Early Christianity in Arabia/Section 4

by Thomas Wright

SECTION IV.

That region of Ethiopia which was known to the Romans as the kingdom of Auxuma, was called by the Arabians Al Habesh, of which the modern name of Abyssinia is merely a corruption. Its eastern boundary is the Red Sea, and on the north it adjoins to Nubia; and in its physical geography it bears a great resemblance to the Arabian peninsula. It is described as a country of mountains. Like Arabia, it is characterized by its coast chains; a high ridge runs parallel to the shores of the Indian ocean as far as Cape Guardafui, from whence it continues in a westerly direction to the strait of Bab-el-Mandeb, inclosing the frankincense and myrrh country, which extends considerably to the west of Azab. From the strait this chain follows the course of the Red Sea, until it terminates in the sandy plain at the Isthmus of Suez.^[1] The interior of Abyssinia is described by Salt as a table land, having a gentle inclination towards the north-west, and presenting two great steeps, one on the east, towards the Red Sea, the other on the south, towards the interior of Africa, which is supposed to be a branch of the Djebel-el-Kamri, or Mountains of the Moon.^[2]

The Abyssinians were connected with the people of Arabia not only by their situation,—they were a people of the same family, and their kingdom perhaps originated from some of the plundering expeditions of the early tobbaas of Hamyar.^[3] Their Arabian origin is proved by the identity of their manners, their physiognomy, and their language, and even in some measure by their own traditions. Abyssinia resembled Arabia Felix also in its productions, its aromatic woods of myrrh and frankincense. Pure gold was found in many parts in abundance. In place of the camels of Arabia, it boasted of the finest elephants in the world.

Abyssinia is at present divided into three great divisions: that of Tigre, comprehending the tract between the Red Sea and the Tacazze; that of Amhara, to the west of the Tacazze; and the provinces of the south. The province now called Tigre was the seat of the ancient monarchy. At the north-west end of an extensive and fertile valley, between two hills, about one hundred and twenty miles from the coast, stood the capital, the city of Auxuma, or Axum, the ruins of which still bear witness to its former magnificence.^[4] The annals of the Ethiopians trace its origin to the time of Abraham.^[5]

The Ethiopians were a people little known in the earlier periods of history. Many circumstances make us believe that the ages in which they flourished preceded the earliest authentic annals of the gentile writers. Settled in an elevated region, which in tropical climes has generally been found to be the seat of civilization,^[6] they seem to have been once celebrated for learning, and in the early ages of the post-diluvian world, the district of Auxuma was probably the mother country of the wisdom and inhabitants of Egypt.^[7] The Ethiopians boasted, according to the historians of Greece, that they were the most ancient people of the globe, that amongst them first originated the worship of the gods, and that they were the first inventors of religious rites and ceremonies. Hence it was generally believed that their sacrifices were peculiarly acceptable in heaven, and that they were under the immediate protection of the deity.^[8] In reward for their piety, Diodorus assures us, they had remained as free as the Arabs of the peninsula, and had escaped invasion even from the arms of Hercules and Bacchus.^[9] We are further informed that their worship was directed in the first place to an immortal being, whom they looked upon as the creator of the universe; and secondly, to a deity of inferior power, and partaking of mortal nature;^[10] perhaps these coincided with the demiurgic and created gods of the Egyptian and Platonic philosophers. Their theologies embraced also as inferior deities the sun and the moon, and others which were analogous to, perhaps the prototypes of, Jupiter, Hercules, Pan, and Isis.^[11] In his attempt to reach Ethiopia from Egypt, Cambyses experienced the strength and bravery of its inhabitants, the reports of whose vast riches had excited his cupidity;^[12] later authors have praised their beauties and their virtues.^[13] During the reign of the Ptolemies, when the trade of the Red Sea was carried on partly through the Egyptian ports, and Ethiopia was made by their fleets a place of less difficult access, the language and some of the refinements of Greece were introduced;^[14] and it was a favourite resort of the later king's of this family, for the purpose of hunting the elephant.^[15] Like Arabia, this country afforded a refuge to multitudes of Jews, of whom many are to be found there at the present day.^[16] Christianity is supposed to have reached Ethiopia as early as the days of the apostles;^[17] but it can be ascertained with more certainty that there were Christians in the kingdom of Auxuma in the time of Athanasius, when their bishop, named Frumentius, was deposed for his doctrines.^[18]

Ethiopia, when it was better known, became important to the eastern empire for its trade; and the merchants of Abyssinia shared with those of Arabia the commerce of the Indian ocean. From the port of Adulis, on the Red Sea, the ruins of which are still to be seen near the town of Zulla, about thirty miles to the south-east of Massowa, the ships of Auxuma visited the coast of India, and the island of Taprobana, then called by the Indians Sieladiba, and now known by the name of Ceylon.^[19] This celebrated island was the common resort for the merchants of Ethiopia, Hamyar, Persia, India, and the distant region of Sinde, or China.^[20] It contained at this early period a Christian church and community, under the jurisdiction of the bishop of Persia.^[21] The port of Adulis was frequented by the ships of Alexandria and Ela,^[22] which returned laden with the produce of the frankincense country,^[23] and the gold of Sasus.^[24] Three days' journey from Adulis, and five from Auxuma, was the town of Koloë, the grand emporium of ivory, and of the wealth of the interior.^[25] The trade, however, between the Auxumites and the Romans, at least after the removal of the seat of empire to the east, appears to have been carried through Arabia. The deserts which lay between Ethiopia and Egypt hindered a commercial intercourse between those two countries by land;^[26] and the neglected and bad navigation of the Red Sea towards the north was an almost equal impediment by sea. The trade with the Romans was therefore carried on by Roman merchants who resided in the ports of Ethiopia and Arabia, and the merchandise was transported in caravans to Syria, over the mountains to the north of Hamyar, and through the country of the Nabatæi.

The nadjash, or king of the Auxumites, who was contemporary with Dzu Nowass, is called in the Ethiopian histories Caleb, by the Greek historians Elesbaan, or Hellesthæus. Although we discover few traces of it in any historians, yet it is probable that the Hamyarites and their Ethiopian neighbours were often at war. The troubles which distracted the kingdom of Hamyar after the death of Amrou, were perhaps caused in part by an Abyssinian invasion. Rabyah Ibn Modhar had been compelled to seek shelter in Hirah from their power.^[27] The king of Auxuma appears, from the inscription discovered at Axum, to have laid claim to the kingdom of Hamyar as early as this period,^[28] and the war which ended in the conquest of Yaman, was perhaps only a renewal of the national quarrel.

On the breaking out of the persecution of the Christians of Hamyar by Dzu Nowass, the Roman merchants engaged in the Ethiopian trade were among the first who experienced its effects. The rich merchandise contained in their caravans naturally excited the cupidity of the persecutors, the injuries which the Jews were represented to have suffered under the dominion of Rome were eagerly embraced as a pretext, and under pretence of retaliation the caravans were stopped and plundered on their passage over the mountains, and the merchants put to death. The nadjash was not slow in resenting the injury which his kingdom sustained by the interruption of the Roman trade. Messengers were dispatched to the tobbaa to expostulate, but without effect, and they were immediately followed by a powerful army.^[29] After a long and obstinate

1 The commencement of this inscription runs thus — Αειζανας βασιλευς Αζυμιτων και Όμηριτων και του Ῥαειδαν και Αιθοιπων και Σαβαειτων, κ.τ.λ. Aeizanas, king of the Axumites and of the Homerites, and of Rhaeidan and of the Ethiopians, and of the Sabaites, &c. The date of this inscription is fixed to an era immediately following the reign of Rabyah. See Salt's and Valentia's Travels. war,^[30] the king of Hamyar was reduced to the humiliating terms of paying tribute to the Abyssinian conqueror.^[31]

Although the Abyssinians had long embraced Christianity it does not appear to have been openly avowed by the royal family, at least all the old historians are agreed that Elesbaan was not a Christian. Theophanes calls him a Jew.^[32] Influenced, however, by his commercial alliance with the emperor, and his profitable trade with the Christians, he appears to have been always favourably inclined towards them, and when he undertook the invasion of Hamyar, he had made a vow that, should he succeed in his enterprise, he would openly receive the religion of Christ, for it was, he said, in the cause of the Christians that he had taken up arms. Accordingly, after having subdued the kingdom of Hamyar, he hastened to fulfil his vow, by sending two of his nobles to the emperor to solicit a bishop and priests, who were willingly granted to him, according to his own choice. The ambassadors, having after some inquiries fixed upon one Johannes, as their bishop, returned with him and a number of priests to Auxuma, and the nadjash, with his courtiers and nobles, were baptized, and erected churches in various parts of the kingdom.^[33]

Soon after this, when the greater part of the Abyssinian forces had been withdrawn from Arabia, Dzu Nowass suddenly raised an army, and defeated those who had been left to secure the conquests of the nadjash.^[34] No sooner had he thus regained possession of his hereditary kingdom, than the tobbaa prepared to wreak his vengeance on the now defenceless Christians; and all who refused to renounce their faith and embrace Judaism, were put to death, without respect to age or sex.^[35]

The town of Nadjran, or Nedjeraun, on the north of Yaman, was inhabited by the Benni Hâleb, who had embraced the religion of Jesus, according to the Arabian historians, at the preaching of a Syrian missionary.^[36] It was under the jurisdiction of a bishop, and had a church which was frequented by many of the Arabian tribes.^[37] The Greek writers trace the introduction of Christianity into this town from the time of the embassy sent by Constantius to Arabia under Theophilus.^[38] Against this place Dzu Nowass is said to have been instigated by the Jews of Yatreb.^[39] On his arrival before it, he found it surrounded by a wall and ditch, and the whole town in arms, prepared to oppose him. The tobbaa laid siege to the place with a large army, ravaging the surrounding country, and threatening the inhabitants with extermination, unless they would publicly renounce the cross. Finding, however, from the firmness and bravery of the Christians in Nadjran, that he was not very likely to succeed by force, he had recourse to treachery; and on his taking a solemn oath that he would not injure one of the inhabitants, but that he would allow them the peaceful exercise of their religion, the town of Nadjran was surrendered.^[40]

The king of Hamyar disguised his treachery no longer than was necessary to gain the object which he had in view by it. Nadjran was plundered by his army.^[41] Large pits were dug in the neighbourhood, and filled with burning fuel, and all who refused to abjure their faith, amounting according to the Arabian authors to many thousands, including the priests and monks of the surrounding regions, with the consecrated virgins, and the matrons who had retired to lead a monastic life, were committed to the flames.^[42] The chief men of the town, with their prince, who is known by the name of Arethas, and who is called by the Arabian writers Abdallah Ibn Althamir,^[43] a man distinguished for his wisdom and piety, were thrown into chains.^[44] The tobbaa next sought their bishop, whose name was Paul, and when informed that he had been some time dead, he ordered his bones to be disinterred and burnt, and their ashes scattered to the wind. Arethas and his companions were urged to apostasy both by threats and persuasions, the Arabian king alleging that God, who was incorporeal, could not be killed or crucified — that Christ therefore ought not to be worshipped as a god, but should only be considered as a human being, and that he did not wish them to worship the sun and moon, or any created thing, but the one God who had produced all things, and who was the Father of all generation. But his insidious arguments were treated with contempt, and Arethas declared that he and his companions were all ready to die in the cause of their Saviour. The tobbaa accordingly ordered them to be conducted to the side of a small brook or wady,^[45] in the neighbourhood, where they were beheaded.^[46] Their wives, who had shewn the same constancy, were afterwards dragged to a similar fate. One named Ruma, the wife of the chief, was brought with her two virgin daughters before Dzu Nowass; their surpassing beauty is said to have moved his compassion, but their constancy and devotion provoked in a still greater degree his vengeance; the daughters were put to death before the face of their mother, and Ruma, after having been compelled to taste their blood, shared their fate.^[47] When he had thus perpetrated the tragedy of Nadjran, the tobbaa returned with his army to Sanaa.^[48]

At the time when this event occurred, an embassy had been sent by Justin to the mondar, or king of the Arabs of Hirah, under the direction of the bishop of Persia and a presbyter called Abraham, to conciliate their friendship, and endeavour to detach them from their alliance with, or rather dependence on, Persia. When he reached the camp of the Arab chief, a messenger had just arrived from the king of Hamyar, informing the mondar of the success and particulars of his expedition against Nadjran, and exhorting him to take similar measures against the Christians who lived under him. The bishop of Persia immediately wrote a circumstantial account of the sufferings of the Christians of Nadjran to his Roman brethren, in which he urged them speedily to take up the cause of the believers in Arabia.^[49] Amongst the few Christians who had escaped the persecution of Dzu Nowass, was Dous Ibn Dzi Thaleban, who fled to the court of Constantinople, and implored the emperor to advocate the cause of his persecuted countrymen.^[50] The emperor gave him a favourable hearing, excused himself on account of the state of public affairs and the distance of Arabia, from personally assisting him, but gave him letters to the nadjash of Ethiopia.^[51]

The Abyssinian king, who was now himself a Christian, had thus a double incentive to engage vigorously in his war with Hamyar. Dzu Nowass, in pursuing his plans of vengeance, had seized the opportunity when the season of the year was unfavourable to the navigation between Abyssinia and Arabia.^[52] As soon, however, as the season permitted, and the preparations were completed, an army, amounting according to the Arabian writers to seventy thousand men, set sail for the coast of Hamyar, under the command of Aryat, the nephew of the nadjash.^[53] The Abyssinian forces were divided into two parts. One division was landed on that coast of Arabia which lies on the Red Sea, and, after having crossed the Tehama, was to have co-operated with the other division, as soon as the latter had effected a landing on the southern coast. This first division, however, perished or was dispersed in crossing the desert. The Arabian king, therefore, who had been making preparations to defend his kingdom against this double attack, when he heard of the disaster which had befallen the first detachment of the Abyssinian army, and was consequently delivered from all apprehensions of danger on that side, turned his attention entirely to the defence of the coast.^[54]

The coasts of Arabia and Abyssinia approach each other by degrees, until at the southern extremity of the Red Sea they form a narrow passage, the entrance into the ocean, which from its perilous navigation gained from the Arabian sailors the name of Bab el Mandoub, or the Gate of Tears. The black, lofty, and often fatal shores of the African side were looked on with terror, and formed a bay which was named the Harbour of Death; and from its rocky extremity, Cape Gardafui, or the Cape of Burials, the spirit of the storm was believed to enjoy the last screams of the sinking mariner. The straits are at present scarcely three miles broad;^[55] but according to the Arabian geographer, in his time, the sea was there so narrow that from one side a person might be recognized on the opposite shore;^[56] and at the period of the expedition under Aryat, it is reported to have been no more than two stadia, or a quarter of a Roman mile, and to have been difficult to pass on account of the rocks that lay concealed beneath the waves.^[57] Through this narrow passage the Abyssinian fleet had to sail, before it could reach the coast of Hamyar, and it was the plan of Dzu Nowass to render it impassable. For this purpose, he is said to have thrown across the least dangerous part a heavy chain of iron, held firm by fragments of rock, to which it was fixed, and which were sunk in the sea, and raised to the surface by masses of timber. After having taken these precautions, Dzu Nowass encamped with his army on the coast where he expected that the Abyssinians, when they found the passage of the straits impossible, would attempt to disembark.

When the Abyssinian fleet approached the straits, ten ships were sent before to reconnoitre the passage, which, being ignorant of the stratagem of the king of Hamyar, and assisted by a favourable wind, entered unexpectedly the narrowest part, and almost by a miracle passed in safety. The rest were obliged, as Dzu Nowass had expected, to return. The ten ships which had passed the straits approached the shore, and would have landed at a place about two hundred stadia or twenty-five miles from that in which the army of Hamyar was posted, but they were prevented by the missiles of the few Arabians who had been sent to defend the southern coast. In another attempt, seven of the remaining ships, in one of which was the Abyssinian commander, succeeded in passing the straits and joining them. The rest of the fleet, which was the more numerous portion, afterwards followed them, and proceeding farther along the coast, cast anchor at a different place, a considerable distance from the former. Dzu Nowass, who naturally expected that the chief commander was with the larger division, proceeded with his army to hinder their landing, leaving a small force to oppose those ships which had first passed the straits. Aryat, constrained by want of provisions, was not long before he attempted to effect a landing. According to the Arabian accounts the Abyssinians disembarked near the port of Aden. Their commander wished them to consider their safety as entirely depending on their bravery, and, having ordered the ships to be set on fire, he addressed them in a few words: "O men of Abyssinia, before you are your enemies, behind you the sea: your choice is death or victory."^[58] The contest was short but obstinate, the Hamyarites were entirely defeated, and Aryat hastened towards the metropolis, the city of Taphar or Dhaphar, which being unprepared for a siege immediately surrendered to him.^[59]

When the king of Hamyar heard of the fall of his capital, astonished at the unexpected success of his enemies, and now threatened by them on every side, his resolution entirely failed him; so that, when the Abyssinians landed from the other ships, they soon defeated the Arabians, who wanted spirit and concert to make an effective resistance, and Dzu Nowass himself was amongst the number of the slain. The native historians give a different account of the death of the tobbaa. According to them, he fled from the field of battle, after he had witnessed the defeat of his army, but being closely pursued, and at last hemmed in between his enemies and the sea, he precipitated himself from a rock, and perished in the waves. By this action the fate of Arabia was decided. In Dzu Dgiadan, who was the successor of Dzu Nowass, and who fell in opposing the conquerors, ended the race of Hamyar.^[60] Yaman became a province dependent on the Abyssinian nadjash, and Aryat, known to the Greeks under the name of Esimiphæus, ascended the throne as his tributary.^[61]

The spirit of Christianity is mild and forgiving, and its doctrines inculcate the duty of forbearance and long-suffering; but in the barbarous times which marked the decline of the Roman empire, and among the wild tribes, such as those of Arabia and Abyssinia, who became converts, a different spirit had usurped its place. As the partizans of Christianity, moreover, increased in power, they unfortunately became too often, like their enemies, vindictive and persecuting. This change was not caused by their religion, but by the state of the times, by the character of those who embraced it, and by the different and contending doctrines that were mixed with it. The first step of the Christian conquerors of Arabia, was to revenge the massacre of Nadjran on its perpetrators; and the same persecution, which had before raged against the believers, fell on the heads of the offending Jews, until the fertile tracts of Hanmar presented a continued scene of bloodshed and devastation. The churches which had been destroyed by Dzu Nowass, were all by degrees rebuilt, and new bishops and priests appointed by the Alexandrian primate.^[62]

1. Bruce, Travels, vol. ii. p. 302, 8vo. Edinb. 1805. Suez was the ancient Sebaste, whence the Arabic Siwas, corrupted into Suez.
2. Salt's Abyssinia, p. 350. The Arabian geography of Abyssinia may be seen in Hartmann, de Geographia Africæ Edrisiana, p. 54, et seq.—Abu'l-Maala Alaeddin Muhammed ibn Abdo'l-Bak wrote a book في محاسن الحبوش‎ de Excellentiis Habessinorum, in which he said they were derived from Al Habesh, who was the same as Cush, the son of Canaan. Gagnier, not. in Abulfed. Hist. Muham. p. 23.
3. Ludolf asserts the Arabian origin of the Abyssinians, "Indigenæ enim non sunt; sed venerunt ex ea Arabiæ parte, quæ felix vocatur et mari rubro adjacet; unde facile in Africam transfretari potuerunt. Abassenos enim in Arabia olim habitasse, atque Sabæis sive (quod idem est) Homeritis accensitos fuisse, et veteres geographi testantur, et multa alia convincerant argumenta."—Hist. Æth. lib. i. c. 1. The Arabian writers explain many of the words of the Koran which are not now in use from the Abyssinian.—Gagnier, not. in Abulfed. p. 23. Their form and colour are constantly compared by Bruce to those of the Hamyaritic Arabs. In the early history of Hamyar, the expeditions of its kings are all confined to Africa. Mr. Salt has objected to the Arabian origin of the Abyssinians, and thinks the inhabitants of Auxuma to have been a Berber race. His principal argument, however, against their identity with the Hamyarites is that Arabian historians collected by Schultens distinguish them by their colour, and because one of the princes of Hamyar entreated the Persian emperor to drive out those crows (corvi) who were hateful to his countrymen. The Ethiopians may have been much darker than the Hamyarites; the Sheygya and other Bedouin Arabs of Africa are even blacker than the Ethiopians; the cause in both cases might be the same. Seneca urges the burnt colour of the Ethiopians as a proof of the heat of the climate—primo Æthiopiam ferventissimum esse, indicat hominum adustus color. Nat. Quæst. lib. iv. c. 2. p. 629. The Arabians of the peninsula could not particularize the Ethiopians for their colour, for they distinguish themselves by the same term: when they would say that Muhammed was sent to convert not only the Arabs, but also foreign nations, the Greeks and the Persians, they say he was sent to الاسود والاحمر‎ the black (the Arabs) and the white, (Abulfed. Hist. Muham. c. vii.);—and, which is still more remarkable, in the collection of Arabian proverbs edited by Schultens, the Arabs are designated by that very same term of crows—العربان غربان ٭ والسودان سيدان‎—the Arabs are crows, the blacks, i.e. the negroes, wolves (Elnawabig, No. 27); and the Arabian scholiast (Samachsjar) actually represents their colour as the reason of the term. The oriental geographer, translated by Ouseley, observes, "The inhabitants of Bajeh [a place between Abyssinia, Nubia, and Egypt] are blacker than the Abyssinians, like the Arabs," (p. 13.), that is, like the African Arabs.
4. See Valentia, Bruce, &c.
5. Bruce, vol. ii. p. 305.
6. In America, Humboldt found that the traces of ancient civilization were always confined to the cool climate of the mountain plains. "In ganz Mexico und Peru findet man die Spuren grosser Menschenkultur auf der hohen Gehirgsebene. Wir haben Ruinen von Pallästen und Bädern in 1600 bis 1800 Toisen Höhe gesehen." (Ansichten der Natur, p. 147, band. i.) The civilization of ancient Arabia was confined to the mountain plains of Hamyar; in Africa, to the high plateau of Auxuma
7. A thorough investigation of the early connection between Egypt and Ethiopia might lead to interesting results. In the short space of a note it would be useless to attempt it. Diod. Sic. amongst the ancients has avowed his opinion that the Egyptians were an Ethiopian colony, (lib. iii. c. 2. p. 175.) He informs us that the Ethiopians had formerly used hieroglyphics, and that the hieroglyphics were called Ethiopian letters, and he seems to think that they originated amongst that people:—περι δε των Αιθιοπικων γραμματων, των παρ' Αιγυπτιοις καλουμενων ἱερογλυφικων, ῥητεον, ἱνα μηδεν παραλειπωμεν των αρχαιολογουμενων. συμβεβηκε τοινυν τους μεν τυπους ὑπαρχειν αυτων ὁμοιως ζωοις παντοδαποις και ακρωτηριοις ανθρωπων, ετι δ'οργανοις, και μαλιστα τεκτονικοις. ου γαρ εκ της των συλλαβων δυνθεσεως ἡ γραμματικη παρ' αυτοις τον ὑποκειμενον λογον αποδιδωσιν, αλλ' εξ εμφασεως των μεταγραφομενων και μεταφορας μνημη συνηθλημενης. (c. iv. p. 176.) Heliodorus says—ταινιαν γραμμασιν Αιθιοπικοις ου δημοτικοις, αλλα βασιλικοις εδτιγμενην, ἁ δε τοις Αιγυπτιων ἱερατικοις καλουμενοις ὡμοιωνται. (Heliod. Ethiop. lib. iv. p. 174.) We find Egypt mentioned in the book of Genesis as a flourishing kingdom as early as the days of Abraham and Joseph, and at the same time we find such a marked difference between the Egyptians and the people of Syria and Palestine that the former were not allowed by their laws to eat of the same food. The Egyptian colony cannot therefore have come from the north. In the time of the patriarchs the kingdom of Egypt is believed to have been confined to Upper Egypt and the Thebaid. Bruce thinks that the colony which founded Thebes came from Siré, in Ethiopia. One of the principal deities of the Ethiopic and Arabian theologies was named Siris; Diodorus says that the proper name of the Egyptian deity was Siris, which the Greeks, by prefixing O, transformed into Osiris.
8. Diod. Sic. lib. iii. c. 2. p. 175—Διο και την παρ’ αυτοις ευσεβειαν, he observes, διαβεβοησθαι παρα πασιν ανθρωποις, και δοκειν τας παρ’ Αιθιοψι θυσιας μαλιστ’ ειναι τῳ δαιμονιῳ κεκαρισμενας. This idea appears to have been very old among the Greeks, for Homer says—

   Ζευς γαρ επ’ Ωκεανον μετ’ αμυμονας Αἰθιοπηας
   Χθιζος εβη μετα δαιτα· θεοι δ’ ἁμα παντες ἑποντο.
   

   Il. A. 423.

   Homer doubtlessly heard of their fame from the Egyptians.

9. Diod. Sic. p. 175.
10. Θεον δε νομιζουσι, τον μεν αθανατον, τουτον δ’ ειναι τον αιτιον των παντων· τον δε θνητον, ανωνυμον τινα, και ου σαφη. κ.τ.λ.. Strabo, lib. xvii. c. 2. p. 473.
11. Diodorus, p. 179. Strabo, ib.
12. Herodotus, lib. iii. p. 191, &c. The Ethiopians sent Cambyses one of their bows, with the following message:—The king of the Ethiopians advises the king of the Persians, that when his soldiers are able to bend this bow with ease he may venture to invade Ethiopia, in the mean time let him thank the gods that they have not induced the Ethiopians to desire other countries than their own.
13. Herod, ibid. Mela, lib. iii. c. 3.
14. {{polytonic|Κατα δε τον δευτερον Πτολεμαιον ὁ βασιλευς των Αιθιοπων Εργαμενης, μετεσχηκως Ελληνικης αγωγης, και φιλοσοφησας. Diodorus, lib. iv. p. 178.
15. Agatharchides, περι της Ερυθρας θαλασσης, p. 1. In the Adulitic inscription in Cosmas (p. 143), Ptolemy professes to have conquered the Arabians, και περαν δε της Ερυθρας θαλασσης οικουντας Αραβιτας.—Τους εις την Ομηριτην σημαινει·, says Cosmas, τουτεστι τους εν τῃ ευδαιμονι Αραβιᾳ.
16. Jewett's Christian Researches.
17. They were reported to have been visited by Thomas (Chrysost. Homil. in xii. Apost. p. 11), by Matthæus (Ruffinus, lib. i. Socrates, i. 16), by Marcus (Makrizii Hist. Copt. p. 15), and by Bartholomæus, after he had traversed Arabia (Nicetas, p. 395). Theophilus passed over from the Homerites to the Auxumites. Nicephorus, ix. 18, 19. Philostorgius, iii. 4. Theodoret. ap. Phot.)
18. Athanas. Apol. ad Constant. p. 313. (Opera, ed. Par. 1698. tom. i.) The kings of Auxuma were then Αϊζανας και Σαζανας. Frumentius was created a bishop by Athanasius, p. 315. Ambassadors came to Constantine from Ethiopia and India in 325. Euseb. Vit. Constant. iv. 8. The Ethiopians are enumerated among the people who had received Christianity, by Athanasius (de Incarnat. p. 92), and by Chrysostom (Homil. ii. in Johan. tom. viii. p. 9.), Ινδοι, και Περσαι, και Αιθιοπες.
19. Παρα μεν Ινδους καλουμενη Σιελεδιβα, παρα δε Ελλησι, Ταπροβανη. Cosmas Indicopleustes, Topograph. Christ, lib. xi. p. 336.
20. Εξ ὁλης δε της Ινδικης και Περσιδος και Αιθιοπιας δεχεται ἡ νησος πλοια πολλα, μεση τις ουσα, ὁμοιους και εκπεμπει....εστι γαρ και αυτη μεγα εμποριον ὁμοιως και Σινδου, ενθα ὁ μοσχος η το καστοριν, και το ανδροσταχυν, και τῃ Περσιδι, και τῳ Ὁμηριτῃ, και τῃ Αδουλῃ, κ.τ.λ. Id. p. 337.
21. Εχει δε ἡ αυτη νησος και εκκλησιαν των επιδημουντων Περσων Χριστιανων, και πρεσβυτερον απο Περσιδος χειροτονουμενον, και διακονον, και πασαν την εκκλησιαστικην λειτουργιαν. Id. ib. We are told by Sophronius that Christianity was introduced into this island by the Eunuch of Candace — Ευνουχος Κανδακης ... και εν Ταπροβανῃ νησῳ εν τῃ Ερυθρᾳ εκηρυξε το ευαγγελιον του Κυριου. In the time of the Nubian geographer Al Edrisi, there were still Christians remaining both in Sarandib or Ceylon (p. 32), and in Socotora (p. 23).
22. Cosmas, lib. ii. p. 140.
23. Εστι δε ἡ χωρα ἡ λιβανοτοφορος εις τα ακρα της Αιθιοπιας, μεσογειος μεν ουσα, τον δε Ωκεανον επεκεινα εχουσα. Id. p. 138.
24. Αυτη ἡ Σασου χωρα ὑστατη εστι των Αιθιοπων, ενθα και πολυχρυσιον εστι, το λεγομενον Ταγχαρας. Id. p. 143.
25. Arrian, Peripl. Eryth. Mar. p. 3. A curious account of the trade between Ethiopia and the interior of Africa will be found in Cosmas, p. 139.
26. Inter Ægyptum et Æthiopas arenarum inculta vastitas jaceat. Seneca Nat. Quæst. præf. lib. i. Conf. lib. iv. c. 2. p. 627.
27. Nuweir (p. 74) says that the cause of the tobbaa's flight to Hirah was a dream, which portended the conquest of Hamyar by the Abyssinians — it is much more probable that he would fly from an actual invasion.
28. 1
29. Johannes Asiæ Episc. ap. Asseman. Bibl. Orient, tom. i. p. 359. Jo. Malala, Chron. pars altera, p. 163. Theophanes, Chronograph. p. 144, &c. I shall generally cite John of Asia from the edition in the Syrischen Chrestomathie of Michaelis, as I have found it readier to refer to.
30. Mesoud, p. 140.
31. Metaphrast. ap. Sur. die 21 Octobr. (apud Baronium.)
32. Ὁ των Εξουμιτων βασιλευς ενδοτερος εστιν της Αιγυπτου, Ιουδαϊζων. Theophanes, Chronograph. p. 188.
33. Johan. As. Episc. p. 19, 20. (Ed. Michaelis.) Jo. Malala, p. 164. Nicephorus, lib. xvii. c. 22. Cedrenus, &c.
34. Metaphrastes, ap. Sur. in Baronius ad an. 522, 3.
35. Metaphrastes, ibid. Johan. Episc. As. p. 21, 22, &c.
36. Hamza, p. 38. Tabri and Zakaria Cazvine, ap. Ouseley, Travels, vol. i. p. 369, 71.
37. Abulfeda and Safio'ddinus, apud Pocock. Spec. Hist. Arab. p. 141.
38. Quædam tamen civitas frequens populo sita in Homeritide, quæ vocatur Najran, cum jam longo abhinc tempore evenisset ad agnitionem veritatis, et pietatem suscepisset, nempe ex quo Constantius, magni Constantini filius, ad Sabæos, qui nunc vocantur Homeritæ, orti vero sunt ex Cætura Abrahæ, misit legatos. Metaphrast. — The town of Nadjeran is still reverenced by the Druses, (Burckhardt, Travels in Arabia, vol. ii. p. 387), as well as another town of the same name. Nadjeran is now in ruins. "When I communicated this fact," says Buckingham, "as I had had a previous opportunity of doing, the principal Druse of the company exclaimed, 'Alas! there are but two Nedjerauns in the whole world, and they are both in decline.'" Travels among the Arab tribes, p. 254.
39. Hamza, p. 38.
40. Metaphrast. Joh. As. Episc. p. 24.
41. Metaphrastes.
42. Abulfeda, p. 10. Hamza, p. 38. Nuweir, p. 80. Tabeir, p. 106. Mesoud, p. 140.
43. Nuweir, p. 80. Tabeir, p. 106.
44. Metaphrast.
45. ܘܕܝܐ‎, Jo. As. Ep. p. 35. Odias, Metaphrast. وادن‎ Wadi, is the common name in Arabia for a stream or mountain torrent, and also of a valley, which has generally a stream running through it.
46. Jo. As. p. 35. Metaphrast.
47. Metaphrast.—"I swear by Adonai, (ܘܒܐܕܘܢܝ ܝܡܐ‎)" says the tobbaa, in his letter to the mondar of Hirah, preserved by Jo. As. Ep. p. 30, "that I am exceedingly grieved when I think of her beauty, and of that of her daughters."
48. Hamza, p. 34. Tabeir, p. 106.
49. Johan. As. Ep. p. 22, 39.
50. Nuweir, p. 82. Tabeir, p. 166. Hamza, p. 38.
51. Hamza, ib. Nuweir, p. 89.
52. Adventante autem hieme quum in nostram regionem Æthiopes contendere nequirent, &c. Jo. As. Ep. p. 24.
53. Hamza, p. 38. Nuweir, p. 82. Tabeir, p. 108. Mesoud, p. 140.
54. Metaphrast.
55. Lord Valentia, Travels. The breadth is here estimated from the Arabian coast to the small barren island of Perim, called by Arrian Diodorus. This narrow passage is the only one navigators can pass, as between the island and Africa are innumerable dangerous and small islands. The passage is even now difficult.
56. Georg. Arabs, Clim. i. p. 6. ap. Bochart.
57. Itaque considerans angustissimum esse fretum quod est inter Æthiopes et Homeritas, neque superare latitudine duorum stadiorum, et alioqui habere etiam saxa multis in locis latentia. Metaphrastes.
58. Nuweir, p. 82.
59. Metaphrast. Jo. As. Ep. p. 42, 43. Procopius; Malala; &c. Arabic authorities: Nuweir, p. 82; Hamza, p. 42; Tabeir, p. 106, 108; Mesoud, p. 140. On the history of Arethas and the events which followed, the reader may consult Walch, Historia Rerum in Homeritide, and the review of it in the Orientalische und Exegetische Bibliothek of Michaelis, band 7, p. 142. The Greek writers say that the nadjash accompanied the expedition. I have followed the Arabians: but it is a matter not worth disputing.
60. Hamza, p. 34. Abulfeda, p. 10.
61. Procopius de Bel. Pers. lib. i. c. 30, who calls him a Christian and an Hamyarite.
62. Metaphrast. Jo. As. Ep. p. 43.