Arethas

Saint Arethas (Greek: Arethas; Arabic: al-Harith) was the leader of the Christian community of Najran, an oasis city in southern Arabia, in the early sixth century. He is the principal named figure among the Christians of Najran who were put to death in a persecution carried out by the Himyarite king Yusuf As'ar Yath'ar, known as Dhu Nuwas. The massacre is generally dated to 523. Near-contemporary sources, including Syriac letters connected with Simeon of Beth Arsham, the Book of the Himyarites, the Greek Martyrium of Arethas, and notices in Byzantine historical writing, present Arethas as an elderly civic or tribal notable who headed Najran's Christians and who refused to abandon his faith. Later hagiography, following the Martyrium, gives his age as about ninety-five at the time of death, but no independent record of his birth year survives.

In the early sixth century Najran was among the chief centers of Christianity in South Arabia. Its church had links with the Christian kingdom of Aksum across the Red Sea and with Miaphysite communities in Syria and Egypt. The Himyarite kingdom, based in the highlands of what is now Yemen, had experienced both Jewish and Christian influence at the royal court. Dhu Nuwas, who adopted Judaism, campaigned against Christian communities that he associated with Aksum and with the Christian Roman Empire. After action against other settlements, he besieged Najran and demanded that its people renounce Christianity. The narratives agree that the inhabitants, under Arethas, first resisted; when the city came to terms, Dhu Nuwas is said to have violated pledges of safety and to have ordered the killing of those who would not convert.

The martyr acts describe men, women, and children among the dead. Arethas is depicted as remaining steadfast under examination and as being beheaded. Other Christians were slain by the sword or burned; a tradition of death in a trench or ditch passed into later memory and is commonly connected with the Quranic account of the People of the Ditch (Ashab al-Ukhdud). Figures given for the number of victims in the martyrologies are often very high and are treated with caution by historians, who nonetheless accept that a large-scale massacre of Najran's Christians occurred. News of the event reached the Roman East quickly. Reports associated with Simeon of Beth Arsham, composed in the mid-520s, circulated among Syriac-speaking Christians and at the imperial court of Justin I.

The persecution was followed by an Aksumite military intervention. King Kaleb (Ella Asbeha), with the encouragement of Justin I, invaded Himyar about 525, defeated Dhu Nuwas, and established a Christian regime in South Arabia. The deaths at Najran thus had direct political consequences in the Red Sea world as well as a lasting religious commemoration. Arethas and his companions were honored as martyrs in the Greek, Syriac, Latin, Coptic, and Ethiopian churches. The Roman Martyrology and the Byzantine calendar keep their feast on 24 October. The Ethiopian Church, which remembered Kaleb's campaign as a central episode of its Christian history, likewise venerates the martyrs of Najran. Liturgical texts and the Greek Martyrium spread the story widely in the medieval Christian East.

Modern historical scholarship regards Arethas as a historical tribal or civic leader of Najran rather than as a bishop, monk, or member of a religious order. He did not hold the office of patriarch or pope. Early sources do not securely document his marital status or whether he had children, although women and children of the Najran community appear in the martyr narratives. His historical importance rests on the Najran massacre, one of the best-attested episodes of sixth-century South Arabia and a point of intersection among Himyarite, Aksumite, Roman, and later Islamic traditions.