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Judaism in pre-Islamic Arabia
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Judaism was the first monotheistic religion practiced in pre-Islamic Arabia, since at least the 1st century BCE. Arabian Jews were linguistically diverse, and communities spoke Greek, Aramaic, Arabic, and Sabaic.[1] The centers of Arabian Judaism were in the Northwest and South of the Arabian Peninsula, and its main period of political ascendancy took place after the conversion of the ruling elites of the Himyarite Kingdom, who dominated South Arabia, to Judaism in the late fourth century.
How Judaism entered Arabia remains controversial.[2] Some theories center on migrations that took place after the destruction of the Second Temple during the Jewish–Roman wars[3] or in the aftermath of Persian, Babylonian, or Roman persecutions, but these theories remain speculation.[4][5] The way Judaism was practiced, and its diversity, is also not well-understood.[6] In addition, there is no concrete evidence for the translation of entire Jewish scriptures into local Arabian languages, indicating that religious communication was largely oral.[7]
The study of Judaism in pre-Islamic Arabia is limited by the nature of the available sources. The primary source for the life and activities of pre-Islamic Arabian Jews is through epigraphy. Few epigraphs explicitly identify the author as Jewish, and so other markers are typically used to infer their Jewish identity, such as including Jewish names (i.e. onomastics, although this method has some limitations[8]), Jewish expressions and use of the Hebrew script.[9] Nothing is said about these communities by contemporary Greek and Syriac sources with the exception of a passing reference in Josephus.[10][11] Both Talmuds (Palestinian and Babylonian) only mention Arabia occasionally, and even then, they usually refer to regions in southern Palestine and Jordan instead of the Peninsula.[11] Contemporary Islamic sources, limited to the Quran[12][4] and the Constitution of Medina,[13] ameliorate the situation. Non-contemporary Islamic sources record many examples of Jewish poets and their poetry, although the date, modification, and authenticity of these sources is unclear.[14] Later Arabic historiography is also more detailed, but suffers from problems related to its lateness and reliability. Non-contemporary Arabic historiographical sources, such as those of al-Hamdani, are considered secondary in their ability to enable a historical reconstruction of Judaism in pre-Islamic Arabia.[15] Ya'qubi (d. 897) asserted that all of Yemen used to be Jewish, whereas Ibn Hazm (d. 1064) says it was all of Himyar plus parts of Kinda that were Jewish.[16] This literature also stresses the importance of the Jewish community of Medina and its tribes, most prominently the Banu Nadir, the Banu Qaynuqa, and the Banu Qurayza. Nevertheless, evidence regarding the size and nature of a Jewish Medinan community remains phantasmal in the pre-Islamic evidence.[17][18]
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South Arabia
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Before the 4th century
Evidence for Judaism in South Arabia before the fourth century is sparse. According to Josephus in his Antiquities of the Jews, Herod the Great, the king of Judea in the 1st century BCE, contributed 500 men to the personal guard of the Roman governor Aelius Gallus to aid his invasion of South Arabia around 25/24 BCE, which was ultimately unsuccessful.[11]
Himyarite period
Conversion
By 300, the Himyarite Kingdom had vanquished other political units (including the Saba, Qataban, and Hadrawat kingdoms) and became the ruling power of southern Arabia, uniting the region for the first time. In the mid- to late-fourth century, Himyar or at least its ruling class had adopted Judaism, having transitioned from a polytheistic practice.[19] These events are chronicled by the Book of the Himyarites and the fifth-century Ecclessiastical History of the Anomean Philostorgius. Such sources implicate the motive for conversion as a wish on the part of the Himyarite rulers to distance themselves from the Byzantine Empire which had tried to convert them to Christianity. The conversion from polytheism and the institutionalization of Judaism as the official religion is credited in these sources to Malkīkarib Yuha’min (r. c. 375–400). According to traditional Islamic sources, the conversion took place under his son, Abu Karib (r. c. 400–445).[20] It is in the mid-fourth century that inscriptions suddenly transition from polytheistic invocations to ones mentioning the high god Rahmanan.[21] A Sabaic inscription dating to this time, titled Ja 856 (or Fa 60) describes the replacement of a polytheistic temple dedicated to the god al-Maqah with a mikrāb (which might be the equivalent of a synagogue or an original form of organization local to Himyarite Judaism[22]). The evidence suggests a sharp break with polytheism, coinciding with the sudden appearance of Jewish and Aramaic words (‘ālam/world, baraka/bless, haymanōt/guarantee, kanīsat/meeting hall) and personal names (Yṣḥq/Isaac, Yhwd’/Juda), Yws’f/Joseph).[20] Nevertheless, the nature of the Judaism practiced by the rulers is not clear[23] and the Jewish nature of the kings rule was not frequently made explicit.[24]
Judaism among the local population
There is not as much evidence for the religion of the locals compared with the rulers, but evidence is available for a practice of Judaism among locals. The name "Israel" appears in four inscriptions and replaces the earlier term shaʿb/community:[25] one inscription from the fifth century mentions the "God of Israel".[26] Three inscriptions mention the "God of the Jews". MAFRAY-Ḥaṣī 1, describes the construction of a graveyard specifically for the Jewish community.[27] There is a Hebrew inscription known as DJE 23 from the village of Bayt Hadir, 15 km east of Sanaa. It lists the mishmarot ("guards"), enumerating the twenty-four Priestly families (and their place of residence in Galilee) appointed to protect the Solomon's Temple after the return of the Jews following the Babylonian exile. It is also written in biblical as opposed to Aramaic orthography.[28] Local inscriptions mention synagogues (mkrb) in the cities of Zafar, Marib, Rayda, Naʿd, Najr, Dulaʿ, and Tanʿim, implying a formal organization of South Arabian Judaism.[29] The phrase hagios topos, which usually means a synagogue, has also been found from a 6th-century Greek inscription from the port of Qāniʾ in Bi'r Ali, and an earlier 4th-century Sabaic inscription.[30][31] However, the interpretation of the former inscription and its building from Qani have been disputed.[32] Additional evidence is also known.[33]
Christian Julien Robin argues that the epigraphic evidence argues against viewing the Judaism of Himyar as rabbinic. This is based on the absence of belief in the afterlife (shared by the Sadducees), the predominant use of a local language (Sabaic) as opposed to Hebrew, and the priestly emphasis of DJE 23, Himyarite Judaism may have been more "Priestly" than "Rabbinic".[34] However, Iwona Gajda interprets DJE 23 as evidence for the presence of rabbinic Judaism, and further points to evidence that the loanwords present in Ḥasī 1 indicate that its author was strongly familiar with Jewish law.[35]
Fall of Jewish rule over South Arabia
Around 500, the Kingdom of Aksum invaded the peninsula, overthrowing the Himyarite king and installing in his place the hardline Christian king Ma'dikarib Ya'fur . His successor, Dhu Nuwas (reigned 517–530) went on to try combatting the Christianizing influence from the Kingdom of Aksum militarily and massacred the Christian community of Najran,[36][37][38] which is in part documented by an inscription made by S²rḥʾl Yqbl (Yusuf's army commander), Ja 1028, which describes the burning of a church and slaughtering of Abyssinians (Ethiopian Christians), claiming thousands of deaths and prisoners. These events are also discussed in several contemporary Christian sources: in the writings of Procopius, Cosmas Indicopleustes, John Malalas, and Jacob of Serugh. Soon afterwards, John of Ephesus (d. 588) related a letter from another contemporary, Mar Simeon, directed to Abbot von Gabula about the events. In addition, an anonymous author produced the Book of the Himyarites, a sixth-century Syriac chronicle of the persecution and martyrdom of the Christians of Najran. This event to a significant counterattack by the Ethiopian kingdom, leading to the conquest of Himyar in 525 and the end of the Jewish leadership of southern Arabia.[39]
Communication with non-peninsular Jews
Unfortunately, Jewish literary texts outside of Yemen do not discuss the Jewish community there.[40] However, epigraphs from Palestine and Jordan do reflect communication and knowledge from the Yemenite Jewish community:
- An inscription from Palestine using the Sabaic script (a South Arabian script) is known.
- A Greek inscription from the village of Beit She'arim mentions the burial of a "Himyarite".
- A fifth-century Hebrew epitaph from Zoara, Jordan describes an individual named Ywsh br ʾWfy who "died in Ẓafār, the land of the Ḥimyarites".
These communication routes may have also transferred rabbinic and other Jewish teachings.[41] In addition, evidence from the Talmud and the Syriac Book of the Himyarites shows that members of priestly tribes known as Cohanim originating from the land of Israel were active in the Himyarite Kingdom.[2]
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Northwest Arabia
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Data on Judaism in northwestern Arabia largely relies on occasional information found in inscriptions. One, from 203 AD, indicates a Jewish headman of the oasis of Tayma named Isaiah (whose father and brother also have biblical names). Jewish headmen of both Hegra and Dedan are also indicated by inscriptions from the mid-4th century. One Dedanite inscription mentions a rabbi.[42][43] A Jewish presence in Western Arabia is also indicated by the inscription UJadhNab 538.[44]
There is also some literary evidence. The Midrash Rabba suggests that two third-century rabbis thought it would have been beneficial to them to travel to Hegra (Madāʾin Ṣālih) in order to improve their Aramaic. Procopius, a 6th-century Byzantine historian, when commenting about the Tiran Island, says that the "Hebrews had lived from of old in autonomy, but in the reign of this Justinian they have become subject to the Romans."[45]
Haggai Mazuz has argued that the Hijazi Arabian Judaism was rabbinic and halakhic,[46] but his thesis has criticized for an uncritical reliance on traditional sources.[17][47] While the nature of Hijazi Judaism remains controversial, some sort of rabbinic element is likely to have existed.[48]
The Quran, emerging from the early seventh century in West Arabia, regularly mentions Jews and their beliefs, in both Meccan surahs and Medinan surahs.[12] They are mentioned 23 times by the root hwd, 43 times as part of the "Children of Israel", and 32 as part of the "People of the Book".[4] In the latest layers of the Quran, direct engagement with the Mishnah occurs several times, likely reflecting a growing awareness and interaction with the Jewish scholarly elite.[49]
Another document from Muhammad's lifetime, the Constitution of Medina, describes a pact between Muhammad's polity and several Jewish tribes.[13]
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Central and East Arabia
Evidence of Jews or Judaism in this region is tenuous. Christian Julien Robin has suggested that a governor of one of the tribes in central Arabia, Ḥujr, may have been Jewish. In eastern Arabia, Josephus claims that a son of the first-century king of Adiabene converted to Judaism.[50]
Poets and poetry
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Pre-Islamic Arabic poetry was compiled and written down during the Islamic period, and it occasionally includes Jewish poets and their compositions,[2] although the question of the authenticity of this poetry is still debated,[14] in addition to the difficulties involved in their dating and detecting the degree of Islamicization they underwent.[51] The Ṭabaqāt fuḥūl al-shuʿarā ("The generations of the most outstanding poets"), composed by the Basran traditionalist and philologist Muḥummad ibn Sallām al-Jumaḥī (d. 846), records a list of Jewish poets. The Arabian/Arab antiquities collector Abū l-Faraj al-Iṣfahānī (d. 976) also has scattered reference to eleven Jewish poets in his Kitāb al-agānī ("Book of Songs"). The poets they refer to are as follows, followed by (J) if mentioned by al-Jumahi and (I) if they are mentioned by al-Isfahani:
- Samaw'al ibn 'Adiya[52] (J) (I)
- Al-Rabi ibn Abu al-Huqayq (J) (I)
- Ka‘b ibn al-Ashraf (J) (I)
- Shurayḥ ibn ʿImrān (J) (I)
- Saʿya (Shuʿba) ibn Gharīḍ/ʿArīḍ (J) (I)
- Abū Qays ibn Rifāʿa (J) (I)
- Dirham ibn Zayd (J)
- Abū l-Dhayyāl (J) (I)
- Sarah of Qurayẓa (I)
- Kaʿb ibn Saʿd of Qurayẓa (I)
- Aws ibn Danī of Qurayẓa (I)
According to some traditions, Imru al-Qais also converted to Judaism.[2]
The poetry ascribed to these figures rarely make reference to precise historical details or religious expressions,[9] although some poems ascribed to al-Samaw'al in the Asma'iyyat collection are explicitly religious.[53] In addition, al-Jumahi offers very little by way of biography for each of these figures other than to recount popular anecdotes that a few are associated with. Al-Isfahani gives more detailed biographical information. For example, he says Al-Samaw’al ibn ‘Ādiyā was a native of Tayma (in northwestern Arabia) whose father had ties to the Ghassanids. He lived in a family home often called a castle and whose name was al-Ablaq. Popular stories described his fidelity and loyalty, such as one where he refuses the surrender of the possessions of Imru' al-Qais to Imru's enemies despite their attempt to besiege his castle. Asides from Samaw'al, the only other Jewish poet to earn some renown was al-Rabī‘ ibn Abī l-Ḥuqayq, chief of the Naḍir tribe. The earliest sources make no mention of this figure, but only his son Kināna. Instead, it is only with the work of al-Isfahani that the exploits of al-Rabī‘ are described.[54]
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List of Jewish epigraphs
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This list is according to the 2012 compilation by Robert Hoyland. The inscriptions span at least five centuries, only number thirty-one if all are accepted as Jewish, are written in a variety of scripts/languages although most are in Nabataean Aramaic, are typically brief, and are geographically limited insofar as nearly all hail from Hegra or Al-Ula.[55]
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