Al-Qalis Church

The Al-Qalis Church was a Miaphysite Oriental Orthodox church and cathedral constructed sometime between 527 and the late 560s in the city of Sanaa in modern-day Yemen. The church's lavish decorations made it an important place of pilgrimage, placing it in competition with Kaaba in Mecca. The cathedral was built by Abraha. He also built a similar one in Najran for Bani Al-Harith, the House of Allat in Taif for the tribe of Thaqeef, the House of Yareem and the House of Ghamdan in Yemen.

In the aftermath of the massacre of the Christian community of Najran by the Jewish ruler Dhu Nuwas of the Himyarite Kingdom, the Miaphysite King Kaleb of Aksum sought to avenge the deaths of his brothers in faith by launching a punitive expedition (520) into the Yemeni kingdom. Dhu Nuwas was deposed and killed, prompting Kaleb to appoint a Christian Himyarite, Sumyafa Ashwa (Esimiphaios), as his viceroy. However, around 525 this viceroy was deposed by the Aksumite general Abraha with support of Ethiopians who had settled in Yemen and withheld tribute to Kaleb. When Kaleb sent another expedition against Abraha this force defected, killing their commander, and joining Abraha. Another expedition sent against them met the same fate, leaving Yemen under Abraha's rule.

Abraha sought to promote Miaphysite Christianity in the predominantly Jewish kingdom of Himyar while also attempting to antagonise the Kaaba in Mecca, a major religious centre for the adherents of Arab polytheism. Abraha, therefore, ordered the construction of the Al-Qalis Church (also known as Al-Qulays and Al-Qullays, an Arabized form of the Byzantine Greek word ἐ) in Sanaa. Letters were sent to both Aksum and the Byzantine Empire, requesting marble, craftsmen and mosaics. The absence of mosaic making tradition in pre-Islamic Arabia and Ethiopia at the time, along with the frequent use of mosaicists by the Byzantines to achieve diplomatic objectives corroborates that the Byzantines complied. Historian Procopius records that an envoy was dispatched to Abraha during the reign of emperor Justinian I, placing the construction of that church between 527 and the late 560s. This ch

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