Biography
Arethas of Najran
About Arethas of Najran
Arethas, known in Arabic as al-Harith ibn Ka'b, was a leading Christian of Najran in southern Arabia. A modern Catholic account calls him the city's prefect.
Najran was an oasis and trading center with a substantial Christian community. It lay within a struggle involving the Himyarite kingdom in South Arabia and Aksum across the Red Sea. Inscriptions made by Himyarite officers attest a blockade of routes near Najran before the city fell. They establish the conflict's setting, not details of Arethas's life.
The Himyarite king Yusuf, also called Dhu Nuwas, besieged Najran in 523. A Syriac report written close to the events says he promised safety if the city surrendered, then had Christian residents seized and killed. It names Arethas among the city's leaders. Its account of his defiant speech cannot be treated as a transcript. Arethas died in the persecution, though every detail of the encounter cannot be settled.
Christian communities remember Arethas with others killed at Najran. The Orthodox Church in America commemorates him and his companions on October 24. A Roman Martyrology notice records the same date. Catholic communities in the Arabian Peninsula marked the 1,500th anniversary of the martyrs in 2023. The received accounts give differing numbers of martyrs. The memory of these deaths keeps the history of Najran's Christian community visible, even where the details of a personal life cannot be recovered.
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