Judaism in pre-Islamic Arabia

Judaism has been practiced as a religion in the Arabian Peninsula since at least the first century BCE. It is also the first monotheistic religion of Arabia. Arabian Jews were linguistically diverse and would have varied in their practice of the religion. The presence of Jews is best attested in Northwestern and Southern Arabia. Judaism would briefly become politically relevant in the fourth century, when the rulers of the Kingdom of Himyar converted to Judaism.

The exact means by which Judaism expanded or gained converts in regions of Arabia and why they expanded into some regions as opposed to others is unclear. One hypothesis proposes that migrations of Jews to Arabia occurred after the destruction of the Second Temple during the Jewish–Roman wars in the first century, or during other conquests or persecutions by the Persians, Babylonians, or Romans, but no data exist to support this. In addition, the religious diversity and the normative or non-normative nature of Arabian Judaism(s) is also ill-understood.

Languages
Pre-Islamic Jews were not unified linguistically. In Arabia, they variously spoke Greek, Aramaic, Arabic, and Sabaic.

Translations of religious scriptures into pre-Islamic Arabic languages did not take place and, for this reason, their contents would be communicated orally by religious scholars.

Epigraphy
The primary source for the life and activities of pre-Islamic Arabian Jews is through epigraphy. Few epigraphs explicitly identify the author as Jewish, and so other markers are typically used to infer their Jewish identity, such as including Jewish names (i.e. onomastics, although this method has some limitations ), Jewish expressions and use of the Hebrew script.

List of Jewish epigraphs
This list is according to the 2012 compilation by Robert Hoyland. The inscriptions span at least five centuries, only number thirty-one if all are accepted as Jewish, are written in a variety of scripts/languages although most are in Nabataean Aramaic, are typically brief, and are geographically limited insofar as nearly all hail from Hegra or Al-Ula.

Contemporary literature
Contemporary sources from Greek and Syriac literature say little about the subject of Arabian Judaism or Jewish communities. The one reference from classical antiquity is that of Josephus in his Antiquities of the Jews where he described Herod the Great dispatching 500 members from his personal guard to aid Aelius Gallus, the Roman governor and general, in conquering southern Arabia in 26–24 BCE. References to Arabia in the Palestinian Talmud and the Babylonian Talmud are occasional: many of these only concern regions in southern Palestine or the Transjordan, although some evidently refer to regions within the peninsula.

In the early seventh century, an important source for Judaism and Jewish belief and practice in the Hejaz is the Quran, which presupposes the existence of Jews in both Meccan surahs and Medinan surahs: they are mentioned 23 times using the root hwd, 43 times under the rubric of the phrase "Children of Israel", and 32 times into the category "People of the Book". Another source is the Constitution of Medina, a pact between Muhammad's polity and the Jewish community of Medina that is widely accepted as historical by historians.

Poetry ascribed to pre-Islamic Arabian Jews
Islamic compilations of pre-Islamic poetry occasionally mention Jewish poets, although it is difficult to assess their authenticity and, compared to epigraphs, are more difficult to date and are subject to later influences of Islamicization. The Ṭabaqāt fuḥūl al-shuʿarā ("The generations of the most outstanding poets"), composed by the Basran traditionalist and philologist Muḥummad ibn Sallām al-Jumaḥī (d. 846), records a list of Jewish poets. The Arabian/Arab antiquities collector Abū l-Faraj al-Iṣfahānī (d. 976) also has scattered reference to eleven Jewish poets in his Kitāb al-agānī ("Book of Songs"). The poets they refer to are as follows, followed by (J) if mentioned by al-Jumahi and (I) if they are mentioned by al-Isfahani:


 * Samaw'al ibn 'Adiya (J) (I)
 * Al-Rabi ibn Abu al-Huqayq (J) (I)
 * Ka‘b ibn al-Ashraf (J) (I)
 * Shurayḥ ibn ʿImrān (J) (I)
 * Saʿya (Shuʿba) ibn Gharīḍ/ʿArīḍ (J) (I)
 * Abū Qays ibn Rifāʿa (J) (I)
 * Dirham ibn Zayd (J)
 * Abū l-Dhayyāl (J) (I)
 * Sarah of Qurayẓa (I)
 * Kaʿb ibn Saʿd of Qurayẓa (I)
 * Aws ibn Danī of Qurayẓa (I)

The poetry ascribed to these figures rarely make reference to precise historical details or religious expressions, although some poems ascribed to al-Samaw'al in the Asma'iyyat collection are explicitly religious. In addition, al-Jumahi offers very little by way of biography for each of these figures other than to recount popular anecdotes that a few are associated with. Al-Isfahani gives more detailed biographical information. For example, he says Al-Samaw’al ibn ‘Ādiyā was a native of Tayma (in northwestern Arabia) whose father had ties to the Ghassanids. He lived in a family home often called a castle and whose name was al-Ablaq. Popular stories described his fidelity and loyalty, such as one where he refuses the surrender of the possessions of Imru' al-Qais to Imru's enemies despite their attempt to besiege his castle. Asides from Samaw'al, the only other Jewish poet to earn some renown was al-Rabī‘ ibn Abī l-Ḥuqayq, chief of the Naḍir tribe. The earliest sources make no mention of this figure, but only his son Kināna. Instead, it is only with the work of al-Isfahani that the exploits of al-Rabī‘ are described.

Arabic historiography
Non-contemporary Arabic historiographical sources, such as those of al-Hamdani, are considered secondary in their ability to enable a historical reconstruction of Judaism in pre-Islamic Arabia. Ya'qubi (d. 897) asserted that all of Yemen used to be Jewish, whereas Ibn Hazm (d. 1064) says it was all of Himyar plus parts of Kinda that were Jewish. This literature also stresses the importance of the Jewish community of Medina and its tribes, most prominently the Banu Nadir, the Banu Qaynuqa, and the Banu Qurayza. Nevertheless, evidence regarding the size and nature of a Jewish Medinan community remains phantasmal in the pre-Islamic evidence.

Northwestern Arabia
Evidence of Jews and Judaism from northwestern Arabia largely relies on epigraphs. One of the inscriptions from 203 indicate that a Jewish individual named Isaiah became the head of Tayma, suggesting that Jews could at least occasionally achieve positions of power in western Arabia. His father and brother are also described with biblical names. Another inscription dating to 356–357 suggests the existence of Jewish headmen of both Hegra and Dedan. One Dedanite inscription mentions a rabbi. A recently identified epigraph, UJadhNab 538, implicates the presence of Arabic-speaking Jews in fourth century Western Arabia.

There is also some literary evidence. The Midrash Rabba suggests that two third-century rabbis thought it would have been beneficial to them to travel to al-Ḥijr (Hegra)/Madāʾin Ṣālih in order to improve their Aramaic. According to Procopius, a 6th-century Byzantine historian as he was commenting about the Tiran Island and perhaps at an entrance on the Gulf of Aqaba, "Hebrews had lived from of old in autonomy, but in the reign of this Justinian they have become subject to the Romans."

Haggai Mazuz has argued that the Hijazi Arabian Judaism was rabbinic and halakhic, but his thesis has been widely criticized.

Central and Eastern Arabia
Evidence of Jews or Judaism in this region is tenuous. Christian Julien Robin has suggested that a governor of one of the tribes in central Arabia, Ḥujr, may have been Jewish. In eastern Arabia, Josephus claims that a son of the first-century king of Adiabene converted to Judaism.

Conversion of the ruling class
By 300, the Himyarite Kingdom had vanquished other political units (including the Saba, Qataban, and Hadrawat kingdoms) and became the ruling power of southern Arabia, uniting the region for the first time. In the mid- to late-fourth century, Himyar or at least its ruling class had adopted Judaism, having transitioned from a polytheistic practice. These events are chronicled by the Book of the Himyarites and the fifth-century Ecclessiastical History of the Anomean Philostorgius. Such sources implicate the motive for conversion as a wish on the part of the Himyarite rulers to distance themselves from the Byzantine Empire which had tried to convert them to Christianity. The conversion from polytheism and the institutionalization of Judaism as the official religion is credited in these sources to Malkīkarib Yuha’min (r. c. 375–400). According to traditional Islamic sources, the conversion took place under his son, Abu Karib (r. c. 400–445). It is in the mid-fourth century that inscriptions suddenly transition from polytheistic invocations to ones mentioning the high god Rahmanan. A Sabaic inscription dating to this time, titled Ja 856 (or Fa 60) describes the replacement of a polytheistic temple dedicated to the god al-Maqah with a mikrāb (which might be the equivalent of a synagogue or an original form of organization local to Himyarite Judaism ). The evidence suggests a sharp break with polytheism, coinciding with the sudden appearance of Jewish and Aramaic words (‘ālam/world, baraka/bless, haymanōt/guarantee, kanīsat/meeting hall) and personal names (Yṣḥq/Isaac, Yhwd’/Juda), Yws’f/Joseph). Nevertheless, the nature of the Judaism practiced by the rulers is not clear and the Jewish nature of the kings rule was not frequently made explicit.

Judaism among the local population
There is scanter material regarding the religious affiliations of the locals. All inscriptions are monotheistic, but the religious identity of their authors is not always explicit. However, there is evidence for the practice of Judaism among locals as well. The name "Israel" appears in four inscriptions and replaces the earlier term shaʿb/community: one inscription from the fifth century mentions the "God of Israel". Three inscriptions mention the "God of the Jews". MAFRAY-Ḥaṣī 1, describes the construction of a graveyard specifically for the Jewish community. There is a Hebrew inscription known as DJE 23 from the village of Bayt Hadir, 15 km east of Sanaa. It lists the mishmarot ("guards"), enumerating the twenty-four Priestly families (and their place of residence in Galilee) appointed to protect the Solomon's Temple after the return of the Jews following the Babylonian exile. It is also written in biblical as opposed to Aramaic orthography. Mentions of synagogues, indicating the formal organization of Jews in Southern Arabia, are present in a fourth-century Sabaic inscription and a late sixth century Greek inscription from the port of Qāniʾ in Bi'r Ali which uses the phrase eis Theos to refer to God and mentions a hagios topos, a phrase typically connoting a synagogue. However, the interpretation of the latter inscription and building from Qani has recently been disputed. Additional evidence is also known.

Christian Julien Robin argues that the epigraphic evidence argues against viewing the Judaism of Himyar as rabbinic. This is based on the absence of belief in the afterlife (shared by the Sadducees), the predominant use of a local language (Sabaic) as opposed to Hebrew, and the priestly emphasis of DJE 23, Himyarite Judaism may have been more "Priestly" than "Rabbinic". However, Iwona Gajda interprets DJE 23 as evidence for the presence of rabbinic Judaism, and further points to evidence that the loanwords present in Ḥasī 1 indicate that its author was strongly familiar with Jewish law.

Fall of Jewish rule over South Arabia
Around 500, the Kingdom of Aksum invaded the peninsula, overthrowing the Himyarite king and installing in his place the hardline Christian king Ma'dikarib Ya'fur. His successor, Dhu Nuwas (reigned 517–530) went on to try combatting the Christianizing influence from the Kingdom of Aksum militarily and massacred the Christian community of Najran,  which is in part documented by an inscription made by S²rḥʾl Yqbl (Yusuf's army commander), Ja 1028, which describes the burning of a church and slaughtering of Abyssinians (Ethiopian Christians), claiming thousands of deaths and prisoners. These events are also discussed in several contemporary Christian sources: in the writings of Procopius, Cosmas Indicopleustes, John Malalas, and Jacob of Serugh. Soon afterwards, John of Ephesus (d. 588) related a letter from another contemporary, Mar Simeon, directed to Abbot von Gabula about the events. In addition, an anonymous author produced the Book of the Himyarites, a sixth-century Syriac chronicle of the persecution and martyrdom of the Christians of Najran. This event to a significant counterattack by the Ethiopian kingdom, leading to the conquest of Himyar in 525 and the end of the Jewish leadership of southern Arabia.

Communication with non-peninsular Jews
Unfortunately, Jewish literary texts outside of Yemen do not discuss the Jewish community there. However, epigraphs from Palestine and Jordan do reflect communication and knowledge from the Yemenite Jewish community:


 * An inscription from Palestine using the Sabaic script (a South Arabian script) is known.
 * A Greek inscription from the village of Beit She'arim mentions the burial of a "Himyarite".
 * A fifth-century Hebrew epitaph from Zoara, Jordan describes an individual named Ywsh br ʾWfy who "died in Ẓafār, the land of the Ḥimyarites".

These communication routes may have also transferred rabbinic and other Jewish teachings.