ABRAHA

Abraha (6th century AD) was an Aksumite general who became viceroy of South Arabia. He established his seat of government at the city of San’a’, now the capital of Yemen (San’a’) and led an unsuccessful attack upon Mecca (Makkah).

Procopius, the 6th century Byzantine historian represented Abraha as having once been a slave of a Roman merchant who used to live in Adulis (now the village of Zula) an ancient Graeco-Egyptian trading port 30 mi (48 km) south-south-east of the modern port of Massawa. It is more probable, however, that Abraha at that period of his life was a liaison officer between the Greek merchants who frequently came to Ethiopia, and the Aksumite empire.

Arab and Greek writers refer to Abraha’s role as a general. Kaleb, the 6th-century Aksumite ruler who reconquered South Arabia in 525 AD, appointed Abraha as viceroy of South Arabia after Abraha rebelled against his predecessor. Abraha restored peace to the country. He built roads to encourage trade, linking the area with Palestine, Syria, and the Red Sea by means of a route called the “Spice Road.”

According to the modern historian Philip Hitti, the Ethiopians, at that time, were members of a great international commercial trust which, under the leadership of the South Arabian states of Saba and Himyar, monopolised the spice trade. Thus, under Abraha’s rule. South Arabia became prosperous, and the proceeds of the spice trade enabled him to found the city of San’a’, and to build a huge and beautiful church there.

Regarding religion as the most potent unifying factor, he organised Christian missions to evangelise the Jewish and non-Christian communities of South Arabia. He had built his church to impress and attract ordinary people as an alternative to Mecca, the commercial and intellectual center of the Arab world, as well as to entice pilgrims from Mecca to San’a’. When it became evident that he could not accomplish his aim peacefully, he decided to attack Mecca.

As his expedition included elephants, the year in which it was made was known as Am Al-Fil (“Year of the Elephants”). The expedition failed, however, after a pestilence (perhaps smallpox) attacked the troops. As a result of its failure, the Persians occupied Arabia, threatening the Red Sea trade routes, and thus beginning the decline of the kingdom of Aksum.

After this disaster, Abraha returned to San’a’ and continued to administer South Arabia for several years, until his death. Arab writers have associated the unsuccessful expedition with the birth of Muhammad, founder of the religion of Islam which took place in Mecca about 570 AD, but seems to have occurred earlier, most probably between 540 and 545 AD.

SERGEW HABLE-SELLASSI