Arabian Christians Massacred

Dan Graves, MSL

Arabian Christians Massacred




What happened next was so appalling that Bishop Simeon of Beth Arsham (a Syrian) traveled to the site to interview eyewitnesses and write a report. "The Jews amassed all the martyr's bones and brought them into the church where they heaped them up. They then brought in the priests, deacons, subdeacons, readers, and sons and daughters of the covenant...they filled the church from wall to wall, some 2,000 persons according to the men who came from Najran; then they piled wood all round the outside of the church and set light to it, thus burning the church with everyone inside it."

In the ensuing week, hundreds more Christians were martyred, among them many godly women, who were killed with the most horrible tortures when they refused to renounce Christ. According to Simeon, many were told "Deny Christ and the cross and become Jewish like us; then you shall live."


Other accounts written within a century add that deep pits were dug, filled with combustible material, and set afire. Christians who refused to change faiths were hurled into the flame, thousands dying in this painful martyrdom. Some think that this is the event that the Koran refers to when it says, "Cursed be the diggers of the trench, who lighted the consuming fire and sat around it to watch the faithful being put to the torture!" although Muslim commentators deny this.

A wealthy lady named Ruhm was compelled to watch her virgin daughter and granddaughter executed and to taste their blood before she was killed herself. Asked how the blood tasted, she answered, "Like a pure, spotless offering."



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  2. Bell, Richard. A commentary on the Qur'an. Edited by C. Edmund Bosworth and M.E.J. Richardson. Manchester, England : University of Manchester, 1991.
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  4. Budge, E. A. Wallis. History of Ethiopia, Nubia and Abyssinia. Oosterhout N. B., the Netherlands: Anthropological Pubns, 1966. pp. 261 - 262.
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  9. Mackintosh-Smith, Tim. Yemen, the Unknown Arabia. Woodstock: Overlook Press, 2000; pp. 41 - 43.
  10. Nyrop, Richard F. et al. Area Handbook for the Yemens. United States Government Printing Office, 1977; pp. 13 - 14.
  11. Smith, Sidney. "Events in Arabia in the 6th Century A.D." Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies #16. London: University of London, 1954; pp. 425 - 468.
  12. Trimingham, J. Spencer. Christianity among the Arabs in Pre-Islamic Times. London and New York: Longman, 1979; pp. 287 - 307.

Last updated November, 2006.

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