The Massacre of Najran (Ashab al-Ukhdud)

In 523 CE, Dhu Nuwas, the Jewish king of Himyar, led a campaign against the Christians of Najran and tried to turn them from Christianity by force. When they refused, he dug a trench for them and cast them into the fire. This is what the Qur'an refers to in Sura al-Buruj (al-Buruj 4). ^{1 2}

Judaism had entered Yemen earlier, through Tubba' As'ad Abu Karib, who went to fight in Yathrib, embraced Judaism there, and brought two rabbis from Banu Qurayza to Yemen; from then on Judaism spread and expanded there. ^{3 4} Christianity had entered Najran through the ascetic Faymiyun. ^{3 5}

When his son Yusuf, known as Dhu Nuwas, ruled Yemen after Tubba' As'ad, he attacked the Christians of Najran and called on them to adopt Judaism. When they refused, he dug the trench for them and burned them with fire, making no distinction between man and woman, small child or old man. ^{3 4} It is said that the number killed was between twenty thousand and forty thousand, and that this took place in October 523 CE. ^{3 2}

The affair provoked the anger of an active Christianity, which sought conquest and expansion over the lands of the Arabs under the Roman emperors. They incited the Abyssinians and prepared a naval fleet for them, and seventy thousand soldiers landed and occupied Yemen a second time in 525 CE. ^{1 6} See the second Abyssinian occupation of Yemen.

• The number of the dead is given in the form "it is said", within a wide range; the book records this as a caveat.
• The month (October 523 CE) is the author's estimate, drawn from Tafhim al-Qur'an. It agrees with what researchers cite from the inscriptions, but the academic comparison has not yet been added.