Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-18T13:03:36.873Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Late Antique Christian king from Ẓafār, southern Arabia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 November 2013

Paul Yule
Paul Yule*
Affiliation:
*Department of Languages and Cultures of the Orient, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, Schulgasse 2, D-69117 Heidelberg, Germany (Email: [email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Southern Arabia was an important trading partner for the Roman world but owing to geography and politics its archaeology has been less intensively studied than that of neighbouring regions. A succession of kingdoms rose and fell in the last centuries BC and first centuries AD, but in the late Roman period the dominant power was Ḥimyar, with its capital at Ẓafār. In 2008 a relief sculpture was discovered at the site depicting a crowned ruler accompanied by symbols of office. This study reviews the arguments surrounding the date of the sculpture, but more importantly throws light on the cultural and political connections that it embodies. The proposal is that it represents an Aksumite puppet-ruler of the sixth century, at a key moment in the history of the Ḥimyarite kingdom. The crowned king of Ẓafār is significant not only in itself but also in helping to delineate the cultural and political stage on to which Islam was shortly to emerge.

Keywords

ArabiaYemenẒafārḤimyarAksumChristianitycrowned figure
Type
Research articles
Information
Antiquity , Volume 87 , Issue 338 , December 2013 , pp. 1124 - 1135
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Brunner, U. 1999. Jeme N.Vom Weihrauch zum Erd¨ol. Wien: B¨ohlau.Google Scholar
Casson, L. 1989. The Periplus Maris Erythraei: text with introduction, translation, and commentary. Princeton (NJ): Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
De Goeje, M.J. (ed.). 1897-1901. Muhammad ibn Ga'rīr al-T Abarī, Tarīh al-rusul wa-l-mulūk. Lugduni Batavorum [Leiden]: Brill.Google Scholar
Gajda, I. 1998. Die Vereinigung S¨udarabiens unter dem Reich von Ḥimyarite, in Siepel, W. (ed.) Jemen Kunst und Arch¨aologie im Land der K¨onigin von Saba':269-73. Wien: Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien.Google Scholar
Ghirshman, R. 1962. Iran, Parther und Sasaniden. Munchen: Beck.Google Scholar
Healey, J. 1991. Pliny the Elder, Natural History: a selection. London: Penguin.Google Scholar
Jamme, A. 1962. Sabaean inscriptions from H. Maram Bilqîs (Mārib) (Publications of the American Foundation for the Study of Man 3). Baltimore (MD): American Foundation for the Study of Man.Google Scholar
Kitchen, K. 2000. Documentation for ancient Arabia Part II: bibliographical catalogue of texts. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.Google Scholar
Kitzinger, E. 1977. Byzantine art in the making: main lines of stylistic development in Mediterranean art, 3rd – 7th century. London: Faber & Faber.Google Scholar
Klimkeit, H.-J. 1990. Die Seidenstraße. Koln: Dumont.Google Scholar
L'orange, H.-P. 1995. Das röomische Reich. Stuttgart: Belser.Google Scholar
Müller, W. 2001. Z.afār, in Bearman, P., Bianquis, T., Bosworth, C.E., Van Donzel, E. & Heinrichs, W.P. (ed.) Encyclopedia of Islam, vol. 9: fasc. 185-86. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Müller, W. 2007. Ḥimyarite, in Uhlig, S. (ed.) Encyclopaedia Aethiopica vol. 3:32–34. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar
Müller, W. 2010. Sabäische Inschriften nach Ären datiert. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar
Müller, W. 2012. Äthiopische Inschriftenfragmente aus der himjarischen Hauptstadtzafār. Aethiopica 15:7–21.Google Scholar
Munro-Hay, S.C. 1991. Aksum: an African civilisation of late antiquity. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Munro-Hay, S.C. 1999. Catalogue of the Aksumite coins in the British Museum. London: British Museum Press.Google Scholar
Munro-Hay, S.C. & Juel-Jensen, B.. 1995. Aksumite coinage. London: Spink.Google Scholar
Paribeni, R. 1907. Ricerche nel luogo dell'antica Adulis, in Lincei, Reale Accademia dei (ed.) Monumenti Antichi, vol. 18:438-57. Roma: Reale Accademia dei Lincei.Google Scholar
Piccirillo, M. 1993. The mosaics of Jordan. Amman: American Center of Oriental Research.Google Scholar
Res Répertoire d'épigraphie sémitique. 1900-1905. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale.Google Scholar
Ries, J. 2003. Cross, in Eliade, M. (ed.) Encyclopedia of religion, vol. 4:155-66. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Robin, C. 2006. Vieilles thèses et nouveaux documents le judaïsme en Arabie, des origines à l'aube de l'Islam Report prepared for Centre de recherche français de Jérusalem conference, 2006.Google Scholar
Schiettecatte, J. 2011. D'Aden à Zafar villes d'Arabie du sud préislamique (Orient & Mediterranée Archéologie 6). Paris: Boccard.Google Scholar
Schmidt, J. 1997-1998. Tempel und Heiligt¨umer zu den materiellen und formalen Struk-turen der Sakralbaukunst. Nürnberger Blätter zur Archäologie 14:10–40.Google Scholar
Sommer, M. 2003. Hatra. Mainz: Zabern.Google Scholar
Yule, P. 2007. Ḥimyarite—Die Spätantike im Jemen/Late Antique Yemen. Aichwald: Linden Soft.Google Scholar
Yule, P. 2009. Dating the Ḥimyarite ‘crowned figure’ in Ẓafār. Paper presented at the Seminar for Arabian Studies, London, 23-25 July 2009.Google Scholar
Yule, P. 2012. Adventures of a Christian Aksumite king in H.imyar, Old South Arabia. Paper presented at the World Public Forum Dialogue of Civilisations, Rhodes, 6 October 2012.Google Scholar
Yule, P. 2013a. Ḥimyar–Late Antique Yemen/. Aichwald: Linden Soft.Google Scholar
Yule, P. 2013b. Ẓaf¯ar, capital of Ḥimyar, rehabilitation of a ‘decadent’ society, excavations of the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg 1998-2010 in the highlands of the Yemen (Abhandlungen Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft 29). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar
Zarins, J., Kabawi, A., Murad, A. & Rashad, S.. 1983. Preliminary report on the Najrān Ukhdūd survey and excavations 1982/1402 AH. Atlal 7:2–44.Google Scholar