Himyar

“ Bani Himyar from Yemen. The Himyarites are too well-known to be described. The Himyarite princes of Ro-en, Mu-afir, Hamadan and Bazan, all of the Christian faith in Yemen, embraced Islam and announced their conversion by letter sent to Mohammad through their emissaries which reached him after his return from Tabúk. [Pg lvi]
[92] Either a clan of Lakhm, or a branch of Bani Aámir.
[93] A sub-tribe of the Bani Aámir bin Sáasáa already described.
[94] The King of Omán, together with the people of Omán, embraced Islam during A.H. 8 and 9. The people of Omán were of the Azdite stock. ”

“ The castles of Sahlin and Bainun (at Sanaa) are said to have been built by demons at the bidding of Solomon for Belkis, queen of Shebah. Besides these the Arabs talk of [Pg 327] numerous castles and fortresses in the south. Towards the year 100 B.C. Harith, a descendant of Himyar, obtained the throne of the Sabæans; and the place of the Sabæans is taken by the Himyarites, the Homerites of Western nations, who henceforth are the ruling nation in Yemen, a change for which Arab tradition prepares the way by making Himyar the son and successor of Abd-Shams-Sabah. ”

“ Of the origin of Berberah little is known. El Firuzabadi derives it, with great probability, from two Himyar chiefs of Southern Arabia. [6] About A.D. 522 the troops of Anushirwan expelled the Abyssinians from Yemen, and re-established there a Himyari prince under vassalage of the Persian Monarch. Tradition asserts the port to have been occupied in turns by the Furs [7] , the Arabs, the Turks, the Gallas, and the Somal. And its future fortunes are likely to be as varied as the past. ”

“ Abd-Shams-Sabah, the grandson of J'arab, built the city of Mareb, the chief city of the Sabæans, according to the Greeks. This founder of the monarchy of the Sabæans left two sons, Himyar and Kachlan. The first was the progenitor of the Himyarites, who are mentioned even by Western writers, but not till the first century A.D., and then on the south coast between Mareb and Hadramaut. The name Himyarites includes the tribes of the Chatramites, the Codaa, the Kinana, the Dshoheina, &c. ”

“ Two sons of Himyar, Malik and Arib, had carried the Joktanite arms back toward the east again, subduing the earlier inhabitants of the frankincense region north of Dhofar. The center of the tribe was at Zafar, southwest of Marib, and some days' journey nearer the sea. Allied with the sheikh at Zafar was he of the Ma'âfir, controlling the port of Muza. This combination was able to overthrow the old order, Zafar supplanting Marib, and Muza stripping Aden of its trade and its privileges along the African coast. ”

“ The princes of Himyar, however, Dzul Kelâa and others, [81] would not help him, and he was obliged to call in the aid of the brigand Amr ibn Mádekerib and his marauding bands. Dâdweih was treacherously slain by Amr at a feast, but Feroze escaped, and after much hardship, secured his retreat with a friendly tribe in the hills of Khaulân. For a time Cays carried all before him. The family of Feroze was taken captive, and the Persian settlers, pursued in every direction, fled to the mountains, or took ship from Aden. Feroze appealed for help to the Caliph ”

“ And (quoth Al-Sha’abi [172] ) it is related, on the authority of learned men of Himyar in Al-Yaman that Shaddad, when destroyed with all his host by the sound, was succeeded in his Kingship by his son Shaddad the Less, whom he left viceregent in Hazramaut [173] and Saba, when he and his marched upon Many-columned Iram. ”

“ The Minaean kingdom had long since lost its identity, having been conquered by the Sabaeans. When Saba fell before Himyar its allegiance was transferred likewise; but we may assume that at the date of the Periplus it was almost independent. When the Homerite dynasty became powerful, it asserted its authority over most of the Hejaz; when the Abyssinians conquered Yemen their rule was not acknowledged so far north. The insurgence of the Ishmaelites under the spur of Islam was a logical consequence of centuries of civil war among their former overlords in Yemen. ”

“ At present we must be satisfied with such knowledge of the Incense-Land as may be had from these, and from inscriptions found by Halévy and Glaser in the homes of its neighbors, the Minaeans and Sabaeans.
During the 2d and 1st centuries B. C., the greater part of the Incense-Land was held by the Incense-People, the Aethiopians or Habashat. Pressure by the Parthians on the East forced an alliance, of which Glaser found the record at Marib, between the Habashat, Hadramaut and Saba on one hand, against Himyar and Raidan on the other. ”

“ Troops of bandit horse, remnants of the false prophet’s army, hovered about the country to the south and west of Najrân. They were headed by Amr ibn Mádekerib, a poet of note and a chief of great local influence, before whom Khâlid ibn Saîd, the governor of Najrân, fled for his life. On one occasion, however, Khâlid, with but a small following, surprised Amr and spoiled him of his horse and the sword Samsât, inherited from Himyar kings and famous in Arab song. [77] The whole coast was in a ferment, and the loyal adherents of Islam were fain to flee for shelter to fastnesses in the mountains. ”

“ It is expressly recorded about several Arabian tribes that they were converted to Judaism; such were the Benu-Kinanah, a warlike, quarrelsome clan, related to the most respected Koraishites of Mecca, and several other families of the tribes Aus and Chazraj in Yathrib.
62 Especially memorable, however, in the history of the Arabs is the conversion to Judaism of a powerful king of Yemen. The princes or kings of Yemen bore the name of Tobba, and at times ruled over the whole of Arabia; they traced their historical origin back to Himyar, their legendary origin to Kachtan. ”

“ The Arabians of the Kailan race (Aus and Chazraj) hated the rule of the Jews, and seized the opportunity of rebelling when the Jews could not rely on assistance from Himyara. An Arabian chief of the Ghassanid race, Harith Ibn Abu Shammir, who was closely related to the Kailan race, was invited to lead his troops towards Yathrib. This brave and adventurous prince of Arabia, who was attached to the Byzantine court, accepted the invitation. In order not to arouse the suspicions of the Jews, Ibn Abu Shammir gave out that he intended going to Himyara. ”

“ For as the Mahri represent the Himyarite conquerors of the incense coast-land, so do the Gara represent to some extent the earlier inhabitants. Bent found a state of armed truce under the restraining influence of Muscat; Haines, Carter, and Cruttenden had found the villages of the plain fighting among themselves, and the mountain folk fighting with the plain, the gatherers with the overlords, as of old. Bent tells enough, however, to indicate the worship of the spirit of the lake, the waters of which might not be polluted by the foot of man ”

“ The inconsistency of the patriarchal classification is apparent. He states that certain traditions which he is inclined to accept as true connect the Sanhaja and the Ketama with the Yemen. [324] They were Himyarite tribes which came from the east coast of the Red Sea to Africa under the leadership of Ifrikos, the hero who gave his name to Ifrikiya, which is now called Tunisia. In examining the organisation and history of the Aulimmiden Tuareg who live between the Air mountains and the Niger bend, Barth [325] found that they also claimed to be descended from Himyer. ”

“ They are apparently of extreme antiquity, and doubtless far anterior in date to any other Himyaritic remains that we saw in the Hadhramout.
The wazir joined us as usual on our return from Kabr Saleh, as we sat outside our tent in the moonlight with Imam Sharif and the Indian interpreters, and we had a pleasant evening. We were perfectly charmed to see great preparations for sleep going on among the Bedouin. We thought they really must be tired after dancing the whole night and walking the whole day. They were busy putting themselves to bed in graves which they dug in the loose dust, not sand ”

“ Shibahm is twelve miles distant from Al Koton, and is one of the principal towns in the Hadhramout valley. It is built on rising ground in the middle of the narrowest part of the valley, so that no one can pass between it and the cliffs of the valley out of gunshot of the walls. This rising ground has doubtless been produced by many successions of towns built of sun-dried bricks, for it is the best strategical point in the neighbourhood.
Early Arab writers tell us that the Himyaritic population of this district came here when they abandoned Shabwa, early in the Christian era. ”

“ See Tamarida Hagarein, 96, 98 &c., 103 Hagarein, Abdul, Sultan of, 98 &c., 103, 141, 282 Hagheri Ask, 401, 408 Haghier, Mount, 351, 368, 378 Haibel Gabrein, 90 Halaib, 290, 298 Hami, 210 Hamoumi tribe, 168 &c., 177, 186, 207, 283 Hamoumi, Sultan of the, 214 Hamram, 275 Hatasou, Queen, 270, 293 Haula, 362 Haura, 106 Haura, Sultan of, 282 Hazarmaveth, 72, 89, 95, 133 Herodotus, quoted, 21 Himyaritic remains, 49, 104, 166, 242, 402, 405, 413; civilisation, 71, 143 inscriptions, 71 Hirsch, Herr Leo, 72 Hormuz, 10 Houri, 68, 292 Ibadhuyah. ”

“ Closing his eyes and fixing his mind on the red-walled city of Aphur, he brought all his will to bear upon his one desire, and projected his astral entity to Himyra in a flash.
It lay beneath him as he had seen it the first day he came to Palos, a far-flung circuit of walls—the farther lost in a heat haze until it appeared no more than a ruddy shadow through a shimmering veil—spread out on either side of the river Na, inside its banks of cut stone, its quays, whereon at night the fire-urns flared red at the foot of the terraces and shone redly on the yellow waves. ”

“ After a few words amongst ourselves, Himyah got out of the little circle, and first moving off towards the camp, until well out of sight of the hyæna, he made a sudden turn to the right, and stealing among the detached portions of rock, which abounded along the edges of the plain, he, in a short time, made his appearance again far in the rear of the animal, who was still sitting, like ourselves, on its haunches, and not in the least aware of the dangerous proximity of the ugly Dankalli, with his still more ugly matchlock. ”

“ Himyah was delighted with the success of his shot. Ohmed Medina thought the old matchlock was a “tihebe bandook” (a capital gun) , whilst Zaido and Allee were beckoning a crowd of Bedouins and Kafilah men, who had heard the report, and were now hastening in a long line, to witness the grand feat in the sporting annals of their country, the honour of which belonged entirely to them, through Himyah’s creditable firing, and who was saluted accordingly by several as an “Engreez got-tam,” (English soldier.) [3]
3. ”

“ Far, far out he swam on the new wings he had built for himself—and for Naia. Naia? He smiled. In Himyra she was perhaps flying by day even as he was flying now—flying as he had taught her to fly in body and soul; teaching others to fly for the strength of her nation, as he was flying for her nation and his, to make it strong and secure. For a moment the thought gripped him, and he flew on in a sort of waking dream, until the flare of a hundred leaping fires directly beneath him brought him back to the matter in hand. ”

“ To whom would it ever occur to attack Himri, that tiny Circassian village with scarcely five hundred inhabitants, who have nothing in the world but their kine, their goats, and their pretty girls? Who would ever come against Himri with guns and an army—against those most worthy men who all their life long have never done anything but make cheese and tan hides, who only exercise their valor against the devastating bands of bears, and only extirpate with their long, far-reaching muskets the wild goats of the rocks? ”

“ On the death of Morthed the kingdom of Hamyar was divided amongst his four sons, who reigned together, each with a separate diadem. On their way to Mecca these kings were attacked by the tribe of Chenan, three of them slain, and the fourth thrown into chains. [27] The throne of Hamyar is said to have been next occupied by their sister, who was deposed and put to death by the people. ”

“ The twenty-fourth king of Hamyar was Shamar, the son of Africcus, or according to others of Yasasin, surnamed Abu Karb, or the father of affliction, from his victories and cruelties. He is celebrated as one of the greatest warriors that ever bore the crown of Yaman. Since the time of Al Hareth the eastern boundaries of the Hamyaritic expeditions were Azerbijan and the frontiers of India; it was left for Shamar to extend his conquests far beyond those ancient limits. ”

“ Robur declared. "She yields to Jadgor's command, saying one may forget herself no less in Himyra than in Zitra's pyramid. Yet strengthen your heart, man of earth. These tablets I have from Zud to Magur, and in Himyra is Gaya, to whom, I believe, my cousin will open her heart. At present the maid is overwrought, and Jadgor's attitude toward you does not strengthen your case." ”

“ They were free as the winds on which it seemed they rode. Like a sheet of molten silver the pool in the garden lay beneath them. About them and beyond them spread the wide panorama of the wooded mountains, marked here and there by the bone-white windings of the road. Beneath them swam the wide expanse of the desert. Far off to the east and south, in a ruddy glow, the fire-urns of Himyra flared.
Croft turned his face to that of the shape beside him, and found it the face of a sleeper who sees visions, and knew that though the soul of Naia obeyed him, it was still asleep. "Art afraid?" ”