Dhū Nuwās (), real name Yūsuf Asʾar Yathʾar ( Musnad: 𐩺𐩥𐩪𐩰 𐩱𐩪𐩱𐩧 𐩺𐩻𐩱𐩧, ''Yws¹f ʾs¹ʾr Yṯʾr''), Yosef Nu'as (), or Yūsuf ibn Sharhabil (), also known as Masruq in Syriac, and Dounaas () in

Medieval Greek Medieval Greek (also known as Middle Greek, Byzantine Greek, or Romaic; Greek: ) is the stage of the Greek language between the end of classical antiquity in the 5th–6th centuries and the end of the Middle Ages, conventionally dated to the ...

, was a Jewish king of

Himyar Himyar was a polity in the southern highlands of Yemen, as well as the name of the region which it claimed. Until 110 BCE, it was integrated into the Qatabanian kingdom, afterwards being recognized as an independent kingdom. According to class ...

reigning between 522–530 AD who came to infamy on account of his persecutions of peoples of other religions, notably Christians, living in his kingdom. He was also known as Zur'ah in the Arab traditions.

Names and family

Dhu Nuwas' family is not very well known. There is debate on who his father is; the earlier Arab scholars and the Jewish Encyclopedia believed that Dhu Nuwas was the son of the earlier Himyarite king

Abu Karib Abū Karib As’ad al-Kāmil (), called "Abū Karīb", sometimes rendered as As'ad Abū Karīb, full name: Abu Karib As'ad ibn Hassān Maliki Karib Yuha'min, was king ( Tubba', ) of the Himyarite Kingdom (modern day Yemen). He ruled Yemen from 39 ...

. However,

Ibn al-Kalbi Hishām ibn al-Kalbī (), 737 – 819 CE / 204 AH, also known as Ibn al-Kalbi (), was an Arab historian. His full name was Abu al-Mundhir Hisham ibn Muhammad ibn al-Sa'ib ibn Bishr al-Kalbi. Born in Kufa, he spent much of his life in Baghdad. L ...

disagreed and stated that he was the son of

Sharhabil Yakkuf Sharhabil Yakkuf (Arabic: شرحبيل يكف) also known as Šaraḥbiʾil Yakûf ( Ge'ez: Sarābhēl Dänkəf) was a king of Himyar who reigned in the 5th century CE. He succeeded the similarly-named Sharhabil Yafur. He is also the founder of a ...

, hence making him the great-grandson of Abu Karib.

Ibn Abbas ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbbās (; c. 619 – 687 CE), also known as Ibn ʿAbbās, was one of the cousins of the Prophets and messengers in Islam, prophet Muhammad. He is considered to be the greatest Tafsir#Conditions, mufassir of the Quran, Qur'an. ...

also reported that Dhu Nuwas' real name was Yusuf, son of Sharhabil, which was reported by

and

Al-Baydawi Qadi Baydawi (also known as Naṣir ad-Din al-Bayḍawi, also spelled Baidawi, Bayzawi and Beyzavi; d. June 1319, Tabriz) was a jurist, theologian, and Quran commentator. He lived during the post-Seljuk Empire, Seljuk and early Mongol Empire, Mon ...

and later on the historian Ibn al-Athir. His mother, however, was said to have been a

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

slave from

Nisibis Nusaybin () is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district of Mardin Province, Turkey. Its area is 1,079 km2, and its population is 115,586 (2022). The city is populated by Kurds of different tribal affiliation. Nusaybin is separated ...

whom was purchased by and then married to an unnamed Himyarite king; this indicates Dhu Nuwas was in fact a Himyarite prince.Jonathan Porter Berkey
''The Formation of Islam: Religion and Society in the Near East, 600-1800,''
Cambridge University Press, 2003 p.46. If so, that would place her origins within the Sassanid imperial sphere and would illuminate possible political reasons for his later actions against the Christians of Arabia, who were natural allies of the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived History of the Roman Empire, the events that caused the ...

. As for the real name of Dhu Nuwas, the archeological inscriptions already prove his real name to have been Yusuf As'ar Yath'ar. The Arab historians with the exception of Ibn Abbas all cite his real name as being Zur'ah while the name Yusuf comes later after his conversion to Judaism. Some sources also state his name was Masruq.Jonathan Porter Berkey
''The Formation of Islam: Religion and Society in the Near East, 600-1800,''
Cambridge University Press, 2003 p.46. Either way, it is agreed upon that Dhu Nuwas had the name Yusuf during his rule.

Ethiopian invasion

Ibn Hisham Abu Muhammad Abd al-Malik ibn Hisham ibn Ayyub al-Himyari (; died 7 May 833), known simply as Ibn Hisham, was a 9th-century Abbasid historian and scholar. He grew up in Basra, in modern-day Iraq and later moved to Egypt. Life Ibn Hisham has ...

's ''

Sīrah Al-Sīra al-Nabawiyya (), commonly shortened to Sīrah and translated as prophetic biography, are the traditional biographies of the Islamic prophet Muhammad written by Muslim historians, from which, in addition to the Qurʾān and ''ḥadīth ...

'' (better known in English as the ''Life of Muhammad''), describes the exploits of Yūsuf Dhū Nuwās. Ibn Hisham explains that Yūsuf was a convert Jew who grew out his sidelocks (''nuwās'') and became known as "he of sidelocks." According to the Arab traditions, he took power after having killed his supposed predecessor, Dhu Shanatir, with a knife hidden in his shoe. The historicity of Dhū Nuwās is affirmed by

Philostorgius Philostorgius (; 368 – c. 439 AD) was an Anomoean Church historian of the 4th and 5th centuries. Very little information about his life is available. He was born in Borissus, Cappadocia to Eulampia and Carterius, and lived in Constantinopl ...

and by

Procopius Procopius of Caesarea (; ''Prokópios ho Kaisareús''; ; – 565) was a prominent Late antiquity, late antique Byzantine Greeks, Greek scholar and historian from Caesarea Maritima. Accompanying the Roman general Belisarius in Justinian I, Empe ...

(in the latter's ''Persian War''). Procopius writes that in 525, the armies of the Christian

Kingdom of Aksum The Kingdom of Aksum, or the Aksumite Empire, was a kingdom in East Africa and South Arabia from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, based in what is now northern Ethiopia and Eritrea, and spanning present-day Djibouti and Sudan. Emerging ...

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

invaded

ancient Yemen The ancient history of Yemen or South Arabia is especially important because it is one of the oldest centers of civilization in the Near East. Its relatively fertile land and adequate rainfall in a moister climate helped sustain a stable pop ...

at the request of the

Byzantine emperor The foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, which Fall of Constantinople, fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Only the emperors who were recognized as legitimate rulers and exercised s ...

Justin I Justin I (; ; 450 – 1 August 527), also called Justin the Thracian (; ), was Roman emperor from 518 to 527. Born to a peasant family, he rose through the ranks of the army to become commander of the imperial guard and when Emperor Anastasi ...

to take control of the

Himyarite Kingdom Himyar was a polity in the southern highlands of Yemen, as well as the name of the region which it claimed. Until 110 BCE, it was integrated into the Qataban, Qatabanian kingdom, afterwards being recognized as an independent kingdom. According ...

, then under the leadership of Yūsuf Dhū Nuwās, who rose to power in 522, probably after he assassinated Dhu Shanatir. Ibn Hisham explains the same sequence of events under the name of "Yūsuf Dhū Nuwās." Following this invasion, the supremacy of Judaism in the Kingdom of Ḥimyar, as well as in all of Yemen, came to an abrupt end. Imrū' al-Qays, the famous Yemeni poet from the same period, in his poem ''Taqūl Lī bint al-Kinda Lammā ‘Azafat'', laments the death of two great men of Yemen, one of them being Dhū Nuwās, and regards him as the last of the Himyarite kings: One Syriac source appears to suggest that the mother of Dhū Nuwās may have been a Jew hailing from the Mesopotamian city of

.Jonathan Porter Berkey
''The Formation of Islam: Religion and Society in the Near East, 600-1800,''
Cambridge University Press, 2003 p.46. If so, that would place her origins within the Sassanid imperial sphere and would illuminate possible political reasons for his later actions against the Christians of Arabia, who were natural allies of the

. Many modern historians, except for Christopher Haas, have argued that her son's conversion was a matter of tactical opportunism since Judaism would have provided him with an ideological counterweight to the religion of his adversary, the Kingdom of Aksum and it also allowed him to curry favour with the Sasanian emperor.

Persecution of Christians

Based on other contemporary sources, Dhu Nuwas, after seizing the throne of the Ḥimyarites around 518 or 522, attacked Najran and its inhabitants, captured them and, burned their churches. The destruction fell out on Tuesday, during the 15th day of the lunar month

Tishri Tishrei () or Tishri (; ''tīšrē'' or ''tīšrī''; from Akkadian language, Akkadian ''tašrītu'' "beginning", from ''šurrû'' "to begin") is the first month of the civil year (which starts on 1 Tishrei) and the seventh month of the eccles ...

, in the year 835 of the

Seleucid era The Seleucid era ("SE") or (literally "year of the Greeks" or "Greek year"), sometimes denoted "AG," was a Calendar era, system of numbering years in use by the Seleucid Empire and other countries among the ancient Hellenistic period, Hellenistic ...

counting (corresponding with year 524 CE). After accepting the city's capitulation, he massacred its inhabitants who would not renounce Christianity. Earlier, the Himyarite monarch had attacked and killed the Abyssinian Christians who had settled in Zafar. According to the Arab historians, Dhu Nuwas then proceeded to write a letter to the

Lakhmid The Lakhmid kingdom ( ), also referred to as al-Manādhirah () or as Banū Lakhm (), was an Arab kingdom that was founded and ruled by the Lakhmid dynasty from to 602. Spanning Eastern Arabia and Sawad, Southern Mesopotamia, it existed as a d ...

king

Al-Mundhir III ibn al-Nu'man Al-Mundhir III ibn al-Nu'man (), also known as Al-Mundhir ibn Imri' al-Qays () (died 554) was the king of the Lakhmids in 503/505–554. Biography His mother's name was Maria bint Awf bin Geshem. The son of al-Nu'man II ibn al-Aswad, he succeed ...

of al-Ḥīrah and King

Kavadh I Kavad I ( ; 473 – 13 September 531) was the Sasanian King of Kings of Iran from 488 to 531, with a two or three-year interruption. A son of Peroz I (), he was crowned by the nobles to replace his deposed and unpopular uncle Balash (). Inhe ...

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

to inform them of his deed and to encourage them to do likewise to the Christians under their dominion. Al-Mundhir received the letter in January 519, as he was receiving an embassy from

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

seeking to forge a peace between the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

and al-Ḥīrha. He revealed the contents of the letter to the Byzantine ambassadors, who were horrified by its contents. Word of the slaughter quickly spread throughout the Byzantine and Persian realms, and refugees from Najran, including a man named Daws Dhu Tha'laban, even reached the court of Roman Emperor

himself and begged him to avenge the martyred Christians. In 523 AD, Dhu Nawas murdered Arethas, the leader of the Miaphysite Christian community, along with 340 of his followers. News of his execution reached to Roman emperor

and with the help of

Kaleb of Axum Kaleb (, Latin: Caleb), also known as Elesbaan (, ), was King of Aksum, which was situated in what is now Ethiopia and Eritrea. Name Procopius calls him "Hellestheaeus," a variant of the Greek version of his regnal name, (''Histories'', 1.20 ...

, the king of Abyssinia, overthrew Dhu Nawas.

Military campaigns

The name Yūsuf 'As'ar Yath'ar, which is believed to mean the same as Yūsūf Dhū Nuwās, appears in an old South Arabian inscription from the 520s. Related inscriptions from the same period were also deciphered by Jamme and Ryckmans and show that in the ensuing wars with his non-Jewish subjects, the combined war booty (excluding deaths) from campaigns waged against the Abyssinians in Ẓafār, the fighters in ’Ašʻarān, Rakbān, Farasān, Muḥwān (

Mocha Mocha may refer to: Places * Mokha, a city in Yemen * Mocha Island, an island in Biobío Region, Chile * Mocha, Chile, a town in Chile * Mocha, Ecuador, a city in Ecuador * Mocha Canton, a government subdivision in Ecuador * Mocha, a segmen ...

), 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. According to ‘Irfan Shahid's ''Martyrs of Najran – New Documents'', Dhu Nuwas sent an army of some 120,000 soldiers to lay siege to the city of

Najran Najran ( '), is a city in southwestern Saudi Arabia. It is the capital of Najran Province. Today, the city of Najran is one of the fastest-growing cities in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. As of the 2022 census, the city population was 381,431, wi ...

, which siege lasted for six months, and the city taken and burnt on the 15th day of the seventh month (the lunar month of

). The city had revolted against the king and refused to deliver itself to the king. About 300 of the city’s inhabitants surrendered to the king’s forces under the assurances of an oath that no harm would come to them, and they were later bound. Those remaining in the city were burnt alive within their church. The death toll in that account is said to have reached about 2000. However, the Sabaean inscriptions describing the events report that by the month of Dhu-Madra'an (between July and September), there had been "1000 killed, 1500 prisoners

aken Aken may refer to: *Aken (god), in Ancient Egyptian religion *Aken (Elbe), a town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany *Aachen Aachen is the List of cities in North Rhine-Westphalia by population, 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and the Lis ...

and 10,000 head of cattle." Jacques Ryckmans, who deciphered the Sabaean inscriptions, writes in his ''La persécution des chrétiens himyarites'' that Sarah'il Yaqbul-Yaz'an of the Dhu Yazan family was both the tribal chief and the lieutenant of King Yusuf during the military campaigns; he was sent out by the king to take the city of

, and the king watched for a possible

Aksumite The Kingdom of Aksum, or the Aksumite Empire, was a kingdom in East Africa and South Arabia from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, based in what is now northern Ethiopia and Eritrea, and spanning present-day Djibouti and Sudan. Emerging ...

incursion along the coastal plains of Yemen near Mokhā (al-Moḫâ) and the strait known as Bāb al-Mandab. It is to be noted that the Ethiopian church in Ẓafar, which had been built by the Himyarite King some years earlier after the proselytizing mission of

Theophilos the Indian Theophilos the Indian, also known as Theophilus Indus () (died 364), also called "the Ethiopian", was an Aetian or Heteroousian bishop who fell alternately in and out of favor with the court of the Roman emperor Constantius II. He is mentioned in ...

and another church built by him in Aden (see: ''Ecclesiastical History of Philostorgius'', Epitome of Book III, chapter 4), had been seen by

Constantius II Constantius II (; ; 7 August 317 – 3 November 361) was Roman emperor from 337 to 361. His reign saw constant warfare on the borders against the Sasanian Empire and Germanic peoples, while internally the Roman Empire went through repeated civ ...

during the embassage to the land of the Ḥimyarites (Yemen) around 340 CE. This church was set on fire and razed to the ground, and its Abyssinian inhabitants killed. Later, foreigners (presumably Christians) living in Hadhramaut were also put to death before the king's army advanced to Najran in the far north and took it. King Yusuf As'ar Yath'ar, described in an inscription as the "king of all nations," led the major tribes of

Yemen Yemen, officially the Republic of Yemen, is a country in West Asia. Located in South Arabia, southern Arabia, it borders Saudi Arabia to Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, the north, Oman to Oman–Yemen border, the northeast, the south-eastern part ...

(

Hamedan Hamadan ( ; , ) is a mountainous city in western Iran. It is located in the Central District of Hamadan County in Hamadan province, serving as the capital of the province, county, and district. As of the 2016 Iranian census, it had a po ...

Madh'hij Madhḥij () is a large Qahtanite Arab tribal confederation. It is located in south and central Arabia. This confederation participated in the early Muslim conquests and was a major factor in the conquest of the Persian empire and the Byzantine ...

Kinda Kinda or Kindah may refer to: People Given name * Kinda Alloush (born 1982), Syrian actress * Kinda El-Khatib (born 1996 or 1997), Lebanese activist Surname * Chris Kinda (born 1999), Namibian para-athlete * Gadi Kinda (1994–2025), ...

Murad Murad or Mourad () is an Arabic name. It is also common in Armenian, Azerbaijani, Bengali, Turkish, Persian, and Berber as a male given name or surname and is commonly used throughout the Muslim world and Middle East. Etymology It is derived ...

) and successfully defeated the Abyssinian forces in Ẓafâr, Mokhā and

Death

According to

Ibn Ishaq Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Ishaq ibn Yasar al-Muttalibi (; – , known simply as Ibn Ishaq, was an 8th-century Muslim historian and hagiographer who collected oral traditions that formed the basis of an important biography of the Islamic proph ...

, Dhu Nuwas chose to commit suicide by drowning in the sea, after the Aksumites had invaded

as a retaliation for his persecutions of Christians. Unwilling to accept defeat after the capture of his queen and bounty along with the town of Zafar, he deliberately rode his horse into the

Red Sea The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and th ...

Inscriptions regarding Dhu Nuwas

Najran inscription (518 CE):Jawad al-Ali Sabians p41 The first line :
Sabaean: ليبركن الن ذ لهو سمين وارضين ملكن يوسف اسار يثار ملك كل اشعبن وليبركن اقولن
Arabic: :God who owns the heavens and the earth bless king Yusuf Asar Yathar, king of all nations and bless the Aqials Third line:
Sabaean: خصرو مراهمو ملكن يوسف اسار يثار كدهر قلسن وهرج احبشن بظفر وعلي حرب اشعرن وركبن وفرسن
Arabic: :Who they stand with their master, King Yusuf Asar Yathar, when he burned the church and killed the Abyssinians Dhofar and war on (Habashah) in Ash'aran and Rakban (regions) and Farasan Fifth line:
Sabaean: وكذه فلح لهفان ملكن بهيت سباتن خمس ماتو عثني عشر االفم مهرجتم واحد عشر االفم سبيم وتسعي
Arabic: :The king has succeeded in these battles in the killing of 12,500 and capturing 11,090 Sixth line:
Sabaean: وثتي ماتن االفن ابلم وبقرم وضانم وتسطرو ذن مسندن قيل شرحال ذي يزن اقرن بعلي نجرن
Arabic: :Booty of two hundred thousand camels, cows, sheep, and this inscription was written by Sharaḥ'īl Yaqbul dhu Yaz'an when camped in Najran Seventh line:
Sabaean: بشعب ذ همدن هجرن وعربن ونقرم بن ازانن واعرب كدت ومردم ومذحجم واقولن اخوتهو بعم ملكن قرنم
Arabic: :With the nation of

and the Arabs and the Yazaniin fighters and the ''A'rab'' ('nomads') of

and

and his brothers the Aqials who camped with the king Eighth and ninth lines:
Sabaean: ببحرن بن حبشت ويصنعنن سسلت مدبن وككل ذذكرو بذل مسندن مهرجتم وغنمم ومقرنتم فكسباتم
Arabic: :On the sea from the side of Habashah (Abyssinia) And they set up a series of fortifications in the Bab al-Mandab and all who mentioned in this Musnad they fought and took booty and camped in this mission Sabaean: اوده ذ قفلو ابتهمو بثلثت عشر اورخم وليبركن رحمنن بنيهمو شرحبال يكمل وهعن اسار بني لحيعت
Arabic: :And they returned in the history of thirteen and Rahman (god) bless Sharhabil Akmal and Wh'an and Asar Bni Lhi't

Notes

References

External links

Dhu Nuwas, Zur'ah Yusuf ibn Tuban As'ad abi Karib
- 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia article.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nuwas, Dhu Yemenite Jews Kings of Himyar Converts to Judaism from paganism 6th-century monarchs in the Middle East 6th-century Jews 6th-century Arab people Persecution of Christians by Jews