Y?suf As'ar Yath'ar Dh? Nuw?s (Masr?q)
Y?SUF AS'AR YATH'AR DH? NUW?S (MASR?Q)
Y?SUF AS'AR YATH'AR DH? NUW?S (MASR?Q) , the last (13th) and most famous king of the ?imyar? kingdom of *Yemen (522–525/530 c.e.–637–640/645 ?imyar? Era), who adopted Judaism in 380 c.e. Nothing is known about this important historical figure from any Jewish source, and nothing has been preserved in the historical memory or in the oral and written tradition of the Jews of Yemen themselves. All that was known about him originated in contemporary biased – clearly anti-Jewish – Christian literature in various languages and religious trends. These traditions also found their way into Arabic historical literature by means of South Arabian sources. But the updated epigraphic research since the end of the 19th and the middle of the 20th century, enabled scholars to better understand the story of the Jewish king. The first trustworthy depiction was given by H.Z. Hirschberg (1946), and later by Christian Robin (2003, 2005, and 2006). In the ?imyar? inscriptions the Jewish king is mentioned as Y?suf As'ar Yath'ar malik kull al-shu'?b (king of all nations), but in the Arabic historical sources he is known as Dh? Nuw?s. Scholars differ about the meaning of the nicknames Dh? Nuw?s andMasr?q. Regarding the first, the common explanation refers to his alleged braids or ponytail, while other say that he was first the qayl (king) prince of a small locality named Nuw?s. As to the second nickname, Masr?q, some say that it has the same meaning (the common one) of Dh? Nuw?s, used by the Najr?n?s, while other claim it is a disgraceful nickname used by his opponents: the wicked, the abominable or the killer.
Y?suf was a descendant of the tuba' (royal) family of a ?imyar? dynasty, but he was not the son of his predecessor Ma'd?karib Yu'f?r (519–522). He took control of the kingdom about June 522, after the death of the king who was placed on the throne by the Christian kingdom of Aks?m in Abyssinia. Some sources state that he was the successor of Rab?'ah, a member of the same dynasty; but some scholars believe he was a usurper. Judaism had already been adopted in the ?imyar? kingdom by the reformer king Ab?karib at the end of the fourth century, as proved by the total disappearance from that time of polytheistic divinities from the ?imyar? inscriptions and the multiplicity of ?imyar? Jewish inscriptions along with a complete absence of Christian inscriptions until 530. But Y?suf himself had converted to Judaism, already prior to his accession to the throne, although there is a tendency in modern Arabic research to deny his Jewish conviction and to allege that he was Nestorian, namely Unitarian Christian (al-Fara?, 750), against all unequivocal evidence of epigraphy. However, Y?suf's policy was to unite all the princely factions in his territory into one Jewish kingdom. After seizing power, Y?suf revolted against Abyssinia, seeking to throw the foreign Ethiopian invaders out of Yemen. According to Christian sources (Syriac and Greek), as well as early Arabic sources, he conducted a fanatical policy of forced conversion to Judaism; he captured the Ethiopian garrison in the capital of ?af?r (125 km south of *San'a) and burned the church there as well as other Christian churches in the country, such as that of Makh?w?n (modern Moch?). Then he annihilated the Christian population connected with Aks?m and Byzantium, particularly in the coastal areas and in Najr?n. But later Yemeni-Muslim scholars of the 10th–12th centuries offer a different story. They write about two Dh? Nuw?s, one who indeed destroyed the Christians, and the other, who lived 400 years earlier and was a great king.
Two Christian contemporary sources, the Syrian 'Book of the Himyarites' (Ketava de-?imyarayya) and the epistle of Simon of Beit Arsham, relate that Y?suf maintained political relations with the ?akhamim of *Tiberias, two of whom negotiated with the Christians who were besieged in ?af?r. Basing himself on this information, Hirschberg put forward the theory about a Jewish international coalition of Mar Zutra, a scion of King David and direct successor to the position of exilarch in Babylonia who had immigrated to Tiberias and was backed by the Persian kingdom, and the Jewish king of ?imyar against Christian Byzantium and its allies in the kingdom of Aks?m and in Yemen.
The greatest event of his reign is the capture of Najr?n, the large Monophysite Christian stronghold in northern Yemen. Christian sources quote John of Ephesus that Dh? Nuw?s decided to persecute the Christians living in his kingdom as a response to the persecution of his co-religionists in their kingdoms, especially in the Byzantine Empire, and that after taking control of the town he burned its Christian residents. The first quoted number of dead in those sources was relatively small – 200 – but in the course of time it was gradually inflated and under their influence (also in Arabic sources, which were separated from the events by hundreds of years), rose to 70,000. Some scholars believe that there is also an allusion to the burning of the Christians in Najran in the *Koran (Sura 85:4–5).
The fall of Najr?n and the alleged massacre of its Christians caused an enormous shock in the Christian world, which issued a call for a war of vengeance. Patriarch Timothy of *Alexandria wrote a letter to the Ethiopian emperor Ella A?ba?a iii Caleb urging an aggressive action against the Jewish ?imyar? king, and the Byzantine emperor Justin i offered the use of 60 ships. The Ethiopian forces, led by Caleb himself, started a crusade and were eventually victorious in a great battle on the shore of Zab?d in 525. Y?suf, who despite his endeavors could not secure any allies from among the enemies of the Byzantine Empire or from among the local chiefs, was defeated and fell on the battlefield. A South Arabian legend, later infiltrated into modern Jewish literature (Friedberg 1893/9), relates that Y?suf sprang into the sea astride his horse and was drowned. But in 1931 the German archaeologists Rathjens and Wissmann unearthed his tomb in Ghaym?n, southeast of *San'a. Yemen, however, remained a restless province, and Caleb soon granted it independence under the Christian prince Abraha (535–565). ?imyar remained under the control of Aks?m until the conquest of the country by the Persian Sassanids c. 570/5.
During the 1950s five inscriptions were discovered within the proximity of Najr?n, referring to Y?suf with clear Jewish elements, all of them from June–July 523 (Ry 508, Ja 1028, Ry 507, Ry 513, Ry 515). These inscriptions enriched the information about the Jewish king. Three of them were written by Shara?b?l Yaqbul, the commander of the royal army and a member of the Dh? Yazan family. The two other were written by other officers of the same army. From Ry 507 and Ja 1028 we know the Arabic names of Y?suf: As'ar and Yath'ar. The inscriptions Ry 507 and Ja 1028 provide interesting details, like the submission of military units from Najr?n. It is hinted that the king suspected the Monophysite Christian community in Najr?n of treason. Indeed, the agitation against the king in Najr?n was effective and an open revolt broke out. A number of Jews in the town were killed, and its inhabitants openly refused to obey the king's orders. On this occasion Y?suf would not forgive the inhabitants of the town and he set out to conquer it. The Christian sources concede that the king proposed peace in exchange for the submission of the town and that it was only after he realized that his offer went unheeded that he started to fight.
The Jewish elements are: ' ' lhn for Elohim (Ry 508, Ja 1028), Yosef the name of the king (Ry 508, Ja 1028, Ry 507), Rb-hd or Rb-hwd – the God of the Jews (Ja 1028, Ry 515), and Amen (Ry 513). According to Ch. Robin (2006), however, the depiction of the victories of Y?suf on his Christian opponents and the destruction of the churches in ?af?r and Makh?w?n (Ry 507, Ry 508, Ja 1028) was the main goal of the inscriptions, intimidating the rebellious Christian Najr?n?s. This interpretation of the inscriptions that the conflict between Y?suf and the residents of Najr?n was basically political contradicts the strong impression received from Christian and Arabic sources that it was religious. Robin conjectures that Y?suf was much less radical than Ab?karib in his religious politics. He just wanted a Jewish government without requesting to establish the organization maintained by Ab?karib. For him his opponents were first of all those foreign powers – Byzantium and Aks?m – who wanted to dominate Yemen, using the Christian ?imyar?s, and not Christians as a whole. Y?suf's ambitions were more political and military than religious.
bibliography:
H.Z. Hirschberg, Yisrael ba-Arav (1946), 76–111; idem, in: Tarbiz, 15 (1943/44), 129–43; idem, Ere? Kinnerot (1950), 80–89; idem, Kol Ere? Naftali (1968), 139–46; idem, Yahadut Teiman – Pirkei Me?kar ve-Iyyun (1977), J. Ryckmans, La persécution des Chrétiens Himyarites au sixième siècle (1956); G.D. Newby, A History of the Jews of Arabia, (1988); A. de Maigret, Arabia Felix (2002); M. Al-Far?, Tab?bi'at al-Yaman al-Sab'in (2002), 749–59; Ch. J. Robin, in: Arabia, 1 (2003), 97–172; idem, in: jsai, 30 (2005), 1–51; A.Sh. Friedberg, Zikhronot Le-vet David (1893/9).
[Yosef Tobi (2nd ed.)]