Ẓafār (), also Romanized Dhafar or Dhofar, is an ancient
Himyarite
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 ...
site situated in
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 ...
, some 130 km south-south-east of today's capital,
Sana'a
Sanaa, officially the Sanaa Municipality, is the ''de jure'' capital and largest city of Yemen. The city is the capital of the Sanaa Governorate, but is not part of the governorate, as it forms a separate administrative unit. At an elevation ...
, and c. south-east of
Yarim. Given mention in several ancient texts, there is little doubt about the pronunciation of the name. This site in Yemen is far older than its
namesake in Oman
Oman, officially the Sultanate of Oman, is a country located on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in West Asia and the Middle East. It shares land borders with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Oman’s coastline ...
. It lies in the
Yemeni highlands at some 2800 m. Zafar was the capital of the
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 ...
ites (110 BCE – 525 CE), which at its peak ruled most of the
Arabian Peninsula
The Arabian Peninsula (, , or , , ) or Arabia, is a peninsula in West Asia, situated north-east of Africa on the Arabian plate. At , comparable in size to India, the Arabian Peninsula is the largest peninsula in the world.
Geographically, the ...
. For 250 years the tribal confederacy and allies' combined territory extended past
Riyadh
Riyadh is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of the Riyadh Province and the centre of the Riyadh Governorate. Located on the eastern bank of Wadi Hanifa, the current form of the metropolis largely emerged in th ...
to the north and the
Euphrates
The Euphrates ( ; see #Etymology, below) is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of West Asia. Tigris–Euphrates river system, Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia (). Originati ...
to the north-east.
History
From an archaeological perspective, the settlement's beginnings are little known. The main sources consist of Old South Arabian
Musnad inscriptions dated as early as the 1st century BCE. It is mentioned by
Pliny in his
Natural History
Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...
, in the anonymous
Periplus of the Erythraean Sea
The ''Periplus of the Erythraean Sea'' (), also known by its Latin name as the , is a Greco-Roman world, Greco-Roman periplus written in Koine Greek that describes navigation and Roman commerce, trading opportunities from Roman Egyptian ports lik ...
(both 1st century CE) as well as in the
Geographia of
Claudius Ptolemaeus (original 2nd century CE). At some point, presumably in medieval times, the coordinates of Ptolemy's map were incorrectly copied or emended so that subsequent maps placed the metropolis of "Sephar" in
Oman
Oman, officially the Sultanate of Oman, is a country located on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in West Asia and the Middle East. It shares land borders with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Oman’s coastline ...
, not in Yemen. Zafar in Yemen is attested more than 1000 years earlier than the place of the same name in Oman. (Smith 2001: 380). Written sources regarding Zafar are numerous, but heterogeneous in informational value. The most important source is epigraphic
Old South Arabian
Ancient South Arabian (ASA; also known as Old South Arabian, Epigraphic South Arabian, Ṣayhadic, or Yemenite) is a group of four closely related extinct languages ( Sabaean/Sabaic, Qatabanic, Hadramitic, Minaic) spoken in the far southern ...
. Christian texts shed light on the war between Himyar and the
Aksumites (523 – 525). The
''Vita'' of Gregentios mentions a bishop who allegedly had his see in Zafar. Its use of language possibly indicates to a 12th-century CE composition. According to the Arab geographer and historian
Al-Hamdani (c. 893–945), Zafar was also known by the name Ḥaql Yaḥḍib ("the field of Yaḥḍib").
Individual finds belong to the early Himyarite period (110 BCE – 270 CE). Rare earlier finds were probably brought to the site from elsewhere. Most of the ruins and finds, however, appear to belong to the empire period (270 – 525). A few post-war
Ge'ez inscriptions have survived at the site. Few finds can be securely dated to the late/post-empire period. After this there is little to suggest occupation until recent times. The excavated finds are important as texts shed little light on the material culture and art of this age. Moreover, recently the chronology of the main coin series has been criticized.
Already a big established town,
Sana'a
Sanaa, officially the Sanaa Municipality, is the ''de jure'' capital and largest city of Yemen. The city is the capital of the Sanaa Governorate, but is not part of the governorate, as it forms a separate administrative unit. At an elevation ...
and its fortress
Ghumdan replaced Zafar as capital probably between 537 and 548. The textual basis for this topic is tenuous. At this time the archaeological record in Zafar and the surrounding region breaks off. No textual tradition articulates its destruction. Only an
Aksumite church was recorded as being destroyed in 523. This church, likely built by missionary
Theophilos the Indian, was destroyed by
Dhu Nawas following the Himyarite conversion to Judaism. It was later restored after Aksum's successful invasion on Himyar in 524.There is evidence that Zafar and settlement in general in the Yemenite highlands declined drastically in the 5th and 6th centuries. Ideally, the viability of the city correlates declines drastically just after a relief of a crowned man was erected in what the excavator terms the Stone Building Site. The date of this relief and its inscription difficult, both perhaps to the mid 5th century. The occurrence in Zafar of ribbed amphorae manufactured in Aqaba/Ayla evidently in order to transport wine, shows the area just north of Aqaba to have been a fruitful agricultural area. On the other hand, D. Fleitmann has studied speleothems from al-Hootha cave in central Oman and has gathered information for megadroughts especially around 530. These may have afflicted the entire Peninsula.
A rectangular mapped surface area comprises 120 hectares. But the settlement is of uneven density and smaller than this. Zafar is the second largest mapped archaeological site in Arabia after Marib. Ancient settlement occurs inside and outside the ancient city defences. These have been estimated at 4000 metres long. The main fortress today is still referred to as the "Husn Raydan". A text by the medieval Yemenite author
al-Hamdani mentions the names of city gates, most of which are named after the town to which they face. The main architectural ruins at Zafar include tombs and on the south-western flank of the Husn Raydan a 30 x 30 m square stone court, as preserved, originally probably a temple, to judge from the accumulation of cattle bones which it contained. It is located immediately north of a subterranean chambers and tombs. Immediately to the north are a row of storage chambers. The Husn Raydan and al-Gusr (standard Arabic: al-Qasr) 300 m to the north were once one fortification inside the city walls. Raydan South also was fortified and the ruined fortifications are best preserved here.
Musnad texts mention five royal palaces at Zafar: Hargab, Kallanum, Kawkaban, Shawhatan and Raydan, the state palace. Smaller ones, such as Yakrub, also find mention. Nearby Himyarite period settlements include Maṣna‘at Māriya (ancient Samiʻān) and the
Ǧabal al-‘Awd settlement, 25 air km to the south-east.
The city was home to polytheist,
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 ...
and
Christian
A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...
communities. Jews dominated politically until 525. The ring-stone of
Yiṣḥaq bar Ḥanina (common Jewish names, written in
Aramaic
Aramaic (; ) is a Northwest Semitic language that originated in the ancient region of Syria and quickly spread to Mesopotamia, the southern Levant, Sinai, southeastern Anatolia, and Eastern Arabia, where it has been continually written a ...
;
this exact name is attested coevally in the
Talmud
The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...
) is the earliest possible evidence for Jews in South Arabia. Surprisingly little evidence exists for the actual character and customs of these religions, far distant from their centres. Nor do the artefacts confirm a picture of the actual practices of Judaism and Christianity as we know them today. The vast majority of the sculpture suggests polytheistic belief was dominant in the population. One assumes in terms of religions a mixture of Christians, Jews and polytheists in late pre-Islamic times. An excavated 1.70 m tall image of a crowned figure represents a Christian king that wears an Aksumite-looking crown – the only image of that early religion to survive. At its apex Zafar had a flourishing sculptural industry attested to by a large number of relief fragments. But for a single example, the Heidelberg archaeologists were unable to positively identify churches or chapels on the site which no doubt existed

From the 3rd to mid-6th centuries Zafar was a bustling international centre with a booming local and international trade. Yule estimated a 4th-century population of some 25,000, based partly on the surface area and population density. Evidence of trade comes in the form of Late Roman period amphorae such as that depicted below. Many were produced in
Aqaba
Aqaba ( , ; , ) is the only coastal city in Jordan and the largest and most populous city on the Gulf of Aqaba. Situated in southernmost Jordan, Aqaba is the administrative center of the Aqaba Governorate. The city had a population of 148, ...
, Jordan as we know from excavations there. Aqaba was a center where goods were loaded, re-packed and re-exported. About 500 such sherds and vessels came to light in Zafar, the number rivalling that at Adulis and Aqaba. While wine is often mention as an import, livestock, textiles, meat, fish and fish sauce were also imported.
The contemporary environment is vastly inferior to that which provided the resource base for the early Himyarite tribal confederation. Despite some 500 mm precipitation per year, Water is scarce, upland soils are chronically eroded; the tree cover was eliminated perhaps in the empire period. Given the exhaustion of natural resources, civil strife, epidemics and megadroughts the Himyarite period population declined especially in the 6th century. Today, some 450 farmers inhabit the former capital.
Excavations at Ẓafār yielded 19 cultivated species including eight cereals, four oil and fibre plants, three pulses, three fruits and one spice.
Hordeum is the most important cereal. The Stone Building also yielded most of 6000 excavated animal bones. The Stone Building seems to have functioned as a slaughterhouse.
An early 6th century relief statue has been identified as a king of Byzantine type, perhaps a representation of king
Sumūyafaʿ Ashwaʿ.
In 1970, Italian orientalist
Giovānnī Garbinī discovered a Sabaean inscription on a column in Bayt al-Ašwāl near Zafar
hofār whereon is engraved a later writing in Assyrian (Hebrew) script which reads: "The writing of Judah, of blessed memory, Amen shalom amen." The script is believed to date to the 4th-century CE. The inscription attests to the multi-ethnic make-up of the peoples of South Arabia at that time.
Mapping and excavation through the
University of Heidelberg
Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg (; ), is a public university, public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Founded in 1386 on instruction of Pope Urban VI, Heidelberg is List ...
continued from 1998 to 2010. In 2002, the site museum was reinstalled. In 2010, the Stone Building site was roofed and conservation measures carried out. Although the site is no longer accessible, there is a Zafar Virtual Museum.
See also
*
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 ...
*
Masnaat Mariya
*
Tub'a Abu Kariba As'ad
*
Rulers of Sheba and Himyar
*
Ancient history of 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 ...
*
Yemenite Jews
Yemenite Jews, also known as Yemeni Jews or Teimanim (from ; ), are a Jewish diaspora group who live, or once lived, in Yemen, and their descendants maintaining their customs. After several waves of antisemitism, persecution, the vast majority ...
References
Sources
*
Paul Yule, ''Himyar–Die Spätantike im Jemen/Late Antique Yemen'', Aichwald, 2007, .
*
Paul Yule, ''Late Antique Arabia Ẓafār, Capital of Ḥimyar, Rehabilitation of a ‘Decadent’ Society, Excavations of the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg 1998–2010 in the Highlands of the Yemen, Abhandlungen Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft, vol. 29, Wiesbaden, 2013, , .
*
Paul Yule, ''A Late Antique Christian king from Himyar, Southern Arabia, Old South Arabia'', Antiquity, vol. 87, issue 338, December 2013, 1124–35, .
*
Walter Müller, ''Ẓafār'', Encyclopedia of Islam, vol. XI, Leiden, 2001, 379–80.
External links
Expeditions to Zafarby the
University of Heidelberg
Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg (; ), is a public university, public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Founded in 1386 on instruction of Pope Urban VI, Heidelberg is List ...
link to HeidICON Zafar
{{Authority control
Architecture of ancient Yemen
Archaeological sites in Yemen
Archaeological cultures of the Near East
Former populated places in Yemen