The Himyarite Kingdom: Yemen's Jewish King and the Christian War

In the late 5th century CE, the Himyarite king Abu Karib As'ad al-Kamil converted to Judaism, setting off a chain of events that culminated in a brutal Christian-Jewish conflict that drew in Aksum, Byzantium, and Persia. This episode of The History of Yemen explores the rise of the Himyarite Kingdom — the last great power of ancient South Arabia — and the story of Dhu Nuwas, the Jewish king who massacred Christians in Najran, provoking an Aksumite invasion that ended Himyarite independence and permanently reshaped the religious and political landscape of the Red Sea. Lucas and Luna discuss the Sabaean-Himyarite transition, the enigmatic Tubba' kings, the Najran martyrs, and the role of the Ethiopian general Abraha, whose elephants became famous in both history and the Qur'an. Along the way, they touch on the Himyarite script, the collapse of the Ma'rib Dam, and how this forgotten war prefigured the later Islamic conquests.

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