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Abyssinians
in Yemen By
Barnabas A. Yohannes According
to the Wikipedia, Himyarites was a kingdom in ancient Yemen, established in
110 BCE. An
Austrian social and economic historian, Alfons Dopsch, has written that in the
second century before Christ, some Himyarites crossed the Red Sea, colonized
Abyssinia, and gave the indigenous Negro population a Semitic culture and
considerable Semitic blood. The Abyssinian… merchant vessels sailed as
far as India and Ceylon (Sri Lanka); and seven little kingdoms acknowledged
the Negus as their sovereign.* Meanwhile
in Arabia many Himyarites followed the lead of their king Dhu-Nuwas and
accepted Judaism. It has
long been held that Muhammad was born in the 'Year of the Elephant',
supposedly to have been either A.D. 570 or 571. The 'Year of the
Elephant' witnessed the assault on Mecca by the Abyssinians, who came with
elephants and were seemingly invincible. Abrahah or Abraham, the
Abyssinian ruler of Yemen, was seeking to destroy Mecca and its shrine, the
Ka'bah, which housed idols. A short surah (chapter) of the Qur'an, titled the
'Surah of the Elephant', relates that some kind of catastrophe befell the
Abyssinians. As we shall see it in retrospect, professor Hitti
states that the Abyssinians were destroyed by an epidemic of small-pox. (See
Hitti, History of the Arabs, pp.152). Long
before Yemen was conquered by the Abyssinians, Yemen had established close
ties with Abyssinia, the kingdom occupying modern Eritrea & Ethiopia.
The Abyssinians later conquered Yemen from about 521 to 575; then, they were
defeated by the Persians. From Abyssinia, Yemen learned Christianity. This is
what I found in some long forgotten and dust covered books. In a
place called Najran, the people of Yemen used to worship a tall palm tree
bowing down before it and used to decorate their wives' jewelries to the
tree. A Christian, named Foymigun, said to his master: “If I were to
say a prayer to God against this tree and if it were destroyed as a result of
that, would you recognize that your religion is false and my religion is
true?” His master agrees that he would. Then he gathered all the
people of Najran together to witness the event. Fayman then went to his
prayer room and asked God to destroy the tree. So God sent a storm that tore
it up by the root and threw it flat on the ground. Thereupon, the
people of Najran adapted Christianity and his master encouraged them to
follow the gospel until they were over taken by the same fate that affected
the Christians all over the world during that time. That was how
Christianity came to Najran, i.e., the Arab land. It is
narrated that Fayman became so devout Christian he said prayers for the sick,
the crippled, and the disabled and they were healed. When
the Christians started to grow both in numbers and prominence, this is the
fate that affected them. As many Arab writers, such as Ibn Ishaq,
relate the history, when the news of the increasing converts and widening in
influence of Christianity reached the king of Yemen, named Dhu Nuwas, who was
a Jew, he went to Najran and ordered all its people that they must either
convert to Judaism or be killed. Upon their refusal to apostatize, the
king dug a wide trench, set it on fire and threw all the Christians one by
one. If they tried to escape from the fire, they were captured and
killed by the sword. According to the Ibn Ishaq, 20,000 of them
perished in that manner. This
horrific event is also recorded in the Holy Quran: “In the
Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful By the
star-bespangled Heaven! By the
promised Day! By the
witness and the witnessed! Cursed
the masters of the trench Of the
fuel-fed fire, When
they sat around it Witnesses
of what they inflicted on the believers! Nor did
they torment them but for their faith in God, the Mighty, the Praiseworthy: His the
kingdom of the Heavens and of the Earth; and God is the witness of everything.” --(Sura
-The Starry 85:5-9) Out of
all the Christians that were massacred in such ‘fuel-fed’ inferno, only one
person survived. His name was Daws Dhu Thalaban and he escaped on his
horse in the desert and could not be caught. He continued traveling
until he reached Caesar, the Roman emperor of Byzantium, Justin I (450-527).
Since the emperor was a Christian, as he was, he told him what Dhu Nuwas and
his troops had done in Yemen and asked him for aid. The emperor replied
that Daws land was very far, but that he would write a message to the King of
Abyssinia who was also a Christian, whose country was close to Yemen.
The emperor wrote such a message asking him to provide help and to seek
revenge for Daws. So,
Daws took Caesar’s letter to the Negus (the king of Abyssinia). Negus
replied and said that he had enough troops but he needed ships to cross the
Read Sea. Caesar supplied him with ships and then Negus dispatched
70,000 troops with their elephants from Abyssinia under the leadership of one
of his deputy named Aryat, along with another sheriff named Abraham,
al-Ashrem. Abraha was a former slave of Roman trader. ("Plague and
the End of Antiquity: The Pandemic of 541-750" p. 304). The troops
crossed over the Red Sea and reached the shores of Yemen accompanied by
Daws. Dhu Nuwas came out to meet them with his forces. When
the Abyssinians and the Yemenis were engaged, Dha Nuwas and his men were
defeated. Dha Nuwas immediately realized that disaster had fallen
himself and his people, so he turned his horse to the Read Sea and beat it
until it entered the water and took him through the shallows and out to the
depth of the sea where he perished. The victorious Abyssinians entered
Yemen and took control of it. At this
point the historian, Ibn Ishaq, records several poems by the Arabs detailing
these strange events. These poems are in fine, eloquent, vivid and
elegant in their own language, but we omit them here to avoid boring or
wearing the reader. Ibn
Ishaq stated: “Aryat remained in control of Yemen for some years, but Abraham
challenged him and the Abyssinian soldiers split into two sides. One
side moved to attack the other, but when the armies approached ready for the
battle to begin, Abraha sent a messenger to Aryat suggesting that he was
wrong to pit the Abyssinians against one another to the ultimate damage of
all, and, instead, they should met alone in a battle; all forces, then would
be combined under the authority of the one victorious. To this Aryat
responded with agreement. Abraham,
a short, stocky man and a devout Christian, then went out to fight Aryat, who
was tall, handsome, powerfully built, and bore a javelin. Behind Abraha
was a slave named Atwada protecting his rear. Aryat first struck out
aiming at the top of Abraha’s head, but his javelin hit on the on the
forehead and slit his eyebrow, eye, nose, and lip; that was why he was known
al-Ashram ( i.e., the cleft face in Arabic).
Then Atwada advanced from behind and attacked and killed Aryat. The
forces of Aryat went to Abraha and all the Abyssinians in Yemen became united
under him. Abraha then paid the relatives of Aryat for the blood of his
death. When
this news reached the Negus, he became furious at Abraha, for he has attacked
and killed his commander without orders from him. Then the Negus swore
an oath that he would give Abraha no respite until he had trodden Yemen's
land and cut off his locks. So Abraha shaved his head and filled a
leather bag with Yemeni soil, which he sent to the Negus with a message
saying, “O
king, Aryat was merely your slave as I am. We differ about your
commands; everyone owes you obedience. But I was stronger, more
effective and more skillful than he was in managing Abyssinian affairs.
I’ve shaved my head completely when I heard the king’s oath and have sent to
him a bag of my countries soil, so that he may tread it under his foot and so
keep his oath.” The
message pleased the king when he receive it and he sent him a message that
Abraha should remain in Yemen until further orders and see it was that Abraha
remained in Yemen. Abraha
then built a magnificent church in Yemen and decorated it with fine jewelries
and beautiful paintings of saints. He invited all the Arabs to
come. The Arabs of Mecca thought that the purpose of the church was to
compete with the Ka'bah in Mecca. They sent a man to desecrate the
Church. crept in unnoticed in the middle of the
night and defecated there. Disgusted by this action, Abraha
decides to destroy the Ka'bah in order to revenge. When the Arabs heard
that Abraha was approaching Mecca with all his troops and their elephants
(the tanks of those times), they sent an emissary and pleaded with him not to
destroy the Ka'bah. Abraha replied that his intention was not to fight
with them. His intention was only to destroy the Ka'bah. The
Arabs fearing for their lives fled to the nearby mountains. After
resting the night near Mecca, early in the morning, when they were
approaching the Ka'bah, just in time, a thick dust whirlwind, carrying
a lot of desert sand, came from the direction of the Red Sea and turned the
bright sunny day light into an an absolute darkness. Then there was a
sudden outbreak of a smallpox disease. Few hours later, the Abyssinians
started to get sick of disease and die. Their fingers from their hands
started to fall one by one. Abraha and his troops retreated.
Abraha’s fingers and limbs were also falling one by one until he reached
Yemen and died. The
Holy Quran relates what befell the Abyssinians symbolically in the following
words: “In the
Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful Hast
thou not seen how thy Lord dealt with the army of the Elephant? Did he
not cause their stratagem to miscarry? And he
sent against them birds in flocks (ababils), Clay
stones did they hurl down upon them, And he
made them like stubble eaten down! “ -- (Sura - The Elephant 105) These
whole events took place from about the year 521 to 575. 575 was the
year when the Abyssinians were defeated by the Persians from Yemen. The
Persians wasted no time in taking advantage of the weakened Abyssinians. Today,
if you go to some places in Yemen, you may find some Geez writings on the
there, at least in their history museums. That was the language the
Abyssinians used to teach the Yemenis Christianity. Some 55 years
later, the Muslims came by a storm and took Yemen. Then Yemenis became
Muslims. We have
seen how the Abyssinians failed to destroy the Ka'bah. It is also
intriguing to read that Mohammad has predicted that “a thin legged Abyssinian
will demolish the Ka’bah.” In
Hadith, Bukhari Vol 2, as Narrated by Ibn Abbas, it is written that: The
Prophet said, "As if I were looking at him, a black
person with thin legs plucking the stones of the Ka'bah one after
another. --(Book 26, Number 665:) Also,
as Narrated by Abu Huraira: Allah's
Apostle said, "Dhus-Suwa-iqatain (the thin legged
man) from Abyssinia will demolish the Ka'ba."
--(Volume 2, Book 26, Number 666:) Salutations, Barnabas
Yohannes. P.S. Questions,
feed backs and critics are always welcome! P.P.S.
Thank you for reading and as a gesture of my gratitude for reaching here
reading all of the above, I like you to listen to the following song.
It is called “I shot the Sheriff, but I did not shoot the deputy”. In
the above history, it is the Sheriff that killed the deputy and raised the
anger of the King. But, this song will do ok. Please take it as a
substitute to the eloquent Arabic poems collected by Ibn Ishaq I told you earlier.
(I shot
the sheriff But I
didn't shoot no deputy, oh no! Oh! I shot
the sheriff But I
didn't shoot no deputy, ooh, ooh, oo - ooh. ) Yeah!
All around in my home town, They're
tryin' to track me down; They
say they want to bring me in guilty For the
killing of a deputy, For the
life of a deputy. But I
say: Oh,
now, now. Oh! (I shot
the sheriff. ) - the
sheriff. (But I
swear it was in selfdefence. ) Oh, no!
(Ooh, ooh, oo - oh) Yeah! I say:
I shot the sheriff - Oh, Lord! - (And
they say it is a capital offence. ) Yeah!
(Ooh, ooh, oo - oh) Yeah! Sheriff
John Brown always hated me, For
what, I don't know: Every
time I plant a seed, He said
kill it before it grow - He said
kill them before they grow. And so: Read it
in the news: (I shot
the sheriff. ) Oh, Lord! (But I
swear it was in self - defence. ) Where
was the deputy? (Oo - oo - oh) I say:
I shot the sheriff, But I
swear it was in self-defense. (Oo - oh) Yeah! Freedom
came my way one day And I
started out of town, yeah! All of
a sudden I saw sheriff John Brown Aiming
to shoot me down, S o I
shot - I shot - I shot him down and I say: If I am
guilty I will pay. (I shot
the sheriff, ) But I
say (But I didn't shoot no deputy), I
didn't shoot no deputy (oh, no - oh), oh no! (I shot
the sheriff. ) I did! But I
didn't shoot no deputy. Oh! (Oo - oo - ooh) Reflexes
had got the better of me And
what is to be must be: Every
day the bucket a - go a well, One day
the bottom a - go drop out, One day
the bottom a - go drop out. I say: I - I -
I - I shot the sheriff. Lord, I
didn't shot the deputy. Yeah! I - I
(shot the sheriff) - But I
didn't shoot no deputy, yeah! No, yeah! "So
powerful is the light of unity that it can illuminate the whole earth"
~Bahaullah. *(Dopsch,
A., “Economic and Social Foundations of European Civilization”, 89.) |