Yūsuf Dhū Nuwas, another unexpected Jewish leader in history
Sunday, July 23rd, 2006 08:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lethargic_manDiscovered another example of an unexpected Jewish leader in history: Yūsuf Dhū Nuwas, last king of Himyar in present-day Yemen, in the sexth century.
Like Queen Judith of Ethopia, he too persecuted the Christians of his realm, on the grounds that Christian states persecuted Jews. He made the mistake, however, of writing to King Mundhir of Hīra (the first Arab kingdom outside Arabia) encouraging him to do the same, when in fact Mundhir was receiving a Roman embassy seeking to make peace between Constantinople and Hīra. The Romans, being Christian, were horrified by this and eventually Kaleb king of Axum (in Ethiopia), with the help of the Roman emperor Justin, crossed over the Yemen and defeated Dhū Nuwas, the cur.*
Moral of the story, I suppose: two wrongs do not make a right.
* Pun, not political comment.
Reply to original post.
Like Queen Judith of Ethopia, he too persecuted the Christians of his realm, on the grounds that Christian states persecuted Jews. He made the mistake, however, of writing to King Mundhir of Hīra (the first Arab kingdom outside Arabia) encouraging him to do the same, when in fact Mundhir was receiving a Roman embassy seeking to make peace between Constantinople and Hīra. The Romans, being Christian, were horrified by this and eventually Kaleb king of Axum (in Ethiopia), with the help of the Roman emperor Justin, crossed over the Yemen and defeated Dhū Nuwas, the cur.*
Moral of the story, I suppose: two wrongs do not make a right.
* Pun, not political comment.
Reply to original post.
