ARAM, 8 (1996), 315-332 H.M. BIN SERAY 315 CHRISTIANITY IN EAST ARABIA1 HAMAD M. BIN SERAY This paper concentrates on Christianity in East Arabia and also deals briefly with the spread of Christianity in the Arabian Peninsula. The main aim is to investigate when and how Christianity was introduced into East Arabia. It also focuses on the relations between the Nestorians in East Arabia and the Nestorian Church in Seleucia-Ctesiphon and deals with the presence of Chris- tians in the time of spread of Islam during the rule of the Prophet and his Cal- iphs. Finally it examines archaeological evidence of a Christian presence in Kuwait's Failakah island, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the U. A. E. It is not known when and how Christianity was introduced into Arabia, but it may have been after the 3rd century A.D. Arabia was influenced by three Christian centres: Syria to its north-west, Iraq to its north-east and Abyssinia to its west (through the Red Sea and Yemen).2 Christianity was spread peacefully in Arabia by missionary effort, as well as by force. Peaceful missionary means were used more often, and it is evidenced by the immigration of monks and priests to Arabia. The second way is evi- denced by the use of religion as a rationale for the Abyssinian occupation of Yemen and by Abraha’s attack on Makkah.3 Christianity was introduced into many parts in Arabia, such as Yemen,4 Najran, which was notorious for the persecution of Christians,5 and Makkah, which was in contact with the Christians of Syria through commercial rela- tions. Makkah had some Christian slaves and a few of its native people, like ¨Othman ibn al-Îuwayrith, were Christian.6 Yathrib and al-™aˆif also had Christian populations.7 1 I would like to thank Prof. John F. Healey of the Department of Middle Eastern Studies, University of Manchester, for reading this article and for his comments. 2 S.¨A. Salim, Dirasat fi TariÌ al-¨Arab qabla al-ˆIslam, (Alexandria, 1969), pp. 429-432. 3 B.Z. ¨Awa∂, “AÒ-∑ira¨ ad-Dini ¨ala Shibh al-Jazirah al-¨Arabiyyah”, Îawliyyah Kulliyyah al-Shari¨ah wa al-Qanun wa ad-Dirasat al-ˆIslamiyyah, (Univ. of Qatar, 11, 1993), p. 206. 4 See, J.S. Trimingham, Christianity Among the Arabs in Pre-Islamic Times, (London, 1979), pp. 290-293; J. ¨Ali, Al-MufaÒÒal fi TariÌ al-¨Arab qabla al-ˆIslam, (Beirut, 1993), vol. 6, pp. 612- 613, 618-619; Salim, op. cit., p. 432; B.Z. ¨Awa∂, op. cit., pp. 206-207. 5 For more details, see e.g., Trimingham, op. cit., pp. 294-301; ¨Ali, op. cit., vol. 6, pp. 616-619. 6 See Trimingham, op. cit., pp. 258-267; ¨Ali, op. cit., vol. 6, pp. 588-589; S.Z. ¨Abd al- Îamid, Fi TariÌ al-¨Arab qabla al-ˆIslam, (Beirut, 1976), pp. 369-370; Az-Zubayri, Nasab Quraysh, (Cairo, 1982), pp. 209-210; F. SaÌÌab, ˆIaf Quraysh, (Beirut, 1992), pp. 150-152, 179- 183; M.¨I. Darwazah, ¨AÒr an-Nabi, (Beirut, 1964), pp. 164-172. 7 ¨Ali, op. cit., vol. 6, pp. 602-603, 607; ¨Abd al-Îamid, op. cit., 368, 370; Darwazah, op. cit., pp. 215-217. 316 CHRISTIANITY IN EAST ARABIA The Syrian Church was the most important means of spreading Christia- nity among the Arabs in Syria, where many tribes, such as Bahraˆ, the Ghassanids, SaliÌ, Qu∂a¨ah, ¨Amilah, Taglib and Ju∂am, converted to Chris- tianity.8 The Lakhmid capital, al-Îirah, was a very important Christian centre in Iraq. It played a significant role in the Nestorian missionary propagation of Christianity in East Arabia. Many monasteries and churches were well known in al-Îirah and its surroundings. Subsequently, some sections of Arab tribes in the area, such as the Kalb, Shayban, ¨Abd al-Qays and Tamim, be- came Christian.9 SOURCES Our information about Christianity in East Arabia depends primarily on sources written in Syriac and Arabic. The Syriac sources, in chronological or- der, are as follows: (1) MeshiÌa-zekha (also called Isho¨-zekha or Zekha-isho¨) was a monk of Mount Izla. He wrote the Chronicle of Arbela between A.D. 551 and A.D. 569.10 Some doubts have been raised about the Chronicle of Arbela, its date, and the accuracy of its attribution to a sixth century author,11 and this source will only be used with caution. (2) Yeshu¨yab III, the Catholicus of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, was educated at the school of Nisibis. In 620 he was ordained bishop of Nineveh-Mosul, and became metropolitan of Îazza (Irbil) and Mosul in 628. Yeshu¨yab wrote a commentary on the Psalms and 106 letters concerning ecclesiastical af- fairs. Among these are some lengthy letters concerning a conflict between 8 ¨Ali, op. cit., vol. 6, pp. 591-593; Trimingham, op. cit., pp. 116-124; I. Shahid, Byzantium and the Arabs in the 4th Century, (Washigton, D.C., 1984), pp. 382-385; al-JaÌiÂ, al-Îayawan, (ed. ¨A. Harun), (Beirut, 1969), vol. 7, p. 216. 9 On this subject, see e. g., Abu al-Faraj al-ˆIÒfahani, ad-Dayyarat, (London, 1991), pp. 17, 68ff., 78, 116-117, 133, 134, 139-143, 161, 165-169; M.J. Kister, “Al-Îira Some Notes on its Relations with Arabia”, Arabica, xv (1968), pp. 134-169; Trimingham, op. cit., pp. 188-202, 267-279; A. Wessels, “Review of Spencer Trimingham, Christianity among the Arabs in Pre- Islamic Times”, (Bibliotheca Orientalis, xxxviii, 1981), p. 470; K. Cragg, The Arab Christians: a History in the Middle East, (London, 1991), p. 40; ¨Ali, op. cit., vol. 3, p. 172, vol. 6, pp. 595- 601; ¨A. ¨Abd al-Ghani, TariÌ al-Îirah fi al-Jahiliyyah wa al-ˆIslam, (Damascus, 1993), pp. 45- 74, 486-492; al-JaÌiÂ, op.cit., vol. 7, p. 216. 10 See W. Wright, A Short History of Syriac Literature, (London, 1894), 130-131; A. Vöö- bus, History of Asceticism in the Syrian Orient, a Contribution to the History of Culture in the Near East, (CSCO, 184), 142; M. Kamil, & Î.M. al-Bakri, TariÌ al-Adab as-Siryani, (A History of Syriac Literature), (Cairo, 1949), 187-188. 11 On this problem, see e.g. J. Neusner, “Babylonian Jewry and Shapur II’s Persecution of Christianity from 339 to 339 A.D.”, Hebrew Union College Annual, xliii (1972), p. 100, citing J.-M. Fiey, “Auteur et date de la Chronique d’Arbèles”, L’Orient Syrien, xii (1967), pp. 265-302. Cf. Neusner, op. cit, pp. 99-100; D.T. Potts, The Arabian Gulf in Antiquity, (Oxford, 1991), vol. 2, p. 241, n. 239. H.M. BIN SERAY 317 him and the members of his church in the Gulf region. He died in A.D. 659.12 (3) Thomas of Marga, the son of one Jacob, may have been born after the be- ginning of the 9th century. He was a monk of the famous monastery of Beth Abhe in northern Iraq in about A.D. 832, and later became bishop of Marga in Adiabene. The date of his death is unknown. Thomas wrote two monastic histories, the History of the Monastery of Rabban Cyprian, and the Book of Governors. The latter is the larger and more important of the two.13 (4) The acts of several Nestorian synods between the 4th and 7th centuries A.D are preserved in a late 8th-century collection known as the Synodicon orientale. This collection was edited and translated by J.-B. Chabot in 1902.14 Islamic sources include FutuÌ al-Buldan of al-Bala∂uri (d. 279 A.H) TariÌ al-ˆUmam wa al-Muluk of al-™abari (known as TariÌ al-™abari) (d. 310 A.H.) and al-Kamil fi at-TariÌ of ibn ˆAl-ˆA†ir (d. 630 A.H.) There are some differences between the information given by these two lin- guistic groups of sources in connection with the Christian presence in East Arabia. The Islamic accounts mention that Christians were among the non- Muslim people of Bahrain who paid the Jizyah (poll tax) to the Prophet. How- ever, they do not give any information concerning the situation of the Chris- tians or concerning their relations with local government and tribes. The Syriac sources are more informative about the Christians in the area. They also provide us with valuable information concerning their relations with their brothers and sisters in Iraq. (NESTORIAN) CHRISTIANITY IN EAST ARABIA: Owing to the anti-Nestorian encroachments of the Jacobite and the Ortho- dox, the Nestorians emigrated beyond the boundaries of the Roman Empire to Persia, where they generally lived in peace. There they experienced normal growth without external religious interference. Although the Nestorians gener- 12 See Wright, op. cit., pp. 171-176; J.M. Fiey, Assyrie Chrétienne, (Beirut, 1968), vol. 3, pp. 136, 268; S.P. Brock, “Syriac Sources for Seventh-Century History”, Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, ii (1976), pp. 32-33; J.F. Healey, “Isho¨yahb III (var. Yeshu¨yahb)”, an article to be published in Dictionary of Eastern Christianity, (eds. K. Parry, et. al), the text of which was kindly supplied to me by Prof. Healey. 13 For more details and study of Thomas, see Wright, op. cit., pp. 219-220; Thomas of Marga,, The Book of Governors, (ed. by E.A.W. Budge), (London, 1893), vol. 1, pp. xvii-xxvii; A. Baumstark, Geschichte der Syrischen Literatur, (Bonn, 1922), pp. 233-234; S.P. Brock, op. cit., p. 27; Vööbus, op. cit., p. 219; J.-M. Fiey, “Thomas de Marga; notule de littérature syriaque”, Le Muséon, lxxviii (1965), pp. 361-366.