Al Ukhdud Archeological Site, Najran. December 2016
The People of the Ditch
The highlight and main purpose of the trip to Najran [see: Journey to Najran] with AQ was to visit Al Ukhdud, an archeological site that is noted in the Quran and referred to in other ancient texts as well. The story of it was one of my favorite bits of research while I was in Saudi Arabia. Before living there, I had never heard of "the People of the Ditch".
The REAL story of the people of Najran was tragic. Enter the usual unfriendly players - Jews, Christians, and Muslims, the three offspring religions of Abraham who simply never play nicely. The people of the Najran oasis were Christian back in the sixth century. The Himyarites of Yemen, directly south, had been polytheistic, but converted to Judaism under their king, Dhu Nuwas. Dhu Nuwas went to Najran to conquer the city AND forcibly convert them all to Judaism. Those who refused were burned alive in a pit of fire (the "ditch"). From what I can understand, that probably DID happen historically.
Where it gets interesting is how the story morphed into different accounts that served different needs. The Quran (Sura Buraj) refers to the incident, but rather obliquely. Among the sayings of the Prophet Muhammed (Hadith) there is a more complete account that tells the story of a young boy who was training to be the next court magician from an elder magician with only a few years left. The boy secretly also met with a monk and adopted his monotheistic (maybe Christian?) views. The young man melded the magic with the religion and started healing people and performing all kinds of miracles. The king learned of it and told the boy to cease and desist (most probably out of fear of the boy's number of followers). He and his adherents refused and were burnt alive in the ditch (apparently the boy's magic was of no use putting out the flames). Scholars lean toward the boy having adopted Christianity; thus, he and his followers' martyrdom for monotheism was a great example for others.
Equally important, coming out of this story is the great Christian/Muslim meeting between the Christians of Najran and the Prophet Muhammed. The timing of this occasion is later than the massacre at the Ditch, but not a lot later - thus the incident with the Yemenite Jewish king's attack would still have been in memory. Some people claim that the Christians of Najran were feeling frustrated that the Kingdom of Abyssinia (powerful, Christian, and nearby) was not aiding them in their ongoing fight with the powerful Jewish Yemenis. Out of frustration, they went to meet the Prophet Muhammed to ask for his assistance. However, others point out that the Prophet had already sent TWO delegations from Medina to convert the Najrani Christians to Islam, which fell on deaf ears. The Najranis understood that Mohammed and his followers were a growing force on the peninsula, so they sent a group of emissaries on a diplomatic mission. For whatever the reason, a group of Christians travelled north and officially met Muhammed.
This meeting has been interpreted to death by Muslims since it more or less set the tone for Muslim-Christian relations for centuries to come. Muhammed DID invite the Christians to come pray with him in his mosque in Medina (that ain't happening today, folks!) and his followers were scandalized. Major points to Muhammed for not caring what his followers thought. Afterward, there was very much discussion about both religions and they came to an impasse. Now, the Muslims realized they were not gaining any converts, but probably wanted a friendly buffer state between themselves and those nasty Yemeni Jews. The Christians also realized that that Muhammed's followers were a growing force and they needed an ally. They agreed to meet the next day and decide what to do.
Muhammed decided to perform a Mubahala the next day with them, a prayer curse. The point of such a curse is that anyone who performs it and is LYING will be struck dead on the spot (or something like that). The Christians meanwhile strategized that if Muhammed showed up at their guest house the next day with a lot of his followers, it was going to be bad news, but if he came with his family, then they would reach an agreement since coming with family would show a more peaceful gesture. As it turns out, Muhammed showed up with his closest kin only and the idea of the Mubahala was abandoned. The Najrani Christians agreed to pay tribute to the Muslims in exchange for protection. They also requested one Islamic judge to adjudicate disputes as an impartial observer. Muhammed, in turn, said the Najranis were permitted to live in their place as Christians in perpetuity, undisturbed, under his protection.
Well, that only lasted a short time until Umar (not my favorite Caliph) somehow "forgot" that agreement and kicked out all the Najrani Christians [see: Sadd al Bint Dam], most of whom settled in present-day, Basra, Iraq - now predominantly Shia Muslim. Confusing, right?
So, that is the story of Al Ukhdud - the People of the Ditch - the place AQ and I literally RAN through with a guide for fear a Yemeni mortar might come hurtling in at any moment and cause an international incident. The actual site is not that interesting visually - mostly just foundations and few blocks with carvings. The story of those people though - that has reverberated through history!