was not until 528 that full-fledged warfare with the Ssnids broke out.
8

So long as Justin was able to handle frontier disputes in Mesopotamia he is unlikely to have
wanted to upset relations with Persia by establishing an anti-Ssnid bloc in imyar with
Aksumite help. Even when armed tensions with the Ssnids did flare up again in the last year of
Justins reign, the effects of this were not felt in South Arabia until the reign of his successor
Justinian (527-565), who broke with the precedent set by Justin by encouraging commercial and
military strikes against the Ssnid Empire from South Arabia.
9
Since all of this postdates the
three-year period between 522 and 525 with which we are concerned in the present chapter, we
can exclude Romano-Ssnid geopolitics from consideration and in its place put greater
emphasis on Aksumite initiative in South Arabia.

4.2.1. The Death of Madkarib and the Accession of Ysuf
Following his campaign against the Lakhmids in 521, Madkarib Yafur disappears from
the epigraphic record, re-emerging posthumously as an anonymous Christian imyarite king
mentioned in Syriac sources. As we saw in the previous chapter the circumstances of his death
are shrouded in mystery. Yet our attempt to make sense of this period is not without hope, for we
have some valuable material in Syriac, Sabaic, and Greek on the rise to power of the Jewish
imyarite king Ysuf. We will focus only on such material as has a direct bearing on the

7
Dignas and Winter 2007: 100-6.
8
Jeffreys 2010: 171.
9
See Conclusion.

189

Ethiopian element in the events of Ysufs reign, more specifically Ysufs systematic massacre
of Aksumites residing in imyar, the coastal defenses he established against Aksum, and finally
the effect of his policies on Aksumite maritime trade. For the first two developments we are
dependent on Syriac texts (the letter of Simeon of Bt Arsham, the anonymous letter published
by Shahid, and the Book of the imyarites) and Sabaic inscriptions (Ry 507, Ja 1028, and Ry
508). The economic aspects of the conflict between Aksum and imyar are treated only by John
Malalas, an author whose Chronographia is in many ways problematic, but whose reference to
sixth-century Roman trade with South Arabia and Ethiopia is fully supported by archaeological
evidence.

4.2.1.1. Simeon of Bt Arsham Visits the Lakhmids
A Monophysite Christian living in Ssnid Mesopotamia, Simeon of Bt Arsham was in
a good position to negotiate between Christian Rome and Ssnid Iran, having already visited
many districts in Mesopotamia and Iran in a religious capacity to dispute with the various
religious sects of the Ssnid west.
10
A man whose career straddled both sides of the Romano-
Ssnid divide, he was by 503 established as bishop of Bt Arsham, a town on the Tigris near
Seleucia-Ctesiphon, and served in that capacity until he died on a visit to the empress Theodora
in Constantinople some time before 548.
11
Though he hailed from the Ssnid side of the great
powers frontier, Simeon says in his letter that it was the Roman emperor Justin who
commissioned him to head a mission to the Lakhmid king al-Mundhir (III) b. Imri al-Qays in
524.
12
The purpose of the embassy was to settle matters on Romes Syrian frontier, for in 523 al-

10
Wright 1894: 79-80
11
Ibid.: 80.
12
Guidi 1881: 1 (Syriac text).

190

Mundhir undertook at the behest of his Ssnid patrons two devastating raids into Roman
territory as far the upper Euphrates and Antioch.
13
In addition to making peace with the
Lakhmids, Justin sought to obtain the release of two Roman generals, Timostratus and John, who
had been been captured by al-Mundhir.
14
As far as Rome was concerned the mission to the
Lakhmids was a success in that it secured the release of Timostratus and John.
15

From Simeons letter and the Greek Martyrium Arethae we know the names of the other
individuals who were either members of the Roman mission to al-Mundhirs court, or who were
there to receive the mission. The letter gives the names of two: a Mar Abraham son of Euphreus
and a Mar Sergius of Bt Rufa,
16
the latter town a popular pilgrimage center located just south
of the Euphrates in central Syria, whose monastery attracted Christians throughout
Mesopotamia.
17
The Martyrium also knows of Simeon and Abraham, though it omits all mention
of Sergius and instead notes the names of five individuals not mentioned in Simeons letter:
Isaac, John Mandinos, Shilas, Aggaios, and Zeeidos son of Job.
18
Isaac is described in the
Martyrium as a presbyter and the apokrisiarios (i.e. bishops representative) of the Orthodox
Christians of Persia. Though Shahid takes this to mean that he was Diophysite (=
Chalcedonian), Orthodox Christians of Persia in the parlance of Monophysite Syriac authors
refers to the Monophysites of the Ssnid realm, and since the Martyrium relies on Monophysite
Syriac sources for much of its information on Najrn,
19
it is more likely that Isaacs orthodoxy
was Monophysitism.
20
Nothing is known of John Mandinos apart from his status as a

13
Vasiliev 1950: 277.
14
Ibid.: 281.
15
Vasiliev 1950: 281.
16
Guidi: 1, 7.
17
Al-Shbusht 1966: 228.
18
Martyrium Arethae XXV.15-18.
19
Detoraki 2007: 13-56, 81, 89, 94-6.
20
Beaucamp 2007: 252 (n. 151).

191

subdeacon,
21
though Shilas is known from the eleventh-century Chronicle of Seert (also called
the Nestorian Chronicle) as a Nestorian catholikos in Persia.
22
As for Aggaios, Shahid derives
his name from the Arabic ajjj, arguing that he is the ajjj whom the Chronicle of Seert
describes as a companion (ib) of al-Mundhir and a participant in a dispute between the
Monophysites and the Nestorians at al-Mundhirs court during the time of Justin.
23
Zeeidos son
of Job may well be identified with a Zayd b. Ayyb (Zayd son of Job), who according to al-
Ibahns Kitb al-Aghn was the great-grandfather of the Christian poet of al-ra Ad b.
Zayd.
24
This, too, Shahid has already proposed, though based on a recension of the Martyrium
(Paris, Bibl. Nat. de France, gr. 1537 (olim Colbertinus 3021))
25
in which the name Zayd (Z)
is confused with that of the progenitor of Aggaios.
26
The recent edition of the Martyrium
published by Detoraki with a French translation by Beaucamp establishes the reading Zeeidos
son of Job (Zo o ),
27
thus supporting Shahids identification of Zayd with the Zayd
b. Ayyb known from later Arabic sources. Since Ad was active towards the end of the sixth
century, Shahid is correct that the time-frame for his ancestor Zayd b. Ayyb fits that of the
Martyriums Zeeidos son of Job. If this is correct, then al-Ibahns story of how Kisr
(=Khusraw II, 590-628) once sent the poet Ad b. Zayd to the emperor of Rome (malik al-
Rm)
28
with a gift
29
may indicate that the family had a tradition of diplomacy.
30

21
Shahids claim that his cognomen argues for a Mandaean background is dubious (Shahid 1964: 117). On the
possible Arabic origin of this name, see Beaucamp 2007: 252 (n. 152).
22
Shahid 1964: 117.
23
Ibid.
24
Ibid. For the entry on Ad b. Zayd in the Kitb al-Aghn, see al-Ibahn 1990: II: 80 ff.
25
On this manuscript, see Detoraki 2007: 104.
26
o o o Z (quoted in Shahid 1964: 118).
27
Martyrium Arethae XXV.18 (=Beaucamp 2007: 253).
28
Undoubtedly the emperor Maurice (582-602), who helped Khusraw to regain his throne.
29
Al-Ibahn 1990: II: 85.
30
Cf. the family of Nonnosos, members of which were sent by the Romans on diplomatic missions to Arabia and
Ethiopia in the sixth century.

192

Of the individuals who took part in the Roman diplomatic mission to the Lakhmids,
Simeon is the only one who has left any documentation. The letter for which he is so famous,
however, concerns not Roman relations with the Lakhmids but the suffering of the Christians of
South Arabia under the new Jewish ruler of imyar, Ysuf Asar Yathar, who came to power
after the death of Madkarib Yafur. He claims to have first received news of Ysufs
persecution of South Arabias Christians while participating in the diplomatic mission sent by
Justin to al-Mundhir, the very king whose realm had been attacked by Madkarib, and who
according to Simeon strove to make peace with the Romans (d-nebed ayn am Rmy).
31

Simeon alludes to his having described the circumstances of this peace effort in a previous letter
(ktabnan melteh b-eggartan qadmayt)
32
which has not survived. The recipient of his letters
is unknown, Simeon addressing him simply as Your Reverence (bbkn). Since his sole
surviving letter recounts the events in South Arabia down to the Aksumite invasion and the death
of Ysuf in 525, it would seem that its extended account of the persecutions of the Najrn
Christians is a recapitulation of an earlier, now lost, letter written before the invasion, perhaps
the letter in which Simeon recounted the background to Justins peaceful overture to the
Lakhmids.
The date which Simeon gives for his departure from the Lakhmid court at al-ra, 20
Kann ry in 835 of the Seleucid Era (=January 24, 524) sets a terminus ante quem for the
dispatch of this mission. According to Simeons letter, the Roman mission reached al-ra at a
time when al-Mundhir was some distance away in a region referred to in Syriac as the l
mountains, which Simeon glosses as Ramleh in the language of Arabia (b-leneh d-atr

31
Guidi: 1 (Syriac text).
32
Ibid.

193

ayy)
33
(cf. Arabic raml, sand). As a result of this the envoys had to journey another ten
days across the desert before finding the camp of the Lakhmid king. Musil locates the campsite
in the hills of Jl al-ayla, a place whose name is clearly related to Simeons l ten days
march from the site of al-ra and, again like the l described by Simeon, is located in a region
still known as al-Ramla.
34
Musil notes that water is plentiful there during the winter months,
when the Roman embassy arrived, and that when he himself encamped by the southern slope of
Jl al-ayla in February 1915 he found luxuriant grass in the nearby gullies.
35

The Romans, however, were not the only foreign power which sought to establish ties
with al-Mundhir. The Jewish imyarite king Ysuf is reported by Simeon to have sent a letter to
al-Mundhir, the text of which is quoted in full in Simeons epistle, in which he describes his
massacre of the Christians of South Arabia. But according to Simeon, Ysufs predecessor, the
Christian Madkarib Yafur, had already sent a diplomatic mission to the Lakhmids, the
members of which Simeon interviewed during his stay in the Lakhmid realm. In his letter to the
abott of Gabbl, Simeon writes:
Having come from al-ra of Numn
36
we learned afterward, on the Saturday of
the first month of the Fast, of those [things] which were not written in the letter to
al-Mundhir, but [were reported by] the imyarite believers which the imyarite
king, whom the Ethiopians had appointed to the land of the imyarites, had sent
with an envoy, a certain Christian, to the king al-Mundhir. When they were in al-
ra of Numn they heard tell that that Christian king who had sent them had
died. Because of this they had hired a man from al-ra and had sent him to
Najrn to see and learn the truth and bring them a report from Najrn.
(W-kad etayn men rt d-Namn btarn b-abb qadmayt d-awm lefnan
hln d-l ktbn (h)wy b-eggart da-lwt Mnder n gr mhaymn mry
am zgadd ad Krsyn da-maddar (h)w lwt Mnder malk men haw
malk Krsyn d-amlek(w) (h)waw Ky b-atr da-mry. W-kad tayhn

33
Guidi: 2 (Syriac text).
34
Musil 1928: 71.
35
Ibid.
36
Al-ra in south-central Iraq, called ra of Numn after the sixth Lakhmid ruler Numn I (390-418).

194

(h)waw b-rt d-Namn etamat l-hn d-mt (h)w lh haw malk Krsyn d-
addar ennn. W-mel hd egar(w) (h)waw gabr men rt w-addraw l-
Nagran d-nez w-nlap rr w-nayt l-hn enyn men Nagran.)
37

As they are described as imyarite believers (mhaymn mry) it can be assumed that the
South Arabian ambassadors sent by Madkarib Yafur were Christians like their king, and like
the envoy who led their mission to the Lakhmid court. This mission would have been sent some
time after June of 521, when Ry 510, the inscription recording Madkaribs military expedition
to Mesopotamia, was inscribed in Wd Msil. It is likely that Madkarib, having entered into a
territorial dispute with al-Mundhir over control of northern Arabia, sent the ambassadors to the
Lakhmid realm in an attempt to resolve the issue, much as the Romans sought to establish peace
on their Mesopotamian frontier by sending a mission of their own to the Lakhmids under the
leadership of Simeon of Bt Arsham. If the Roman mission to the Lakhmids can be assigned to
the beginning of 524 on the basis of the chronological details given in Simeons letter, the
imyarite mission would have arrived some time earlier, before the death of Madkarib.
Though there is no epigraphic documentation for Madkaribs reign after 521, two
inscriptions from the reign of Ysuf which record the latter kings military operations in South
Arabia have been taken to mean that Madkarib died no more than a year after his campaign
against the Lakhmids. The inscriptions in question, Ja 1028 and Ja 507, were left at Bir im by
members of the imyarite elite to commemorate the military expeditions they undertook on
behalf of their king Ysuf, and are dated to Dh-Madhra
an
in 633 of the imyarite Era. Taking
April 110 BCE as the beginning of the imyarite Era, this gives us a date of July 523 for the two
inscriptions. In Ja 1028 we are told that these military expeditions lasted thirteen months,
38
in
which case Ysuf would have come to power by around June of 522. Though Ysufs rise to

37
Guidi 1881: 8 (Syriac text).
38
The campaign with which those who [now] returned to their homes had been entrusted [took place] over thirteen
months (SBT
m
WDH D-QFLW BTHMW B-TLTT R WRH
m
).

195

power might be taken as a terminus ante quem for the death of Madkarib, the sole reference to
the death of this Christian king, a letter sent by Ysuf to the Lakhmid king al-Mundhir, does not
suggest that he died at the hands of Ysufs forces. Thus in his account of his diplomatic visit to
the Lakhmid camp at Ramla Simeon of Bt Arsham writes:
There was great sorrow on the part of the true believers, for there came soon after
us an envoy from the king of the imyarites to al-Mundhir, king of al-ra. He
brought with him a letter of the utmost arrogance, in which he informed him of
those evils visited upon the Christians of Najrn, the city of the imyarites. Now
he wrote to him thus: That king whom the Ethiopians had appointed in our
country died, and the time of winter came and the Ethiopians were not able to
invade our country.
(W-teh a rabb d-kllhn mhaymn arrr et gr ba-qrbt dlan zgadd
men malk da-mry lwt Mnder malk d-rt. W-ayt leh eggart d-maly
kllh bhr kad mawda leh bh d-ln bt sar lwt Krsyn da-b-
Nagran mdtt da-mry. Ktab leh dn hkann d-malk lam haw d-aqm(w)
Ky b-atr dlan mt w-adrek zabn d-setw w-l eka(w) Ky d-nepqn
l-atran.)
39

Thus the Lakhmid court had received another imyarite envoy, this one representing the new
political order which had established itself in South Arabia under Ysuf. This same letter of
Ysufs is mentioned in the Martyrium Arethae, wherein the imyarite king is said to have
boasted of his having killed the Ethiopian, Roman, and Persian Christians of his realm and to
have encouraged al-Mundhir and Kavdh I to mete out the same treatment to the Christians in
their own realms.
40
Since Simeon arrived in the Lakhmid realm in January of 524, this winter
season would presumably refer here to the period between October and December of 523, as no
intervening year is alluded to. Madkarib Yafur would thus have died during or before this
period. Ysufs letter continues:
I became king over all the country of the imyarites, and before all else I
decided that I should slay all the Christians of the entire country of the

39
Guidi 1881: 2 (Syriac text).
40
Martyrium Arethae XXVII.8-15.

196

imyarites, or [else] that they should deny Christ and become Jews like us. First I
was able to throw into disorder and seize all those Ethiopians who remained in
our country, who were guarding that church which they had published abroad that
they had built in our country, and I killed them all, 280 menmonks and laymen.
That church of theirs I converted into a synagogue for us. And afterwards I led my
cohort, a force of 120,000, and went to Najrn.
(W-en amlekt al klleh atr da-mry wa-qdm kll meddem hd etabet
d-ebad da-l-kllhn Krsyn awbed men atr kllh da-mry aw d-nekprn
ba-M w-nehwn Ydy akwtan. W-qadmyat l-kllhn Ky da-bqn
(h)waw b-atran d-nrn (h)waw dt hy d-sabbar(w) (h)waw l-hn da-bnaw b-
atran etaket d-eagge w-elbk ennn w-qelet l-kllhn d-hwn (h)waw mtn
wa-tmnn gabr bnay qym w-lmy. Hy dn dathn badth bt knt
dlan. W-btarken debret amm() m w-esrn alpay ayl w-ezlet l-Nagran
mdtt.)
41

As Ysuf was only too happy to boast to al-Mundhir of the harsh treatment which he meted out
to the Christians of his realm, the fact that he never takes credit for putting Madkarib to death
suggests that the latter either died of natural causes or that, if he was killed, it was not at the
hands of Ysufs forces. If so, then it is quite possible that Madkarib lived on some time after
Ysuf began his campaign of conquest in South Arabia in June 522, but that it was only when
Madkarib died that he took the step of formally proclaiming himself king. Having the Christian
imyarite king out of the way would have greatly aided Ysufs ability to attack the Christian
communities of afr and Najrn.
If so, then the reference to Ysuf as the king (MLK
n
) or the king of all the tribes
(MLK KL B
n
) in the two Bir im inscriptions (Ja 1028 and Ja 507), dating from July of
523, might hypothetically be taken as a terminus ante quem for Madkaribs death. This, in turn,
would mean that the Christian imyarite mission sent by Madkarib to the Lakhmids must have
departed for Mesopotamia sometime earlier in 523. On the other hand, such incidents
documented in Ysufs letter as the massacre of the Ethiopians in afr, also described in both Ja

41
Guidi 1881: 2 (Syriac text).

197

1028 and Ja 507 from Bir im, must have preceded the death of Madkarib, which according
to Ysufs letter occurred at or shortly before the onset of winter of 523, after the two Bir im
inscriptions were carved. In fact, Ysufs attack on the Ethiopians in afr is presented in Ja
1028 and Ja 507 as the initial stage of a thirteen-month campaign, which would suggest that
afr was captured by Ysuf at least a year before Madkarib died. Since none of the
inscriptions from Ysufs reign, or his letter to al-Mundhir, mention an encounter with
Madkarib at afr, it is possible that the Christian king had already fled the imyarite capital
by the time it was captured. That Ysufs authority did not, however, encompass all of South
Arabia by this point is indicated by the fact that he is referred to in Ja 1028 and Ja 507 only as
the king, without the very long titleKing of Saba and Dh-Raydn and aramawt and
Yamanat and their Arabs of the awd and the Tihmaborne by Madkarib in Ry 510 and Ja
2484.
Adopting such a chronology for the period between the late spring of 522 and the winter
of 523/524 would necessitate a new reading of Ysufs letter, to the effect that he began by
bringing al-Mundhir up to date on South Arabian affairs with a report of Madkaribs death
towards the end of 523, after which he back-tracked by describing the military actions he had
undertaken the previous year after proclaiming himself king. That Ysuf was not more explicit in
his letter about when he assumed the title of king need not pose any problems for such a reading,
as his main purpose in writing to the Lakhmid king was to spread the news abroad that he was
now in control of South Arabia, without specifying exactly how he came to power. Ysufs
elusiveness in these matters can perhaps be explained by the fact that he, like Madkarib and
indeed Marthadl
an
Yanf before him, was not of royal descent. Like these two predecessors, the
name of Ysufs father is never given in any inscription, as had been imyarite royal custom in

198

times when there was an unbroken succession.
42
The story in the anonymous Syriac letter of a
Christian girl of Najrn taunting Ysuf that her lineage was superior to his
43
is likely apocryphal,
but still represents a sentiment shared by many elements in imyar at the time, and certainly
among the Christians.
44

What may have happened to Madkarib in the final years of his reign is unknown, except
that, according to Simeons letter, he lived on and was able to send a diplomatic mission to the
Lakhmids in 523 before he died. If Madkarib sent this mission when he was in a position of
political weakness, reaching an understanding with the Lakhmids may have taken on a greater
urgency. That a fair amount of political and military power was concentrated at al-ra can be
surmised from the fact that in the previous century Yazdegird I (399-421) had sent his son
Bahrm (V) Gr (421-438) to the city to be raised by the Lakhmids, and that the Lakhmid king
al-Numn b. Imri al-Qays later helped bring Bahrm Gr to the Ssnid throne when the latter
came of age.
45
In light of the Lakhmids abilities, it cannot be excluded that Madkarib had
sought the help of his former enemy al-Mundhir in the struggle against the Jewish king Ysuf. If,
as Simeons letter claims, al-Mundhir was serious about making peace with Christian Rome,
another former enemy of his, Madkarib may have felt more confident in establishing diplomatic
ties with al-ra. Though impossible to prove, such an attempt to curry favor with the Lakhmids

42
The fact that some Muslim authors give Dh Nuws (=Ysuf) an impeccable royal genealogy (al-abar 1961: II:
118, 119; al-Masd 1948: I: 77; Ibn azm 1948: 410, 411) can be explained either as an attempt on the part of
descendants of Ysuf, like those alluded to by al-Hamdn (1966: II: 60), to legitimate their ancestors claim to the
throne, or as the product of a medieval tradition that the Tabbia, the name by which the imyarite kings were
collectively known, constituted a single geneaological group (Ibn azm 1948: 411).
43
Shahid 1971: viii.
44
The claim made by the Chronicle of Seert that Ysufs mother was a Jewish woman from Nisibis is not borne out
by other sources, and may represent an attempt on the part of Christian authors to draw attention to Ysufs lack of
royal credentials.
45
Abl-Baq 2000: I: 116-17.

199

may explain at least in part why Ysuf sent a mission of his own to al-Mundhir, one which
Simeon claims arrived at Ramla not long after the arrival of the Roman mission.
If one accepts this hypothesis, however, one is confronted with the question of why
Madkarib sought help from the Lakhmids at all when Klb, who had brought him to power in
the first place, was just across the Red Sea. The letter sent to al-Mundhir by Ysuf, as quoted by
Simeon, makes much of the fact that the Ethiopians could not reach South Arabia during the
winter months. Though this is a fairly accurate reflection of the system of winds in the Red Sea
which, as noted in the previous chapter, make crossing difficult from October to April,
46
it is not
clear from Ysufs letter whether Madkarib was alive for much, if any, of the winter of 523.
Ysufs attacks on the Tihma coast, as described in the inscriptions from his reign, may also
have blocked, or at least stalled, any Aksumite attempt to come to Madkaribs help. Before
examining these inscriptions, however, we will first look at what the Syriac sources have to say
about Aksum and its expatriate community in South Arabia at this time.

4.2.1.2. Syriac Reports on the Massacre of imyars Aksumite Community
The slaughter of the Christians at Najrn which Simeon describes in his letter is also
recorded in abundant detail in the anonymous Syriac letter, the Book of the imyarites, and the
Greek Martyrium Arethae. Of the Ethiopian casualties the Martyrium says only that the forces of
the Jewish imyarite king killed all the men left by Klb in South Arabia.
47
In the Syriac
sources, however, we are given much more information on the Ethiopians who met their end in
the course of Ysufs anti-Christian campaign, including their numbers. Like the Martyrium, the

46
Beaucamp et al. 1999-2000: 56.
47
Martyrium Arethae III.11-12.

200

letter of Simeon of Bt Arsham, the anonymous letter, and the Book of the imyarites describe
Ysufs attack on the Ethiopians at afr as the first stage of his campaign to exterminate the
Christians of his realm. As we have seen, Ysufs letter to al-Mundhir which Simeon quotes in
his own epistle states that no fewer than 280 Ethiopians were killed by the imyarite troops at
afr. The eighth chapter of the Book of the imyarites similarly describes the slaughter of
afrs resident Aksumites as the first persecution by the crucifier Masrq (i.e., King Ysuf)
(rdpy qadmy d-men Masrq lb).
48
According to this text Ysuf had sent envoys with a
letter to the Aksumites swearing by Adonai and the Ark and the Torah (kad ym beh b-
Adnay w-b-rn w-b-ryt) that no harm would befall them so long as they surrendered afr
and pledged allegiance to him.
49
The Book of the imyarites alleges that Ysuf resorted to such
trickery because he was uncertain of his ability to defeat the Ethiopians in battle.
The Ethiopians, we are told, put faith in his oaths due to their naivety
50
and their leader
Abbt went forth unto him (ettkelw ba-brrt d-naphn al mawmteh wa-npaq lwteh
Abbt rhn).
51
The anonymous Syriac letter regarding the Najrn martyrs describes the same
incident and adds that Abbt was the archbishop of the Ethiopians (r d-qa Ky) in
afr.
52
According to Mller the name Abbt () is an Ethio-Semitic name with which
he identifies the Old Amharic Abbabt or Abbabat, a name which survives in modern Amharic
in the form Abbaba.
53
Though the anonymous letter says only that three hundred men (tltm
gabr) accompanied the Ethiopian archbishop when he went forth to meet Ysuf in person,
54
the
Book of the imyarites states that Abbt was accompanied on this occasion by three hundred

48
Book of the imyarites: 7a (Syriac text).
49
Ibid.
50
Literally, the simplicity of their souls.
51
Book of the imyarites: 7a.
52
Shahid 1971: iii-iv (Syriac text).
53
Mller 1978: 164.
54
Shahid 1971: iii-iv.

201

warriors (tltm abday qrb).
55
If the Book of the imyarites is correct on this point, it would
indicate that there existed an armed contingent of Ethiopians at afr itself. Such a group may
have constituted the so-called ezb (Geez zb)
56
who according to the anonymous letter were
among the recipients, together with aramawt, Saba, Yamant, and Najrn, of Ysufs
proclamation announcing his seizure of power and demanding allegiance.
57
It is likely that when
Klb placed a Christian imyarite in power in South Arabia he stationed a contingent of
Ethiopian mercenaries at afr to support the new ruler, who could hardly have been popular
with imyars well-established Jewish community, together with clergymen who could tend to
the needs of the local Christians.
The anonymous letter and the Book of the imyarites state that, once Abbt went forth
with his contingent of three hundred fellow Ethiopians to meet Ysuf, he was warmly received
by the imyarite king, who appears to have paired the Ethiopians up with the members of his
military elite as a gesture of imyarite hospitality. No sooner had Ysuf done so than he gave
the word to his noblemen to kill those Ethiopians who were staying with them. Thus in one night
the Ethiopians in afr were annihilated, such that by morning their corpses lay stacked one
upon the other. The Ethiopians who remained in the city took refuge in the church they had built
there, only to be burned alive when Ysufs troops set the structure alight.
58
Regarding the
number of Ethiopians who were burned alive in the church there is disagreement between the
two sources, the Book of the imyarites placing their number at 280, the anonymous letter at
only 200. One is tempted to side with the Book of the imyarites in that the number of 280 is
directly paralleled by the 280 monks and laymen (bnay qym w-lmy) whose death in the

55
Book of the imyarites: 7a-b.
56
See 3.4.2.2.
57
Shahid 1971: iii.
58
Shahid 1971: iii-iv; Book of the imyarites 1924: 7a-b.

202

church is mentioned in Ysufs letter to al-Mundhir, as preserved by Simeon of Bt Arsham.
Adding this number to the 300 warriors who were earlier put to death along with the archbishop
Abbt brings the death-toll of Ethiopians to 580. Simeon, however, knows of no Abbt, nor of
the 300 warriors who accompanied him as he went out to meet Ysufs army. The only
Ethiopian casualties of which he is aware are the 280 monks and laymen (bnay qym w-
lmy) who perished in the church, a group which included both men of religion and also
presumably merchants as well as administrators and tax collectors who worked on behalf of
Klb. One is reminded here of the Aksumite ambassador Sheg and his sons, known from the
Bayt al-Ashwal inscription (ZM 679=Ga 32). This group of 280 would therefore constitute a
separate party from that which accompanied Abbt.
Since the anonymous letter states that only 200 Ethiopian men were killed in the church
at afr, its total of Ethiopian casualties comes to 500, a sum which the author of the letter
himself mentions when he says that the total number of Ethiopian residents of afr killed by the
imyarites, both in the initial attack on Abbt and his party and later in the church, was five
hundred clerics and laymen (amesm gabr qlrq w-lmy).
59
The anonymous author thus
seems to have believed that the Ethiopians encountered by Ysufs army included a large
number of churchmen, in contrast to the Book of the imyarites, which states that Abbts party
of 300 was made up of warriors. Our confidence in this number of 300if not also the story of
the false promises of peace sworn by Ysufs envoys to Abbt and his companionsis shaken
by the repetition of a very similar incident later on in the anonymous letter. In the latter instance
Ysufs envoys who swear peace to the people of Najrn in exchange for the citys surrender are

59
Shahid 1971: iv.

203

again, as at afr, met by a party of 300.
60
In the Book of the imyarites, however, only about
150 notables (gabr ak m w-amn dy) are said to have gone out to make peace with
Ysuf at Najrn.
61
Since Abbt is, as demonstrated by Mller, a genuinely Ethiopian name
which Syriac authors living hundreds of miles to the north could not have made up, the
encounter between the Ethiopian archbishop of afr and Ysufs forces is likely to have been
historical, literary embellishments notwithstanding. As for Abbts companions, it could be that
they did in fact number 300, but that the anonymous author grafted this number onto the party of
Najrns which later met with Ysuf. If the Book of the imyarites is to be believed, the Najrn
group which first encountered Ysufs forces numbered around 150. Let us say tentatively that
anywhere between 500 and 580 Ethiopians were killed by Ysufs army at afr, an act which
would have severed Aksums administrative and religious ties to imyar, leaving the indigenous
Christian community exposed and unprotected. If the statistics on Ethiopian casualties given in
the Syriac sources are decent approximations, the Aksumite community at afr would have
numbered in the hundreds, not counting women and children.
There is also a disagreement between the letter of Simeon of Bt Arsham and the other
two Syriac texts regarding the church. Simeon quotes Ysuf as having written to al-Mundhir that
he had converted the church of afr into a synagogue, while the anonymous letter and the Book
of the imyarites claim that the church was instead burned with the Ethiopians inside. Of a
synagogue the latter two sources say nothing. Similarly, the two inscriptions from Ysufs reign
at Bir im (Ja 1028 and Ja 507) record the burning of the church at afr and the massacre of
the citys Ethiopian population but fail to mention the construction of a synagogue on the site of
the church. A solution to this apparent contradiction could be that Ysuf did indeed build a

60
Ibid.: v.
61
Book of the imyarites 1924: 11a.

204

synagogue on the charred remains of the church, but did not do so until after the two Bir im
inscriptions were carved. Apparently, the authors of the anonymous letter and the Book of the
imyarites never learned of Ysufs later construction of a synagogue on the site of afrs
church. We will return to this matter later when we discuss the Sabaic material.
62

We are also faced with a chronological problem. In his letter to al-Mundhir Ysuf says
that the Ethiopians could not invade imyar on account of the inclement weather conditions
associated with the winter months. But as we have seen Sabaic sources place the capture of afr
by Ysuf at the beginning of a thirteen-month campaign that did not end till July of 523, which
would suggest that the city was captured as early as the summer of 522. If so, winter weather
conditions would not have been an issue and there would have been no hindrance to Klb in
reacting immediately to the attack on his fellow countrymen at afr. In answer to this, it should
be noted that the Sabaic inscriptions recording the capture of afr date from July of 523, several
months after the event, and it is not impossible that they telescope events a bit, such that Ysufs
gathering of followers and troops, his march to afr, the capture of the city, and finally the
massacre of its resident Ethiopians are described as a single incident when the entire undertaking
might instead have lasted several months. Syriac sources are also silent on those stages of
Ysufs rise to power preceding his capture of afr, and portray the latter event as something
which happened suddenly, with no attempt to contextualize it historically.
Let us say hypothetically that afr fell to Ysuf as late as August or September of 522.
As Klbs imyarite client Madkarib Yafur is not reported by Simeon of Bt Arsham to have
died until at least a year after this, Klb may have expected Madkarib Yafur to temporarily
curb Ysufs growing power before he himself attempted to invade South Arabia with Aksumite

62
See 4.2.2.

205

troops. As Madkarib Yafur had already proven his military prowess in his campaign through
northern Arabia in 521, Klb had no reason to doubt his clients ability to deal with Ysuf. It
would help matters considerably if we knew what was happening in the Horn of Africa at this
time which might have commanded Klbs attention. In his only known inscription from
Aksum (RIE 191), Klb records campaigns against such African peoples as the Ag
w
zt of the
northern Ethiopian Highlands and the ST.
63
Since, however, his campaign against imyar in
518 is the last campaign recorded in this inscription, it is unknown what sort of military or
political problems he may have had to deal with in Ethiopia after that time. Thus, while it is
possible that Klb had more pressing issues closer to home which prevented him from taking
more immediate action against imyar, there is as yet no hard evidence one way or another.
Whatever the case, the death of Madkarib Yafur towards the end of 523 was enough proof for
Klb that the imyarite issue could not wait any longer. When, in his letter to al-Mundhir that
year, Ysuf states that winter had come and the Ethiopians were unable to invade South Arabia,
he might be implying that such an invasion was already being planned, or at least that it was
something he expected.
As the discovery of Aksumite pottery at the port of Qni indicates,
64
there were
Aksumites residing not only at afr but elsewhere in South Arabia as well. Klbs
establishment of a Christian monarch on the imyarite throne would undoubtedly have provided
a strong incentive for Aksumite settlement in South Arabia, as indeed it would have for the
settlement of Christians from further afield as well. From the anonymous letter we know that
Christians from as far away as Tella in northern Syria and Urhai (Edessa) in southeastern Turkey

63
This latter group is mentioned only in this inscription, and the vocalization of the name is uncertain.
64
Sedov 2007: 84-5, 89.

206

were among the victims of Ysufs onslaught in the aramawt (),
65
though the letter
does not mention an Aksumite presence there. Judging from its table of contents, the Book of the
imyarites devoted an entire chapter to the Christian martyrs of the aramawt, as well as
another chapter to those of Mrib,
66
but since nothing remains of either of these two chapters in
the extant manuscript it is unknown whether the Book of the imyarites had anything to say
about an Aksumite presence in either the aramawt or Mrib. The Book of the imyarites does,
however, refer to an Ethiopian deacon who lived at Najrn:
Now because that enemy of truth Masrq (=Ysuf) had secretly learned that there
were some among the blessed ones who were from other countries, he would take
his seat and interrogate each one of them as to his name, who he was, and whence
the origin of his family. And regarding the priests Moses and Elias he learned that
they were from ra of Numn, of the priest Sergius and the deacon Ananias that
they were Romans, of the priest Abraham that he was Persian, and of the deacon
Jonan that he was Ethiopian.
(Haw dn beldbbeh da-rr Masrq mel d-lep (h)w kasyt d-men
atrawwt rn t bhon b-bn yteb (h)w w-metbaqq (h)w b-kll-ad
menhn wa-mael (h)w d-mnaw meh w-mn taw w-men ayk th ldt d-
genseh. W-lep (h)w mel M w-Ely qa d-tayhn men rt d-Naman
w-mel Sargs qa w-anany mamn d-taw Rmy w-mel Abrhm
qa d-taw Prsy w-mel Ynan mamn d-taw Kuy.)
67

Foreigners, it seems, were well represented among Najrns clergymen, perhaps because the
Christian community there was still only a few decades old and needed to rely in part on help
from outsiders drawn from countries in which Christianity was better established. The Roman
deacons Sergius and Ananias may have arrived in the reign of Anastasius I (491-518), who
according to John Diakrinomenos sent a bishop to South Arabia in response to requests from
imyarite Christians. The Ethiopian deacon Jonan could have arrived on the scene at about the
same time, as appear to have also been the case with Sheg and his sons.

65
Shahid 1971: iv-v.
66
Book of the imyarites 1924: 5b.
67
Ibid.: 14b.

207

Given the role which these foreigners played as clergymen who catered to the spiritual
and social needs of imyars Christian community, Jonan and his fellow deacons and priests
were prime targets of Ysufs anti-Christian campaign. What followed the interrogation of these
men at Najrn is not clear in the Book of the imyarites, for an entire leaf of the sole surviving
manuscript is missing right at the point at which Ysuf begins addressing these foreign
Christians of Najrn with the following words: It was not enough for you that you should go
astray... (l k speq (h)w lkn d-ten).
68
When, however, the narrative resumes, we find
Ysuf telling Moses that he had been wrong to think that he and his fellows Elias, Abraham,
Sergius, and Jonan would be set free unharmed. In fact, the imyarite king told Moses, he and
his companions would be burned alive like the other Christians of Najrn.
69
At this point there is
another large lacuna in the text, and it is not until the beginning of the following chapter that the
text can be reconstructed, though by then the narrative has moved on to the unrelated issue of a
woman maryrs named RWYB ().
70
No other reference is made to an Ethiopian
presence at Najrn in the Book of the imyarites or any other source until Klb arrived at the
town with his army in 525.
Even though Klb was unable to launch an invasion of South Arabia until 525, he was
aware of what was happening in South Arabia the whole time, for the author of the anonymous
Syriac letter implies that the Aksumites were involved in the exchange of information regarding
events in imyar. He thus tells the unnamed ecclesiastical official to whom he wrote his letter
that he was sending to him a copy of the documents regarding the Faith, those which have been
written by the believing Ethiopians to the orthodox (i.e. Monophysite) Persians, with a copy of

68
Ibid.
69
Ibid.: 15a.
70
The vocalization of this name is uncertain. Moberg (Book of the imyarites 1924: xci) tentatively suggests
arwba.

208

the petition and the treatise which our humbleness sent to [his] holiness Euprepios, bishop of the
Ethiopians and to Klb, their believing king, two copies of which we have already given to your
holiness (pem da-ktbt da-b-arb da-haymn[t] hln d-etketbay men Ky mhaymn
lwt rtdks d-Prsy am pem da-bt w-malpnt hy d-men brtn etqarbat l-
asy preps epsq d-Ky wa-l-Kaleb malk mhaymn dlhn hln d-ba-zban yahbn l-
asytkn pemahayn).
71
At the time he wrote his letter, the anonymous author was at the camp
(rt) of Jabala the king of the Ghassnids (Gabl malk d-Assny).
72
This can only be the
father of the Ghassnid king al-rith b. Jabala (529-569), who would later send envoys to
Abreh, as recorded in Abrehs dam inscription from Mrib (CIH 541).
73

At this point it is worth considering to what extent events in South Arabia may have
influenced Aksumite relations with the Ssnids, particularly since the impact of the great
powers on Klbs war with imyar is a question which this study seeks to examine. As far as
Ethiopian ties with the Christian Near East are concerned, it is known that the Aksumites not
only kept in touch with their fellow Monophysites in the Fertile Crescent but also looked after
their interests, something which no one knew better than Simeon of Bt Arsham himself. In his
biography of Simeon, John of Ephesus states that when the bishop and his fellow Monophysite
clergymen were at one point imprisoned at Nisibis
74
for seven years by the Ssnid authorities, a
report of their travails was written to the king of Ethiopia; and because he too was a believer
(i.e. a Monophysite), he made this request of the Persian king through his ambassadors, and he
released them from that suffering (hnn hln l-malk d-K etkteb w-mel da-mhaymn p
h taw (h)w b-yad zgaddaw lt had men malk Parsy l w-appeq ennn men ln

71
Shahid 1971: xxxi.
72
Ibid.
73
Gajda 2009: 136.
74
Modern Nusaybin in southeastern Turkey.

209

haw).
75
When exactly this happened is not clear. John of Ephesus places it between Simeons
appointment as bishop of Bt Arsham in 503 and the death of Kavdh I in 531 but never gives
the name of Ethiopian king, which could conceivably have been either Klb or his father
Tzn. A more precise date cannot be determined because, though John states that Simeon
visited al-ra many times (rt d-ayy d-Bt Naman hy d-zabnn saggn sar (h)w
lh),
76
he never explicitly mentions the visit to the Lakhmid court on which he learned of
Ysufs anti-Christian aggressions, the date for which (524) is firmly established.
Given the habit of many scholars of looking for connections between events in South
Arabia and political developments further north, it may well be asked whether Klb relied on
diplomacy to prevent a potential Ssnid alliance with the imyarites. Judging from the
available evidence, this does not seem likely. To begin with, it cannot be definitively stated that
the anonymous king of Ethiopia referred to by John of Ephesus really is Klb at all. Also, the
fact that John never relates Simeons release from prison with Aksumite help to his
correspondence regarding the Najrn martyrs
77
indicates that the bishops imprisonment was a
separate matter. The dispatch of Aksumite ambassadors to the Ssnids seems to have been
concerned with nothing more than the well-being of the Monophysites of the Ssnid realm, and
while the Martyrium Arethae states that Ysuf petitioned the Lakhmids and Ssnids to follow
his example by exterminating their Christian subjects, there is no evidence that the imprisonment
of Simeon and his companions occurred as a response to the imyarite kings request. Quite
apart from the fact that Ysuf is not mentioned at all in Johns biography of Simeon, John claims
that Simeon and his companions were imprisoned as part of a program of repression aimed not at

75
John of Ephesus 1923: 153.
76
Ibid.: 140.
77
In fact, John of Ephesus says nothing of South Arabian affairs in his biography of Simeon of Bt Arsham.

210

Christians in general but specifically at Monophysites, and caused not by a king of distant
imyar but by the machinations of the rival Nestorian sect,
78
which constituted the largest
Christian community in the Ssnid Empire.
All the same, it is clear from John of Ephesus that the Aksumites were actively involved
with the affairs of the Monophysite Christians of Ssnid Mesopotamia. Thus it is likely that,
since Simeon was the bishop of that community, he received, or at least had access to, the letters
which the Aksumites sent to the Persian Monophysites regarding Ysufs anti-Christian
campaign in imyar. While he never refers to correspondence with the Aksumites in his own
letter, Simeon may well have relied on such letters for information on Ysufs massacre of
afrs Aksumite community. The author of the anonymous letter may have also based his
information on the massacre on the Aksumite letters; that he too had access to them is clear from
his having sent them to his unnamed superior. Regrettably, the Aksumite letters have not been
preserved in any of the known sources. Lacking these, we must turn instead to the Sabaic
inscriptions from Ysufs reign for information on the fate of the Aksumites then residing in
imyar.

4.2.2. Sabaic Sources on Ysufs Campaigns
The campaign through which Ysuf consolidated his hold on South Arabia is
documented in several Sabaic inscriptions dating from his reign, three of which, left by three
different groups of private individuals, describe the imyarite kings attack on the Aksumites in
South Arabia: Ry 507 and Ja 1028 from Bir im (85 km northeast of Najrn) and Ry 508 from
Kawkab (110 km north-northeast of Najrn). These are also, it should be noted, the most

78
John of Ephesus 1923: 152.

211

extensive inscriptions from Ysufs reign, the others being no more than terse graffiti recording
names and titles of participants in Ysufs military expeditions.
79
Ry 507, Ry 508, and Ja 1028
can thus be taken as representative of the major events of Ysufs reign. As noted above Ja 1028,
dating from July 523 (Dh-Madhra
an
633 of the imyarite Era), provides a valuable bit of
information to the effect that this campaign lasted thirteen months. Based on this, the time-frame
for the three inscriptions is uniformly June 522 to July 523. Like the Syriac sources, all three of
these inscriptions indicate that the attack on the Ethiopian community of the imyarite capital of
afr was the first major incident in Ysufs campaign. To date, scholars have treated the
epigraphic material from Ysufs reign as primary sources against which Greek, Syriac, and
Arabic material on Ysuf can be checked in an effort to construct a timeline of his military
career. What has yet to receive attention is the question of which events within Ysufs military
career the epigraphic material chooses to emphasize. As will be argued in the following section,
the inscriptions from Ysufs reign have a frame of reference totally different from foreign
literary material. By examining what the imyarites themselves chose to write we can arrive at a
much better understanding of Aksums place in the history of sixth-century South Arabia.
The earliest of the three inscriptions, Ry 508 from Kawkab, dates from June 523 (Dh-
Qay
an
633 of the imyarite Era), and was commissioned by the imyarite nobleman (QYL
n
)
Sharal Yaqbul, son of Shurabil Yakmul, to commemorate his role in the campaign of his
master King Ysuf.
The nobleman Sharal Yaqbul b. Shurabil Yakmul of the Ban Yazan and the
Jaddn
um
and abb
um
and Nasan and Ghbi wrote in this inscription which they
(i.e., the aforementioned tribes) set up on the campaign against the Ethiopians in
afr with which they were charged,
80
when they were with their lord, the King

79
For a full survey of all of the inscriptions from his reign, with translations, see Robin 2008: 82-93.
80
The phrase B-SBT
m
WDH is here best understood as an asyndetic relative clause. On the verb WD, see
Rodinson 1966: 126.

212

Ysuf Asar.
81
And they burned the church and the king came down to the
Ashar [tribe] and sent him (i.e. Shurabil Yaqbul) with a detachment and he
made war against all the fortresses of Shamr and its [neighboring] plain. And the
king overtook the Ashar and the total of all the slain [enemy] and the booty
[taken by] the kings detachments was 13,000 slain and 9,500 prisoners and
280,000 camels, cattle, and goats.
(QYL
n
RBL YQBL BN RBL YKML BNW YZN W-GDN
m
W-B
m
W-
NSN W-B TSRW B-DN MSND
n
D-MW B-SBT
m
WDH K-HMW M
MRHMW MLK
n
YSF SR LY B
n
B-FR W-DHRW QLS
n
W-WRD
MLK
n
R
n
W-DKYHW B-GY
m
W-RB KL MN MR W-SHLHW W-
HDRK MLK
n
B-R
n
W-TGM KL D-HRGW W-NMW GY MLK
n
TLTT-
R LF
m
MHRGT
m
W-HMS-MT
m
W-TST LF
m
SBY
m
W-TMNY W-TTY
MT
n
LF
m
BL
m
W-BQR
m
W-NZ
m
.)
82

In contrast to the Syriac sources, Ry 508 does not give the number of Ethiopian casualties in the
course of Ysufs attack on afr. As argued in the previous chapter, this church (QLS
n
<Greek
) is probably not the church which Klb claims in RIE 191 to have built in imyar
following the successful conclusion of his campaign in 518, as the location for that structure is
said to have been QNL. Whether or not one accepts the identification of this toponym with
Oklis, it can hardly be afr. The church at afr would in this case have been built after
Klbs return to Ethiopia, perhaps by his Christian imyarite client Madkarib Yafur. Ry 508
says nothing about the death of the Ethiopians in the church of afr, something described by the
anonymous letter and the Book of the imyrites, nor does itor for that matter the other two
Sabaic inscriptionsmention Ysufs conversion of the church into a synagogue. That this latter
act is not mentioned in the Sabaic inscriptions is probably because the synagogue was not built
until a later point in time, after the three Sabaic inscriptions were carved. This is a plausible
scenario since these inscriptions were carved in June and July of 523, whereas Ysufs letter to

81
The inscription appears to have originally read RG
m
MRHMW MLK
n
YSF SR. Though Gonzague Ryckmans
(1953: 298) takes RG
m
to refer to the return of the imyarite king, he notes that the letters R and G of RG
m
appear
to have been hammered out, leading him to suggest that si ce martelage tait destin les supprimer, on lirait m,
avec leur seigneur (ibid.: 299). Rodinson (1966: 125) accepts Ryckmans proposal and suggests that il faut
considrer que le martelage des letters rg avait pour but de rectifier le texte.
82
Sabaic text adapted from Robin 2008: 82-3.

213

al-Mundhir was not written until after Madkarib Yafur died around the winter of that year.
Ysuf may therefore have begun building his synagogue at afr in late summer or early fall of
523.
To give a bit of historical perspective here, Madkaribs campaign across Arabia,
recorded in Ry 510, had occurred only a year before Ysuf began his own campaign to seize
control of imyar. It is unknown what caused such a dramatic fall in Madkaribs fortunes, to
the extent that even his Aksumite supporters in South Arabia were no longer safe from attack.
For lack of any better explanation one might suggest that the main cause was simply the
unpopularity of a Christian king whom a foreign power, namely Aksum, had brought to the
throne. Since Madkarib seems to have still been alive in the summer of 522, the massacre of the
Ethiopians at afr would likely have been a calculated attempt by Ysufand evidently a
successful one at thatto undermine the political and military support of Madkaribs regime.
According to Ry 508, the defeat of the Ethiopians at afr and the burning of the church
there were followed by an attack on the Ashar, with whom we can easily identify the
Ashariyyn tribe which al-Hamdn locates in the Tihma near Mawza.
83
Also located in the
Tihma is Shamr, a town which we have encountered in the previous chapter in connection with
the South Arabian YN SLBN Z-SMR who according to RIE 191 commanded Klbs first
invasion of imyar in 518. If Z-SMR can be reconstructed as Dh-Shamr, as we have proposed,
Ysufs attack on Shamr is quite understandable as a reaction to its association with the first
Aksumite invasion. Ysufs troops were by now moving into a region which had close ties to
Ethiopia, seizing booty and prisoners and capturing fortified strongholds along the way. But

83
Al-Hamdn 1974: 73.

214

before undertaking any further strategic actions against Aksum, the imyarite army pushed far to
the north, to Najrn.
Then the king sent him (i.e. Sharal Yaqbul) to guard [against] Najrn on a
punitive campaign with the Yazanids and with the tribes of Hamdnits
townsfolk and Bedouin
84
and the Arabs of Kinda, Murd, and Madhij, while
the king remained on guard [against] the Ethiopians and strengthened the chain of
Mandab with his [main] army. And with him (i.e. Ysuf) were his brothers the
noblemen Laat Yarikh
um
, Sumyafa Ashwa, and Shurabil Asad, they of
Yazan with their tribe of the Yazanids; the month of Dh-Qay
an
633 (=June
523).
(W-BN DKY-HW MLK
n
L-QRN NGRN B-NQR
m
BN ZN W-B-B D-
HMDN W-HGR-HMW W-RB-HMW W-RB KDT W-MRD
m
W-MDG
m
W-
MLK
n
HRZY B-MQRNT BT W-L-NN SSLT MDB
n
B-GY-HMW W-M-
HW HWT-HMW QWL
n
LYT YRH
m
W-SMYF W W-RBL SD
LHT YZN B-B-HMW ZN
n
WRH-HW D-QY
n
D-L-TLTT W-TLTY W-ST
MT
m
.)
85

The encounter with Najrn described here is not the one which is described so dramatically in
Christian sources. Though Ry 508 dates to June 523, external sources on Najrn indicate that the
actual martyrdoms did not occur until several months later. Thus we are told in the Martyrium
Arethae that al-rith, the leader of the Christian community of Najrn, was put to death at
Ysufs orders on October 24 of the second indiction, i.e. in the year 523.
86
According to the
anonymous Syriac letter, the burning of the priests of Najrn in the towns church, followed by
the killing of the women, took place in November of that year.
87
Judging from the epigraphic
record, then, Ysufs encounter with Najrn was a far more complicated affair than the incident
of religious persecution which literary sources make it out to be. Instead, the affair began

84
For a detailed discussion of the socio-historical significance of the townsfolk/Bedouin dichotomy, see Robin
2008: 84. On the use of the term HGR to refer to the inhabitants of a town as well as the town itself, see Al-Selwi
1987: 211-12. Worthy of note in this regard is the fact that in contemporary Saudi Arabia, the settlement of Bedouin
groups in towns is designated tahjr (ibid.: 212).
85
Sabaic text adapted from Robin 2008: 83.
86
Martyrium Arethae XX.34-5.
87
The death of the priests is dated to 15 Tishrn II 830 of the Seleucid Era (Shahid 1971: iv). The month is likely
correct, but 830 is five years too early. The mistake is corrected later in the account of the killing of the Najrn
women, which is dated to 20 Tishrn II 835 of the Seleucid Era (ibid.: v, vi).

215

sometime before Ry 508 was inscribed in June of 523, but after the initial attack on the
Ethiopians at afr in the summer of 522.
What is particularly interesting about this portion of Ry 508 is that the movement against
Najrn, which Syriac texts and the Greek Martyrium Arethae emphasize as the turning point of
Ysufs campaign of expansion, is here in a imyarite inscription dismissed with only a few
words as a minor operation against a remote town with the help of mercenaries drawn from the
tribal confederations of Hamdn, Kinda, Murd, and Madhij. Moreover, the establishment of
some sort of defense around Najrn by Ysufs army, commanded by Sharal Yaqbul, is
framed within a grander anti-Aksumite scheme which began with an attack on the Ethiopians at
afr and concluded with the establishment of a chain (SSLT) at Mandab, somewhere along
the Tihma coast, with the aim of defending imyar against Ethiopia. As an indication of the
importance of the Aksumite question as one might call it, Ry 508 states quite clearly that
Ysuf sent Sharal Yaqbul to handle the situation at Najrn while he himself turned his
attention towards establishing the defensive system against Aksum. Nothing could be better
proof that it was Aksum that commanded Ysufs attention throughout his thirteen-month
campaign. While Madkarib Yafur had turned his attention northwards, towards the Arab tribes
of central and northern Arabia, Ysuf looked west.
What does this mean? Since Ry 507 and Ja 1028 are the only other inscriptions from
Ysufs reign apart from Ry 508 that describe his military campaigns, one could argue that, if
they lay the same emphasis on the Aksumite question that Ry 508 does, the conflict with Aksum
was not a concern of Shural Yaqbul alone but was shared by other members of the imyarite
elite who sided with Ysuf. It is striking, then, that Ry 507 and Ja 1028 tell us precisely the same
story. They might add certain details and statistics not given in Ry 508, but they still follow the

216

latter inscription by emphasizing Ysufs concern with the defense of South Arabia against
Aksum. Only in Ry 507 are we given any significant data on Najrn, and then only references to
the taking of hostages from the city. Let us then turn our attention to Ry 507 from Bir im,
which dates from July 523 (Dh-Madhra
an
). It begins with an invocation of the blessings of God
(L
n
)
88
upon Ysuf, described as the king of all the tribes (MLK KL B
n
), and upon the
noblemen (QWL
n
) who served him. Among this group we can make out the names of five
individuals: Laat, Shurabil Yakmul, Han Asar, Laat Yarikh
um
, and Marthadl
an

Yamgud. Two of these individuals we have already met in Ry 508: Shurabil Yakmul as the
father of Sharal Yaqbul and Laat Yarikh
um
as one of the brothers (HWT) of Ysuf who
accompanied the king as he set about fortifying the Red Sea coast against Ethiopia. Laat
Yarikh
um
need not have been a literal brother of the king, as brother in Sabaic can also mean a
close companion. Thus, while not necessarily related to Ysuf by blood, Laat Yarikh
um
would
have enjoyed a preferential status vis--vis the king, which may explain why he and several other
brothers are said in Ry 508 to have accompanied Ysuf to the Red Sea while Sharal Yaqbul
went north to Najrn.
In Ry 507 we have a more detailed accountif fraught with lacunaeof what happened
to the Ethiopians at afr. Thus we read that the authors of the inscription burned the church
and killed the Ethiopians in afr {meaning uncertain} and killed them, 300 (DHRW
QLS
n
W-HRGW B
n
B-FR RW
m
W-HRGHMW TLT
m
MT
m
).
89
The
number of 300 given in Ry 507 is close enough to be taken for a reference to 280 Ethiopians
whom Ysuf claims in his letter to al-Mundhir to have killed, and who are mentioned as well in
the Book of the imyarites. But it fits precisely with the number of Abbts party given in the

88
Literally, the god.
89
Robin 2008: 91 (Sabaic text).

217

anonymous letter and the Book of the imyarites: 300. In light of the lacunae in Ry 507 it is hard
to establish its connection to the events described, and it is not clear whether the group of 300 in
the inscription corresponds to the party of Abbt which went out to meet the imyarite forces
or to the party of 280 whom the Book of the imyarites and Simeons letter report to have died
later within the city of afr. Though Ry 507 speaks of the burning of a church and the killing of
Ethiopians, these appear from the context to be separate events. In this respect Ry 507 differs
from the anonymous letter and the Book of the imyarites, which both claim that the Ethiopians
of afr perished in the church.
Ry 507 also differs from Ry 508, which merely states that Sharal Yaqbul and those
tribesmen related to him took up arms against the Ethiopians at afr, without specifically
mentioning any killing of the latter. Like Ry 508, Ry 507 mentions the attack on the Ashars and
the fortresses of Shamr, but gives us names not attested in the former inscription, specifically
Rakbn, Rima, al-Mukh, and the Farasns:
He (i.e. Ysuf) sent [an expedition] against Ashar and Shammir and Rima and
al-Mukh and there were deaths among (?) Ashar; and they burned the
church and killed and plundered the Ethiopians who were in al-Mukh with its
[other] inhabitants the Farasn, and all of those whom they found in their path
fled on account of {meaning uncertain}
90
when {meaning uncertain} when
he (i.e. Ysuf) sent two [envoys] to Najrn that they might obtain hostages from
them or make war on them in retribution (?). And it (i.e. Najrn) did not give up
hostages but [instead] attacked them wrongfully. Thus they ordered
91
and

90
In the past, scholars have relied on Arabic etymologies of Y
m
and SL
m
, comparing Y
m
with the Arabic verb
ashiya (to be short of breath, to pant for breath) and SL
m
with the verb saala (to cough). In this way D-
SYW B-LY MSB-HMW BN Y
m
W-SL
m
has been interpreted as what they (i.e. the enemy) encountered of
bronchial trouble and coughing (Biella 1982: 193, 340). In addition to being illogicalone cannot flee from
bronchial problems!this reading is totally unsuited for the context, in which praise is given to the leaders of
Ysufs army for their successful attack on the Tihma. Since the meaning of Y
m
and SL
m
sill eludes us, it
seems best to follow Robin (2008: 91) in leaving this bit of text untranslated.
91
Ysufs army is apparently the subject here. The verb to order in Sabaic is generally attested as W, whereas
here we have WS. This is not a problem, however, since the lateral s (//) in late Sabaic often alternates with /S/,
suggesting that the two phonemes had collapsed into one by this point, or were in the process of doing so. There is
further evidence of this phenomenon elsewhere in the epigraphic corpus from Ysufs reign, to wit the word
chain, which is written SLT in Ry 507 but SSLT in Ry 508.

218

many female slaves, while all of the tribesmen of Yemen
92
gave more than 100
hostages. Now the total of what the king, the and all of the noblemen and tribes
and the participants in the campaign had seized as booty was 14,000 dead; 11,000
prisoners; and 290,000 camels, cattle, and goats. Now [this took place] when the
nobleman Sharal Dh-Yazan had this inscription written, and when he was on
guard with the tribes of Hamdn and the Arabs against Najrn, until the king
commanded him and his brothers and their armies the Yazanids to take up a
defensive position with the king at al-Mukh against the Ethiopians and
strengthen the chain of Mandab; the month of Dh-Madhra
an
633.
(DKY B-LY R
n
W-MN MR W-RKB
n
W-RM W-MHW
n
W-MTW
B-R
n
W-DHRW QLS
n
W-HRGW W-NMW B
n
B-MHW
n
B-WR-HW
FRSNYT
m
W-HRBW KL D-SYW B-LY MSB-HMW BN Y
m
W-SL
m

YWM WD RM
n
W-K-DKY TNY B-LY NGRN L-YHLNN BN-HMW
RHN
m
F-W YRB-HMW YKK W-K-D WHBT RHNN W-STRW L-
HMW MGRMT
m
W-KY WSW W-HMRT
m
HNY W-K-KL FY YMN
WHBW LN MT
m
RHN
m
W-K-GM D-HF MLK
n
W-M.W W-KL QWL
n
W-
B
n
W-TSBT
n
RBT R LF
m
MHRGT
m
W-D R LF
m
SBY
m
W-TSY
W-TTY MT
n
LF
m
GML
m
W-BQR
m
W-NZ
m
W-K-HSR DN MSND
n
QL
n

RL D-YZN K-QRN B-B HMDN W-RB
n
B-LY NGRN TW YQHN
MLK
n
D-YRYN W-HWT-HW W-G-HMW ZN QRN
m
B-M MLK
n
B-
MHW
n
BN BT W-YNN SLT MDBN WRH-HW D-MDR
n
D-L-TLTT W-
TLTY W-ST MT
m
.)
93

From Ry 507 we thus learn that afr was not the only place at which Ysufs troops attacked
the Ethiopians. Al-Mukh also had a community of Aksumite expatriates as well as a church. It
is unfortunate that Ry 507 does not provide figures for the Ethiopian casualties at al-Mukh as it
does for afr, since this might give us some idea of the size of al-Mukhs Ethiopian
community. If the QNL at which Klb built a church according to his inscription from Aksum
(RIE 191) is to be identified with Oklis (Shaykh Sad), the existence of another church further
north at al-Mukh would then provide evidence of a substantial Christian presence in the
Yemeni Tihma during the sixth century,
94
a fact surely due in no small part to the Aksumites

92
Though Yamant, probably the southern coast of todays Yemen, had long been an important element of
imyarite royal titles, this is the earliest reference to an entity called Yemen.
93
Adapted from Robin 2008: 91.
94
Attention has been drawn by some scholars to the existence of toponyms in the Tihma containing the element
dayr, meaning monastery in Arabic, which would provide further evidence for a Christian presence along
Yemens Red Sea coast before Islam (Finster 1996: 294). However, DYR and DWR are attested in Sabaic in the
plural forms DYR and DWR in contexts suggesting the sense of village (Beeston et al. 1982: 37), hence the

219

support of South Arabian Christianity. As for al-Mukh, the history of this Red Sea port testifies
to its close ties with Ethiopia. Al-Mukh had long been an important center for South Arabian
maritime trade, having been described as such as early as the first century CE in the Periplus,
according to which the town, referred to in the text as Mo, is said to have traded with
Adulis.
95
The function of al-Mukh as a port of call to and from Ethiopia is also indicated by Ir
28 which, as will be recalled from the first chapter, states that the imyarite embassy sent to
Aksum by Karibl Watar Yuhanim (c. 312-316) returned to South Arabia via al-Mukh. It is
thus not by accident that al-Mukh would at a much later period become the center of trade in
coffee, an Ethiopian import, such that the port city gave its name to a particular type of coffee,
mocha. That the expedition sent by Ysuf not only killed and plundered the Ethiopians but also
burned the church at al-Mukh indicates that the imyarite king sought to eradicate not only the
Ethiopians but also all signs of their influence, churches being the most conspicuous. The other
toponyms can also be identified in western Yemen: Rakbn is likely the present-day city of that
name, located about half-way between Aden and an, not far from afr, while Rima is
regarded by al-Hamdn as part of the territory of the Akk,
96
a well-known Tihma tribe with
whom the Aksumites are known to have collaborated for military purposes back in the third
century.
Guilty by association with the Ethiopians were the Farasns, the indigenous inhabitants
of al-Mukh. Though their name survives nowadays in the Farasn archipelago in the southern
Red Sea, located about 40 km offshore from Jzn, Ry 507 indicates that a people bearing that
name, which they would seem to have given to the archipelago they inhabited, were also

Yemeni Arabic dayr, meaning small village, a term particularly common in udayda and elsewhere in the Tihma
(Piamenta 1990: I: 160). Though monastic communities may well have existed in the Tihma, one must exercise due
caution when hypothesizing their existence based on toponyms alone.
95
Periplus 24:8.10-11.
96
Al-Hamdn 1974: 107.

220

established further south on the Tihma coast at al-Mukh. Writing in the tenth century, al-
Hamdn states that the tribe of Ban Farasn, who gave their name to the Farasn archipelago
they inhabited, had long ago been Christians and had possessed churches on their islands which
had since fallen into ruin (kn qadm
an
Nar wa-lahum kanis f-jazir al-Farasn qad
kharibat).
97
Even in his own day, says al-Hamdn, the Farasns do trade with the Ethiopians
(yamalna l-tijra il l-abash)
98
and enter Ethiopia and guard trade [there] (yadkhulna f-
balad al-abash wa-yakhfurna l-tijra).
99
The epigraphic evidence from Ysufs reign
indicates that the contact between the Farasns and Ethiopia described by al-Hamdn dates
back to Aksumite times. If, as seems likely, the Aksumites played at least some role in the
Christianization of the Farasns in the course of trade with them, this would explain their
association with the Aksumites in Ry 507, an association which evidently cost them dearly. Of
the massacre of ChristiansEthiopian and Farasn alikein the Tihma Syriac and Greek
sources say nothing, a fact which alerts us to the limitations of such texts as sources for Ysufs
campaign, particularly insofar as they focus on Najrn at the expense of other Christian
communities in imyar.
To be sure, Najrn is dealt with as well in Ry 507and in much greater detail than in Ry
508. But a striking revelation in Ry 507 is that when Ysufs envoys reached the town the
Najrns attacked them (STRW L-HMW). This, too, is in incident that passed unnoticed in
foreign sources. As those from the sixth centuryall of them Christian, it should be notedare
concerned with developing a narrative of pious suffering, the omission of any mention of Najrn
resistance to Ysuf is not surprising. The Najrns attack on Ysufs envoys helps explain why

97
Ibid.: 72-3.
98
Ibid.
99
Ibid.: 207.

221

Ysuf saw the need to establish a defense around the town in the first place: evidently it was a
potential source of a rebellion against the Jewish king. What Ysufs men ordered (WSW)
cannot be determined given the lacuna in the inscription, but may have involved some punitive
measure since it resulted in a regional surrender of hostages to Ysuf. Keeping tribesmen as
hostages to ensure the good behavior of their tribes is a practice attested throughout Yemeni
history down to modern times. The nobleman Sharal Dh-Yazan whom Ysuf stationed at
Najrn at the head of Hamdnid and Arab mercenaries is undoubtedly the general D-Yazan
whom the Book of the imyarites reports had made war on Najrn before Ysuf himself arrived
at the town to take personal command of the offensive.
100
It is hardly likely that all of the fallen
enemies, prisoners of war, and livestock amassed by the imyarite army were acquired at
Najrn; rather the booty recorded in Ry 507 represents the fruits of a years campaigning
throughout western Yemen.
Our final historical text from the reign of Ysuf is Ja 1028 from Bir im, dating from
July 523 (=Dh-Madhra
an
633 of the imyarite Era). Once again we encounter as the main
characters Laat Yarikh
um
, Sumyafa Ashwa, and Sharal Yaqbul, together with a new
name, Shurabil Asad, a brother of Sharal Yaqbul. After the introductory section of the
inscription in which their names are given we are told of the four men:
They accompanied their lord, King Ysuf Asar Yathar, when he burned the
church and killed the Ethiopians in afr, and made war on Ashar and Rakbn
and Farasn and al-Mukh and made war and established a defense [against]
Najrn and strengthened the chain of Mandab; and when he gathered to him [his
allies] and sent them as a detachment. Now that which the king had achieved and
captured in this war was 12,500 dead and 11,000 prisoners and 290,000 camels,
cattle, and sheep. These lines were written by the nobleman Sharal Dh-Yazan
when he fought against Najrn with the Hamdnidstownsfolk and bedouin; the
strike force of the Yazanids; and the Arabs of Kinda, Murd, and Madhij. And

100
Book of the imyarites 1924: 25b-26a (Syriac text).

222

his allies the noblemen were with the king, guarding the sea against the
Ethiopians and strengthening the chain of al-Mandab. Now all of what is
mentioned in this inscriptioninvolving the taking of prisoners and booty and the
establishment of defenseswas on a single campaign, [from] which they returned
to their homes after thirteen months.
(LY RB W-MQRNT NGRN W-TN SSLT
n
MDB
n
W-K-GM MHW W-K-
YDKYNHMW B-GY
m
W-K-D-HFL W-HFN MLK
n
B-HYT SBT
n
HMS
MT
m
W-TNY R LF
m
MHRGT
m
W-D R LF
m
SBY
m
W-TSY W-TTY
MT
n
LF
m
BL
m
W-BQR
m
W-N
m
W-TSRW DN-MSND
n
QYL
n
RL D-
YZN K-QRN B-LY NGRN B-B D-HMDN HGR
n
W-RB
n
W-NQR
m
BN
ZN
n
W-RB KDT W-MRD
m
W-MDG
m
W-QWL
n
HWTHW B-M MLK
n

QRN
m
B-BR
n
BN BT W-YNNN SSLT MDB
n
W-K-KL D-DKRW B-DN
MSND
n
MHRGT
m
W-NM
m
W-MQRNT
m
F-K-SBT
m
DH D-QFLW BT-
HMW B-TLTT R WRH
m
.)
Again we have the most of same targets of Ysufs campaign that are referred to in Ry 507:
afr, Ashar, Rakbn, al-Mukh, Najrn, and Mandab. Shamr (mentioned in Ry 507 and Ry
508) is absent, as is Rima (mentioned in Ry 507). Another point of difference with the other two
texts is that, while the Farasns are referred to in Ry 507 as inhabitants of al-Mukh, they are
here listed separately. As for statistical data, the number of prisoners and livestock captured
(11,000 and 290,000 respectively) is the same in both Ja 1030 and Ry 507, though in Ja 1030 the
number of enemy dead is different: only 12,500 as compared to the 14,000 in Ry 507. The fallen
enemies at Shamr and Rima presumably made up the balance. No new information is presented
in Ja 1030 regarding the anti-Aksumite measures undertaken by the imyarite army at afr, al-
Mukh, and Mandab. The number of Ethiopian dead is likely included within the total number
of enemy dead, for no death total is given for the Ethiopians, in contrast to Ry 507, which places
the number of Ethiopians killed in afr at 300. The main value of Ja 1030 lies not in its account
of the campaign but in its statement that the campaign lasted thirteenth months, a vital datum not
provided by the other two inscriptions. Before taking leave of the Sabaic sources for this stage of
the confrontation between Aksum and imyar, we must consider an element of Ysufs anti-
Aksumite strategy to which we have alluded above: the so-called chain of Mandab.

223

4.2.3. The Chain of Mandab
From what we can gather from Ry 507, Ry 508, and Ja 1030, the establishment of a chain
at a place called Mandab was the final stage in Ysufs thirteen-month campaign in South
Arabia. The toponym Mandab is written MDBN with an assimilated /n/ suggesting, by analogy
with other Semitic languages,
101
that it was pronounced something like Maddabn. Arabic,
however, preserves the original /n/ in the name of the strait separating Africa from Arabia, the
Bb al-Mandab. Sixth-century Syriac sources say nothing of a chain being set up in this area,
though a literal chain is described in the Greek Martyrium Arethae, wherein we are told that the
chain was composed of iron links kept afloat by timbers.
102
Memory of the fortification of the
Yemeni side of the Red Sea by the imyarites was likewise preserved in later Muslim tradition.
The thirteenth-century Iranian traveler Ibn al-Mujwir refers to this defense system in his
description of South Arabia and, though without mentioning either Klb or Ysuf, attributes it
to what clearly corresponds to the period of the war between Aksum and imyar. Following a
passage in which he attributes the origin of the Bb al-Mandab to an excavation made by Dhl-
Qarnayn
103
to separate Arabia from Ethiopia, Ibn al-Mujwir writes:
The Ethiopians came plunging into the sea with cavalry and infantry to invade the
land of the Arabs. And some of the Arabs built a fort on Mount Mandab called
Idd, and they extended a chain [on]
104
the Arabian coast, facing the Ethiopian
coast, such that every ship when arriving would pass by the chain until it was
clear of it and would travel to which ever side [of the Red Sea] it wished. And the
fort remained thus till the Tabbia, the kings of the mountain, destroyed it. It is
[also] said that it was the Ban Zuray kings of Aden [who did this]; more

101
In Aramaic and Akkadian, for example, the assimilation of /n/ to a consonant results in the gemination of the
latter, hence the Syriac *mdnt becomes mdtt.
102
Martyrium Arethae 33.
103
Though most Muslim traditions identify Dhl-Qarnayn with Alexander the Great of Macedon, a minority
opinion held that Dhl-Qarnayn was a king of pre-Islamic Yemen. It is not clear from the context which of the two
Ibn al-Mujwir intends here.
104
On this reconstruction, see below.

224

correctly it was the Ethiopian kings of Zabd.
105
And [thus] the chain was raised,
and its remains have survived till this day.
(Fa-rat al-abasha takh al-bar bil-khayl wal-rajul taghz ar al-Arab
wa-ban ba al-Arab al Jabal Mandab in
an
yusamm bi-Idd wa-madda bi-
silsila min barr al-Arab il barr al-abasha muri[
an
]
106
fa-kull markab yail
yamurr tata l-silsila att kna yakhruj minhu wa-yusfir il ayy jiha sha wa-
arda wa-baqiya l-in al lihi il an haddamahu l-Tabbia mulk al-jabal
wa-yuql Ban Zuray mulk Adan wal-aa al-abasha mulk Zabd wa-
baqiya atharuh il l-n.)
107

Ibn al-Mujwirs source for this tradition is a Yemeni work called Kitb al-Mufd f Akhbr
Zabd by one Ab m Jayysh b. Naj. He takes it for granted that the region of the Bb al-
Mandab was the site of military operations involving Ethiopians, but is not entirely sure how and
cites conflicting accounts of who made the chain and who destroyed it. The text of Ibn al-
Mujwir is beset by two problems of interpretation, for madda bi-silsila min barr al-Arab il
barr al-abasha muri[
an
] would suggest that a chain was stretched across the Red Sea from
Arabia to Ethiopiaa totally illogical defense system which would have prevented ships from
passing along a north-south axis but not prevented a west-to-east passage from Ethiopia to
Arabia. Beeston suggests that, in light of the common confusion in medieval Arabic manuscripts
between the prepositions min (from) and f (in, at, or on), min barr al-Arab should be
read instead as f barr al-Arab (on the Arabian coast).
108
If so, then it becomes easier to
envision ships being able to pass by the chain and thus reaching the other side of the Red Sea.
It is true that the phrase kull markab yail yamurr tata l-silsila could be taken to mean every
ship when arriving would pass under the chain, though that would mean that the chain was

105
By the Ban Zuray Ibn al-Mujwir means the Zurayid Dynasty which, centered on Aden, ruled 1080-1173
(473-569 AH). The Ethiopian rulers of Zabd to which he refers are the Najids, a roughly contemporary slave
dynasty of Ethiopian origin which ruled the Tihma from the town of Zabd 1021-1156 (412-551 AH). For a
summary of Zurayid and Najid history, with a chronology of the respective rulers of the two dynasties, see Smith
1988: 131-2, 133, 138. It is possible that, when learning of Yemeni traditions of a chain which the Ethiopians had
stretched across the Red Sea, Ibn al-Mujwir confused the Aksumites with the more recent Ethiopian occupiers of
Yemen, the Najids.
106
This has been reconstructed as an adverb following Beeston 1989: 2.
107
Ibn al-Mujwir 1996: 113.
108
Beeston 1989: 2.

225

either elevated high above the water or that the ships miraculously sailed under water past the
chain! It is more likely that the preposition tat, though meaning under in most cases, means
beside or past in this context, as Beeston argues on the basis of Qurn verses in which rivers
are said to flow tat the gardens of Paradise.
109
The chain of Mandab to which Ibn al-Mujwir
refers would thus have been a chain that Yemeni tradition remembered as having been stretched
across a portion of Arabian coastline facing Ethiopia, not across the width of the Red Sea from
east to west. There is nothing implausible about the use of a chain to bar access to a port, as this
was a well attested practice during antiquity and the Middle Ages. Chains were used to protect
ports in North Africa from Carthaginian times
110
down to the eighth century CE,
111
and an
anonymous fifteenth-century Italian treatise entitled Tractatus Pauli Sanctini Ducensis de re
militari et machinis bellicis (MS. Lat. fol. 16, Bibliothque Nationale, Paris) depicts a
Mediterranean port protected by a chain.
112
Moving further east, we find in the Chau Ju-Kua, a
thirteenth-century Chinese text, reference to a harbor at the straits of Malacca which was barred
by an iron chain.
113
If a similar chain was used in sixth-century South Arabia, it too would have
barred access to a specific area along a coast. The question is where.
A reference to the toponym Mandab, as well as memory of an Ethiopian connection with
a imyarite defensive project at the southern end of the Red Sea, is preserved by Ibn al-
Mujwirs older contemporary, the geographer Yqt. Like Ibn al-Mujwir, Yqt knows of a

109
Ibid.
110
Rodinson 1965 (b): 138.
111
Agius 2008: 237.
112
Christides 2000: 58, 85 (Fig. 5). On MS. Lat. 7239, see F. Babinger, An Italian map of the Balkans, presumably
owned by Mehmed II, the conqueror (1452-53) Imago Mundi 8:1, 1951: 8-15.
113
Agius 2008: 237. Christides (2000: 58) claims that the fourteenth-century Moroccan traveler Ibn Baa
described a similar chain protecting a port on the Euphrates. In fact, the structure which Ibn Baa saw at al-illa,
located on the Euphrates south of Baghdad, is described by the traveler as a bridge (jisr) made up of boats held
together by iron chains, with no reference to any defensive function (Ibn Baa 1933: I: 171). From Ibn Baas
account it is not clear where the bridge was located in relation to the town of al-illa, and it need not have been put
in place to bar access by the river.

226

mountain at the southern end of the Red Sea called Mandab, but also refers to the portion of the
Yemeni coast adjacent to the town of Zabd as Mandab (huwa ism sil muqbil li-Zabd bil-
Yaman).
114
Some centuries before this, al-Hamdn also refers to a place called al-Mandab in the
area of Zabd, but knows of it only as a place within the territory of the Ban Majd b. aydn, a
tribe which in his day was also represented at Mawza and al-Shiqq in the Tihma, and at al-
Umayra west of Aden.
115
Though Yqt says nothing of a defensive chain set up by the
imyarites, he claims to have found a report about the Ethiopians crossing of the Bb al-
Mandab under their generals Ary and Abreh to invade Yemen. In the course of the crossing,
says Yqt, the Ethiopians named the strait Danad madaynad, which Yqt glosses as this
hungry one (hdh l-ji).
116
It is impossible to make sense of this foreign phrase, which may
well be corrupt, and even the gloss is rather opaque. While there was a certain tendency among
some medieval Muslim authors to look for Geez etymologies of South Arabian toponymsthe
derivation of an from a abash word for fortified (cf. Geez n) is a case in
point
117
it is not impossible that mandab is indeed derived from the Geez mndb, meaning
affliction. But to return to the question of where the Mandab of the South Arabian inscriptions
was located, we have seen that there are not one but two Mandabs in medieval Muslim tradition:
one associated with a mountain near the strait between Africa and Arabia, whose name survives
in the Bb al-Mandab; another, the other the name of a region in the Tihma near Zabd. Either
way we are dealing with a region along Yemens southern Red Sea coast which Arab tradition
recognized as having a long-standing Ethiopian connection.

114
Yqt 1990: V: 242.
115
Al-Hamdn 1974: 67, 72, 206.
116
Yqt 1990: V: 242.
117
On this folk etymology, see 6.2.

227

Before attempting to identify a specific locale with the imyarite Mandab, we should
note in passing a theory proposed some years ago by Pirenne.
118
Dismissing all associations of
Mandab with the Red Sea coast,
119
she choses instead to identify the Mandab of the inscriptions
with the bay of Khawr Umayra on Yemens southern coast, located 105 km west of Aden and
75 km east of the Bb al-Mandab, on the grounds that the bay was just deep enough to allow for
the entry of ships, and that an iron chain of the sort mentioned in literary and epigraphic sources
could easily have been extended across the mouth of the bay.
120
In support of her thesis, Pirenne
turns to archaeological evidence from un Masla, a site of rectangular structures and the
remains of smaller circular huts which overlooks the bay of Khawr Umayra from a location of
about 800 feet above sea-level on Jabal Masla, and which she takes to be of sixth-century date
on the basis of an account of the site given in a geographical handbook on Arabia and the Red
Sea published by the British government in 1946.
121
In fact, all the handbook says of the
archaeological remains in this area is that some reservoirs at Khawr Umayra may have been
constructed a century or two earlier than the tanks of Aden, usually assigned to the period of
Persian rule (A.D. 570-628).
122
This is a very weak foundation for a theory as radical as
Pirennes, particularly when the date of the original cisterns at Aden has never been established.
Not only have the tanks been modified numerous times,
123
but their association with the brief
period of Ssnid rule in South Arabia following 570 is the product of nothing more than
speculation on the part of modern scholars. It should not be forgotten that when British colonial
officers made what seems to have only been a superficial examination of the remains at Khawr

118
Pirenne 1983.
119
Ibid.: 145.
120
Pirenne 1983: 142-4.
121
Ibid.: 143-4.
122
Western Arabia and the Red Sea 1946: 35.
123
Doe 1971: 125.

228

Umayra back in the 1940s, South Arabian archaeology was still in its infancy and lacked a
scientific means of establishing the chronology of ancient sites. When Doe visited un Masla
in the 1960s he did indeed form the impression that it served as an observation post from which
the routes along the coast could be monitored, suggesting that they could be either ancient or
medieval, but found only surface sherds datable within the last two hundred years.
124

Furthermore, as Beeston points out,
125
Pirennes attempt to locate the chain of Mandab at Khawr
Umayra implies that the imyarites expected the Ethiopians to sail outside the Bb al-Mandab
into the Gulf of Aden in order to make their landing in South Arabia, when in fact the most
obvious landing would have been on the Red Sea coast facing Ethiopia.
In light of this, and in light of the reference in imyarite inscriptions to a chain of
Mandab in connection with Ysufs campaign in the Tihma, it would seem that the imyarites
erected their chain somewhere along the Red Sea coast of Yemen. Since the Tihma is the region
of South Arabia most exposed to invasion from Ethiopia, one would indeed expect to find the
imyarites chain at some point along the southern Red Sea coast of Yemen. Of the possible
locations along this coast, Shaykh Sad, located just north of the Bb al-Mandab, looks the most
promising. As noted in the previous chapter, this site is a likely candidate for Oklis, an
important center of trade since the first century CE. Even if the identification of QNL, where
Klb had built a church, with Oklis remains hypothetical, the close ties of Shaykh Sad to
Ethiopia are indicated by the discovery of Aksumite gold coins from the fourth century and by
the reference in Yqt to the regular visitation of al-Abra, a port in this very area, by Ethiopian
merchants.
126
That the Arabic version of the Martyrium Arethae gives Abr as the name of the

124
Ibid.: 128-9.
125
Beeston 1989: 1-2.
126
See above, 3.3.2.3.

229

port at which the foreign fleet sent to Klb first landed in Arabia
127
suggests that memory was
preserved of al-Abras role in the war between Aksum and imyar. Moreover, Shaykh Sad is
located by Khawr Ghurayra, a deep inlet with a narrow entrance which would have been
considerably easier to bar with a chain than the much wider mouth of Khawr Umayra.
128
Since
the Tihma coast from here all the way north to al-Mukh is reef-bound and affords no
harborage,
129
the port of Shaykh Sad thus emerges as the likeliest location of the imyarites
chain of Mandab.

4.2.4. A Greek Source: John Malalas on Ysufs Rise to Power
As we have seen, the Sabaic sources stress the defense of the South Arabian coast against
Aksum as one of Ysufs key concerns. Though this was an essentially military concern, the
effects of Ysufs policies on Aksumite foreign tradeheavily dependent as it was on
unhindered access through the Red Sea and the ports of South Arabiacan easily be imagined.
But to get a sense of the full effects of Ysufs policies on Aksumite trade we must turn to John
Malalas, a sixth-century Syrian author whose history was one of the sources most commonly
used in the Middle Ages for the war between Aksum and imyar. Educated at Antioch, Malalas
continued to work there as a bureaucrat before moving to Constantinople in the 530s or soon
after 540, when Antioch was captured and sacked by the Ssnids.
130
Malalas Chronographia
was written as an eighteen-book work covering the entire span of world history from Creation to
the mid-sixth century; though the sole Greek manuscript, dating from the eleventh to twelfth
century, breaks off at the entry for the year 565, the narrative may have continued as late as

127
Bausi and Gori 2006: 254 ( 29c.4-29d.1).
128
Beeston 1989: 1.
129
Ibid.
130
Baldwin 1991: 1275.

230

574.
131
The Chronicle was the point of departure for many later Syriac works which dealt with
the Aksumite invasion of 525, among them the now lost Ecclesiastical History of Dionysius of
Tell-Mar which was copied in part by Michael the Syrian, the Ecclesiastical History of
Pseudo-Zacharias, the Ecclesiastical History of John of Ephesus, and the Chronicle of Zqnn.
132

But despite the widespread use of Malalas history by Syriac authors, as well as the fact that
Malalas was himself a native speaker of Syriac,
133
his history never seems to have been
translated into Syriac and was at most quoted from by Syriac authors.
134
Malalas account of the
war between Aksum and imyar enjoyed some currency in the non-Syriac speaking world as
well, for it was also incorporated by the late seventh-century Egyptian bishop John of Nikiu in
his Chronographia
135
and by the Constantinopolitan historian Theophanes Confessor (c. 760-
817/18) in his own Chronographia.
136

The portion of Malalas work that interests us here is Paragraph 15 of Book 18, in which
he describes the war among the Indians, between those called the Axoumitai and the
Homeritai.
137
In this chapter, as elsewhere in his work, Malalas appears to have been influenced
by Justinianic propaganda,
138
as a result of which he re-assigns the Aksumite invasion of imyar
to the year 528, the second year of Justinians reign.
139
Apart from associating Justinians reign
with what was perceived as the victory of Christianity over Judaism, Malalas chronological

131
Ibid.
132
Debi 2004: 147-50.
133
His epithet Malalas is derived from the Syriac malll (rhetor).
134
Debi, loc. cit.
135
Originally written in Greek, Johns Chronicle was translated at some point into Arabic but survives only in a
Geez rendition of the Arabic version (Chronique de Jean, vque de Nikiou, texte thiopienne, ed. and tr. H.
Zotenberg, Paris 1883). Far removed as it is from the original text, this work is of no interest in the present
discussion.
136
Theophanes, The Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor: Byzantine and Near Eastern History, AD 284-813, ed. and
tr. C. Mango and R. Scott, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997.
137
Malalas 18.15 (tr. Jeffreys et al. 1986: 251).
138
Baldwin 1991: 1275.
139
Malalas 1986: 251 (Bk. 18, 15).

231

slight of hand allows him to give credit not to Justin but to Justinian for aiding the Aksumite
program of Christianizing South Arabia by sending a bishop and a clergy.
140
Another peculiarity
in Malalas account is the use of the name Andas in reference to Klb, a name which is not
found in any other sixth-century sources. For most of the account, however, Klb remains a
nameless emperor of the Axoumitai, and it is not until the very end of Paragraph 15 that
Malalas adds that he was named Andas. Stranger still, this Andas is described as a late-comer
to Christianity, having converted only after his victory over the Jewish imyarites. Despite his
tendentious re-writing of chronology and his spurious account of Klbs conversion, Malalas
does add some interesting information, not provided by other sources, on the conflict between
Aksum and imyar. A case in point is his statement that Ysuf (called Dimnos in the text) killed
Roman merchants travelling to Ethiopia by way of imyar in retaliation for the Romans
persecution of his Jewish coreligionists. To quote Malalas:
It is through the country of the Homeritai that the Roman traders reach Axoum
and the Indian empires further into the interior. For there are seven empires of the
Indians and Ethiopiansthree of the Indians and four of the Ethiopians, the latter
being close to the Ocean in the areas further east. Now when the traders entered
the country of the Homeritai for trading purposes, Dimnos, the emperor of the
Homeritai heard of it and killed them, confiscating all their goods. He alleged that
the Christian Romans were ill-treating the Jews in their territory, and killing many
of them every year. That was why trade was cut off. The emperor of the
Axoumitai declared to the emperor of the Homeritai, You have done wrong in
killing the Christian Roman traders, and have caused damage to my empire. As a
result of this there was great enmity between them, and they went to war against
each other.
141

The plot here seems straightforward enough: what began as the persecution of the Jews in the
Roman Empire had repercussions in the southern Red Sea region, most significantly the cutting
off of trade between Rome and Aksum. It is not clear to which incidents of persecution Dimnos

140
Theophanes, though aware of the persecution of the Najrn Christians in 522/3, errs even more egregiously than
Malalas by dating the Aksumite invasion to the year 542/3 (Theophanes 1997: 258, 323-4)!
141
Malalas 18.15 (tr. Jeffreys et al. 1986: 251).

232

is referring in this passage. Jews in the Roman Empire had, it is true, been reduced by the
Theodosian code of 438 to second-class status, though in some regions, particularly those in
which paganism still predominated, Jews continued to flourish.
142
Not until the reign of Justinian
were there instances of outright persecution, including forced baptisms, to which Justinian added
the offence of establishment of Christian control of the Red Sea by ending the autonomy of the
Jewish merchant community on Iotabe, an island at the northern end of the sea.
143
This latter act
was the very thing that would have driven Malalas Dimnos to kill Roman merchants in South
Arabia as retribution, except that the king Ysuf on whom Dimnos is based was already dead by
the time Justinian came to the throne in 527. Since Malalas regards Justinians reign as the
period in which the war between Aksum and imyar occurred, it is not difficult to see that the
anti-Roman sentiments he attributes to the Jewish imyarite king are anachronistic and as such
cannot be taken as evidence that Rome was a major concern for Ysuf. If the account of Ysufs
attacks on Roman merchants in his realm is in some way based on real events one cannot
exclude the possibility that Ysuf was merely subjecting the merchants to the same treatment he
meted out to the other Christians, indigenous and foreign alike, in imyar. That Romans were
among the victims of his anti-Christian campaign is also, as noted above, mentioned in the
Syriac Book of the imyarites and is stated as well in the Greek Martyrium Arethae.
144

It is strange, though, that Malalas should speak of Roman merchants as the victims of
Ysufs anti-Christian persecutions when he says nothing about Najrn, nor even about the
imyarite Christians at all. To what extent can we trust Malalas in such detailslike the attack
on foreign merchantsas are mentioned only in his account and not in other contemporary

142
Sharf 1971: 19-23; Bowman 2006: 1046.
143
Bowman, loc. cit.: 1048-50.
144
5.4.1.

233

sources? It is true that our confidence in Malalas is not inspired by such details as his tendentious
re-dating of the Aksumite invasion to 528 in order to give added substance to the reign of
Justinian and his claim that Klb began his career as a pagan. That Malalas description of India
and Ethiopia reflects a fairly typical confusion of classical sources of the type expected of an
author who had never traveled to the Red Sea, adds to our skepticism. Nevertheless a careful
analysis of his account of the background to the Aksumite invasion of imyar may still repay the
effort.
Let us first look at what Malalas knew about the Red Sea world, a region he refers to as
India. Malalas is not totally consistent in his use of this term, for he begins his account by
referring to both the Aksumites and imyarites as Indians, only to later distinguish between
the Indians and the Ethiopians. Though the Aksumites of course belonged to the latter, Malalas
consistently refers to them either as Axoumitai or Indians. Apart from Aksum and imyar,
the identity of the seven kingdoms of the Indians and Ethiopians to which Malalas alludes is
not clear. As we saw in the previous chapter, the term Indian was used vaguely enough in late
antiquity to encompass any of the peoples between Nubia and India proper. Later Syriac authors
who used Malalas text understood his inner India to mean South Arabia. Thus we read in the
Chronicle of Zqnn:
Now the reason for the war between them was this: since the kingdom of the
Ethiopians was much farther into the interior than that of the imyarites, facing
those regions of Egypt and the Thebaid which are outside India, the merchants
from the Roman side used to cross over into the territories of the imyarites and
enter into the inner regions of the Indians called the Uzelians, and also into the
areas which were farther into the interior than those of the Indians and Ethiopians.
(Ellt dn d-ebdat qrb baynthon th hd d-kad malkt d-Ky mgawy
sagg men hy da-mry lqbal atrawwt hnn d-Egpts wa-d-Tbayd da-
l-bar men Hend. Taggr dn d-Rmy b-atrawwt da-mry brn

234

(h)waw w-ln l-atrawwt gawwy d-Hendwy d-metqrn zels w-tub l-
atrawwt d-gawwyn menhn d-Hendwy wa-d-Ky.)
145

Though Witakowski regards the Uzelians as the inhabitants of Adulis,
146
it is more likely that the
term refers in this case to the indigenous inhabitants of South Arabia, the anonymous Syriac
author of Chronicle of Zqnn being influenced by Jewish and/or Muslim traditions identifying
an with Uzal.
147
Attested in the Old Testament as the name of one of the offspring of the
South Arabians legendary ancestor Yoqtan,
148
Uzal caught on in later centuries as a name for
an. Thus al-Hamdn notes in his ifa
t
Jazra
t
al-Arab that Izl (=Uzal) was the name of
an in pre-Islamic times,
149
and in his Kitb al-Ikll quotes a line of poetry by the pre-Islamic
poet Imru al-Qays, which refers to Uzl as one of the strongholds (mani) of the imyarite
king Dh Nuws,
150
i.e. Ysuf Asar Yathar. Michael the Syrian (d. 1199) similarly regards
the regions of the Indians (atrawwt d-Hendwy) to which the Roman merchants came as
encompassing part of the imyarite realm. Thus he writes:
When a certain Jew reigning over these lands of the imyarites and massacred the
Christians, he also arrested and massacred the merchants who came from the
region of the Romans to the regions of the Indians because, so he argued, in the
region of the Romans the Christians were harassing the Jews. And on account of
such things, trade from the regions of the Indians and Ethiopians ceased.
(W-kad Ydy n amlek al atrawwt hln da-mry w-qael ennn la-
Krstyny lbak tb wa-l-taggr d-zln men atr d-Rmy l-atrawwt d-
Hendwy w-qael ennn mel lam da-b-atr d-Rmy Krstyn qn l-
Ydy. Wa-b-elt d-d-ak hd belat taggrt men atrawwt d-Hendwy w-
Ky).
151

145
Incerti auctoris Chronicon pseudo-Dionysianum vulgo dictum 1927: 54-5.
146
Pseudo-Dionysius of Tel-Mahre, Chronicle (known also as the Chronicle of Zuqnin), Part III, tr. W. Witakowski,
Liverpool, 1996: 50 (n. 264).
147
Uzal is regarded by medieval Yemeni Jewish tradition as the old name for an (M. Elat, The Iron Export
from Uzal (Ezekiel XXVII 19), Vetus Testamentum 33, 3, 1983: 323).
148
Genesis 10:27, I Chronicles 1:21.
149
Wa-kna ismuh fl-jhiliyya Izl (al-Hamdn 1974: 81).
150
Idem. 1966: 61.
151
Michael the Syrian 1910: IV: 273.

235

The identification of South Arabia with India by these Syriac authors is not a medieval
innovation but was well established already in Late Roman times.
152
Taking the Indian Ocean as
ones point of reference, with the regions along its shore constituting the edges of a greater India
of sorts, one can see how Malalas perceived that the Roman merchants who departed from the
westernmost frontier of this India in the Red Sea were heading for Inner India by sailing off
into the east. Malalas notion that country of the Ethiopians extended to the east of other parts
of this greater India can be explained by the widespread belief in late antiquity that the Indian
Ocean coast of Africa curved around to the eastan idea which was not fully dispelled even in
the Middle Ages.
The identity of the three Indian kingdoms and the four Ethiopian kingdoms
mentioned by Malalas is a more difficult matter. A Coptic gloss on Saint Epiphanius treatise on
precious gems (MS Par. Copte 131
5
, fol. 40) lists nine Indian peoples: the Ababastroi (Upper
Egyptians?),
153
the Ameritae (imyarites), the Axmitai (Aksumites), the Adoulitai (Adulitans),
the Bougaioi (Beja), the Daianoi (Indian o?),
154
the Sabnoi (Sabaeans), the Dibnoi
(Maldivians), and the Sirindibnoi (Sri Lankans).
155
This, however, is more than the seven
kingdoms alluded to by Malalas, even if his seven kingdoms might have included some of the
groups mentioned in the Coptic text. In the case of the four Ethiopian kingdoms, it could be that
Malalas had in mind Aksum and the three kingdoms of Nubia: Nobatia in the north, extending
from the First to Third Nile Cataracts; Makouria in the center, extending from the southern
border of Nobatia in the Third Cataract region to some point between the Fourth and Fifth

152
Christides 1970: 167, 169, 188.
153
A people with the same name is located by Ptolemy in the Egyptian nome of Oxyrhynchus to the south of the
Fayym Oasis, and by Pliny the Elder further south in Upper Egypt (Winstedt 1909: 218-19).
154
The the o are an Indian people mentioned by Stephanos of Byzantium in the sixth century, whose location
is unknown (ibid.).
155
On this passage, see ibid.: 218.

236

Cataracts; and Alodia in the south, extending south of Makouria into the upper Blue Nile
Valley.
156
Information about these kingdoms may have reached Malalas thanks to the reports
brought back by Roman missionaries to Nubia, who were already active by the time he was
writing.
157
Since, however, Malalas seems to have had only the vaguest notion of the Indian
Ocean and Red Sea regions, it is probably best not to read too much into his schema of the Indian
and Ethiopian kingdoms.
So far we have yet to see evidence of a profound knowledge of Red Sea geography. With
Malalas reference to Roman trade with the southern Red Sea, however, we are on firmer
ground, for this trade, though not discussed by other sources in connection with the Aksumite
invasion, is substantiated by the discovery of Roman pottery in sixth-century levels at both
Ethiopian and Yemeni sites. Excavations by Rudolfo Fattovich at the site of Bta Gyrgs to the
northwest of the present-day town of Aksum indicate a peak in the importation of ceramic
materials from the Mediterranean in the sixth century which, since pottery generally survives
better than more perishable items, may reflect an overall increase in imports.
158
The picture is
much the same in South Arabia. Amphorae produced at the port-town of Ayla at the northern end
of the Gulf of Aqaba were exported by sea in some quantity to South Arabia and the Horn of
Africa, as evidenced by the discovery of sherds of so-called Aqaba Ware in sixth-century
contexts at Aksum, Adulis, Qni, and afr,
159
as well as in the shipwreck off Black Assarca in
the Dahlak archipelago.
160
It is unknown what the amphorae originally contained, and though it
is plausible that some of it consisted of agricultural produce from Palestine, hard evidence is

156
On the archaeology of the three Nubian kingdoms in the fifth and sixth centuries, see Welsby 2002: 24-30.
157
For a discussion of the literary and archaeological evidence for Christian missions to Nubia from 543 on, see
Welsby 2002: 32 ff.
158
Fattovich 1997: 63.
159
Peacock et al. 2007: 96-7; Franke et al. 2008: 219; Parker 2009: 83.
160
Pedersen 2008: 84-7.

237

lacking and it could be that a wide range of foodstuffs was transported from Ayla in
amphorae.
161

If the economic background presented by Malalas is essentially correct, then his
statement that the war between Aksum and imyar was motivatedat least in partby
Aksumite commercial interests is worthy of consideration. Since Rome was Aksums main
trading partner in the Red Sea, Ysufs attacks on Roman merchants would have been perceived
by Klb as an attack on Aksums economic livelihood. Shahid, however, reads this same
passage as an indication of a broader Romano-Ssnid struggle for influence in Arabia by which
Ysuf could hold Ethiopia, Byzantiums ally, at bay, and, what is more important, he could
frustrate Byzantine and Ethiopic (sic) economic and trade policies which had been consistently
directed towards the establishment of relations with India without the mediation of South Arabia
or Persia.
162
Assumingas seems likelythat Klb had economic as well as political and
ideological reasons for going to war with Ysuf, is there any evidence for a consistently anti-
South Arabian and anti-Ssnid trading policy on the part of the Romans and Aksumites?
In fact, all the available literary, numismatic, and archaeological evidence militates
against Shahids great game theory. If by guarding access to the Indian Ocean from the Red
Sea South Arabia might seem to prononents of this theory to have been of great geopolitical
importance to Romans and Ssnids alike, it must be remembered that neither of the two powers
ever fought any battles in the Red Sea or Indian Ocean. Nor were such battles ever contemplated,
and given the lack of evidence that the Arabian Peninsula was ever circumnavigated in antiquity,
much less on a regular basis,
163
it seems unlikely that establishing a sphere of influence in South

161
Ward 2007: 163; Peacock et al. 2007: 103-8; Parker 2009: 83.
162
Shahid 1964: 127.
163
Salles 1988.

238

Arabia was a necessary step taken by other side in the Romano-Ssnid conflict in order to block
a maritime invasion from the south by its opponent. Regarding the documentation for sixth-
century South Arabia, it should be noted at the outset that Malalas reference to Roman
merchants passing through imyar is good evidence that Rome continued to trade during the
sixth century with Ethiopia and South Arabia alike and did not seek to avoid the mediation of
South Arabia. Even without Malalas we have enough ceramic material from afr and Qni to
build a case for Roman trade with South Arabia during this period. But quite apart from this
ceramic evidence, the circulation of Aksumite and Roman coins in sixth-century South Arabia
indicates that imyar was not excluded by Aksum and Rome but was intimately tied to the
network of Aksumite and Roman trade in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean. The famous hoard from
al-Madhriba in southwestern Yemen, for example, contains no fewer than 868 Aksumite gold
coins from the reign of zn (c. 330-360) to that of Klb and is the largest single collection of
Aksumite coins discovered anywhere in the world to date
164
and, with its 326 Roman solidi
165
the
largest collection of Roman coins ever found in the Arabian Peninsula. Since Klbs are the
latest coins in the hoard, one can reasonably assume that it was buried during his reign.
Nor is the hoard from al-Madhriba an isolated example of the infusion of Aksumite
currency into the imyarite economy, for as early as 1898/9 D. H. Mller acquired a hoard
acquired in Aden containing thirty-one Aksumite coins (from zn to Klb) and four Roman
solidi (three of Constantius II (324-337) and one of Valens (364-378)).
166
Another hoard came to
light in 1911 at Shaykh Sad, site of ancient Oklis, a point of departure for merchants doing

164
Munro-Hay 1989 (a). In fact, the hoard seems to have originally been larger even than this for, in his study of the
hoard, Munro-Hay (loc. cit.) takes into account only those 868 Aksumite coins which were acquired by the Aden
Museum in 1986, when in fact other pieces had already entered the international coin trade before that time (Hahn
2000 (a): 283 (n. 3), 285).
165
Munro-Hay 1989 (a): 84.
166
Hahn 2000(a): 285.

239

trade with India. That this port was in contact with Ethiopia as well is suggested not only by its
close proximity to Africa but also by a reference in the Periplus to trade between Oklis and the
Horn of Africa.
167
Since we are informed in the same text that Oklis was a harbor and watering
station rather than a center of trade in its own right,
168
the Aksumite coins from Shaykh Sad
may represent a quantity of bullion stored by a merchant before setting out for India but for some
reason never recovered. An examination of these coins by Hahn in 1999 indicated that one can
be assigned to Ousanas (c. 305-320), one to Wzb (c. 300-305), and seven to zn (one pagan
and the other six Christian).
169
More recently, further Aksumite coins from before the reign of
zn have been discovered in the course of excavations at Qni.
170

While it is quite possible that some of these coins were brought by Klb to South Arabia
in order to pay his troops, particularly given that none of the Aksumite hoards contain issues
post-dating Klbs reign,
171
the Martyrium Arethae hints that Aksumite gold coins circulated in
South Arabia before the invasion of 525 and even achieved some recognition as official currency
there. According to the Martyrium the annual tax of Najrn was reckoned in the royal coin of the
imyarites, referred to as the helkas () and said to weigh twelve carats of Roman gold.
172

Since South Arabia had no gold currency of its own,
173
scholars have long suspected that the

167
Periplus 7:3.18-21.
168
Ibid.: 25:8.25.
169
Hahn 2000 (a): 285 (n. 13).
170
Sedov 1996: 22; Sedov 2007: 85.
171
Munro-Hay 1999: 18.
172
Martyrium Arethae 4.23-31 () (tr. Beaucamp 2007: 192).
173
While coins referred to as WRQ(
m
) in Sabaic and Qatabnic suggest an analogy with the Geez warq, meaning
gold or gold coin, the term waraq in Classical as well as Yemeni colloquial Arabic means silver as well as
coin. That WRQ in Epigraphic South Arabian refers to a metal and not a type of coin is indicated by a text in the
miniscule cursive form of the musnad script, inscribed on wood and probably from al-Sawd in the Jawf of
northern Yemen (YM 11730), which refers to a payment of ayl coins in WRQ made by one Rabbil of Nashn
(ancient al-Sawd) to some members of the Shamanq clan (Ryckmans et al. 1994: 61-2 (no. 12), 96-7 (pl. 12A-
12B)). Though some scholars have taken WRQ coins to be gold (Avanzini 2004: 284-5; Ricks 1989: 56), the rarity
of gold coins in ancient South Arabia makes the translation of WRQ as silver far more likely (Ryckmans et al.
1994: 62; Munro-Hay 2003 (a): 17; contra Irvine 1964: 34). Though DHB is encountered quite commonly in Sabaic,

240

imyarite helkas is in fact a gold Aksumite coin. This hypothesis was first advanced over forty
years ago by Irvine,
174
but was more fully articulated by Munro-Hay, who writes:
The carat was equal to one twenty-fourth of a Roman solidus. Thus the holkas
(sic) in question, weighing twelve carats, was equal to half a solidus. After the
Constantinian reform, the solidus weighed 4.24g., therefore the holkas weighed
2.27g. A number of gold Aksumite coins fit exactly this weight. But as the last of
these date from the time of King zn in the mid-fourth century, we must
presume that the weight of the imyarite holkas was fixed then and did not
change with the subsequent reduction of the Aksumite gold coin weight to the
third of a solidus (c. 1.70g., though few actually weighed more than about
1.64g).
175

Since the passage from the Martyrium mentioning the helkas describes the economic situation of
Najrnand presumably elsewhere in South Arabiaalready in place by the reign of Ysuf one
can only assume that, even if some of some of the Aksumite coin hoards from Yemen represent
the payments made to Klbs troops, Aksumite gold had already established itself as the
principle medium of exchange after the imyarites ceased minting coins of their own.
176
Even
though imyarite coppers may have continued in use for smaller economic transactions,
Aksumite gold currency was likely favored by the imyarites for foreign trade, particularly if, as

and to a lesser extent Qatabnian, Minaic, and aramitic as well, this term refers not to gold, like the Arabic
dhahab, but rather to bronze (Sima 2000: 307-24). The only examples of South Arabian gold currency known to
dateand exceedingly rare ones at thatare pieces of both old- (fourth-third century BCE) and new-style (after the
mid-second century BCE) Athenian imitations, as well as a few single gold pieces of other types (Munro-Hay 2003
(a): 29). By contrast, several thousand South Arabian silver coins from c. 300 BCE to 300 CE are known, leaving us
in no doubt that silver was the preferred means of payment (L. Kogan and A. Korotayev, Animals and Beyond. A
New Work on Epigraphic South Arabian Realia. A Review of Alexander Sima. Tiere, Pflanzen, Steine und Metalle
in den altsdarabischen Inschriften. Wiesbaden, Harrasowitz. 2000, WZKM, 93, 2003: 112-13).
174
Irvine 1964: 23 (n. 2).
175
Ibid.
176
If Aksumite coins are to be identified with the dnr mentioned in Syriac reports about Najrn, the large
quantities of gold coin possessed by private citizens even in that remore town would indicate an even greater
circulation of Aksumite currency in such places as Qni and afr. A case in point is Rhayma, a well-to-do
Christian woman of early sixth-century Najrn, who at the time of the anti-Christian campaign under Ysuf tells her
fellow townsfolk, I tell you that on this very day I have 40,000 dnrs sealed and placed [in] my treasury, not to
mention the treasury of my husband (w-h mr-n l-ken da-b-hn yawm d-yawmn t l arbn alpn dnr
da-tmn w-smn bt gazz dl() sar men bt gazzeh d-gabr()) (Shahid 1971: xxii-xxiii (Syriac text)). A bit of
caution is in order here, however, as there is no indication here of the dnrs weight such as would allow their
definitive identification with Aksumite gold coins and, given the Roman coins in the hoard of al-Madhriba, it
cannot be excluded that some of Rhaymas coins were Roman in origin.


241

Banaji has argued, the copper folles was falling out of favor in the late Rome Empire as gold
issues continued to increase.
177
Aksumite coins may well have functioned in late antique South
Arabian economy much as the Maria Theresa thaler would function in the Yemeni and Ethiopian
economies between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries.
178
The numismatic evidence, then,
also indicates that imyarite merchants were not excluded from Aksums maritime trade, as
Shahid suggests.
As for Ssnid maritime trade, no documented attempts at its circumvention by the
Romans are attested until Justinians reign, and even then the entire enterprise turned out to be a
failure.
179
Before Justinian there is no evidence for anything of the sort. In an anecdote from his
Christian Topography Cosmas Indicopleustes cites a sailors yarn about the preference shown by
a Sri Lankan king
180
for Roman over Ssnid currency, but he gives no indication as to whether
this was anything other than an isolated incident and never speaks of a united Romano-Aksumite
trade blockade against the Ssnids.
181
In fact, Cosmas description of South Asian trade in the

177
Banaji 2007: 67.
178
Hans 1961: 27-9, 31ff.; Tschoegl 2001: 443, 453.
179
Bell. Pers. I.xx.9-12 (tr. Dewing 1914: 193).
180
On the date of this incident, see Wolska-Conus 1973: III: 348-9 (n. 17
1
); cf. Weerakkody 1997: 161.The king has
been tentatively identified by Weerakkody (ibid.: 141) with the Singhalese ruler Moggallana I (495-512).
181
While the quantity of Ssnid ceramics, bullae, and coins of fourth- to seventh-century date that have come to
light in Sri Lanka (Bopearachchi 2006: 183-4) does not compare favorably with the quantity of Roman coins found
on the island (Weerakkody 1997: 161-5), it cannot be excluded that Ssnid merchants, realizing the preference for
Roman currency, got around the problem by carrying Roman currency with them when trading in South Asia. This
would have posed no problems for them, for large quantities of gold and copper coins are known to have entered
Iraq and Iran from the Roman Near East in late antiquity, to the point that Roman solidi and folles may well have
become the predominant coins for these metals in the Ssnid Empire (Sears 1997: 340). While booty acquired in
the wars with Rome may account for the influx of some of this Roman currency, the fact that the Romans paid the
Ssnids large sums of gold during the sixth century to keep the peace would have provided an even more
significant source of such currency (ibid.: 340-1). Given the scarcity of Ssnid gold issues during this period, most
of the solidi entering Iraq and Iran were not reminted in large numbers (ibid). In fact, only two gold coins are known
for the reign of Kvdh I, while for the forty-eight year-reign of his son and successor Khusraw I no more than four
or five gold coins are attested, even though Khusraw is known to have received vast quantities of gold from the
Romans for the eternal peace of 532 and the peace treaty of 540 (Schindel 2006: 118). By contrast, more than fifty
solidi are known for the mere four-month joint rule of Justin I and Justinian in 527, while the gold output under
short-lived Roman usurpers like Basiliscus (475-476) surpassed the total gold coinage even of Ssnid kings who
struck comparatively large numbers of dnrs, such as Basiliscus contemporary Prz I (457-484) (ibid.). In light of

242

sixth century reveals the lack of exclusivity. Of Sri Lanka itself, Cosmas Indicopleustes writes
that serving as an intermediary, the island receives numerous ships coming from all of India,
from Persia, and from Ethiopia, and likewise sends out its own (E I
o Ao o o o o o ).
182

Cosmas further notes that Persian, imyarite, and Aksumite merchants visited the port of
Sindou
183
(perhaps Daybul)
184
in northwestern Indiaa clear indication that Ssnid and
imyarite merchants enjoyed unhindered access to the same Indian ports which Aksumite
merchants frequented.
185
Equally striking is absence of the Romans in Cosmas description of
Sindou, something which is hard to explain if one believes that Rome made a concerted effort to
monopolize the trade of the western Indian Ocean at the expense of imyar.
In short, there is no indication in any of the sources that there was a consistent Roman
policy to maintain a commercial blockade against imyar and Persia, much less with Aksumite
help. Moreover, were Shahids theory of a joint Romano-Aksumite attempt to undermine
Ssnid trade correct, it is odd that Malalas never mentions the Ssnids anywhere in his account

this abundance of Roman currency in the Ssnid Empire, one cannot exclude the possibilituy that many of the
Roman coins that entered South Asia in the sixth century were brought by Ssnid merchants.
182
Top. Chr. 11.15 (My translation from the French of Wolska-Conus 1973: III: 344).
183
Top. Chr. 11.15.
184
Excavations at Banbhore, identified with Daybul, have revealed Ssnid occupations levels, though these remain
imperfectly known due to lack of adequate investigation (Ray 2003: 200).
185
Further evidence of South Arabian trade with Sri Lanka has been sought in the description of Sri Lanka by the
fifth-century Chinese pilgrim Fa Xian, whose mention of a people on Sri Lanka called the Sabo has been seen by
some scholars as a reference to Sabaean merchants (Banaji 2006: 284). However, the Sabo to whom Fa Xian refers
are almost undoubtedly Sogdian merchants from Central Asia. The term Sabo or Sabao in Chinese has been
plausibly explained as the transcription of a Sogdian word deriving ultimately from the Sanskrit srthavha,
meaning caravan leader. Often charged with control of foreign cults, the Sogdian sabo in China maintained close
relations with the merchant community. From the fifth to sixth centuries, many Sogdian families in China listed
sabo among their ancestors. Though involved primarily with the Eurasian caravan trade, Sogdians were no strangers
to the Indian Ocean. As early as 245-250 the Chinese envoy Kang Tai reported that Sogdian merchants were
exporting horses to Sumatra by sea. They seem to have been active in Thailand as late as the seventh century,
judging by terracotta reliefs from the Gulf of Siam which date from that time, and which depict worshippers of the
Buddha whose physical type and costume closely resemble Chinese representations of Sogdians. On these points,
see Grenet 1996; La Vassire 2005: 73, 89-90, 148-52. This does not invalidate Cosmas Indicopleustes reference to
imyarite trade with South Asia, though it alerts us to the need to exercise due caution in identifying ethnonyms on
the basis of superficial similarities.

243

of the war between Aksum and imyar. If, however, it is true that Ysufs anti-Christian
campaign targeted not only local Christians but also Roman merchants, it could be that cutting
off Roman trade with the Red Sea region was his way of striking at Aksumite interests in attempt
to weaken the Ethiopian kingdom and its Christian imyarite clients. Malalas, then, supports the
thesis that the war between Aksum and imyar was essentially a local affair. The travails of such
Roman merchants as may have been targeted in Ysufs anti-Aksumite measures were nothing
more than collateral damage.
To conclude our argument, a few words should be said about the alleged imyarite-
Ssnid axis which Shahid envisions as a counterpart to the alleged Romano-Aksumite alliance.
For Shahid the imyarites and Ssnids were natural friends in that they shared a common
enemy in Christianity, the state religion of both Rome and Aksum.
186
As evidence to this effect
he cites a passage in the Martyrium Arethae in which Ysuf is said to have written directly not
only to the Lakhmid king al-Mundhir but also to the Persian emperor himself,
187
calling on both
to follow his example by killing their Christian subjects and, to the emperor, saying that in this
regard he had the favor of the sun and the father of the sun, who he affirmed was the god of the
Hebrews.
188
Ysuf is said to have sent both the Ssnid emperor and his Lakhmid vassal 3000
dnrs as an added financial incentive.
189
Shahid sees in this an attempt by Ysuf to convince the
Ssnid emperor that their respective religious systems were alike and that both parties
belonged to the same camp.
190

186
Shahid 1964: 126.
187
Though not named in the text, this would have been the Ssnid emperor Kavdh I (488-531).
188
Martyrium Arethae XXV.3-4 (tr. Beaucamp 2007: 252).
189
Ibid.: XXV.7.
190
Shahid 1964: 126.

244

Assuming that the author of the Martyrium has not confused Ysufs letter to al-Mundhir
with his letter to Kavdh I himself, it is conceivable that Ysuf may indeed have spoken in such
terms to encourage the emperor to embark on an anti-Christian campaign similar to the one in
imyar. But if he really did seek to influence Ssnid policy towards the Christians of the
Ssnid realm it need not follow that there was a united imyarite-Ssnid front against Aksum
and Rome. Though Arabic sources report that the imyarites did seek first Lakhmid and then,
failing that, Ssnid military help in liberating their country from the Ethiopians around 570,
191

not a word is said in the Marytrium about Ysuf encouraging Kavdh to make war on either
Aksum or Rome. Nor do we have any evidence that Ysufs letters to the Lakhmids and
Ssnids were ever answered. In our study of the epigraphic evidence from Ysufs reign we
have observed that, while the imyarite king devoted a lot of attention to Najrn and the regions
of Yemen to the west of afr, he never turned his attention to the north or east, and while we do
know that the Ethiopian king Abreh would later receive Ssnid ambassadors in his South
Arabian realm,
192
nothing of the sort is recorded in Ysufs reign. At most Ysuf may have
sought to encourage a large-scale neutalization of the Christians of the Arabian borderlands who
would have reacted favorably to the presence of a Christian king like Madkarib Yafur on the
throne of imyar. But of a standoff in Arabia between a Romano-Aksumite coalition and a
imyarite-Ssnid one during the reign of Justin I there is no evidence.

4.2.5. Summary
To review the main points discussed above, Aksums imyarite client Madkarib Yafur
died at some point towards the end of 523, over a year after Ysufs uprising. Though often

191
Al-abar 1961: II: 139-43.
192
Gajda 2009: 136.

245

viewed through the hagiographical prism of the Greek and Syriac sources on the Christian
martyrs at Najrn, Ysufs conquest of South Arabia was in fact dominated by a policy aimed at
countering Aksumite influence in imyar by: 1) exterminating the Ethiopian expatriates residing
in imyar, who included not only the troops stationed by Klb in 518-19 to support Madkarib
Yafur but also clergymen; 2) attacking groups in the Tihma, such as the Farasns, who were
Christian and in close contact with the Ethiopians, while neutralizing towns with large Christian
populations, like Najrn, by stationing troops there; 3) developing a line of defense along
Yemens Red Sea coast, most notably in the form of a chain at Mandab blocking access to
Aksumite shipping; and 4) systematically killing Christians, targeting first their political and
ecclesiastical leaders, at Najrn. The massacre of the Najrn Christians, though by far the best
documented instance of religious persecution in Ysufs reign, thus marks the last stage of a
much more involved program of political consolidation in imyar. As an indication of the
importance of the Aksumite threat to Ysuf one need only consider the fact that he personally
oversaw the establishment of defenses against Aksum on the Red Sea coast, but did not go to
Najrn in person until fall 523. That he did so in the fall of 523, several months after the
conclusion of Ysufs thirteen-month campaign in July 523 which his head military officials so
proudly recorded in their inscriptions at Kawkab and Bir im, is an indication that, for all the
attention it received in the Christian communities of the Fertile Crescent, the massacre at Najrn
was essentially a mopping-up operation.
How many Ethiopians, if any, remained in imyar following Ysufs campaign is
unknown. The conditions under which the various religious communities of the country lived
during Ysufs reign are equally obscure. Ysufs rise to power would presumably have
improved the political and social status of imyarite Jews, of whom we lose sight beginning

246

with the reign of Marthadl
an
Yanf (c. 504-518?). But during the brief reign of Ysuf the
epigraphic evidence for the practice of Judaism in imyar is still lacking because, for the period
following July 523, there are no dated Sabaic inscriptions until the reign of the Aksumites next
imyarite client, Sumyafa Ashwa, beginning sometime around the middle of 525. For the
events within this nearly two-year gap, corresponding to the better part of Ysufs reign, we are
dependent solely on the Greek and Syriac reports on the Najrn martyrs, a body of material
which, though useful for the history of Najrn and of South Arabian Christianity more broadly,
has little to say about the South Arabian politics, much less the Aksumites. Not till Klb appears
on the scene with his army do the Aksumites re-enter the narrative in full force. If the letters
which the Aksumites are reported by Syriac authors to have sent to the Monophysites of the
Ssnid Empire survived we would likely have a very different impression of Ysufs
persecution of the Christians of South Arabia, one which took into account the Ethiopians who
died at the hands of Ysufs troops at afr (which Simeon of Bt Arsham mentions only in
passing in his quotation of Ysufs letter to the Lakhmid king al-Mundhir) and at al-Mukh
(whose deaths passed totally unnoticed in the foreign literature on Najrn). From the Aksumite
letters we might learn as well about events at Qni, a port town on Yemens south coast with
close ties to Aksum, but whose fate during the reign of Ysuf remains unknown. Lacking such
data we will push on ahead to 525, when Klb led an invasion of imyar which resulted not
only in the overthrow of Ysuf and his regime, but also, it will be argued, in the further
development of an Aksumite ideology of holy war.




247

Chapter 5.
AKSUM STRIKES BACK: KLBS INVASION OF IMYAR AS RECORDED
IN GRAECO-ROMAN SOURCES

5.1. Introduction
By the autumn of 523, Aksumite influence in imyar had become for all intents and
purposes a thing of the past. Aksums vassal ruler Madkarib Yafur was now dead and in his
place there reigned the Jewish king Ysuf, who in the course of his thirteen-month campaign of
expansion had killed off the Ethiopians of afr, al-Mukh, and Najrn, not to mention
countless indigenous Christians. It took another campaign, this time led by Klb in person in the
spring of 525, for the Aksumites to regain their hold on imyar. We will begin our study of the
Aksumite reconquest of imyar with an examination of the Graeco-Roman sources. Though the
story of the martyrdom of the Christians of South Arabia and their subsequent liberation by
Klb was a famous one in Graeco-Roman circles and was widely written about in late Roman
and early Byzantine times,
193
we will focus in this chapter on the sixth century texts, as these are
the only properly primary sources. That we include the much later Bios of Saint Gregentios is the
result of the attention it has received in recent years following the publication of a new edition
and translation by Berger. Given this attention, it is only fitting that careful consideration is
given to its relative value as a historical document from which to gain a greater understanding of
the Aksumite campaign and its aftermath. Though they are much closer in time to the events they
describe, the sixth-century sourcesProcopius, Malalas, and the Martyrium Arethaeare
themselves not immune to error, and as such we will subject them as well to careful scrutiny. By

193
For a bibliography of these texts, see Gajda 2009: 82.

248

this means alone can we decide how much of what Graeco-Roman authors had to say about the
Aksumite invasionas a political event and as salvation historyis to be trusted before we
investigate similar patterns of data in other bodies of textual sources.

5.2. Procopius
Though Procopius never travelled to Ethiopia or South Arabia himself, he accompanied
Justinians general Belisarius on his campaigns against the Ssnids and in the process acquired
a great deal of information about the state of affairs on Romes eastern frontier and the lands
beyond.
194
His history of the Romano-Ssnid war was composed sometime before 550, just
over two decades after the Aksumite invasion of imyar in 525, and can therefore be regarded as
a reliable source.
195
But for Procopius, Klb does not enter the picture until after the period of
Ysufs persecution of the Christians of South Arabia between 522 and 524. Of events before
Ysufs reign, such as Klbs campaign against imyar in 518 and the establishment of the
Christian Madkarib on the throne, Procopius knows nothing. The wave of persecution ushered
in by Ysuf is described by Procopius as a joint Jewish-pagan endeavor, the pagans being
described as followers of the old Hellenic faith.
196
The reference to pagan as well as Jewish
elements in sixth-century imyar is also found in Syriac sources, which mention pagans
(anp) residing at Najrn,
197
as well as in the Greek Martyrium Arethae.
198
The implication that
part of imyars population still adhered to polytheistic traditions is problematic given the lack
of firm epigraphic or archaeological evidence for the survival of the old polytheistic traditions in

194
Beaucamp et al. 1999-2000: 31.
195
Ibid.
196
Bell. Pers. I.xx.1 (tr. H. B. Dewing). On the use of the term Hellene in the sense of pagan in Late Roman
contexts, see Christides 1970: 104.
197
Shahid 1971: xxii-xxiii (Syriac text).
198
See below (4.3.1.4).

249

South Arabia after the fifth century at the very latest.
199
It is possible that these pagans were
not, as Procopius implies, ethnic imyarites but were instead drawn from the Arab tribes
dwelling to the northhence their presence at Najrn. If later Arabic tradition is to be trusted,
many of the tribes living to the north of imyar proper continued to adhere to their own
polytheistic traditions down to the Islamic conquests. Given the long-standing habit in South
Arabia of recruiting mercenaries from the Arabs, it is quite possible that Ysuf relied on their
support in his campaign against the Christians of his realm.
Procopius never mentions Najrn, nor any other South Arabian town whose Christians
were targeted by Ysuf; rather he presents the persecutions as a general, region-wide
phenomenon without naming any places. Even Ysuf is never named in Procopius brief
account. Rather it is Klb who is the center of attention; Procopius refers to him by his
Ethiopian name Ella-Abe, which appears in the text in a seriously mangled form as
Hellsthaios (Eo), and describes him as a Christian and a most devoted adherent of
this faith.
200
He tells us that when word of the persecution of the Christians in South Arabia
reached the Aksumite king, he
therefore collected a fleet of ships and an army and came against them (i.e., the
Jews and pagans), and he conquered them in battle and slew both the king and

199
Unofficially pagan traditions are likely to have continued much as they did among much of the population of the
Aksumite kingdom. Given the mountainous topography of both South Arabia and Ethiopia and the consequent
difficulties of communication, this survival of old traditionsreligious and otherwiseis not surprising. A possible
hint of the late survival of polytheism in South Arabia survives in an inscription dated 402-3, according to which a
temple of the god Talab Riym
um
was still in existence on Mount Turat (modern-day Jabal Riym, north of an)
(Robin 2004: 857), while excavations at Mrib have shown that statues were still being dedicated at the famous
Awwm Temple in the late fourth century, and that construction may have continued at the temple as late as the
fifth (Zaid and Maraqten 2008: 333, 338). Such pagan temples as remained standing in South Arabia were put to use
as stalls for livestock and other agricultural and pastoral activities (Finster 1996: 292). What happened to the pagan
communities of South Arabia after this time is not clear. While the word RMY in a Sabaic inscription dating to the
fifth or sixth centuries (MAFRAY-a 1) is cognate with other Semitic terms meaning pagan, in addition to its
original meaning Aramaean, it has been argued that in this context non-Jewish (a category which of course
would include Christians) is the preferred translation (Korotayev 1996).
200
Bell. Pers. I.xx.1 (tr. H. B. Dewing 1914: 189).

250

many of the Homeritae. He then set up in his stead a Christian king, a Homerite
by birth, by name Esimiphaeus, and, after ordaining that he should pay a tribute to
the Aethiopians every year, he returned to his home.
201

(o o
O oo , o X
o O o, o Eo, o
Ao o, oo .)
Two main points should be considered regarding the passage quoted above. The first concerns
the type of political structure imposed by Klb on imyar. Like all other sixth-century authors
who wrote about the war between Aksum and imyar, Procopius states that Ysuf was killed by
the Ethiopian invaders. To Procopius, the persecution of the South Arabian Christians and their
subsequent liberation by the Aksumites seems a rather more important issue than Ysuf himself,
whom he alludes to only as an anonymous imyarite king who met his end at the hands of the
Aksumites. Indeed the only imyarite who merits mention by name in Procopius history is
Esimiphaeus, an individual who is easily recognized as the Sumyafa Ashwa known from
South Arabian inscriptions. Of his rule Procopius says nothing more than that he was responsible
for imyars annual payment of tribute to Aksum.
The second point, though admittedly premised on an argument ex silentio, concerns the
significance of what Procopius does not tell us about Klbs invasion of imyar. We have
already noted the lack of place-names in his account, as well as the lack of the names of any of
the major characters involved in the conflict, the sole excpetion being the Aksumite
Hellsthaios. But it is the historical context of the passage which concerns us here. While it
must not be forgotten that Procopius notice on the invasion is a very condensed summary, it is
noteworthy that the Romans do not yet make an appearance in the passage. We know from the
Martyrium Arethae that the Romans were involved with the invasion to the extent that they

201
Ibid.

251

contributed ships to the war effort, and it is undoubtedly this fact to which Procopius refers when
he says that Klb collected a fleet of ships. The lack of any direct reference to the Romans in
this passage is striking, given that Procopius had no difficulty in attributing other Ethiopian
activities in Arabia and the Indian Ocean, such a campaign sent by Abreh into central Arabia
and Aksumite trade in silks, to Justinians grand anti-Ssnid strategy.
202
The diplomatic attempt
by Justinian to draw Aksum and imyar into the Romano-Ssnid conflict on the side of Rome
is related by Procopius in his extended account of military events in 531, some six years after
Klb invaded South Arabia and toppled Ysufs regime. In contrast to Abrehs campaign to
the north,
203
Klbs invasion of imyar in 525 is never described by Procopius as a proxy war,
but rather a war by which the Aksumite king avenged his persecuted co-religionists in South
Arabia. Rather than attributing the casus belli to the geopolitiocal competition between Rome
and Persia to establish spheres of influence in South Arabia, one might view Justinians interest
in Aksum and imyar as a later development, one which did not begin until after Aksum had
proven its military capacity by invading imyar and establishing a Christian regime there.

5.3. John Malalas
We have already examined Malalas Chronographia from the point of view of Ysufs
threat to Romano-Aksumite trade in the Red Sea; we turn our attention now to that other part of
Malalas account of the war between Aksum and imyar which has also suffered from
misinterpretation, to wit Malalas claim that Klb vowed to convert to Christianity if he was
victorious over the Jewish imyarites. This is one of the most problematic details in Malalas

202
Ibid.: I.xx.9-13. Whether even this campaign was really aimed at invading Ssnid territory has been called into
question by Gajda (2009: 136).
203
In fact the campaign described by Procopius was only one of several such campaigns into central Arabia during
the reign of Abreh (Gajda, loc. cit.: 144).

252

description of the war between Aksum and imyar, as it implies that the Ethiopian king was, at
the time when he embarked on his South Arabian campaign, still a pagan. If this report has been
dismissed above as spurious, it is now time to explain why. Though Shahid takes the report at
face value,
204
there are several strong argumentsfounded on literary, epigraphic, and
numismatic materialthat can be brought against it. According to Malalas, the Aksumite king
made a vow before going to war, saying: If I defeat Dimnos the emperor of the Homeritae, I
shall become a Christian, for I am fighting him on behalf of the Christians.
205
The king is
predictably victorious and, after killing Dimnos and his forces, he seizes control of all of
imyar. Remembering his vow, he next sends to Alexandria two of his senators and two
hundred other men, who relay to Justinian (sic)
206
his requests for a bishop and clergy that he
might be baptized and that all the land of India pass under the Romans.
207
Klb is thus
presented as having gone to war with imyar solely for the sake of Rome and the Christians, on
whose merchants his kingdom so depended. When the Indian ambassadors reach Alexandria,
Justinian gives them their choice of a bishop, and they select a devout and celibate man named
John, the paramonarios
208
of Saint Johns in Alexandria.
209
The story ends with John
accompanying the ambassadors back to the Indian king Andas.
210
It is curious that it is only at
this point that Malalas bothers to give Klb a name, Andas while for most of the narrative he
remains anonymous. Later on in Book 18, in a greatly embellished account of a Roman
diplomatic mission to Aksum in 531, Malalas refers again to Klb anonymously, stating that he

204
Shahid 1971: 253-5. Shahid in fact bases his argument on the history of Pseudo-Dionysius of Tell Mar, a late
eight-century work that makes use of John Malalas. As this work is even further removed in time from the already
unreliable Malalas, its value as a source for the history of sixth-century Aksum is quite limited.
205
Malalas 18.15 (tr. Jeffreys et al. 1986: 251).
206
The actual emperor at the time was of course Justin I.
207
Malalas 18.15 (tr. Jeffreys et al. 1986: 251).
208
Literally janitor, a title borne by church administrators.
209
Malalas 18.15 (tr. Jeffreys et al. 1986: 252).
210
Ibid.

253

made one Angans emperor of the Homerite Indians, so that the whole empire of the Amerite
Indians might belong to him.
211
Though this Angans appears to be Sumyafa Ashwa, it is
impossible to guess how Malalas got the name so totally wrong, or how he formed the
impression that Angans was from the Aksumite kings own family
212
when the fact that
Sumyafa Ashwa was a imyarite nobleman militates against this.
As far as the literary material is concerned, it should be borne in mind that the only
sources which state that Klb was a pagan convert to Christianity are the history of Malalas and
such later sources as Theophanes history, the medieval Syriac chronicles, and the Chronicle of
John of Nikiu which make use of Malalas. Earlier sources, however, support the argument,
contra Shahid, that Klb had been a Christian all alongincluding, of course, the period of his
reign before his second invasion of imyar in 525. Such sources as Procopius, the Syriac letter
of Simeon of Bt Arsham, the Book of the imyarites, and the Martyrium Arethae, all portray
Klb as a pious Christian, with no mention of his having converted after his victory over Ysuf.
In the Martyrium Arethae Klb is described in no uncertain terms as a Christ-loving king,
213

while Procopius, as we have seen, calls Klb a Christian and a most devoted adherent of this
faith. But the most irrefutable evidence that Klb was a Christian long before his second
invasion of imyar is the inscription he erected at Aksum following his first campaign there in
518. As discussed in the previous chapter, this inscription begins with an invocation of Christ, in
whom Klb declares his faith. This leaves us in no doubt that, whatever foreign authors thought
of him, Klb was a Christian well before his second invasion of imyar in 525.

211
Ibid.: 18.56 (tr. Jeffreys et al. 1986: 268).
212
Ibid.
213
Martyrium Arethae 27.8 (tr. Beaucamp 2007: 256, 258).

254

Indeed there is every reason to believe that Klb was a Christian from birth. Marshaling
numismatic against Shahid, Munro-Hay points out that, beginning with zns conversion to
Christianity in the mid-fourth century, all Aksumite coins feature the Cross in prominent places
and frequently bear Christian mottoes, leaving us in no doubt that all of zns successors were
Christian.
214
Since there is no room in this chronology for a pagan Aksumite king who later
converted to Christianity, Munro-Hay attributes Klbs alleged conversion to a lack of
knowledge on the part of foreign authors.
215
Though this is the only way one can explain away
Malalas curious statement that Klb was a pagan who converted to Christianity only after his
victory over imyar, it still leaves unanswered the question of how Malalas got this idea into his
head in the first place. One proposal is that Andas is a deformed transcription of Ella-Amd
(A>A),
216
the name which Aksums first Christian king zn gives to his father in
his inscriptions from Aksum. A Hellenized version of this name appears much later on coins as
AA AMIAC, this being a ruler with whom Klb shares a die, perhaps as a co-regent,
217
in
which case he may likely be Klbs successor Wazeb (c. 540-560). If so, Malalas may have
conflated the two kings and in the process grafted the story of zns conversion onto Klb.
However, though such a theory might account for the origin of the name Andas, it does not
explain Malalas story of Klbs conversion. It was, after all, zn who embraced
Christianity, not his father Ella-Amd, and if Malalas was so ill-informed about Aksumite
history as to confuse kings names in this manner, it seems unlikely that he would have known
anything about the relatively obscure fourth-century king Ella-Amd. There are two other

214
Munro-Hay 2001: 51.
215
Ibid.
216
Witakowski 2007: 298.
217
Godet 1986: 194; Hahn 2000 (a): 298.

255

ways this problem might be approached, either or both of which may explain Malalas account of
Klbs conversion.
The first possible solution posits the influence of a topos on Malalas account of Klb,
one based on a famous event in Roman history. Like all late antique authors, Malalas regards the
reign of Constantine (306-337) as a turning-point for the Christians of the Roman Empire, and
hails Constantine as the most sacred and faithful on account of his being the first Roman
emperor to embrace Christianity.
218
In his account of that emperors reign Malalas relates the
well-known story of his campaign against the barbarians of the West, in the course of which he
prayed for victory and then, overcome by sleep, had a dream in which he saw a cross in the sky
on which was inscribed In this conquer. Upon waking, Constantine makes a standard
emblazoned with the cross, through the power of which he annihilates the barbarians and, seeing
this as an indication of the truth of Christianity, returns elated to Rome, where he is baptized by
the Bishop Silvester.
219
Malalas account of Klbs victory over the imyarite Jews parallels
the Constantinian story in that, like Constantine, Klb is convinced of Christianitys veracity
once he overcomes a formidable enemy. Constantine, it should be noted, was not without his
admirers in Aksumite Ethiopia, and a variant of his famous motto is already attested on coins of
the early fifth-century Aksumite king MDYS
220
in the form With this Cross you will
conquer! (B-Z MSQL TMW=ba-z masqal tmaww); in other cases, MDYS is referred to

218
Malalas 13.1 (tr. Jeffreys et al. 1986: 172).
219
Ibid.: 13.2 (tr. Jeffreys 1986: 172).
220
The vocalization of this kings name is uncertain. The interpretation of MDYS as Founder or Innovator
through comparison with the South Arabian MDT (*Muaddith), with the Y functioning as a mater lectionis
(Fiaccadori 2007 (a): 949), is unlikely. Were one to accept this South Arabian etymology, one would have to explain
the curious phonological development CuCaCCiC>CuCaCCS, in which the short /i/ becomes a long //. There is no
evidence for such a development in South Semitic, and according to the rules of Geez morphology the equivalent of
the active participle *muaddith should be *mads or *mads.

256

on his coins as simply the Victorious (maw).
221
Moreover, if, as suggested in the previous
chapter,
222
the original cathedral at Aksum can be dated to Klbs reign, its similarity in layout
and proportions to Constantines Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem may hint at a subtle
attempt on the part of Klb himself to emulate Constantine. Where the story of the alleged
conversion of Klb, as presented by Malalas, differs structurally from the account of
Constantines conversion is that in the former the king has no dream but instead makes a vow to
embrace Christianity if he is victorious. Nevertheless, given the popularity of the story of
Constantines conversion, it is not impossible that Malalas used it as a topos with which to
situate Klb within a context familiar to Roman readers.
A second, simpler hypothesis by which one might explain Malalas story of Klbs
conversion is that Malalas confused the Aksumite king with the imyarite ruler Sumyafa
Ashwa, whom the Aksumites placed in power after their defeat of Ysuf and his regime. The
fact that Malalas calls the two kings by different namesreferring to Klb as Andas and
Sumyafa Ashwa as Angansmight seem to militate against such a hypothesis. Yet there is
no reason why he should not have mixed up the persons behind these names, particularly given
that the kings names themselves are so badly mangled to begin with in the sole Greek
manuscript of the Chronographia. As we will see in our discussion of the Syriac sources, the
Book of the imyarites claims that this man had long been desirous of being baptized and
becoming a Christian (rgg (h)w b men zabn sagg d-nemad (h)w wa-d-nehw
Krsyn).
223
Klb then promptly commands that the priests who were with him baptize the
imyarite. Since Malalas had at best an imperfect idea of the geography of the Red Sea and the

221
Fiaccadori (loc. cit.: 947). On the Constantinian character of MDYS coinage, see Bowersock 2008: 391.
222
3.3.2.3.
223
Book of the imyarites 1924: 54a (Syriac text).

257

Indian Ocean and of the relationship between the various regions bordering these bodies of
water, it would have been only too easy for him to confuse details of Klbs life with details of
Sumyafa Ashwas.
Having examined Malalas report on the war between Aksum and imyar, we are left
with a feeling that the Syrian author is not a very reliable source on the sixth-century history of
Ethiopia and South Arabia.
224
Apart from his appropriation of this event for the reign of
Justinian, he seems to have had only the vaguest idea of geography, and may have even confused
Klb with Sumyafa Ashwa at one point. In the latter instance, Malalas would have
misunderstood reports about a recently converted imyarite king as references to the conversion
of Klb himself, when in fact there is every indication that Klb had been Christian from birth.
Were it not for the fact that his reference to Roman trade with Ethiopia and South Arabia is
confirmed by archaeological evidence, one would be tempted to reject Malalas completely as a
source for the history of the Aksumite invasion of imyar. Furthermore, even if in this one
respect Malalas has proven to be correct, it does not follow that imyarite attacks on Roman
merchants were the main casus belli. Apart from the fact that these attacks are not mentioned by
other sixth-century authorseven as Malalas ignores Ysufs killing of indigenous South
Arabian Christianssuch a monocausal explanation of the conflict between Aksum and imyar
over-emphasizes foreign trade at the expense of Aksums political and ideological interests in
Arabia. In light of the serious problems in Malalas report, there seems no reason to accept his
claim that Klb launched his invasion that India might pass under the Romans, a statement
which owes more to Justinianic propaganda than to a profound grasp of history. For a glimpse of

224
Byzantinists have long reviled Malalas. For a more balanced overview of Malalas relative merits as a historian,
while still taking into account his capacity for nonsense, see B. Baldwin, Reviewed work(s): Studies in John
Malalas, by Elizabeth Jeffreys; Brian Croke; Roger Scott, Speculum 67, 3 (1992): 697-9.

258

the more ideological side of the Aksumite invasion we turn now to another sixth-century Greek
text, the Martyrium Arethae.

5.4. The Matyrium Arethae
Among sixth-century sources, the Martyrium Arethae gives what is by far the most
detailed account of the Aksumite campaign against imyar, which it relates in Paragraphs 27 to
39. As evidenced by its having been translated into several languages during the Middle Ages,
the text enjoyed widespread popularity as a result of the shock which Ysufs persecutions of
imyars Christians produced in the Christian world at large.
225
The original Martyrium Arethae
was written in Greek somewhere in the Roman Near East by an anonymous Monophysite author,
who appears to have relied heavily onand even at times quoted fromsuch Syriac works as
the letter of Simeon of Bt Arsham and the anonymous letter on the Najrn martyrs published
by Shahid, and gives hints of dependence on other sources which are now lost.
226
Christides
suggests that the author of the Martyrium was a sailor, in light of the detailed description which
he gives of Klbs naval expedition as well as his familiarity with Greek nautical terms.
227

Whatever the truth of the matter, the fact that the author gives details of the naval component of
the Aksumite invasion which are not given in other sources indicates that he had access to data
not available to other commentators.
As for when it was written, the reference to Abreh () in Paragraph 38 of the text
gives us an important clue. The Martyriums claim in this paragraph that Klb appointed

225
A testament to the long-lasting impact of the imyarite martyrdoms on the Christian psyche is the Stepennaya
Kniga, a sixteenth-century Russian work recounting the treacherous capture of Najrn by Dunas the Zhidovin (i.e.
the Jew) and the massacre of the citys inhabitants. This text compares Dunas with the Tartar khn Tokhtamysh
(d. 1405) who captured Moscow in 1382 by similarly treacherous means (Vasiliev 1950: 293).
226
Detoraki 2007: 13-56, 81, 89, 94-6.
227
Christides 2000: 57-8, 61-2.

259

Abreh as king of imyar is demonstrably wrong
228
Sumyafa Ashwa was Klbs
appointee, while Abreh came to power only by throwing off the yoke of Aksumite rule in
South Arabiabut it indicates nevertheless that the text could not have been written until after
Abreh was an established ruler. The first epigraphically dated mention of Abreh is from Dh-
Qiy
an
657 (June 547), and though he may well have come to power before this date, he could
hardly have done so before 531, when we last hear of Sumyafa Ashwa in connection with a
Roman diplomatic mission to imyar.
229
Assuming that Abreh was on the imyarite throne by
c. 540, the Martyrium could not have been written before the middle of the sixth century at the
very earliest. The reference to Klbs appointment of Abreh as king of imyar is also an
important chronological marker in that it seems to be derived from a now lost portion of the
Syriac history of the Monophysite John of Ephesus, which is quoted in the late eight-century
Chronicle of Zqnn.
230
Since Johns history came to an end in 589,
231
the author of the
Martyrium could not have had access to Johns work before c. 590
232
when, having been
completed, it became available to readers.
Another clue to the date of the Martyrium is provided by a geographical notice in its
second paragraph: The country of the imyarites is to the south of the territory which now
belongs to the Romans and is called the Palm-Grove, at a distance of thirty stages.
233
This
Palm-Grove (o) is known from Procopius, who states that it was given to Justinian by
the Arab chieftain Aboucharabos (=Abkarib) in return for being granted the office of phylarch

228
Detoraki 2007: 86.
229
Gajda 2009: 116.
230
Detoraki 2007: 53.
231
Ibid.: 21.
232
Assuming, of course, that he actually did make use of the history of John of Ephesus.
233
Martyrium Arethae 2.15-17 (tr. Beaucamp 2007: 186).

260

over the Arabs of Palestine.
234
Though the exact date of the transfer of ownership of the Palm-
Grove to Justinian cannot be established with any precision, 529 has been proposed as a likely
date.
235
Moreover, the author of the Martyrium regards the Palm-Grove as a Roman possession
in his day, a claim which he could only have made before the Muslim invasions of the early
seventh century.
236

We are dealing, then, with an author from the Roman Near East who was writing at some
point in the late sixth century and who had access to Syriac material. Though he gives no
information about himself, this individual may have been a native speaker of Syriac like John
Malalas. Unlike Malalas, the author of the Martyrium was, by virtue of his reliance on Syriac
material, well-read on the martyrdom of the Najrn Christians and the Aksumite invasion of
525, making him a far more reliable source than Malalas. In some cases our anonymous author
relies on material now lost to us, some of which provided him with information not available to,
or used by, other authors, such as figures for the size of the Aksumite army. Since we have no
other sources against which to check this data, we will compare it with what we know about the
nineteenth-century Ethiopian military, for which we do have documentation. In doing so, we can
arrive at a much fuller understanding of Klbs invasion of imyar, as well as its impact on
Aksum itself. We will also examine the Martyrium as a narrative of holy war, a motif which we
will encounter in the Syriac Book of the imyarites, and of which we have hints even in the
fragmentary Geez inscriptions from Yemen.

234
Bell. Pers. I.xix.10-13.
235
Detoraki 2007: 98.
236
Ibid.

261

5.4.1. The Course of Klbs Campaign: An Outline of the Narrative of the
Martyrium Arethae
In the Martyrium, the Aksumite king, referred to as Elesbaas (<Ella-Abe) is said to
receive word of Ysufs persecution of imyars Christians in a letter which Timothy, the
archbishop of Alexandria from 517 to 535, sends to the king. The Martyrium, which quotes this
letter directly, claims that Timothy had been urged by none other than Justin himself to write to
Elesbaas. No other sixth-century source, independently of the Martyrium, makes use of this
letter, a fact which suggests that the anonymous author of the Martyrium had access to certain
documents which other commentators on South Arabian affairs did not. As we will see, this
applies as well to the data on the naval component of the Aksumite invasion, which are likewise
unique to this text. In his letter Timothy writes, on behalf of Justin, of the massacre of all of the
Ethiopians residing in imyar, together with the Roman and Persian Christians, at the hands of
Dounaas (<Dh Nuws, i.e. Ysuf), adding that the Jewish king had, after committing these
atrocities, sent a letter to the Lakhmid king al-Mundhir, calling upon him to follow his lead and
kill the Christians in his own realm.
237
The reference to the death of Roman Christians at the
hands of Dounaas forces squares nicely with Malalas statement that Roman merchants were
being killed in imyar by the Jewish king. Timothy concludes the letter to Elesbaas by urging
him to invade imyar, assuring him that the Romans would for their part send mercenaries from
the Egyptian towns of Coptos and Berenike, recruited from the Nobades of Nubia and the desert-
dwelling Blemmyes, to aid in the war effort.
238
The author of the Martyrium does not explicitly
state that Klb was not already aware of the persecution of Christians in South Arabia; indeed it
is most probable, given the proximity of his country to imyar, that Klb was fully aware of the

237
Martyrium Arethae XVII.1-15.
238
Ibid.: XVII.15-22.

262

persecution before Justin. The Martyrium does, however, view Rome as having been involved
with Aksumite campaign against imyar from the very beginning, the narrative of the campaign
being introduced by Timothys letter.
Nevertheless, the Martyrium keeps Rome somewhat in the background. As a case in
point we may note that Justin does not write to the Aksumite king directly but instead delegates
that task to Timothyeven though the individual called his Piety ( o ) who
addresses Klb in the letter is most likely Justin.
239
It may have been that Justin expected Klb
to respond more readily to a letter sent by a fellow Monophysite like Timothy, all the more so in
that Timothy was the spiritual and administrative head of the church on which Ethiopian
Christians were dependentas they would remain down to the 1950s.
240
Of course Aksum
would have needed little persuasion in going to war with Dounaas, particularly when many
Ethiopians had died as a result of the anti-Christian aggression there. Why, then, did Justin
bother to have a letter sent to Klb in the first place? Indeed, why did Justin take an interest in
South Arabian affairs at all when earlier incidents of anti-Christian violence in imyar had
elicited no response from the Roman emperors of the time? The reference in Timothys letter to
the death of Roman Christiansin addition to Persian and Ethiopian Christiansat the hands of
Dounaas may explain why Justin felt the need for Elesbaas to take action at this point: on this
occasion Roman citizens were being slaughtered and Romes honor had to be salvaged. If Rome
had had little military success in South Arabia in the past,
241
Aksum had proven itself capable of
launching full-scale invasions of the region as far back as the third century and could therefore

239
Beaucamp 2007: 256 (n. 164).
240
The metropolitan bishop of Ethiopia, known locally as abna (our father), was traditionally a Coptic Christian
elected by the patriarch of Alexandria. Such bishops often had little if any knowledge of the language and culture of
their Ethiopian flock. It was not until 1951 that an indigenous Ethiopian was consecrated archbishop of the
Ethiopian church by the Coptic patriarch Ysb II, and it was another eight years before Ysbs successor Krillus
VI consecrated Abna Bslys as the first patriarch of Ethiopia.
241
Witness the Romans failed efforts to conquer South Arabia in 26/5 BCE.

263

be trusted with handling a punitive campaign against Dounaas. It could be that Justin was aware
that war between Aksum and imyar was already imminent, and that he asked Timothy to write
to Elesbaas to reassure him that there was as much sympathy in the Roman Empire for the plight
of South Arabias Christian community as there was in Ethiopia, and that Rome would provide
help in the form of Nubian mercenaries. In this way, even if Justin was unable to commit to an
invasion of imyar, he could still save face abroad and avenge the Roman deaths in imyar by
exploiting Elesbaas desire to make war on Dounaas.
As far as we can tell from the Martyrium, the only powers involved with the war were
Rome, Aksum, and imyar. Of broader geopolitical goals extending beyond the Red Sea to the
Ssnid Empire Timothys letter to Elesbaas says nothing. It indicates Justins awareness of
Dounaas correspondence with the Ssnids and Lakhmids, but does not view this as part of a
broader attempt by the imyarites and Ssnids to unite for the purpose of containing Christian
power in the Near East. Since the letter says nothing of any Ssnid or Lakhmid response to
Dounaas call to arms against the Christians, the Romans may not have even seen the formation
of a imyarite-Ssnid axis as a likely event. To the extent that the Persians are treated at all in
Timothys letter, they appear as Christians targeted by Dounaas along with their Roman and
Ethiopian coreligionists. Thus, even in this instance in which the Martyrium speaks of Roman
interest in, and involvement with, the Aksumite invasion of imyar in 525, there is no hint that
Justin sought to establish a Roman sphere of influence in Arabia with Aksumite help, much less
one that would rival the Ssnids sphere of influence in the eastern part of the peninsula.
Another point worthy of note in the letter of Timothy, as preserved by the Martyrium, is
the reference to the Nobades and Blemmyes, for this indicates an attempt to involve non-
Aksumite Africans with the projected Aksumite invasion of South Arabia. Though for most of

264

the Roman period the term Blemmyes encompassed a large number of semi-nomadic Cushitic-
speaking peoples dwelling in the desert between the Nile Valley and the Red Sea,
242
the
ethnonym came in time to be associated with one such group in particular, the Beja.
243
The Beja
had warred with Aksum during the fourth century, and their name found a place in Aksumite
royal titles among the subjects of Aksum. That these and other pastoral groups known
collectively as Blemmyes ranged as far north as Berenike in the sixth century is supported by
archaeological evidence.
244
As for the Nobades, these were a Nubian-speaking people residing in
the middle Nile Valley, one segment of whom had established a kingdom in Lower Nubia
following the fall of Mero in the mid-fourth century.
245
The Nobades are undoubtedly related to
the Noba whose territory the Aksumites had invaded in the fourth century
246
and, like the Beja,
they were reckoned subjects of Aksum in the titles of Aksumite kings during the fourth century,
and again in the reign of Klb. At most, however, Klb is likely to have held sway only over
the southernmost branch of the Beja. Though the discovery of sixth-century Nubian pottery at
Aksum indicates Ethiopian trade with the middle Nile Valley,
247
it is uncertain whether Klbs
rule ever extended that far, and it could be that the reference to the Noba in his royal title in his

242
Barnard 2005.
243
That the Beja did indeed come to be identified as Blemmyes has been demonstrated on the basis of Coptic and
Arabic documents from Qar Ibrm, in which the ethnonym Blemmyes in the Coptic texts always corresponds to
the Beja ( ) in related passages in Arabic (J. M. Plumley and W. Y. Adams, Qasr Ibrm 1972, JEA, 60, 1974:
238). Further confirmation of the identification of the Blemmyes with the Beja is provided by a fragmentary Coptic
text from aqqra (near modern Cairo) which contains a number of Blemmyan names that have been shown to be
Beja in origin (G. M. Browne, Blemmyes and Beja, The Classical Review 54, 1 (2004): 226-8).
244
The association of the Blemmyes with Berenike may be supported by the presence in late Roman levels at
Berenike of handmade wares belonging to a type of pottery attested throughout the Eastern Desert but not found in
the Nile Valley, with the exception of the area south of Aswana distribution pattern corresponding to that of the
territory occupied by the Blemmyes (Wendrich 1998: 249). Given its Blemmyan population Christianity had little
influence in sixth-century Berenike, and excavations at the site have yet to uncover any trace of the faiths presence
there apart from two oil lamps with possible Christian symbols and a mother-of-pearl cross (ibid.). Furthermore,
while no church has ever been identified at the site, it appears that a pagan shrine remained in use throughout this
period, given that incense burners and offering tables were left behind in the shrine when the site was abandoned by
the end of the sixth century (ibid.).
245
Welsby 2002: 20-2.
246
Kirwan 1982: 195.
247
Phillips 1997: 455; idem. 2003: 440.

265

inscription from Aksum (RIE 191) reflects a political fiction akin to the rule over South Arabia
which Ousanas and zn claimed.
248
Though the Blemmyes and Nobades had raided the
southern frontier of Egypt numerous times during the third and fourth centuries, the Romans
granted both the status of federates in the fifth century,
249
and it was in their capacity as allies of
Rome that Justin, with the archbishop Timothy as his mouthpiece, suggested dispatching them to
the Red Sea as mercenaries for the Aksumite army. If so, the plan appears to have been
abandoned before Klb launched the campaign against imyar, for nothing more is heard of
either the Blemmyes or the Nobades throughout the rest of the Martyrium.
Returning to the narrative of the Maryrium, we find that, in lieu of African mercenaries,
the Roman merchant ships arrive on the scene to join the fleet of sixty vessels already being
gathered in the Red Sea to aid in the Aksumite war effort, and which moors at the Aksumite port
of Gabaza, described as a dependency of Adulis.
250
In addition to Roman ships the Martyrium
speaks of Indian and even Persian ships, and lists the number of ships by their place of origin:
fifteen from Aeila (=Ayla, present-day Aqaba), twenty from Clysma (Qulzum), seven from
Iotabe,
251
two from Berenike (Bandar al-Kabr), seven from Pharsan (the Farasn archipelago),
and nine from India.
252
Nowhere is it stated that the Roman merchant ships were sent by Justin
himself; indeed the Martyrium treats their arrival at Gabaza as a miraculous chance occurrence
which happens to coincide with the Aksumites preparations for the invasion of imyar. That the
vessels are described as merchant ships, not warships built specifically for the purpose of the

248
Cf. Kirwan 1982: 196.
249
Welsby 2002: 18-20.
250
Martyrium Arethae XXIX.7.
251
The location of the island of Iotabe has yet to be established. Based on Procopius statement that the island lay at
least 1000 stades (130 miles) south of Aila, Mayerson (1995: 34) has suggested that Iotabe is to be located
somewhere south of the present-day port of Aqaba, in one of the coves along the northern coast of the ijz. For an
extended discussion of Iotabealbeit without a solution to the problem of the islands locationsee Mayerson
1992.
252
Martyrium Arethae XXIX.2-6.

266

invasion, suggests that no formal planning on the part of Justin went into the Aksumite war
effort. Lacking concrete logistical support from the Romans, Elesbaas simply uses whatever
ships he can find. Moreover, of the places from which the ships at Gabaza originated, only the
first four were under Roman control in the sixth century. Though the Romans are known to have
established a garrison in the Farasn Islands in the second century CE,
253
there is (as yet) no
evidence of a Roman military presence there during the sixth century, and it is more likely that
the Farasn Islands were by this time within the Aksumites sphere of influence. As we saw in
the previous chapter, Ysuf had attacked the Farasn tribe of the Yemeni Tihma in the course
of his campaign of expansion. Since, however, the Red Sea archipelago which took its name
from this tribe was still trading with Aksum during this periodwitness its ships at Gabaza
Ysuf would seem to have had no influence beyond the Tihma coast. That Indian ships were
sailing the Red Sea during this period is supported by the written testimony of sixth-century
pilgrims visiting the Holy Land, who mention the arrival of ships from India at the ports of
Clysma (Qulzum) and Aeila (Ayla) in the northern Red Sea.
254

The reference to Persia is especially intriguing for it indicates that, at the time when,
according to Shahid and Vasiliev, the Aksumites and Romans had supposedly formed an alliance
against the Ssnid Empire, the Ssnids were actively trading with Aksum. A problem,
however, arises in that the Martyrium gives exact numbers for all of the ports or regions whose
ships were represented at Gabaza but fails to mention how many ships came from Persia. Indeed
the total number of foreign ships at Gabaza not counting the Persian vessels is already sixty,
which could mean that the author of the Martyrium either forgot to count the ships from Persia or
else misclassified them when he tallied the ships up, perhaps under the category of ships from

253
Phillips et al. 2004.
254
Vasiliev 1950: 364-5.

267

India. There is no reason to doubt the Martyriums reference to Persia, for we already know from
Cosmas Indicopleustes that both the Ethiopians and the Persians traded with Sindou and Sri
Lanka, and since he says nothing of this leading to competition between the two nations, direct
trade between the Aksumites and Ssnids is not at all unlikely. In fact the discovery of Ssnid
glazed sherds
255
and glass
256
at Aksum and Maar,
257
as well as a green glass bowl of possibly
Mesopotamian origin at Emba Derh
258
supports the argument that Ssnid trade with Aksum,
though not necessary extensive, did exist. Given that Ssnid ships, according to the Martyrium,
continued to sail to Gabaza during Ysufs reign, one cannot but reject the thesis that the
Ssnids were ever swayed by the imyarite kings anti-Aksumite stance, much less supported
imyar at Aksums expense as part of a broader strategy of keeping pro-Roman influence out of
Arabia.
Elesbaas is only too happy to requisition the merchant ships, Roman and non-Roman
alike, for the war effort. Since, however, the merchant ships are still not enough for the purposes
of invading imyar, he spends the winter of the third indiction (i.e., the winter of 524-525)
assembling ten ships of his own, described as Indian ships ( o), at Gabaza, the
port of the trading city of Adulis.
259
In this case the appellation Indian is a bit ambiguous, and
may mean only that the ships in question were of a generic Indian type of craft which
Procopius describes as being sewn together without the use of nails.
260
This method of boat
construction has a long history in the Indian Ocean, including the Horn of Africa, and is still

255
Manzo 2005: 59, 60.
256
Munro-Hay 1989 (b): 209; Phillips 2000: 326-7, 329.
257
Groom 2002: 101.
258
Schmidt et al. 2008: 253.
259
Martyrium Arethae XXIX.9 (tr. Beaucamp 2007: 262).
260
Bell. Pers. I.19.

268

practiced in some regions along the coasts of the Indian Ocean today.
261
But as Beaucamp points
out, some recensions of the Martyrium read not o but o, his own
ships,
262
in which case the question of the Indian associations of such ships does not arise.
Nevertheless, the fact that Mediterranean-type vessels, assembled using nails, are unsuited to
navigation in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean
263
makes it likely that the Aksumite ships were
stitched. What happened to the merchandise borne by these shipsnot to mention the traders
themselvesis not explicitly stated in the Martyrium, though it is likely that the crews were
impressed into impromptu military service for transporting Ethiopian troops to South Arabia.
This may be alluded to in Paragraph 29 of the Martyrium, in which we are told that the number
of the combined forces of the Aksumites and of other nations ( ) was
120,000 men
264
without, however, any indication of the exact ratio of Aksumite to non-
Aksumite troops. Then in Paragraph 31 we find Elesbaas leaving Aksum with 13,000
infantrymen,
265
though it is not clear whether this number is included within the force of 120,000
mentioned earlier or was added to it.
The contingent of Blemmyes and Nobades which Justin promised him having not
materialized, Klb recruits some further 15,000 mercernaries from among the Barbaroi who,
assuming a consistency in sixth-century nomenclature, hailed from the incense-producing region
of northern Somalia which Cosmas Indicipleustes calls Barbaria.
266
This second attempt to
acquire soldiers from beyond the Ethiopian Highlands is, however, also doomed to failure,
though in this case overstretched resources are to blame, the Barbaroi mercenaries which

261
Agius 2008: 161-5.
262
Beaucamp 2007: 262 (n. 177).
263
Christides 2000: 53-4.
264
Martyrium Arethae XXIX.1-2 (tr. Beaucamp 2007: 262).
265
Ibid.
266
Christian Topography II.48.

269

Elesbaas had assembled perishing while crossing the deserts of southern Ethiopia, without ever
making it as far as South Arabia.
267
Undeterred by the loss of his Barbaroi mercenaries, Elesbaas
goes to Aksums cathedral ()perhaps the Gabaz which he claims in RIE 191 to have
foundedon Pentacost, which in 525 would have fallen on May 18.
268

At this point the Aksumite king discards his regal attire for the clothes of commoners and
enters the cathedral, where he prays to God that he might not fail in the military undertaken upon
which he was about to embark, and that his progeny would not fall into the hands of the
unbelievers.
269
In a further demonstration of his piety Elesbaas leaves Aksum with his contingent
of 13,000 infantrymen and goes to the town of Sabi
270
to seek out a holy man for counsel on
matters divine. This man, named Znaios,
271
is described as a Roman from the port of Aeila, a
center of Christianity since the fourth century,
272
but who had been living in Ethiopia for forty-
five years in a cell five cubits in height and only two in width, with neither a window nor door
and only a tiny opening at the base through which the king was able to communicate with the
holy man.
273
Elesbaas offers Znaios seven cakes, each containing ten denarii symbolizing one
of the seventy ships in his fleet, and asks the holy man for benediction, only to be told to desist

267
Martyrium Arethae XXIX.10-17.
268
Beaucamp 2007: 266 (n. 180).
269
Martyrium Arethae XXX.
270
Sabi is probably the Sabai (alternatively Sabat) known from Classical authors. It is mentioned by Ptolemy as the
name of a promontory immediately before the gulf of Adulis. On this toponym, see Desanges 1978: 295-6. The only
other locale with a similar name is the Sab mentioned in later Ethiopian chronicles as one of the places visited by
King ys I (1681-1706). As this is located well to the south of Aksum, in the direction of Gondar (Huntingford
1989: 203, 230), and is unlikely to be connected with the Sabi of the Martyrium. Since the Sabai of Classical sources
was on the way to the Red Sea coast, it would have been a likely stopping place for Klb, if he indeed went there to
visit the monk Znaios.
271
Fiaccadori (2007 (b): 330) identifies him with the Saint analwn known from medieval Ethiopian
hagiographical sources. As these date several centuries after Klbs reign, such an identification must be treated
with great caution.
272
Tomber 2007: 220.
273
Martyrium Arethae XXXI.2-10.

270

from his ruse. Znaios nevertheless gives Elesbaas his sought-after benediction, after which the
king departs with his men for the port of Gabaza.
In Paragraphs 32 to 38 of the Martyrium we are given a detailed description of the
invasion of imyar. Hearing of the Ethiopians approach, Dounaas has the seaward approach to
the Yemeni coast barred by a chain. That such a chain actually existed is supported by
inscriptions from Ysufs reign,
274
though these indicate that he set up a chain well before the
massacre of the Najrn Christians in the autumn of 523. Divine intervention then enters the story
as a storm causes one of the ten ships assembled by Elesbaas to collide with the chain. The other
nine follow suit, causing such waves that the chain eventually breaks; passing through unharmed,
the ten ships reach a coastal position within fifteen miles of the imyarite army, commanded by
Dounaas in person.
275
Dounaas thereupon sends his generals with 30,000 cavalrymen to the place
where the enemy ships had landed.
276
The remaining sixty ships of Elesbaas fleet part ways with
the ten which had passed through the chain and break off into two separate flotillas, such that
within three days time forty arrive within three stages of Dounaas position, while the remaining
twenty ships, one of them carrying Elesbaas himself, push on ahead and reach the spot occupied
by the imyarite army.
277
No names are given to the places reached by the two flotillas of forty
and twenty ships respectively, though it appears that the naval force was divided in order to
provide the Aksumites with a substantial flank on the Red Sea while a striking force of twenty
ships headed by Elesbaas went in pursuit of the divison of imyarite troops commanded by
Dounaas in person.

274
4.2.3.
275
Martyrium Arethae XXXIII.
276
Ibid.: XXXIII.13-15.
277
Ibid.: XXXIV.1-5.

271

Elesbaas and his troops move from their flotilla of twenty ships into small boats, by
which they reach the coast and begin marching inland toward afr, their imyarite enemies
simply falling into submission along the way. A relative of Dounaas whom the Aksumites
capture guides them towards the royal city, where Elesbaas seizes Dounaas queensmore
accurately, one suspects, his concubinesand his supply of silver.
278
Meanwhile the Ethiopian
troops in the flotilla of forty ships begin to feel the pangs of hunger and thirst, with apparently no
access to fresh supplies or even to news of their kings progress. Fearing attack by the
imyarites the troops, the troops pray to God for assistance and then hit upon the idea of
fastening the ships together with their masts, rudders, and other pieces of wood to facilitate
greater contact between them. Having accomplished this they lean the smaller boats against each
other along the coast and in this way construct a makeshift rampart for protection.
279

Like the passage about Znaios, the description of the naval activities mixes fact with
fiction. Regarding the Ethiopians encounter with the chain set up by the imyarites, one
suspects that if the first ten ships of the Aksumite fleet did in fact pass through the chain, they
were able to do so only because the chain had fallen into disrepair and was easily dismembered.
Since we know from South Arabian inscriptions that this chain was already in place c. 522-3, it
may well become weak by the spring of 525 when the Aksumites invaded. In view of the
Martyriums reference to not one but three separate landings by the Aksumites at different places
along the South Arabian coastthe first with ten ships, the second with forty, and the third with
twentythe chain set up by the imyarites can hardly have been a serious impediment to the
Ethiopian invaders in the first place. If the Mandab of South Arabian inscriptions, at which
Ysuf is recorded to have set up his famous chain, can be identified with the area around the Bb

278
Ibid.: XXXV.
279
Ibid.: XXXVI.

272

al-Mandab, perhaps present-day Shaykh Sad, then the ten Aksumite ships which encountered
the chain would have landed at this spot, while the other two landings (by the flotilla of forty
ships and the flotilla of twenty commanded by Elesbaas respectively) would have occurred
elsewhere, perhaps at al-Mukh and/or on Yemens south coast. As for the hungry troops whom
Elesbaas left behind in ships on the Red Sea, the claim that they were able to assemble their
ships into a single floating colossus, with no other purpose than to put together a flimsy rampart
made up of boats along the coast, is hardly credible. Though Elesbaas is likely to have kept a
naval force ready at his flank, the story of troops overcoming their hunger to undertake whatif
truewould have been a logistically wasteful enterprise, belongs to the realm of the legendary.
In the concluding part of the Martyrium, Elesbaas singlehandedly kills Dounaas and
seven of his kinsmen and erects an altar on the site of the battlefield.
280
After that the Aksumite
king goes to afr, puts the people of the royal palace to death, and then within the confines of
the palace grounds builds a church over the following seven days with his own hands. This done,
he sends messages to Justin and the archbishop of Alexandria, informing them of his conquest.
The archbishop promptly appoints a bishop for the imyarites, whom he sends to Elesbaas in
afr. The newly appointed bishop consecrates Elesbaas church, baptizes the locals, and in turn
appoints priests and deacons in every place ( ).
281
The name of this bishop is
not given in either the Martyrium or in any other source on the Aksumite conquest of imyar.
282

As we have seen, John Malalas mentions a paramonarios named John whom the Romans sent
from Alexandria as a bishop following the Aksumite victory over the imyarites. But Malalas
states that this John did not go to South Arabia but instead accompanied the Indian

280
Ibid.: XXXVII.
281
Ibid.: XXXVIII.8-9.
282
Christides 2000: 66.

273

ambassadors back to the court of Andas, i.e. Klb, and thus cannot be identified with the
anonymous bishop of imyar alluded to in the Martyrium. John of Ephesus, as preserved by the
Syriac Chronicle of Zqnn, claims that the bishop appointed for South Arabia died there after a
short while;
283
like all other authors, however, John of Ephesus neglects to mention the name of
this bishop. After the anonymous bishop sets in motion the Christianization of imyar, Elesbaas
journeys to Najrn, where he rebuilds the church destroyed by Dounaas followers and endows it
with five domains sustained by royal wealth and three others derived from the personal wealth of
the family of the martyr Arethas (=al-rith). The church may well be the so-called Kaba
t

Najrn mentioned in Arabic sources.
284
Turning his attention to the affairs of state, Elesbaas
appoints a son of Arethas as governor of Najrn and then places an Ethiopian named Abraam
(=Abreh) on the imyarite throne, leaving behind some ten thousand fellow Ethiopian
Christians with him.
285

In the final, thirty-ninth chapter, Elesbaas returns to Ethiopia and in gratitude to God for
his victory over the imyarite Jews, he gives up his throne and sends his crown to the Patriarch
John III in Jerusalem, who has it hung on the faade of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
Elesbaas thereupon retires to a monastery to spend the rest of his life as a monk, cloistered in a
tiny cell.
286
As we have seen, the author of the Martyrium is mistaken when he speaks of Klbs
appointment of Abreh, when in fact the latter came to power through a coup. In addition there
is a bit of telescoping of the events regarding the end of Klbs reign, most particularly the
kings alleged abdication. We know from Procopiusa sober, classicizing historian with no time
for the holy and the miraculousthat Klb sent two expeditions to South Arabia in an attempt

283
Incerti auctoris Chronicon pseudo-Dionysianum vulgo dictum 1927: 68-9 (Syriac text).
284
Finster 1996: 297.
285
Martyrium Arethae: XXXVIII.11-22.
286
Ibid.: XXXIX.

274

to overthrow the upstart Abreh,
287
which hardly squares with the reference in the Martyrium to
his having given up his throne to become a monk immediately after his return to Ethiopia.
Fiaccadori, who accepts the historicity of Klbs abdication, belives that the Aksumite king
could have sent his crown to Jerusalem either in 523/4 or in 529/30.
288
The date of 523/4 would
indeed suit the Martyriums reference to John III as Patriarch of Jerusalem at the time, the death
of John on April 20, 524 providing a terminus ante quem. Since, however, Klb did not invade
South Arabia until the spring of 525, Johns presence in the Martyrium is clearly anachronistic.
Fiaccadori arrives at the alternative date of 529/30 from the Geez Vita of Abb analwn
(whom he identifies with Znaios), according to which analwn died in that year.
289
This
latter date for Klbs abdication rests on Fiaccadoris belief that Klb spent his last years as a
hermit next to his monastic mentor Znaios.
290
Apart from the obvious hazards of identifying
Znaios with a saint who is not attested in Ethiopian tradition until around the fifteenth
century,
291
the Martyrium says nothing of Znaios acting as a mentor to Klb, and in fact makes
no further reference to Znaios at all after the kings visit to him at Sabi.
292
Even if the scenario
proposed by Fiaccadori were true, 529/30 is quite impossible as a date for Klbs abdication, for
Sumyafa Ashwa, who preceded Abreh on the imyarite throne, was still king of imyar in
531 when he received a Roman embassy. Since Abreh could only have come to power at some
point in time after 531, the two punitive expeditions sent by Klb against Abreh would have
been later still, in which case Klb would still have been a reigning monarch well into the 530s,
and quite likely as late as 540.

287
Bell. Pers. I.xx.3-8.
288
Fiaccadori 2007 (b): 330.
289
Ibid.
290
Ibid.
291
The date of his Vita (Munro-Hay 2001: 46).
292
Even the Ethiopian Synaxarium says only that Klb retreated to the monastery on the mountain of Abb
analwn (dabra Abb analwn) after abdicating, and that he occupied a tiny cell by himself (Le synaxaire
thiopien (ed. Colin) 1997: 302 (Geez text)).

275

Much like the other hagiographical elements in the narrative, such as Klbs visit to the
Roman monk Znaios, it is a moot point whether the abdication of Klb ever took place. The
Ethiopian Synaxarium portrays him as having abdicated, but since this text is based on Near
Eastern Christian sources rather than Aksumite material, it cannot be accepted as providing an
independent Ethiopian testimony to the alleged abdication. This leaves the Martyrium as our sole
sixth-century witness. A more interesting question than whether or not Klb spent the final
years of his life in a monastery is the question of how the image of Klb as a holy man
functions as a rhetorical device. With this in mind we shall now look at some of the
hagiographical elements in the Martyrium which, when taken together, constitute a discourse on
the holiness of Klbs Arabian venture.

5.4.2. The Ideological Background of Klbs Campaign in the Martyrium Arethae
In her study of the Martyrium Arethae, Detoraki draws attention to the role of Biblical
models in the text. These, she argues, are introduced to convey a special sense of purpose to the
narrative as a record of the capture of a holy city (Najrn) by an iniquitous king (Ysuf). Though
similar themes are repeated throughout the Bible in Kings, Chronicles, Lamentations, the books
of Maccabees, Ezekiel, and Daniel, Detoraki regards the stories of the Maccabees and the
Prophet Daniel as having exerted a particular influence on the author of the Martyrium Arethae.
Dounaas of imyar is thus cast in the role of both the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes
(175-164 BCE), known from Maccabees, and the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar (605-562
BCE), while the Najrn Arethas is likened to the Maccabaean priest Mattathias and martyr

276

Eleazar.
293
As for the topos of the capture of a holy city, Detoraki argues that the capture of
Jerusalem by Antiochus army, which slaughtered the citys inhabitants after having given them
false promises of safety, is paralleled in the Martyrium with Dounaas cajoling of the Najrns
with false oaths before putting them to the sword.
294
Then in its account of Dounaas erection of
a cross and his orders to the Najrn Christians to curse it,
295
the Martyrium, according to
Detoraki, plays on an incident in the book of Daniel, in which Nebuchanezzar erects an idol and
commands the peoples of his empire to come and worship it;
296
in both cases, the punishment for
refusing to comply with the kings commands is death.
Of the greatest relevance to the present study, however, is the Martyriums portrayal of
Elesbaas as a just king engaged in a holy war. An explicit Biblical reference is made in the
Martyrium by Timothy, archbishop of Alexandria, who in his letter on behalf of Justin to the
Ethiopian king exhorts him to head an expedition, as Samuel had exhorted David against
Amalek, and to deliver the Homerite unto anathematization (), by sword and
fire.
297
In fact it is Saul, not David, who is sent by Samuel against the Amalekites,
298
the
reference to David being an error which is emended to Saul in one of the Greek recensions of the
Martyrium.
299
Nevertheless, a clear analogy is being made here between Klbs war against
Ysuf and the Israelites war against their Amalekite enemies, the Christians in this case
appropriating from the Jewish imyarites the status of the true Israel. Even if Timothy never
wrote such words to Klb, the Biblical symbolism of the Aksumite invasion was not lost on the
Syriac-speaking Christians of the Roman Near East, for it also pervades the Book of the

293
Detoraki 2007: 64-72.
294
I Maccabees 1:29-30; Martyrium Arethae 3.16-17, 5.11-14.
295
Martyrium Arethae 6.1-7.
296
Daniel 3:18.
297
Martyrium Arethae 28.12-14 (tr. Beaucamp 2007: 260).
298
I Samuel 15:1-3.
299
Beaucamp 2007: 260 (n. 174).

277

imyarites. That the author of the Martyrium errs in imputing to the archbishop a reference to
David rather than to Saul may not be as much a careless error as perhaps an intentional re-
working of the Biblical narrative for a rhetorical end, for the allusion to the glory of David
(kbra Dwt) in the Geez inscription from Mrib and the quotations from the Psalms in that
inscription hints at a Davidic cast to the discourse of Aksumite warfare.
300

Yet it is not just Biblical allusions which give the Aksumite invasion of imyar the feel
of a holy war, for the motif of Christian asceticism also plays a role. Thus the motif of the monk
Znaios is introduced to the narrative to enhance the holiness of Klbs endeavor. Detoraki
compares Klbs encounter with the monk, immediately before the invasion of imyar, with
those of late Roman rulers who sought out the blessings of holy men. Theodosius I (378-392),
for example, is said to have achieved victory at the battle of Frigidus in September 394 thanks to
the prayers of the monk John of Lycopolis, while Justinian and Theodora received the blessings
of the Cappadocian monk Saint Sabas for the prosperity of their empire.
301
That the Martyrium
should conclude with Klbs renunciation of the throne to spend the rest of his days as a monk
is a testimony to the importance of asceticism as a context within which to frame the Aksumites
holy war against imyar, a war which begins with a visit to a monk and ends with a king
becoming a monk. Whether or not one believes that Klb really did become a monk is less
important than the fact that, for the author of the Martyrium, the Aksumite invasion of imyar
was infused with holiness.
Though the ideological clearly trumps the historical in the Martyriums portrayal of the
end of Klbs reign, this portion of the text is not totally without factual basis. Questions of

300
7.4.1.2.
301
Detoraki 2007: 75.

278

Klbs abdication aside, it was something of a custom in the sixth century for rulers to send
diadems and crowns to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, as an anonymous pilgrim who visited
Jerusalem around 570 notes that when he visited the church he saw crowns suspended around the
tomb of Jesus.
302
Thus, by sending his crown to Jerusalem, Klb may have been seeking to
emulate this practicea practice, moreover, which was later followed by the Roman emperor
Heraclius (610-641).
303
As the pious acts of a king who commanded the southern frontier of the
Christian world, Klbs war against a non-Christian enemy in Arabia and his subsequent
offering of his crown to Jerusalem provided particularly fertile ground for the apocalyptic
literature produced by Near Eastern Christians living under Islamic rule. Thus the so-called
Edessene Apocalypse, an anonymous Monophysite text in Syriac dating from around 691/2,
304

speaks of a future Greek (i.e. Byzantine) king who surrenders his crown at Jerusalem, which is
taken up to heaven by the archangel Gabriel. Though the text assigns a special status to Jovian
(363-364), the emperor who restored Christianity as the Roman Empires favored religion
following the reign of the neo-pagan Julian the Apostate (355-363), the central character is the
Greek king, who will defeat the Muslim Ishmaelites in Bayblon, and who is said as well to be
a descendant of an Ethiopian princess named Kshyat.
Afterwards the King of the Greeks will come to Jerusalem and will go up to
Golgotha, where our Savior was crucified, in his hand the Lords Cross. That
Greek will be from the progeny of Kshyat, the daughter of Kshyat, by the King
of the Ethiop[ians], who are called Nub[ians].
305
When he goes up with the Cross
in his hand and the Crown that came down from heaven upon the head of Jovian,
the previous king [of this status], passed on to the top of the Lords Cross, and
he
306
raised the Cross and the Crown heavenwards. And the archangel Gabriel
will come down and take the Cross and the Crown and will lift them up to heaven.

302
Beaucamp 2007: 284 (n. 221).
303
Detoraki 2007: 77 (n. 178).
304
Hoyland 1997: 268.
305
This confusion of African peoples is not without parallel in Islamic sources, which occasionally confuse
Nubian (Nb) and Ethiopian (abash). See for example Ibn Askir 1996: XLI: 270.
306
I.e. Jovian.

279

Then the king will die, as well as all people on earth and every living creature and
beast. And no living thing will remain, not [even] that light which God created for
the sons of Adam the sinner, the light [which] was created for their sake.
(W-btarken nt malk d-Yawny l-rlem w-sleq l-Glgt ayk d-ezdqef
prqan w-b-deh lb mrny. W-h malk Yawny nehw men zarh d-
Kyat bat Kyat men malk d-K w-hennn metqrn Nb. W-kad sleq wa-
lb b-deh wa-bar tg da-net men mayy al reh d-Ynns malk
qadmy al r lb mrny wa-nrayem lb w-tg la-mayy. Wa-net
Gabryel r malak w-nseb lb w-tg w-maseq l-hn la-mayy. W-haydn
nmt malk w-kll bar-n d-t al ar w-kllh ayyt wa-br. W-l np
meddem ayy w-haw nhr da-br Alh la-Bnay dm ay melthn
etbr nhr.)
307

The fictitious genealogical tie between the Byzantines and Ethiopians is again mentioned in a
contemporary Syriac text, also of Monophysite origin, known as the Apocalypse of Pesudo-
Methodius, wherein we are told of a king descended from the Ethiopian princess Kshyat and the
Byzantines eponymous ancestor Bz, who will rise up and liberate the Christians from Muslim
rule.
308
For now it suffices to consider the Edessene Apocalypse as a text which, through a
contrived genealogy, seeks to reclaim for the Byzantine heirs of the Romans a bit of the special
status occupied by Aksum in the sixth century, when it defended Christianity against a Jewish
enemy based in Arabia, much as the Byzantines a century later sought to defend Christianity
against a Muslim foe that also originated in Arabia. Even though the author of the Martyrium
Arethae is concerned with the martyrs of Najrn rather than with Aksum as such, it is in part
through his efforts that a salvation history of the Aksumite invasion of imyar came to circulate
throughout the Christian communities of the Near East in late antiquity and the early Middle
Ages.

307
Edessene Apocalypse 1917: 432-3 (Syriac text).
308
7.5.

280

5.4.3. The Logistics of Klbs Campaign
Before leaving the Martyrium it is worth considering it from a rather different angle, as a
source for figures for the size of Klbs army and his naval force. If we knew the author of this
work we might have a better idea of how he came by this data, which is not given in other
sources. Though we cannot cross-reference the statistics given in the Martyrium with
contemporary sources, we can make a case for their reliability by comparing them with what we
know about the Ethiopian army in later centuries. Before doing so, a closer look at the sources of
Klbs naval force is in order. This is one case in which the hand of Rome can indeed be seen,
and those who would argue that Klbs invasion of imyar marks a further step towards the
establishment of a Roman sphere of influence in South Arabia, this is a significant bit of
evidence. But there are other ways of interpreting it.
As we have seen, some sixty ships were sent to Ethiopia from various parts of the Red
Sea, in addition to the ten ships which Klb had built. Assuming the Martyrium is correct, the
number of non-Roman ships in Klbs fleet includes the seven from the Farasn Islands, the
nine sent from the India along the Red Sea coast south of Roman Egypt, and the ten assembled
at Klbs orders at some unnamed place on the Red Sea coast, perhaps Gabaza. This brings us
to twenty-six non-Roman ships (from the Farasn archipelago, India, and Ethiopia itself)
compared to the forty-four from ports under Roman control (from Aeila, Clysma, Iotabe, and
Berenike). Thus, while three-quarters of the ships in Klbs fleet were acquired from the
Romans, the contributions of ships from non-Roman sources in the Red Sea were by no means
insignificant. To this it should be added that the Roman craft are said to have been merchant
ships, not warships built for the purpose of the Aksumite invasion of imyar. Indeed the
Martyrium states that it was not Justin but Klb who built ships for a specifically military

281

purpose. To be sure, Roman merchant ships would undoubtedly have sufficed as substitutes for
warships, particularly since Red Sea traders were in the habit of sailing with an armed guard
during the Roman period.
309
Even so, if the southern Red Sea had the strategic importance for
Justin that the Mesoptamian frontier did, one would have expected him instead to have had a
permanent military fleet on hand, when in fact we have no evidence for anything of the sort.
Indeed there is no evidence that warships were anchored permanently in the Red Sea until the
fifteenth century, and even then only in small numbers.
310

The Martyrium says nothing about Roman troops participating in the Aksumite invasion
of imyar and, while the crews of the merchant vessels that had anchored at Gabaza may well
have helped transport Ethiopian troops across the Red Sea, it would appear that the Roman
military played no direct role in the invasion. A possible exception could be the armed guards
who might have come to Gabaza in the merchant ships, and who may be subsumed under the
category of troops from other nations who were recruited by Klb for his South Arabian
campaign. The only reference in the Martyrium to the dispatch of troops to Ethiopia by the
Romans for the specific purpose of this campaign speaks of the use of the Nobades and
Blemmyes as mercenariesan idea which never seems to have been realized. Even if, for the
sake of argument, Justin had sent a sizeable armed force in ships to aid Klb in his invasion of
imyar, this need not indicate a Roman attempt to establish a client state in South Arabia with
Aksumite help any more than the dispatch of 35,000 Roman troops by the emperor Maurice to
help Khusraw II regain the throne in 591 indicates a Roman attempt to turn the Ssnid Empire
into a client state.

309
Sidebotham 1986: 70.
310
Christides 2000: 59.

282

Though the Martyrium provides no incontrovertible evidence that Justin sent any military
aid to Klb for the specific purpose of fighting imyar, much less on as grand a scale as that
which Maurice gave to Khusraw II, the text does provide us with some statistics on the Aksumite
force. The size of Klbs army, reckoned by the Martyrium at at least 120,000 men, raises the
hitherto unexamined question of the military potential of the Ethiopian Highlands during late
antiquity. The figure of 120,000 is a bit ambiguous, however, since the Martyrium does not tell
us how many of these troops were from other nations, and is it not clear whether by other
nations the Martyrium means the armed guards who may have come in foreign ships or the
troops supplied by those subjects of Klb who lived beyond the Aksumite heartland and were
ethnically and linguistically distinct from it; perhaps both groups took part. Nor, as noted above,
is it clear whether the 13,000 men who accompanied Klb personally were included within the
force of 120,000. All the same we are fortunate that the Martyrium furnishes us with such figures
at all, particularly when all other sixth-century records of the Aksumite invasion fail to do so.
Moreover, when considered in light of historical and archaeological evidence drawn from
other quarters, these statistics take on greater significance. In looking for analogous cases of
mountainous regions providing significant reservoirs of fighting power, one example that comes
to mind is Armenia, whose troops played an integral role in the wars waged by the Roman
emperor Heraclius (610-641), quite apart from the number of Armenians who held high military
commands at that time.
311
We lack similar documentation of military affairs in sixth-century
Ethiopia, but when compared with the data on the Ethiopian military drawn from nineteenth-
century European travelers accounts, the statistics on Klbs army given by the Martyrium are
given greater credence. From these accounts we learn that, while Ethiopian kings were able to

311
Haldon 1990: 216, 219-20; Kaegi 2003: 313.

283

put in the field a maximum of 40,000 men in the 1840s, the expansion of the kingdom over the
following decades swelled the fighting power to at least 130,000.
312
The Emperor Menlek II
(1889-1913) was capable of mustering 34,000 men at short order and with only a short delay in
times of crisis up to 100,000, plus an additional 96,000 soldiers as garrison troops.
313
The size of
Klbs army given in the Martyrium is thus well within the range of Ethiopias military
potential, particularly if some elements within this army were conscripted foreigners. Though the
military technology available to nineteenth-century Ethiopianssuch as the riflewas
obviously different from that available to the Aksumites,
314
the demographic foundations of
nineteenth-century Ethiopia rested on the same plough agriculture which sustained Aksumite
Ethiopia. Our comparison of sixth-century with nineteenth-century statistics is therefore valid.
Thus, despite its many hagiographical elements, the Martyrium Arethae is not without interest as
a source for Aksumite military history.

5.5. The Bios of Saint Gregentios
As the final text with which we shall deal in our study of the Greek sources for the
Aksumite invasion we will look at the Bios of Saint Gregentios, a work which, while similar to
the Martyrium Arethae in many ways, belongs in a class of its own. The anonymous Bios of
belongs to a four-part dossier purporting to document the life and work of a Christian priest
named Gregentios who was appointed bishop of afr by the patriarch of Alexandria. In this
capacity Gregentios is said to have gone to imyar just as it was conquered by the Aksumites,

312
Darkwah 1975: 180-1.
313
Marcus 1975: 66.
314
Even such differences as these may not have been that important, for during Menleks reign only the palace
soldiers were armed with rifles in times of war (Marcus, loc. cit.). The spears and swords wielded by the rank and
file of nineteenth-century Ethiopian armies could hardly have been far removed from Aksumite weaponry.

284

and to have accompanied Klb (called Elasboam in the text) on his tour of victory throughout
the country, appointing priests along the way for the local Christian communities. He stays on in
the country and is even said to officiate at the coronation of Klbs erstwhile general Abreh.
The most important manuscript of the Bios is one from Sinai, dated c. 1150 (Cod. Sinait. Graec.
437); another important source is a fourteenth-century manuscript from Jerusalem (Cod. Jerusal.
Graec., Stavrou 5).
315
The other texts in this corpus are: 1) Gregentios Dialexis (a defense of
Christianity against Judaism, couched as a theological dispute between Gregentios and a Jew
named Herban); 2) the Nomoi (a book of laws allegedly drawn up by Gregentios for the
Christians of Najrn); and 3) another anti-Jewish polemic entitled Against Unleavened Bread
(K ).
316
In the Bios, the text with which we are concerned in the present study, Klb
receives rather less attention than Gregentios himself. The Aksumite king is said to have simply
invaded imyar, Christianized the country, and then departed to leave Gregentios to look after
the local Christians while he himself returns to Ethiopia and becomes a monk. For the purposes
of this study we will deal only with those parts of the text which have a direct bearing on Klb.
After the Martyrium Arethae, the Bios is the most detailed Greek source on the Aksumite
invasion, but the areas of interest for its author are different. In contrast to the Martyrium, the
Bios lays far more emphasis on Klbs Christianization of South Arabia than on the military
aspects of the Aksumite invasion. The actual invasion of imyar is thus treated in the Bios in a
single paragraph in which we are told simply that Klb slaughtered Dounaas (=Ysuf) and his
family, seized the kingdom of imyar, and captured afr by storm.
317
Such events described in
the Martyrium as Klbs preparations for the invasion, the crossing of the Red Sea by ships, and

315
Christides 2000: 64-5.
316
Christides 1972: 115; idem. 2000: 64.
317
Bios 9.20-8 (tr. Berger 2006: 385).

285

the incident with the chain of Mandab, are absent in the Bios. On the other hand, the Martyrium
speaks in vague terms about the baptism of the imyarites and the appointment of priests and
deacons throughout their country, while of the places at which Klb established (or rebuilt)
churches it mentions only Najrn and afr by name. For this period of Klbs sojourn in South
Arabia the information given in the Bios is far more abundant, for in the books ninth chapter we
are provided with an actual list of the names of the sites of Klbs churches, as well as of
several of the places at which the Aksumite king stationed troops.
According to the Bios, Gregentios was ordained by the archbishop of Alexandria and
travelled to Ethiopia, whence he crossed the Red Sea to imyar.
318
Given the lack in other
sources of a list of towns at which Klb built churches and stationed troops, one seeking to map
out Klbs program of Christianization in South Arabia is tempted to give particular weight to
the Bios, as some scholars indeed have.
319
Since it is only through a thorough analysis that one
can judge the authenticity of the Bios as a source for Ethiopian rule in South Arabia, the relevant
passage will be quoted in full. In the ninth chapter of the Bios we are told that, after Klb
captured afr,
He destroyed the Jewish sanctuaries of the surrounding towns and the idol
temples of the remaining nations, and built churches in the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ. In the town of Negra (=Najrn) he also built a very beautiful church
in the name of the holy and life-giving Resurrection at a place called Nephoth. He
also constructed another church in the name of the most holy Mother of God at
Tademeros (?) and he built another one in the name of the holy martyrs and the
glorious Arethas close to his house, at a place which had been a most wonderful
garden before. Similarly he constructed the great church in Tephar (=afr) in the
name of the Holy Trinity close to the palace, where the bloodthirsty king of the
Hebrews had dwelt, and another in Dana, a main street which was so called, in the
name of our holy Lady and Mother of God Maria, and another one at the western
gate of the city in the name of the holy Apostles. He constructed three churches in

318
Ibid.: 9.138-42 (tr. Berger 2006: 393).
319
Fiaccadori 2006; Shahid 1979. Christides (2000: 67-8) goes so far as to state that [i]t is quite plausible that the
narrative, originally written in Yemen, was reshaped and expanded in Sicily!

286

the town of Akana, one of the Savior in the name of his Ascension, one of the
prophet John, the Baptist and Precursor, and another church in the name of the
holy apostle Thomas. In the town of Atarph, in Legmia, Azaki, and Iouze and in
the other towns he scattered his armies, and pressing the local people into service
he erected holy churches everywhere, making his grand men the overseers of
these works.
320

( Io oo
o o Io
Xo. N
ooo A o N.
o oo o
To A
o oo o o oo o o o o
. E T o
To o o
oo E o
ooo o oo M
Ao. K
A o o o
A o oo Io o o oo
o o o oo . E A
A Io
o o oo o
o o
o.)
321

To summarize the passage quoted above, Klbs activities in imyar following his overthrow of
the old regime were marked by: 1) the construction of churches at Negra (=Najrn), Nephoth,
Tademeros (?), Taphar (=afr), and Akana; and 2) the stationing of troops in other towns,
among them Atarph, Legmia, Azaki, and Iouze. It is not clear in the text whether these latter
towns were also endowed with churches, though such a scenario is implied by the statement that
Klb pressed the locals everywhere to build churches.
Much though we might wish to treat this information in the Bios as primary material for
the Aksumite Christianization of South Arabia, our desire to do so is offset by the fact that the
reading of several of these names is extremely dubious, and in some cases it is not certain

320
Bios 9.144-60 (tr. Berger 2006: 395).
321
Ibid. (tr. Berger 2006: 394).

287

whether they refer to towns, areas within towns, or entire regions. Of Gregentios brief stay in
Ethiopia, the Bios says only that he rested a short while in Amlem, called simply a residential
town of the Ethiopians ( A), where he took some necessary things by order of
the Ethiopian king.
322
Following a long outdated article on Aksumite coins from the nineteenth
century,
323
Christides claims that Amlem is a Greek transliteration of the Ethiopian name aln,
attested in Aksumite inscriptions, and is to be identified with the ivory market of Kolo.
324
In
fact, aln is not a toponym but the name of a clan with which zn claims affiliation, whose
Greek equivalent, at least in zns inscriptions and on his coins, is AENE, as opposed to the
(alternatively ) mentioned in the Bios. There is no evidence of a connection
between this clan and the town of Kolo, which has yet to be identified archaeologically,
325
and
indeed it is unlikely this relatively obscure town would have been mentioned by name in the Bios
when this text is totally silent on both Aksum and Adulis.
326
As for the South Arabian toponyms
mentioned in the Bios, Nephoth has resisted identification
327
and Fiaccadoris interpretation of
Tademeros as a name for a Palmyrene quarter (based on analogy with the name Tadmur) is both
speculative and anachronistic.
328
It could be that Tademeros is not a true toponym at all but an

322
Ibid.: 9.139-40 (tr. Berger 2006: 393).
323
W. F. Prideaux, The Coins of the Axumite Dynasty, Numismatic Chronicle 4 (1884): 210.
324
Christides 1972: 121; idem. 2000: 71.
325
Since the nineteenth century, Kolo has typically been located on the Qayt plateau in northern Eritrea, where
evidence of Aksumite settlement has come to light (Casson 1989: 106), though this material is not indicative of a
trading town and is too lateto be identified with Kolo, which is attested in Graeco-Roman sources as early as the
first century CE (Eigner 2004: 126-7). Alternative attempts to identify Kolo with Maar in Eritrea (Munro-Hay
1991 (b): 47) have more to commend them in that occupation of that site extends back to Pre-Aksumite times, but
falter on geographical grounds (Eigner 2004: 126).
326
Unless of course one takes Amlem to be a seriously mangled writing of Aksum, a speculative hypothesis which
even Christides does not entertain.
327
Fiaccadori 2006: 53.
328
Ibid.: 53-4. Though Palmyra was in direct contact with South Arabia as late as the third century (ibid.: 54 (n.
30)), there is no evidence that such relations left a mark on local toponomastics, as Fiaccadoris theory implies.
Fiaccadori himself admits that it is unclear whether we should interpret Tademeros as a toponym, and notes that
other possible readings include o T and (in the property of (Ta)demeros) as well as
o o o (in the parts/neighborhood of the stadion). Despite Fiaccadoris suggestion that stadion in the
Najrn context refers to a market-place, a more logical explanation is that this is a reference to the race-course at
Constantinople which has been grafted onto an Arabian locale.

288

epithet, particularly given its resemblance the Syriac tedmrt, meaning miracle, marvel, or
wonder.
329
Furthermore, since this passage is a later embellishment of the Martyrium
Arethaes more succinct account of Klbs program of church construction, the historical value
of this already problematic material is reduced. The extent to which one can accept its testimony
as an accurate description of Klbs construction works is dependent in part on how far the
place-names it mentions can be identified with real South Arabian toponyms. Since Nephoth and
Tademeros do not suggest anything of the sort, what, then, of the other place-names?
If the the identification of Negra with Najrn poses no difficulties and the Greek T
can be explained as being derived from the Aramaic transcription of afr (Sabaic FR>Syriac
aypar), attested also in the Martyrium, the other toponyms are a bit more ambiguous, a situation
which is not helped by the possibility of textual corruption. One of the names, Dana, glossed in
the text as a main street, is explained by Shahid as a corruption of the name Raydn,
330
by
Mller as a reference to Wd Adhana, the watercourse blocked by the Mrib Dam,
331
and by
Fiaccadori as a loanword from the Arabic maydn (square).
332
Of these proposed etymologies,
Mllers implies the least amount of orthographic corruption (Adhana>Dana, as opposed to
Shahids Raydn>Dana or Fiaccadoris maydn>Dana), particularly when the wd is also
known by the name Dhana and Danah. Mllers identification of Dana with Wd Adhana has an
added advantage in that Adhana is an old name, one which is given by al-Hamdn as the name
of the wd that runs past Mrib
333
and is attested even earlier in South Arabian inscriptions as
DNT.
334
One could further cite the Geez inscription at Mrib, probably dating from Klbs

329
I owe this suggestion to Peter Brown.
330
Shahid 1979: 46.
331
Mller 1974: 188.
332
Fiaccadori 2006: 54-5.
333
Al-Hamdn 1974: 149-50.
334
Mller 1974: 188.

289

time, as evidence of Ethiopian activity at Mrib of the sort implied by the Bios.
335
Though
Mllers identification of Dana with Mrib is the most convincing of those yet offered by
scholars, it too is not without its problems. In particular, if the Bios records the construction of a
church at Mrib by Klb, it is odd that it gives the name of not the town itself but rather a local
wd, especially given that Dana is not regarded as a wd at all but a street within an unnamed
town.
336
One may doubt, therefore, whether Dana has any connection at all with Wd Adhana,
and hence with the town of Mrib. As for Akana, where Klb is said to have built no fewer than
three churches, this may well be Qni, in which case the of the Bios would be a
corruption of the K or K of classical geographers.
337
The discovery of Aksumite coins
and pottery at Qnimuch of the latter dating from the sixth centuryindicates Aksumite
activity there during this period. It is unknown, however, whether the synagogue at Qni was
converted into a church by Klb, and thus constitutes one of the three churches located at Akana
according to the Bios.
Next we come to Atarph, Legmia, Azaki, and Iouze, the towns at which Klb is said to
have stationed troops. Here Fiaccadori sees evidence of the transliteration of Arabic and South
Arabian place-names about which no one in tenth-century Constantinople is likely to have
known, but which, he claims, may have been transmitted via Greek Orthodox circles in Palestine
and Sinai.
338
The reliance of Byzantine historians on Arabic works has been noted by scholars in
other contexts,
339
and such a scenario is certainly conceivable in the case of the dossier of

335
See below.
336
Unless of course one conceives of a wd as a route, though this is a bit of a stretch semantically.
337
Fiaccadori 2006: 55-6. Christides suggestion that Akana is derived from the name an (al-
an=*ACCANA>*AICANA>*AKANA) (Christides 1972: 122) is without basis, not least because an never
takes a definite article.
338
Fiaccadori 2006: 48, 81-2.
339
L. I. Conrad, Theophanes and the Arabic Historical Tradition: Some Indications of Intercultural Transmission,
Byzantinische Forschungen 15 (1990): 1-44.

290

Gregentios. Fiaccadori goes so far as to suggest that dependence on Arabic material helped
safeguard at least part of the Arabian part of the Bios from the arbitrariness of further
elaborations and that those portions of the text thus preserved definitely hark back to local
sixth-century material.
340
We will examine his analysis of the toponymic material to see how
authentic it really is.
Fiaccadori follows Shahid in his identification of Atarph (A) with ufr, a
hypothesis which Fiaccadori feels is strengthened by the alternative transcription A.
341

The grounds on which Fiaccadori locates this ufr in the aramawt just east of Qni are
weakened by the fact that the only known ufr is the name of a region much further east in
Oman, far beyond the range of the Aksumite army. While this region is known in South Arabian
inscriptions as Sakal
an
,
342
the antiquity of the name ufr is dubious. The town of al-Bald,
known in the Middle Ages as afr,
343
is a suggestive alternative, particularly given the
archaeological evidence for the existence of al-Balds satellite town, Shisr, by the end of the
fifth century;
344
but since this town is itself located in the region of ufr it too can be excluded
as a candidate for the Atarph of the Bios. If one accepts Fiaccadoris hypothesis of a reliance on
Arabic material one might explain A differently as a corruption of araf, meaning edge,
a word which survives in several Yemeni place-names. Among these are Jabal araf al-ayd,
located in southwestern Yemen (lat. 13 37' 60 N; long. 46 42' 0) not far from Qni, which fits
nicely with Fiaccadoris identification of Akana with Qni, together with a town called al-araf

340
Fiaccadori 2006: 48.
341
Ibid.: 56.
342
See below.
343
Ibn Baa 1938: 208-9. This name is not, of course, to be confused with that of the much older capital of the
kingdom of imyar.
344
Zarins 2007: 319.

291

which al-Hamdn locates in the district of Aqyn.
345
Al-Hamdn does not give further details
for this toponym, though he notes some pre-Islamic ruins (thr jhiliyya) at a town called z
in the same region.
346
However, looking for Arabic etymologies in this way presumes that the
author of the Bios relied on Arabic-speaking informants who had somehow acquired an accurate
knowledge of the towns associated with Klbs campaign, when in fact a much simpler and less
speculative explanation for A/A is offered by Christides, who suggests that it is
nothing more than an alternative writing of afr.
347
It is easy to conceive of Klb leaving
troops behind in one of the towns at which he built a church, particularly when that town
happened to be the former imyarite capital, and since the author of the Bios had no direct
knowledge of South Arabian geography a bit of inconsistency on his part in the transcription of
place-names is to be expected.
The other towns at which Klb stationed his troops are even less easily identified than
Atarph. Though Legmia does have a certain similarity with Laj, referred to in South Arabian
inscriptions as LG
m
(vocalized Lag
um
),
348
Fiaccadoris attempts to derive Azaki () from
Aden via a misreading of the Arabic as , or else from Uzl (the old name of an) via
>
349
are too speculative to accept, particularly when his argument for an Arabic
intermediary is far from proven. His suggestion that Iouze (o) may be a corruption of Mo
(al-Mukh, though identified by Fiaccadori with Mawza), is similarly based on a rather
imaginative theory of a series of scribal errors (MOYZH>IOYZH>IOYZH)
350
for which no
evidence from the extant manuscripts of the Bios is presented. There is yet another place-name

345
Al-Hamdn 1974: 234.
346
Ibid.
347
Christides 1972: 122.
348
Fiaccadori 2006: 56-7.
349
Ibid.: 57.
350
Ibid.: 57-8.

292

which Fiaccadori identifies on the basis of a supposed Arabic etymology, though in this case it is
given to a topographical feature rather than a town. Speaking of the passage in which Gregentios
is said to have crossed the Sea of Saba (i.e., the Red Sea) to a cave on the Arabian side called
Mdekion (Mo),
351
Fiaccadori notes a certain similarity to the Arabic maq, meaning
strait, leading him to identify this Mdekion with the Bb al-Mandab.
352
But the fact that
Mdekion is referred to in the text as a cave rather than a gap between two landmasses weakens
this etymology,
353
particularly when other manuscripts give Daikkeon () as an
alternative name for this cave.
There is no doubt that traditions of Ethiopian rule in imyar were preserved by Arabic-
speaking Christians, though such traditions vary considerably in quality, and it cannot be
assumed that they preserved memory of any of the towns associated with Ethiopian rule, apart
from such big names as Najrn, an, and afr. As we will see, the Geez Kbra Nagat may
rely in part on Christian Arabic sources, but betrays only the vaguest idea about the Aksumite
conquest of South Arabia. As an extreme case of how unreliable Christian Arabic sources can be
on Arabian Christianity, one need only consider the Taqwm al-Kanis al-Nasriyya. An
anonymous Nestorian text in Arabic dating from around 1700 but drawing in parts on earlier
material, it says nothing of Ethiopian rule at all in its section on Arabia, even as it makes the
spurious claim that a community of some 4,300 Nestorian families resided at Yathrib (=Madna)
in the ijz as late as 1240, six centuries after the disappearance of the towns non-Muslim
population!
354
Apart from the questionable reliability of much of medieval Christian Arabic

351
Bios 9.141-2 (tr. Berger 2006: 393).
352
Fiaccadori 2006: 50.
353
Fiaccadoris attempt to explain o (cave, inner chamber, closet) as a gloss conveying the sense of a
narrow place (loc. cit.: 51) is unconvincing.
354
Taqwm al-Kanis 1909: 8 (Arabic text). On the date of this problematic work, see P. Aziz (ibid.: 4 (French
introduction)).

293

tradition as source for the history of pre-Islamic Arabian Christianity, the very toponyms which
Fiaccadori claims could be derived only from Arabic-speaking informants seem, upon closer
scrutiny, to be quite dubious. Several of the textual emendations which Fiaccadori suggests
presuppose an Arabic Vorlage, when in fact there is no reason to assume that the Greek-speaking
author of the Bios had access toor even neededsuch sources when the Greek Martyrium
Arethae would have already been available. Even if the author of the Bios was in contact with
Arabic-speaking Christians, this in itself does not prove that any of the information about South
Arabia which he might have heard from them was accurate.
Whether further attempts to identify the places associated by the Bios with Klbs
campaign are even justified is contingent on whether or not the text can be treated as a reliable
source. Here too there we are on shaky ground. If the absence of Gregentios in sixth-century
sources on South Arabia causes us to question whether such an individual, at least as bishop of
afr, even existed, our doubts about the authenticity of the Bios are raised further by the
numerous chronological discrepancies in the text. Thus, while the Bios takes it for granted that
Gregentios was appointed bishop of afr following Klbs invasion of imyar in 525, it
claims in its first chapter that Gregentios came from Lyplianes in the land of the Avars
(Ljubljana in present-day Slovenia),
355
even when the Avars did not invade the Balkans until
580
356
an unlikely error for a sixth-century author to make. Nor is this the least egregious of the
Bios anachronisms, for in other parts of the text we find Gregentios venerating icons in Rome
which are not attested before the eighth century.
357
Elsewhere, the church of St. Peter which he
visits while in Rome is described as being located within the city walls, though this was not the

355
Bios 1.31-3 (tr. Berger 2006: 191).
356
Berger in Bios 2006: 8.
357
Ibid.

294

case until the mid-ninth century.
358
Similarly the Nomoi, which purport to be the code of laws
drawn up by Gregentios for Najrn, contain few direct references to South Arabia,
359
and such
descriptions of the city of Najrn that survive in the Nomoi are based on the layout of early
medieval Constantinople.
360
To the extent that the Nomoi can be cross-referenced with external
sources at all, they most closely parallel the legal traditions of eight- and ninth-century
Byzantium.
361
In the most recent synthesis of the evidence for the date of the dossier of
Gregentios, Berger argues that the entire dossier is the product of a mid-tenth-century
Constantinoplitan milieu.
362
We can even go further than this in concluding that only insofar as it
is based on the Martyrium Arethae can the Bios be said to have an authentic kernel at all, and
that any new information it brings is limited to embellishments of the Martyriums account with
material whose sixth-century origins cannot be verified.
363

We end our discussion of the Bios of Saint Gregentios on a pessimistic note, with an
admission of our inability to extract any useful data from the text. It is true that the Bios provides
many details on Klbs Christianization of imyar which are not contained in the Martyrium,
most notably place-names. Yet it is these very place-names which are medieval innovations and
cannot be traced to any demonstrably sixth-century source. Only by recycling certain thematic
elements from the Martyriumsuch as Klbs journey through South Arabia, building churches
and appointing priests as he goesdoes the Bios have any historical basis at all. Contrary to the
assertions of Fiaccadori, the author of the Bios is in fact quite ill-informed about South Arabian

358
Ibid.
359
Ibid.: 85.
360
Ibid.: 88-9.
361
Ibid.: 86-7.
362
Ibid.: 43-4. The disconnection, in both time and space, of the Bios and the other documents in the Gregentios
dossier from the sixth century was not helped by the re-editing of the documents by later copyists, as a result of
which Gregentios is in one case described as a bishop of Ethiopia, while in another he is called a bishop of Libya!
(Christides 2000: 65-6).
363
See for example Deoraki 2007: 55.

295

topography. The only place-names he cites which can be irrefutably identified with real towns in
South Arabia are Negra (Najrn) and Taphar (afr), both of which, significantly, are the only
two towns at which Klb is reported by the Martyrium to have founded churches. If the
similarities of Akana to Qni and Legmia to Lag
um
are suggestive, they do no more than raise
possibilities. Even if it could be proven that the anonymous author of the Bios relied on second-
hand Arabic information for some of the South Arabian place-names, this in itself is no
guarantee that such data is accurate. Moreover, the fact that the place-names are so severely
corrupt demonstrates not only that the author of our text had no idea what he was writing about,
but also that no usable data for the history of Klbs imyarite campaign can be derived from
such place-names.
364
As for data on Ethiopia, the fact that the Bios fails to mention Aksum and
instead refers only to Amlem, a name not attested in any other source, further undermines our
faith in the text. In light of this, and in light of the lack of evidence that a bishop of afr named
Gregentios ever existed, it might not be too rash to suggest that the Bios and the other texts of the
Gregentios dossier are of no use in the study of Aksumite relations with imyar and are of
interest to the modern historian only as an indication of how the sixth-century war between
Christian Ethiopia and Jewish South Arabia was perceived in mid-tenth-century Byzantium.

5.6. Summary
Like all of the historical material dealing with Klbs invasion of South Arabia, the
Greek sources vary considerably in quality and as a group are neither more nor less reliable than
the other sources with which we shall deal in this chapter. Our study of the Greek sources alerts
us to the fact that sometimes an otherwise untrustworthy source might contain useful information

364
One is almost tempted to speculate whether the author of the Bios did not actually make up names in an attempt
to flesh out his account of Gregentios career in South Arabia.

296

which is not available elsewhere. Thus in the case of John Malalas we have an author with a
much distorted impression of the political events in the southern Red Sea, but whose mention of
Roman trade with imyar and Aksum in the sixth century is borne out by archaeological
evidence from both Yemen and Ethiopia. Another case in which a sixth-century author draws on
sources not used by his contemporaries is the anonymous Martyrium Arethae. As we have
argued, the military statistics cited in this work, though they cannot be confirmed by other sixth-
century sources, are quite credible in light of the data on the military capacity of nineteenth-
century Ethiopia, whose agricultural economy was probably little removed from that of sixth-
century Aksum. On the other hand, the author of the Martyrium errs in stating that Abreh was
appointed king of imyar by Klb. In this respect, the highly condensed account of the
Aksumite invasion given by Procopius is to be preferred, as it correctly gives Sumyafa
Ashwaalbeit in the Hellenized form Esimiphaeusas the name of the individual whom
Klb brought to power in imyar. Then we have the mid-tenth-century Bios of Saint Gregentios
which, though relying in part on the Martyrium, contains a great deal of material not found in the
latter work. While one could claim, as we have in the case of the Martyrium, that the author of
the Bios derived such material from sources not available to other authors, it is difficult to see
how an author living in tenth-century Constantinople could have had access to primary sources
which sixth-century writers missed, particularly when the author of the Bios himself, by infusing
his work with anachronisms drawn from ninth- and tenth-century tradition, shows himself to
have been anything but a careful historian.
To be sure, the author of the Martyrium is not without his faults either, a case in point
being his claim that it was by the Romans that Klb was first informed of Ysufs persecution
of South Arabias Christians, when in fact the Aksumite king would undoubtedly have learned of

297

this turn of events long before news of the persecution reached the emperor Justin. Though the
sources say nothing about it, we should expect that any Aksumites who managed to escape
destruction at the hands of Ysufs army by fleeing to Ethiopia would have brought back reports
of the suffering of the Christian community of imyar, both Ethiopian and indigenous. To the
extent that the Romans played any role in relaying news of the persecutions to Klb, they may
well have done so as merchants, perhaps like those whom Ysuf, according to Malalas, attacked
as they traveled through imyar. We need not doubt that Timothy sent a letter to Klb at
Justins request, promising logistical aid in the war against imyar, but whether Klb took up
arms against imyar simply because the Romans urged him to do so may be doubted,
particularly when he had already sent an military expedition to South Arabia back in 518, quite
independently of Rome. Timothys letter aside, the Martyrium is a crucial text not only as a
historical source but also in that, while such authors as Procopius and John Malalas were
essentially concerned with political events, the author of the Martyrium portrays Klbs venture
as very much a holy war. Elements of this holy war topos appear in Syriac and Geez texts,
indicating that the habit of giving political events a religious cast was widespread. But before
pursuing this line of enquiry further, we must first examine the South Arabian documentation of
the Aksumite invasion which, like Procopius and John Malalas, gives a very dry account of
political events, though in this case from a Christian imyarite perspective.





298

Chapter 6.
SOUTH ARABIAN SOURCES FOR THE AKSUMITE INVASION AND THE
REIGN OF SUMYAFA ASHWA

6.1. Introduction
After the defeat of Ysuf by the Aksumites in 525 the epigraphic record goes blank for
imyarite Judaism. The Aksumites establishment of Christianity as the state religion of imyar
as part of their policy towards South Arabia is the obvious cause of this lack of documentation
for Ysufs regime and the religious ideology that sustained it. The documentation of the
Christian regime which Klb put in its place is by no means abundant, but still sheds valuable
light on the Aksumite campaign and its aftermath, which otherwise went unrecorded in South
Arabian inscriptions.
365
We have only three inscriptions in Sabaic at our disposal, two of them
(Istanbul 7608 bis and Wellcome A 103664) of unknown provenance and the third (CIH 621)
from in al-Ghurb on the south coast of Yemen, all three of which can be dated to the reign of
the Christian imyarite king Sumyafa Ashwa, whom Klb brought to power. Of the three
inscriptions, one of them (Istanbul 7608 bis) contains the name of both Ella-Abe (i.e. Klb)
and Sumyafa Ashwa, and in light of the similarity of content it is probable that Wellcome A
103664 can also be assigned to the reign of Sumyafa Ashwa. CIH 621 is the only inscription
from this group which bears a date (Dh-illa 640 of the imyarite Era=February 531). Unlike
the two unprovenanced inscriptions, which record the Aksumite invasion and its aftermath in
some detail, the main interest of CIH 621 is the construction of defensive works at in al-
Ghurb, though it also alludes in passing to the Aksumite invasion of imyar. While the

365
For a bibliography of Sumyafa Ashwas reign, see Gajda 2009: 111.

299

Sumyafa Ashwa in whose name CIH 621 was inscribed does not appear to have been the
king of that name, the date of this inscription allows us to place it within the reign of the
Christian imyarite client of Aksum. Though they lack dates, Istanbul 7608 bis and Wellcome A
103664 probably predate CIH 621. Not only does CIH 621 postdate the Aksumite invasion by
nearly six years but Klb has a very visible presence in Istanbul 7608 bis, suggestive of the
period in which he was still in imyar while, by contrast, CIH 621 never mentions him and only
alludes in passing to the Aksumite invasion. With this in mind we will deal with Istanbul 7608
bis and Wellcome A 103664 before treating CIH 621.

6.2. Istanbul 7608 bis and Wellcome A 103664
As we have seen, Greek and Syriac sources state that, before returning to Ethiopia, Klb
appointed a Christian imyarite king to rule South Arabia, ostensibly on behalf of Aksum.
According to Procopius, Klb had stipulated that this king pay an annual tribute to Ethiopia,
from which we can gather that imyar was officially regarded as a vassal of Aksum. The name
by which Procopius calls him, Esimiphaios (Eo), is based on Sumyafa Ashwa, by
which the king is known from the fragment of a unique inscription on a limestone slab now kept
in the Istanbul Museum of Antiquities, Istanbul 7608 bis (=RES 3904). The records for this
object indicate that it came from f, a village about fifty km south of an.
366
This need not
have been the place where the inscription was originally erected, however, given that ancient
inscriptions, were often transported over great distances in later times to be re-used in buildings
elsewhere with the belief that they had magical properties. First translated by Conti Rossini in his

366
Beaucamp et al. 1999-2000: 37.

300

Storia dEtiopia,
367
Instanbul 7608 bis was re-published with a new translation by Gonzague
Ryckmans in 1946.
368
The inscription consists of sixteen lines which, given the wide margins at
the top and bottom of the text, must have been the original length. A large portion is missing on
the right-hand side, however, and it seems that the left-hand side has been intentionally chiseled
off, with the intention perhaps of re-using the stone in a later construction.
369
Like many South
Arabian inscriptions which have suffered similar re-use, Istanbul 7608 bis may well have been
brought from elsewhere. Insofar as it is preserved, the text can be translated as follows:
the Holy Spirit, Sumyafa Ashwa, King of S[aba and Dh-Raydn]
Aan and Sumyafa Ashwa, the sons of Shurabil their masters the
kings of Aksum built and lay the foundations their royal and qaylite
armies,
370
which Dh had completed this king with troops and their army
with the king to King Ella Abe, King of the Ethiopians, in order that
kings for the imyarites and officials for the kings (nagat) of the Aksumites
they submitted themselves to the kings of the Aksumites and when(?)
when he appointed them for the defense(?) of the sea-coast and the
maintenance of peace in imyar Dh-Yazan and an and Shurabil,
both of Mafir Aswad
an
and Sumyafa Dh-Abadn and Khall and
Zura Dh-Marab
um
and Malik
um
and rith
um
and Marthad
um
, they of the
Thalabn and M Ella Abe, the ng of the Aksumites and when they
took under protection and safeguarded the freedman
371
of their father
Shurabil Yakmul and H in the name of Ramn
an
and His Son, Christ the
Victorious, for
(M]NFS QDS SMYF W MLK S[B W-D-RYDN] N W-SMYF
W BNY RB[L M]RHMW NGT KSM
n
BRW W-HWT[RN
HMSHMW MLYKY
m
W-QYLY
m
D-TQH D[ DN MLK
n
B-HYL
m
W-B-
GYHMW MN ML[K
n
M S-MLK
n372
LBH
373
MLK BT L

367
Conti Rossini 1928: 180.
368
Ryckmans 1946: 165-72.
369
Ryckmans 1976: 97-9.
370
The qayls were the imyarite nobles.
371
HGN is attested only in this inscription, and has been tentatively interpreted on the basis of the Arabic hajn
(half-breed, the father being nobler than the mother) as the son of a slave woman, a freedman, or even a noble-
born man (Biella 1982: 104; Beeston et al. 1982: 56). Since HGN stands in a construct state with BHMW, it seems
that a relationship of dependency on the latter is implied, hence the translation of HGN as freedman offered here.
372
Ryckmans (1946: 170) correctly notes that the text reads S-MLK
n
, but dismisses this as probablement une faute
du lapicide, comme lest dans le mot suivant, lbh, lomission du (pour lbh) and restores the text as ()mlkn.
While the name Ella Abe is indeed written incorrectly, this need not indicate that S-MLK
n
is also a corruption.
Though MLK, kings, might suggest the use of the royal plural, a phenomenon not uncommon in late Sabaic
inscriptions, the fact that the form S-MLK
n
is also attested in CIH 541 in reference to Abreh suggests that we are

301

MLK
m
L-MYR
m
W-QBT
m
L-NGT [KSM
n
YTBDNN L-MLK
374

KSM
n
W-K-STH [K-S]THLHMW L-Z
375
BR
n
W-L-L [MYR
376

D]-YZN W-N W- RBL DY MF[R
n
LNHW SWD
n
W-SMYF D-
BD
n
W Y HLL W-ZRT D-MRB
m
W-MLK
m
NS RM W-RT
m
W-
MRTD
m
LHT TLB
n
W-MH LB]H NG KSM
n
W-K-HRTDW W-
RN W HGN BHMW RBL YKML W-H B-SM RMN
n
W-
BNHW KRT LB
n
L-
377
(?))
378

Another limestone fragmentor rather a group of five fragmentsat the Wellcome Museum in
London (Wellcome A 103664) seems to be closely related to Istanbul 7608 bis given the closely
similar style of the script and the size of the letters in both inscriptions. The fragments of
Wellcome A 103664 do not, however, fit with the Istanbul fragment, and since the contents of
the two inscriptions do not allow the fragments to be arranged so as to give a continuous sense, it
is likely that Wellcome A 103664 and Istanbul 7608 bis are derived from separate, though
closely related, inscriptions.
379
Where these were originally erected is unknown, but given the
similarities between the two inscriptions it is likely that the reference to the Christian king
Sumyafa Ashwa in Istanbul 7608 bis can be used to date Wellcome A 103664 as well to that
kings reign. Of the five fragments of Wellcome A 103664, one of them bears nothing but the
letter W, while another reads only
m
W-R HMT HM,
380
the meaning of which is

dealing with something more than an isolated orthographic error here. In his discussion of CIH 541, Sima regards S-
as a morphological feature of late Sabaic deriving ultimately from the imyaritic preposition s-, meaning to or
after, in which sense it is still used in Yemeni Arabic (Sima 2002: 129, 132 (n. 4)). In light of this, it would be
appropriate to translate S-MLK
n
as something like to the king.
373
A corruption of LBH=Ella Abe. On this point, see the previous note.
374
In this case the MLK with an initial alif is indisputable, in which case we would have the plural, kings.
375
I follow here Biellas reading [ks]thlhmw lz (Biella 1982: 202), instead of Ryckmans thlhmw lt
(Ryckmans 1946: 167).
376
The restoration of MYR (imyar) is hypothetical, but as a toponym it fits the context of defending a
geographical area. That imyar is mentioned here seems plausible given the other references to the kingdom in
Instanbul 7608 bis, making it a much more likely candidate than aramawt, for example.
377
Ryckmans (1976: 98) writes that lclairage plus favorable des nouvelles photographies, tablissent de faon
premptoire que le mot lbn, termin par une barre de sparation, tait suivi dune lettre commenant un nouveau
mot. Cette lettrecertainement pas un w-, ce qui exclut la restitution de la formule trinitaire que nous attendions
parat tre un l- qui pourrait introduire un souhait se rattachant la formule divine qui precede.
378
Transliterated Sabaic text adapted from Ryckmans (1946: 167), with some corrections.
379
Beeston 1980: 11-12; cf. Beaucamp et al. 1999-2000: 37-8. Gajda, however, regards Wellcome A 103664 as part
of Istanbul 7608 bis (Gajda 2009: 113).
380
Beeston 1980: 12.

302

impossible to determine. Like Istanbul 7608 bis, Wellcome A 103664 is broken off along its
margins. The text that remains can be translated as follows:
that there be inscribed and and Ramn
an
and His Son, Christ the
Victorious
381
this king (?),
382
when their brother entered the Ethiopians
from an when he fought imyar(?)
383
and the armed bands of their city
Aksum,
384
and he submitted to them in order that he take upon himself the duty
his Shara
um
and Laathat Dh-aba
385
[and] l and Sharal and
Nawf
um
and Burj
um
[and]Raabl b. Abshammar Dh-Ruayn
386
and
mir
um
and mir
um
and their son and Marthadl, both of their
Wahabl, both of Muwi and their daughter(s)
387
either that He grant him
rest or that He deli[ver
388
Raabl and Madkarib and Sumyafa, those
who(?)Malik
um
(?)
(N L-YQR W-L-
389
W-RMN
n
W-B[NHW KRT LB
n
W-MNFS
QDS]
390
DN MLK
n
K-DY HHM[W BT BN NW K-B
[MYR(?) W-ZB
391
HGRHMW KS[M W-GD
392
L-HMW L-

381
Beeston (ibid.: 15) states that it can be taken as certain that one has to restore wb[nhw/krs
3
ts
3
/lbn/wmnfs
1
/qds
1
],
and it would be very attractive if one could regard this line as an earlier part of line 1 of the Istanbul fragment, which
begins ]fs
1
/qds
1
; however, the reasons stated above [i.e., the fact that the surviving fragments do not fit together]
tend to operate against this supposition. It is true that the preposition B- is also used commonly in monotheistic
imyarite inscriptions when invoking God, as is the case in ZM 679(=Ga 32) from Bayt al-Ashwal, where we find
B-ZKT RMN
n
(by the Grace of Ramn
an
). Were that the case here, however, one would expect B- to either
immediately precede either RMN
n
or a construct phrase containing RMN
n
. What we have instead is the
conjunction W- (and).

Thus we will follow Beestons lead here by reconstructing W-RMN
n
W-B as W-
RMN
n
W-B[NHW KRT LB
n
W-MNFS QDS] (and Ramn
an
and His Son, Christ the Victorious). That a
similar phrase is used in Instanbul 7608 bis gives credence to this reconstruction.

382
Beestons restoration of the text as [b]dn (by the authority of) is possible, but since the phrase DN MLK
n

(this king) is also encountered in Instanbul 7608 bis it cannot be excluded that DN in this passage is to be
interpreted as a demonstrative pronoun.
383
The reconstruction proposed here of as imyar is hypothetical, but seems plausible given the context.
384
This is the only known reference to the town of Aksum itself in South Arabian inscriptions, which typically refer
only to the Aksumites as people (KSM
n
). In light of this, Beestons restoration of the text as KSM
n
(Beeston 1980:
12) is not without problems, particularly given that the text breaks off after KS, thus making it impossible to
determine if the name originally took nunation.
385
The Dh-aba were the principal lineage of the tribe of Ma, whose territory was located some 220 km
southeast of an (Robin 2008: 99).
386
Dh-Ruayn refers to the noble lineage of Ruayn, east and southeast of the imyarite capital of afr (ibid.). On
the genealogy of this lineage, see al-Hamdn 1966: II: 406-9; Ibn al-Kalb 1988: II: 537.
387
Beeston (1980: 16) claims that the nature of the text makes an interpretation of bnt as daughter(s) improbable,
and it would seem to be a collective masculine formation. With so much of the text missing, however, it cannot be
assumed that daughter(s) does not fit the context here. With this in mind, BNT will here be tentatively translated
daughter(s). Since long vowels are generally not indicated in Sabaic, it is impossible to determine whether BNT is
singular or a broken plural (cf. Arabic vs. ).
388
Here I follow Robins translation, soit quIl accord le repos soit quIl dli[vre (Robin 2008: 99).
389
Beeston (1980: 15) allows for a possible restoration of this as s
2
[r], meaning to protect or to safeguard, but
acknowledges that this is speculative.
390
On this restoration, see above.
391
A loan from the Geez azb, the plural of zb. In Classical Geez,azb is commonly used in the sense of
peoples, nations, and multitudes, as well as gentiles and pagans. It is clear that the term took on a

303

YHLN HW R
m
W-LYTT D-HB L W-RL W-NWF
m
W-
BRG
m
RBL BN BMR D-RYN W-MR
m
YNN W-MR
m
W-
BNHW W-MRTDL DY HMW WHBL
n
DY MW W-BNTH[MW
DHW W YNWNHW W YHL RBL W-MDKRB W-SMYF
LH[T BYD MLK
m
WHY QY HM)
393

Before treating the historical material in these two inscriptions, let us first look at the religious
references. The Ramn
an
is well attested from the fourth century on as a neutral name for God
not only in Jewish and Judaizing inscriptions in Sabaic but also in Ry 510 from the Wd Msil,
dating from the reign of the Christian imyarite king Madkarib Yafur. But in Istanbul 7608
bis and probably Wellcome A 103664 as well Ramn
an
is given a son, Christ the Victorious
(KRT LB
n
), who is invoked together together with the Holy Spirit (MNFS QDS). This is
significant as evidence not only for the Christianization of Ramn
an
by endowing him with a
son but also for the developmentunattested before this timeof a specifically Christian
terminology in Sabaic. That Ethiopian influence played a role in the development of in this
terminology is evident from the phrase MNFS QDS, which is clearly the Geez manfas qdds.
The Holy Spirit is mentioned later in Abrehs Dam Inscription from Mrib (CIH 541),
394

though in that case it is referred to as R QDS, perhaps by way of the Syriac r d-qd (cf.
Arabic al-r al-qudus). The name for Christ, KRT preserved intact in Istanbul 7608 bis,
ultimately derived from the Greek X, may have also entered Sabaic via the Geez

religious sense with Christianization of Ethiopia, much like the Syriac amm (nations but also gentiles). In
third-century Sabaic inscriptions, however, ZB refers exclusively to groups of Ethiopians, typically in military
contexts, and as we saw in the previous chapter ZBY (=azbya) is attested in Klbs inscription from Aksum
(RIE 191) in the sense of my troops (3.4.2.2.). ZB in A 103664 can thus be taken to refer to Aksumite troops
operating in South Arabia, an interpretation supported by the reference in the same line to their city of Aksum.
392
This is the only attestation of this verb in Sabaic and exhibits the same phonemic shift of s > noted in KRT
in Istanbul 7608bis. Though the cognate noun MSGD is attested in several late Sabaic inscriptions as a term for a
synagogue (Robin 2003: 121), this latter word is ultimately derived from the Aramaic mgd, and given its nature is
used only in religious contexts. Since the Semitic root s-g-d has the sense of not only worship but also literal
prostration, Beestons suggestion that GD means to submit (Beeston 1980: 15) seems quite convincing.
393
Beeston 1980: 12 (Sabaic text).
394
Gajda 2009: 121-2.

304

Krsts, though this is not certain.
395
More significant perhaps is the epithet the Victorious
(LB
n
) used to describe Christ. That Christ should be called the Victorious may on the one
hand be a reference to the victory of the Christian Aksumites over the Jewish imyarites. On the
other hand, LB
n
, though of indigenous South Arabian origin, could also be a calque on the
Geez epithet maw, victorious, used in Aksumite inscriptions as early as the fourth century
in reference to both the Christian God and, before that, the chief deity of pagan Aksum, Marem.
If the choice of words here reflects the Ethiopian influence evident in the term MNFS QDS, then
it is likely that Sumyafa Ashwas Christianity owed much to Aksum, as suggested by the
statement in Book of the imyarites that Klb had the imyarite nobleman baptized.
If these few tantalizing Christian references give us an ideological framework for Istanbul
7608 bis and Wellcome A 103664, the events described in the two inscriptions give us some
valuable information on the Aksumite invasion of 525 and the system of government imposed by
Klb on imyar in the invasions aftermath. Even if the lack of a date on any of the surviving
fragments does not allow us to establish an absolute chronology for these events, the references
in Istanbul 7608 bis to Klb by his Geez name Ella Abe leave us in no doubt that these
fragments date to the period of his reign (c. 510-540). The reference to Sumyafa Ashwa as
the king of Saba in Istanbul 7608 bis indicates that the war in question can only be the Aksumite
invasion of imyar in 525, since Klbs invasion in 518 had brought Madkarib Yafur to
power.
What, then, can we learn about this period from Istanbul 7608 bis and Wellcome A
103664? One point worthy of interest is that Ysuf is not referred to by name in the surviving

395
Some Christian vocabulary entered Sabaic directly from Greek, without a Geez intermediary. That the Sabaic
word for church, QLS, is derived directly from the Greek is clear given that its Geez equivalent is bta
Krstyn.

305

fragments of the two inscriptions. While this may simply be because the portion of text which
mentioned him is missing, the Jewish king is likely the individual who is given the rather
dismissive appellation this king (DN MLK
n
) in Wellcome A 103664. Of Sumyafa Ashwa,
whom Klb appointed as king over imyar in 525, nothing definite can be said about his
origins or family, all the more so given the confusion caused by his name, which was borne by
numerous individuals in sixth-century imyar. This being the case, the Sumyafa Ashwa
referred to as king in Istanbul 7608 bis is probably not the same individual as the Sumyafa
Ashwa whom that inscription names as a son of one Shurabil, but who is not given any title.
Since the text breaks off after his name, it cannot be determined whether this Shurabil is the
Shurabil Yakmul mentioned towards the end of Istanbul 7608 bis. Nor is it clear that the
Shurabil Yakmul of the Istanbul fragment is to be identified with the Shurabil Yakmul
mentioned in Ry 508 from Kawkab as the father of Shurabil Yaqbul, the imyarite general of
King Ysuf who had led the attack on the Ethiopians at afr c. 522. To add to the confusion, we
have yet another Shurabil in Istanbul 7608 bis, who is said to have belonged to the Mafir
tribe.
Apart from the king Sumyafa Ashwa there are other individuals named Sumyafa in
Istanbul 7608 bis and Wellcome A 103664: in the first inscription we find a Sumyafa Dh-
Abadn and in the second another (unrelated?) individual named simply Sumyafa. Since
rulers names are as a rule followed by their titles in South Arabian inscriptions, it should be
assumed that the only definite reference to the Christian king Sumyafa Ashwa is that in the
first line of Istanbul 7608 bis. In that line we can make out only MLK S, which can be
reconstructed as the beginning of a royal title, MLK SB, mentioning Saba. Though Ysuf bears
only the modest title King of Saba (MLK SB) in his inscriptions, Sumyafa Ashwas title

306

was likely longer than this. Madkarib Yafur, the previous Christian imyarite king whom
Klb brought to power, bears the very long title King of Saba and Dh-Raydn and
aramawt and Yamanat and their Arabs of the awd and the Tihma (MLK SB W-D-RYDN
W-RMT W-YMNT W-RBHMW WD
m
W-THMT) in Ry 510, and since there is no
indication that his status was any different from that of Madkarib Yafur, it is probable that
Sumyafa Ashwa bore the same very long title in his own inscriptions.
In contrast to Klbs previous imyarite client Madkarib Yafur, who records his
military exploits as a ruler in his own right in Ry 510, Sumyafa Ashwa comes across as a
rather passive character in Istanbul 7608 bis and Wellcome A 103664. The main actors in the
drama of establishing control over imyar are instead the Aksumites. The mention of an in
Wellcome A 103664 calls to mind later Arabic reports which claim that an served as the
Ethiopians administrative headquarters in South Arabia. Since some of these reports credit
Klbs general Ary with the capture of the town, it is not clear whether it is Klb or one of
his generals who is the subject of the verb B (to fight) in this passage of the Wellcome
inscription involving an. Al-abar cites a tradition preserved by Hishm b. Muammad, to
the effect that an and the adjacent regions are the center of Abrehs domain,
396
while others
attributed the name an itself to the Ethiopians. Thus al-Dnawar glosses the name an as
a abash word meaning strong or firm (an kalima abashiyya ayy wathq an) and
claims that, though originally called Dhimr, it was renamed an upon its capture by the
Ethiopian general Ary.
397
Though he records a number of folk etymologies of the name

396
Al-abar 1961: II: 127.
397
Al-Dnawar 1960: 62.

307

an,
398
Yqt is also aware of the traditions of an Ethiopian connection, and states that when
the Ethiopian troops found that this city was built sturdily of stone, it was promptly renamed
an, meaning strong or sturdy (lamm wajadh mabniyyat
an
bil-ijra anat
an
fa-ql
hdhihi ana wa-manhu ana fa-summiyat an bi-dhlika).
399
Though the city of an
is already attested in South Arabian inscriptions (in the form NW) as early as c. 115 CE,
400

long before the earliest Aksumite invasions, the fact that n does in fact mean strong in
Geez, Amharic, and Tigr, suggests access to authentic information about Ethio-Semitic on the
part of medieval Muslim scholars, as well as memory of the Ethiopian occupation of the town.
Turning now to the information given in the two inscriptions regarding the political
structure in imyar, it seems that, based on what survives of Istanbul 7608 bis, Klb not only
appointed Sumyafa Ashwa as king over imyar but also appointed officials (QBT
m
). These
QBT
m
stand in some sort of relationship vis--vis the kings of Aksum (QBT
m
L-NGT
[KSM
n
], officials for the nagat of Aksum), perhaps as the Aksumites representatives in
imyar. Though the Sabaic term QBT
m
is clearly a cognate of the title QB borne as early as the
third century CE by governors of ufr on behalf of the king of aramawt,
401
it may in this
case be derived from the Geez aqabt (officials, sing. aqb). Though it is not known how
many of the officials appointed by Klb to govern imyar were actually Ethiopians, the Book of

398
According to one anonymous tradition cited by Yqt (1988: 176), the city was named after its builder, one
an b. Azl b. Yaqan b. bir b. Shlikh!
399
Yqt 1988: 176.
400
Al-Sheiba 1988: 38. Chronological discrepancies aside, the name an has numerous cognates in the ancient
languages of Arabia and hence need not be derived from Geez. Thus NT
m
is attested in Sabaic as the name of a
structure (RES 3958/7-8), while NT occurs as a personal name in both Safaitic and Liynite (al-Anz 2003: 231
(no. 1194)). A temple called N is also mentioned in a Qatabnian inscription (Doe 12) (Avanzini 2004: 178).
401
Avanzini 2008: 614.

308

the imyarites states that the Aksumite king left Ethiopian notables (amm d d-Ky) in
South Arabia for the protection of Sumyafa Ashwa.
402

But whatever their origins, all South Arabian power-holders were ultimately answerable
to Aksum, having submitted to the kings of Aksum (YTBDNN L-MLK KSM
n
), according
to Istanbul 7608 bis. As for the individual whom Wellcome A 103664 claims surrendered (GD)
to the military contingents from Aksum (ZB HGRHMW KS[M]), this may well be
Sumyafa Ashwa if one interprets the statement that he took upon himself some sort of duty
(YHLN) as a reference to Sumyafas role as the ruler of imyar on behalf of Aksum. The
fact that the Aksumite kings (NGT KSM
n
) are treated as lords (MR) of the imyarites in
Istanbul 7608 bis leaves us in no doubt that, Sumyafa Ashwas royal title notwithstanding,
imyar was under the direct rule of Aksum. The Aksumite kings are said in Istanbul 7608 bis to
have built and laid the foundations (BRW W-HWT[RN]) of a structure or structures
somewhere in imyar. Since the text breaks off at this point it is impossible to identify these
buildings, which might have been anything from churches to fortresses.
Particularly interesting as a sidelight on the political structure of the kingdom of Aksum
is the implication in Istanbul 7608 bis of the existence of several Aksumite kings at this time.
There is no question of the royal plural being used here, as it is in other late Sabaic inscriptions,
for whenever Ella Abe is mentioned by name in the Istanbul fragment he is mentioned in
the singular as the King of the Ethiopians (MLK BT) and the Ng of the Aksumites
(NG KSM
n
). By contrast, the Aksumite lords of the imyarites alluded to at the beginning of
the inscription are called NGT KSM
n
, a Sabaic transcription of the Geez nagat Aksm, the
kings of Aksum. Numismatic evidence may provide the solution to this problem, for as we have

402
Book of the imyarites 1924: 56a (Syriac text).

309

seen a king named Ella Amda (known from his coins in the Greek form AA AMIAC) is
known to have shared a reverse die on his coins with Klb, which Hahn takes as evidence that
he was Klbs co-regent.
403
Though Hahn believes that such a coregency would have been
established following Klbs abdication, there is no reason to assume that Ella Amda did not
share the throne with Klb well before this, particularly when coregencies were a long-standing
Aksumite tradition dating back at least to the fourth century.
404
In addition, it would have been
quite prudent for Klb to have established a coregency with Ella Amda before embarking on
his campaign for, if the Book of the imyarites is to be believed, Klb spent some seven months
in South Arabia, in which case the existence of a a stable base of political support back in
Ethiopia would have been essential.
405
Ella Amda is probably to be identified with King
Wazeb who erected a stela in unvocalized Geez at Aksum (RIE 192) in which he calls himself
Son of Ella Abe, the Servant of Christ (WLD L B GBR KRT=walda lla
Ab gabra Krsts);
406
like his father, Wazeb styles himself king of Saba and imyar.
Ella Amda may thus have been Wazebs throne name, as Klb was for Ella Abe. To
date, no coins struck in the name of either Ella Amda or Wazeb have come to light in Yemen,
and if Wazebs role at this stage was limited to acting as Klbs co-regent in Ethiopia it is not
surprising that he is not mentioned by name in Istanbul 7608 bis or Wellcome A 103664.

403
Hahn 2000 (a): 298.
404
Note the case of zn reigning with his brother Shzn as coregent.
405
One argument that might be made against this scenario is that, if Klb and Ella-Amda/Wazeb are to be
identified with the Kings of Aksum mentioned in Istanbul 7608 bis one would expect a dual form of the noun
NGY (Geez nag), when we find instead the form NGT, derived from the Geez plural nagat. It should be
noted, however, that while the ending
nhn
is the typyical marker of dual nouns in Sabaic, the use of a Geez word
for king in Istanbul 7608 bis may well have posed problems for South Arabian scribes who, unfamiliar with the
word, did not subject it to the morphological rules of Sabaic. Apart from a few possible vestigial forms, Geez has
no dual (Dillmann 1907: 286 (131)), such that nagat can refer to several kings or just two. The South Arabian
scribes would thus have simply written nagata Aksm (>NGT KSM) as they heard it spoken, without realizing
that it referred to only two kings of Aksum.
406
Bernard et al. 1991: 275 (line 7).

310

According to Istanbul 7608 bis a separate administrative body existed in South Arabia in
the form of kings for the imyarites (MLK
m
L-MYR
m
). That the plural form is used may in
this case indicate the existence of regional potentates who held power over their own fiefdoms
while still acknowledging the authority of Sumyafa Ashwa. A similar system appears to have
persisted in South Arabia through the brief period of Ssnid rule after 570 until the time of the
Prophet Muammad, who is said to have written to the kings of imyar (mulk imyar),
among them the potentates of such confederations as Dh-Ruayn, Mafir, and Hamdn.
407
If
so, it could be that some of the individuals mentioned in Istanbul 7608 bis and A 103664 were
among these potentates. But as the official representative of Aksum in imyar, Sumyafa
Ashwa is the only imyarite ruler of whom we have any information during this period.
Whatever the specifics of the administrative structure established by Klb, one of the
Aksumite kings key concerns according to Istanbul 7608 bis was the defense of the sea-coast
and the maintenance of order in imyar (Z BR
n
W-L-L [MYR]). If the duty of
maintaining order in imyar seems straightforward enough, the significance of defending the
sea-coast is less clear. In Sabaic, the noun BR is ambiguous, as it can refer to either the sea-
coast or the sea itself; the distinction may have been made through vocalization, which the South
Arabian musnad script does not note.
408
If in the present study we have settled on sea-coast as
a translation of BR, it is only because this gives the broadest possible sense in that defending
coastal areas would imply protection of the sea-lanes as well. The term Z is also a bit
ambiguous, as it occurs only in Istanbul 7608 bis. It has been interpreted as a gerund meaning

407
Yay b. dam 1347 AH [1929]: 118-19 (no. 380).
408
Cf. Geez br (sea), as opposed to br (land). Without the vocalization of the fdal script both would be
written the same way.

311

either defense
409
or control,
410
a sense suggested by the Arabic root w-z-, from which are
derived the nouns wiz (leader of an army) and wazaa
t
(bodybuard), and the verb wazaa
(to restrain, to withhold).
411
Presumably some armed contingents were posted by Klb
along the coasts of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, and perhaps also offshore on the Farasn
islands and Soqotra. The question, though, is against whom these defensive measures were
taken. Now that imyar was under Aksumite control, the last foreign threat to Ethiopia by sea
had been eliminated. Though, according to Procopius, Justinian would later encourage the
imyarites and Aksumites to join him in the war against the Ssnids, whether by invading
Ssnid territory directly or by circumventing Ssnid trade with the east via the Indian Ocean,
these were offensive strikes, not defensive measures aimed at safeguarding the Red Sea, of the
sort described in Istanbul 7608 bis. Furthermore there is nothing in the sources to suggest that
Justinian feared a sea-borne invasion of the Roman Empire by the Ssnids from the south.
Given the continued trade between Aksum and the Roman Empire during the sixth century, one
can easily imagine that the defensive system established by Klb in South Arabia was aimed at
part in curbing piracy.

6.3. The Death of Ysuf: The in al-Ghurb Inscription (CIH 621)
In our discussion of the chronology of sixth-century imyar in Chapter 2 we encountered
CIH 621, a imyarite inscription in Sabaic from in al-Ghurb (some 380 km east-northeast of
Aden and 100 km southwest of al-Mukall) recording construction work at that site following an
Ethiopian invasion. It was during their invasion that the Ethiopians are said in this inscription to

409
Biella 1982: 125.
410
Beeston et al. 1982: 125.
411
If these words are indeed cognates of the Sabaic Z the fact that the letter ww is a weak radical can explain why
it is dropped in the gerund form in Sabaic.

312

have killed a king of imyar. In addition to its importance as a historical document in its own
right, CIH 621, though not the first South Arabian inscription studied by western scholars,
412

played a key role in the decipherment of the musnad script by the German Semiticist Wilhelm
Gesenius in 1841.
413
With the progress in the study of South Arabian epigraphy, thanks in no
small part to the discovery of further ancient inscriptions in Yemen by Thomas Arnaud in 1835
and Joseph Halvy in 1869-70,
414
this inscription was in time recognized as an invaluable, if
difficult to interpret, source for the history of Aksumite relations with imyar in the sixth
century. The text reads as follows:
Sumyafa Ashwa and his two sons Shurabil Yakmul and Madkarib Yafur,
of the Ban Laat Yarikh
um
, they of Kal, Yazan, and Gadan; and [the tribes of]
Mthil
an
, Sharq
an
, abb
am
,
415
Yatha
an
, Yashr
um
, Yari, Makrb
um
, Aqahat,
Baay
an
, Yalghib,
416
Ghaymn, Yubir,
417
Shaba
um
, Gadway
an
, Kar
an
,
418

Rakhiya,
419
Girdn,
420
Qbil
an
, Shargay, and the Ban Mil
um
;
421
and their [allied]

412
As early as 1810 the German traveler Ulrich Jasper Seetzen made copies of South Arabian inscriptions at afr
and sent them back to Europe via the Yemeni port of al-Mukh (De Maigret 2009: 40-1).
413
CIH 621 was discovered in May of 1834 by James R. Wellsted, the second lieutenant of the East India
Companys ship Palinurus, at the coastal site of in al-Ghurb, where they found this and three much shorter
inscriptions (Wellsted 1838: II: 423-4). Three copies were made of each inscription by different individuals and
were later collated to produce facsimiles, published by Wellsted later that year in The Journal of the Asiatic Society
of Bengal (J. R. Wellsted, Account of some Inscriptions in the Abyssinian character, found at Hassan Ghorb, near
Aden, on the Arabian coast, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal 3, 35 (1834): 554-6). Though Wellsted
had no training in Semitics, he was aware that the script of the in al-Ghurb inscriptions, as well as other
inscriptions found by him at Naqab al-Hajar, bore a certain similarity to the fdal script of Ethiopia and in his article
in The Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal he regarded the South Arabian inscriptions as Abyssinian.
Ultimately, the now universally accepted derivation of the fdal script from the musnad script provided the key to
deciphering the latter. Thus Wilhelm Gesenius was able to crack the code by comparing the script in Wellsteds
copies of CIH 621 and other inscriptions with Ethiopian fdal, the latter known in Europe since the sixteenth
century. In 1841 Gesenius published his findings on the musnad alphabet, having successfully deciphered twenty
out of a total of twenty-nine characters (W. Gesenius, Himjaritischen Sprache und Schrift, und Entzifferung der
letzteren, Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung 123-6 (1841): 369-99 + Ergnzungsbltter 64: 511-12). That same year
Gesenius pupil Emil Rdiger expanded upon his work by identifying three further characters (E. Rdiger, Versuch
ber die Himjaritischen Schriftmonumente, Halle: Verlag der Buchhandlung des Waisenhauses, 1841).
414
De Maigret 2009: 42, 44-8.
415
abb
am
is a lineage in the region of Wd ura in the aramawt (Robin 2008: 95).
416
A lineage in the area of the port town of Qni (ibid.).
417
Another lineage inhabiting the same region as Yalghib (ibid.).
418
Wd al-Kasr is described by al-Hamdn (1974: 175-6) and Yqt (1990: IV: 522) as a well-inhabited region in
the western aramawt with villages of the Kinda confederation.
419
Wd Rakhiya in the western aramawt (Rodinson 1969: 103-4; Meulen and Von Wissmann 1964: 96). In his
edition of al-Hamdn, al-awl prefers the vocalization Rakhya (al-Hamdn 1974: 167 (n. 5)).
420
Wd Jirdn in the western aramawt, cf. the of Ptolemy (Conti Rossini 1931: 124; Rodinson 1969:
104).

313

tribes of Wua,
422
lhan, Salaf
an
,
423
ayfat
an
,
424
Rathi
um
,
425
Rakbn,
426

Malaf
an
, Sakal
an
, and akrid;
427
and the kabrs and tribal commanders of the
Saybn Dh-Nasaf
428
have written this inscription in the citadel of Mwiya
(=un al-Ghirb), when he (i.e., Sumyafa Ashwa) repaired itits walls, its
gate, its cisterns, and its routes of access,
429
when they took up a defensive
position therein after they returned from the land of the Ethiopians and the
Ethiopians [had] sent an invasion force to the land of imyar, when they killed
the king of imyar and his qayls of imyar and al-Raba[in the] month of
Dh-illa
430
in the year 640 (=February 531).
(SMYF W W-BNYHW RBL YKML W-MDKRB YFR BNY LYT
YRH
m
LHT KL
n
W-D-YZN W-GDN
m
W-MTL
n
W-RQ
n
W-B
m
W-YT
n
W-
YR
m
W-YR W-MKRB
m
W-QHT W-BY
n
W-YLB W-YMN W-YBR
W-B
m
W-GDWY
n
W-KR
n
W-RHYT W-GRDN W-QBL
n
W-RGY W-BNY
ML
m
W-BHMW WZT W-LHN W-SLF
n
W-YFT
n
W-RT
m
W-RKBN
W-MLF
n
W-SKL
n
W-KRD W-KBWR W-MRG SYBN D-NF SRW DN

421
Conti Rossini (1931: 178), followed by Rodinson (1969: 104), identifies the Ban Mil
um
with the modern-day
Ban Milam of the town of Shabwa, though it may be that this name has been acquired only recently by the tribe as
a result of its control of the mining of salt (Arabic mil), the economic importance of which during the sixth century
is unknown.
422
Wua is likely the similarly named citadel (qala) located by al-Hamdn near the territory of the Kal tribe
(al-Hamdn 1974: 104, 142-3).
423
Salaf
an
may be identified with either al-Salf in the territory of the Awliq tribe of Yemens Shabwa province or
Wd Salaf in the aramawt (Conti Rossini 1931: 196).
424
ayfat
an
is linked in this inscription as well as in another sixth-century inscription, BR-Yanbq 38 from Shib
Yanbq, with Rathi
um
(Bfaqh and Robin 1979: 42-4). ayfat
an
is attested five centuries earlier in an inscription
from the reign of Yashkurl Yuharish of the kingdom of aramawt (RES 2687), dating from c. 100 CE, wherein
it is transcribed YFT
hn
in accordance with aram orthography, and appears to be located near Naqb al-Hajar in
the western aramawt (ibid.: 43-4).
425
In light of its implied connection with ayfat
an
, Rathi
um
would appear to be located somewhere in the same
region, and is encountered in the early seventh century BCE in the famous inscription of Karibl Watar b.
Dhamaral from irw as the name of a city in the kingdom of Awsn (Conti Rossini 1931: 246).
426
Rakbn is believed by Rodinson (1969: 104) to be locality of that name northeast of Shabwa, though Beaucamp
et al. (1999-2000: 36 (n. 87)) prefer a location in the region of the modern port of al-Mukall, where the place-
names al-Rawkab and al-Rukayb are found.
427
On the identification of Sakal
an
with ufr and akrid with Soqotra, see the main text below.
428
Like Rathi
um
, Saybn is also mentioned in Karibl Watars inscription, and was located between Wd Mayfa
and Wd aramawt (Rodinson 1969: 195) and takes its name from that of a large aram tribe (Gajda 2009:
213).
429
In the Arabic dialect of Dathna in the western aramawt, the term manqal refers to a road through the
mountains (Biella 1982: 316). Since the ancient citadel at the site of in al-Ghurb is located on an elevation, the
MNQLT in this case would refer to the routes of access leading to the summit (cf. Rodinson 1969: 102, who
translates MNQL as rampes daccs). In the account of his visit to the site of in al-Ghurb Wellsted mentions
finding some faint traces of a track, which, in order to facilitate the ascent, had been cut along the face of the hill in
a zigzag direction (Wellsted 1838: II: 423-4). This track is undoubtedly one of the MNQLT mentioned in CIH 621.
430
Rodinson (1969: 101-2, 108-9) reads the name of the month as D-GT
n
, which he compares to the Arabic dhl-
ijja and identifies with some time in the autumn. Such an argument cannot be sustained, however, as there is no
evidence for the use of the Arabic month-names (still employed in the Islamic calendar) in pre-Islamic South
Arabia. On the other hand, medieval Yemeni tradition does preserve dhl-illa as the name of a month in the
agricultural calendar, corresponding to February (Robin 1998: 125). Since the musnad letters G and L are very
difficult to tell apart in the style of the musnad script used during the sixth century, reading the month as D-LT
n

poses no orthographic problems.

314

MSND
n
B-R
n
MWYT K-TWBHW GNTHW W-HLFHW W-MGLTHW W-
MNQLTHW K-STNW B-HW K-GBW BN R BT W-SYW B
n

ZRFT
n
B-R MYR
m
K-HRGW MLK MYR
m
W-QWLHW MR
n
W-
RB
n
WRHHW D-LT
n
D-L-RBY W-ST MT
m
HRFT
m
.)
431

The most difficult questions raised by this inscription concern the chronology of the events
described. The resolution of this problem has long been plagued by the ambiguities surrounding
the identity of the individuals described in the text. Though many tribes and tribal confederations
are mentioned in CIH 621, Sumyafa Ashwa and his sons Shurabil Yakmul and Madkarib
Yafur of the Ban Laat Yarikh
um
are the only individuals mentioned by name. This same
triumvirate left another inscription at Shib Yanbq (BR-Yanbq 47), dating to Dh-Thbat
an

625 of the imyarite Era (=April 515), in which they record an onager hunt.
432
As was argued in
Chapter 2, the Sumyafa Ashwa of these inscriptions cannot be his namesake whom Klb
established on the throne of imyar in 525. Not only was Sumyafa Ashwa a common name
in sixth-century imyar but the Sumyafa Ashwa of CIH 621 bears no royal titles, whereas
the Sumyafa Ashwa who appears in Istanbul 7608 bis is referred to as MLK S, which can
only be interpreted as the initial part of the phrase King of Saba and Dh-Raydn (MLK SB
W-D-RYDN). By the same token, King Sumyafa Ashwa is not associated in Istanbul 7608bis
or Wellcome A 103664 with the Ban Laat Yarikh
um
,
433
as the Sumyafa Ashwa of CIH
621 and BR-Yanbq 47 is. As for the Madkarib Yafur mentioned in BR-Yanbq 47, this man
cannot be Klbs Christian imyarite client at a time before the Aksumites made him king, for
he appears again in 531 in CIH 621, several years after the death of the King Madkarib Yafur
mentioned in Simeon of Bt Arshams letter.

431
Sabaic text adapted from Robin 2008: 94; cf. Rodinson 1969: 101 and Conti Rossini 1931: 77.
432
Bfaqh and Robin 1979: 49-57.
433
At least not in what remains of these inscriptions.

315

One can only conclude, then, that the Sumyafa Ashwa, Shurabil Yakmul, and
Madkarib Yafur of CIH 621 and BR-Yanbq 47 were non-royal members of the imyarite
clan of Yazan.
434
That they had a monumental inscription carved in their honor does suggest,
however, that they were high-ranking non-royals, perhaps qayls. In imyarite society, the rank
of qayl was second only to the king himself, and those who bore the title were leaders of the
major tribal confederations, acting as intermediaries between the tribes (B) and the ruling
authority and enjoying a fair amount of independence.
435
All things being equal, this rank was
transmitted agnatically (whether inherited from a father or from a brother or uncle),
436
though a
king might depose or appoint a qayl as he saw fit.
437
Though prince has been proposed as a
rough equivalent,
438
the original term is retained in the translation of CIH 621 offered above to
avoid any implication that the qayls were actual sons of the king.
The qayls referred to in CIH 621 belonged to two groups, the imyarite lineages of
Kal, Yazan, and Gadan and the people of al-Raba. Though the name given to the latter group
in CIH 621 (RB
n
) suggests a connection with the Arab located by Yqt along the Red Sea
coast and perhaps attested in the third-century Monumentum Adulitanum II as the Arabitae,
Robin argues that RB
n
is the broken plural of the nisba derived from Rabat
an
(RBT
n
),
which he identifies with al-Raba, the name of the plain of an.
439
Medieval Muslim authors
claim that the qayls were drawn from a group of eight imyarite lineages, known collectively as

434
The popularity of such pre-Islamic names as Sumyafa, Shurabil, and Yafur continued among the imyarite
nobility of the seventh century. Thus we find one Asmayifa (>Sumyafa) b. Bkr b. Yafur Dh-Kal b.
Shurabl (>Shurabil), who was killed at the Battle of iffn in 37 AH/657-8 CE while fighting on the side of the
Umayyad caliph Muwiya, and who in turn had a son named Shurabl who was the amr of im (Ibn al-Kalb
1988: II: 540-1).
435
Gajda 2009: 208-9.
436
Robin 1982: 81, 84.
437
Gajda 2009: 211.
438
Ibid.: 208.
439
Robin 2008: 95.

316

the Mathmina. In his treatise on genealogy, Umar b. Ysuf (d. 696/1296), the third Raslid
sultan of Yemen and something of a scholar in his own right, gives list of Mathmina clans,
among which we find Yazan and Dh-Jadan.
440
The first of these is well known as the ruling
imyarite lineage of the fifth and sixth centuries,
441
while Gadan is a lineage of Mrib.
442
The
roles of other notables referred to in CIH 621, namely the kabr (KBR) and the MRG,
443
in
sixth-century imyarite society are not clear, though both titles were borne by members of the
nobility.
444
From context those who bore these titles appear to have held some sort of political
role over tribal or lineage groups, or even towns or entire regions. In BR-Yanbq 47, we read of
kabrs of Saybn, aramawt, and the port of Qni,
445
though it would appear that Saybn was
of particular importance to Sumyafa Ashwa and two his sons, for it is called their tribe
(BHMW).
446
Saybn may thus have been the tribe over which this triumvirate ruled as qayls, a
not implausible scenario given that a qayl did not always belong to the tribe over which he
presided, and in fact he might on occasion hold sway over more than one tribe at once.
447

The reason why Sumyafa Ashwa and his sons Shurabil Yakmul and Madkarib
Yafur went to Ethiopia in the first place is nowhere stated in the inscription. Judging from BR-
Yanbq 47 these three men were already well established in the elite society of imyar by the
time of Klbs first invasion of imyar in 518, so it would seem that they owed their status not
to the Aksumites but to whatever political order prevailed in South Arabia before the arrival of
the Ethiopians. Despite this, Sumyafa Ashwa and his sons had obviously managed to gain the

440
Umar b. Ysuf 1949: 48-9.
441
Cf. al-Hamdn 1966: II: 254-63.
442
Robin 2008: 95.
443
The vocalization of this latter term is uncertain.
444
Gajda 2009: 212-13.
445
Bfaqh and Robin 1979: 49.
446
Ibid. Robin translates BHMW SYBN W-RMWT W-QN as leurs tribus Syb
n
, rmwt, Qn, et -mr
n
,
but since B is singular, it would seem to refer only to Saybn.
447
Robin 1982: 81, 84.

317

Aksumites trust, as they were not among those imyarite qayls whom the Aksumites, according
to CIH 621, had killed in their purge of the old imyarite regime. Their status under the new
political regime established by Klb invites comparison with the officials for (on behalf of?)
the kings of the Aksumites (QBT
m
L-NGT KSM
n
) of whom we have read in Istanbul 7608
bis, dating to the reign of King Sumyafa Ashwa. It will be recalled that the Istanbul
inscription seems to describe the submission of such individuals to the Aksumites, after which
they were appointed for the defense of the sea-coast and the maintenance of peace in imyar
(L-Z BR
n
W-L-L MYR). It could very well be that Sumyafa Ashwa, Shurabil
Yakmul, and Madkarib Yafur were among those who, after surrendering to the Aksumite
invaders in 525, were entrusted with the duty of establishing and maintaining military defenses
in imyar of the sort described in Istanbul 7608 bis. Though we lack a definitive link between
CIH 621 on the one hand and Istanbul 7608 bis and Wellcome A 103664 on the other, there is no
reason to assume that CIH 621 does not also date to the reign of King Sumyafa Ashwa, even
if that ruler is not mentioned in the inscription. Likewise, though the popularity of certain names
like Sumyafa Ashwa makes it hazardous to cross-reference individuals bearing this name, it
cannot be discounted that the non-royal Sumyafa Ashwa mentioned in Istanbul 7608 bis is to
be identified with his namesake in CIH 621.
Our dating of CIH 621 to the reign of the Christian imyarite king Sumyafa Ashwa
fits well with Procopius statement that an embassy was sent to King Esimiphaeos at some
point between April 19 and September 13 of 531.
448
Since this embassy post-dates CIH 621
(dated to February of 531) by at least two months, it goes without saying that King Sumyafa
Ashwa can no more be identified with the imyarite ruler killed by the Ethiopians than with

448
I.e., between the battle of Kallinikon and the death of the Ssnid emperor Kavdh I (Gajda 2009: 112 (n. 414)).

318

the Sumyafa Ashwa who left the inscription. So far as we know, no king of imyar after
Ysuf, whether of imyarite or Ethiopian descent, met his end as the result of an Aksumite
invasion of South Arabia. Nor were any of the Ethiopian potentates left in imyar after 525
killed in the course of such an invasion. Arabic sources which speak of Ary as the de facto
ruler of Yemen after the Aksumite conquest of imyar attribute his death not to an Aksumite
invasion but to Abreh, who led a revolt against Ary based within South Arabiaassuming,
of course, that a historical Ary even existed. Nor is there any evidence that Abreh had seized
power in imyar as early as 531, and Procopius as well as later Arabic sources state that, while
Aksum made attempts to depose him, it ultimately allowed him to stay in power.
449
Moreover,
since Abreh ruled at least as late as November 558 (Dh-Muhlat
an
), the last documented year
of his reign,
450
he cannot possibly be identified with the executed king of imyar mentioned in
CIH 621. Thus we can only conclude that we have a reference to Ysufs death in an inscription
dating to 531, even when all the other evidence points to 525 as the year in which he met his end.
One might argue that our system of dating is off, and that CIH 621 is really to be dated five years
earlier, thus bringing the inscription into better conformity with the literary sources on the death
of Ysuf. Such an argument, however, is contingent upon adopting 115 BCE as the start of the
imyarite Era, which might seem to solve the problem of CIH 621s date but would create
serious problems for dating the inscriptions from Ysufs reign. The evidence for 110 BCE
marking the inception of the imyarite Era has already been presented in Chapter 2, and this
theory is now almost universally accepted by South Arabianists, in which case there can be no
question that Dh-illa in the year 640 of the imyarite Era is February 531.

449
See Conclusion.
450
Gajda 2009: 116.

319

Cognizant of the chronological problems raised by CIH 621, Robin has recently
suggested that Ysufs reign may have continued after his defeat at the hands of Klb in 525 but
must have ended before CIH 621 was carved in February 531.
451
In his view the restoration of
the fortifications at in al-Ghurb described in the inscription took place soon after the death of
Ysuf, though he does not specify exactly how soon.
452
As we have seen, Ysufs own
inscriptions describe his campaigns over a course of thirteen months, so a similar time-span
between Ysufs death and the construction work at in al-Ghurb is certainly conceivable.
However, allowing Ysuf a reign that lasted several years after 525 solely on the basis of an
ambiguity in CIH 621 is hazardous. First of all, the literary sources for this period agree that
Ysuf was killed before Klb returned to Ethiopia after a campaign lasting a few months. Even
if one were to argue, albeit contrary to all available evidence, that the foreign sources have
uniformly and independently of each other telescoped events at this point, one would still have to
explain why the Aksumites waited several years before executing the erstwhile persecutor of
South Arabias Christiansnot to mention the killer of several hundred Ethiopians residing in
imyar. Secondly, such imyarite kings, namely Madkarib Yafur and Sumyafa Ashwa, as
the Aksumites brought to power were Christians who had never before sat on the throne. Their
lack of ties to the old regimes they replaced was in fact a valuable asset. Ysuf, by contrast, was
not only Jewish but had been the leader of the very regime which Klb had worked so hard to
overthrow. How Ysuf could, after his defeat, have been left in place by the Aksumites as a
king of imyar is hard to imagine. Finally, there is the lack of documentary evidence of Ysuf
after 525, whether in literary or epigraphic sources. If CIH 621 alludes to the killing of Ysuf by

451
Robin 2008: 15. In fact Robin gives February 530 as the date of CIH 621. This cannot be correct, however, for
April (Dh-Thbat
an
) is the first month of the imyarite calendar, while February (Dh-illat
an
) is the second to the
last month. Since the imyarite year 641 did not begin until April 531, this means that February 531 was still within
the imyarite year 640.
452
Ibid.: 14.

320

the Ethiopians at some point after 525, this begs the question of how it occurred. By an internal
uprising of Ethiopian elements in South Arabia? By another military expedition sent from
Aksum? There is no evidence for either, and in fact it is not until Abreh seized power that we
hear (from Procopius) of another Aksumite invasion being launched against South Arabia.
Much of the chronological confusion originates from the date of February 531 given at
the end of CIH 621, which follows a long aside in which an Ethiopian invasion is described. This
date, however, can instead be seen as referring not to the invasion but to the construction work at
in al-Ghurb. The tangential passage describing the invasion and the death of Ysuf is as
follows: K-STNW B-HW K-GBW BN R BT W-SYW B
n
ZRFT
n
B-R MYR
m

K-HRGW MLK MYR
m
W-QWLHW MR
n
W-RB
n
. The interpretation of this passage all
depends on what one makes of the particle K-, which has been taken to mean when as well as
after depending on the context.
453
Since we have no evidence for the pronunciation of Sabaic,
written as it is without vowels, it is unknown if these different shades of meaning reflect a
difference in vocalization. What is proposed here is that the K- in K-STNW B-HW means
when, in which case this phrase can be translated as when they took up a defensive position
therein (i.e. within the fortress at in al-Ghurb), while the K- in K-GBW BN R BT
introduces a new clause referring to an earlier point in time, leading us to translate this latter
phrase as after they returned from the land of the Ethiopians. The events referred to in this
clauseand the Ethiopians sent an invasion force to the land of imyar, when they killed the
king of imyar and his qayls of imyar and al-Raba (W-SYW B
n
ZRFT
n
B-R
MYR
m
K-HRGW MLK MYR
m
W-QWLHW MR
n
W-RB
n
)thus belong to this earlier
point in time, a time in fact several years before February 531 when Sumyafa Ashwa and his

453
Biella 1982: 237.

321

sons established themselves at in al-Ghurb and carried out the construction and restoration
works there.
According to the interpretation offered here, CIH 621 refers to a chain of events over the
course of several years, which can be chronologically ordered as follows:
1) Sumyafa Ashwa and his sons went to Ethiopia at some point, perhaps to raise
Aksumite awareness of the threat posed by Ysuf against the Christians in 522-524. Even
if Sumyafa Ashwa and his sons were not themselves Christian, they may have sought
political asylum in Ethiopia as a result of the unsettled political conditions in imyar.
2) Sumyafa Ashwa and his sons returned to imyar in the company of the Aksumite
invasion force 525, which put Ysuf and his followers to death. There is no indication in
CIH 621 that they led the invasion, though they might well have assisted by acting as
guides to the Ethiopian army.
3) Sometime after Sumyafa Ashwas namesake was appointed king of imyar by the
Aksumites, but before February 531, Sumyafa Ashwa and his sons were stationed at
in al-Ghurb as part of the new kings plan to rebuild the countrys damaged
infrastructure and restore security.
4) February 531: CIH 621 was carved at in al-Ghurb.
Though this may seem like an unusually long time-frame for a single inscription, it must be
remembered that for those living in South Arabia in the first half of the sixth century Ysufs
seizure of power and the subsequent Aksumite invasion which brought about his downfall were
the defining events of their lifetimes, and would have been obvious points of reference when

322

discussing the past. If Sumyafa Ashwa and his sons were already well-established nobility in
imyar in 515 (the date of BR-Yanbq 47) and reappeared sixteen years later at in al-Ghurb
after having spent some time in Ethiopia, they may have owed their survival to Aksumite
support, hence the mention of their return to South Arabia with the Aksumite invasion force,
some five or six years earlier.
Apart from the possible light which CIH 621 sheds on the defensive works mentioned in
Istanbul 7608 bis+Wellcome A 103664, from the reign of King Sumyafa Ashwa, it gives us
some idea of the tribal topography of South Arabia in the period following the Aksumite
conquest in 525. After naming Sumyafa Ashwa and his two sons Shurabil Yakmul and
Madkarib Yafur, with their affiliations to the noble imyarite tribes of Kal, Yazan, and
Gadan, CIH 621 gives a long list of the lower-ranking tribes to which they were allied. A number
of the tribal groups mentioned in CIH 621 also make an appearance in BR-Yanbq 47. As the
latter inscription is dated to April 515, three years before Klbs first invasion of South Arabia
and his establishment of the Christian Madkarib Yafur as king of imyar, the network of
alliances which Sumyafa Ashwa had established was not the product of Klbs invasion in
525, but was instead a pre-existing set of relationships between the core of the imyarite state
and its tribal periphery.
Many of the tribes mentioned in CIH 621 cannot be identified with any of those which
are attested in Arabic sources, but those which can be locatedwhether based on information
provided by other South Arabian inscriptions or by later Arabic sourcesseem to have been
based in the aramawt region. Sumyafa Ashwas relationship with these tribes, though
established before the Aksumites arrived on the scene, undoubtedly fostered stronger ties
between Aksum and imyars eastern frontier in the years following 525. From RIE 191 we

323

know that the aramawt was regarded by the Aksumites as one of the South Arabian territories
under Klbs rule as early as 518, when Madkarib Yafur was established as Aksums vassal
ruler, for it is mentioned in Klbs royal title. To be sure, the title borne by Klb in RIE 191 is
based in part on those of fifth-century imyarite kings, which lends it a rather contrived
character, and it bears mentioning as well that Klbs client Madkarib Yafur also claimed
aramawt in his title. Whatever the extent and nature of Aksumite influence in the aramawt,
the construction and restoration of South Arabias defensive works by the Aksumites imyarite
vassals marks an important step towards the extention of Aksumite influence towards the east. In
light of the references in Syriac sources to Ysufs aggressions against the Christians of the
aramawt, Klb may well have relied on Sumyafa Ashwas connections with this part of
Arabia to rebuild churches and administer the re-Christianization of those who had been
forceably converted to Judaism.
454

Marking the outer limits of Sumyafa Ashwas sphere of influence are the tribes of
Sakal
an
and akrid, two names which require special comment here. Though both are, like the
other tribal names in CIH 621, probably ethnonyms rather than toponyms, the earliest attestation
of the former name, found in the first-century CE Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, occurs in a
reference to a geographical feature, to wit the bay of Sachalits ()
455
which, judging
from the details in that text, can be identified with the coast of ufr in western Oman.
456

aram inscriptions from the site of Khor Rori (ancient Sumhuram; Classical Moscha Limn)

454
A silver coin of the Aksumite king Ebana (c. 440-470) found during excavations at Shabwa (Munro-Hay 1991
(a): 411) is so far the only hard evidence of contact between Aksum and the aramawt region, and even this coin
may have arrived via a South Arabian intermediary.
455
Periplus 29:9.22-3 (tr. Casson 1989: 67).
456
The anonymous author of the Periplus describes the neighboring frankincense-bearing land as mountainous, with
a misty atmosphere (29:9.24-5), a description that fits the mountains of ufr, which during the southeast monsoon
from late August to late September or early October are cloaked in rain and fog. The bay of Sachalits would thus
refer to the bay between Rs Fartak in eastern Yemen and Rs Mirb in western Oman, where the coast recedes,
and which at its eastern end meets the foothills of the Jabal Qamar.

324

on this line of coast refer to a local official called the governor of the king in the land of
Sakal
han
(=Sakal
an
) (QB MLK
n
B-R SKL
hn
),
457
by which may be meant the land inhabited
by the Sakal
an
people. BR-Yanbq 47 seems to refer to an attempt by the Yazanids to establish
control over this eastern region in 515, stating that Sumyafa Ashwa and his sons returned
from Asay
an
when they had plundered the tribe (TYW BN SY
n
K-LLW B
n
).
458

Asay
an
is likely the town of al-As in the eastern aamawt, which according to al-Hamdn
belonged to the Mahra,
459
an ethno-linguistic group whose territory extended into ufr, as it still
does today. It is possible, then, that the tribe Asay
an
, after whom the town was named, are
among the peoples subsumed anonymously in CIH 621 under the broad category of Sakal
an
. It is
unknown whether Aksum had any direct influence on ufr, and the circumstantial evidence for
Christianity there
460
need not indicate that the region was ever subjected to active
Christianization by Klb.
As for akrid, this name has long defied attempts at identification,
461
but is now
confidently identified with the island of Soqotra,
462
located some 240 km off the easternmost tip
of Somalia and 380 km south of Yemen. More properly, akrid is the name for the indigenous
inhabitants of the island, who presumably spoke some early form of the Soqotr language. Like
ufr, Soqotra had long-standing ties with the aramawt. The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea,
calling the island Dioskorids, says that Soqotra was ruled by the king of the frankinscense land

457
Avanzini 2008: 614.
458
Bfaqh and Robin 1979: 49-50.
459
Al-Hamdn 1974: 54.
460
To date the only evidence of Christianity in ufr is a clay chalice discovered during excavations at the ufr
fortress of Ayn umrn in 1993, which Zarins (1997: 683-4 (n. 154)) claims is Christian, though without stating
why. The interpretation of this find is not helped by the fact that Zarins provides no date for the chalice, nor does he
cite any publications of the object. Rather than indicating a Christian community in ufr, such a small object may
simply have been acquired through trade.
461
Of this toponym Rodinson (1969: 105) says only that krd na pas t identifi and makes no attempt to
identify it.
462
Bfaqh and Robin 1979: 53; Mller 2001: 151.

325

Eleazos,
463
i.e. King ladhdh Yalu I of aramawt (c. 70-90 CE).
464
At that time, says the
anonymous author of the Periplus, the population was a mixture of Arab, Greek, and Indian
elements, a statement confirmed by the discovery of Roman, aram and Indian pottery on
Soqotra,
465
as well as the Indian graffiti in Brhm in the grotto of q.
466
The name Dioskorids
(oo), by which the Periplus refers to Soqotra, is the Graecianized version of *Dh-
akrid.
467
Dioskorids appears again in the second-century CE Geography of Ptolemy and is
attested as well in the fourth-century Res gestae of Ammanianus Marcellinus.
468
The currency of
the name during the period in which CIH 621 was carved is indicated by its mention in the sixth-
century geographical lexicon of Stephanos of Byzantium and in the Christian Topography of
Cosmas Indicopleustes.
469
That ties between Soqotra and Aksum, first attested in the Geez
graffiti in the grotto of q on Soqotra,
470
continued into the sixth century is confirmed by

463
Periplus 30:10.3-31:10.20.
464
On the identification of this ruler and his dates, see Kitchen 1994: I: 25 (24). On aram rule in Soqotra, see
Mller 2001: 143.
465
Sedov 1996: 19; Biedermann 2006: 33.
466
On the Brhm graffiti from q, see 1.3.
467
Though the alleged derivation of the name Soqotra from the Sanskrit *dvpa sukhdhra, the island of the
blessed, has been given so consistently in secondary literature as to come to be treated as an established fact, the
case for this etymology is weakened in the first place by its morphological dissimilarity from other Sanskrit names
for islands. In such toponyms the dvpa element comes at the end, thus male-dvpa (>Maldives), laka-dvpa
(>Laccadives), and sinhala-dvpa (>Serendib, i.e. Sri Lanka) (Mller 2001: 151). In addition, the name *dvpa
sukhdhra does not exist as such in Sanskrit literature (Beyhl 1998: 50). In fact, far from being a regularly used
Indian name for Soqotra, *dvpa sukhdhra is a contrived creation of western scholars who simply went through
Sanskrit dictionaries looking for an etymology of Soqotra based on the a priori assumption that the island was so
named by its Indian inhabitants (ibid.: 53).

Though the name akrid is not attested in South Arabian inscriptions
before the sixth century CE, the Graeco-Roman name for the island, Dioskorids, is clearly derived from *Dh-
akrid, becoming Soqotra (Arabic ) during the medieval period as a result of metathesis of the /d/>// and
/r/. Beyhl (ibid.: 57-61) argues that the island is named after the collection of resins for which it was famed in
antiquity, taking the Semitic root q--r to mean in Tropfenform bringen or ruchern, but never considers the
evidence of South Arabian inscriptions, which call Soqotra D-KRD. Since this is the oldest Semitic attestation of
the islands name, one could argue that the phonemic shift /k/>/q/ is a later innovation, in which case one cannot
derive the name from the root q--r. The simplest explanation for the etymology of Soqotra is that the akrid were
the indigenous people of Soqotra, in which case *Dh-akrid can be interpreted as [the territory] of/belonging to
the akrid, in the same way that the term Dh-Raydn refers to the stronghold in imyar occupied by the Raydn
clan.


468
Mller 2001: 145.
469
Ibid.: 145-6.
470
Robin and Gorea 2002: 427-8.

326

Cosmas, who while in Ethiopia met Greek-speaking merchants from Soqotra.
471
The extent of
Aksums ties with Soqotras Christian community, however, remains an open question.
472


6.4. Summary
The Sabaic inscriptions Istanbul 7608 bis, Wellcome A 103664, and CIH 621 provide us
with a unique South Arabian perspective of the Aksumite invasion and its aftermath. In common
with South Arabian inscriptions of all periods they shed no light on the personalities of the great
historical figures involved with the invasion and, though they can all be confidently assigned to
the reign of Sumyafa Ashwa, they in fact tell us very little about the man. These three
inscriptions never mention the actual conversion of Sumyafa Ashwa to Christianity, for
example, though one suspects that this was a politically motivated stratagem on his part. Such
Ethiopicisms in the Christian terminology of Sumyafa Ashwas inscriptions as MNFS QDS
are highly significant, indicating as they do that, even though Klb relied on help from
Alexandria to carry out his Christianization of imyar, this program nevertheless had a
perceptible Ethiopian component.
The history of the Aksumite invasion, as told by the Sabaic sources, is that of an armed
military conquest led by Klb in person. Though the name of the imyarite capital of afr is
not preserved in any of the surviving fragments of these sources, it is quite prominent in the
Martyrium Arethae and may have been mentioned in those portions of Istanbul 7608 bis and
Wellcome A 103664 which are now missing. The reference to fighting by the Ethiopians at

471
Top. Chr. 3.65.6-13.
472
In contrast to the Ethiopians Christians, who were Monophysites, the Soqotr Christians were Nestorians (Mller
2001: 153-4; Biedermann 2006: 51-2), though doctrinal differences need not have hindered friendly relations with
Aksum any more than they hindered friendly relations between the Roman Empire and Aksum.

327

an in Wellcome A 103664 suggests that the accounts of an Ethiopian attack on the town
preserved in later Arabic texts, though not attested in Syriac, Syriac, or Geez sources, have a
historical basis. The reference in Istanbul 7608 bis to the imyarites submission to the kings of
Aksum indicates that Klbs military operations in South Arabia were not part of a short-lived
punitive campaign aimed solely at replacing Ysuf with Sumyafa Ashwa but were instead
aimed at establishing Aksumite rule, Sumyafa Ashwa being merely the representative of
Klbs authority. The Sabaic sources help fill in some of the gaps of the account of Klbs tour
through imyar given in the Martyrium Arethae. While this hagiographical text speaks only of
Klbs constructions, his restorations of churches, his appointment of priests, and his efforts to
Christianize imyar through mass baptisms, Istanbul 7608 bis and CIH 621 state that the
establishment of Aksumite rule in imyar witnessed a parallel program of establishing a
defensive infrastructure to maintain order. There is no reason to assume that this latter
undertaking was part of a larger Roman attempt to keep the Ssnids out of the Red Sea with
Aksumite help, particularly given that contemporary Roman authors never mention it.
The Sabaic material, then, presents Aksum as playing a central role in the shaping of
South Arabian politics following the fall of Ysuf, with very little in the way of religious
references apart from invocations of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Much though the historian
might appreciate the straightfoward recording of events in the Sabaic sources, it would be a
mistake to dismiss the hagiographical content of such sources as the Martyrium Arethae as
useless for understanding the history of the war between Aksum and imyar. Rather, such
material, though not produced with the aim of recording history for its own sake, is vital to our
understanding of the frame of reference of the sixth-century Christians who were so moved by
the events in South Arabia. In the following chapter we will examine the Syriac and Geez

328

sources, two bodies of material which differ strikingly from the Sabaic sources in that they
situate the Aksumite invasion of 525 squarely within the framework of holy war.




















329

Chapter 7.
THE ASKUMITE INVASION OF IMYAR AS HOLY WAR: KLBS
CAMPAIGN IN SYRIAC AND GEEZ SOURCES

7.1. Introduction
The Syriac and Geez sources give us a unique perspective of how the Aksumite invasion
of imyar in 525 was perceived by two eastern Christian communities. Regrettably, the Syriac
and Ethiopian Christians are the only such communities who are known to have produced
documentation of the invasion in the sixth century; nothing similar in Georgian and Armenian,
for example, is attested until the Islamic period, when the Greek Martyrium Arethae was
translated into these languages. Coptic sources dating from the sixth century are also silent on
Klb, Ysuf, and the Christian martyrs of Najrn, though in this instance it is likely that the
relevant material has either not survived or has not yet been found. That this is the case is
suggested by the statement in the Martyrium that Timothy, the archbishop of Alexandria, wrote
to Klb before the latters invasion of imyar, and given the long-standing contact between the
churches of Ethiopia and Egypt, it is inconceivable that the war between Aksum and imyar did
not have some effect on the Copts.
473
All the same, it is only through the medium of Syriac
literary works and Geez inscriptions that we can gain any insight at all into how eastern
Christians viewed the events that unfolded in sixth-century South Arabia. There is a great deal of
an imbalance between these two bodies of material in that, while we have extensive
documentation of Klbs invasion of imyar in such sixth-century sources in Syriac as the letter

473
To this one could add the traditional Ethiopian claim that the Kbra Nagat is based on a Coptic Vorlage. This
claim is not without basis, though it is unclear to what extent the Geez text relies on Coptic sources, and there is no
good reason to assume that such Coptic sources as it did incorporate date as far back as the sixth century. On the
dating of the Kbra Nagat and its connections with Coptic tradition, see below, 7.5.

330

of Simeon of Bt Arsham and the Book of the imyarites, Klbs correspondence with foreign
Christian communities does not survive. What we have instead are some very fragmentary
inscriptions in Geez found in Yemen, which hint at what must have been a lively production of
literature in Aksumite Ethiopia and in the Aksumite diaspora in South Arabia. If later Ethiopian
tradition is any guide in the matter, the erection of inscriptions recording Klbs campaign in
imyar and his victory over Ysuf must have been supplemented by oral narratives.
In our examination of the Martyrium Arethae we encountered not only explicitly
religious themes in the narrative of the Aksumite war with imyar, such as miracles, visits to
monks, and the construction of churches, but also Biblical motifs. In this way Klbs campaign
acquires special significance as a holy war in which good is pitted against evil and God guides
the righteous to victory. These themes are developed further in the Syriac and Geez sources
from the sixth century and, while we will not neglect the valuable historical material these
provide, it is primarily as documents of religious ideology that we shall examine these sources in
the present chapter. We will then conclude by examining the South Arabian and Aksumite
references in a much later Geez work, the Kbra Nagat. Like the Greek Bios of Saint
Gregentios, the Kbra Nagat belongs to a milieu far removed in time from the sixth century, but
since, again like the Bios, it has been exploited by some scholars
474
as an authentic sixth-century
document, a critical examination of the relevant parts of the text is essential.

7.2. The Syriac Sources
We have seen that such medieval Syriac sources on the war between Aksum and imyar
as the Chronicle of Zqnn and the history of Bar Hebraeus are heavily dependent on the

474
Most notably Shahid 1976.

331

problematic account of the conflict given by John Malalas. With sixth-century Syriac material
we are on firmer ground, and it is this latter body of material with to which we now turn our
attention. Nevertheless, useful though this material is for the history of Ysufs rise to power and
his persecution of the Christians of imyar, the information which sixth-century Syriac sources
provide on the Aksumite invasion of 525 and its aftermath is relatively limited. In the case of the
anonymous letter published by Shahid this is to be expected since the letter, written as it was
with the purpose of raising awareness of the plight of South Arabias Christians and calling for
their liberation, predates the Aksumite invasion. The letter of Simeon of Bt Arsham includes a
brief reference to the Aksumite campaign, though it too focuses almost entirely on the events
leading up to it.
Indeed the only sixth-century Syriac source which deals in any detail with the Aksumite
invasion of 525 is the Book of the imyarites. In the previous chapter it was noted that there is a
definite interest in Ethiopia on the part of the anonymous author of this text, an interest which is
missing from both the anonymous letter and the letter of Simeon of Bt Arsham. Thus in contrast
to the other two texts, the Book of the imyarites refers to Klb by name and, judging from its
table of contents, originally included an entire chapter on Klbs first invasion of imyar in
518, an event alluded to only in passing in one of the dialogues in the anonymous letter. Also
noteworthy is the almost total absence of Rome in the Book of the imyarites. Though we are
told at one point of two priests of Roman origin who lived at Najrn,
475
the Roman Empire itself,
its ruler Justin, and the Roman merchant ships used in the Aksumite war effort, are all
conspicuously absent from the text. As far as the Book of the imyarites is concerned, the only
foreign power of any consequence is Aksuma biased view to be sure, but one which

475
Book of the imyarites 1924: 14b.

332

demonstrates all the more clearly the powerful impression which Aksum had made on the
anonymous authors imagination. Our discussion of the Book of the imyarites description of
the Aksumite invasion of imyar in 525 will therefore concentrate as much on the image of
Aksum and its ruler Klb as on the historical events which shaped this image.
Though we know nothing of its author, it is almost certain that the Book of the imyarites
was written at a later date than the letter of Simeon of Bt Arsham, as is evident from the
difference in content between the two texts. In his letter Simeon says only that he had been
informed of an Ethiopians invasion of imyar, in the course of which the Jewish king was killed
by drowning and a Christian imyarite put in his place. In the Book of the imyarites, by
contrast, this skeletal report has been substantially fleshed out with hagiographical material, in
which we find Biblical allusions and references to holy war and the inheritance of land. These
elements likely mark a later stage in the development of a narrative of the Aksumite conquest.
We will begin our discussion of this Syriac material with the earlier of the two texts, the letter of
Simeon of Bt Arsham, after which we will deal with the portrayal of Klbs campaign in the
Book of the imyarites.

7.2.1. The Letter of Simeon of Bt Arsham
Since Simeon had been interested primarily in raising awareness of the suffering of South
Arabias Christians at the hands of Ysuf, his account of the Aksumite invasion in 525 comes
across as a rather terse anti-climax. He bases his brief account of the invasion on reports relayed
by some anonymous informants, of whom he says only that they were people who had

333

journeyed to that region, who had been sent by the king
476
(n d-zln (h)waw w-tn la-pnt
hy d-metaddrn (h)waw men malk).
477

They said that the Ethiopians overtook that Jewish king, bound heavy pottery
vessels to his neck, and hurled him from a ship into the depth of the sea. And
there ruled [after him] a Christian king named LPRN, and he built a church and
martyrium for those blessed [martyrs] so that, through their prayers, [this] poor
scribe might be kept safe from all evil.
(Emarw d-haw malk Ydy adrekw Ky w-esarw ba-qdleh mn d-par
d-yaqqrn wa-dawh men elp b-lebbeh d-yamm. W-amlek malk Krsyn da-
meh LPRN wa-bn dt w-bt shd l-hnn bn d-ba-lawthn netnar
ktb ml men kll d-b.)
478

The manner of Ysufs death, as described in Simeons letter, differs from the way it is described
in other sixth-century sources. All of these sources agree that he was killed by the Ethiopians,
and imply that this took place somewhere near the coast, though only Simeon gives details as to
how he died, mentioning the Aksumites use of heavy pottery vessels as weights to pull him
down underwater. The incident is treated by Simeon very laconically and matter-of-factly, with
no attempt to elaborate on Ysufs death as a punishment for his crimes against the Christians of
his realm, for example. The report that Ysuf was killed by drowning may have given rise to
later Arabic traditions of his demise, though in those traditions the incident of drowning is
described as suicide, the Jewish king seeing that there was no escape and riding his horse into the
sea, where he perishes.
479

The name given by Simeon to the Christian imyarite king appointed by the Aksumites,
LPRN (Syriac ), is problematic. Since South Arabian inscriptions give Sumyafa
Ashwa as the name of the imyarite nobleman whom Klb appointed ruler over South

476
I.e., the Lakhmid king al-Mundhir (III) b. Imru al-Qays.
477
Guidi 1881: 15 (Syriac text).
478
Ibid.
479
Al-Masd 1948: 78; al-Ibahn 1961: 113; al-abar 1961: II: 125, 127; Ibn al-Athr 1997: I: 393.

334

Arabia, and since Klb is not known to have appointed anyone other than Sumyafa Ashwa
as king of imyar, there is no doubt that that individual is to be identified with Simeons
LPRN. Yet the etymology of LPRN remains a mystery. Though the L element at first glance
invites comparison with the Arabic definite article al-, suggesting that PRN is a personal name
or epithet given to Sumyafa Ashwa by the Arabic-speaking Lakhmid envoys interviewed by
Simeon, PRN does not suggest any plausible Arabic etymology. Taking L as the Geez relative
pronoun lla common in early Ethiopian names,
480
Mller suggests Ella-Farn as a possible
vocalization of LPRN.
481
This is an attractive hypothesis which, if correct, could imply that
Sumyafa Ashwa adopted an Ethiopian name, perhaps as a token of his conversion to
Christianity at the hands of Klb. However, while such a scenario is conceivable, it lacks hard
evidence, and it could be the case that the name LPRN is a corruption. According to Simeons
letter, Sumyafa Ashwa (a.k.a. LPRN) was responsible for the construction of a church and
martyrium (dt w-bt shd) for the Christians killed by Ysufs forces. Simeon does not tell us
whether these structures were erected at Najrn, in which case they would have commemorated
the towns local martyrs, though this is likely given that Simeons letter is concerned with the
Najrn martyrs, whose intercession he invokes. Indeed, Simeon seems concerned solely with the
Najrn martyrs, and never once mentions Ysuf or Klb by name. His casual treatment of
Ysufs death has been noted above, though it is more surprising that Klb, the liberator of the
Najrn martyrs, never merits mention. Rather, it is the Christian imyarite whom Klb made
king over South Arabia who is named, and even then Simeon says nothing about how he was
brought to power, only that he reigned after the Jewish king.

480
Cf. Klbs Ethiopian name, Ella-Abe. On Ethiopian names with the lla element, see Rodinson 2001: 244.
481
Mller 1978: 163.

335

This silence on the part of Simeon regarding Klbs central role in the events in South
Arabia is surprising, particularly given that Simeon was a Monophysite like Klb and would
therefore have had no reason to discredit the Aksumite king on doctrinal grounds. Moreover,
Simeon was not only among the party of Monophysites whose release from imprisonment by the
Ssnid authorities had been secured by Klb, but had also played an important part in the effort
to encourage Klb to invade imyar. Thus he tells the unnamed recipient of his letter that he
had sent out the earlier reports about the persecutions at Najrn in order to raise awareness of the
atrocities among the bishops in Egypt, such that with their help the archbishop of Alexandria
482

might know all of them, and that they might urge him to write to the king of the Ethiopians [and
the bishops of the Ethiopians]
483
not to neglect the matter of the imyarites (b-dayhn neda
r d-epsqp d-Aleksandery hln kllhn wa-nappnh d-nektb l-malk d-Ky [w-l-
epsqp d-Ky] d-l nahmn men srn da-mry).
484
In his edition of Simeons letter,
Guidi notes that a variant manuscript contains an additional statement to the effect that the
archbishop was to write not only to the king of the Ethiopians (malk d-Ky) but also to the
bishops of the Ethiopians (epsqp d-Ky).
485
Furthermore, the Aksumites themselves
corresponded directly with the Monophysites of the Ssnid Empire, as indicated in the
anonymous letter on the Najrn martyrs published by Shahid, which states that the Ethiopians
wrote back to the orthodox (i.e. Monophysite) Persians (rtwdks Prsay) regarding

482
I.e., Timothy.
483
In his edition of Simeons letter Guidi note sthat the words and the bishops of the Ethiopians (w-l-epsqp d-
Ky) is found a variant manuscript (Guidi 1881: 14 (Syriac text)). Since the verb nahmn is plural, the subject
should be as well, in which case it makes good sense that both the king and the bishops of the Ethiopians were
referred to in the original letter. This, in turn, would imply that the ecclesiastical authorities of Ethiopia were
expected to take part in raising awareness of the suffering of South Arabias Christian community, perhaps as a
means of gaining support at the popular level for Klbs projected campaign against imyar.
484
Guidi, loc. cit.
485
Ibid.

336

Ysufs persecution of imyars Christians.
486
Since Simeon was the bishop of the Persian
Christians (epsqp d-Prsy Krsyny),
487
he was undoubtedly privy to this
correspondence, which makes his lack of interest in the Aksumites all the more puzzling. It could
be that Simeon was simply more concerned in his letter with the liberation of the Najrn
Christians than with who liberated them, and that a very different picture of his relationship with
Aksum would emerge if the full extent of the Monopyhiste correspondence regarding Najrn
survived. Lacking this, we must turn now to the Book of the imyarites for evidence of how the
Aksumite invasion of imyar was perceived in the Syriac-speaking communities of the Near
East.

7.2.2. The Book of the imyarites
When we first encountered the Book of the imyarites in connection with the Aksumite
invasion of imyar in 518 it was noted that the part of the text treating that event is totally
missing, with only the table of contents to give us an idea of the broader themes of the narrative.
For the invasion of 525 we have a greater amount of text at our disposal, though here too there
are significant sections which are lost. Nevertheless, the Book of the imyarites provides the
fullest of the Syriac accounts of this later invasion. The portions of the account which have not
survived include those describing how Klb was informed of Ysufs persecution of South
Arabias Christians, how he prepared for the punitive campaign against Ysuf, and how the
campaign was launched. For lack of several of the relevant chapters (39-41) we can do no better

486
Shahid 1971: xxxi (Syriac text).
487
Guidi: 1 (Syriac text).

337

than to refer to the table of contents, from which we learn the names of the main characters
involved with these events:
488

39) An account telling of that nobleman Umayya (=Arabic

) who went to Ethiopia

with godly zeal and informed the holy bishop Euprepios and Klb, the believing king of
Ethiopia, of all that the crucifier Masrq had done to the Christians (tat mawd al
hy d-ezal (h)w bar r mayyah ba-nn alhy l-K w-awda (h)w l-asy
prep epsqp wa-l-Kaleb malk mhaymn d-K al kll da-sar (h)w Masrq lb
ba-Krsyn).
40) The petition brought by Umayya, the believing imyarite, to the holy bishop
Euprepios and to Klb, the king of the Ethiopians, on behalf of the church of the lands
of the imyarites (bt d-etqarbat men mayyah mry mhaymn l-asy epsqp
prep wa-l-Kaleb malk d-Ky ayk d-men parp tt d-b-atrawwt da-mr[y]).
41) An account telling of the coming of King Klb with his forces for battle against the
land of the imyarites (tat mawd al metyathn d-malk Kaleb am aylwteh la-
qrb l-atr da-mry).
The Bishop Euprepios mentioned in the title of Chapter 39 is known from the anonymous
letter as the bishop of the Ethiopians (epsq da-Ky),
489
based upon which it can be
assumed that he was appointed by the Alexandrian patriarch as the leader of the Aksumite
church. Though the priests who accompanied Klb to South Arabia were undoubtedly ordained
by Euprepios, there is no indication in the text that Euprepios himself went with them.
490
The
Book of the imyarites agrees with the anonymous letter that Klb as well as the Bishop
Euprepios received a petition for the deliverance of the Christians of South Arabia. Since the
author of the letter claims that he submitted this petition to the Aksumite king and his bishop, the

488
Book of the imyarites 1924: 6a (Syriac text).
489
Shahid 1971: xxxi (12). Mobergs reading of the Syriac as Euprepios is supported by the fact that the
bishops name is written () in the anonymous letter.
490
Munro-Hay 1997: 82.

338

statement in the Book of the imyarites that a Christian imyarite nobleman named Umayya
delivered a petition to Klb and Euprepios raises the possibility that Umayya was the author of
the anonymous letter,
491
or was at least in close enough contact with its author to be entrusted by
him with delivering it to the Aksumites. It is unfortunate that Umayya is not mentioned
elsewhere in the extant text, though given that he warranted mention by name in the titles of two
chapters and was entrusted by the imyarite Christians with the mission to Aksum he was
undoubtedly an important person. Umayya presumably would have entered the narrative at some
point between Chapters 23 and 42, where almost no text survives. His function, then, parallels
that of the Bishop Thomas who had gone to Ethiopia with news of the earlier anti-Christian
pogrom in imyar that provoked Klbs first campaign in South Arabia back in 518.
The reference to the imyarite king Ysuf as Masrq in the Book of the imyarites calls
for further comment. As noted above, Ysuf is called Masrq in two other sources: 1) the
Chronicle of Seert,
492
an anonymous Syriac history surviving only in an eleventh-century
Arabic translation, but whose now lost Syriac Vorlage has been dated in its Syriac redaction to c.
670-680;
493
and 2) a Syriac translation of John Psaltes by Paul, Bishop of Edessa (d. 527), in
which Masrq is described as a king of the Arabs who was a Jew by religion (malk da-
ayyy d-taw (h)w Ydy b-tart).
494
In the Book of the imyarites the name Masrq is
invariably written upside-down as a token of the damnatio memoriae of the Jewish king. Shahid
suggeststhat the name itself is Arabic, though derived ultimately from Genesis 40:15, where the
Biblical Joseph says I was stolen away ( ) from the land of the Hebrews, masrq being

491
Shahid 1971.
492
Nest. Chron. 1910: 331.
493
Wright 1894: 183.
494
Schrter 1877: 402.

339

the Arabic passive participle of the verb saraqa, to steal.
495
How an Arabic calque on a
Hebrew word came to be bestowed on a sixth-century imyarite king in Syriac sources is left
unexplained by Shahid. Though the use of this Arabic passive participle as a derogatory epithet
is met with at a much later period in Maltese,
496
Masrq, while not attested epigraphically, is a
good South Arabian name, albeit one whose ultimate meaning remains unknown.
497
Ibn Durayd
records two individuals bearing this name, both of South Arabian origin, the first belonging to
the Ban Zayd b. Kahln, the second belonging to the Banl-Asharn.
498
Ibn ajar mentions
several other Masrqs, among them a poet of the late pre-Islamic and early Islamic period named
Masrq b. Sad al-Kind,
499
as well as a Masrq b. Wil al-aram, an early convert to Islam
who accompanied the aram delegation to the Prophet Muammad,
500
and two individuals
involved in the Ridda wars of the seventh century, named Masrq al-Akk
501
and Masrq b.
Dhl-rith al-Hamdn
502
respectively. These individuals were likewise of South Arabian
origin, as can be seen from their nisbas.
503
Indeed, the Ethiopian king Abreh himself is
reported by Arabic sources to have had a son named Masrq by his imyarite concubine
Rayna.
504
In contrast to the anonymous letter and the letter of Simeon of Bt Arsham, the
unknown author of Book of the imyarites, for all his knowledge of South Arabian affairs, does
not seem to have been in direct contact with the major individuals involved with the war between

495
Shahid 1971: 263.
496
Ta Misruqa (He of the stolen [thing]) (A. Camenzuli, Defamatory Nicknames and Insults in Late Eighteenth-
Century Malta: 1771-1798, Melita Historica 13 (2002): 319-27, esp. 322). In this case, however the passive
participle misruqa seems to refer to an item stolen, not to a person.
497
The root s-r-q is attested in Epigraphic South Arabian with the sense of to steal, as in Arabic and Geez. No
names derived from this root are attested in the pre-Islamic period, however.
498
Ibn Durayd 1958: 366, 425.
499
Ibn ajar 1970: VI: 293.
500
Ibid.: 92.
501
Ibid.: 92.
502
Ibid.: 293-4.
503
Individuals bearing the name Masrq were not limited to South Arabian tribes, however, for Ibn ajar also
names a Tammi named Masrq b. Aws b. Masrq who fought in the Muslim army in the time of Umar b. al-
Khab (13/634-23/644) (Ibn ajar, loc. cit.: 293).
504
Al-abar 1961: II: 130.

340

Aksum and imyar. To give his own account greater authenticity he may have selected a
imyarite name like Masrq as well suited for the Jewish kingthe anonymity of the king in
such earlier Syriac sources as the anonymous letter and the letter of Simeon of Bt Arsham
making it all the easier for him to get away with it.
In contrast to the campaign of 518, which was entrusted to the South Arabian ayyn,
the campaign of 525 is stated in the Book of the imyarites to have been led by Klb in person,
as we learn not only from the title of Chapter 41 but also from the final portion of the text, which
survives for the most part intact from Chapter 42 on, and in which the Aksumite king is seen to
play a direct and very personal role in the war against the Jewish imyarites. The title of Chapter
42 given in the table of contents is the speech made by the military commander ZWNS to his
forces when he came by sea against the land of the imyarites (maml d-mallel ZWNS rabb
aylawteh kad manna b-yamm lqbal atr da-mry). Of this chapter a fair amount
survives, though with lacunae throughout. In what remains of the extant text we never learn who
ZWNS was. The name clearly consists of the Geez relative pronoun za-, followed by WNS
(), the vocalization of which is not clear. Conti Rossinis theory that ZWNS conceals
Ysufs Arabic name Dh-Nuws>Dh-Awns, is rightly rejected by Mller as unsustainable.
505

Worthy of note is the NS ending, which is paralleled by such Aksumite names as Ousanas
().
506
Though the Greek rendition of the name zn as might be taken as
evidence that this distinctive ending is a function of Greek transcription of Aksumite names, a
Sabaic inscription of the third-century imyarite king Ysir
um
Yuhanim (c. 260-270) mentions
two Aksumite kings bearing names with the same ending: DTWNS (=Datwnas?) and ZFRNS

505
Mller 1978: 164.
506
Ibid.: 163.

341

(=Za-Ferns?).
507
It is probable, then, that the ZWNS of the Book of the imyarites was of
Ethiopian origin.
To date, however, such an individual has not been identified. From Procopius we learn
that Abreh came to South Arabia as the commander of an Aksumite invasion force, only to
seize power there as an autonomous ruler.
508
The Arabic sources, however, mention another
Ethiopian military commander by the name of Ary. Al-Masd
509
and al-Ibahn
510
give the
full name of the former as Ary b. Aama, though it is likely that the Aama element was
borrowed from the name of Ethiopian king, al-Aama, who according to Islamic tradition
granted asylum to the Muslims when the latter were faced with persecution by the pagan
Quraysh. Al-abar quotes a tradition preserved by Ibn Isq to the effect that, at the time of the
war between Ethiopia and imyar, the Ethiopian king (i.e., Klb) sent a force of 70,000
Ethiopians and placed Ary over them as their commander (baatha [] sabna alf
an
min al-
abasha wa-ammara alayhim rajul
an
min al-abasha yuql lahu Ary).
511
The kings
instructions to Ary were simple, if harsh: If you are victorious over them (i.e., the forces of
Ysuf), kill a third of their men, destroy a third of their country, and take captive a third of their
women and children! (in anta aharta alayhim fa-qtul thulth rijlihim wa-khrib thulth
bildihim wa-sbi thulth nisihim wa-abnihim).
512
Ary followed these instructions to the
letter and lay waste to the imyarites entire domain, sending the captive women and children
back to his master the Ethiopian king.
513
A variant account attributed by al-abar to Hisham b.
Mummad says nothing of Arys role in the war against imyar and although Abreh is

507
Ibid.
508
Procopis, Bell. Pers. I.xx.3-8.
509
Al-Masd 1948 (I): 78.
510
Abl-Faraj 1990 (VI): 226.
511
Al-abar 1961 (II): 125.
512
Ibid.
513
Ibid.

342

named as one of two commanders of the army of 70,000 Ethiopians no name is given to the
second.
514
Though one might take Ary to be this second commander, Ary does not make an
appearance by name in Hishams account until after Abreh has established himself in power at
an and its contingent districts (aqma Abraha malik
an
al an wa-makhlfih).
515
Since
the name ZWNS is attested only in the Book of the imyarites, it is impossible to tell whether
this individual can be identified with Aryassuming he actually existedor with Abreh. In
light of Procopius statement that Abreh was of slave origin,
516
and perhaps not yet Christian
when he first came to South Arabia with the Aksumite invasion force in 525, one cannot exclude
the possibility that ZWNS was the name he bore before converting to Christianity and adopting
the name Abreh, meaning literally He brought the light. For the time being, though, this
remains speculative.
Let us return now to the Book of the imyarites. From the references in Chapter 42 to all
the places on the shore of the sea (kll dkkyt b-sepreh d-ymm)
517
it is clear that the
decisive military confrontation between Aksumite and imyarite forces took place somewhere
on the Red Sea coast. Here the Ethiopians are said to have massacred many imyarites, beyond
reckoninguntil those Ethiopians reached that line where the shedder of innocent blood Masrq
was (rbn (h)waw hnn Ky menhn da-mry sagg d-l menyndamm da-
maw (h)waw hnn Ky kad rbn l-sedr haw d-beh taw (h)w ed dm zakky
Masrq).
518
Masrq himself met his death at the hands of one of the Ethiopians. Since the
individual who slew him is described as simply a certain strong, believing man (gabr ad
mhaymn w-ayltn), it would seem that he is not to be identified with Klb. Here the Syriac

514
Ibid.: 127.
515
Ibid.
516
Bell. Pers. I.xx.4.
517
Book of the imyarites 1924: 45a (Syriac text).
518
Ibid.: 45b (Syriac text).

343

text parts ways with the Greek Martyrium Arethae, which states that Klb himself killed Ysuf.
In the Book of the imyarites we are told that at first this strong, believing man did not know the
identity of the fallen imyarite whom he had killed, but that, once he saw the other imyarites
take to flight,
the brave Ethiopian who killed him recognized all the more that the one he had
killed was their evil king. He swiftly drew his sword, seized his corpse, and
dragged it a short ways into the shallows of the water by the shore of the sea. He
immediately smote off that head [] of the crucifier Masrq who, so to speak, as
Goliath glorified himself over the ranks of Israel, did the same over the
Ethiopians, the servants of God, while mocking the Cross.
(yattrt eawda (h)w zrr Ky h d-qaleh (h)w d-haw taw malekhn
ra wa-ma (h)w qalllt saypeh wa-lbak (h)w ladeh w-garreh leh
qalllt b-hn b-mayy la-spr yamm b-raqqqt d-mayy. W-men d m
(h)w wa-psaq l-reh [] d-lb Masrq h d-p haw ak da-l-mmar ba-dmt
Gawld d-al sedraw d-srl etabhar (h)w hkann haw w-p al Ky
abdaw d-Mry etabhar (h)w kad mbazza h ba-zqp.)
519

The rest of Chapter 42 describes the cutting down of Ysufs followers by the Aksumite army,
like harvesters to full ears of grain (ak r l-ebl almt d-aql).
520
Following this,
references to some sort of maritime operation can be made out in the text though, as is so often
the case with the Book of the imyarites, the exact nature and significance of this is not clear due
to the numerous lacunae. This portion of the Syriac text seems to correspond to those parts of the
Martyrium Arethae dealing with the anchoring of Aksumite ships along the South Arabian coast,
an event also paralleled, as we will see below, in the Geez inscription from Klbs reign found
at Mrib (RIE 195:I).
Following at least one page of text, which is now missing, the narrative resumes with
Chapter 43. The title of this chapter is given in the table of contents as An exposition pertaining
to the thanksgiving to God that the Christ-loving King Klb spoke to his forces in the land of

519
Ibid.
520
Ibid.: 46a.

344

the imyarites after the victory (malpnt da-lp qbl aybt da-lwt Allh d-mallel
rem la-M malk Kaleb lwt aylawteh b-ar da-mry men btar zkt).
521
In the
chapter itself Klb, in his speech to his troops, frames the invasion of imyar in the context of
divinely-ordained entitlement with the words: Behold! The Lord has bequeathed to us the land
of our enemies (h awrtan Mry ar da-beldbbayn).
522
This theme of the destruction of
Gods enemies and the inheritance of their land is repeated by Klb as he recounts cases in
which God helped the prophets of the past, reminding his troops that He destroyed the nations
before Joshua son of Nun, and caused him to inherit their land (reb (h)w l-amm men qdm
Ye bar Nn w-awrteh arahn).
523
He concludes by attributing the victory over the imyarite
Jews to God: He came before us and was at our head and fought our struggle against our
enemies, His Crucifiers; and His victory over them which He gave us is by the grace [..], thus the
victory is His and not ours, of His Cross and not our lances (et qadmayn wa-hw b-ran w-
etkatta taktan lqbal belbbayn lbaw w-zkteh da-layhn yahbh lan b-aybt [..]
mdn zkt d-Mry-y w-law dlan da-zqpeh w-law d-nazkayn).
524

In Chapter 44 we are told that, after a period of several days on the coast, the Aksumite
army moved inland, leaving a trail of destruction and plundering in their wake, until they came at
last to Najrn.
525
In their zeal for punishing the local Jews for the wrongs they had committed
against the Christians, the Ethiopians indiscriminately slaughter civilians, though given the
language barrier between them and the imyarites it seems that a number of imyarites
Christians were inadvertently killed in the process. In terms of culture, language, and even

521
Ibid.: 6a.
522
Ibid.: 47a.
523
Ibid.: 47b.
524
Ibid.: 48b.
525
Ibid.: 49a.

345

physical appearance there was probably little to distinguish the Najrn Christians from the Jews,
and as the text states:
When some of the imyarite Christians saw that all of the men among the
imyarites who were found were being exterminated, and did not know how to
tell the Ethiopians in their language that they were Christian, those Christians
prepared a stratagem and tattooed the sign of the Cross on their hands.
(W-kad zaw nn men Krsyn mry da-mry metarbn (h)waw kll
gabr d-metkan wa-d-nmrn (h)waw l-hn l-Ky da-Krsyn ennn l
ydn (h)waw leanhn ent ayybw (h)waw hnn n Krsyn w-rmn
(h)waw al dayhn rz da-lb.)
526

On showing their tattooed hands to the Ethiopian troops, the Najrn Christians were left in
peace. It was not long, though, before the Jews of Najrn caught wind of this and began tattooing
their hands with the sign of the cross in order to avoid slaughter at the hands of the Ethiopians.
Nevertheless when news of the Jews artifice came to Klb, he decided to leave in peace those
Jews who dissimulated their faith, lest they think that the cross had no power to protect against
death.
527
In this way, the Aksumite king sought to prove Christianitys superiority to the Jews
where force of arms failed.
Worthy of consideration in this regard is the fact that, while the Book of the imyarites,
like all other sources on the martyrdom of South Arabias Christians, speaks of Ysufs forcible
conversion of Christians to Judaism, it is silent on the issue of forced conversions of imyarite
Jews to Christianity. If we had at our disposal a parallel historical tradition preserved by the
imyarite Jews, it is likely that we would find Klb portrayed as a villain in much the same
way that Ysuf is presented in Christian sources. What the Book of the imyarites is concerned
with in its final chapters, though, is the fate not of the Jews of South Arabia but of the Christians
who, having recanted their faith under duress, sought to repent and re-enter the Christian fold.

526
Ibid.: 49b.
527
Ibid.: 50b.

346

Chapters 45, 46, and 48 treat this thorny issue, Chapter 45 purporting to be a direct quotation of a
petition (bt) to Klb by those Christians who had apostatized. Of this chapter little survives,
and what does remain is of no historical value. In the Chapter 46, however, we are told of the
Aksumite kings leniency in dealing with this group.
He allowed them to go as they pleased and commanded that they gather the rest of
all those who had recanted while he was passing through the cities of the land and
did all that was in his soul [..]; and [he did so] moreover in order that he might see
and question them if they had remained repentant, and then he commanded the
priests who were with him to give absolution to them and forgive them [their]
infidelity to God.
(baq (h)w ennn d-nzln kad d-bn wa-pqad (h)w l-hn da-nkannn
(h)waw l-ark d-kll ayln da-kparw (h)waw ad bar (h)w ba-mdnt d-atr
w-sar (h)w kllm d-t (h)w b-napeh [..] w-mel tb d-nez (h)w w-
nebq ennn en mkattrn (h)waw ba-tybthn w-haydn nepqd (h)w l-khn
hnn d-t (h)waw ameh mel da-nassn layhn w-nebqn l-hn kpry haw
d-b-Alh.)
528

The issue of Christian apostates had been regarded as so important that, according to Chapter 48,
Klb had asked Bishop Euprepios before leaving Ethiopia about whether the apostates
repentance could be accepted.
529
Euprepios, so it is claimed, had told the Aksumite king that,
though the apostates had sinned in leaving Christianity, their repentance could still be accepted,
and quoted from scripture in support of this view.
530
The priests who accompanied Klb during
his tour throughout the recently conquered territory had presumably come with him from
Ethiopia, having been ordained by Euprepios.
The Book of the imyarites, in fact, dwells more on the question of accepting the
repentance of Christian apostates than on Klbs efforts to rebuild the country and establish a
stable administrative system there. We get a sense of the latter in Chapter 47, entitled An

528
Ibid.: 53b.
529
Ibid.: 55a.
530
Ibid.

347

account telling of how the believing King Klb of Ethiopia appointed through his authority a
king in the land of the imyarites (tat mawd al hy d-haw mhaymn Kaleb malk d-K
amlek (h)w b-ln dleh malk b-atr da-mry).
531
Even here, this act is mentioned in the
context of Klbs admonitions to those who had transgressed through apostasy (ayln d-
etbarw (h)waw b-kprt) and the subsequent absolution of their sin by his priests.
532
It is clear
that the anonymous author of the Book of the imyarites was primarily interested in Klbs
appointee on account of his conversion and baptism:
And the Christ-loving King Klb took a certain man, one of the noblemen of the
imyarites who was also of royal lineage there, and whose name was ..WR. And
because he saw in him good will towards the Faith, and [that] he had long been
desirous of being baptized and becoming a Christian, he commanded that the
priests who were with him baptize him. And he accepted him on account of the
baptism and made him his spiritual son and appointed him king over the entire
land of the imyarites.
(Wa-al haw rem la-M malk Kaleb gabr ad men rn dlhn da-
mry d-taw (h)w w-p men zar d-malkt d-tammn da-meh (h)w
..WR. W-mel da-z (h)w leh ebyn b lwt haymnt wa-rgg (h)w
b men zabn sagg d-nemad (h)w wa-d-nehw Krsyn pqad (h)w l-
khn d-ameh w-amd (h)waw. W-qabbleh (h)w men mamdt w-abdeh leh
br rn w-smeh (h)w malk al atr klleh da-mry.)
533

Here we have an extended account of the Aksumites appointment of a Christian imyarite
prince to rule South Arabia, referred to more succinctly in the letter of Simeon of Bt Arsham.
The name given to this individual in the Book of the imyarites is, however, quite different from
the name LPRN, by which Simeon knows him. Likewise, the name Sumyafa Ashwa by
which this Christian king is known in South Arabian inscriptions, and on which Procopius
Esimiphaeus is based, has little resemblance to the name given in the sole surviving
manuscript of the Book of the imyarites, of which only the first and the last two letters ( ..)

531
Ibid.: 54a.
532
Ibid.
533
Ibid.

348

are preservedunless one hypothesizes a corruption of the name Ashwa (>).
534
An
incorrect transliteration of an unfamiliar South Arabian name is quite conceivable given the habit
in Syriac sourcesthe Book of the imyarites includedof writing the name of Madkarib
Yafur as Madkarem (). If the Book of the imyarites is correct, Sumyafa Ashwa
did not embrace Christianity until immediately before Klb made him king over imyar. Given
its timing, such an act may well have been the result of political expediency rather than genuine
religious conviction. What the anonymous author of the Book of the imyarites means by
Sumyafa Ashwas royal lineage (zar d-malkt) is not clear given that Ysuf himself
appears to have been a usurper, though it could be that Sumyafa Ashwa was a descendant of
the Judaizing imyarite kings who had ruled before the accession of Marthadl
an
Yanf at the
turn of the sixth century. If so, Klb may have sought to curry favor with the old elite families
of imyar by establishing Sumyafa Ashwa on the throne, even if his doing so required that
Sumyafa Ashwa convert to Christianity.
Chapter 48 claims to reproduce another speech (mamll) made by Klb to the South
Arabian Christians who had recanted and now wished to return to their old faith. How he did so
is not explained in the text. The language barrier between the Aksumites and imyarites had,
after all, posed a serious problem facing the South Arabian Christians who, according to the
Book of the imyarites, had been unable even to tell the Ethiopian invaders that they were
Christian. Presumably any official communitications between Klb and the local population
would have been translated by interpreters into imyaritic.
535
After relating Klbs speech in

534
Moberg (ibid.: lxxxvi) suggests that the name of Klbs appointee is Aswar, attested elsewhere in the text as a
personal name, though of a Najrn martyr, not a imyarite nobleman who later became king. He admits that the
reading of the imyarite kings name is very doubtful.
535
Sabaic was reserved by the imyarites for official inscriptions and may not have been readily understood by the
masses.

349

full, the author of the text adds some useful information regarding Klbs campaign to
Christianize imyar:
Now after the king and the troops which were with him had been in the land of
the imyarites for about seven months and had done there all that he had desired,
and had built many churches in that land and appointed priests in them from
among those who were with him, and had also appointed a king and imposed
tribute on that land, and had left behind Ethiopian notables to protect the king
from enemies and also [to protect] those churches which he had built, he led away
with him a large group of captives from among the erring imyarites and fifty
princes of royal lineage. And thus that Christ-loving Klb, and all of the troops
with him, went [back] in peace to his country, having done in the land of the
imyarites all that they desired by the power of their Lord who was with them,
and carried off [from] it everything that they fancied through the grace that
accompanied them.
(Men btar dn da-hw (h)w malk w-aylawt d-ameh b-ar da-mry ak
yar ab wa-sar (h)w tammn kll da-b wa-bn (h)w dt saggt b-
ar hy w-sm (h)w b-hn khn men ayln d-ameh w-amlek (h)w p malk
w-abdh l-ar hy b-madat wa-baq (h)w amm d d-Ky l-mareh l-
malk men beldbb w-p l-dt hln da-bn (h)w dbar (h)w ameh glt
rabbt men ay da-mry w-gabr amn rawrbn men zar d-malkt.
W-hkann ezal (h)w ba-lm l-atreh h rem la-M Kaleb w-kll
aylawt d-ameh kad sar b-ar da-mry kll da-baw b-ayleh d-Mrhn
d-amhn wa-qalw bh kll reggt d-enynayhn b-yad aybt d-lewy l-
hn.)
536

This passage provides us with a useful thumb-nail sketch of the course of Klbs campaign in
South Arabia. According to the text, Klbs was not a brief stay in the country which came to an
end once his forces killed Ysuf but was rather a seven-month sojourn during which he built
churches, appointed priests, and re-established a permanent Ethiopian presence to give support to
the Christian imyarite prince whom he made king. Clearly Klbs intention was not simply the
restoration of Christianity throughout South Arabia but also furthering its expansion through the
establishment of a Christian regime under a Christian king, with priests to provide for the
spiritual care of the population. To give political support to Sumyafa Ashwa he left

536
Book of the imyarites 1924: 56a (Syriac text).

350

Ethiopian notables (amm d d-Ky) in South Arabia, perhaps the QBT
m
mentioned in
Istanbul 7608 bis.
Putting a new religious and political structure in place implied the removal of any
remnants of the old regime which did not follow Sumyafa Ashwa in converting to
Christianity. These die-hards Klb is said to have taken back to Ethiopia as prisoners of war.
Though it could be that the motif of taking the imyarite princes captive is inspired by the story
of Nebuchadnezzars capture of Jerusalem and his leading of its elite, its warriors, and its
craftsmen into exile,
537
the policy of re-settling prisoners of war in regions far removed from
their homeland is already attested in inscriptions from the reign of zn (c. 330-360),
538
and it
is likely that many imyarites met a similar fate as a result of Klbs invasion in 525. One is
reminded as well of the reference in Ibn Isq to the captive imyarites whom the Ethiopian
general Ary sent back to his master, though these captives are said to have been women and
children. The claim that the entire Aksumite army returned to Ethiopia with Klb, though, is
clearly wrong, for Procopius tells us that many Ethiopian troops stayed behind in South Arabia
after their king returned home, and that it was in fact they who would later bring Abreh to
power.
539
Moreover, Klb is unlikely to have left newly-conquered imyar without first
establishing an Ethiopian military presence to support and protect his client Sumyafa Ashwa.

7.3. Summary
The letter of Simeon of Bt Arsham and the Book of the imyarites are the only sixth-
century Syriac texts to date which describe the Aksumite invasion of imyar in 525. Of the two

537
2 Kings 24:14-16; 2 Chronicles 36:17-20; Nehemiah 7: 6-66.
538
Rodinson 1981.
539
Bell. Pers. I.xx.5-7.

351

texts the Book of the imyarites provides a far more detailed account of the invasion, though the
relevant text is fragmentary in parts. While both sources are on the whole well informed on the
course of events, they are a bit unclear on such details as names. Thus Ysuf remains a nameless
Jewish king in both texts, while the name Klb is known only to the anonymous author of the
Book of the imyarites. Both texts give the name of the Christian nobleman whom Klb placed
on the imyarite throne, but give different versionsLPRN in the case of Simeons letter and
..WR in the case of the Book of the imyarites. In addition, the Book of the imyarites includes
a great deal of hagiographical, Biblical, and miraculous asides, suggesting that it represents a
later stage in the development of a narrative on sixth-century South Arabian Christianity.
The Book of the imyarites portrays Klb as a Christian king who goes to battle with the
Jewish imyarites in the company of priests, builds churches, and embellishes his several
speeches to the imyarite Christians with quotations from the Bible. In the course of the latter,
reference is made to the inheritance of South Arabian land by the Christian Aksumites, an act
which Klb is said to justify by analogy with the Israelite conquest of Canaan. This interest in
Ethiopia is not of course to deny that the anonymous author had other interests. Indeed, if one is
to judge solely from the space he devotes to it in his text, the most significant legacy of the
Aksumite invasion for the author of the Book of the imyarites is the re-Christianization of those
who had been forcibly converted to Judaism under Ysuf. Yet even in this we can perceive an
acknowledgement of the debt which South Arabian Christianity owed to Aksum.
While such anecdotal elements in the Book of the imyarites as the dialogue of Klb
with the South Arabian Christians, thoroughly infused with Biblical allusions, might be seen to
cloud the historicity of the narrative, it is these elements which shed light on the ways in which
the Aksumite invasion was viewed by the Christians of the East during the sixth century. We

352

have seen that the Greek Martyrium Arethae views the Aksumite invasion as in many ways a
Christian holy war with Biblical overtones. But as Detoraki notes, there is no evidence that the
Book of the imyarites was used by the author of the Martyrium,
540
which might point to a much
wider diffusion of the rhetoric of holy war, such that different authors drew on the same topoi.
Since the Christians of the Near East would have interacted with Ethiopians at monasteries and
places of pilgrimage in South Arabia and in the Holy Land it is more than likely that ideas about
Klbs image as a Christian warrior-king were exchanged, and that these were the basis of what
sources like the Book of the imyarites regard as an Aksumite ideology of holy war. In the
previous chapter it has been argued that Klbs invasion of imyar in 518 had been conceived
as a reassertion of Aksumite rights to South Arabia, though in that case a historical basis for
entitlement was sought through a tendentious reading of the third-century Monumentum
Adulitanum II. Our witness for that instance of politically motivated antiquarianism is Cosmas
Indicopleustes. In the Book of the imyarites the entitlement to foreign land is evoked in a
speech made by Klb to his troops, in which he tells them that God had given them their
enemies land as an inheritance. Here, the source of legitimacy is religious in nature, illustrated
by a long list of cases drawn from the Old Testament in which God grants victory to His true
believers, among them Joshua, whom He allowed to inherit the land of Canaan much as He now
allowed the Christian Aksumites to inherit the land of imyar. The question then arises as to
how authentically Aksumite such sentiments are. In answer to this we turn now the the Geez
inscriptions from Yemen.

540
Detoraki 2007: 50.

353

7.4. The Geez Sources
When we come to the Geez sources, we are faced with the problem that no Aksumite
inscription recording the 525 invasion survives from the Ethiopian side of the Red Sea, though
we find allusions to it in a series of very fragmentary Geez inscriptions from Yemen which
appear to date to Klbs reign (RIE 195:I+II, 263, 264, 265, and 266). It might very well be the
case that Klb erected an inscription at Aksum recording this second campaign in an inscription
similar to the one in which the invasion of imyar in 518 is mentioned (RIE 191), and which is
still awaiting discovery.
541
It can hardly be doubted that the invasion of imyar in 525 had a
profound impact on the Aksumite masses, and here the existence of other channels for the
expression of royal propagandasuch as visual culturemay have been more effective than
inscriptions in conveying the ideology of Christian Aksumite victory over Jewish imyar.
Suggestive of this visual articulation of propaganda is Hahns theory that Klbs defeat of
Ysuf was commemorated in a series of coins minted in Klbs name, which feature three
crosses over the kings head, in all likelihood a reference to the Holy Trinity.
542
This
iconographic feature is unique to this issue, and since these coins belong to a type dating after the
latest coins of Klb in the al-Madhriba hoard, Hahns attribution of this issue to the period
following Klbs victory over Ysuf is worth consideration.
543
Barring anything more concrete,
however, we must content ourselves instead with some very fragmentary Geez inscriptions from
Yemen which can be dated to the aftermath of the invasion of 525 and which give us our only
glimpse of how the invasion was perceived by the Aksumites themselves.

541
It is worth noting in this connection that RIE 191 was only discovered around 1959 (Bernard et al. 1991: 272),
having been missed by the otherwise very thorough Deutsche Axum-Expedition at the turn of the twentieth century.
542
Hahn 2000 (a): 298.
543
Ibid.

354

To be sure this is not the full extent of Geez material on the invasion, for Klbs
exploits in South Arabia found him a place in Ethiopian Christian tradition as a saint.
544
The
hagiographical literature, however, is not only considerably later in date than the events it
describes but, given that it is based on medieval Chrisitian texts in Arabic, such as the Arabic
rendition of the Martyrium Arethae,
545
it is essentially derivative and as such cannot be taken as
representative of an autochthonous Ethiopian tradition derived from genuine Aksumite material.
Indeed, whatever written historical materials existed in Geez during Aksumite times seem to
have already been lost by the time the Solomonid kings of Ethiopia came to power in 1270, and
there is no evidence that Aksumite inscriptions were ever used as primary sources by medieval
Ethiopian authors.
546
This is not to say, however, that Ethiopian traditions about Klbs war
against imyar did not already exist independently of medieval written sources, if only because
the translation into Geez of such sources of these as treated Klbs reign indicates that there
was already a demand in medieval Ethiopia for material on Aksumite history. Just how many
autochthonous Ethiopian traditions on Klb were preserved, and how far back they date, will be
dealt with in our discussion of the Kbra Nagat (The Glory of the Kings). Though most
famous for its greatly embellished account of the encounter of King Solomon and the Queen of
Sheba, the Kbra Nagat can be described more accurately as an Ethiopian history of the world,
based on Biblical and post-Biblical traditions, whose main interest to us in this study is in its
account of the invasion of 525 in its final chapter. Before examining this fascinating yet
problematic text, we will treat the fragmentary sixth-century Geez inscriptions from Yemen.

544
A homily (drsn) in Klbs honor, possibly derived from an older Vita, is transmitted in a fourteenth-century
ms. (EMML 1763, fols. 34v-35v), and the king is mentioned as well in the Ethiopian Synaxarium on 20 Genbt (29
May) (Fiaccadori 2007 (b): 329).
545
Martirio di Areta 2006.
546
In this regard it did not help that a number of Aksumite inscriptions were written in Greek, a language whose use
in Ethiopia ended with the fall of the kingdom of Aksum. As for Aksumite inscriptions in Geez, several of these are
written not in the fdal script used in medieval Ethiopia but in South Arabian musnad, which would likely have
hindered attempts by post-Aksumite Ethiopians to make sense of such texts.

355

7.4.1. The Geez Inscriptions from Yemen
The Geez inscriptions from Yemen include two fragments of an inscription from Mrib
(RIE 195:I+II), to date the most substantial Geez text from Yemen, as well as two fragments
from afr (RIE 263 and RIE 264) and two others of uncertain provenance (RIE 265 and RIE
266). Though Klbs name does not appear in any of the surviving Yemeni fragments, they can
be confidently assigned to his reign in light of the apparent references in RIE 195:I+II from
Mrib to a war against imyar, the defeat of its king, and the burning of his palace. Since this
chain of events cannot be associated with the downfall of any ruler other than Ysuf, RIE
195:I+II can only date from the reign of Klb. While we know from Procopius
547
that,
following the campaign of 525, Klb launched two subsequent Aksumite invasions of South
Arabia in order to dethrone the upstart Abreh, these latter invasions were unsuccessful, and
only resulted in a grudging acceptance by Aksum of Abrehs rule over South Arabia.
Consequently, Abreh, the only other possible candidate for the role of the anonymous king of
imyar mentioned in RIE 195:I+II, can be safely eliminated in favor of Ysuf. Furthermore, the
similarity between the style of script used in this inscription and that employed in the other
fragments from Yemen allows us to assign this entire corpus of Geez material to the reign of
Klb.
548
He may well have ordered the erection of triumphal inscriptions in Geez in all of the
major towns of South ArabiaMrib, afr, and perhaps Najrn
549
as wellin the aftermath of
his victory over Ysuf in 525.
550
These inscriptions, however, need not have presented the same

547
Bell. Pers. I.xx.5-8.
548
The only significant difference between these inscriptions is the orthography of the name imyar, which is
written mr in RIE 266 but amr in RIE 195:II. This slight difference may be due only to the use of different
scribes.
549
To date, however, no Geez material has come to light in Najrn, though further excavations of the site are
needed before we can state conclusively whether or not Klb erected inscriptions there as well.
550
The Tihma and the southern coast of Yemen might yield some Geez material in the future, though to date
nothing of the kind has been found there. In his search for writings and inscriptions in the territory west of Aden,
Serjeant was told by locals of graffiti at Ghayl Barbar, which he was unable to visit, but which he speculated may

356

text, and may instead have narrated those stages of Klbs campaign which had a direct bearing
on the towns in which they were erected. This project of advertising the Aksumite victory
albeit in a language which few if any South Arabians knewundoubtedly went hand in hand
with Klbs construction of churches throughout imyar, described most fully in the Martyrium
Arethae.
Like Klbs earlier inscription from Aksum (RIE 191), erected in the aftermath of his
first campaign against imyar in 518, his inscriptions from Yemen contain verses from the
Bible. To that extent the Yemeni corpus shares with the RIE 191 the same cognitive framework,
in which warfare was given a Biblical cast. But there the similarity ends, for while RIE 191 is
written in an unvocalized form of Geez using a fourth-century version of the South Arabian
musnad script, and thus echoing the fourth-century inscriptions of Ousanas and zn, Klbs
inscriptions from Yemen are consistently written in fully vocalized Geez, with no attempt to
imitate the fourth-century inscriptions of Ousanas and zn from Aksum. Klb may have
proclaimed himself king of South Arabia in RIE 191, but he was nevertheless an Aksumite king
of South Arabia. To that end he may have wanted to assert those aspects of monumental
Aksumite culturesuch as the vocalized fdal scriptwhich were the most distinct from
imyarite culture. Significant in this regard is the fact that, while Klbs alternate name Ella-
Abe is invoked in the Sabaic inscriptions of the Christian imyarite king, Sumyafa

have been Ethiopian in origin in light of the similarity of the word Barbar to Barbira, the name by which the
peoples of the Horn of Africa were known to Arab authors (Serjeant 1953: 123). Such a hypothesis, however, rests
on the dubious assumption that these locals would have recognized Geez graffiti as African in origin. Indeed as an
indication of the difficulties in finding genuinely Ethiopian inscriptions, Serjeant himself notes that the Yemenis
with whom he spoke were in the habit of attributing graffiti of unknown origin to a vanished race of Christians on no
grounds other than the belief that all Christians belonged to a single ethnic group. In this way a pre-Islamic graffito
which Serjeant was shown at Am-Fajara, though recording nothing more than a mans name, was known locally as a
Christian inscription (ibid.: 128).

357

Ashwa, whom he set on the throne, Klb never left any Sabaic inscriptions of his own in
South Arabia.

7.4.1.1. The Inscriptions from afr and the Unprovenanced Fragments
Since it is easiest to deal with those inscriptions of which the least amount of text
survives, we will begin with the most fragmentary of Klbs inscriptions from Yemen. These
again are the two fragments from afr (RIE 263 and RIE 264), and the two other fragments of
uncertain provenance (RIE 265 and RIE 266). Of RIE 264, found by Costa at afr, all that
remains of the text is ...z[- mk
w
rbt [ -na haba [ ] ada[ ] qata[l-.
551

The final word can easily be read as the Geez verb qatala, meaning to kill, and in light of the
references to armed conflict in the other Geez inscriptions from Yemen it is presumably used
here in the context of a war with the imyarites. It is impossible to make sense of anything else
in RIE 264 apart from mk
w
rbta, the Geez word for synagogues. For such a small
fragment this is a highly significant reference, for we have here the earliest known attestation of
this word in Geez. Mk
w
rb is derived from the Sabaic word for synagogue MKRB, attested in
Jewish imyarite inscriptions from the late fourth to early sixth centuries.
552
The earliest of these
inscriptions dates from c. 380-420, judging from the reference to Dharaamar Aymn, a co-
regent of both Malkkarib Yuhamin (c. 375-400) and Abkarib Asad (c. 400-440), and alludes
to a synagogue (MKRB) called Alk in the context of the construction of a palace (BYT) by
one Yahda Yakkf; this would presumably have been at afr, where the inscription was
found.
553
Since the Letter of Simeon of Bt Arsham states that Ysuf converted the church which

551
Bernard et al. 1991: 351.
552
Robin 2003: 122.
553
Idem. 2004: 883-4.

358

the Ethiopians had built at afr into a synagogue, there would thus have been at least two
Jewish houses of worship in the imyarite capitalYahdas and Ysufswhich would
explain the use of the plural form mk
w
rbta in RIE 264. The context is of course impossible
to guess, though one can scarcely doubt that the churches which Ysuf had converted into
synagogues were converted back into churches by Klb, and that the Aksumite king
reciprocated Ysufs actions by destroying pre-existing synagogues or converting them into
churches.
RIE 263, also from afr, is now kept in the Museum of afr and was studied some
years ago by Pirenne.
554
Nine lines of text survive, of which only eight can be read, and then
only partially:
555

] [ (?)...
na wa-ba [ our and he allowed/gave authority
hymnta ab [ the Faith of the Father
] angabny la[- Angabny
K]rsts yma[ Christ
]qa ba-r basa[ with Rome(?)...
]nw wa-baak [ and I reached
]lk samana l[ I (?)
556

] yana n[ (?)
The Christian allusions in this inscription are obvious, though it is impossible to tell how they fit
together given the substantial portions of the text which are missing. In the fifth line the name of

554
Pirenne 1982: 105.
555
Bernard et al. 1991: 350.
556
The suffix -k in Geez indicates the perfect for the first-person singular. Igonetti (1973: 80) suggests that
samana is a defective writing of samna, which could in this case be either part of a contruct phrase or a direct
object.

359

Christ (Krsts) can be made out, followed by the beginning of a masculine third-person verb in
the either imperfect or subjunctive, yma[. Pirenne restores the verb as the subjunctive ymr
(may he guide, that he might guide) and reconstructs the extant text in the fifth line as
(Krsts ymran) and translates it as le Christ guide.
557
On the other hand, a
more recent edition of the inscription, published in the Recueil des inscriptions de lthiopie des
priodes pr-axoumite et axoumite, provides the reading yma- without attempting a
reconstruction of the verb.
558
Given that the inscription breaks off at this point, it seems best to
adopt the latter reading for lack of any firm evidence for Pirennes interpretation. Pirenne further
draws attention to r in line six, which she reads as the Geez word for Greece and glosses as
a term for Byzantium.
559
Though r, or more properly r,
560
is regarded by scholar as a
cognate of the Sabaic R, meaning west,
561
the word is never used in that sense in Geez,
and such a usage would seem out of place in an inscription which in all likelihood spoke of
imyar, located as it was to the east of Aksum. If, therefore, one accepts Pirennes identification
of r with Byzantium, this would be the only known reference to the Roman Empire in an
Aksumite inscription.
562
That the Roman Empire is mentioned at all may have been occasioned
by the appropriation of the Roman merchant ships by Klb for the invasion of imyar.
563

557
Pirenne 1982: 107, 112. This, in fact, is a mistranslation; Krsts ymran would mean may Christ guide
me.
558
Bernard et al. 1991: 350.
559
Pirenne 1982: 108.
560
r in Classical Geez is more properly written with an aynthus , rather than the which appears in
RIE 263in which case we might have evidence that the pharyngeal fricative () was already on its way to
becoming a glottal stop () in sixth-century Geez. By the Middle Ages this phonemic shift was complete, as a result
of which the fdal signs for the pharyngeal fricative and the glottal stop are frequently confused in medieval Geez
texts. While the original pharyngeal fricative has long been replaced by the glottal stop in Amharic, it is nevertheless
preserved in Tigrinya and Tigr.
561
Leslau 1991: 563; Biella (1982: 438) compares the Sabaic noun R with the Arabic verb arraa, citing the
phrase arraat al-shams, the sun approached the setting.
562
The term R
n
is attested in pre-Aksumite Ethiopian inscriptions as part of a royal title: MLK
n
R
n
YGDY
n
as a
counterpart to MLK
n
DMT W-SB (King of Dimat and Saba) (Drewes 1962: 96-7). Drewes is likely correct in
interpreting YGDY
n
as the nisba of an early form of Agz (the free ones; i.e. the Ethiopians, hence the name

360

By far the most controversial theory put forward by Pirenne is the reading of the word in
the fourth line, angabny, as a name, Angabny, for which she proposes the etymology
Angabo-nay = Angabo le voici.
564
The same angabny also appears in Klbs inscription
from Mrib (RIE 195:II:1-2), where Mller restores it as ngabeny, suggesting that it is a
nisba-adjective.
565
Pirenne, however, claims that this word was a title borne by Klb, and
presents an impressive body of evidence drawn from later Ethiopian tradition in support of her
interpretation.
566
Such an interpretation, however, is open to serious question on chronological
567

as well as thematic
568
grounds. Indeed, Leslau interprets angabny as not a proper name at all

Geez). As for R
n
, this does not appear from the context to refer to a group separate from the Agz in the way
that Dimat and Saba are distinguished by W- (and). Rather it would seem to be an epithet like YGDY
n
, though
one which Drewes admits he is unable to explain. Since inscriptions from the period of the Dimat kingdom predate
Klbs reign by roughly a thousand years and contain many archaic Ethio-Semitic features which, though attested
in some cases in Tigr and Tigrinya, are not found in Geez, the Pre-Aksumite R
n
raises more questions than it
answers for the r of RIE 263.
563
Pirenne (1982: 108) considers the possibility that r might be an alternative form of r (cessation), a not
illogical suggestion given the phonemic shift //>// in Geez and the consequent confusion between and in
medieval Geez texts. Apart from suggesting that cessation in this might refer to Klbs putting an end to the
persecution of South Arabias Christians, Pirenne does not pursue this line of reasoning further and in the end settles
on an identification of r with Byzantium.
564
Pirenne, loc. cit.: 113.
565
Mller 1972 (a): 64.
566
Pirenne cites an Ethiopian legend telling of the slaying of the serpent-king Arw by a man named Angab, who
subsequently takes the throne, and notes that in variants of this tradition, the role of liberator of Ethiopia from the
serpent-king is assumed by none other than Klb, who after slaying the serpent rules as king (Pirenne 1982: 114).
567
The Klb of Ethiopian tradition is drawn not from authentic Aksumite material but from Arabic Christian
literature translated into Geez during the Middle Ages and mixed with Israelite motifs, such as Klbs alleged
descent from King David, which gained currency only in the fifteenth centuries with the dissemination of Geez
Synaxarium and the Kbra Nagat (Munro-Hay 2001).
568
Though Pirennes interpretation of Angabeny as a title borne by Klb seems an attractive hypothesis,
particularly if one imagines that the Aksumites likened King Ysuf of imyar to an evil serpent-king, the fact that
Ethiopian tradition envisions Arw as a serpent-king who tyrannized not South Arabia but Ethiopia calls into
question the use of legendary material from much later periods in the study of Aksumite ideology. Since Klb was
remembered in Post-Aksumite Ethiopia as a great ruler who, under his name Ella-Abe, was responsible for the
introduction of Christianity to Ethiopia, it is more likely that the legendary king Angab came in later centuries to
be identified with him. As for how late this occurred, Angab is first mentioned in the Vita of Abba Af, dating
from the late fourteenth to early fifteenth century (Munro-Hay 2003 (b): 264; Grierson 2003: 135-6). Though he
appears in Ethiopian king-lists as a predecessor of the Queen of Sheba, known in Ethiopian tradition as Mked,
Angab is conspicuously absent from the Kbra Nagat, a fourteenth-century text which speaks at great length
about Mked. This indicates that the association of Angab with Klb did not occur until over eight hundred
years after Klbs reign. All speculation that the name Angab dates back to the Aksumite period must therefore
be rejected, as should any theories of a connection with the epithet angabny.

361

but rather a word meaning noble or offspring of a noble family.
569
It is attested for the first
time in a vocalized Geez inscription of zn from Aksum (RIE 189) recording that kings
conquest of the Nubian kingdom of Mero. In one passage in this text (lines 19-26) zn tells
us how the Aksumite troops seized the Nubians supply of food, copper, and iron, before
destroying the Nubians idols, their storehouses of food, and their cotton, and casting these into
the Nile as the Nubians drowned while trying to escape in boats. zn boasts that in the course
of this campaign he captured two governors who had come as spies riding female camels
(wawk magabta klta lla ma aynta nza yaan arkbta) as well as a
nobleman, referred to in the text as ngabw.
570
This term is believed by Leslau to be a variant
of angabny,
571
in which case its use in the context of zns taking of prisoners could be
taken to mean that the angabny in Klbs inscription RIE 263 might not refer to the
Aksumite king at all, but could instead be a reference to a captured imyarite nobleman.
Possibly relevant is the reference in the Martyrium Arethae to Klbs capture of a kinsman of
Ysuf and his use of this man as a guide to afr, the very city in which RIE 263 was erected. In
all likelihood, RIE 263 was erected to commemorate the capture of afr.

569
Leslau 1991: 29.
570
Bernard et al. 1991: 264.
571
Leslau 1991: 29. Kirwan takes ngabw as a proper name in his translation of RIE 189 (Kirwan 1960: 164), but
adds in a footnote that this may be possibly tautological. Despite this cautionary footnote, Angabenawi is accepted
without comment as a proper name in Burstein 2009: 118), in which the source for the translation is incorrectly
given as Kirwans article A Survey of Nubian Origins (Sudan Notes and Records 20 (1937): 50-1). In fact,
Kirwans translation in the latter article omits the section on the capture of the spies in which the term ngabw
appears. The mistranslated passage in Bursteins work reads as follows: And I captured two nobles, who had come
as spies, riding on camels. Their names were Yesaka, Butale, and the chieftain Angabenawi (Burstein 2009: 118).
Since, however, the inscription refers to only two noblesbetter translated as governors (magabt)it would
appear that their names (asmthm) refers only to Yesak and Btl, and that thengabw was simply
another member of the Nubian elite who had also been captured at the time. Bernard et al. (1991: 264) read
ngabw kbra, which could be a construct phrase meaning something like one of noble birth belonging to the
royal house. If so, then we might translate lines 24-5 of RIE 189, wawk magabta klta lla ma aynta
nza yaan arkbta wa-asmthm Ysak [wa-]Btl wa-ngabnw kbra, as I captured two
governors who had come as spies riding camels, their names being Yesak and Btl, and one of noble birth
belonging to the royal house.

362

Of the two unprovenanced Geez inscriptions from Yemen the first (RIE 265) is part of
an alabaster tablet acquired at Aden by the Austrian expedition to South Arabia in 1898-9; it was
sent to the Arabist D. H. Mller in Vienna, and is now kept at Viennas Kunsthistorisches
Museum. Nothing is known of where the fragment originated. Eight lines can be made out, of
which the remaining portions of seven can be read as follows:
572

] zagadan wa-wadqa [ (?) and he/it fell
da]qqa ahawh 2 [wa- two of his brothers children and
]-ra brm-ssa [ (?) but/as for their land
]na nza ns[ our while we
]ka r[b (?)
z]a yga[b (?)
]-h [ (?)

Though it is impossible to discern the overall meaning of the text from what little remains, RIE
265 is likely derived from an inscription recording the military campaign against imyar in 525
described in RIE 195:I+II and presumably the other Geez fragments from Yemen. The mention
of the children of his brothers (daqqa ahawh) in the second line can be compared to the
references to children and women as prisoners of war in inscriptions from the reign of zn.
The other unprovenanced fragment (RIE 266) is currently kept in the National Museum at
Aden
573
and bears four lines of text, of which the following can be made out:
574

...].- mr [ imyar
].-m wa-atawa -[ (?) and he brought back (?)
].- gz[]br a[ God(?)

572
Bernard et al. 1991: 352.
573
There it is catalogued as E1=NAM 2429.
574
Bernard et al. 1991: 353.

363

Again, though no coherent sense can be made out of this small fragment, we are clearly dealing
here with some sort of operation in imyar. Of particular interest is the orthography of the name
imyar itself, which is here written mr () and in line 17 of RIE 195:II amr ().
This indicates that the Greek O is in fact a fairly accurate rendition of how the name of
the South Arabian kingdom would have been pronounced in antiquity (*umayr), while the
Arabic imyar (

), conventionally used by Arab as well as western scholars, is a later

innovation. The invocation of God hints at the religious terms in which the inscription was
couched, a phenomenon which is most noticeable in Klbs inscription from Mrib, to which
we now turn our attention.

7.4.1.2. The Inscription from Mrib (RIE 195: I+II)
Two fragments of a Geez inscription (RIE 195:I+II) from Mrib provide what is by far
the most important and the most extensive specimen of Geez from Yemen. RIE 195:I was
discovered at Mrib in 1947 by the Egyptian archaeologist Ahmed Fakhry,
575
whose photograph
of the piece was published with a translation by Murd Kmil seventeen years later.
576
During
the Deutsche Yemen Expedition in 1970 the fragment was re-examined in the Museum of Taizz
by Mller, who published a new and improved translation into German two years later.
577

Though the two fragments do not fit together in their present state, the text of RIE 195:I seems to
be continued on RIE 195:II,
578
which was found by the Deutsche Yemen Expedition in a depot of

575
Fakhry 1952: I: 119.
576
M. Kamil, An Ethiopic Inscription Found at Mareb, JSS 9 (1964): 56-7.
577
Mller 1972 (a).
578
RIE 195:II is in fact broken into two fragments, though since they fit easily together they can be treated as a
single fragment.

364

the Museum of an.
579
The fate of the remainder of the inscription is hinted at by Mller who,
while in Yemen with the German expedition, spoke with an old man in an who had served in
the army of Imm Yay (r. 1904-1948), the Zayd ruler of Yemen, and who recalled that, while
stationed with the imms troops at Mrib, he saw some ancient inscriptions which were not in
imyar (i.e., musnad). The imm, he said, had ordered these and other pre-Islamic relics in
Mrib to be destroyed. Upon being shown the Geez fragments at the Museum of an, the old
man told Mller that those inscriptions which he saw years earlier at Mrib were in the same
script.
580
This account of the destruction of antiquities in Mrib is confirmed by Fakhry, who
visited Mrib in the course of his archaeological journey to Yemen in 1947. According to
Fakhry, the imms forces had been in control of Mrib ever since their victory over the local
Abda tribe in 1934, and had pulled down numerous ancient structures in an effort to procure
cheap building materials.
581
The imms governor, al-Sayyid Amad al-Kaln, justified the
destruction of these antiquities on the grounds that they were the work of idolaters, though
Fakhry claimed that he later convinced Imm Yay to put an end to the destruction.
582
Further
Geez fragments have yet to turn up at Mrib.
What remains of the text of RIE 195:I can be read as follows:
583

]wata[ (?)
] wa-ybyaka [ and may He make you great
]dk marsa za-sm [ I(?) the port named
]la msla azb[ya (?) with my troops/people

579
Mller 1972 (a): 60-1; Bernard et al. 1991: 285-6.
580
Mller, loc. cit.: 61.
581
Fakhry 1952: I: 11, 89.
582
Ibid.
583
Transliteration based on Bernard et al. 1991: 286.

365

ka]ma yb mazmr ytna as the Psalm says, He will rise
up
al]t m-qdma ga [ his ene]mies before him
] wa-waw wa-barbara[ and took him prisoner and
booty
s]adada azba m-q[dma he ex]pelled the people/troops
be[fore
]btk wsta amar I spent the night on the ship
]t ayq za-maawan [gza-br its shore, which God delivered
unto me
]marn wa-manfaq a[zbya (?)and half/part of it my
tr[oops/people
manfaq a]zbya warada nta qara
584
[ a divison of my tr]oops descended
by cutting through (?)
man]faq azbya warada half/pa]rt of my troops
descended
Despite its badly fragmented state and the numerous lacunae in the text, RIE 195:I, like
its companion piece RIE 195:II can be readily understood as a record of the war between Aksum
and imyar and the ultimate Aksumite victory. Throughout it all, Klb speaks directly in the
first person. In RIE 195:I, a seaborne invasion seems to be described in the third and fourth lines,
in which the text can be read as ]dk marsa za-sm [ ] msla azb. Since the space
before ]dk in line 3 is broken off, it is difficult to tell whether this word should be
reconstructed as adk, I crossed, or as abdk, I lay waste.
585
Mller settles on the latter
interpretation, translating the passage as ich [verw]stete(?) den Hafen, dessen Na[me] ].

584
The meaning of qara is unclear. Altheim and Stiehl (1969: 199-200) read qrat which, though attested in
Classical Geez in the sense of incision or mark, they take to mean an inlet along the coast. Mller (1972: 74)
rightly rejects this theory, which has no etymological basis, and instead suggests Einschnitt. This is more
plausible, and if correct may suggest some sort of cutting action, as through stone.
585
Altheim and Stiehl (1969: 199-200) reconstruct this passage as tadk marsa, which they translate as ich bin
hinbergegangen in den Hafen.

366

mit [] Volk (Heer) [
586
Pirenne, however, reconstructs the text as ] [
] ,
587
which she translates as je suis pass par le port que [ ] avec
larme.
588
Given the damage to the text at this point it is impossible to tell which reading is
correct, and for now all we can say is that lines 3 and 4 described some sort of activity at a port.
Judging from the phrase whose name is (za-sm), the name of this port would originally have
been given in the inscription. The port mentioned in RIE 195:I is undoubtedly the spot on the
Red Sea coast of Yemen at which the armada commanded by Klb in person is stated in the
Martyrium Arethae to have landed, for in line 9, Klb says, I spent the night on the ship, or
perhaps simply I remained on the ship (btk wsta amar). Then in line 10 we are told of
its shore, which God delivered unto me (ayq za-maawan gza-br), which can only
refer to that portion of coast which the Aksumite king himself captured, as distinct from the other
coast attacked by the other divisions of his naval force.
Azbya/azbya
589
is a bit ambiguous, as azb typically means peoples,
nations, or in religious contexts Gentiles in Classical Geez. In Sabaic inscriptions from the
third century, however, ZB is the term used exclusively to describe armed bands of Ethiopians
operating in western Yemen, and it is probably this group which the anonymous Syriac letter
published by Shahid calls ezb. Similarly in Klbs inscription from Aksum (RIE 191) this
term is best translated troops or army, not only based on analogy with Sabaic, but also
because the azb in RIE 191 are said to have been sent with YN SLBN Z-SMR, whom the Book of
the imyarites regards as the leader of the Aksumite invasion force in 518. In fact it is in RIE

586
Mller 1972 (a): 72, 73.
587
Pirenne 1982: 108.
588
Ibid.: 112.
589
In RIE 195:I and II, the possessive suffix ya is typically attached to azb, which is the proper form it would
take in Classical Geez. Since long vowels are generally not noted in unvocalized Geez, it is likely that ZBY in
RIE 191 also represents azbya. Only in line 4 of RIE 195:I do we find the irregular form azb.

367

191 that we encounter the same phrase MSL ZBY=msla azbya (with my troops) which
occurs here in line 4 of RIE 195:I. In light of this parallel, as well as the references to warfare
elsewhere in RIE 195:I+II, it is likely that azbya/azbya in line 4 an of RIE 195:I can be
translated as my troops. That the azb had divisions, each referred to as a manfaq,
590

supports this interpretation.
In other parts of the text, however, the military sense of azb is less clear, in which case
translating azb as people should not be rejected out of hand, particularly given that so much
is missing from the text.
591
This may be the case in line 8, in which we find azb without the
possessive suffix in the phrase sadada azba m-qdma. Mller translates this line as er trieb
aus das Volk (Herr) vor,
592
allowing for a reference to either people or troops, while Pirenne
renders il a chass les Gentils devant...
593
One might expect a reference to the persecution of
Gentiles in a record of the war against the Jewish king Ysuf, and indeed such an instance of
persecution took place at Mrib for, according to its table of contents, the Book of the imyarites
once contained an account of this event in its now lost thirty-first chapter.
594
The fact that Mrib
is mentioned by name in line 13 of RIE 195:II might be taken as further evidence that the
martyrdom of the towns Christians is alluded to in line 8 of RIE 195:I. On the other hand,
Pirennes translation seems to adhere a bit too rigidly to the idioms of Classical Geez in this
case, particularly given that the context of RIE 195:I, insofar as the text survives, suggests a
setting not during Ysufs anti-Christian campaign, but rather during the subsequent Aksumite

590
Typically used in the sense of half, faction, or part in Classical Geez.
591
Who Klb might have meant by my peopleif indeed that is the intended meaning hereis not clear, though
it might be taken to refer to his fellow Christians in South Arabia.
592
Mller 1972 (a): 72.
593
Pirenne 1982: 112.
594
Book of the imyarites 1924: 5b (Syriac text).

368

invasion in 525. Thus the translation of line 8 offered here, he expelled the people/troops,
follows that proposed by Mller in allowing both military and non-military senses for azb.
The most striking feature of RIE 195:I is the quotation from the Book of Psalms
(mazmr). The Psalm in question is 67:2:
595
ytna gza-br wa-yzzaraw arr wa-
yg
w
yay alt m-qdma ga, God will rise up and His adversaries will be scattered, and
His enemies will flee before Him.
596
As was argued in Chapter 3, the use of Biblical quotations
in sixth-century Geez inscriptions indicates not only that a translation of at least a portion of the
Bible was available in Geez by that time but also that, by having such a translated Scripture at
their disposal, the Aksumite kings acquired a new mode of expression, one in which rival powers
were portrayed as not merely enemies of the Aksumite state but as enemies of God Himself. In
this the Geez inscriptions from Klbs reign differ considerably from those of his imyarite
vassal Sumyafa Ashwa, which refer to Christ as the Victorious and the son of Ramn
an

but do not cite Scripture. Indeed epigraphic Sabaic displays a staunch resistance to the use of
Biblical quotes, and there is no evidence that any portion of the Bible was ever translated into
one of the indigenous languages of South Arabia.
597
Whether or not the fact that the Psalms are
the first parts of the Biblical text to appear in Aksumite inscriptions can be taken to mean that the
Psalter was the first book of the Bible ever to be translated into Geez, the prominent role played
by the Psalter in Ethiopian Christianity down to the present is indicative of its long-standing
impact on religious life in Ethiopia.
598
Divine protection of the Aksumite king against his
enemies was a popular theme in sixth-century Aksumite inscriptions, for it is invariably Biblical
passages treating the theme of divine help in battle which are quoted in such inscriptions. In this

595
The numbering of the verse follows that of the Septuagint, on which the Geez Bible is based.
596
Mller 1972 (a): 73; cf. Altheim and Stiehl 1969: 200.
597
Robin 2001: 559-60.
598
Tekle-Tsadik Mekouria 1994.

369

regard RIE 195 continues a habit first attested in Klbs inscription from Aksum (RIE 191),
which begins with a Psalm (23:8) evoking Gods strength in battle, and attested as well in the
inscription of Klbs son and successor Wazeb (RIE 192), likewise from Aksum.
599
In RIE
195:I, Psalm 67:2 is chosen with the aim of demonstrating Gods favor to the Aksumites by
putting their Jewish imyarite adversaries to flight.
RIE 195:II, in which is preserved a much larger portion of text, continues in the same
vein. The left margin of the inscription is preserved intact in this second fragment, and the text
reads as follows:
600

[wa]
-tga angga[w- nga]
the fugitive, he wander[ed the noble]-

-bny wa-qa[ man and.

hbakh la-y[t mdr] that I might give you th[is land]
kama tk
w
nn [gza-br] that you judge us, G[od]
Krsts za-bt ta[] Christ, in whom [.]
a wa-talawa watga [ ahawh] and he followed the fugitive[his brother]
-m wa-ahthm [] and their sisters []
fannkw
601
wazab-t-
602
[G
w
r] I sent him(?)[G
w
er]g
w
e
-g
w
wa-baa G
w
rg
w
[ ] and G
w
erg
w
e[] reached(?)
wawa azbya b[] he took my troops/people captive []
qata nbala gza-[br ] (?) without God []
Mrb wsta mltm[ ] Mrib, in their possessions(?)
603
[]
nza yqattl wa-yww [] while he killed and took prisoner []
-rdh ngabnya msla [] (?) the nobleman with []
sm Hagarayn wa-qatala [] named Hagarayn and killed []
-nl nga amr
604
sr wa-[] (?) the vanquished king of imyar(?) and []

599
For a discussion of the Biblical quotatiosn in RIE 192, see Schneider 1974: 782-4.
600
Transliteration based on Bernard et al. 1991: 286-7.
601
In Classical Geez this would be fannkww or fannawkww.
602
Mller (1972: 62, 66) reads wa-zabza, which he leaves untranslated, expressing uncertainty as to whether this is
part of a personal name or a word derived from zabzaba (zurckstoen, verhindern) or bazha (viel sein)
preceded by the relatice pronoun za-. The reading wazab-t- is based on Bernard et al. 1991: 286, though there are no
analogies in Classical Geez for this word. It does not appear to be a name, however, for the preceding verb
fannkw, according the reading of Bernard et al., takes an object pronoun and would therefore require the
preposition la- if it introduced a proper name.
603
Mlt (read as mlt by Mller 1972 (a): 62) is not attested in Classical Geez. Mller translates mltm as
ihre(n) Besitzungen (ibid.: 63) on the basis of the Tigr word mlt (Besitz, Vermgen, Eigentum) and
compares this with the Sabaic MLTHMW (ibid.: 66). Robin, however, follows the reading mltm given by
Bernard et al. (1991: 286, 288) and translates this as leur butin (Robin 2008: 14).

370

wa-awyk tk Sab [] and I burned the palace of Saba []
wa-zanta gabra lta gza-b[r
605
yb] and this God did for me, [] says
-l antm-sa qdm h d[q-] But you, seek first the righteous[ness]
ytwsakakm wa-kba ybl [ n
sm]
will be added to you. And []says moreover
[, Come li]sten
-n wa-ngrkm maana gab[ra lt la-
nafsya za-ark hab]
to me and I will tell you the extent of what He
has don[e for my soul, that I cried to
-h ba-afya wa-kalk ba-lsnya wa[] H]im with my mouth and shouted with my
tongue, and []
ba-kbra Dwt wa-yk
w
nnn wa-alb []
mak
w

by the glory of David and He will judge, and
there is no [] judge
-nnna la-maman br wa-anbr dba
[]
for the faithfulthe land,
606
and I set him on
[]
wa-ybl wsta mazmr-a mn[t-ssa ba-
afrs wa-ba-saragalt wa-]
and he says in the Psalm, Now they have
horses and chariots,
nna-sa nab
607
ba-sma gza-b[r
amlkna. mnt-ssa]
while we will be great by the name of God
our Lord; they
taqa
608
wa-wadq wa-nna-ssa tanna
[wa-ratna]
have stumbled and fallen but we have risen
[and acted righteously]
wsta sys kama-z yb g[za-br in Isaiah, as God says


That RIE 195:II is a continuation of RIE 195:I is clear from the shared military themes:
the taking of prisoners, the killing, and the Biblical passages emphasizing divine help in battle.
As argued above, the king of imyar (nga amr) can only be the Jewish king Ysuf
Asar Yathar. The fragment nl in line 17 is undoubtedly the final portion of a name, the
first few letters of which would have been written at the end of the previous line.
609
This name
may well be identical with the QNL of RIE 191, in which it appears as a South Arabian

604
In the other Geez inscriptions from Yemen imyar appears as mr.
605
A construct phrase meaning Master of the Land, the name for God is written as two words in early Geez texts
and it is only in the fourteenth century that it came to be written as one, with no word-divider.
606
The damage to the inscription makes it impossible to adequately interpret this passage. Though maman is not
attested as such in Classical Geez, it can only be identified with mman (alternatively mman or mmn),
meaning faithful, believing, believer, true, etc. Since maman lacks the ending a, maman br would
seem to be not a construct phrase; were that the case we would have mamana br. How br (the land) fits
into this passage is not clear; Mller (1972: 63) translates mak
w
nnna la-maman br as einen Richter fr den
Glubingen, without attempting to bring br (the land) into the picture, though his suggestion that br could
be a proper name (ibid.: 70) is not supported by the context.
607
Naab in Classical Geez.
608
Taaqa in Classical Geez.
609
Breaking up words and names between lines in this fashion is not uncommon in Aksumite inscriptions, and is
typical in medieval Geez manuscripts.

371

toponym. It is clear that nl cannot contain part of Ysufs name, for this element is not found
in any of his names or titles known from Sabaic or foreign sources. Identifying nl with
QNL, Robin reconstructs the passage as [.q.]nl ngua amr, taking ngua amr as the
object of the verb qatala (he killed) in the previous line.
610
Based on this, he argues that QNL
was the place where Ysuf met his end, and tentatively suggests that this was Oklis.
611
Though
it is of course impossible to tell whether Ysuf was mentioned by name in the now lost portion
of RIE 195, the dismissive allusion to him as an anonymous King of imyar (MLK MYR) in
the Sabaic inscription CIH 621 from in al-Ghurb, and perhaps as this king (DN MLK
n
) in
Wellcome A 103664, might indicate that he remained nameless in RIE 195:I+II as well, as a
token of his infamous reputation as persecutor of Christians and rival of Aksum.
Somewhat problematic is the word sr following ngua amr. This is the passive
participle of saara, a verb whose range of meanings includes to remove, to annul, to
destroy, to abolish, to depose, to desecrate, and to bring to naught. The sense of
Ysufs having been removed from his royal status is implied in such translations of nga
amr sr as Mllers der abgesetzte Knig von imyar,
612
and Robins le roi destitut de
amr.
613
In this Pirenne differs, translating nga amr sr as le roi de Himyar rejet
(par Dieu),
614
though this latter interpretation reads a bit too much into the passage. In view of
the semantic field of the Geez root s--r, vanquished seems like a good translation of sr in
this context. Pirennes more imaginative interpretation is based on her observation that other
sources state that Klbs forces did not merely overthrow Ysuf but actually killed him.
615

610
Robin 2008: 14-15. Thus il a tu[ .q.]nl le roi destitu de amr.
611
Ibid.
612
Mller 1972 (a): 63.
613
Robin 2008: 14.
614
Pirenne 1982: 111, 113, 117.
615
Ibid.: 111.

372

Nevertheless, is is worth considering the possibility that, since the passive participle sr
follows the construct phrase nga amr rather than ng directly,
616
sr describes not
Ysuf but the kingdom of imyar itself, in which case nga amr sr might be interpreted
as the king of vanquished imyar. Though not impossible, this is unlikely, for Geez treats
most place-names as grammatically feminine,
617
in which case vanquished imyar would be
not amr sr but amr srt. In all probability, then, it is Ysuf who is called sr. That
he was regarded as vanquished before being killed by the Aksumites is not a problem,
particularly when it is not clear how the verb qatala (he killed) in the previous line is
connected with the imyarite king or the enigmatic fragment nl.
The only Ethiopian name that survives in RIE 195:II is G
w
erg
w
e, which appears twice
in the inscription. Mller is undoubtedly correct in taking this to be a proper name, but is at a
loss to find an etymology.
618
Since labialized velar consonants like /g
w
/ are not attested in any
Arabian Semitic language, whether ancient or modern, the name G
w
erg
w
e can only be
Ethiopian. The question is whether it is a personal name or a place-name. Since RIE 195:II, like
all the Geez material from Yemen, deals only with events in South Arabia, it is unlikely that
G
w
erg
w
e is the name of a place in Ethiopia, which leaves us with the possibility that it is the
name of a person.
619
The ambiguous context makes it difficult to decide, for the first reference to
G
w
erg
w
e survives in the fragment -g
w
e, while the second reference, baa G
w
erg
w
e,

616
The phrase the vanquished king of imyar could, after all, also be rendered nga sr za-amr in Geez.
617
Dillmann 1907: 286 130. As an illustration of an exceptional case in which a place-name is grammatically
masculine, Dillmann cites the Geez text of Joshua 11:8, which refers to Sidon the great (Sdn aby) in the
masculine.
618
Mller 1972 (a): 66.
619
It cannot be excluded that G
w
erg
w
e is the name of a clan or military contingent, though in that case one might
expect the name to be prefixed by the noun sarw (the army of), as is the case in such Aksumite inscriptions as
RIE 187: line 21 (Bernard et al. 1991: 256) and RIE 188: line 10 (ibid.: 260), both from the reign of zn, in
which we are told of a sarw Dkn. Note, however, that the Dkn lacks the title of sarw in RIE 191: line 15, from
the reign of Klb (ibid.: 272). Unlike Dkn, however, G
w
erg
w
e is not attested in any Aksumite inscription apart
from RIE 195:II, much less as a military contingent, and the known clan-names attested on Aksumite coins do not
suggest any parallels.

373

could mean one of two things: 1) he reached G
w
erg
w
e, taking an individual named
G
w
erg
w
e as the object; or 2) as tentatively proposed here, G
w
erg
w
e reached, taking
G
w
erg
w
e as the subject in accordance with the normal Geez word order of verb-subject-
object. The reduplication of the labialized consonant /g
w
/ in personal names is attested in the
name of a mythical Aksumite prince, given in the Ethiopian Synaxarium and some king-lists in
such varied forms as Ella-Azg
w
g
w
e, Ella-Anzeg
w
g
w
e, and Za-Ella-Esg
w
g
w
e.
620
It could
be, then, that G
w
erg
w
e is the name of one of the individuals involved with Klbs invasion of
imyar in 525. If so, the fact that G
w
erg
w
e merits mention by name in RIE 195:II would
indicate that such an individual held high rank, perhaps even as one of Klbs generals. If so,
his relationshipif anyto the ZWNS of the Book of the imyarites and the Ary of Arabic
tradition remains unknown.
It is true that G
w
erg
w
e has a certain similarity with Grg, the name given to speakers
of a group of related South Ethio-Semitic languages, who now live south of Addis Ababa,
though the evidence of any connection with this group is lacking. To begin with, Grg is,
properly speaking, the name of a region, not a gentilic, and the people whom scholars designate
as Grg-speakers do not refer to themselves by this name. In an eighteenth-century recension
of gga wa-rata Mangt (The Law and Administration of the Kingdom; Bodl. Bruce 92,
fol. 7v.), we find the toponym G
w
erg
w
, which Huntingford identifies with Grg.
621
This
name is indeed close to the G
w
erg
w
e of RIE 195:II, but it lacks the final - of the latter. The
otherwise conceivable connection between the Grg and G
w
erg
w
e is further weakened not
only by the chronological gap in the sources but also by the fact that in the chronicle of Amda

620
Rodinson 2001: 243-4, 246.
621
Huntingford 1989: 247.

374

eyn (1314-1344), the earliest source to mention Grg,
622
the name is written Gerg, with
no labialized consonants.
623
Since the chronicle, like gga wa-rata Mangt, treats Grg
as the name of a district in southern Ethiopia, far from the region controlled by Aksum in
antiquity, Grg is indeed a poor match for G
w
erg
w
e of RIE 195:II, particularly when
G
w
erg
w
e is unlikely to have been a place to begin with. If some modern Grg-speakers have
oral traditions of a migration from the village of Gr in Eritreas Akkl Gzay region to the
southwestern Ethiopian highlands during the fourteenth century,
624
the lack of written
documentation of their presence in that area as far back as Aksumite times makes these traditions
dubious as support for a theory that the Grg-speakers ancestors were subjects of Aksum,
much less participated in Klbs imyarite campaign.
625
Much though we would like to
satisfactorily identify the G
w
erg
w
e mentioned in RIE 195:II, the fragmentary references to the
name in the inscription pose more questions than they answer and shed no light on the course of
the Aksumite invasion of South Arabia. For the time being we must content ourselves with the
working hypothesis that G
w
erg
w
e was simply a high-ranking Aksumite who took part in the
invasion.
Let us turn now to the place-names mentioned in RIE 195:II. Though the name of the
port town at which the Aksumites landed in South Arabia is missing in RIE 195:I, we have the
good fortune that two place-names are preserved in RIE 195:II. The first of these is Mrib
(Mrb), the name of the capital of the ancient kingdom of Saba and the site at which RIE

622
Shack 1974: 98.
623
The Glorious Victories of mda eyon, King of Ethiopia, G. W. B. Huntingford (ed. and tr.), Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1965: 78.
624
Worku Nida 2005: 929.
625
The Grg languages do, it is true, do display certain archaic North Ethio-Semitic features in morphology and
vocabulary (Ullendorff 1955: 26; Shack 1974: 99-100). But since the diffusion of Semitic speech in Ethiopia has
historically occurred in a north-to-south direction, the similarities which some scholars have noted between Grg
and Tigr, for example, need not be tied to a single migration from a single region in Eritrea.

375

195:I+II was erected. Here again we find a valuable orthographic clue to the toponomastic
history of South Arabia. While early South Arabian inscriptions down to the second century CE
give the citys name as MRYB (*Maryab>M/M of Greek authors), this form of the
name is gradually dropped from the second century on in favor of MRB.
626
In light of RIE
195:II, the new form of the name would have been pronounced Mreb.
627
Mrib remained
important even after Aksum lost South Arabia to an autonomous Ethiopian regime under the
leadership of Abreh, as indicated by Abrehs repairs to the citys dam, as well as his
construction of a church there.
628
Mribs importance to Klb even before his invasion of South
Arabia in 525 is evident from the reference to the citys famous Saln palace in the royal title
which he bears in RIE 191 from Aksum. In that inscription, however, Klb emulates the titles
borne by the fourth-century kings Ousanas and zn, through which they claim dominion over
imyar from the palace of Raydn at afr and over Saba from the palace of Saln at Mrib. It
is likely that the opening portion of RIE 195:I+II, as well as the other Geez inscriptions from
Yemen attributable to Klbs reign, contained the same royal title that appears in RIE 191 from
Aksum, with its mention of the Aksumite kings dominion over Saba, imyar, Dh-Raydn,
and Saln. Given the continued association of the territory of the former kingdom of Saba with
Saln, it is also probable that the palace of Saba (tk Sab) which Klb claims in RIE
195:II to have burned can be identified with the palace of Saln. This is supported by medieval
Yemeni tradition preserved by al-Hamdn, who states that Saln was destroyed by the
Ethiopian general Ary.
629

626
W. W. Mller, Mrib, EI
2
, VI, 1991: 565.
627
The MWRB () of the anonymous Syriac letter regarding the martyrs of Najrn also reflects this
development, the Syriac waw being a mater lectionis representing the long vowel //, as it does as well in the name
YWN (Arabic ayyn).
628
Gajda 2009: 130-5.
629
Al-Hamdn 1940: VIII: 226.

376

The other South Arabian place-name preserved in RIE 195:II is Hagarayn, the precise
location of which is uncertain. This town is undoubtedly the Hagarn mentioned in the Book of
the imyarites, an entire chapter, now lost, having been devoted to the martyrdom of the holy
martyrs who suffered in the town of Hagarn (shdt d-shd qadd d-ashed b-Hagarn).
630

In the past scholars identified this Hagarn with the town of Hajarn at the lower end of Wd
Dawan
631
in the aramawt, mentioned by al-Hamdn
632
and known today as al-Hajarayn. The
discovery by the nineteenth-century German traveler Leo Hirsch of remains of pre-Islamic
occupation at al-Hajarayn is thus taken by Moberg as evidence in favor of this identification.
633

In this Moberg is followed, albeit with due caution, by Mller.
634
A further reference to
Hagarayn occurs in a graffito from Egypts Wd ammmt, left by one Dukhaym b. Qasaml
of Hagarayn (HGRYHN).
635
More recently, though, Robin has proposed that the Hagarayn of
Klbs inscription refers not to a single city but rather, as the name itself suggests,
636
two cities
in the Jawf region, namely Nashshn (al-Sawd) and Nashq
um
(al-Bay), which are referred to
as HGRNHN (the two cities) in Ja 665, dating from the reign of the imyarite king Ysir
Yuhanim (265-288).
637
However, as Robin himself admits, the reference to Hagarayn/Hagarn
in Klbs inscription from Mrib and in the Book of the imyarites est videmment beaucoup
plus tardive que les dernires attestations pigraphiques de Nashshn et de Nashq
um
, qui datent

630
Book of the imyarites 1924: 5b. It should not be forgotten that the reading Hagarn is in part a reconstruction
on the part of Moberg, the letter h being missing in the original manuscript. But in light of the reference to
Hagarayn in Klbs inscription, Mobergs reconstruction of the name Hagarn seems likely.
631
Also sometimes transliterated Dawn.
632
Al-Hamdn 1974: 171.
633
Moberg in Book of the imyarites 1924: liii.
634
Mller 1972 (a): 67.
635
Colin 1988: 35.
636
HGR is the word for city common to all the languages of ancient South Arabia, the ayn element reflecting an
Arabization of the South Arabian HGRNHN.
637
Robin 2004 (b); cf. Gajda 2009: 107.

377

du IV
e
s.
638
Without discounting Nashshn and Nashq
um
as candidates for Hagaraynfor
South Arabian place-names do have great longevitythere are other potential settlements called
Hajarayn in Yemen with which Hagarayn might be identified.
639
In addition to the Hajarayn of
Wd Dawan there is a village of the same name in the upper Khawln of western Yemen
which, like its aram namesake, also contains ancient remains.
640
In light of the reference to
Mrib in RIE 195:II, it is preferable to locate Hagarayn in a region relatively close to Mrib, in
which case its identification with the Hajarayn in Wd Dawan, far beyond the known range of
Klbs campaign, can be rejected. By contrast Nashshn and Nashq
um
, as well as Hajarayn in
the upper Khawln, are all located within 100 km of Mrib to the west, and thus easily within
reach of the Aksumite army. Without settling on a specific location for the Hagarayn of RIE
195:II, we can be confident that it is most probably to be located somewhere between the Jawf
and the Khawln.
The absence of both Najrn and afr in this longest of the Geez inscriptions from
Yemen is striking. It could be that, since RIE 195:I+II was erected at Mrib, it dealt only with
those parts of Klbs campaign immediately relevant to the city and to such towns as Hajarayn
which lay in neighboring regions. Since other Geez inscriptions have come to light at afr, one
might expect that these latter presented a different account of events, one with a greater emphasis
on the imyarite capital. On the other hand, we have the reference to the sea-coast in RIE 195:I,
which can hardly be considered close to Mrib and would suggest instead a broader scope for the
inscription. It could simply be that Najrn and afr were mentioned in those portions of RIE

638
Robin 2004 (b): 120.
639
It is not uncommon in Yemen for several towns to bear the same name. Thus Yqt records no fewer than four
Yemeni towns called Shibm, in addition to a mountain and a tribe of the same name (Yqt 1988: 160-1). There
are also several places in Yemen named Shabwa. Though the most famous of these is the capital of the ancient
kingdom of aramawt, al-Hamdn (1974: 175 (n. 2)) mentions two villages and a deserted way station to the
northwest of an by the same name.
640
Al-Maqaf 1985: 445-6.

378

195:I+II which have not survived. By the same token, neither Mrib nor Hajarayn are mentioned
in the Martyrium Arethae, which, as we have seen, is rich in details about the course of the
Aksumite invasion but sparing in place-names. The Book of the imyarites, on the other hand,
mentions both Mrib and Hajarayn in the context of the persecution of the towns Christians by
Ysuf, and may have spoken about their liberation by Klb in the parts of the manuscript which,
like so much of the Geez inscriptions from Yemen, are now missing.
Having treated the personal names and place-names mentioned in RIE 195:II, we must at
this point consider the texts quotation of Biblical verses, wherein we find vital clues to the
interpretation of the entire inscription as a document of Aksumite holy war in South Arabia.
Together with its companion piece from Mrib, RIE 195:I, and RIE 191 from Aksum, RIE 195:II
provides some of the earliest evidence to date for the translation of the Bibleor at least portions
of itinto Geez. In some cases a book of the Bible is mentioned by name in RIE 195:II. Thus
the words wsta syys (in Isaiah) in the final line of RIE 195:II appears to introduce a
quotation from the Book of Isaiah, now missing from the inscription. In other instances,
however, enough text survives to allow us to identify the passage with a specific verse from the
Geez Bible even when there is no mention of the book from which it is derived. Ybl (he
says) at the end of line 19 introduces another direct quotation from the Bible, of which there is
preserved in lines 20-21 the words antm-ssa qdm h d[q-] ytwsakakm (But
you, seek first the righteousnessit will be added to you). This can be recognized as a variant
version of Matthew 6:33, which differs not only from the verse in the standard Geez Bible,
published by the British Foreign Bible Society (BFBS) (antm-ssa h maqdma mangta
zah wa-dq wa-znt k
w
ll ytwsakakm),
641
but also varies slightly from the version

641
But you, seek first His Kingdom and His Righteousness and all of this will be added to you.

379

preserved in Abba Garma III, one of the oldest Biblical manuscripts in Geez
642
(antm-ssa
qdm h mangt la-gza-br wa-dq wa-z-ssa k
w
ll ytwsakakm
643
).
644
That
RIE 195:II quotes what is indeed a different, earlier version of this verse is evident from the fact
that the word orderand even the choice of wordsin the surviving text of the inscription
differs from that of both Abba Garma and the BFBS Bible.
645
Then in lines 21-23 of RIE 195:II
we read wa-kba ybl [ n sm]n wa-ngrkm maana gab[ra lt la-nafsya za-
ark hab]h ba-afya wa-kalak ba-lsnya (And [] says moreover [, Come
li]sten to me and I will tell you the extent of what He has don[e for my soul, that I cried to Him
with my mouth and shouted with my tongue). In this passage we can recognize Psalm 65:16,
which in the medieval Geez Psalter
646
reads n smn wa-ngrkm lla tfarrhw la-
gza-br maana gabra lt la-nafsya za-ark habh ba-afya wa-kalk ba-
lsnya. The notable difference here is that the quotation of this verse in RIE 195:II omits lla
tfarrhw la-gza-br (you who fear God).
647
Finally in lines 26-8 we have yet another
quotation from the Psalter, this time from Psalms 19:8-9: mn[t-ssa ba-afrs wa-ba-
saragalt wa-]nna-ssa nab ba-sma gza-b[r amlkna, taqa wa-wadq wa-
nna-sa tanna [wa-ratna] (Now they have horses and chariots, while we will be great

642
This manuscript probably pre-dates the establishment of the Solomonid (i.e. Amhara) Dynasty in 1270 (Knibb
1999: 6 (n.2), 7). The attempt has been made to date some of the Biblical manuscripts from the Abba Garma
monastery to as far back as the sixth century (Mercier 2000: 36-45), though this has been questioned by some
scholars (Denis Nosnitsin, pers. comm.).
643
But you, seek first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness and this will all be added to you.
644
Knibb 1999: 48; cf. Mller 1972 (a): 69. Though Knibb claims that the version of Matthew 6:33 preserved in RIE
195:II agrees with that in Abba Garma III, dq follows the imperative h in RIE 195:II, whereas Abba Garma
III has instead mangt. This is a minor difference, however, and there is no doubt that the versions of Matthew
6:33 in RIE 195:II and Abba Garma III have much more in common than they do with the version in the BFBS text.
Mller reconstructs the lost text of lines 20-1 of RIE 195:II as dq wa-mang wa-znt k
w
ll, translating this as
seine Gerechtigkeit und sein Reich, und die alles (Mller 1972 (a): 69).
645
In addition, it is probable that the quotation of Matthew 6:33 in RIE 195:II did not include any mention of the
Kingdom of God or His Kingdom (Knibb 1999: 48).
646
The oldest manuscript versions of the Psalter in Geez are the fourteenth-century Vat. Aeth. 1 and the fifteenth-
century BL Add. 18,994 (ibid.: 47 (n. 3)).
647
Ibid.: 48.

380

by the name of God our Lord; they have stumbled and fallen but we have risen [and acted
righteously]). In this verse RIE 195:II, insofar as it is preserved at this point, agrees with the
modern Geez Bible.
648

It is not clear whether the differences between the Biblical verses quoted in RIE 195:II
and those of later recensions of the Geez Bible can be explained as intentional modifications of
the Biblical text or as relics of a now-lost recension of the Geez Bible. Knibb believes that the
textual differences are too minor to suggest the existence of an earlier version of the Geez Bible
quite different from that of the oldest manuscript versions.
649
His suggestion that the Biblical text
was adapted to its context in the case of one later (possibly seveneth-century) Aksumite
inscription (RIE 232) from Hm in Eritrea
650
does, however, raise the possibility of similar
modifications for the context of RIE 195.
651
As a record of Christian Aksums triumph over the
Jewish imyarites, the context of this inscription motivated the selection of such Biblical verses
as emphasized the favors shown by God to true believers (Psalm 65:16), His rewards to them for
their seeking of His righteousness (Matthew 6:33), and their ability with Gods help to overcome
an enemy force which had all of the material wherewithal to achieve victory, but which failed in
their endeavor due to lack of faith (Psalms 19:8-9). Equally indicative of a Biblical frame of
reference for the Aksumite conquest of imyar is the invocation in line 24 of the glory of
David (kbra Dwt), after whom Klb may have patterned his own tale of victory.

648
Cf. Bly Kdn, za-tasanawa msla maft qadamt za-brnn wa-msla mafta Sry wa-r wa-
rab, III, Asmara, 1926: 127 (Mazmr 19:8-9).
649
Knibb 1999: 54.
650
Ibid.
651
For the inscription from am, see Bernard et al. 1991: 323-4.

381

Also intriguing, if a bit more speculative, is Mllers identification of the passage in line
4 as a paraphrase of Genesis 15:7.
652
The version of this verse given in Boyds edition of the
Geez Book of Genesis
653
reads wa-ybl la-Abrm ana wt gza-br amlkka za-
awka m-mdra Kaldawyn kama ahabkh la-yt mdr ttwras: And He said to
Abram, I am God your Lord, Who brought you out of the land of the Chaldaeans to give you
this land that you might inherit it. The identification of this passage with Genesis 15:7 is met
with approval by Pirenne, who follows Mllers lead in reconstructing line 4 as
,
654
though the most recent edition of the text, published by Bernard et al.,
reconstructs line 4 more conservatively as hbakh la-y[t mdr] (I will give you th[is
land]), leaving out the reconstructed bit about inheriting the land, proposed by Mller.
655
This
more conservative reading has been adopted in the present study only as a working hypothesis,
given that the text of RIE 195:II breaks off before the key word mdr (land).
656
Mller takes
his interpretation of this passage a step further, arguing that Genesis 15:7 is crucial to our
understanding of the religious significance of Klbs invasion of imyar in 525. He compares
the theme of inheriting the land with the eschatological role played by Ella-Abe in the final
chapter of the Kbra Nagat, in which the Aksumite king is said to make a pact with the emperor
of Rome to destroy the Jews and build churches on the land seized from them.
657
In support of
his theory that the ideology of holy war against the Jews and the seizure of their land by divine
right can be traced back to the sixth century, Mller draws attention to the Biblical origins of the

652
Mller 1972 (a): 64.
653
The Octateuch in Ethiopic according to the text of the Paris Codex, with the variants of five other manuscripts,
ed. J. O. Boyd, Part I: Genesis, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1909: 38). The Biblical manuscripts used by Boyd range in date
from perhaps as early as the first half of the fourteenth century to the seventeenth century (ibid.: xii-xx).
654
Pirenne 1982: 109, 110.
655
Bernard et al. 1991: 286.
656
Knibb (1999: 47-8 (n. 5)) excludes Genesis 15:7 from his survey of Biblical quotations in Aksumite inscriptions
on the grounds that not enough remains of RIE 195:II for this passage to be useful in the study of the sixth-century
Geez Bible.
657
Mller 1972 (a): 65.

382

name Klb, noting that in Numbers 14:24 God tells Caleb, son of Jephunneh, that he and his
descendants would inherit the land of Canaan.
658
Mller believes that the parallel between the
Biblical Calebs inheritance of Canaan and the inheritance of the Jews land in imyar by his
Aksumite namesake could not have been lost on the Ethiopians during their war of conquest in
South Arabia.
659

Though based on what is only a tentative reconstruction of one line of text, the
implications of Mllers theory fit well with a passage from Chapter 43 the Syriac Book of the
imyarites, a source not cited by Mller in this connection. As we have seen, this chapter
purports to contain the speech made by Klb to his troops in South Arabia following their
victory over the Jewish imyarites. In his speech the Aksumite king tells his troops that God
Himself had bequeathed to them the land of their enemies just as He had brought Joshua to
victory and enabled him to inherit his enemies land. Though this passage is anecdotal, it implies
that, to the Syriac-speaking Christians of the Roman Near East, Klb saw his conquest of
imyar as an inheritance of land. If Klbs desire to have Monumentum Adulitanum II copied
just before his earlier invasion of imyar in 518 can be seen as an attempt to find a document
establishing a precedent for the Aksumite conquest of Arabia, then it is quite likely that the Book
of the imyarites is correct in imputing this ideology of manifest destiny to Klb. In light of the
Biblical quotes in RIE 195:II, one might hypothesize that a similar sense of entitlement to South
Arabia led the Aksumites to look to the Old Testament narrative of the Israelites conquest of
Canaan as a model. It is noteworthy that, whether the Bible or a third-century Aksumite
inscription in Greek was employed to give legitimacy to the Aksumite war effort in South
Arabia, the importance of texts is central in both cases. In light of this, the suggestion that the

658
Ibid.
659
Ibid.

383

Aksumites saw themselves as the true Israel in the course of their war with the Jewish
imyarites
660
gains greater credence.
661
In this they would have been in good company during
the sixth century, for it was at this time that messianic ideas of Rome as an eternal kingdom on
par with, or acting as a successor to, Israel were circulating in the Roman world.
662
Rome was
similarly cast in the role as a second Israel in Christian accounts of its wars with the Muslims,
the latter being compared to the Amalekites much as the Jewish imyarites are in the Martyrium
Arethae.
663

At the same time, we must not make the mistake of assuming that this Israelite model
dominated Aksumite discourse, much though we might be tempted given the strong Judaic
themes in later Ethiopian Christianity, as well as the claim by the ruling elite of descent from
King Solomonneither of which have any demonstrably Aksumite origins.
664
Cosmas
Indicopleustes statement that Klb, before launching his invasion of imyar in 518, sought a
copy of an inscription erected by a pagan king of Aksum clearly demonstrates that the Biblical
past was not the only past in which the Aksumites had an interest. As for the significance of
Klbs undeniably Biblical name, one might with good reason ask why an Aksumite king who
supposedly modeled his inheritance of imyar on the Israelite conquest of Canaan would not
have selected for himself the name of a better known Biblical figure, such as Joshua, to whose

660
Altheim and Stiehl 1969: 201.
661
The glossing of conquest as inheritance finds a parallel a century after Klb in the Qurn, in which reference is
made to Gods reward to the Muslims following their defeat of the People of the Book (ahl al-kitb): And He made
you heirs of their lands, their houses, and their goods, and of a land which ye had not frequented before (wa-
awrathakum arahum wa-diyrahum wa-amwlahum wa-ar
an
lam taaha) (Qurn 33:27; tr. A. Y. Ali).
According to al-abar the first part of this verse refers to the Muslims appropriation of the land and property of the
Jewish tribe of Ban Quraya in Madna in 5/627, while the other regions of Arabia and the countries beyond are
included within the category of lands not frequented (al-abar 1994: VI: 174). Worthy of note is the fact that the
Arabic verb awratha (to cause to inherit, to make one an heir) used in the Qurnic passage is a cognate of the
Syriac awret, which the Book of the imyarites uses to describe the Christians inheritance of the land of their
Jewish enemies in South Arabia, following Klbs victory (7.2.2).
662
Magdalino and Nelson 2010: 14-16.
663
Ibid.: 18-19.
664
On the origin and nature of the Judaic elements in Ethiopian Christianity, see Rodinson 1964.

384

divinely guided conquests of Canaan Klb is said in the Book of the imyarites to have alluded
to in his speech to his troops.
665
Since the kings earliest coins, minted before his invasions of
South Arabia, already give his name as Klb, it is more likely that politics and choice of name
are not connected in this case. Nevertheless, the Geez inscriptions from Yemen are of vital
importance not only as historical sources but also as documents illustrating the development of
an Aksumite ideology of warfare.

7.5. The Kbra Nagat
Before concluding this chapter, one final source, the Kbra Nagat (The Glory of the
Kings) bears consideration. Few medieval texts have been the subject of so much interest
666
as
this Geez chronicle, whose purpose was to prove the special status of Ethiopia, based on a
tendentious re-interpretation of Biblical and late antique history and lore.
667
Though significantly
later in date than the Geez material from Yemen, the Kbra Nagat is of interest in the manner
in which it incorporates Klbs invasion of imyar into the broader framework of Ethiopian
salvation history. The text begins with Saint Gregory the Illuminator, the fourth-century
evangelist of Armenia, pondering over the nature of royal power. The history which then unfolds
is presented as an attempt to answer Gregorys question as to whether royal power is based on a
kings wealth, on the number of soldiers at his command, or on something more profound. The
fourteenth-century colophon of the Kbra Nagat, written by a scribe named Yesq, says of the

665
Many of the Biblical names borne by Aksumite rulers may have been bestowed on them with little regard to the
traditions surrounding the like-named individuals known from the Old Testament, much less with the expectation
that the kings would emulate such individuals. A not dissimilar popularity of Biblical names is attested even among
the Muslim sultans of medieval Kilwa off the Tanzanian coast, who bore such names as lt (Saul), Dd,
Sulaymn, and Isq (G. S. P. Freeman-Grenville, Sh Rulers at Kilwa, Numismatic Chronicle, 7
th
series, 18
(1978): 187-90, esp. 188).
666
Not to mention spurious theories!
667
The best edition and translation to date is Bezold (Kebra Nagast 1905), based largely on the manuscript sent to
King Louis Phillippe by Sahle Selassie (1813-1847), king of Shw.

385

Vorlage on which the Geez version is based, It was said in an Arabic book: We have translated
it into Arabic from a Coptic book from the seat of Mark the Evangelist, the Teacher, [spiritual]
Father of us all (wa-tabhla ba-ktb arab awnh m-maafa Qb la-arab m-
manbara Mrqs wanglw mamhr aba k
w
llna).
668
Though some scholars have seen in this
colophon an attempt to give greater legitimacy to the Kbra Nagat by associating it with the see
of St. Mark in Alexandria, on which the Ethiopian church was canonically dependent,
669
the
numerous Arabisms in the Geez orthography do lend support to the traditional claim that the
book was translated into Geez from an Arabic text. As for the Arabic version of the alleged
Coptic Vorlage, the scribe Yesq says that this already existed in the time of King Llbal
(1189-1229), but had not been translated into Geez because the Zg
w
dynasty to which Llbal

belonged
670
was not of Israelite origin, and was thus not worthy of the book.
671

The most famous element in the Kbra Nagat is the Queen of Shebas visit to King
Solomon, a Biblical story story which the Geez text modifies by making the queen, referred to
by the name Mked, an Ethiopian woman who is impregnated by Solomon and gives birth to a
son, Menlek. When he comes of age, Menlek visits his father Solomon in Jerusalem, seizes the
Ark of the Covenant from the Temple, and takes it back with him to Ethiopia. Thus the divine
favor which had been shown to Israel is transferred to the Ethiopians through the Solomonid
bloodline of their kings and their possession of the Ark. This claim to be the new Israel, then, is
presented as the true basis of the royal power. Whether such a blatantly pro-Ethiopian story was
ever part of the Coptic Vorlage may well be doubted, though it is possible that the Geez text

668
Kbra Nagat 1905: 172 (Geez text)).
669
Johnson 1995: 198-9 (though with a different conclusion than the one advanced in the present study).
670
Though the inception of the Amhara dynasty, claiming Solomonid descent, in 1270 sets a terminus ante quem for
the end of the Zg
w
, the date at which the Zg
w
dynasty began is still debated, though scholars are increasingly in
favor of a date in the tenth century, rather than one in the mid-eleventh as long believed. For arguments in favor of a
tenth-century date for the inception of the Zg
w
dynasty, see Phillipson 2009: 197.
671
Kbra Nagat (ed. Bezold 1905: 172-3 (Geez text)).

386

fleshes out the narrative with themes borrowed from Coptic material, if only through an Arabic
intermediary.
672
The Kbra Nagat does not end with Menlek, however, but continues down to
Klbs war against the Jewish imyarites, an event dealt with in the 117
th
and final chapter,
entitled Concerning the King of Rome and the King of Ethiopia (ba-nta nga Rmy wa-
nga tyy). Like the story of Mked and her son Menlek, this chapter seeks to glorify
Ethiopia by appropriating for them the status of Gods chosen people, formerly claimed by the
Jews. In this case, however, it is not Solomonid descent or possession of an ark but the defeat of
the Jewish imyarites by the Christian king Klb which secures for Ethiopia the status of the
new Israel.
The story of Klbs war against the Jews of South Arabia, though dealt with in Chapter
117, is framed within the broader context of a discussion between Saint Gregory and the
archbishops of the leading churches of the Christian world. Thus in Chapter 113, entitled
Concerning the Chariot and the Subduer of the Enemy (ba-nta saragal wa-magrar ar),
Gregory says that the Romans and Ethiopians had in their possession sacred relics with which
they were able to defeat their enemies, the Romans a bridle fashioned by Constantines mother
Helena from the nails fo the Cross, the Ethiopians a chariot, together with Zion (saragal msla
yn)
673
Zion being an alternative name in the Kbra Nagat for the Ark of the Covenant
itself. The Romans, however, turn out to be unworthy custodians of their protective relic due to
the deviance of their emperor Marcian (Marqyns), castigated in the text as the Enemy of the

672
That certain elements within such a text were in turn based on a Coptic Vorlage has been argued on the basis of a
fragment from an otherwise lost Coptic text dating to the tenth or eleventh century, which tells of the visit of a
queenpresumably the Queen of Shebato Solomons court, where she drinks wine and asks to see the spirits
which served the Israelite king (Munro-Hay 2005: 70-1). On the Coptic origins of the messianic traditions involving
Ethiopia, which circulated among Christians in the early medieval period, see Martinez 1990.
673
Kbra Nagat 1905: 167 (Geez text).

387

Faith (lwa hymnt).
674
Though the text does not explicitly say so, the damnatio memoriae
of Marcian in this chapter is clearly due to the fact that the Council of Chalcedon which he
convened in 451 was responsible for establishing Dyophysitism as the new orthodoxy, as a result
of which such dissenting views as Monophysitism, to which the Ethiopians and Copts adhered,
were branded as heretical.
675
For their rejection of the true faith, says Gregory, the Romans will
be punished by an invasion of their realm by the Persians (Frs), whose king will seize both
Marcian and the horse bearing the bridle. The horse will then, Gregory continues, become
agitated and the bridle will fall off into the sea, where it will remain until the second coming of
Christ.
676

The Ethiopians, on the other hand, are destined to hold onto their magical chariot due to
their special status in the eyes of God. As Grgeory asks the congregated bishops rhetorically,
Has David not prophesied, saying: Ethiopia will stretch forth her hands unto God?
677
(akk-
n tanabbaya Dwt wa-yb tyy tba dawh haba gzbr).
678
Then in
Chapter 116, Concerning the Chariot of Ethiopia (ba-nta saragal tyy), Gregory
assures the congregated bishops that the chariot of Ethiopia will remain intact until the return of
Christ on account of Zion and the Ethiopians faith (ba-nta yn wa-ba-nta
hymntm).
679
It is a good thing, too, for as Gregory tells the bishops, A little while after
this time the Jews will raise their heads against the believers in Najrn and in Armenia; and this

674
Ibid.
675
Bowersock 2008: 386-8.
676
Kbra Nagat 1905: 167-8 (Geez text).
677
Psalm 68:31.
678
Kbra Nagat 1905: 168 (Geez text). The same verse is cited at the end of Chapter 50, in which Solomon,
realizing that the Ark has been taken from the temple of Jerusalem and carried off by Menlek, resigns himself to
Gods having favored Ethiopia over Israel, and quotes Psalm 68:31: tyy tmw dawh la-gzbr
(ibid.: 55 (Geez text)). The difference in the choice of words between this citation of Psalm 68:31 and that in
Chapter 116 is striking. Unless we have here a case of paraphrasing scripture, the use of variant recensions of the
Psalms in Geez in different parts of the Kbra Nagat might support the view that the book is a compilation of
heterogeneous material culled from different sources.
679
Ibid.: 169 (Geez text).

388

God will bring about at His pleasure that He might destroy them, for Armenia is a territory of the
Romans and Najrn is a territory of Ethiopia (hallawm nstta yn rsm Ayhd lla
mahaymnn ba-Nagrn wa-ba-Armny m-dhra-z mawl wa-zanta ygabbr ba-
faqd gzbr kama yhlqm sma Armny dawala Rm wa-Nagrn dawala
tyy).
680
Here we find a trace of the notion of a greater Ethiopia embracing both sides of the
Red Sea, including the Christian town of Najrn. After this Grgeory speaks, in Chapter 117, of
the invasion of imyar, which he presents as a Christian coalition against the Jews:
The King of Rome, the King of Ethiopia, and the Archbishop of Alexandria,
while the faith of the Romans was [still] orthodox, were informed that they should
destroy them (i.e., the Jews). And they were to rise up for war to fight the enemies
of God, the Jews, and annihilate them, the King of Rome [killing] ny and the
King of Ethiopia Fns. And they were to ravage their country and build
churches there and slaughter the kings of the Jews by the end of that cycle of
twelve moons. Thereupon the kingdom of the Jews will be brought to an end and
the kingdom of Christ will be established [to last] until the coming of the False
Messiah. And both of those kingsJustin, King of Rome, and Klb, King of
Ethiopiawere to meet in Jerusalem and their archbishop would administer the
Eucharist. And they will offer sacrifices and will be in accord through love
concerning faith, and they will give each other gifts and [offerings of] peace. And
they will divide the world between them from the median point of Jerusalem,
681
as
we have previously stated at the beginning of this book.
(Wa-ytlaak nga Rmy wa-nga tyy wa-lqa st za-
skndry kama yhlqwwm nza rt hymntm la-saba Rm. Wa-
ytna aba kama ybwwm nga Rm la-ny wa-nga tyy
la-Fns wa-ymazabbr brm wa-yaann abyta Krstynt ba-
hyya wa-yaarrdwwm la-nagata Ayhd ba-tafmta zt qamar klt
wa-aart aqmr. Amh ttfam mangtm la-Ayhd wa-tratt
mangta la-Krsts ska mata assw Mas. Wa-mnt-ssa nagat
Ysns nga Rm wa-Klb nga tyy ytrkab klhm ba-
yarslm wa-yar q
w
rbna lqa stm wa-yqrrb wa-
yhabbr hymnta ba-fqr wa-ytwahhab ammh wa-salma wa-

680
Ibid.: 169-70 (Geez text).
681
This may reflect a medieval Christian conception of the world, according to which Jerusalem lay at the center.
On this phenomenon in medieval European geography, see D. Woodward, Reality, Symbolism, Time, and Space in
Medieval World Maps, Annals of the Association of American Geographers 75, 4 (1985): 510-21 (esp. 515-17).
There is no need to attribute a similar view in the Kbra Nagat to European influence, however, for the idea that
Jerusalem ought to be the center of the worldand hence the reference point for all divisions of the worldmay
have been independently derived from Ezekiel 5:5.

389

ytkffal mdra m-manfaq la-yarslm ba-kama nagarna wsta rsa
znt maaf qadm.)
682

Like all apocalyptic texts, Chapter 117 of the Kbra Nagat purports to be a much older text than
it actually is and in so doing portrays a past eventin this case the Aksumite victory over the
Jews of imyaras an event which has yet to take place. Klbs invasion of imyar is here
presented as part of a joint effort by the Ethiopians and Romans to divide the world between
them. However, it is at the expense of the internal consistency of the narrative that the theme of
this Romano-Ethiopian alliance is introduced. In Chapter 113 the Romans are said to have
already turned away from the true faith in the reign of Marcian (450-457), while in Chapter 117
they are said to still be orthodox in Justins time (518-527). Since the Kbra Nagat draws on
many traditions,
683
not all of them compatible, such inconsistencies are to be expected.
Alternatively, the incongruous treatment of Romes religious credentials may have been
unavoidable in that, as Justin played an important role in the Aksumite invasion of imyar, it
was necessary to salvage his good name as an orthodox emperor so as not to detract from the
holiness of the Christian venture in South Arabia. But the very fact that Justin makes an
appearance at all in the Kbra Nagat, when it would only have helped the texts argument for
Ethiopias elite status that the Ethiopians be given sole responsibility of establishing a worldwide
Christian empire, indicates that we are dealing here with the use of two different bodies of
tradition, one which was hostile to Rome, the other tolerant.
But even in its most sympathetic references to Rome the Kbra Nagat gives no
indication that Klbs campaign in imyar was remembered as a product of Roman geopolitical
interests. What Chapter 117 speaks of is not an attempt by Rome to establish a sphere of

682
Kbra Nagat 1905: 170 (Geez text).
683
Ullendorff 1968: 131-45.

390

influence in Arabia with Klbs help, but rather an apocalyptic division of the world between
the descendants of Noahs son Shem, of which the victory over the Jews in South Arabia was
only the beginning. This idea is already introduced in Chapter 20Regarding the Division of
the Earth (ba-nta kfla medr)in which the Romans and Ethiopians are said to divide up the
world, for both of them are the seed of Shem, the son of Noah, the seed of Abraham, the seed of
David; they are the children of Solomon (sma klhm zara Sm walda N zara
Abrhm zara Dwt daqqa Salmn mnt).
684
Even the Persians make a brief appearance
as honorary Semites in Chapter 77, in which they too are given a genealogy going back to
Shem.
685
Though the Persians appear once more in Chapter 113 as the instrument of Gods anger
at the Romans, they are at no point mentioned by the Kbra Nagat in connection with the
alleged Romano-Ethiopian attempt at world domination. Likewise, no attempt is made to relate
the Persians to the Ethiopian invasion of South Arabia, and in Chapter 117 it is not the Persians
but the Jews who are cast in the role of Christianitys arch-nemeses. Even if one were to take the
imagined division of the world between Ethiopia and Romeahistorical though it isas a
reflection of a sixth-century pact between the two countries, there remains the fact that Najrn is
regarded in Chapter 116 as a territory of Ethiopia,
686
not of a Christian commonwealth with
Rome at its head. The Kbra Nagat therefore lends no support to the thesis that Klbs
campaign in imyar was remembered in Near Eastern Christian tradition as part of the Romano-
Ssnid struggle for influence in Arabia.
Also significant is the fact that in the Kbra Nagat Romes role in Klbs South
Arabian campaign is not political in nature but is instead couched in apocalyptic terms. Although

684
Kbra Nagat 1905: 11 (Geez text).
685
Ibid.: 100-2 (Geez text).
686
Ibid.: 170 (Geez text): Nagrn dawala tyy.

391

the text places a Romano-Ethiopian entente in the context of a war against the Jewsan idea
which may indeed have come from traditions about Justins correspondence with Klbthis is
not the only instance in the Kbra Nagat in which the Romans are associated with the
Ethiopians. In Chapter 38, for example, we are told that a king of Rome named Balthazar
(Balsr) asked Solomon to send his son Menlek to marry his daughter and thus become king
of all Rome.
687
In this case, however, the matter at hand is not a political alliance but royal
succession, for Balthazar had no offspring apart from her (i.e. his daughter), and swore that he
would only make king [one] from the seed of David (alb wlda zara za-nbalh wa-
maala kama -yng za-nbalh em-zara Dwt).
688
While nothing is said to have come of
Balthazars request, this brief aside in Chapter 38 was likely introduced as further proof that
Ethiopia had what Rome lacked, namely Davidic lineage. Only by intermarrying with the royal
house of Ethiopia could Rome share in Davids bloodline. So again we have a view in one part
of the Kbra Nagat that Rome was a lesser kingdom than Ethiopia, while in Chapter 117 Justin
and Klb are described as equal partners in a joint venture aimed at exterminating the Jews and
establishing a Christian world empire. But whether dismissive or sympathetic, the attitudes
towards Rome in the Kbra Nagat belong to the realm of later apocalyptic literature and cannot
be regarded as a sound basis for understanding how the Aksumites viewed Klbs invasion of
imyar in 525.
Any attempt to make use of the Kbra Nagat for understanding sixth-century history
must also confront the question of the texts date, and here the issue becomes very thorny indeed.
Scholarly opinion on the origin of the Kbra Nagat is divided between maximalists who argue

687
Ibid.: 36 (Geez text).
688
Ibid.

392

for a sixth-century date for the text,
689
and minimalists who assign it to the fourteenth century,
the date of its colophon.
690
The debate has significant implications for the extent to which we can
rely on this text as a valid representation of sixth-century Aksumite ideology. Those favoring a
sixth-century date typically cite the supposed silence in the Kbra Nagat regarding events after
that century, in particular the lack of explicit references to Islam. Contrary to the oft-repeated
claim that Muslims are absent from the text,
691
they do in fact make a cameo appearance in
Chapter 83 as the Ishmaelites,
692
wherein their conquests of the Near East and North Africa in
the seventh century are mentioned,
693
Coptic texts being the likeliest source for this
information.
694
Munro-Hay, who has assembled the most cogent case to date for a late medieval

689
Shahid 1976; Johnson 1995.
690
Munro-Hay 2001.
691
Johnson 1995: 207.
692
Muslims are also frequently referred to as Ishmaelites in seventh-century and early medieval sources in Syriac,
Coptic, and Armenian (Hoyland 1997: 131 (n. 52), 266, 280).
693
In Chapter 83, entitled Concerning the King of the Ishmaelites (ba-nta nga smlwyn), the Kbra
Nagat refers to Mecca (Mk) and Madna (Mrn, from the Arabic > ) as well as the Ishmaelite
invasions of Egypt (Qb, cf. Arabic Qib); Libya (Lb); Phoenicia, i.e., the Levant (Fnqn, Greek o); and
the Christian Nubian kingdoms of Nubia (Nb) and Alodia (Sba) (Kbra Nagat, ed. Bezold 1905: 109 (Geez
text)). The last place-name, Soba, is that of the capital of the kingdom of Alodia (15 31' N/32 40' E). In reality, the
Muslim army which invaded Nubia from Egypt in 651-2 did not succeed in actually conquering Nubia and never
made it further south than Dongola. Though there were initially three Christian kingdoms of NubiaNobatia,
Makuria, and Alodiaa unification between Nobatia and Makuria seems to have been achieved by the end of the
seventh century, based on the discovery of inscriptions of the Makurian king Merkurios, who came to the throne in
697, in Nobatian territory (Edwards 2004: 236-7). The Muslims pact (baq) with Christian Nubia reflects this
situation in that it is addressed to a single ruler of the Nubians (al-Nba), whose territory is said to extend as far
south as the frontier with Alwa (i.e. Alodia) (Kirwan 1980: 135). Though the united kingdom of Nobatia and
Makuria was ruled from the Makurian capital of Dongola, its Arabic designation, al-Nba, is ethnic rather than
political in origin. Since the text of the baq, as preserved in the Arabic sources, seems to be much later in date than
the period of the Muslim invasion of Nubia (651-2) to which it is attributed, the Kbra Nagats division of Nubia
into Nobatia and Alodia, though undoubtedly based on Arabic sources, need not indicate the use of seventh-century
sources in this instance. For a source-critical study on the Arabic material on Muslim agreements with the Nubians,
see M. Hinds and H. Sakkout, A Letter from the Governor of Egypt Concerning Egyptian-Nubian Relations in
141/758, in Studia Arabica et Islamica: Festschrift for Isn Abbs on His Sixtieth Birthday, W. al-Q (ed.)
Beirut: American University of Beirut, 1981: 209-29. A reference to Cairo (Qhr, cf. Arabic al-Qhira) in
Chapter 59 of the Kbra Nagat (1905: 65 (Geez text)), long dismissed as a later interpolation to a pre-existing text,
also fits well with the medieval milieu implied by the allusion to the Muslim conquests. Munro-Hay (2001: 47)
believes that the wars of King Amda eyn against the Muslims are also alluded to in the Kbra Nagat.
694
In addition to the reference to Cairo in Chapter 59 of the Kbra Nagat, a Coptic origin of the allusions to the
Islamic invasions of the seventh-century is plausible given the geographical scope of the places mentioned, which
are limited to northeast Africa and the Levantregions with which Coptic Christians had regular contact. More
distant regions, such as Spain, Mesopotamia, Iran, and Central Asia, are by contrast conspicuously absent. On

393

dating of the Kbra Nagat, points out as well that neither ny nor Fns are known from
sixth-century sources.
695
Rather, Fns (=Phinehas) is attested as the name of the Jewish king of
imyar only in late medieval Ethiopian texts, such as the Geez version of the Martyrium
Arethae, the fifteenth-century Synaxarium and the hagiographies of Panlwn and Aregw,
696

and can be traced back to Arabic sources.
697
In further support of a late dating of the Kbra
Nagat, Munro-Hay draws attention to the important role played by Saint Gregory the
Illuminator, who did not gain notoriety in Ethiopian tradition until about the fourteenth century,
when his Vita was first translated into Geez.
698

Munro-Hay further draws attention to the reference in this passage to the end of the
twelfth Great Lunar Cycle, which according to Ethiopian tradition occurred in 891-2 (884 of the
Ethiopian Era).
699
This is obviously far too late for the reign of Klbmuch less the lifetime of
the fourth-century Gregoryand corresponds instead to the little-known period following the
decline and fall of the kingdom of Aksum in the seventh century. Though Munro-Hay does not
put forward a theory as to why the sixth-century war between Aksum and imyar is so badly
misplaced chronologically, one might posit the contamination of Ethiopian historical tradition by
reports from the outside world, perhaps mediated through Arabic-speaking Christians or through
the Ethiopian monastic community in Jerusalem. Possibly relevant in this regard is the reference
in the Kbra Nagat to ny, who seems to be linked with Armenia as Fns is with South

references to the Muslim invasions in Coptic sources, see Hoyland 1997: 23, 26, 120-1, 132-5, 149-56, 278-94, 367-
9. For other possible references, see Hoyland (loc. cit.): 111-12, 171.
695
Munro-Hay 2001: 46.
696
Ibid.; Robin 2008: 45.
697
Thus Ysufs name in one of the Arabic versions of the Martyrium Arethae is Fins, though it is Dounaas
(>Dh Nuws) in the original Greek (Robin, loc. cit.). Though it could be that Fins is nothing more than a
corruption of Dh Nuws by way of Dh Nas, the name Fin (with a ) is attested as a Jewish name in seventh-
century Madna (ibid.).
698
Munro-Hay 2001: 47.
699
Ibid.: 44.

394

Arabia. A Jewish revolt under such an individual as this ny, who is known from no other
sources, is at total odds with the history of sixth-century Armenia
700
but may have been
influenced by reports about the Khazar Turks, who adopted Judaism during the ninth and tenth
centuries and from their homeland between the Caspian and Black Seas expanded into the
northern Caucasus.
701
Such reports, and perhaps also the claims of Hebrew origins by the
Bagratuni family of Armenia in the eight and ninth centuries
702
who nevertheless remained
Christianmay have given rise to the ny of the Kbra Nagat.
703

Is there any trace of sixth-century material in the remaining portion of Chapter 117? In
answer to this we will examine the episode of the meeting of Klb and Justin in Jerusalem to
establish religious ties and set up a new political order. Even if one were to argue that this
encounterthough ahistoricalis a dim recollection of the correspondence between the two
rulers, the details given in the Kbra Nagat regarding the political structure established by
Klb in South Arabia before his return to Ethiopia bear little resemblance to what is described
in Syriac, Greek, and Sabaic sources.
And thus after they have formed an alliance and established faith, they will devise a
plan that they should not let the Jews live. And they will set each of their sons there
[in the regions of Armenia and South Arabia where the Jews resided]. And the

700
At most, Justinians administrative and fiscal reforms in Armenia led to discontent on the part of the local
princes, who saw the reforms as an attempt to siphon off their wealth and as a result rose up in revolt in 538, even
going so far as to seek aid from the Ssnids (Redgate 1998: 155). Such a revolt is unlikely to have been
remembered in later centuries as a Jewish uprising against Christiansassuming it was remembered at alland can
thus hardly have been the basis for the Kbra Nagats allusion to a Jewish Armenian rebel who went about killing
Christians in Justins time.
701
On the Khazar conversion to Judaism, see P. B. Golden, The Conversion of the Khazars to Judaism, in The
World of the Khazars: New Perspectives: Published Papers from the Jerusalem 1999 International Khazar
Colloquium, P. B. Golden, H. Ben-Shaggai, and A. Rna-Tas (ed.), Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2007: 123-62.
702
Redgate 1998: 184.
703
That medieval Ethiopian and Armenian traditions met is hinted at in a remark made by the Armenian author
Mxitar of Ani who, writing between the late twelfth and the early thirteenth century, notes that in his day the war
between Ethiopia and Arabia was still related by tradition in Egypt, though he misattributes the event to the reign of
Theodosius I (378-392) and gives the Ethiopians theft of an Arab idol as the casus belli.On the relevant passage in
Mxitar, see Thomson 1986: 845, 848.

395

King of the Ethiopians will leave there his firstborn son, named Esrl, and will
return to his country in joy. And when he has reached his palace he will praise God
exceedingly and consecrate his body to the offering of glorification unto his Lord.
And God will assuredly accept him, for he will not sully his body after he has
returned, but will go to the monastery with a pure heart. And he will appoint as
king his younger son, named Gabra-Masqal, and he will seclude himself [in the
monastery].
(Wa-kama-z m-dhra habr wa-art hymnta ytmkkar kama -
yyw Ayhd wa-yahaddg hyya ba-ba-wldm. Wa-nga tyy
yahaddg hyya walda za-bak
w
r za-sm srl wa-ygabb br ba-f
wa-sba baa bta mangt yakk
w
t la-gzbr fadfda wa-yba
gh la-mawta sbat la-Amlk. Wa-qqa ytwakkaf gzbr sma
-yrakk
w
s gh m-dhra gaba all yaawwr wsta dabr ba-n lbb.
Wa-ynagg wald za-yns za-sm Gabra-Masqal wa-yaa rs.)
704

The text goes on to say that the two brothers then have a falling out concerning each others
authority. Esrl, referred to anonymously as the king of Najrn (nga Nagrn) hears that
his brother Grabra-Masqal is coming to rule where Zion is (yma kama yng haba
yn).
705

Now Gabra-Masqal will bring troops and will go forth in a chariot, and they will
meet at the strait of the Sea of the South
706
(i.e., the Bb al-Mandab) and will fight
each other. On one night the two of them will pray from evening until dawn once
the killing has become too hard for them to bear. And when they have wept tears
before Him, God will look upon the prayer of both and the prayer of their penitent
father, saying, This is the elder one, and he has risen to do the will of his father;
and this younger one has loved his father and has prayed to God [for him]. And
He will say to Gabra-Masqal, Choose ye between the chariot and Zion! He has
placed in him the desire to take Zion and to rule in public view on the throne of
his father. And to Esrl He has given the desire to choose the chariot and to
rule in secret, unseen; and He will send him against all those who transgress the
command of God. None shall build houses but will live in tents. They will have
no suffering either in hard labor or on the road and their days will be the double of
[other] people, and in this way they will shoot with bow and arrow and smite him
whom God hates.
(Wa-Gabra-Masqal-nn yna sarwta wa-yaawwr ba-saragal wa-
ytrkkab ba-haba mabba bra Lb wa-ytqttal wa-ba-aat llt
yly klhm m-sark ska nagh sba anm qtl wa-sba bakay

704
Kbra Nagat (ed. Bezold 1905: 170-1 (Geez text)).
705
Ibid.: 171 (Geez text).
706
Bra Lb; this might also be translated the Sea of Libya (i.e., Africa).

396

habh ba-anb ynr gzbr haba alta klhm wa-alta
abhm nss nza ybl wt-nn malhq wa-qma kama ygbar faqda
abh wa-la-wt-nn mans afqar abh wa-alaya habagzbr wa-
ybl la-Gabra-Masqal hray la-ka m-saragal wa-m-yn wa-aftaw
kama yn yn-h wa-yng gahda dba manbara abh wa-Esrl-
nn aftaw kama yhray saragal wa-yng ba-hb wa--ytraay wa-
yfnnw haba k
w
llm lla taadaw tzza gzbr wa-alb za-
yann abyta wa-ynabbr ba-dabtart wa-albm m za-sr wa--
m ba-fnt wa-mawlhm-nn kbata sab wa-kama-z-k yahayy
wa-ywssq wa-ywagg haba za-al gzbr.)
707

The Kbra Nagat, then, like the Martyrium Arethae, passes over Sumyafa Ashwa in silence,
treating the imposition of Aksumite rule over South Arabia instead as Klbs appointment of an
Ethiopian, rather than a local imyarite, to govern the region. The motif of the two brothers
fighting over control of South Arabia bears a vague similarity to Procopius account of the
attempt by Hellesthaeus (=Ella-Abe/Klb) to depose his erstwhile general Abreh, who
had established himself as an independent king of imyar and only later, after Hellesthaeus
death, agreed to pay tribute to Aksum.
708
In the Kbra Nagat, however, the conflict is not
between Klb and a wayward general but between two sons of Klb.
A king named Bta Esrl is attested in a medieval Ethiopian king-list (List C), in
which he is given a reign of eight months just before the reign of Gabra-Masqal,
709
and while the
earliest of these lists (List D) dates only from around the fifteenth century,
710
an Aksumite king
of that name is known from a series of coins minted at some point during the late the sixth or
early seventh century.
711
The mention in the Kbra Nagat of Esrls appointment by his
father to rule South Arabia recalls the military operations against Saba conducted by Baygat,

707
Ibid.: 171 (Geez text).
708
Bell. Pers. I.xx.5-8.
709
Conti Rossini 1909: 295.
710
Ibid.: 311.
711
Hahn 2000 (a): 299.

397

son of the nag, in the third century,
712
though it is unclear whether any sons of Klb
followed his example. Likewise there is no evidence that the historical king Esrl ever held
office in South Arabia, and the claim in the Kbra Nagat that he was the elder of Klbs two
sons does not fit well with the numismatic evidence that several kings intervened between his
reign and that of Klb.
713
From epigraphic evidence we know that Klbs immediate successor
was his son Wazeb who, in an inscription in unvocalized Geez from Aksum (RIE 192), follows
his father by laying claim to Saba and imyar in his royal title. As noted above, the Sabaic
inscription Istanbul 7608 bis mentions Kings of Aksum using the Geez plural nagat, which
may refer to Klb and Wazeb if one accepts the hypothesis of a coregency. If Wazeb acted as
his fathers representative while the latter was away in imyar, it would be tempting to identify
Wazeb with Gabra-Masqal. At most, though, the Kbra Nagat displays an awareness only that
an Ethiopian king named Esrl lived around the sixth century. Since Esrl is not mentioned
in foreign sources he belongs to an independent body of Ethiopian historical traditions which has
been anachronistically grafted onto a skeletal account of the Aksumite invasion of imyar in
525. The passage in the Kbra Nagat about the feuding of the two brothers in South Arabia
does, it is true, call to mind the medieval Arabic traditions about the conflict in Yemen between
Klbs two generals Ary and Abreh. But if such traditions were in fact the basis of the
Kbra Nagats story about Gabra-Masqal and Esrl, the fact that they are otherwise attested

712
1.4.2.
713
On the numismatic chronology of the late Aksumite period, see Munro-Hay 1999: 41-7; cf. Hahn 2000 (a).
Fiaccadori (2007 (b): 330) claims that this passage reflects a historical succession crisis in Aksum following Klbs
abdication, and attempts to get around the chronological problems implied by the reference to Esrl by suggesting
that the Esrl of the Kbra Nagat is to be identified with the Aksumite king Ella-Gabaz, whose reignattested
in the coins minted in his namecan be assigned to the mid-sixth century. This argument is hard to sustain. To
begin with, the Kbra Nagat is a very late work whose author(s) understood little of the events surrounding Klbs
invasion of imyar. Quite apart from this, what evidence does survive from Aksumite Ethiopia following the reign
of Klb constitutes too fragmentary a foundation on which to build something as elaborate as a succession crisis.
There is also the problem of nomenclature. Even if one accepts the historicity of Klbs abdication, an Aksumite
king named Esrl is attested in a mint several decades later than that of Ella-Gabaz, so there is no reason why
Ella-Gabaz should be identified with the Esrl of the Kbra Nagat, particularly when there is no evidence that
Ella-Gabaz was ever known as Esrl.

398

only in Arabic sources supports the contention that the Kbra Nagat relies heavily on late
material mediated through Arabic.
The statement that the slaughter of the Jews and the construction of churches on their
land would usher in the establishment of a universal Christian empire, which would last until the
coming of the Anti-Christ at the end of time, might indeed also be seen as a relic of a sixth-
century corpus of traditionsif only because the decline of Aksum and the Islamic invasions in
the seventh century effectively dashed all hopes of such an empire. On the other hand, the Kbra
Nagat knows only of Najrn, and never mentions imyar, which does not suggest a thorough
acquaintance of the texts author(s) with the sixth-century history of South Arabia.
714
That the
vision of a universal Christian empire clashed with the political realities of the Middle Ages is
obvious, but to use this idiosyncrasy as evidence for a sixth-century date for Chapter 117 of the
Kbra Nagat overlooks the ability of monarchs to cling to extravagant territorial claims no
matter how far-fetched they were. Indeed, from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century Ethiopian
kings continued to maintain the fiction of rulership over the Sudan, the ijz, Zanzibar, and the
Holy Land.
715
Traditions about Mked, first attested in the Kbra Nagat, kept pace with the
expanding world-view of the Ethiopian monarchy, such that Mked is presented in the
seventeenth-century Gadla Marqrws as a queen to whom the Muslims (tanblt) of the
sultanates of dal in the Horn of Africa and Sinnr in the Sudan come to pay homage,
716
after

714
It has been suggested that what little such an author or authors may have known on the subject was derived from
the Geez version of the Martyrium Arethae (Bowersock 2008: 386 (n. 9)).
715
See, for example, E. Van Donzel, Foreign Relations of Ethiopia, 1642-1700: Documents Relating to the Journeys
of Khodja Murd, Istanbul: Nederlands Historisch-Archaeologisch Instituut, 1979: 72.
716
Vitae Sanctorum Indigenarum 1904: 5 (Geez text). The Portuguese Jesuit missionary Pedro Pez (1564-1622)
records a similar tradition to the effect that Mked passed through the gold-fields of Fazghl in western Ethiopia
on her way to visit King Solomon (Spaulding 1974: 20).

399

which they provide her with a guide and a bodyguard of one hundred men on her visit to Najrn,
the town of the blessed martyrs (Nagrn za-yt ada samtt brkn).
717

As a compromise between the maximalist and minimalist positions one may suggest that
the Kbra Nagat is a composite work containing some sort of Vorlage of uncertainthough
probably early medievaldate, to which extraneous elements were gradually added and
reworked over time.
718
The Ethiopians self-perception as the guardians of the true faith may
well date back to Aksumite times,
719
and apart from this there is a striking similaritynever
considered by Munro-Haybetween some of the apocalyptic themes in the Kbra Nagat and
those in seventh-century Syriac literature. One of the relevant Syriac works, the Edessene
Apocalypse, has been considered above in light of the Greek Martyrium Arethae. It and another
Syriac text, the Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius, dating from around 690,
720
are also of
importance in understanding the Near Eastern Christian origin of certain elements in the Kbra
Nagat. Like the Kbra Nagat, the Edessene Apocalypse speaks about the magical powers of the
bridle (pgd) fashioned from the nails of the Cross and hung in the Church of the Holy
Sepulchre. When the unmounted, never-bridled horse comes and puts its head in that bridle,
says the Edessene Apocalypse, the Romans will know that the kingdom of the Christians has
come, and they will receive the kingdom of the entire world from the Hagarenes (i.e. the
Muslims) and the rest (w-kad nt ssy d-l rkb w-l lb lgm klleh zabneh w-maal reh
meneh w-beh ba-lgm haw ydn Rmy da-mat malkt da-Krstyn w-hennn nsbn
malkt d-kllh ar men Bnay Hagar wa-sar).
721
Though the text says nothing of a chariot

717
Vitae Sanctorum Indigenarum 1904: 5-6 (Geez text).
718
Getatchew Haile, pers. comm.
719
Bowersock 2008: 391.
720
On the background of this text, see Hoyland 1997: 263-7. On its Ethiopian references, see Bowersock 2008: 388-
9.
721
Edessene Apocalypse 1917: 427 (Syriac text).

400

possessed by the Ethiopians like that described in the Kbra Nagat, the two texts are clearly
drawing on shared topoi.
722
We have already seen that, even without the chariot motif, the
Edessene Apocalypse still finds a place for the Ethiopians by making an Ethiopian princess,
Kshyat, the ancestress of a future Byzantine king who will chase out the Muslims.
In the Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius we encounter a similar reference to a future
Byzantine emperor said to be descended from the Ethiopian princess Kshyat and the
Byzantines eponymous ancestor Bz. Like his counterpart in the Edessene Apocalypse, he
would supposedly rise up at the end of time and liberate the Christians from the their new
Arabian enemies, the Muslims, who are referred to in the Syriac text as Ishmaelites, as they are
as well in the Kbra Nagat. In the Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius the Ethiopian themes
receive greater attention than they do in the Edessene Apocalypse.
The progeny of Queen Kshyat, daughter of Pl, King of the Ethiopians, seized
for all time the kingdoms of the Macedonians, the Romans, and the Greeks on
behalf of the progeny of Kshyat, daughter of Pl, because the kingdom of the
Greeks is that which is of the progeny of the Ethiopians. It will surrender power to
God at the end of the ages. Now the blessed David looked with the clear eye of
the spirit of God and saw that the kingdom of the Greeks would be descended
from Kshyat, daughter of Pl, King of the Ethiopians. But many brothers among
the clergy have thought that the blessed David made this statement about the
kingdom of the Ethiopians, but those who are of this opinion are in error. Now
concerning this kingdom of the Greeks which is of the progeny of Kshyat and
which will take that which has been fixed in the middle [of the earth]that is, the
Holy Crossthe blessed David spoke of this, [saying] Ethiopia will surrender
power to God, for there is no people or kingdom under heaven that can subdue
the kingdom of the Christians.
(W-ead zarh d-Kyat malkt bat Pl malk d-Ky malkwt d-
Maqedny wa-d-Rmy wa-d-Yawny men zarh d-Kyat bat Pl damm
l-lam mel d-malkt d-Yawny hy d-teh men zar d-Ky w-hy
mallm d l-Alh b-arat zanb. Kad r dn bn Dawd b-ayn nahhrt
d-r[] d-Alh wa-z d-men Kyat bat Pl malk d-Ky td d-tetyabbal
malkt d-Yawny. Bram dn sagg a men bnay dt asbar(w) d-al malkt

722
On the topoi which the Edessene Apocalypse shares with the Kbra Nagat, see Bowersock 2008: 389.

401

d-Ky emar bn Dawd mellt hd w-ayln d-hln etr(w) aw l-hon.
Al-hd gr malkt d-Yawny d-th men zarh d-Kyat w-hy d l-haw
d-ettsm ba-mat d-taw lb qadd alh dn al-hd emar ubn Dawd d-
K tallem d l-Alh. Layt gr amm aw malkt da-tt mayy d-mek d-
tesan l-malkt da-Krsyn.)
723

Like the Kbra Nagat, the Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius bestows a special status upon
Ethiopia, based in part on the same Psalm (68:31) quoted in Chapter 113 of the Kbra Nagat.
The Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius similarly envisions a special tie between the Ethiopians
and Romans for the purposes of realizing an apocalyptic Christian victory. But there the
similarity ends, for the Kbra Nagat fabricates an Israelite genealogy through a union of
Solomon and Mked in order to appropriate for Ethiopia the status of Gods chosen nation, and
claims that through their adherence to the true faith and their possession of the Ark of the
Covenant the Ethiopians have an edge on their fellow Semites, the Romans. The Apocalypse of
Pseudo-Methodius, on the other hand, fabricates an Ethiopian genealogy for the Romans in order
to appropriate for them the special status of Ethiopia in Psalm 68:31, with Kshyat and Bs
taking the place of Mked and Solomon respectively. If the brothers whose interpretation of
that verse the anonymous Syriac author disputes were already circulating apocalyptic traditions
about Ethiopia, we might have the basis for some of the content of Chapter 117 of the Kbra
Nagat. Though this chapter is likely the product of a much later period than that of the
Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius, in light of the large amount of spurious material in the account
of Klbs war with imyar in the Kbra Nagat, the Kbra Nagats reference to the division of
the world between Ethiopia and Rome is a theme which is clearly related in some way to the
seventh-century Syriac traditions of the inheritance of the kingdoms of the Macedonians,
Romans, and Greeks by Kshyats descendants. Since, however, no trace of such traditions can
be found anywhere in sixth-century literature, the theme of the division of the world in the Kbra

723
Pseudo-Methodius 1993: I: 19-20 (Syriac text).

402

Nagat can only be a development that post-dates the Aksumite conquest of South Arabia by at
least a century. On another note, it is striking that, much though the Kbra Nagat mangles the
account of Klbs war with imyar, the text incorporates this account in Ethiopias salvation
history in the first place when the actual conversion of Ethiopia to Christianity in the reign of
zn does not merit so much as a single mention. To the Ethiopians of later centuries, then,
Klbs holy war in Arabiahowever imperfectly remembered it may have beenremained
central to their self-conception as a Christian people.

7.6. Summary
The Syriac and Geez sources which we have examined in the present chapter are unique
in that they preserve the historical traditions of two eastern Christian communities regarding
Klbs invasion of imyar in 525. If we had at our disposal a South Arabian Christian literature
it might be possible to flesh out this in many ways skeletal outline of how the Aksumite conquest
of South Arabia was perceived in the sixth century. We do, of course, have Sabaic inscriptions
from the reign of Klbs imyarite client Sumyafa Ashwa, but these are dry records of
events which make no pretense of being literature with an ideological message. The Geez
inscriptions from Yemen, fragmentary though they are, are of particular interest in that they
represent the only documentation of the invasion left by the Aksumites themselves. Future
excavations at Aksum may well bring to light an inscription erected by Klb to commemorate
his second campaign against imyar, much as RIE 191 commemorates the military ventures of
the earlier part of his reign (including the Aksumite invasion of imyar in 518). As for the Kbra
Nagat, this text, to be sure, views Klbs war with imyar as a turning point in Ethiopian
history, and in this it is by no means unique in medieval Ethiopian literature. Yet upon closer

403

scrutiny, the Kbra Nagat reveals no influence of genuinely Aksumite material, and at most
may have drawn in parts on traditions about the Ethiopia which circulated in Syriac and Coptic
communities in the seventh century.
Though the Syriac and Geez texts of sixth-century date which we have studied differ in
that the former are exclusively literary and the latter exclusively epigraphic, they share a
common interest in reading the Aksumite invasion of imyar in 525 as a holy war which readily
invited analogies with the Biblical narrative. If too much is missing from the Geez inscription at
Mrib (RIE 195:I+II) to state conclusively whether that inscription draws a direct parallel
between the Aksumite appropriation of South Arabia and the Israelite appropriation of Canaan,
we do have hints in the Syriac Book of the imyarites that the Aksumite conquest was perceived
in eastern Christian circles as a divinely ordained inheritance of enemy territory. In Chapter 5 we
saw similar Biblical allusions in the Greek Martyrium Arethae, and it is tempting, in light of
Detorakis arguments for Syriac influence on that text,
724
to speculate that the Martyriums
depiction of Klbs campaign as a holy war owes something to the eastern Christian traditions
which make this identification more explicit.
At the same time we must not lose sight of the political implications of the Aksumite
invasion: Klb was Aksums first great military leader since zn, and as such would tolerate
no rival in the southern Red Sea region. To him this meant subduing any elements in imyar,
most notably the regime of Ysuf Asar Yathar, which stood in the way of realizing that goal.
Klb may well have also seen himself as the protector of South Arabias Christians in much the
same way that the late Roman emperors saw themselves as protectors of Christians beyond the

724
5.4.

404

Roman frontier.
725
But keeping imyar Christian was more likely to have been part of Klbs
attempt to bring South Arabia within Aksums political sphere, than to have been the result of
pure missionary zeal. As argued in Chapter 3, religion was only part of Klbs legitimation of
his military ventures in South Arabia, irredentist ideology being the other major component. All
the same, the portrayal of political war as holy war in sixth century sources helped set the course
for future Ethiopian kings, whose campaigns of expansion in the Ethiopian Highlands were
similarly couched in religious terms. Understanding Klbs relationship vis--vis imyar helps
put this later development in perspective.

725
Thus Constantine had, ever since his conquest of the eastern half of the Roman Empire in 324, claimed
guardianship over the Christians of the Ssnid Empire (Fowden 1993: 93).

405

CONCLUSION

The contention of this dissertation has been that the political and ideological goals of
Christendoms outside the Roman Empire are in need of careful consideration, and that Christian
influence in the Near East on the eve of Islam cannot be viewed as a reflex of Roman influence
in every case. The conclusions reached in this dissertation, then, are twofold:
1) The Aksumite invasions of imyar in 518 and 525 reflect Klbs attempt to
eliminate political competitors in the southern Red Sea region, not a Roman
attempt to establish a sphere of influence in South Arabia with the help of an
Ethiopian ally.
2) Given that Roman geopolitical interests cannot explain Klbs invasions of
South Arabia, the role of religious and irredentist ideology during his reign
deserves far more attention than the at best passing notice which it has hitherto
received from scholars.
It must be emphasized that the interpretation of the history of Aksumite intervention in South
Arabia during the reign of Klb offered here is geographically and temporally specific and must
not be thought of as a model applicable to other regions of the late antique world. In the
Caucasus and the southern borderlands of the Fertile Crescent the Romans and Ssnids were
indeed heavily involved with local politics as part of the ongoing geopolitical struggle between
the two superpowers. The argument presented in this dissertation that Klbs war with imyar
was not part of this struggle does not mean that we should dismiss the idea of Roman and
Ssnid political and military intervention elsewhere in the Near East, only that the Aksumite

406

occupation of imyar provides a case of an autochthonous brand of Ethiopian imperialism which
ultimately owes nothing to the Romano-Ssnid conflict. The simplest and most obvious reason
for this is that imyar shared no frontier with either the Roman or the Ssnid empires. Thus,
whereas the Ghassnids of the southern Levant were destined to become clients of the Romans
and the Lakhmids of southern Mesopotamia clients of the Ssnids, the only state for which
imyar acted as a client was its nearest neighbor, Aksum.
Theorizing on a grand scale is a dangerous enterprise in historical studies, particularly
when one seeks to explain historical processes in different regions and cultures according to
models that cannot accommodate all the diversity that exists between these regions and cultures.
This is why no theories of history, imperialism, or patron-client relationships have been
advanced in the present study, only theories which can explain a specific historical phenomenon,
namely the Aksumite occupation of South Arabia during the reign of Klb. Despite the limited
scope of this topic, it is by no means without interest. Aksums occupation of South Arabia is
worthy of closer attention by historians in that it constitutes one of the few instances in which an
African state has expanded overseas, in this case into South Arabia. Though our focus has been
on the sixth century, this dissertation is only a step towards a projected monograph on Aksumite
interaction with the Arabian Peninsula from the first century to the seventh centuryin short, a
history of Aksumite relations with Arabia from the period in which Aksum first appears in
foreign sources, specifically the works of Graeco-Roman authors, until the last years of its
existence as a state. Since studies of imperialism in African history have traditionally regarded
Africa as the object of foreign intervention and conquest, a study of Aksumite expansion into
South Arabia can alter how we view African relations with the outside world.

407

What is remarkable is that Aksum was able to invade and occupy South Arabia not once
but several times, first in the third century, and again during the reign of Klb in the sixth.
Between these two centuries lies a gap during which the nature of Aksumites relations with the
South Arabian kingdom of imyar becomes difficult to make out. Apart from a imyarite record
(Ir 28) of diplomatic exchange with Aksum in the first half of the fourth century, we have no
written evidence of relations between the two sides of the Red Sea in the fourth and fifth
centuries. No armed conflict is mentioned in Ir 28 in connection with this instance of Aksumite-
imyarite diplomacy, and since the imyarites, like all South Arabian peoples, were never ones
to shy away from documenting warfare in inscriptions, their silence on matters Aksumite may
best be taken as evidence of peaceful relations with Ethiopia during this period. Yet the
Aksumite experience in South Arabia during the third century was never forgotten in Ethiopia.
Even as such warrior-kings as Ousanas (c. 305-320) and zn (c. 330-360) sent their armies
westward against the peoples of the Ethiopian Highlands and Nubia, or north against the Beja,
their use in inscriptions of the South Arabian musnad script and their display of bold, if
contrived, titles proclaiming their fictitious rule over South Arabia indicate that they continued to
look east. Though Aksum held sway over many ethnic groups, each with its own culture, the fact
that its kings viewed South Arabia as a cultural model for advertising their royal power indicates
that this region had a special significance for Aksum which such foreign peoples as the Beja and
the Nubians did not.
Exactly why South Arabia, and the memory of third-century Aksumite occupation there,
had this significance for Ousanas and zn is not clear. In this regard it would help
immeasurably if we had more epigraphic evidence for Aksum. Since, however, Ousanas and
zn are the only two kings of Aksum between the third and sixth centuries who are known to

408

have left detailed inscriptions, their use of the musnad script and of royal titles proclaiming their
dominion over Saba and imyar cannot be contextualized within the broader framework of
Aksumite royal ideology. For the rest of the fourth and fifth centuries the only record we have of
Aksumite kings is the coins they minted. A number of these coins have in fact been found in
Yemen, though it is not clear when they arrived, and since none of the mottoes on them speak
about South Arabia they shed no light on Aksumite attitudes toward, or relations with, South
Arabia in the fourth and fifth centuries. As a result, we cannot tell whether the fiction of rule
over South Arabia was claimed by other Aksumite kings during this period. That Ousanas and
zn made such claims could be the result of Aksumite military expansion during their reigns,
something which is well documented in the inscriptions they left. Perhaps they felt that an
Aksumite warrior-king ought to be ruler of both Africa and Arabia, as their anonymous third-
century predecessor who erected Monumentum Adulitanum II had beeneven if it meant
creating the fiction that Aksum still occupied South Arabia.
It was not until the sixth century that Aksums irredentist claims to South Arabia were
resurrected,
1
a fact which owes as much to the politics as to the religious tenor of the time.
Before the sixth century religion appears to have had little influence on Aksums views of its
foreign neighborsand enemies. Even after zns conversion to Christianity c. 347-9, there
is no indication in any of that kings inscriptions that his self-appointed status as king of South
Arabia was invested with any special religious meaning. He claims to be king of Saba and
imyar, together with the two kingdoms respective strongholds of Saln and Raydn, but he
makes no effort to support this assertion with claims of divine mandate, for example. One is

1
At least, it is not until the sixth century that we again find Aksumite kings erecting inscriptions in which they bear
such titles as King of Saba and imyar, as Ousanas and zn had back in the fourth century. Whether these titles
were consistently borne by Aksumite kings from the fourth century down to the sixth is unknown.

409

struck, in fact, by the lack of all but the vaguest Christian references in zns inscriptions, the
Christian Trinity itself being mentioned only in his Greek inscriptions, but not in those written in
Geez. In the medium of Geez, the Christian deity is described as nothing more than a vague
lord of heaven and earth, not far removed from the chief god of pagan Aksum, Marem. Only in
the second decade of the sixth century, with the accession of Klb (c. 510-540), Aksums first
warrior-king since zn,
2
does an explicitly Christianor more accurately Biblicalideology
make itself felt in Aksumite inscriptions.
Much had changed in Aksum as well as in imyar by Klbs time. In Aksum, we now
have Klbs inscription RIE 191, the earliest Geez text that not only mentions Christ and the
Trinity but also quotes from Scripture. That Scripture is quoted in this inscription indicates that
at least part of the Bible must have been translated into Geez by this time, if not indeed during
the reign of Klb himself. With a Scripture available in the medium of a local language, the
development of a distinctly Ethiopian Christian ideology became possible, and Klb made full
use of it by speaking in RIE 191 of his zealous faith in Christ, Christs protection of him, and the
strength of his divine lord in battle. Nothing of the sort is attested in any of zns Christian
inscriptions. In neighboring imyar, the impact of Judaeo-Christian tradition on the ruling elite
was no less keenly felt at this time, though in this case it was not Christianity but Judaism that
gained the upper hand. The results can be seen in the first outbreaks of religious persecution in
South Arabia, perpetrated by the imyarite royal house with the support of the influential Jewish
community in the late fifth century. By the turn of the following century South Arabian
Christians enjoyed a brief reprieve under Marthadl
an
Yanf (c. 504-518?), a imyarite king
who was favorably inclined towards Christianityif not a Christian himselfand during whose

2
At least insofar as we know from inscriptions.

410

reign the Aksumites established some sort of diplomatic presence in the imyarite capital of
afr. A renewed anti-Christian backlash brought this lull to an end, causing Klb to take up
Aksumite arms against imyar in 518 for the first time since the third century.
It is undeniable that more than religion was at stake here. If Klb might already have
regarded himself as the token guardian of imyars Christian community even before his troops
set foot in South Arabia, the rise of a resistance movement against Christianity across the Red
Sea may have appeared to him as a threat to Christian Aksums influence in the region. Thus,
after his troops crushed this movement, Klb made a point of establishing a Christian Aksumite,
Madkarib Yafur (c. 518-523), as a client ruler, a imyar dominated by one of his
coreligionists being perceived as a imyar more sympathetic to Aksum, and by extension more
amenable to Aksumite political influence. That Klb also had a church erected in imyar at the
conclusion of the Aksumite campaign there, while zn had been content to erect symbolic
thrones as monuments to Aksumite conquests in Africa, testifies to the extent to which Aksumite
political influence in South Arabia was identified with Christianity by the sixth century. At the
same time, one of the central arguments in this study has been that Klb, no less than Ousanas
and zn, based his claims to Red Sea supremacy on irredentist rhetoric. To that end he
commissioned his governor of Adulis to have copies made of Monumentum Adulitanum II, in
which Aksums third-century conquests in Arabia are recorded. The transcription of this Greek
text in Cosmas Indicopleustes Christian Topography is the fruit of this effort to find a document
establishing Aksums claims to the territories it had once occupied in the Arabian Peninsula. A
hint of Klbs sense of connection to the past is also apparent in his use in RIE 191 of the same
form of musnad script employed in the inscriptions of Ousanas and zn, as well as his
adoption of royal titles patterned after those of his fourth-century predecessors, albeit with a few

411

modifications. Klbs expression of gratitude to Christ in RIE 191 for establishing him on the
throne of his fathers is thus a demonstration not only of religious faith but also of the extent to
which the king saw his reign as a continuation of the reigns of these predecessors.
The sequence of events that follow the Aksumite invasion of imyar in 518the rise to
power of the Jewish imyarite king Ysuf Asar Yathar (c. 522-525), the subsequent attacks
on the Christians in South Arabia, and the Aksumite invasion and appointment of a local client-
king in the person of Sumyafa Ashwa (525-540?)reads much like a re-play of the previous
outbreak of anti-Christian violence and Aksumite military retaliation, albeit with far more
extensive documentation. That history does indeed appear to have repeated itself is a reflection
of a fairly consistent Aksumite policy vis--vis South Arabia in the sixth century, one based on
indirect rule through vassal kings. It was at this time that Aksum, more than at any other point in
its history, sought to reshape to its advantage the entire political environment of the southern Red
Sea and, in so doing, establish itself as the dominant power in that region. That the rhetoric of
liberating his persecuted co-religionists was used by Klb to legitimate this political enterprise
does not mean that his sense of holy mission was any less genuine, for Christianity had by the
sixth century fully established itself as the mode of public expression par excellence. Politics and
warfare could not be but affected by it. Of the effect of religion on politics, the use of Biblical
imagery and quotations in the Geez inscriptions from Yemen leave us in no doubt and, though
composed in very different milieus, the Greek and Syriac sources which speak of Klb as a
Christian warrior fighting against the Jewish imyarites were composed within the same
ideological framework of good versus evil, with oftentimes explicitly Biblical overtones.
Having studied in detail the political as well as religious aspects of Aksumite activities in
sixth-century imyar, we can also make a few observations regarding the more mundane issue

412

of administration. Klbs habit of appointing local kings to rule South Arabia indicates that he
favored political control through vassal rulers rather than governors, though it is likely that the
clients whom he placed on the imyarite throne were assisted by Aksumite officials, supported
by Aksumite troops stationed in South Arabia. Thus we know from Sumyafa Ashwas Sabaic
inscriptions (Wellcome A 103664 and Istanbul 7608 bis), the Syriac Book of the imyarites, and
the Greek Martyrium Arethae that Sumyafa Ashwa was aided by Ethiopian officers and
mercenaries in his task of maintaining order in South Arabia, as had probably been the case in
the reign of Madkarib Yafur before him. Aksumite rule in sixth-century South Arabia thus
differed structurally from later Ssnid rule, which was exercised through a provincial governor
appointed directly by the Ssnid emperor. Having achieved the desired regime change in
imyar and imposed an annual tribute on the country, Klb made few other demands on South
Arabia. Outside the major towns the impact of Aksumite rule is unlikely to have been strongly
felt, the promotion of Christianity taking the place of an imposition of Ethiopian culture as the
chief expression of Aksums hold over imyarite society at large. Since we lack a detailed,
comprehensive itinerary of Klbs campaign the nature and scope of his efforts at Christianizing
South Arabia through conversions and the construction of churches, and the extent to which such
efforts might have been resisted by the locals, is difficult to tell.
In terms of geopolitics, it is striking that, in contrast to the later campaigns of Abreh
into the heart of Arabia, Klbs invasion in 525 was limited to the southwestern corner of the
Arabian Peninsula. Though scholars have long viewed this invasion as a proxy war on behalf of
Rome, aimed at establishing an anti-Ssnid bloc in South Arabia, there is no evidence that
Klb had anything of the sort in mind. He never led his troops towards the Ssnids Arabian
frontier in either the north or the east, and if the non-royal imyarite Sumyafa Ashwa,

413

mentioned in CIH 621 from in al-Ghurb, had political ties with the tribes of the aramawt,
ufr, and Soqotra, there is no need to see in this evidence of intensive Aksumite efforts to
strengthen South Arabias eastern frontier against the Ssnids. This much is evident from BR-
Yanbq 47, which documents these same alliances between imyar and the tribes of the east
some three years before Klbs first invasion of imyar in 518.
From the Ssnid side, the war between Aksum and imyar seems to have passed largely
unnoticed. Though Ysufs diplomatic relations with the Lakhmids ensured that news of his
persecution of South Arabias Christians reached the Ssnid court, Syriac sources dealing with
the Nestorian Christian communities of the Ssnid-controlled Arabian Gulf are silent on
Ysufs excesses as well as on the Aksumite invasion of imyar. Throughout the sixth century
the Nestorians of eastern Arabia continued to go about their daily lives, and if the war that raged
on the other side of Arabia was ever discussed at their synodswe have no evidence one way or
anotherthey never took action to help their South Arabian coreligionists. Not until the seventh
century does the increasing conversion of their flock to Islam rouse the Nestorian clergymen of
the Arabian Gulf from their insularity and cause them to take greater interest in the affairs of
foreign powers.
3
When one considers the intense interest in South Arabia shown by the churches
of Aksum and Alexandria, it becomes evident that the war between Aksum and imyar in
Klbs reign was essentially a Red Sea affair with no significant implications for Ssnid
Arabia, much less for the war between Rome and Persia. Even the Martyrium Arethae, with its
reference to Justins correspondence, through the intermediary of the Coptic archbishop
Timothy, with Klb, treats the war in South Arabia in total isolation from the Romano-Ssnid
conflict, in contrast to Procopius account of the attempt by Justinian to extend the conflict to the

3
On the Islamization of the Christians of Bt Mazny (located in the present-day United Arab Emirates and
Oman), see Potts 1990: II: 346-7.

414

Red Seaor rather to bring the Red Sea into the conflictsome years later. The Martyrium
Arethae, no less than the Book of the imyarites and the Geez inscriptions from Yemen,
emphasizes not the Roman presence in the southern Red Sea but the sacred mission which
Klbs invasion of imyar embodied.
Having summarized the interpretation of the events examined in this study, we must now
treat the question of what happened after Klbs appointment of Sumyafa Ashwa as
Aksums client-king in imyar, for it is at that time that the Roman Empire did in fact involve
itself directly in South Arabian affairs. That the nature of Roman policy towards the southern
Red Sea region underwent a significant change following the accession of Justinian in 527 has
much to do with the personality of Justinian himself. But for all that Justinian was in many ways
like Klb. A ruler bent on restoring the Roman Empire to its former glory much as Klb sought
to restore Aksums Arabian empire, Justinian would reconquer for Rome the territories it had
lost to the Germanic tribes in Italy and North Africa. His wars against the Ssnids are depicted
by John Malalas in terms reminiscent of the struggle of the kingdom of Judah against the
Assyrians,
4
just as the Aksumite invaders of imyar are compared to the Israelite invaders of
Canaan in both the Syriac Book of the imyarites and the Geez inscriptions from Yemen. Again
like Klb in South Arabia, Justinian would build churches throughout his newly-won
Mediterranean empire, often times with explicit references to the Old Testament traditions of
Solomons construction works.
5

But if in his vision as both a Christian warrior-king and an irredentist visionary Justinian
bears comparison with Klb, he could not differ more from Justin with regard to his policy

4
Jeffreys 2010: 170-2.
5
Magdalino and Nelson 2010: 14; Ousterhout 2010: 239-51.

415

toward Aksum and imyar. In Justins reign Romes role in the war between the two Red Sea
kingdoms had been limited to the provision of ships to aid Klb in the war effort, and the fact
that these were merchant ships rather than vessels built for the specific purpose of warfare
indicates that even this logistic aid was a makeshift affair involving little if any planning on the
part of Rome. Apart from this there had been no direct contact between Rome and Aksum, much
less an attempt to involve Aksum in a broader geopolitical strategy aimed at extending Roman
influence in Arabia or establishing an anti-Ssnid bloc there. That Justin had entrusted official
Roman correspondence with Aksum to the Coptic archbishop Timothy rather than writing to
Klb directly indicates how limited Romes role really was in the war between Aksum and
imyar. But in 531, with the war against the Ssnids again in full swing, Justinian broke with
tradition by sending ambassadors to Sumyafa Ashwa in imyar and Klb in Aksum in an
effort to bring both powers into the war with the Ssnid Empire on the side of Rome. According
to Procopius, it was on account of their shared Christian religion that Justinian established ties
with these two kings, in the hope that they would thereby make common cause with the Romans
in fighting the Ssnids.
6
The plan was that the Ethiopians would undermine the Ssnids silk
trade by buying silk directly from India and then selling it to the Romans, while the imyarites
were to invade the Ssnid realm itself with the help of mercenaries drawn from the Maadd
confederation of central Arabia.
7
Nothing came of either of these plans; brilliant strategist though
he was in the Mediterranean and the Fertile Crescent, Justinian understood little of the logistical
difficulties involved in attempting to defeat the Ssnids from the south. Indeed it was not until
the seventh century that a successful invasionindeed conquestof the Ssnid Empire from
Arabia was achieved by the Muslims, and then only because the Islamic state had successfully

6
Bell. Pers. I.xx.9.
7
Ibid.: I.xx.9-12.

416

welded the entire Arabian Peninsula into a single polity, something neither Klb nor Abreh
had ever achieved nor even sought to achieve.
Sometime after 531, but before 547, when he first appears in South Arabian inscriptions,
Klbs general Abreh seized power in imyar. Klb is reported by Procopius to have sent
two punitive expeditions against the upstartneither of them mentioned in any extant
inscriptionbut, failing to overthrow him, he abandoned the effort; not until after Klbs death
did Abreh finally agree to pay tribute to Aksum.
8
If the establishment of an all but autonomous
Ethiopian regime in imyar spelled the end of direct Aksumite influence there, it provided
Justinian with another potential ally in the war against the Ssnids. Thus it was that he
encouraged Abreh to launch an overland invasion of the Ssnid Empire from Arabia. But
when at last Abreh responded to Justinians request, he aborted his campaign shortly after
setting out, for reasons Procopius does not explain.
9
From Abrehs inscription at the great dam
of Mrib (CIH 541), we know that he received ambassadors from the Romans as well as the
Ssnidsnot to mention the Aksumites as well
10
though it is not clear from this inscription to
what extent he committed himself to the Roman camp. If any of Abrehs several invasions of
central Arabia had as their goal the protection of Roman interests, it is unlikely that Abreh
would have been any more able than Sumyafa Ashwa before him to successfully invade the
Ssnid Empire.
11
After Abreh Ethiopian rule in imyar continued for a few more decades that
passed totally undocumented in South Arabian inscriptions, the reigns of his two sons Yaksm
and Masrq receiving notice only in much later Arabic sources.
12
Yet for all Justinians failed

8
Ibid.: I.xx.3-8.
9
Ibid.: I.xx.13.
10
Gajda 2009: 136.
11
Ibid.
12
Yaksm is, however, mentioned in CIH 541 as a son of Abreh, his name written KSM (Gajda 2009: 148). At
this point, however, Yaksm had not yet come to the throne.

417

attempts to involve Aksum and imyar in the war against Persia, South Arabia would fall victim
to an invasion by the Ssnids in 570. They would rule the region until the last Ssnid governor
of imyar, Badhn, converted to Islam in 630, as a result of which South Arabia was brought
into the new Islamic Empire.
Justinians reign, then, marks the only documented occasion after the first century BCE
on which the Romans attempted to bring South Arabia into their political orbit. Given that his
efforts to bring the Aksumites and imyarites, then finally the independent Ethiopian regime in
South Arabia, into the war with the Ssnids was nothing but a series of strategic and logistical
failures, one may well ask why it has become so fashionable to view Aksumite intervention in
South Arabia as part of Romes geopolitical competition with the Ssnids, particularly when all
the evidence indicates that Klb had his own religious and irredentist reasons for invading
imyar. Part of the reason for this long-standing interpretation of Aksums Arabian venture is
the simple habit of using the familiar to explain the unfamiliar. Even after the decipherment of
Epigraphic South Arabian in the mid-nineteenth century, Yemens pre-Islamic history remained
almost as intractable to scholars as its terrain. Such ancient inscriptions as were acquired or
copied by those few scholars who managed to explore this remote, dangerous corner of the Near
East were found to be frustratingly opaque, and what historical information they provided was
difficult to contextualize within the broader framework of ancient historyall the more so in that
South Arabian inscriptions seldom refer to external events whose dates were well established.
Graeco-Roman writings on South Arabia were, by contrast, readily available to any western
scholar with access to a decent library. It is hardly surprising, then, that such writings remained
the basis for understanding ancient South Arabian history even after epigraphic material from
Yemen became available for study in Europe. Since the Romano-Ssnid conflict looms so large

418

in the works of late antique historians it was natural for scholars to relate events in the Red Sea
to the Roman war with Persia, particularly when historians like Procopius framed Ethiopian rule
in South Arabia within this war.
For its part, Ethiopia was never quite as inaccessible as Yemen, and in fact Ethiopian
antiquities bearing the stamp of South Arabian influence were well known to European travelers
who visited the country in the nineteenth century.
13
In the case of Ethiopia, however, scholars
tended to view its ancient ties with Arabia in terms of Arabian influence on Ethiopia, not
Ethiopian influence on Arabia. If scholars were willing to concede that the Ethiopians had
occupied South Arabia at some point in late antiquity, it was easy enough to assume that such a
peripheral part of the ancient world as the Horn of Africa could only have succeeded in this
venture because it had the support of some greater power like the Roman Empire. This view,
however, was hard to challenge for practical as well as ideological reasons, for much of the
epigraphic evidence from both Ethiopia and Yemen on which this dissertation is based was not
discovered until at least the mid-twentieth century, by which time the proxy-war interpretation of
Aksumite rule in South Arabia had already established itself as a scholarly orthodoxy.
Having summarized the main points of this study and given an explanation as to why the
history of Aksumite intervention in South Arabia has for so long been misinterpreted, let us now
consider the long-term implications of this intervention, bearing in mind that here we must rely
more on hypotheses than hard evidence. We will begin with the material and social effects of
Aksumite warfare in South Arabia before considering its long-term political effects. While
warfare is often seen as detrimental to society, it can in fact have a very stimulating effect on the

13
See, for example, T. Bent, The sacred city of the Ethiopians; being a record of travel and research in Abyssinia in
1893, London; New York: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1893.

419

local economy by encouraging not only greater agricultural output for the feeding of troops
14
but
also the manufacture of equipment for warfare. Focusing on Arabia, Crone draws attention to the
importance of the leather trade for the supply of the material necessary for military equipment
during late antique and early Islamic times.
15
Though the existence of an extensive leather
industry in sixth-century Aksum cannot be determined at present,
16
it should not be forgotten
that, quite apart from the perishability of leather items in Ethiopias relatively moist climate,
most of such leather military equipment as sixth-century Aksum might have produced would
have been brought to Arabia by Klbs army, and thus have left no trace in Ethiopia.
Zooarchaeological evidence from Aksum indicates access to a supply of livestock large enough
to sustain a significant leather industry, cattle bones representing 86.1% of all identified
zooarchaeological specimens from the site, making them by far the most common taxon
identified at Aksum.
17

That the demographic effects of warfare on sixth-century Aksum were no less significant
than the economic is suggested by the example of nineteenth-century Adw in northern Ethiopia,
located quite close to the town of Aksum. In 1884, Adws population was estimated at only
15,000, a result of the famine which had recently swept across the northern highlands; but then,
when the Emperor Ynnes IV (1872-1889) made Adw his military capital, the town grew
exponentially, as many as 70,000 to 80,000 of its population being army-related.
18
Even though
the town of Aksum had always been the focal point of the Aksumite kingdom, the state of
warfare in the reign of Klb may have affected Aksum in a manner similar to Adw in the reign

14
Though Klbs army undoubtedly also requisitioned foodstuffs while in the field in South Arabia.
15
Crone 2007.
16
To date the only archaeological trace of an Aksumite leather garment is a small piece of leather, measuring
approximately seven cm square, discovered during excavations at Aksum by a British team in 1974 (Gervers 1992:
20).
17
Cain 2000: 69.
18
Reid 2007: 163.

420

of Ynnes. This hypothesis receives support from archaeology, which indicates that it was in
Klbs time that the city of Aksum reached its economic and demographic zenith.
19
Not only
does a series of palaces, built at Aksum during the sixth century, indicate prosperity at the elite
level, but an apparent northward expansion of the citys middle- to low-status domestic area
suggests demographic growth among the common folk, such that the city attained an area of
about 100 ha.
20

An influx of peoples from the surrounding countryside, perhaps drawn by economic
growth in the royal capital, may account for this expansion. A survey of the northern highland
region between Aksum and Ye, conducted by Joseph Michels in 1974, suggests a demographic
shift towards the former settlement, such that the majority of the population of this region lived
at Aksum during the sixth century.
21
If Michels survey is representative of a broader
demographic shift, this would undoubtedly have had significant repercussions on the social and
cultural make-up of the Aksumite capital. In view of the coins which have come to light in non-
elite contexts at Aksum,
22
the lower classes of the city, including presumably those who came
there from elsewhere, shared in the monetized economy which tied Aksum to the world beyond
Ethiopia. Migration to the city of Aksum would also have aided the dissemination of royal
ideologies to the common folk drawn from the countryside, as a result of which troops mustered
on a scale like that described in the Martyrium would have come to share in the ideology of a
holy war against the Jewish imyarite foe. That memory of this holy war continued to exert an
influence on Ethiopia can be gleaned from the role played by Klb in medieval Ethiopian
tradition, for which we have no better illustration than the sixteenth-century Vita of Mara

19
Munro-Hay 1989 (b): 18.
20
Fattovich 1997: 69.
21
Phillipson 2008: 143.
22
Cain 2000: 26.

421

Kerests (c. 1408-1497), the ninth abbot of the monastery of Dbr Lbns in Shw and a loyal
follower of King Baeda Mrym (1468-1478).
23
In an account of Baeda Mryms campaign
against the pagans (Aramyn) of the Ethiopian Highlands, the king is compared to Klb in his
dealings with the enemies of Christendom:
And when the day [of battle] came King Baeda Mrym killed them and
obliterated them with the edge of his sword and did not spare so much as one of
them, neither the donkey that brays nor the dog that barks. And he dealt with them
as King Klb dealt with those who killed the people of Najrn.
(Wa-sba baa latm qatalm Bada Mrym ng wa-damsasm ba-
afa an wa--ytrafa aad mnnhm -adga za-ynq wa--kalba za-
ynabb. Wa-rassaym kama rassaym Klb ng la-lla qatalwwm la-
saba Ngrn.)
24

What, then, of the long-term implications of Aksumite overseas intervention for Arabian
history? While Klb never carried his Christianizing mission beyond imyar, his religious role
as conqueror of imyar in the name of Christianity invites comparison with the later Muslim
idea of jihd. Like the Aksumite invasion of imyar, which is described in Geez inscriptions
from Yemen as a sacred mission with Biblical overtones and in Greek and Syriac texts as a holy
war with ascetic overtones, jihd was not an idea that arose in isolation from other types of
sanctified violence. Rather, as eloquently argued in a recent article by Sizgorich, the theory and
practice of jihd was a byproduct of the interaction between the religious and ethnic
communities of the Near East in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages.
25
Noting the
connection made by early Muslim authors between jihd and asceticism (zuhd), Sizgorich
situates Muslim holy war within the context of late antique Christian traditions of piety known

23
On the career of Mara Kerests, see Kur 2007.
24
Actes de Mara Krestos 1972: 64 (Geez text: lines 5-8).
25
Sizgorich 2009: 914.

422

from Syriac sources, which stress not only asceticism but also fighting against unbelievers and
heretics as the epitome of religious faith.
26

Though the documentation for Aksumite Ethiopia is meager compared with the late
antique Fertile Crescent, the connection between holy war and asceticism as complementary
spiritual exercises is hinted at in the Martyrium Arethaelater internalized by medieval
Ethiopian tradition via the texts Arabic versionwhich reports that Klb not only sought the
blessings of a monk before embarking for his invasion of imyar but, after his return from his
victorious campaign against the Jewish imyarite king, renounced the throne and became a
monk. Whether or not Klb did in fact abdicateand there is no incontrovertible evidence that
he didis irrelevant, for it was as warrior-turned-monk that Klb inspired future generations of
Christians, Ethiopian and non-Ethiopian alike, and for his part the Aksumite king would have
been unlikely to disapprove of this popular image of him. Nor would Klb have failed to
recognize certain aspects of Islamic jihd as congruent with his own ideas of Christian holy
war.
27
By the same token there was much in the popular image of Klb which Arab tradition
found attractive. Thus, while Klb himself remains an anonymous najsh in most of medieval

26
Ibid.
27
At the same time, one must be careful not to make too close a comparison between Aksumite and Islamic warfare,
and thus by implication between the ideologies that informed Klbs warfare with imyar, and those which
informed the expansionist warfare of Muslim states. So far as we can tell from the (admittedly limited) textual
material at our disposal, the Aksumites never elaborated a doctrine of warfare as the early Muslims did. Aksumite
warfare against the Jewish foe in imyar is invested with religious meaning in Ethiopian as well as foreign sources
from the sixth century, but we never get a sense in any of these sources that it was regarded as a religious or
collective obligation, as jihd is according to Islamic law. Thus, while Klb saw himself as guided and protected by
God in his military campaigns, we never get a sense that waging such campaigns was an integral component of
being a good Aksumite Christian. Similarly, while waging jihd is regarded in Islam as a collective duty incumbent
upon the Muslim community so long as non-Muslim powers remain on earth, there is no evidence that the
Aksumites believed that warfare was a perpetual obligation for Christians. Of course, had Aksum become a major
world power like the early Islamic state, such a doctrine might well have been developed. Finally, martyrdom
through fighting in the name of God is a concept which never caught on even in medieval Ethiopia, much less
Aksum. Instead it is the suffering of saints and defenseless believers which is emphasized in Ethiopian religious
literature. Consequently, the Christian martyrs of Najrn are remembered in this tradition, while the Ethiopian troops
in Klbs army who foughtand in some cases diedto liberate their persecuted coreligionists in South Arabia do
not merit any mention. The role of religious ideology in Ethiopian warfare has yet to be systematically studied. For
an overview of the evolution of Islamic jihd in both theory and practice, see Cook 2005.

423

Arabic literature, vague memories of his alleged abdication can be recognized in a legend
recorded by the Raslid sultan of Yemen Umar I b. Ysuf I (647/1250-694/1295) in his urfa
t

al-ab f-marifa
t
al-ansb (The Companions Exquisite Curio for the Knowledge of
Genealogies). According to the legend, the Lakhmid king Imruul-Qays al-Akbar became a
monk, took leave of his kingship, wore [only] that which he was allowed, and wandered about
the earth (tarahbana wa-kharaja min mulkihi wa-labisa al-masm wa-sa fl-ar).
28
Thus
did Arab tradition seek to imbue the pre-Islamic Arabs with a bit of holiness by grafting the story
of Klbs withdrawal from the world onto one of the Lakhmids, regarded by Arab genealogists
as a South Arabian tribe.
In closing we are confronted with the question why a study of such a circumscribed
period, focused as it is on the reign of a single Aksumite ruler, with conclusions that make no
pretense of being applicable to other Christian states in late antiquity, should be of any value. In
answer to such a query, it can be said that its value lies in the appreciation of the Ethiopian
character of Klbs war with imyar which, together with all of the Biblical overtones in its
documentation in both Ethiopian and non-Ethiopian sources, alerts us to the role of Africa in
shaping Arabian history on the eve of Islam. In this there is much of interest not only to the
Africanist and the South Arabianist but also to scholars in other disciplines. To the Islamicist,
Aksumite warfare in sixth-century imyar is of interest in that it provides a case study in
which, a century before the jihd of the early Islamic state, Africans were waging a holy war of
their own in Arabia. For historians of the Late Roman Empire and Ssnid Persia, the Aksumite
occupation of imyar and the establishment of an indigenous Christian regime there represent
a case of political clientage comparable to the relationship of the Romans to their Ghassnid

28
Umar b. Ysuf 1949: 25.

424

clients, or of the Ssnids to their Lakhmid clients. In short, there is much to be learned from
the experience of Africans in Arabia Felix.

425

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Abbreviations
AA Archologischer Anzeiger
AAE Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy
AE Annales dthiopie
Annuaire Annuaire. cole partique des hautes tudes, IV
e
section: Sciences historiques et
philoloques
BASOR Bulletin of the American School of Oriental Research
BO Bibliotheca Orientalis
BSOAS Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies
CRAIBL Comptes-rendus des sances de lAcadmie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres
DOP Dumbarton Oaks Papers
EI Encyclopedia of Islam. New ed. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1965
JA Journal Asiatique
JAH Journal of African History
JES Journal of Ethiopian Studies
JNES Journal of Near Eastern Studies
JRAS Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society
JSAI Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam
JSS Journal of Semitic Studies
NC Numismatic Chronicle
PSAS Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies
RN Revue numismatique
SNR Sudan Notes and Records
WZKM Wiener Zeitschrift fr die Kunde des Morgenlandes
ZDMG Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlndischen Gesellschaft

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