Early Christianity in Arabia

Preface

PREFACE.

When the following pages were written, the author, who was then very young, pursued with at least considerable zeal the study of the Oriental languages and literature, a study which, upon his entering the university, he laid aside, not again to be resumed. The historical essay now published was written in the belief that the events which it relates had received but little attention in this country, and had never been presented in a popular form to English readers; and at the same time he thought, as he is still inclined to think, that they form an interesting episode in the history of mankind, and that they are a necessary introduction to our knowledge of the origin of that religion which has exercised so mighty an influence on the whole world during the middle ages. He had preserved the manuscript without any determinate idea of publishing it, until the general interest in the affairs of the East which has been raised by the great events that are now taking place has led him to believe that his sketch of the history of Christianity in Arabia before it was subverted by the arms of Muhammed and his followers might find a sufficient number of readers to justify its publication.

It seemed necessary to make this statement both as an explanation and as an apology; and it is but right to add that the whole is here printed as it was written; for, as the author's studies have for some years run in an entirely different direction, he has not ventured upon a revision of this slight memorial of former labours. He has not attempted to approach in any way the question of the orthography of Oriental names, which is one on which even Oriental scholars are not at all agreed, and in which many changes have taken place since these pages were written; but he believes that his original desire was to adopt such forms as, without being vulgarly corrupt, would sound least harsh to those who were not acquainted with the languages to which they belong.

Contents

CONTENTS.

Section I

EARLY CHRISTIANITY IN ARABIA.

SECTION I.

The peninsula of Arabia was divided by the old geographers into three parts: the desert plains of the north-east; which bordered on the Euphrates and the Syrian frontier; the province of Petræa, at the northern extremity of the Red Sea; and the richer and more extensive tracts of Arabia Felix. This latter division is chiefly included by native writers under the general and comprehensive term of Al Yaman, which in signification coincides with its Roman epithet. On the north the territories of Yaman extended into the mountain ranges of the interior, and were bounded perhaps by the extensive deserts that spread out towards the Persian Gulf; on the west and south it was separated from Africa by the Red Sea; and its eastern coasts were washed by the waves of the southern ocean.

In more ancient times, the land of Yaman was celebrated as the native country of myrrh and of frankincense. Its inhabitants, the Sabæi, formed the most powerful and extensive of all the nations of the Arabian peninsula. They were blessed with a redundance of the pleasures and conveniences of life. The earth was fertile and fruitful, and with little labour produced all that was required for the necessities or luxuries of mankind. The plains were covered with innumerable flocks. Extensive and numerous forests of myrrh, cinnamon, and frankincense, mixed with the sweeping palm and the tall and slender reed, breathed their perfumes to the breeze which carried them far out on the neighbouring seas. The people excelled all other nations in wealth, enriching Syria with gold, and supplying the Phœnician navigators with lucrative cargoes. The seas too were celebrated for the quantity and quality of their pearls. The value of the productions of Sabæa were equalled only by the magnificence of the temples and palaces which adorned its cities. Supported by columns of gold and silver, and covered with gems and precious stones, they almost exceeded in splendour the magic buildings of oriental fable. The wealth of the Arabians was exhibited in a profusion of pompous couches and tripods, in gorgeous bowls, and richly ornamented cups. The expenses of the royal household for a single day were estimated at fifteen Babylonian talents.

We are naturally led to suppose that these accounts which the ancients give of the riches and magnificence of the people of Arabia Felix are considerably exaggerated. When we turn, however, to native authors, we find the rich and fertile fields of Sabæa, watered by innumerable streams and canals, covered with gardens, and woods, and flowers, and universal verdure, and adorned with cities and magnificent buildings, affording a theme for praises exceeding even the glowing descriptions of the Greeks. The inhabitants of these fertile districts differed widely in their character from the wandering Arab of the desert. They were subject to kings, and governed by laws, and enjoyed all the advantages of social life. Some were employed in agriculture, others were shepherds, and others as merchants sought distant lands by sea, and exchanged native products for those of India and Ethiopia, or explored their pathless way through the northern desert, guided only by the stars of heaven. Commerce is the source of wealth. The Arabians were the carriers of the eastern ocean, and the trade of India, that trade which afterwards contributed so much to the riches of Persia, had been monopolised by the merchants of Sabæa from the patriarchal days of Jacob. The capitals of Egypt and Phœnicia owed their splendour in a great measure to the Sabæan merchandise which passed through them, and the treasures of Solomon himself were drawn from the mines and warehouses of Arabia. The wealthy and the noble lived in the same magnificence and luxury that has ever been characteristic of the princes of the east, and we may parallel the writing's of Arabs and Greeks in describing the pride and splendour of their domestic life, and their political prosperity. But, although they bore the character of a soft and luxurious people, they still preserved that of being free, liberal, and brave. After having been successively subjected by Ethiopean and Persian conquerors, they still enjoyed the same character, "exulting," says a Persian writer, "in their liberty, delighting in eloquence, acts of liberality, and martial achievements, and thus making the whole earth red as wine with the blood of their foes, and the air like a forest of canes with their tall spears."

The period at which the kingdom of Saba or Hamyar flourished, as in the free states of Greece and Rome, was the golden age of Arabian poetry; literature was universally encouraged and patronised by the munificence of the great and the study of eloquence and philosophy was ardently prosecuted.

The Arabs of the times of ignorance, as the Moslem term the ages which preceded Muhammed, were not less celebrated for their skill in astronomy, astrology, and other sciences, than their descendants in the days of Islam. The religion of the Hamyarites resembled that of the idolatrous nations who surrounded them, and their devotions were addressed

to a multitude of deities, of which the principal were represented by the sun, the moon, and the planets; but amongst their philosophers there were many who acknowledged but one chief deity, the creator and director of the universe. The head seat of the Arabian worship was situated amongst the northern mountains, in the same place where the faithful still direct their pilgrimage. Their ideas of a cosmogony, or creation, and many of their philosophical tenets resembled those of Chaldæa, Egypt, and Syria, and of the older Greeks. They believed in the immortality of the soul, its separation from the body after death, its future state of reward and punishment, and many held the Pythagorean and Indian doctrine of its transmigration. Mental liberty and social independence have ever been favourable to the arts, but of their progress in Arabia historians have left us in ignorance. In architectural works they certainly were not destitute of skill; the city of Sanaa was celebrated for its lofty towers, and is compared by Abulfeda to the modern city of Damascus. Mariaba is said to have been remarkable for the beauty of its public edifices and walls, the latter of which were six miles in circumference; and Sabota or Sabotha was distinguished by its sixty temples.

Arabia Felix contained several other petty states, governed by their own kings, but they were all subject to the king of Hamyar, who was called the great king, and whose influence extended from the Red Sea to the Persian Gulf. Next to the Nabatæi, or people of Petra, according to the ancient geographers, was the district of the Minæi, which appears to correspond with the Arabian province of Hedjaz. Their chief town was Carna, to the south of Mecca, or Macoraba. Between this region and the district of Hamyar were the Cassanitæ, who possessed a country rich in gold, which appears to coincide with the Tehama, on the western coast. Part of this territory, where it adjoined to Sabæa or Hamyar, was occupied by the Chaulanitæ, Carbi, or Cembani, and the Arii, both brave and warlike tribes. This district is now called Khaulan. The extremity of the continent, where it approaches the coast of Africa, was held by the Catabeni, or Gebanitæ; their capital was Tamna, and they had a port called Ocelis, close on the straits. This district was very productive in frankincense. From the Cassanitæ and the Catabeni, the district which more particularly bore the name of Hamyar or Saba stretched along the south-eastern coast, as far as the district of the Chatramotitæ or Adramitæ, which coincides both in name and situation with the modern Hadramaut, and whose chief town was Cabatanon. Between the Chatramotitæ and the Omanitæ was the deep bay of Sachalites, on the southern promontory of which, called Syagrus, was a celebrated port for exporting frankincense and other spices. The district of the Omanitæ is the modern Oman. More to the north, along the Persian Gulf, lay several other unimportant districts, included chiefly under the modern name of Lachsa.

The Arabian peninsula is considered by Niebuhr as an immense pile of mountains, encircled with a belt of flat, arid, sandy ground, which extends from Suez around the whole peninsula to the mouth of the Euphrates, and is continued on the north by the province of Petra and the deserts of Syria. The principal mountain chain runs nearly parallel with the Red Sea, at a distance of from thirty to eighty miles, increasing in elevation towards the south. Another chain runs from the southern part, parallel with the ocean, to the mountainous shores of Oman. The interior is believed to be an elevated table land, occupied towards the north by a series of deserts. The Montes Marithi of Ptolemy, the Nedjed el Arud, appear to be a ridge of limestone rocks, stretching towards the south, and gently declining towards the east. Between them and the districts of Yaman and Oman is the desert of Alkaf, which is said once to have been a terrestrial paradise, till, for the impiety of its inhabitants, it was covered by a deluge of sand. In the maritime regions the Arabian towns were few and inconsiderable, and were chiefly ports or trading towns. The inhabi of these unfruitful districts who were not resident in the towns, or engaged in commerce, lived principally by fishing, and gained from foreign nations the appellation of Icthyophagi. But the fertile valleys and mountain plains abounded in rich and beautiful towns, and well peopled villages. Mariaba, or Saba, the metropolis of Hamyar, and the fairest city of Arabia, was situated on a gentle elevation amongst the mountains which are included in the modern province of Hadramaut, three or four stations from the city of Sanaa.

Section II

SECTION II.

Of the original inhabitants of Yaman there were, we are told, several tribes, of whom some, such as those of Tasm and Hodais, became extinct by war and other causes. The tribes of Ad and Thamoud, which were settled, the former in Hadramaut and the latter in the province of Petra, were said to have been visited with the divine wrath for their impiety. Those who had first occupied the boundaries of Syria, the Tahites, Chasdites, Bahrites, Giahites, and Salehites, were afterwards extirpated by other settlers from the south, who took possession of the districts of Ghassan and Hirah. The Arabians are divided by the native historians into two distinct races: the posterity of Kâhtan, or Joktan, the son of Heber, who were termed Al Arab al Ariba, the pure Arabs, and the race of Adnân, the lineal descendants of Ishmael, who were called mixed Arabs, Al Arab al Mostareba. From the latter, who were intermixed with the descendants of Jorham, one of the sons of Kâhtan, and occupied the district of Hedjaz, were descended the tribe of Koreish. Kâhtan was the first that wore a diadem in the land of Yaman. Kâhtan was succeeded by his son Yârab, who is celebrated as the first who spoke the language and introduced the ceremonials of Arabia. Yeshab، the son of Yârab, was succeeded by Abd-Shems, or Saba, the founder of the city of Mariaba, and of the great reservoir in its neighbourhood, which collected the streams as they flowed from the mountains, and distributed them over the plains. He was the first of the Arabian kings who undertook warlike expeditions, and enriched his country with the spoils of his enemies, and is said to have received the name of Saba from the numerous captives which he brought into Yaman. Amongst his sons were Hamyar, Amru, Cahlân, and Ashaar.

Hamyar was the first of the descendants of Kâhtan, who, by his own and his father's wars, reigned over the whole of Yaman. He drove the remains of the tribe of Thamoud out of Yaman into Hedjaz, and was one of the bravest, most skilful, and handsomest men of his time. He is said to have received the name of Hamyar, which signifies red, from the colour of the garments which he constantly wore, and to have been the first king of Arabia who had a crown of gold.

Hamyar was succeeded by Wathil, Al Secsac, and Yâfar, during whose reigns the kingdom seems to have lost much of its power, being divided between two sovereigns, one of whom reigned in Hamyar, the other in Hadramaut. After Yâfar reigned the usurper Dzu Ryash, or Amir, who was deposed by Noman Al Moâphir, the son of Yâfar. Asmach, the son of Nôman, was succeeded by Shaddâd, who was descended from Matata, a son of Abd Shems; he was a great warrior, and carried his victorious arms into Africa. After him reigned his brothers Lokmân and Dzu Sedad, and under the son of the latter, Hareth, or Al Rayish, the fifteenth king of Hamyar, the two parts into which the kingdom had been divided were reunited. This prince first took the title of tobbaa, which was afterwards given to all the Hamyaritic kings. Hareth, who was a great warrior, carried his arms into India, and fought many battles in Azerbijan. The sixteenth and seventeenth kings were Dzulcarnain Assuab, and Dzulmenâr Abrahah, who invaded Africa, and penetrated as far as Soudan. The son of Abrahah was Africcus, who also entered Africa, subdued Barbaria, and built a city to which he gave his name, and thence continued his career to the western coast. He is also said to have driven the remains of the people who had been expelled from their country by Joshua, and who had settled about Egypt and the maritime parts of Africa, to the farthest boundaries of the west, "the place which they now occupy." His brother, Dzuladhaar Amru, the nineteenth king, was called the lord of the terrible, because he had invaded the land of the pigmies, and at the sight of some of them, whom he had brought captives to Yaman, his people were "greatly terrified." He was afterwards deposed by his people, and Sjerabîl, a descendant of Secsac, ascended the throne in his place. Hadad, the son of Sjerabîl, was the father of Balkis, who, after reigning in Hamyar twenty years, went to Palestine, and was married, they tell us, to Solomon. Yasasin, the brother and successor of Balkis, by his unbounded liberality gained the title of Nasher ’al Neam, and in his warlike expeditions he penetrated into Africa as far as the great sandy desert; in attempting to cross which part of his army was buried in the sand, and he was compelled to relinquish the enterprise. He erected a brazen statue on the border of the desert, with an inscription on its breast in the Hamyaritic characters, warning future adventurers of the dangers and almost inevitable destruction they must encounter, should they proceed beyond it.

The twenty-fourth king of Hamyar was Shamar, the son of Africcus, or according to others of Yasasin, surnamed Abu Karb, or the father of affliction, from his victories and cruelties. He is celebrated as one of the greatest warriors that ever bore the crown of Yaman. Since the time of Al Hareth the eastern boundaries of the Hamyaritic expeditions were Azerbijan and the frontiers of India; it was left for Shamar to extend his conquests far beyond those ancient limits. He first defeated the Tahtars in Azerbijan, which he had invaded by way of Mousul. On his return from this expedition he received an embassy from one of the kings of Hindûstan, who was desirous of forming an alliance with him, and from the Indian ambassador the tobbaa first heard of the distant regions of China. The rare and valuable articles from that country which were brought with the embassy as presents, excited his cupidity, and induced him to undertake an expedition against that distant empire. He began by subduing Khorasan, and from thence he passed by Balk, through the beautiful regions of Sogd, to its capital, which he destroyed, and which, when rebuilt, was from this circumstance called Samarcand or Shamarchand, i. e. Shamar destroyed it. He afterwards proceeded through Turkistan, to the frontier of Hindûstan, and through Thibet, where he left twelve thousand Arabs as a body of reserve to retire upon in case of defeat. When he approached to the borders of China, the monarch of that empire, trusting more to stratagem than arms, dispatched one of his ministers to meet the tobbaa, whom he found on the point of crossing the desert, at the distance of about ten days from the Chinese territory. The minister had cut off his own nose, and pretended to be flying from the cruelty of the emperor as a deserter to the king of Hamyar. When Shamar questioned him as to the road, the distance, and the water, he answered, "between thee and water there are but three stations." The king, therefore, deceived by this answer, carried with him provisions only for three days, and entered the desert. After the three days were passed, the Arabian army ran short of water, and perished among the sand. This expedition is placed by the generality of Arabian historians in the reign of Ghustasp king of Persia, though some make it contemporary with Bahman.

Shamar was succeeded by his son Abu Malêc, who, delaying to seek revenge for his father's death, perished in a useless expedition into Africa. After his death the crown passed from that branch of the family of Saba who traced their descent from Hamyar, to the descendants of Cahlân. The successor of Abu Malêc, and the first of this dynasty, was Amran, who had the reputation of being a great diviner or prophet. He was succeeded by his brother Amrou, who was surnamed Mozaikia, or the tearer, because he every evening tore in pieces the clothes which he had worn during the day, that they might not be used a second time; he died in the reign of Ali, between Yaman and Hedjaz. The sceptre then again reverted to the descendants of Hamyar, in the person of Al Akran, the son of Al Malêc, who was contemporary with the Persian king Bahman, about a.a.c. 465. This tobbaa immediately undertook to revenge the death of his grandfather Shamar. He marched to Samarcand, part of which he is said to have rebuilt, and proceeding perhaps in the steps of Shamar's army, of which remains might, it is suggested, still be found on the road, entered China, destroyed its capital, and founded there a city, in which he left a colony of thirty thousand Arabians, whose descendants still remained, preserving the dress and manners of Arabia, and noted for their strength and bravery, in the time at which Hamedoun wrote, which was about the five hundred and fifty-third year of the Hegira. It was this tobbaa, who, after a seven years absence, returned to Hamyar, laden with the spoils of China.

Dzu Abshan, the son of Akran, was contemporary with the second Darius, and with Alexander the Great, He destroyed the remains of the two tribes of the Tasmites and Gjadasites which still remained in Yaman. Between the death of Dzu Abshan, and the accession of Kolaicarb, a period of a hundred and sixty years transpired, during which a series of tobbaas must have reigned. Kolaicarb reigned thirty years, and was succeeded by Assaad Abu Carb. During the period since the reign of Dzu Abshan, the kingdom of Hamyar appears to have been divided, and was governed, like Persia after Alexander's death, by numerous petty princes. These were one by one defeated and killed by Assaad, and the dominions of Hamyar restored to their former extent. One of the first acts of this king was the invasion of Hedjaz. The territory about Yatreb, or Latrippa, the modern Medina, was at this time occupied by a colony of Jews, who are said to have been descended from those who fled from Palestine and Syria, before the armies of Baktunusser, or Nebuchodonassur. Having reduced the greater part of Hedjaz, Assaad left his son Algabtoun as governor at Yatreb, and is said to have been pursuing his march towards Syria, when he was overtaken by messengers who informed him that the Jews of Yatreb had rebelled, and had put his son to death. Assaad returned, vowing that he would not leave a Jew alive in Hedjaz, but he was met by some of the tribes from about Yatreb, who came to expostulate with him, justifying their conduct by representing to him the injuries and oppression which they had suffered from his son. By these excuses the anger of the tobbaa was appeased, he being, according to Arabian writers, no lover of injustice. He was also met by the tribe of the Hudeilites, who urged him to attack Mecca, and plunder the Caabah, tempting him with their account of the unbounded riches it contained. But the people of Mecca also succeeded in diverting his hostility by the accounts they gave him of the sanctity of the place, persuading him that it was under the peculiar protection of the Deity, and that those who had incited him to this sacrilegious action only aimed at his destruction. He remained several months at Mecca, offered every day magnificent sacrifices in the Caabah, and adorned it with tapestry, affixing to it also a door of gold. It was at this time that the Jews were first introduced into Hamyar.

Till the latter part of the fourth century, Christianity seems scarcely to have been known in the southern parts of Arabia. It was not till after the reign of tobbaa Assaad Abu Carb, when the Persians began by their increasing power to threaten the empire, that the Arabians had any connection with their Roman neighbours. Although there is no doubt abundance of exaggeration and fable in the Arabian annals previous to this period, the historical outlines may be correct. The armies of the tobbaas seem to have been both enterprising and brave, and their conquests extensive, but the situation of the country of Hamyar was not favourable for the seat of a mighty empire, and the Arabs took no steps for the preservation of their alleged acquisitions. Their exploits, therefore, must be considered only as plundering expeditions. They were generally conducted towards Irak and Mesopotamia, but the increasing power of Persia had checked their incursions in this direction, and the Arabians would consequently look upon their Persian neighbours as encroachers upon their rights, and would seek every opportunity of revenge. In the invasion of the Persian territory by the Arabs, on the death of Hormuz, the king of Hamyar, tobbaa Hassan, the son of Assaad, raised a numerous army, and proceeded into Irak, where he was meditating still greater conquests, having made preparations, according to the Arabian writers, to follow the footsteps of his ancestors into China. His followers, however, opposed his design, unwilling to be carried so far from their families and possessions, and prevailed upon his brother Amrou to murder the tobbaa, which he effected whilst Hassan was sleeping in his tent. The army thereupon returned to Hamyar, and Amrou ascended the throne.

The latter days of the life of Amrou were troubled by a guilty conscience, and sleep became a stranger to his eyelids. On his return with the army to Hamyar, he endeavoured to atone for the murder of his brother, by the punishment of the chiefs who had urged him to it; but the people conspired against him and put him to death, and gave the crown to his younger brother Abd Alâl. Abd Alâl is said to have embraced the Christian faith, but from political motives, never to have openly professed it.

Section III

SECTION III.

At what period Christianity was first introduced into Arabia Felix it is now impossible to determine. Many causes, however, combine to make us believe that it was long after it had been spread over the neighbouring nations.

The mountains and deserts which defended the southern Arabians from the arms of the Persian kings, presented an insurmountable obstacle to every Asiatic or European invader, and even hindered any permanent connection with the rest of the world. Before the expedition of Ælius Gallus, the peninsula had never suffered from foreign invasion. Alexander is indeed said to have contemplated the reduction of Arabia Felix; the fleet of Nearchus was preparing to assist the expedition by sea, and the Macedonian army would perhaps have marched along the rich plains of the Euphrates, which opened to the odoriferous regions of Yaman; but these designs were terminated by the death of their projector. The Roman army under Ælius Gallus seems to have landed in the country of the Thamudites, near the Elanitic Gulf, and to have proceeded in the direction of Yatreb and Mecca to Nadjean, which he appears to have destroyed, as well as Asca, Athrulla, Marsuaba, and several other cities; amongst which was Mariaba itself, which he found to be six miles in circuit. But what the Arabian arms could not do, was effected by the climate and the country; and the Roman army was obliged to retire, with the honour only of having experienced no successful opposition from a people who had been hitherto unconquered.

The religion and theology of the Arabians of Yaman bore doubtless a great resemblance to that of the surrounding nations. They professed the doctrines of the Sabians, and in common with them, acknowledged Abraham as their ancestor. Attached therefore to a superstition made reverend by its antiquity, and in which their great progenitor Abraham was reported to have been educated, the idolatrous inhabitants of the happy Arabia must be supposed to have received slowly and reluctantly the severe doctrines of Christianity. From the little connection too which existed between them and the rest of the world, the old worship would be more identical, less mixed with foreign creeds, and consequently more opposed to their admission. At the time of the introduction of the Christian faith, the Jews appear to have penetrated into the peninsula in considerable numbers, and to have formed also a great impediment to its progress.

Before the followers of Christianity became public objects of persecution, their proceedings were so private and little known, particularly in the more distant parts of the empire, as to have escaped entirely the page of history. The first rudiments of the Christian faith are believed to have been planted among the Hamyarites, who were known, in common with the people of Hindustan and Ethiopia, under the general name of Indians, by the apostle Bartholomæus. Till the age of Constantine, however, the existence of Christians in Arabia seems not even to have been known. During the reign of that emperor, an unexpected circumstance favoured their cause. The details of this event are given by the historian Nicephorus. A Tyrian philosopher, named Meropius, emulating the travels of Plato and the ancient sages, and

instigated by the example of Metrodorus, who had recently travelled in search of knowledge among

the distant people of India, determined to visit the Hamyarites of Arabia Felix. He was accompanied by two young men who were both his kinsmen and his disciples in philosophy. On their return in an Egyptian ship, they were compelled to put into one of the Hamyaritic ports for a fresh supply of provisions. It happened at that time that the peninsula was in a state of warfare; and on landing they were treated by the natives as enemies, and either slain or made slaves. Amongst those who perished, were the philosopher and most of his attendants. Of his two companions, who were carried to the king, one, named Ædesius, was made the royal cup-bearer; to the other, whose name was Frumentius, and in whom he perceived more than ordinary abilities and learning, the king entrusted the care of his books and treasures. Having both served him faithfully for some years, on the death of the monarch they were rewarded by his queen with their liberty, and