Abraha

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For other uses, see Abraha (name).

Abraha (Ge’ez: አብርሃ) (also spelled Abreha, died after CE 570;[1] r. 525–at least 553[2]), also known as Abrahah al-Ashram (Arabic: أَبْرَهَة ٱلْأَشْرَم‎), was an Aksumite army general, then the viceroy of southern Arabia for the Kingdom of Aksum, and later declared himself an independent King of Himyar.[3] Abraha ruled much of present-day Arabia and Yemen from at least 531–547 CE to 555–570 CE.[4][5]

Life[]

Dhu Nuwas, the Jewish Himyarite ruler of Yemen, in the period c. 523–525[6] or c. 518–20[1] launched military operations against the Aksumite Christians and their local Arab Christian allies.[7] The Aksumites in Zafar were killed, their fortresses in the Yemeni highlands destroyed, and Najran sacked.

Najran fell in 518 or 523 and many members of the Himyarite Christian community were put to death. This incident also mentioned in the Quran in Sura #85-Al-Burooj evoking great sympathy throughout the Christian regions of the Orient and prompting an intercontinental Aksumite military intervention using the massive Aksumite fleet aided by a small extra Byzantine fleet first made in 518/523.[7]

Procopius identifies Abraha as the former slave of a Roman merchant who did business in Adulis.[8] Later, Abraha was either one of the commanders or a member of one of the armies led by King Kaleb of Axum against Dhu Nuwas.[9] In al-Tabari's history, 'Abraha is said to have been the commander of the second army sent by Kaléb after the first failed, led by 'Ariat.

Abraha was reported to have led his army of 100,000 men with hundreds of elephants to successfully crush all resistance of the Yemeni army and then, following the suicide of Dhu Nuwas, seized power and established himself at Sanaa. He aroused the wrath of Kaléb, however, by withholding tribute who then sent his general 'Ariat to take over the governorship of Yemen. 'Abraha rid himself of the latter by a subterfuge in a duel resulting in 'Ariat being killed and 'Abraha suffering the injury which earned him the sobriquet of al-Asräm, "scar-face."[6] Abraha's nose had either been lost in battle or had fallen in owing to some disease.[10]

According to Procopius, 'Abraha seized control of Yemen from Esimiphaios (Sumuafa' Ashawa'), the Christian Himyarite viceroy appointed by Kaléb, with the support of dissident elements within the Aksum occupation force who were eager to settle in the Yemen, then a rich and fertile land.[6][8] Stuart Munro-Hay, who proposes a 518 date for the rise of Dhu Nuwas, dates this event to 525,[2] while by the later chronology (in which Dhu Nuwas comes to power in 523), this event would have happened about 530, although a date as late as 543 has been postulated by .[6]

An army sent by Kaléb to subdue 'Abraha joined his ranks and killed the ruler sent to replace him (this is perhaps a reference to 'Ariat) and a second army was defeated. After this Kaléb had to accord him de facto recognition before earning recognition under Kaleb's successor for a nominal tribute.

Rule[]

A reference map of the empire of Kaleb of Axum

Abraha is seen as then becoming a prominent figure in Yemen's history, promoting the cause of Christianity in the face of the prevalent Judaism and the paganism of Central Arabia.[6] A zealous Christian himself, he is said to have built a great church at San'a' (in competition of the Kaaba located in Mecca which was the most prominent religious site in all of Arabia) and to have repaired the principal irrigation dam at the Sabaean capital of Marib.

Epigraphic sources chronicling 'Abraha's career include an inscription on the Marib Dam recording the quelling of an insurrection backed by a son of the deposed ruler, Esimiphaios, in the year 657 of the Sabaean era, i.e. between 540–550; vital repairs effected to the dam later in the same year; the reception of envoys from the Negus, from Byzantium, from Persia and from Al-Harith ibn Jabalah, the phylarch of Arabia; and the completion of repairs to the dam in the following year, followed by a great feast of rejoicing.

The royal title adopted by 'Abraha "King of Saba' and dhü-Raydän and Hadhramaut and Yamanat and of their Arabs on the plateau and the lowland." was of the Himyarites[11][clarification needed]

National Museum of Saudi Arabia[]

According to the National Museum of Saudi Arabia in Riyadh, Abraha built Al-Qullays in Sana'a. He also built a similar one in Najran for Bani Al-Harith, the House of Allat in Taif for the tribe of Thaqeef, the House of Yareem and the House of Ghamdan in Yemen.

The traditions also say that Abraha is said to have built a cathedral at San'a' known as al-Qullays (from the Greek Ekklesia)[12] to rival the Kaaba at Mecca and specifically came with his forces of elephants to destroy the Kaaba.[13]

Death[]

Abraha's son Masruq

Munro-Hay dates his death to some time after 553 based on the inscription at Murayghän.[1] Islamic tradition places it immediately after his expedition to Mecca. He was succeeded on the throne by two of his sons, Yaksum and Masruq, born to him by Raihäna, a Yemenite noblewoman whom 'Abraha had abducted from her husband.[6]

Between 570 and 575 the pro-Persian group in Yemen made contact with the Sassanid king through the Lakhmid princes in Al-Hirah. The Persians then sent troops under the command of Wahriz, who helped the semi-legendary Sayf ibn Dhi Yazan drive the Aksumites from Yemen and Southern Arabia became a Persian dominion under a Yemenite vassal within the sphere of influence of the Sassanian empire.[7]

Islamic tradition[]

Main article: Year of the Elephant
An inscription in the Tihamah dating back to the 6th century C.E., documenting the expedition of Abraha the Abyssinian and the Companions of the Elephant, on their way to Mecca to demolish the Kaaba

Islamic tradition credits Abraha with a military expedition against the Quraysh of Mecca in an invasion of the Hejaz in 570,[7] known as the Year of the Elephant. According to these Islamic traditions, Abraha was building a cathedral in the city of Sanaa to act as a centre for pilgrimage. Realizing that the Kaaba was already in use for such a purpose, Abraha set out to destroy the Kaaba in order for all the pilgrims to direct themselves to his new cathedral and maximize his profits. Abraha had an army of elephants in the expeditionary forces. Muhammad's paternal grandfather, Abd al-Muttalib, put the favour in God's hands, realizing that he could not take on the forces of Abraha. As Abraha's forces approached the city, the story goes:

The next day, as they prepared for battle, they discovered that their elephant (called Mahmud, a good Islamic name) refused to approach Mecca. Even worse, birds came from the sea, each of which brought three small stones, which they dropped on the soldiers of Abraha. Everyone hit by these stones was killed. Abraha himself was hit repeatedly and slowly dismembered. By the time he reached Sanua, he had nothing but a miserable stump of a body. His heart burst from his chest, and he died. So the year of the War of the Elephant was a year of death. But it was also a year of life, for in that same year Muhammad was born.[14]

Outside of later Islamic tradition, there is no mention of Abraha's expedition, including from Abraha's own inscriptions. Historical-critical scholars see the story as a later Islamic tradition designed to explain the "Men of the Elephant" in Qur'an 105:1-5.[14] However, recent findings of Himyaritic inscriptions describe an hitherto unknown expedition of Abraha, which subsequently led Gajda et al to identify this expedition as the failed conquest of Mecca.[15] In addition, scholar Christian Julien Robin notes that the historicity of a failed expedition is completely plausible, given that the Quraysh, despite their small number and poverty, quickly rose to prominence in the following years, evidenced by the great fair of Quraysh, held in al-ʿUkāẓ, as well as the ḥums cultural association, which associated members of tribes of Western Arabia with the Mecca sanctuary.[16] On the other hand, Daniel Beck notes several issues with the story. For one, African war elephants hadn't been used in the region for over 600 years. It is also difficult to explain how Abraha would have gotten a hold on African war elephants in Arabia. Furthermore, Qur'an 105 appears to be appealing to traditions from 2 Maccabees, and not referencing any expedition on Abraha's part.[17]

See also[]

  • Kingdom of Aksum
  • Shaiba ibn Hashim

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c Stuart Munro-Hay (2003) "Abraha" in Siegbert Uhlig (ed.) Encyclopaedia Aethiopica: A-C. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b S. C. Munro-Hay (1991) Aksum: An African Civilization of Late Antiquity. Edinburgh: University Press. p. 87. ISBN 0748601066
  3. ^ Rubin, Uri (June 1, 2009). "Abraha". Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE – via referenceworks.brillonline.com.
  4. ^ Scott Fitzgerald Johnson (ed.) (2015) The Oxford Handbook of Late Antiquity. Oxford University Press. p. 287. ISBN 019027753X
  5. ^ Francis E. Peters (1994) Muhammad and the Origins of Islam. SUNY Press. p. 88. ISBN 0791418758.
  6. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f "Abraha." Archived 2016-01-13 at the Wayback Machine Dictionary of African Christian Biographies. 2007. (last accessed 11 April 2007)
  7. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Walter W. Müller (1987) "Outline of the History of Ancient Southern Arabia," Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine in Werner Daum (ed.), Yemen: 3000 Years of Art and Civilisation in Arabia Felix. Pinguin-Verlag. ISBN 9068322133
  8. ^ Jump up to: a b Procopius (1914). Procopius, with an English translation by H. B. Dewing. 1. Translated by Dewing, Henry Bronson. London: William Heinemann. p. 191.
  9. ^ Kobishchanov, Yuri M. (1990). Axum. University Park, Pennsylvania: Penn State University Press. p. 91. ISBN 0271005319.
  10. ^ Brill (2019). An Azanian Trio: Three East African Arabic Historical Documents. BRILL. ISBN 9789004258600.
  11. ^ Scott Fitzgerald Johnson (ed.) (2015) The Oxford Handbook of Late Antiquity. Oxford University Press. p. 285. ISBN 019027753X
  12. ^ Edward Ullendorff (1960) The Ethiopians: an Introduction to Country and People. 2nd edition. London: Oxford University Press. p. 56.
  13. ^ Abraha | viceroy of Yemen. Encyclopaedia Britannica.
  14. ^ Jump up to: a b Reynolds, Gabriel Said. The Emergence of Islam: Classical traditions in contemporary perspective. Fortress Press, 2012, 16-17.
  15. ^ 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. 142–146.
  16. ^ Robin, Christian Julien (2015). Fisher, Greg (ed.). Arabs and Empires Before Islam. Oxford. p. 152. ISBN 978-0-19-965452-9.
  17. ^ Beck, Daniel. “Maccabees not Mecca: The Biblical Subtext and the Apocalyptic Context of Sūrat al-Fīl (Q 105)” in Evolution of the Early Qur’an, 2018, Peter Lang.
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