thrived and started an alliance with Aksum again at the beginning of the 6th century.
Early Christian community
Christianity must have been introduced into Najran, as in the rest of South Arabia, in the 5th century AD or perhaps a century earlier. According to the Arab Muslim historian Ibn Ishaq, Najran was the first place where Christianity took root in South Arabia. According to the contemporary sources, after seizing the throne of the Himyarites, in ca. 518 or 523 Dhū Nuwas, a convert to Judaism, attacked the Aksumite (mainly Christian) garrison at Zafar, capturing them and burning their churches. He then moved against Najran, a Christian and Aksumite stronghold. After accepting the city's capitulation, he massacred those inhabitants who would not renounce Christianity. Estimates of the death toll from this event range up to 20,000 in some sources; a letter survives written by Simon, the bishop of Beth Arsham in 524 AD, recounts Dhū Nuwas' (where he is called Dimnon) persecution in Najran (modern al-Ukhdud in Saudi Arabia). The persecution is apparently described and condemned in the Qur'an (al-Buruj:4).
Under the reign of the Caliph Umar, the Christian community of Najran was deported to Mesopotamia, on the grounds that no non-Muslims were to live in the Arabian Peninsula.
The town of Najran was already an important centre of arms manufacture during the lifetime of Prophet Muhammad. However, it was more famous for leather rather than iron.
Former Jewish community
Najran had a Jewish community dating back to pre-Islamic times, historically affiliated with the Yemenite Jews.With the Saudi conquest of Najran in 1934, persecution increased, and some 200 Jews of Najran fled south to Aden between September and October 1949. The Saudi King Abdulaziz demanded their return, but Yemeni king Ahmad bin Yahya refused, because these refugees were Yemenite Jews. After settling in the Hashid Camp (also called Mahane Geula) they were
