Т. 1. «Азия и Африка: Наследие и современность»

14 Азия и Африка: Наследие и современность. Т. 1 Секция I struggle between Christians and Jews in the sixth century Himyarite Kingdom preceding its subjugation by the Ethiopians (ca. 525 AD). The nature of Judaism in Himyar during this period, as reflected in The Martyrdom of St. Arethas , is examined in the first part and, in the second, the role of the Indian technology in the development of navigation in the Red Sea will be examined as it is reported in the same work . Unfortunately, the paucity of the relevant sources does not provide us with any concrete information about the nature of Judaism which existed in the Kingdom of the Himyarites. In addition, there is no archaeological evidence to reveal the type of Judaism which was spread in the 4 th centuryAD before the advent of Christianity in South Arabia 1 . Certainly, there are frequent references to the pre-Islamic times in the Arabic sources, but, as Robin suggests, we are not sure whether these people were actually real Jews 2 . There are no archaeological remains at all to corroborate the literary sources. Bowersock’s assumption that a building found in Qāni of South Arabia was a synagogue 3 is not persuasive 4 . The general impression we can mainly glean from the epigraphic evidence is that Judaism was practiced in an unusual way in the Himyarite Kindgom and, as characterized by Robin and Gajda, it was a unique type of Judaism 5 , the nature of which still remains unclear. The Martyrdom of St. Arethas corroborates the peculiarities of the Himyarite Judaism which was practiced in the Himyarite Kingdom in the 6 th century with the vague reference that the Jews of Ḥimyar “did not live according to the Law”, without reporting which parts of the Law were violated 6 . Ιt should be noted that an Arabic translation of the Martyrdom states that “the Himyarites did not strictly follow Moses’ Law save for some dietary matters” 7 . 1 Ch. Julien Robin, “Introduction”, in Juda ï sme ancient et origines du christianisme , ed. J. Costa, D. Hamidovic and P. Piovanelli, Le juda ï sme de l’Arabie antique , Actes du Colloque de Jérusalem (février 2006), Turnhout 2015. P. 8 (article: P. 7–11 ). 2 Robin, “Introduction”. P. 7. 3 G.W. Bowersock, “The New Inscription fromSouthYemen”, in J. S. Langdon, S. W. Rein- ert, J. Stanojevich, and Ch.P. Ioannides, eds., ΤΟ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΟΝ . Studies in Honor of Speros Vryonis, Jr., Volume I, Hellenic Antiquity and Byzantium , New York 1993. P. 3–8; likewise Y. Tobi, “The Jews of Yemen in Light of the Excavation of the Jewish Synagogue in Qanī’ (poster)”, Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 43 (2013). P. 354 (article: P. 349–356). 4 Aisha Abuljadayl, “The death of King Dhū Nuwās (ca 517–525 CE) in the Him- yarite Inscriptions, Syriac, Greek and Arabic sources: His Military and Religious Policy”, in Interrelations between the Peoples of the Near East and Byzantium in Pre-Islamic Times, ed. V. Christides, Cordoba 2015. P. 14 (article: P. 11–23). 5 Ch. Robin, “Le judaïsme de Ḥimyar”, Arabia 1 (2003). P. 151 (article: P. 97–172); I. Gajda, Le royaume de Ḥ imyar à l’époque monothéiste , Paris 2009. P. 239. 6 Martyrdom of St. Arethas , p. 185, lines 11–12: οὐκ κατὰ τὰς ἐντολὰς τοῦ νόμου ζῶντες… 7 J. P. Monferrer-Sala, Redefining History on Pre-Islamic Accounts. The Arabic Recension of the Martyrs of Najrân , Piscataway, NJ 2010. P. 41.