Excavations show that Arabia was a Christian Kingdom before Islam.

Excavations show that Arabia was a Christian Kingdom before Islam.

The image appears in a monumental wall of a monarch still unidentified engraving bit before 550 A.d., decades before the birth of Muhammad.
Germany | Friday, December 6, 2013.


The archaeologists of the University of Heidelberg in Germany, found an image that may mean that Saudi had a King wearing a Christian cross as a symbol of his power.
The image appears in a monumental wall of a monarch still unidentified engraving bit before 550 A.d., decades before the birth of Muhammad.
The portrait of 1.70 meters in height was analyzed by Paul Yule who wrote an article for the scientific journal: "Antique" where talks about the discovery.

Yule, is part of the Department of languages and cultures East of Heidelberg. He received the support of other archaeologists to complete the study in the ruins of an ancient city in Zafar, Yemen.

The man who appears in the image can be the King of Himyar, Zafar, was the capital of the Kingdom, and extended through 2.5 million square kilometers. Texts of the Roman Empire and some native inscriptions speak of this lost Kingdom, but there are many parts of this story were not revealed.

According to the daily Folha de Sao Paulo what is known about the reign is that it is part of a region that was strategic for trade in spices, perfumes and luxury in the Indian Ocean.

According to the archaeologist, in the fourth century d. C. many Himyar business partners, began adopting Christianity as religion, but local nobility decided that religion be accepted independently.
"At the time, as now, religion and politics are closely linked," said Yule, recalling that the nobles finally decided to convert to Judaism.

German researchers found historical parts on conflicts between the peoples of the region and that they realized that Himyar had taken the Kingdom by Rome in 525 d. C. and which could have forced the people who converted to Christianity.
Other researchers believe that this version, including the historian Glen Bowersock, of Princeton University. For him, "there is no doubt about the installation of a Christian in Southwest Arabia, between the years 525 and 560″.
Zafar, it was abandoned and only returned to be populated after the year 622, when tribal groups moved to the region, during which Islam was growing.