Yusuf Asʾar Yathʾar

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Dhu Nuwas ( Old South Arabian Y (w) s 1 f's 1 'R Yṯ'r DMG Yūsuf'As'ar Yaṯ'ar , in the Arab traditionذو نواس dhū Nuwās , DMG ḏū Nuwās ) was the last important king of the Himyar Empirein southern Arabia and was the Jewish ruler of this empire. He ruled from about 521/522 to 529/530.

Sources and name

Yusuf Asʾar Yathʾar is mentioned in various contemporary Old South Arabic , Syrian and Byzantine sources. Various later Jewish, Christian (such as the book of the Himyars and Kebra Negest ) and Islamic sources (including the Koran 85: 4) refer to him.

In his old South Arabic inscriptions the king appears as Yusuf Asʾar Yathʾar , the Islamic tradition calls himذو نواس dhū Nuwās , DMG ḏū Nuwās . The Christian sources use different names, so it is called in the (contemporary) letter of Simon of Beth-Arsham Dimnon and in the later book of the Himyars Masruq .

Domination

Yusuf Asʾar Yathʾar came to power through a coup. He probably emphasized his Jewish faith (the rulers of Himyar had converted to Judaism at the end of the 4th century ) in order to maintain an independent position between the great powers of Eastern Europe , Persia and Aksum .

Shortly after taking office, Yusuf Asʾar Yathʾar took action against the Himyar Christians, the Ethiopians living in Himyar and the Arab tribes who sympathized with Ethiopia. The background was the persecution of Jews by the Ethiopians and Himyarian Christians. The first attack by Yusuf Asʾar Yathʾar was directed against the Himyar capital of Zafar . Yusuf killed the Ethiopians living there and set the church there on fire. He then attacked the Himyar Christians and the Ethiopians of the Tihama and set fire to the church of the Arab tribe of the Ashʿarān who lived there. In anticipation of an attack by the Aksumite Empire, he fortified the Yemeni coast. In order to prevent the Ethiopian ships from landing, he made the most important anchorages at Bab al-Mandab inaccessible with a chain, the so-called "chain of Maddabān". At the same time he besieged the city of Najran , which was an important center of South Arabian Christianity, and massacred the Christians there. He also had Christians persecuted in Hadramaut and Ma'rib .

The reaction of the Aksumites was not long in coming. Around 525 the Negus Ella Asbeha organized a military expedition to Himyar, eliminated Yusuf Asʾar Yathʾar, and appointed Sumyafa ʿAshwaʿ his own vassal. Yusuf Asʾar Yathʾar fell in battle.

literature

  • F. de Blois: The date of the "martyrs of Nagran" . In: Arabian Archeology and Epigraphy . tape 1 , 1990, ISSN  0905-7196 , pp. 110–128 , doi : 10.1111 / j.1600-0471.1990.tb00011.x .
  • Iwona Gajda: Le royaume de Ḥimyar à l'époque monothéiste. L'histoire de l'Arabie ancienne de la fin du ive siècle de l'ère chrétienne jusqu'à l'avènement de l'Islam . Paris 2009, pp. 82-108.
  • KA Kitchen : The World of Ancient Arabia Series. Documentation for Ancient Arabia. Part I. Chronological Framework & Historical Sources . Liverpool 1994.
  • Christian Robin: Himyar et Israël. In: Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres (ed.): Comptes-rendus des séances de l'année 2004. 148/2, 2004, pp. 831–901.
  • Irfan Shahîd: On the chronology of the South Arabian martyrdoms . In: Arabian Archeology and Epigraphy . tape 5 , no. 1 , 1994, ISSN  0905-7196 , pp. 66-69 , doi : 10.1111 / j.1600-0471.1994.tb00056.x .

Remarks

  1. ↑ Cf. Iwona Gajda: Le royaume de Ḥimyar à l'époque monothéiste. L'histoire de l'Arabie ancienne de la fin du ive siècle de l'ère chrétienne jusqu'à l'avènement de l'Islam. Paris 2009, p. 84.
  2. ↑ Overview in Kitchen 1994 (see bibliography).
  3. ↑ see for example: GL Huxley: On the Greek "Martyrium" of the Negranites . In: Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Section C: Archeology, Celtic Studies, History, Linguistics, Literature . 80C, 1980, pp. 41-55 , JSTOR : 25506048 . (with further literature). See also entries on Najran in A Comprehensive Bibliography on Syriac Christianity  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as broken. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.csc.huji.ac.il  
  4. ^ Translation in: The Chronicle of Zuqnin. Translated from Syriac with notes and introduction by Amir Harrak (=  Mediaeval sources in translation . Band 36 ). Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, Toronto 1999, p. 78-84 . Volume III, pages 78-84
  5. ↑ Cf. Gajda, p. 86.
  6. ↑ Yosef Yuval Tobi: Ḥimyar, kingdom of . In: The Oxford Classical Dictionary Online (5th edition).
  7. ↑ Cf. Gajda, p. 87.
  8. ↑ Cf. Gajda, pp. 88f.
  9. ↑ Cf. Gajda, pp. 89-91.
  10. ↑ See Gajda, pp. 92-96.
  11. ↑ See Gajda, pp. 97-100; Blois 1990, in addition Shahîd 1994, summarizing KA Kitchen: The World of Ancient Arabia Series. Documentation for Ancient Arabia. Part I. Chronological Framework & Historical Sources . Liverpool 1994, pp. 2-6.
  12. ↑ Cf. Gajda 100f.
  13. ↑ Cf. Gajda 103-112.
predecessor Office successor
Mu'di Karab Ya'fir Kings of Saba & Ziridan & Hazarmut & Yamnit
2. Himjar Kingdom
516 / 18–525 BC Chr. 		-
personal data
SURNAME Yusuf Asʾar Yathʾar
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dhu Nuwas; ḏū Nuwās; Yusuf Asar Yathar; Y (w) s1f ʾs1ʾr Yṯʾr; Yūsuf ʾAsʾar Yaṯʾar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION King of the Himjarites in Yemen
DATE OF BIRTH 5th century
DATE OF DEATH 525