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Christian Missions Pre-Islamic South Arabia*

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Christian Missions Pre-Islamic South Arabia* CHRISTIAN MISSIONS PRE-ISLAMIC SOUTH ARABIA* ATHANASSIOS PAPATHANASSIOU Dr (Missiol.) - Laws The entrance and implanting of Christianity pre-islamic South Arabia has been the subject of intensive study since the second half of the last centuryI. Though ample light has ever since been shed over numerous historical aspects, still many problems and are waiting for scrutinization and answers. The Arabian peninsula has been divided into two parts: the North and the South. The relations of the northern Arabs with Byzan- tium and Christianity have been studied satisfactorily enough so far; one can find information about it specialized but sometimes general histories of Byzantium as well (Vasiliev, Karayannopoulos, Bury, etc.). The south Arabian peninsula has been less known to the non-specialist scholar. this article we shall deal mainly with the «mysterious» South, after making a short reference to the Arabian • This paper was presented at the «InternationaI Orthodox Missions Consultation» Moscow, November ]-6, ]993. See, for example, D 1Im a n n, Zur Geschichte des Abyssinischen Zeitschrift des Deutschen Morgenliindischen Gesellschaft 7 (1853), 338-364, W. F e 11 , Die Christenverfo1gung und die himjarisch iithiopischen nach abessinischer Zeitschrift des Deutschen Morgenliindischen Gesellschaft 35 (188]), ]-74, Glaser, Abessinier Arabien und Africa, auf Grund neuent- deckter Inschriften, ]895. 2. S. r m n g h a m, among the Arabs Pre-Is1amic London ]979, J. e a u c a m -Ch. R b n, Le Christianisme dans 1a Peninsu1e arabique d' apres 1" epigraphie et 1" arcMo1ogie: Travaux et Memoirs 8 (]98]), 45-61, n an - W h t t n g h a m, The Early of the Gu1f Arabs, Essex 1986. 3. Besides the basic bibliography shall give below, refer the reader to my doc- toral dissertation, which has already gone to press and wilJ be published - God - 134 Athanassios Papathanassiou The north Arabian had frequent contacts with the Byzan- tine Empire. They used to live the areas at the south of Syria to Iraq. The «Lives» of the famous saints, Symeon the Stylite, Euthymios the Great, and Symeon the Young, provide us with much inforrnation about the conversion, baptism and catechesis of these et, a particularly important case are the tribes of the Ghassanids and the Lakhmids, who abandoned the nomadic life, accepted Christianity and forrned vassal kingdoms. The Ghassanids settled at the south of Pales- tine (ca 490-7th c.), adopted Monophysitism, became allies of Byzan- tium and functioned as its military shield against the other tribes". The Lakhmids settled Iraq (ca 300-600), embraced Nestorianism (since they lived near Persia, where the Nestorian communities were espe- cially influential) and seIVed Zoroastrian Iran as its military sattelite". The south Arabian peninsula ·is supposed to .have been the king- dom of the famous Queen of Sheba (1 10: 1-13, 2 Chron. 8: 1-12). The Graeco - Roman world called it «Arabia Felix» because of its high prosperity and power7• The structures of its civilization were not nomadic but urban with complicated organization and economy based trade and agriculture. Around the first century B.C. the H leadership of the area passed to the tribe of the Himyarites • The Himyarite kingdom almost coincides geographically with today's state of Yemen. That means that it was not next to the Byzantine borders. fact, it was surrounded by the Arabian desert, the Red Sea and the soon: «Nomoi ton Omiriton», prosegisi kai istoriki-nomiki Greek) [ = «The 'Laws of the Missiological Approach and Historical - Legal Forschungen byzantinischen Rechtsgeschichte, Athener Reihe, Sakkoulas publ. 4. L i e t m a n n, Das Leben des Symeon Leipzig 1908, Sc h w a r t , KyriJlos von Leipzig 1939, Va n d e V e n, La vie ancienne de S. Symeon le Jeune (521-592), Bruxelles 1962. 5. S h a h d, Ghassan: the Encyclopaedia of Islam (n.e.) 2 (1965), 1020-1021. 6. S h a h d, Lakhmids: The EncycJopaedia of Islam (n.e.) 5 (1986), 632-635. 7. C s m a s n d c e s t e s , Topographie Chretienne, Sources Chretiennes 141, 330-331. 8. Wissmann, Himyar, Ancient History: Le Museon 77 (1964), 429-497, S h a h d, Preislamic Arabia: The Cambridge History of Islam. la, Cam- bridge, etc, 1970, 3-29. The South were Semites, but Arabs; nevertheless the inhabitants of the south Arabian city Najran were Arabs. Missions Pre-Islamic S. Arabia 135 Arabian Sea. Beyond these natural borders, three The Christian Byzantine, the Zoroastric Persian and - more (geographicaIIy and ethnoIogicaIIy) to SouthArabia - Christian (mo- nophysite) The south Arabians were pagans; their had a profound IIJ astral character • At about the century AD (if not Ju- daism entered the country. Between the 4th and 6th c. it was adopted by the Himyarite sovereigns, but not by the whole of the The f'rst encounter of South Arabia with Christianity is obscurity. There are several traditions bearing both evidences of histo- rical authenticity and Iegendary additions. Each of them, if studied properly, can furnish data of considerable interest for the history and the methods of Mission. These traditions are as foIlows: 1. The Byzantine historian Eusebius haIf of the 4th men- tions a tradition according to which the A1exandrian phiIosopher Pan- taenus (2nd c.) undertook a mission to the area, where he found a copy of the GospeI according to St Matthew, which was said to have been Ieft by the Apostle BarthoIomew who had preached 2. The Byzantine historiographer (by the end of the 4th c). refers to the mission of the Indus to the Himya- rites. possibIy an Arian, sent by the Emperor Constantius (337-361), succeeded converting the Himyarite was confronted with officers of the Jews and erected three churchesl:!. 3. The monophysite chronographer John, bishop of claims that Christianity was preached to the Himyarites by Theognosta, a who had been kidnapped by bandits and was presented as a gift to 9. U J e r. d r ff, Thc Ethiopians. Introduction to Country and Pcop/c, Oxford 19733. See, a1so, D. L e t s s, Dic Acthiopisch - Himyaritischcn Kricgc dcs 6. lahrhundcrts und dic Christianisicrung Acthiopicns: Jahrbuch der Oesterreichischen Byzantinistik 41 (1991), 25-41. 10. F. L . e e s t Thc Rcligions of Prc-is/amic Ycmcn: L' Arabie du Sud (ed. J. Chelhod), (1984), 259-269. 11. J , R c k m a s , La pcrsecution dcs Chreticns Himyaritcs au siec/c, Istanbu1 1965, 12, S. S m t h, Evcnts in Arabia in thc 6th ccntury AD: Bulletin of the Schoo1 of Orienta1 and African Studies 16 (1954), 462, Beeston, supra, 276·277. 12. Euseb ius, (Werke 1, ed. Schwartz), Leipzig 1903, 450-452. 13. Philostorgius , (ed . J. Bidez - F. Winke1mann), Berlin 19722, 32-35. 136 Athanassios Papathanassiou the Himyarite king, who became, probably, the first convert of the zealous 4. According to another tradition, the Himyarites became Christians early 6th c., when Emperor of Constantinople was the monophysite Anastasius (491- 518), from whom they asked and ceived a bishopl". 5. local tradition, which, paradoxically, was saved from oblivion through the works of the Arabian Muslim historiographers, attributes the evangelization of South Arabia to Phemion, a holy man from Syria, ca. the 5th 6. tradition of Ethiopian origin speaks about Azkir, a holy man who preached, worked miracles and was martyred South Arabia by 17• the end of the 5th C 7. Of Nestorian seems to be the last tradition, which asc- ribes the South Arabian mission to Hannan, a merchant, ca. the first half of the 5th We are justified supposing that each tradition echoes a certain missionary attempt. Probably many of them, and especially the earlier ones, had ephemeral results. Anyway, the fact is that local churches-communities already existed by the end of the 5th c. and the beginning of the 6th c., when South Arabian Christianity reached its martyrical colophon, as we shall see below. The above mentioned missionary narrations have embodied a riety of missionary practice. Preaching, diplomacy, personal turgical dialogue et a1. were used occasionally. Of course, it would take us much to discuss each tradition separately; it is enough for the purpose of the present to that [according to the study am working out the relevant philological sources] each tradition can be understood within its own historical and 14. R. C h a r e s (transl.), The Chronicle of John, Bishop of Oxford 1916, 69-70. 15. h e d r s n a g n s t e s , (ed. G. Ch. Hansen), Berlin 1971, 152 and 157. 16. J e ffe ry, Christianity South Arabia: The Moslem World 36 (1946), 199-200. 17. J e ff e r supra, 200-204. 18. J. W . r s c h b e r g, Nestorian Sources of North-Arabian Traditions the and Persecution of Christianity Yemen: Rocznik 15 (1939-1949) , 332-333. Christian Missions Pre-Islamic S. Arabia 137 cultural context and with its own coherent logic. if we do not agree with certain methodologies, we must look careful1y the past experiences, take under serious consideration the data of time and place, and try to the true and essential. Before procceeding, we shal1 make here a parenthesis. There is a question about the nature of the South Arabian Christianity. Most scholars agree that the majority of the Himyarite Christian communi- ties were monophysite, under the influence of the Syrian and Ethio- pian Churches. Yet, we should keep mind some important pa- rameters of the and map of thatera and area: a. Some of the said traditions may be posterior of older that is of attempts which took place before the Council of Chalcedon (451)1 9.
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