Himyarite Kingdom

Himyar was the frankincense kingdom of Yemen from 110 BC to 525 AD, the last great power of ancient South Arabia. From the highland capital Zafar, its kings spent three centuries absorbing the neighbouring kingdoms: Saba of the Marib dam fell about 280 under Shammar Yahri'sh, Hadhramaut followed, and Himyar taxed the caravans that carried myrrh to Gaza and Rome. Dams, terraces and fifty gated towns made the highlands bloom; inscriptions in Sabaic boast of wars and embassies from Persia to Axum. The kings converted to Judaism, perhaps for trade, perhaps for God: Dhu Nuwas, the last of the line, burned the Christians of Najran in their church around 523, the martyrs of the ditch remembered in the Quran's Elephant chapter. Vengeance sailed from Africa: the Christian Axumites of Ethiopia crossed in 525, killed Dhu Nuwas, who rode his horse into the sea, and made Yemen a viceroyalty under Abraha, whose elephant march on Mecca failed in the Year of the Elephant. Persia took the land fifty years later, but Himyar's dams, its script and its Jewish kings stayed in Arabia's memory long after its incense smoke cleared.