Sumyafa Ashwa
Sumyafa Ashwa | |||||
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King of Himyar | |||||
Reign | 522/530–535 | ||||
Predecessor | Dhu Nuwas | ||||
Successor | Overthrown and deposed by Abraha | ||||
Born | c. 460 | ||||
Died | c. 535 | ||||
| |||||
Religion | Christianity |
Sumyafa' Ashwa al-Yazani, also known as Esimiphaios (
Archaeological Inscriptions
There is an inscription mentioning Sumyafa' Ashwa, which commemorates the refortification of
Another inscription also indicates that Sumyafa' Ashwa was from the influential elite Dhu Yazan family.[3] Some have suggested that Sumyafa' Ashwa was the father of the Himyarite prince, Sayf ibn Dhi Yazan, whose real name is Ma'adi Yakrib ibn Abi Murrah.
Reign
It is not possible to be precise about the date of accession of Sumūyafaʿ Ashwaʿ. A native Ḥimyarite and a
The Roman emperor Justinian I sent two embassies to Ḥimyar during the brief reign of Sumūyafaʿ Ashwaʿ.[6] Sometime between April and September 531, he sent an embassy to the court of Aksum and to Sumyafa' Ashwa, hoping for an alliance against Persia and for Ḥimyarite aid to the Roman ally Qays ibn Salama ibn al-Ḥārith.[4] The Roman historian Procopius details the embassy of the ambassador Julian:[7]
At that time, when Hellesthaeus [Caleb] was reigning over the Aethiopians [Aksumites], and Esimiphaeus over the Homeritae [Ḥimyarites], the Emperor Justinian sent an ambassador, Julianus, demanding that both nations on account of their community of religion should make common cause with the Romans in the war against the Persians. . . As for the Homeritae, it was desired that they should establish Caïsus [Qays], the fugitive, as captain over the Maddeni [Maʿadd], and with a great army of their own people and of the Maddene Saracens make an invasion into the land of the Persians. This Caïsus was by birth of the captain’s rank and an exceptionally able warrior, but he had killed one of the relatives of Esimiphaeus and was a fugitive in a land which is so utterly destitute of human habitation. So each king, promising to put this demand into effect, dismissed the ambassador, but neither one of them did the things agreed upon by them.
A little later
The Aksumite military general, Aryat, of later Islamic accounts may be partially based on Sumyafa' Ashwa.[10] Later Christian historiography generally omitted Sumyafa' Ashwa in order not to expose Abraha—a Christian hero in these accounts—as an usurper. This often extended to falsely lengthening the reign of Abraha to include that of his predecessor. Thus, Sumyafa' Ashwa is not mentioned in the Martyrionof Arethas, the Bios of Gregentios, the Chronographia of Theophanes of Byzantium or the Chronicle of Michael the Syrian.[11] On the basis of the Laws of the Ḥimyarites, part of the Bios of Gregentios, Irfan Shahîd argued that Sumūyafaʿ Ashwaʿ took the throne name Abraham, causing confusion between him and his successor because of the similarity of their names.[12][13]
References
- ^ Bury, J. B. (1923). History of the Later Roman Empire. Vol. II. Macmillan & Co. pp. 325–326.
- ^ Robin 2015, pp. 162–163.
- ^ "DASI: Digital Archive for the Study of pre-islamic arabian Inscriptions: Epigraph details". dasi.cnr.it. Retrieved 2024-04-21.
- ^ a b c d Robin 2015, p. 149.
- ^ Robin 2015, pp. 163–164.
- ^ Bowersock 2013, p. 108.
- ^ a b Edwell et al. 2015, pp. 237–238.
- ^ a b Peters 1994, pp. 83–84.
- ^ Fiaccadori 2006, p. 67.
- ^ Fiaccadori 2006, p. 69.
- ^ Fiaccadori 2006, pp. 70–71.
- ^ Fiaccadori 2006, p. 71 n147.
- ^ Shahîd 1979, pp. 34–35.
Bibliography
- ISBN 978-0-19-973932-5.
- Edwell, Peter; Fisher, Greg; Greatrex, Geoffrey; Whately, Conor; Wood, Philip (2015). "Arabs in the Conflict between Rome and Persia, AD 491–630". In Greg Fisher (ed.). Arabs and Empires before Islam. Oxford University Press. pp. 214–275.
- ISBN 9783110911060.
- Peters, Francis E. (1994). Muhammad and the Origins of Islam. State University of New York Press. ISBN 9780791418758.
- Robin, Christian Julien (2015). "Before Ḥimyar: Epigraphic Evidence for the Kingdoms of South Arabia". In Greg Fisher (ed.). Arabs and Empires before Islam. Oxford University Press. pp. 90–126.
- JSTOR 1291433.
Further reading
- Sidney Smith, "Events in Arabia in the 6th Century A. D.", Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 16 (1954), pp. 425-468