T
thephilosopher6
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Wikipedia says,
AndIn AD 516, a tribal unrest broke out in Yemen and several tribal elites fought for power. One of those elites was Joseph Dhu Nuwas or “Yousef Asa’ar”, a Jewish warlord mentioned in ancient south Arabian inscriptions. Syriac and Byzantine sources claim that he fought his war because Christians in Yemen refused to renounce Christianity.
As well as“Inscriptions attributed to Yûsuf ’As’ar himself show the great pride he expressed after killing more than 22,000 Christians in Ẓafār and Najran.[22] According to Jamme, Sabaean inscriptions reveal that the combined war booty (excluding deaths) from campaigns waged against the Abyssinians in Ẓafār, the fighters in ’Ašʻarān, Rakbān, Farasān, Muḥwān (Mocha), and the fighters and military units in Najran, amounted to 12,500 war trophies, 11,000 captives and 290,000 camels and bovines and sheep.[16]”
Are there any notable martyrs or saints of this period? How come this great persecution is never talked about?Historian Glen Bowersock described this as a “savage pogrom that the Jewish king of the Arabs launched against the Christians in the city of Najran. The king himself reported in excruciating detail to his Arab and Persian allies about the massacres he had inflicted on all Christians who refused to convert to Judaism.”[23] There were also reports of massacres and destruction of places of worship by Christians too.[24] Francis Edward Peters wrote that while there is no doubt that this was a religious persecution, it is equally clear that a political struggle was going on as well.[25] It is likely that Dhu Nuwas was a leader of a liberation movement seeking to free Yemen from an increasing foreign meddling in the nation’s affairs, and Judaism became a vital element in the resistance.[17]
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