Late Antique Historiography

Book of the Himyarites

Title(s):
  • Book of the Himyarites
Author:
Period covered:
5th-6th c.
Language:
Syriac
State of Preservation:
Partial
Genre:
  • Biography (collective)
Remarks:
The Book of the Himyarites belongs to the dossier of texts related to the martyrs of Najran, but covers a wider chronological span, offering information on the spread of Christianity and Judaism in South Arabia. Moberg (1924: lxvi-lxvii) tentatively identifies the author with the bishop Sergius (or Georgius) of Rusafa mentioned in the letter of Simeon of Bet Arsham among the delegates sent by Justinian to King Mundhar. Shahid (1963) thinks that the book, as all the other documents related to the martyrs of Najran, is to be ascribed to Simeon of Bet Arsham. Taylor (2010, 147-149) recently suggested that the Stephanus mentioned in the colophon might be the author of the work and not the copyist of the manuscript, as Moberg thought, but he also added that there is no conclusive argument to prove the identification. The work is attested in fragments of a manuscript dated to the year 932, retrieved from the cover of a Syrian Orthodox liturgical codex of 1469/1470, owned by a private collector.
Edition - Translation:
  • A. Moberg (1924) The book of the Himyarites: Fragments of a hitherto unknown Syriac text. Lund - London - Paris - Oxford - Heidelberg.
Fragments:
Users:
Sources:
Bibliography:
  • G. Bowersock (2013) The throne of Adulis. Oxford.
  • J. Ryckmans (1987) ‘Les rapports de dépendance entre les récits hagiographiques relatifs à la persécution de Himyarites’. Le muséon 100: 297-305.
  • J. Ryckmans (1989) ‘A confrontation of the main hagiographic accounts of the Najran persecution’. In: Arabian studies in honour of Mahmoud Ghul, ed. M.M. Ibrahim. Wiesbaden: 113-133.
  • I. Shahīd (1963) The Book of the Himyarites: autorship and authenticity’. Le muséon 76: 349-362.
  • I. Shahīd (1989) ‘Further reflections on the sources for the Najran martyrs’. In: Arabian studies in honour of Mahmoud Ghul, ed. M.M. Ibrahim. Wiesbaden: 161-172.
  • D.G.K. Taylor (2010) ‘A stylistic comparison of the Syriac Ḥimyarite martyr texts attributed to Simeon of Beth Arsham’. In: Juifs et chrétiens en Arabie aux Ve et VIe siècles: Regards croisés sour les sources, ed. J. Beaucamp - F. Briquel-Chatonnet - C.J. Robin. Paris: 143-176.
  • L. Van Rompay (1982) ‘The martyrs of Najran: sSome remarks on the nature of the sources’. In: Studia Paulo Naster oblata. II: Orientalia antiqua, ed. J. Quaegebeur (Orientalia Lovaniensia analecta, 13). Leuven: 301-309.