The relations between al-Habasha and Yemen are among the most far-reaching chapters in the history of the Arabian Peninsula before Islam. According to the classical Arabic sources this relationship began as trade and religious influence, but it ended as military occupation and colonization.
Early contacts between Yemen and al-Habasha
Owing to their position on either side of the Red Sea, South Arabia and Abyssinia had been connected with one another since antiquity, and the kings of Himyar in Yemen traded with the Abyssinians in ivory, gold and frankincense.¹
After the collapse of the dam of Maʾrib many Yemeni tribes moved northward, while others strengthened their trade with Africa. In this period Christian influence also arose in Yemen by way of Abyssinia and Byzantium.²
The Abyssinian invasion of Yemen
The decisive turn came in the fifth and sixth centuries AD, when Abyssinia, at the urging of Byzantium, sent a military expedition to Yemen.
According to al-Tabari, Ibn Kathir and al-Baladhuri the cause was religious: the Yemeni king Dhu Nuwas of Himyar had fought against Christianity and persecuted the Christians of Najran.³
The Abyssinians, who were themselves Christian, sailed with a great army across the Red Sea and conquered Yemen, in the course of which Dhu Nuwas perished.⁴
The commander of the Abyssinian army was Aryaṭ, who ruled over Yemen on behalf of the king of al-Habasha. When Aryaṭ was killed by his officer Abraha al-Ashram, Abraha took over the power.⁵
The rule of Abraha al-Ashram
Abraha established his capital at Sanʿaʾ and built there a great church, known as al-Qullays, intended to replace the pilgrimage to the Kaʿbah in Mecca.⁶
According to Ibn Hisham and Ibn Kathir he sent messengers to the Arab tribes to command them henceforth to make pilgrimage to his church. When a man of Quraysh defiled the church, Abraha swore to destroy the Kaʿbah.⁷
He marched with an army of elephants toward Mecca, an event that became known as ʿAm al-Fil (the Year of the Elephant), the year in which the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was born.
The Qur’an says concerning this:
«أَلَمْ تَرَ كَيْفَ فَعَلَ رَبُّكَ بِأَصْحَابِ الْفِيلِ»
“Have you not considered, [O Muhammad], how your Lord dealt with the companions of the elephant?” (al-Fil 105:1).⁸
Abraha’s army was destroyed, which in the Arab tradition is regarded as a divine protection of Mecca.
Political and cultural influence of the Abyssinians
Despite Abraha’s defeat, Abyssinia remained present for a time in South Arabia. The Abyssinian governors introduced administration and taxation after the Ethiopian-Byzantine model, and their soldiers settled in Yemen and married local women, which led to the formation of small communities of mixed descent that are designated in the Arabic sources as Abnaʾ al-Habasha (the sons of the Abyssinians).⁹
These Abnaʾ endured until the time of the Prophet ﷺ, and some of them belonged to the Muslims of Yemen.¹⁰
The Abyssinian presence also brought Christian symbols and language into the region. In al-Bidayah wa al-Nihayah, Ibn Kathir notes that the name of Abraha’s cathedral, “Qullays” (derived from ekklesia, church), directly reflects the Byzantine-Christian influence.¹¹
The fall of Abyssinian power
After the Year of the Elephant the power of Abyssinia in Yemen weakened. The inhabitants rose in revolt and called upon the Persians for aid, and the Persian Empire of Kisra (Chosroes I) sent an army under the command of Wahriz, which defeated the Abyssinians and brought Yemen under Persian rule.¹²
From that moment the Abyssinians disappeared from Yemen, but their cultural and religious legacy remained until the coming of Islam.
The significance of Abyssinia in the pre-Islamic context
The colonization of Yemen by al-Ḥabasha had three major consequences for the history of Arabia:
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Religious influence: Christianity spread in South Arabia, especially in Najran and Sanʿaʾ, which later formed the context for the Qur’anic verses about the “people of the ditch” (ashab al-ukhdud, Surah al-Burūj 85:4–8).
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Political precedent: it showed that foreign empires could exert influence over the Arab regions, which made the later Islamic unity all the more exceptional.
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Symbolic significance: the destruction of Abraha’s army marked the end of foreign domination over the sanctuary of Mecca and was seen as a herald of the coming of the Prophet ﷺ.
¹ Al-Baladhuri, Futuḥ al-Buldan, chapter “Yemen wa al-Ḥabasha”.
² Ibn Khaldun, al-ʿIbar, vol. 2, p. 119.
³ Al-Ṭabari, Tarikh al-Rusul wa al-Muluk, vol. 2, pp. 96-101.
⁴ Ibn Kathir, al-Bidayah wa al-Nihayah, vol. 2, pp. 229-231.
⁵ Al-Tabari, ibid., p. 105; Ibn Hisham, al-Sīrah al-Nabawiyyah, vol. 1, p. 38.
⁶ Ibn Kathir, al-Bidayah wa al-Nihayah, vol. 2, p. 232.
⁷ Ibn Hisham, vol. 1, pp. 40-43.
⁸ Tafsir al-Tabari on Surah al-Fil 105:1.
⁹ Al-Yaʿqubi, Tarikh, vol. 1, p. 154.
¹⁰ Ibn Saʿd, al-Ṭabaqat al-Kubra, vol. 1, p. 241.
¹¹ Ibn Kathir, al-Bidayah wa al-Nihayah, vol. 2, p. 233.
¹² Al-Tabari, vol. 2, pp. 128-131.