Tharan Yuhanim

Thaʾrān Yuhanʿim (c. 324–375) was a king (Tubba', Arabic: تُبَّع) of the Himyarite Kingdom (in modern-day Yemen), and was the second king of the new dynasty founded by his father Dhamar Ali Yuhabirr. He had an unusually long reign, on the order of fifty to fifty-five years and his son, Malkikarib Yuhamin, appears to have entered the throne at an advanced age.^[1]

Thaʾrān Yuhanʿim
King of the Himyarite Kingdom
Reign	324–375 CE
Predecessor	Dhamar Ali Yuhabirr
Successor	Malkikarib Yuhamin
Died	c. 375 Yemen
Father	Dhamar Ali Yuhabirr
Religion	South Arabian polytheism (formerly) Judaism (until death)

Iwona Gajda has proposed that the oldest known monotheistic Himyarite inscription (YM 1950), dating either to 363 or 373, comes from his reign.^[2] More recently, Christian Julien Robin has identified an earlier monotheistic inscription from his reign that dates earlier than 355.^[3]

Byzantine historians more prominently know of a conversion to Judaism during the reign of his son and successor, Malkikarib.^[4]

He is known to the Islamic-era Yemeni traditionalist al-Hasan al-Hamdani as Yunʿim Tārān, and was conceived by this author to be the founder of a dynasty. He is also known to Muhammad ibn Habib al-Baghdadi as Bārān Yuhanʿim in his al-Muḥabbar.^[1]

Inscriptions

Tharan Yuhanim is known from the following inscriptions (though he authors none of them):^[1]

• Maṣnaʿat Māriya 1
  • This inscription invokes Tharan as sole ruler, though it is possible he had a coregent.
• ʿAbadān 1
  • Commemorates military achievements of a prominent family from eastern Yemen that were made over the course of three generations.
• YM 1950
  • This inscription provides evidence that some high-ranking officials already adhered to monotheism. The king is invoked here with more than one, and so this inscription likely dates to the latter part of the reign of Tharan.
• JA 669
• JA 670
• JA 671 + 788
• DhM 201
• DhM 204
• MQ Minkath 1
• Khaldūn Balās 1.

See also

• Constantius II
• Dhu Nuwas
• Judaism in pre-Islamic Arabia

References

Citations

1. Robin 2012, p. 264–265.
2. Gajda 2002.
3. Nebes, Norbert (2008). "Die Märtyrer von Nagrān und das Ende der Ḥimyar. Zur politischen Geschichte Südarabiens im frühen sechsten Jahrhundert". Aethiopica (in German). 11: 17, n. 45. doi:10.15460/aethiopica.11.1.141. ISSN 2194-4024.
4. Hughes 2020, p. 26–29.

Sources

• Gajda, Iwona (2002). "Monothéisme en Arabie du Sud préislamique". Arabian Humanities. 10 (10). doi:10.4000/cy.132.
• Hughes, Aaron (2020). "South Arabian 'Judaism', Ḥimyarite Raḥmanism, and the Origins of Islam". In Segovia, Carlos Andrés (ed.). Remapping emergent Islam: texts, social settings, and ideological trajectories. Amsterdam University Press. pp. 15–42.
• Robin, Christian Julien (2012). "Arabia and Ethiopia". In Johnson, Scott Fitzgerald (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Late Antiquity. Oxford University Press. pp. 247–332.