good evenings ladies and gentlemen Friends of the DAR welcome in a night between myth and reality also the speaker of this lecture he also his character itself been talk about between myth and reality Professor roban Chris roban one of the leading scholars in the the field of Arabian history he's the founder of the French Center for research and S and in presenting such a myth it will take the whole day to site his contribution for our field but I am sure that he is one of those who will be always remember as a myth in such field as a myth to know all of this language and to gather his contribution and speak and this is what I do when I speak about roban that he wrote about almost hundred of things so we are facing a myth but in reality he led many different projects in the history of Arabia and the history of Yemen history of njan and he's involved now in many project but he's also involved with darl for many years in different type of project we're honored to have him with us tonight the subject that he will address is also between myth and reality I will not take time to uh stop him from being the stage Brown to have you thank you for the kind words and uh I remember the first conference it was in 2014 and I presented the elephants OFA and it was a subject of a surprise and thank you for the invitation in this prestigious uh institution my problem is only the English I am sorry to speak so badly so I'll read my paper and not speak spontaneously as I did normally there is no need to introduce King abraha he is the archetype of the evil King who parades with an elephant and attacks a monument emblematic of the Muslim faith in Ethiopia however abraha is quite different he is a younger child the twin brother of B both reverred by Christian Ethiopians as SS the Habra of Islam and that of Ethiopia are so wrapped up in fables and wonder that is questionable whether he is really a historical figure my purpose this evening will be first to confirm that abraha is indeed a historical figure it will also and above all illustrate that we know a lot about him today we can even claim that abraha was one of the most important rulers in the history of ancient Arabia he was a talented Adventurer whose fate is quite similar to that of bonapart 13 centuries later for a long time European science has known that abraha was an historical figure he was based on one of the most famous Byzantine historian procopius who came from the port of cesan Palestine procopius in fact devotes a long development to tabra to Habra in his work entitled the wars of Justinian we will return to this text often in our presentation Justinian was an emperor who reigned for almost 30 years from 5227 to 500 and 65 it was during his Reign that Christianity fragmented into antagonistic churches each with its own hierarchy excuse me the Empress Theodora played an important role in this Schism by supporting the dissident movement procopius was a high official in the Byzantine State he participates in particular in the military campaigns against Senate Persia as a senior officer in the Entourage of the General in Chief is called belisarius thanks to his position he has access to the Diplomatic archives as and he is particularly well informed about the actions undertaken by the emperor and their motivations the publication date of prus work is in the early 550s very shortly after the events for these two reasons procopius is a particularly well-informed and reliable source he is also an intellectual with a keen interest in classical literature who writes his Wars using a model the penan war of the Greek author Tois who had lived the nth centuries earlier in the second half of the fifth century BC procopius describes in particular the accession to power of ABA which occurred shortly after 531 probably between 532 and 535 the historical character of abraha was confirmed in the 1880s by AR arult research in Arabia the return of the Ottomans to Yemen opened the door for adventurers to explore the country the most active of these wars a self-taught Bohemian named Edward Glazer Bohemia now in Czech Republic belonged in to the austr Hungarian Empire Glasser was therefore an he made four expeditions to Yemen on the third he went to Mar the former capital of the kingdom of sa 120 kilm East of s in March April 1888 and make many discoveries there one of the most spectacular is a pillar 2 and a half M High found next to the famous marib Dam the four side of this pillar are entirely covered by a long text in Sabian script and language this language had been deciphered for about 15 years at that time the time of glazer Glazer understands that the sponsor of this text is the famous abraha King King abraha he published his Discovery in 1897 less than 10 years after his brief stay in Mar AR a second Abra inscription was discovered in 1951 at the Wells of Muran in Southwestern Saudi Arabia this is the place of Muran 200 kilom North of Nan the W with the wells of Muran and the inscription which is about 10 m about the sand level the fourth a third mentioning Abra and found at the same location was published in 1988 this is don't this text a fourth is from 2004 I discovered the fifth and the sixth published in 2012 and 2018 this is a fifth and sixth finally I attributed to a fragmentary inscription in which the name of the spener is not mentioned so today we have seven documents most of them discovered in the last 25 years around 475 Christian era the kingdom of with its capital in Yemen was the major power in Arabia it territory extended to the Medina region in the north and to the mouth of Euphrates river in the Northeast the territory of modern Yemen is probably me right about this time it is again 75 years later the King ofar has been Jewish for more than 100 years but the official religion of the kingdom was a neutral monotheism inspired by Judaism as a result of internal dissension both political and religious in nature the Throne of himar became vacant the African Kingdom of akum which is Christian intervenes militarily in Arabia and places imite princes who are Christian on the throne of hyar haar then becomes a tributary Kingdom of Akuma but the third the Christian King imposed by AUM is Christian only in appearance his name is Masuk and he takes the name of Yousef when he became king this is the famous dunas of Arab tradition as soon as he installed on the throne Joseph revolts and sets out to Massacre all the christianites aligned with AUM and bansum thus in November 523 he massacred a few hundred Christian nanites since then called the Marts of nran the axumite neus which called the calb retaliates vigorously by gathering a large army of some 7,000 men who crossed the Red Sea on 70 mostly Roman ships during The Landing Joseph is killed and the kingdom ofar is conquered the neus choses a new Christian King but this time he takes a precautions when he withdraws he leaves a large army to keep control of the country it is then that the Epic of abraha Begins the axumite Army stationed in Yemen revolts and offers the Royal Crown to abaha who is one of these two leaders obviously the nus of aom is furious and reacts with the energy we know from prus that he sent two retaliatory Expeditions both of which fail miserably I read the text when elos learned this he was eager to punish abamos together with those who had revolted with him for their Injustice to a and he sent against them an army of 3,000 men with one of his relatives as Commander this Army once there was no longer willing to return home but they wished to remain where they were as a goodly in a goodly land and so without the knowledge of their Commander they opened the neg negotiation with abos then when they came to an engagement with their oponents just as the fighting began they killed their commander and joined the ranks of the enemy and so remain there butos was greatly moved with anger and send still another Army against them this Force engaged with abamos and his men and after suffering a severe defeat in the battle straight away returned home thereafter the king of Ethiopians became afraid and send no further Expedition against Abus the Arab tradition reports that abraha revolted and stopped recognizing the negus as his ruler the negus then sent an army to Yemen to regain control of the country and pish Abra the leader of this Army is called arat abraha and arat agree to settle their differences by a single combat abraha prevails by using unfair strates one of his servants who had been hiding p zarat with his spear the negos calb becomes engaged enraged and swears to avenge arat by spilling Abraham's blood and trampling the land of Yemen abraha who who wishes to pacify his relations with the ngus has him sent a vessel containing some of his blood and a bag of Y soil thanks to this stratem he frees the negus from his oath and obtains his pardon without losing his power both sources agree that calb fails to regain control of Yen it is clear that AB was able to secure an unweaving support of his troops Abra rise to power occured as I said between 532 and 535 Pro procopius gives us some details on the origins OFA he would be a Christian a slave of the Roman from the Ethiopian city of adulis who had a job in maritim trade he is therefore an Ethiopian Christian of seral origin Arabic sourer similarly con abraha to be an Aban habashi it an Ethiopian the name abraha is indeed Ethiopian the word abraha is the Ethiopian verb meaning to Enlighten this word is formed on the same route as the Arabic Buran proof abraha is a Chan as evid evidenced by his inscriptions but is really a slave it is possible is it possible at that time for a slave to become an army leader one can doubt it when he came to power in Yemen abraha was in a very unstable position he was a foreign military officer at the head of an occupying Army what was guilty of numerous massacres he a Christian while the elites of the kingdom are Jewish is a chances of political survival seems infinitesimal in fact for 15 years abraa did not have any inscriptions engraved this is certainly because the population of his kingdom do not recognize his his illegitimacy Everything Changes in 448 nearly 14 years after his accession to power in an acious inscription abraha makes it known that he accepted he is accepted by his own people and recognize interally abraha was then in mb he had been campaigning for 11 months first he worked to put down a Revolt by the prince of kinda whose name was yai deapa and sabayan Nobles then he was called to help by the people of MB because the famous marib Dan as just broken while waiting for the arrival of the Workman he had a church consecrated in in March served by the abot of the monastery but as soon as the work of repairing the dam had begun it had to be suspended because of the plague while Habra was still in mahb a diplomatic Conference was held under the PES of the axumite the delegation which arrived the first this is the text describing the Diplomatic conference the delegation of the king of Romans the ambassador of the King of Persia and the invo of three Arab princes of Iraq har son of jabala of Syria and his brother abib son son of jabala arrived the second the conference recognizes the royal title of abraa on condition that he pays allegiance to the negus moreover he settled the Affairs of Arabia by by recognizing abra's right to reconquer all the former humite territories the conference was able to take place because the neus calb who did not want to hear from ABA anymore died his successor was willing to pass the back and recognize abraha the king ofar if abraha would pay him tribute it was this compromise that was endorsed at mahb in December 400 544 47 immediately after the conference the work on the dam was completed in two months the Triumph of abraha was complete abraha wants to celebrate it immediately with a beautiful inscription but the first attempt is pitiful it's the inscriptions on the left it's a text engraved on the pillar much smaller than the pillar of the fifth century himar King which is next door Abra orders this first attempt to be thrown away and buried in the sand at the foot of the dam the second attempt it's much much more satisfactory it's a superb pillar two and a half M high as I said with all four sides covered with by carefully carved text it places Abraham On a par with the great Hite Kings of the past centuries the in the military realm Arab Muslim scholarly tradition records that abraa launched an expedition for the purpose of destroying the Kaa of Mecca because the ca competed with the church he had built in S I will return to this point later I would like to mention now another much less known but certainly historic military operation the asent to the N the the ENT to the N this operation was revealed by an inscription found in 1951 it was then discovered that it it was alluded to a certain it was alluded to in certain traditions and in ancient Arabic poetry I will I begin with the 1951 inscriptions it was discovered by an archaeological operation uh in southern in the the southern part of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia founded by King abdalaziz it is located above the Ws of Muran 200 kilm off of Nan this is the Belgium mission in Muran the text they found its author who is King Abraham himself relates that he he launched a fourth campaign in desert Aria against the Banu who had revolted the Hite Army is divided into two columns the first wins the victory in the wum and the second in a Wy at the Waters of taban there are relatively commonplace names so their location in N is not entirely certain following this Victory abraa went to the N to halban a small locality 300 Kil 300 kilometers Southwest Southwest ofad the name is also vocalized huban halan or huban this is the position of huban the M tribal Confederation pledges allegiance to him and surrenders hostages nothing is said of the revolting banam probably fled but it is stated that Prince am s of Ken elund makes his submission andh over his son has hostage this is a famous character he is the son of King of King Elm who then rules the city of Al in La euphrat Valley his mother is the kinded princess H daughter ofar the king the inscription dates the Expedition between April and December 552 at this time AMR is Crown Prince he became King two years laters in 554 upon the for his father and reigned for about 15 years at first it was thought that the ban where the tribe Banu basa ambiguities in the text have led to the belief that abraha actually suffered a failure and he C fledged has a success the Israeli scholar mahim ker has even taken the hypothesis a step further by identifying this expedition of abraha with the famous campaign against Mecca in the year of the elephant indeed a tradition reported byel dates the elephant campaign in 552 in 208 I went in the wells to the Wells of Moran and try to find the 1951 inscription while searching for it I came across a second inscription that Ru this reconstruction this second inscription also engraved by Abra proclaims the submission of the entire Northern Peninsula from the Arabian Gulf to the Gulf of the regions that submit are this is a text a detail the word y read so the from the East to the the port of and Jud the text is undated but can be placed between December 552 and June 554 the epigraphic texts thus reveal that abraar conquered the enti entire Arabian Peninsula between 500 52 and 554 Abra went in person toban in the N his itinerary is sketched by the distribution of inscriptions that he commissioned or that mention him one is Ina 100 kilom North of Nan and others in Muran 200 kilm North of Nan the trium of abraha is allusively referred by two traditionist in the notti they devoted to a tribal Chief Sayed of the banal a tribe in Northern Arabia this chief of the banal is called Zan the first traditionist is Abul farahani well known Abul faraj this is a view of the text of Abul faraj in the famous book of songs in Arabic according to a tradition attributed to abani when abaha went up to the N Zan presented himself to him abraha honored him gave him preference all the Arab the other Arabs who had came up and made made him the Amir of the two sons of wh and Bak the ter territory of T andak tribes extends into the lower Iraq and Northeast Aria incidentally this text indicates that Northeastern Arabia and the Kuwait belonged to abra's Empire at the time and had IB janab the say of the bual had as his Governor the second traditionist is in he confirms that Z Jan offer his services to abraha but without mentioning either the name of the king or the the place of the meeting when the abans came with the intention of destroying the temple Z went out to meet their King Abra honored him and sent him to the of the Iraq to invite its inhabitants to submit to him three pre-islamic poets mention this Expedition or it its results the first is TF a poet descended from bakra and contemporary of abraha the poet staying in Nan would warn hanf from the N of abraa intention to invade his country I don't give the text in Arabic because my PDF is not a good quality will you give k a sign for caution should save you in Nan the Kings made a decision if only a raven in the sky had warned you there are two armies one approaching the Caba and the other if you don't cross the SE coming to you the second poet is m descendant of Zu Jan the say of banal already already mentioned we said to have lived in the first half of the 8th Century ad Islamic period in a fragment of five verses he boasts of being descended from a tribal Chief whom Abra had honored with the government of the Bakr andali tribes and abraha who had chosen us he made us rulers as a kingly reward he shared half of his reign with zohir and there was no ruler than him in the matter of ruling he he appointed him other the two tribes of marad he appointed him over the people of Highland the two sons of wh humiliating them bringing them back thisp despite Readiness for war the thir poet more interesting is descended from s of tamim the cter of tamim we said to have died during the reign of Omar so beginning of Islamic period two pieces relate to abraha in the first which is only two lines the poet boasts of all the support his tribe along with the princes of Yen gave to abrahan now according to the first Muran inscription it is precisely inan that abrah receives the allegion of Mah they decided for Haba the actions of war the place of it was and they rushed with the princes and both of them were our partners in kingship and possession so here we have huban and Abraham in the piece in the second piece of which has 44 verses there is again mentioned to abraha who is here referred to as Abu yakum the poet seems to be referring to a battle on the day of Abu yakum in and the allegiance of M this is the text and on the day of Abu yakum when the people were present at halban after it products were command we closed against them the Gate of The Fortress in front of which was a prince whose Chiefs went forth with the javalin these verses of constitute the most reliable literary mention of abraha rise in the N Hulan enjoyed a certain notor at that time as shown by another mention in ancient po poetry by Jarir the ENT to the N that is revealed by the text can all can also be reconstructed through the images the wells of Muran are located in a ravine bordered by Granite Hills these a stone which is very hard is difficult to engrave in general inscriptions and drawings are rare in Granite and more often painted than engraved the Welles of Muran are an exception they are surrounded by hundreds of drawings and engrave the text by the Muran but the Muran drawings are very different from those usually found in the region they are only Horsemen whereas usually one finds eratic figures and way wide range of domestic and wild animals moreover these Riders have a very particular style which is not found elsewhere their horse is reared this is one of the example of pre-islamic horse found Ina Islamic horses and this is a style of the horses of Muran which are certainly connected with the army of abraha these features lead to the conclusion that all the text and drawings at ofan with a few rare exceptions were engraved by abraha troops who must have stayed there for a long time aba's Horsemen at Moran number about 40 they are elegantly represented but without concern for realism often the leg are not represented is a case here here no legs also here apparently no legs no legs also no legs we have only the trunk of the of the Horseman to to Judge Al of the leg presented the horsemen of abraha us to visualize the equipment of high ranking soldiers in the sixth Century they don't wear any protection helmet qu of Shan mail nor do they have heavy steel shts some wield a spear but many seems to float backwards with some kind of ribbon I wondered if it was a sling but this hypothesis is difficult because the slingers were never mounted on horses this is a man with a spear and her man with this kind of ribbon perhaps sling to judge the Armament in the 6th Century we also have three successive portraits of an Hite officer called tamim yazid in 521 he is depicted dressed in a loin cloth and armed with a spear in June 523 is depicted dressed in a loin cloth and armed andun 525 he has a long squ in his cboard attached to his waist in July 523 he carries only a SW this is in the middle the image of tamim he has Rasen in rank if we generalize these meager observations it appears that the Armament is very r r r rudimentary except for the senior officers who have a SW abraha Horseman are not only found in Muran where there are three inscriptions mentioning abrah when Horseman is known where there is an inscription mentioning abraha there is also one and atban a splendid Granite Massi 210 kilm Northeast of Muran toward even more extraordinary a French man living in Saudi Arabia Mr floral who systematically explores the regions has just discovered a new one at exactly halfway between and don't we have the horse of Abraham and near the horse the name anat associated and on all the design I present now we have this particularity and the leg is represented Ed here the leg is represented also this the connection between The Horseman and the inscription here is not sure so we have one in we have three in a new time here we are in turban this is the granite granite the mountains in turban very impressive so we are 200 kilm more in direction of the North and the last one is this one in SAA and SAA is two more 100 kilm North of turban so we are halfway between Hima and Riad these four sites between Nan and the N draw the root of The anat Horseman a man or a unit of the cavar of abra's army called anat they th confirm the reality of the asent to the n and probably give the way followed by Abraham himself One Last Detail is of importance there are fre drawings in of an elephant with his mAh among the hurite or foreign Kings who are likely to have passed through Hima only the axumite abraha can reasonably be have pered with an elephant which is by the way the animal emblematic of power in Africa but not in Arabia we can therefore assume that abraha passed through Hima with an elephant it's quite unlikely that the elephant ventured between him and the N which is in extremely deserted and completely empty region the elephant must have been based in Nan probably the only city for varable to Arabia and the two of the design of the elephant it remains to examine to ex to examine the famous expedition of abraha against Mecca and the end of the rain there are unfortunately evens for which there is nothing new I will quickly present the pieces of the file on the side of the aerographic documentation the information dries up in 560 the date of the last dated inscription the one that would commemorate the construction ofis if the Expedition against Mecca is historical it is necessarily later than 560 on the external side the Byzantine Chronicles shed light on abra's rain until around 550 thereafter they only mention the fall of the axum dasty in Aria around 570 the dislocation of the hurite Kingdom that follows the fall of the axumite Dynasty is confirmed by the Arabic Islamic scholarly tradition which places it around 5 75 this tradition further indicates that two sons of abraha succeeded each other to the on the throne the hypothetical Expedition against Mecca is therefore most probably situated in the Years following 560 it around 565 if once wanted to give an approximate date tradition records that abraha launches a campaign in Western Arabia with the intention of destroying the CBA that competes with the church of s his army is preceded by an elephant but the elephant as it reaches its goals refuses to advance and the Army is miraculously destroyed Abra flees and dies on the way back to Yemen or on his arrival in Salah this story raises three questions first in the earliest text those of and M the details of the Expedition show great differences second all the poetic fragments supposedly commemorating the event are either dubious or clearly pous third Abra elephant was a par period elephant a perod animal not a war elepant it is unlikely that it participated in the military campaigns which already POS serious stewardship problems for men and animals the OCC of the bisham that has emerged is clearly a reconstructions that combines diverse materials probably in relation to the search of what Surah 105 alil means a first element is the memory of an event involving an elephant who sight impressed the people in Mecca in Mecca the year of the elephant was the starting point for counting the years it was then said 10 years or 20 years after the year of the elephant a second element in the recollection is the recollection that King sabra's Army was wiped out not in battle but as a result of a curse probably an epidemic this the king himself self sticken by disease ended up miserable the final rediction brought these two elements together and constructed a narrative in relation with Thea a narrative that was likely to illuminate the meaning of the very elusive surra in which the companions of an elephant were mentioned Abra Expedition against mea has long seemed likely because it offered a plausible explanation for the dislocation of haar's Kingdom but it is by no means assured of being historical as for the policy that abraha adopted in the management of this Kingdom little is known except on one point religious policy it must be remembered that abraha is a Christian in a kingdom whose population is Jewish if he wants to last he must obtain the support or at least the benevolent neutrality of a part of the Jews he did this by changing the official wording of the profession of faith during abra's predecessor this profession was it's better to get the text in the name of Rahman rahmanan is the name of God of the son Christ the Victor and of the holy spirit with Abra the the formula becomes in the name ofman of his Messiah and of the Holy Ghost or else in the name of Rahman and his Messiah the major change is that the second person in other the Trinity is no longer the Son of God namely a person of divine sense the idea of God having a son was unacceptable for the Jews the second person becomes the Messiah Al Messi of God namely a man who was chosen and anointed by God in this formulation Jews can recognize themel perfectly for Christians it present it it presents nothing shocking the second change is the reduction of the Holy Spirit to a secondary rank as indicated ated in the randomness of of his invocation this is a good example of the middle ground that can unite two antagonist antagonistic parties this middle course seems to have been accepted judging from the success of abra's Reign after Conquering the entire araban Peninsula Habra was concerned with the strengthening of cohesion of these vast Empire again using religion he ordered the construction of the huge Church in Saha housing under his Dome relics whose veneration was likely to unite all the Christians of the peninsula this church is called by Arab traditionist Elis a name derived from the Greek Ecclesia which means precisely Church some decorated stor of it of it remain reused in the great Mosque of s here you have I presented only the two capitals with crosses but there are many other remains in the akbara of the traditionist mid mid 9th century there is an accurate description of Elis with Dimensions the church which was built on a square Podium 10 cubits High it consisted of three parts called The Bait E1 and doom the floor dimensions were according to our reconstruction 230 kbits by 120 or 78 M by 40 m the great Mosque of s whose Dimensions today are very similar 78 M likeis for the length and for the width 66 against 40 it the successive expansions of Alis were made at the expense of this building the first carried out in the norn part that of the k w facing Mecca is around 75 5 or between 705 and 715 it resulted in the destruction of the Tom of the Prophet according to it is likely that this tradition preserves the memory of the destruction of the reliques of Alis a fragmentary South Arabian inscription commemorates in 559 560 the construction of the building with a expensive materials it is likely that that this is the founding inscription of Alis this is the pl reconstructed by Christian showing the structure ofis with the entrance the bait thean and the Dome theba incidentally it should be r the inscription mentioning probably mentioning the foundation of Alis incidentally it should be remembered that the hir calendar was lunar with additional month in the number of seven every 19 years modeled on the Jewish calendar it is likely that it is abraha who reformed this calendar to align it with the solar calar of the chisan at the time of the building of Alis at the end of this investigation some traits of aba's personality can be identified first of all abraha is an exceptional War leader who knows how to Galvanize his men in the manner of Cesar bonapart this is demonstrated by the unfailing Loyalty of his troops when calb sensor to expedition to bring him down it is shown also by his reconquest of or Arabia in four years Abra was a skillful tactician who knew how to reconcile antagonistic parties as shown by his religious policy abraa placed a great importance on political communication he demonstrated this in two ways in mahb first he wants the inscription commemorating his achievements to be as large and as beautiful as that of his predecessor more significantly Abra claims to have restored the dam of MB when his work is limited to little and he makes this known by building a massive structure this is the dam of MB the the northern SLO the southern SLO the length of the dam is 700 m the main Channel and the Tower built by abaha is in the South and sluth this is the star without any uselessness uh commemorating the work of abraha the good opinion that the yenes has of abraha excuse me Abra is finally a devious and cautious politician who promis a lot to the Byzantine emperor but finally does not really help him in the war against Persia Abra was indeed considered by his contemporaries as a great king this is what the ancient otri says this is demonstrated by the 10 or so individuals named abraha in the sixth sth and 8th Century this is the odly example of the foreign name adopted by the Arabs in genealogies the good opinion that the yenes had of abraha is all illustrated by the fact that abraha and his son are included in the genealogy of one of the noblest families of the banah prince of madha this positive assessment is well summarized by the historian can abraha was a MAG magn magnanimous Noble leader ply attached to his Christian religion but in the Arab Muslim scholarly tradition the good opinion of abraha soon came into conflict with the very negative Judgment of Theologian according to the L abraha was a Godless King who had wanted to destroy the house of God since moral ugliness obviously translates into physical defects abraha became a vindictive and deformed individual nickname short-legged those this is there are many others is described as black blue-eyed flat noosed and Punchy the prophet of Islam is even attributed the words dwarfish and with distorted Feit Ander is now the Prototype of the enemies of God the not a pical book against Imam published in Egypt a few decades ago refer to the leader of Iran as the new abraa that is the abraha of our time this presentation I wanted to set the record straight and show that abraha was a fascinatingly successful Adventure I hope that they have convinc you of this thank you