Mauia

Mauia (or Mavia ) was an Arab ruler in the late 4th century.

The ancient church historians Rufinus of Aquileia , Socrates Scholastikos , Sozomenos and Theodoret report on it in the context of a conflict between Arab tribes and the east of Rome. Thus troops Mauias would regularly Roman in Phenicia and Palestine devastated. The condition for a peace agreement with Rome under the Arian -minded Emperor Valens was that a certain Moses, a hermit in Mauia's sphere of influence, be ordained a bishop. However, as a staunch representative of Orthodoxy, he refused to have the consecration carried out by Lukios (Lucius), the Arian bishop of Alexandria. This conversation, reproduced as a conversation between Moses and Lukios, reveals the theological interest of church historians and arouses fundamental doubts about their representation of what happened. The historicity of Mauia remains unaffected. After this episode, however, it no longer appears in the sources.

literature

• Philip Mayerson: Mauia, Queen of the Saracens. A cautionary note. In: IEJ 30 (1980), pp. 123-131.
• Oliver Schmitt: Mavia, the queen of the Saracens. In: Thomas Herzog; Wolfgang Holzwarth (Ed.): Nomads and Sessige - questions, methods, results 1. Communications of the SFB "Difference and Integration" 4/1 (Orientwissenschaftlichen Hefte 9). Halle 2003, pp. 163–179. online (PDF; 193 kB)