Доклады Международного конгресса ИИСАА. Т. 1

II. Middle East, Caucasus and Central Asia / Ближний Восток, Кавказ и Центральная Азия 106 Proceedings of the International Congress on Historiography and Source Studies of Asia and Africa.Vol. I. 2020 Arethas and his Companions (BHG 166). 1 The name of the author of the Greek version of The Martyrdom of Saint Arethas (Ḥārith b. Ka‘b in Arabic) remains unknown. It can be assumed that originally The Martyrdom was composed by an unknown, eye-witness author in an unknown language, followed by an Arabic translation. 2 The Greek version of The Martyrdom extensively reports the persecution of a large number of Himyarite Christians in SouthArabia by their Jewish king Dhū-Nu- wās at the turn of the 6 th century in a detailed narration which supplements the elliptic information of other relevant, mainly fragmentary historical sources. 3 It describes the resistance of the Christians of the semi-independent province of Negran in the Himyarite Kingdom inYemen against their Jewish king Dhū-Nuwās in the 6 th century AD. In addition, the very important information we gain from this source is that it presents the socio-political structure of the Himyarite Kingdom 4 and provides sub- stantial information about the naval power of the Himyarite Kingdom in the early 6 th century. Furthermore, as the present author remarks, it demonstrates the unique freedom of international navigation in the Red Sea and beyond at this period. 5 Moreover, The Martyrdom provides limited but valuable information about the nature of Judaism which existed in the kingdom of the Himyarites in pre-Islamic, early 6 th century Yemen. 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 1 The Greek text, as mentioned above, was well edited by Detoraki Marina with a French translation by Beaucamp Joëlle, and with a detailed description of the relevant manuscripts: Le Martyre de SaintAréthas et de ses compagnons (BHG 166). Centre de Recherche d’Histoire et Civilisation de Byzance, Monographies 27. Paris, 2007. See also Christides V. The Martyrdom of Arethas and the Days after: History vs. Hagiography // Graeco-Arabica . 1999–2000. 7–8. P. 57. 2 For the Arabic translation, see Nebes Norbert. The Martyrs of Najrān and the End of the Ḥimyar: On the Political History of South Arabia in the Early Sixth Century// Neuwirth A., Siani N., Marx M. (eds.). The Qu’ran in Context. Historical and Literary Investigations into Qu’ranic Milieu. Leiden, 2010. P. 27–59. See also Monferrer-Sala J. P. An Episode of the ‘Massacre of the Christians of Najrān’ in a fragment of the ‘Mingana Collection’ (Ming. Chr. Arab. 246) // Torallas T. S., Monferrer-Sala J. P. (eds.). Culture in Contact. Transfer of Knowledge in the Mediterranean Context. Cordoba, 2013. P. 179. 3 Christides, V. TheMartyrdom ofArethas and the Days after: History vs. Hagiography. P. 79. See also Nebes Norbert. The Martyrs of Najrān and the End of the Ḥimyar. P. 27. Note 3. 4 Christides V. The Dawn of the Urbanization in the Kingdom of the Himyarites in the 6 th century and in the Light of Byzantine Hagiography // Christides V. (ed). Interrelations between the Peoples of the Near East and Byzantium in Pre-Islamic Times. Cordoba, 2015. P. 33–36. 5 Christides V. The Himyarite Kingdom on the Eve of and after the Ethiopian Dominance in the Sixth CenturyA.D. in the Martyrdom of St. Arethas and his Companions and in theActs of St. Gregentius // Journal of Semitics . 2015. 24. 2. P. 678–700, especially 685–686; Letsios D. G. Die Äthiopisch- Himyaritischen Kriege des 6. Jahrhunderts und die Christianisierung Äthiopiens // Jahrbuch des Österreichischen Byzantinistik. 1991. 41. P. 25–41.