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Christians. Likewise'heXrfit t^' h-r^v h‘S exploits against the
underBvzani ino ‘ , ’ SOllSht t0 mobilize the Jews in the Land of Israel (at that time
Christian n CU 6 l° *°in a ,;iimyarite> Persian, and Jewish coalition against
Christian Byzantium and its ally, the kingdom of Axum.

The Decline of the Kingdom of Himyar, 525-530 CE

News of Dhu Nuwas’s actions against the Christians in his country quickly spread and
stirred up great wrath among Christians outside of Yemen, as related in a detailed
account written by Simeon of Beth Arsham, who was present at the Ramlah conference,
and with him, Abramius, the representative of Byzantine emperor Justin. Indeed, the
reaction was swift. The Ethiopian Negus, Kaleb Ella Asbaha, went forth in an all-out
war against Dhu Nuwas in the name of all Christians in the world. The two armies met
near the Strait, of Bab al-Mandab, where Dhu Nuwas expected the Ethiopian fleet. Dhu
Nuwas’s army was completely crushed, while he himself was killed in battle, either in
525 or 530 CE. In any event, Ella Asbaha quickly took control of the entire country and in
531, he made Sumuyafa* Ashwa*, one of the local inhabitants, the Icing of Himyar.
Churches were rebuilt in Zafar and in other places, while Christianity spread in the
country.18

In 531> Abraha the Ethiopian, who commanded the army of Axum during the conquest
of Himyar, deposed Sumuyafa' Ashwa* and declared himself the independent ruler. The
various attempts by Ella Asbaha to remove the recalcitrant military commander were of
no avail. As a devout Christian, Abraha worked for the disposal of Judaism and what
remained of idolatry in Himyar and became known, inter alia, for the grand church that
he built in San*a’, where he established his capital. He also worked to obtain economic
prosperity for the country by, for example, renovating the great dam in Ma’rib, which
had been cracked in the mid-5th century and had seriously set back local agriculture
ever since. As someone who saw himself as the heir of the great kings of Himyar, he
took upon himself the title, “the king of Saba’, Dhu-Raydan, Hadramawt and Yamnat,
and their Arab tribes in the mountains and in the plain,” and went as far as central
Arabia in his j’oumeys of conquest?9 A few years after his death c. 565, a pro-Persian
faction conquered the country. Persian armies under the command of Wahrlz, who was
sent to Himyar, assisted Sayf Dhu-Yazan—who, according to tradition, was the
grandson of Joseph Dhu Nuwas—in evicting the Axumites from the country. By many
accounts, Yemen turned into a vassal state of the Persian Empire, until it was conquered
again by the Muslim armies of Muhammad in 529 CE.

In this manner, Yemen became part of the northern Arab-Islamic world in terms of its
political, linguistic, religious, and social orientation, while losing almost completely its
ancient Sabaean-Himyarite legacy. Relics of its past history remain, carved upon rock
and upon wooden rolls, exposed and deciphered by researchers since the early 20th
century. These make up a reliable source for reconstructing its history and culture.

Archaeological Research

Until the middle of the 19th century, knowledge concerning ancient South Arabia was
based either on partial or unreliable sources, such as biblical texts, inscriptions written
in ancient Semitic languages composed outside of South Arabia, and especially oral
traditions preserved and documented in medieval historical and geographical books
composed by the Arabians. Throughout the second half of the 19th century, European
scholars who arrived in Yemen during the period of Ottoman control, of whom the most
well known are Joseph Halevy and Eduard Glaser, copied many Sabaean inscriptions
that completely altered knowledge on South Arabia. Following Yemen’s reinstatement
of the Zaydi dynasty, at the end of the First World War, the act of unveiling ancient
inscriptions came to an end in that country, and work was not renewed until after the
Republican Revolution in Yemen in 1962. Since then, dozens of European scholars have
visited Yemen and have uncovered thousands of inscriptions in the different South-
Arabic languages, by which the research on South Arabia has taken a giant leap. Most
of the inscriptions are dedications to the gods. However, they contain invaluable
information not only on politics and religion but on almost all facets of life, including
family life and the social status of women.21 Another revolution in social research
related to South Arabia occurred when old inscribed South Arabian sticks and palm-leaf
stalks began to arrive in the academic centers in Europe first Leiden, and afterwards
other places. These sticks and palm-leaf stalks were used for writing in the pre-Islamic
period.22 In recent years, there was established at the University of Pisa, under the