Nagran Episode

Though the evidence for the involvement of Syriac Christians in a “second christianisation” of Ethiopia during the fifth and sixth centuries has rightly been questioned, it is all but certain that there were contacts between Ethiopic Christianity and Syriac Christianity during Late Antiquity. This is especially the case since the Aksumite Kingdom had a long history of involvement in various power struggles with South Arabian kingdoms in the Arabian Peninsula, and since Syriac Christians are known to have resided in these very areas. In one instance of particular potential importance to the present project, the sixth-century Aksumite ruler Kaleb intervened against the king of Ḥimyar on behalf of miaphysite Christians who were being persecuted in Nagran. This “Nagran Episode” is evidenced not only by Ancient South Arabian inscriptions but was also widely remembered across the broader Mediterranean world in hagiographic sources in a diverse array of languages, including Arabic, Ethiopic, Greek, and Syriac. The Nagran Episode has an enormous scope with various points of historical importance, ranging from the role played by the Byzantine Empire in such “Red Sea Wars” to the rise of Islam only a century later. Given its focus, BeInf is interested specifically in the narrow question of what the Nagran Episode might add to the study of the connected histories of Ethiopic and Syriac Christianity. This is especially important since scholars from both sides of the debate have previously invoked the Nagran Episode as proof of close connections between Ethiopic and Syriac Christianity during Late Antiquity. BeInf aims to revisit this question, adopting a more critical reading of the various sources, informed by recent developments in the study of martyrdom accounts as well as hagiography more broadly.