Rising above Events

RISING ABOVE EVENTS Najran, and most of the country’s inhabitants converted to Christianity. Though this was a religious event, the Romans’ rivals in Persia perceived it as a political threat. It seemed to them as if the Roman Empire sought to establish a foothold in the southern region of Arabia. So the Persians allied with the Jewish tribes who had settled in Yemen after being expelled from Syria by the Romans in A.D. 70. Yusuf Dhu Nuwas was an Arab by birth but had accepted Judaism. With Persian help, he set up a semi-autonomous government in Sana’a under the sponsorship of the Sasanians. He then set about exterminating the Christians of Najran, many of whom were burnt alive in A.D. 534. The Romans now took steps to preserve their hold on the region. Ostensibly seeking to protect the Yemenese Christians, they chose the Ethiopian king Najashi, a Christian loyal to the Romans, to fulfil their ends and incited him to rise against Yusuf Dhu Nuwas. Najashi then sent an army to Yemen under the Ethiopian chieftain Aryat. A short battle ensued, which ended with San’a’ being captured by the Ethiopian force and Dhu Nuwas drowning himself in the sea. Before long, however, Abrahah—a soldier in Aryat’s army—killed his commander and, having gained Najashi’s consent, set up his government in San’a’. It was he who, in A.D. 571, set out to attack the Holy Ka’bah in Makkah. He was succeeded by his sons, first Yaksum and then Masruq. A member of the former royal family of Yemen, Sayf ibn Dhi-Yazan, was then urged to expel foreigners from his