IFAO

Judaism had contributed in all the Himyarite foreign relations, during the first quarter of the sixth century, especially with the christian encampment which was led by Byzantine and its religious ally kingdom of Axom which has Abyssinian origins. Both of them supported christianity at Yemen, as a way to pursue their interests in this vital region of the Arabian Peninsula, taking advantage of the large extent of weakness of the Himaritic country at the end of its era.

The efforts of the Jewish king Yūsuf Asʿar (518-525) to resist those foreign ambitions were through christian wide persecution in his country which was manifested in the famous massacre of Naǧrān.