ABSTRACT

At the end of the sixth century, Christianity was the dominant religion around, and partly on, the Arabian Peninsula. 1 Christianity had made great progress in Syria, Iraq and South Arabia, and traditional Arab Islamic histories record the existence of Christianity in the north-eastern parts of the peninsula, as well as in Yemen and its vicinity. In Najrān a number of inscriptions with inscribed crosses still testify to the one-time existence of a Christian community, but the central parts of the peninsula were outside the political sphere of Christianity, and the possible existence of Christian communities there is undocumented. It seems clear, however, that Christians on occasions would have been coming and going there, whether as slaves, merchants or local inhabitants who had become Christians. 2