Hassan Malikikarib Yaha'min

Malkīkarib Yuha’min (r. 375–400) was a king (Tubba', ) of the Himyarite Kingdom (in modern-day Yemen), succeeding his father Tharan Yuhanim. Byzantine sources and contemporary historians credit him with converting the ruling class of the Himyarite Kingdom from paganism to Judaism (whereas later Islamic sources ascribe this event to Abu Karib, his son). These events are chronicled by the fifth-century Ecclessiastical History of the Anomean Philostorgius and the sixth-century Syriac Book of the Himyarites. Such sources implicate the motive for conversion as a wish on the part of the Himyarite rulers to distance themselves from the Byzantine Empire which had tried to convert them to Christianity. The 'Crowned Man' excavated from the Stone Building in Zafar. Malkikarib was likely at an advanced age when he took the throne as he immediately initiated a coregency with his children. He first entered into a coregency with his son Abīkarib Asʿad (Abu Karib). Later in his reign, he entered into coregency with both his sons Abīkarib Asʿad and Dharaʾʾamar Ayman. According to two inscriptions, RES 3383, Ja 856 (= Fa 60), and Garb Bayt al-Shwal 1, Malkikarib Yuhamin constructed a mikrāb named Barīk in the city of Marib (and also capital of the ancient Saba kingdom) in order to replace the polytheistic temple of the moon deity Almaqah. The term mikrāb refers to a structure that is either the equivalent of a synagogue or refers to a local Himyarite variant of this Jewish institution.

Very little memory of Malkikarib Yuhamin remained among traditionalist writers from the Islamic era. Al-Hamdani believed that he had reigned for thirty-five years and, besides this, only knew that he was the father of Abīkarib Asʿad.

Iconography The standing relief image of a crowned man, is taken to be a representation possibly of Malkīkarib Yuhaʾmin or more likely the Christian Esimiphaios (Samu Yafa').

Inscriptions mentioning Malkikarib Yuhamin Ja 671 + 788

Bayt al-Ashwal 2 This inscription dates to January 384 and is carved on a relief from a large block, likely originating from Zafar, Yemen. It describes Malkikarib Yuhamin in coregency with his two sons and commemorating the construction of a new palace. This is also the first time where the rejection of polytheism is expressed in an extant inscription from the Himyarite kingdom.Malkīkarib Yuhaʾmin and his sons Abīkarib Asʿad and Dharaʾʾamar Ayman, kings of Sabaʾ, of dhu-Raydān, 2 of Hadramawt, and of Yamnat, have built, laid the foundations of, and completed the palace Kln3m, from its base to its summit, with the support of their lord, the Lord of the Sky4 in the month of dhu-diʾāwān {January} of the year four hundred and ninety-three.

Ja 856 = Fa 60. This is the oldest inscription mentioning the construction of a mikrāb. It was found at Marib, which was once the capital of the ancient Saba kingdom. It likely dates to the first half of Malkikarib's reign, between 375 and 384.Malkīkarib Yuhaʾmin and his son [Abīkarib Asʿad, kings of] 2 Sabaʾ, of dhu Raydān, of H ˙ ad ˙ ramawt and [of Yamnat have built from the foundations to] 3 the summit their mikrāb Barīk for their salvation and [... ...]

Maʾsal 1 = Ry 509