Aksumite garrison in Zafār. He proceeded to engage the Ethiopian guards, and their Christian allies in the Tihāma coastal lowlands facing Abyssinia. After taking the port of Mukhawān, where he burnt down the local church, he advanced south as far as the fortress of Maddabān overlooking the Bab-el-Mandeb, where he expected Kaleb Ella Aṣbeḥa to land his fleet. The campaign eventually killed between 11,500 and 14,000, and took a similar number of prisoners. Mukhawān became his base, while he dispatched one of his generals, a Jewish prince named Sharaḥ'īl Yaqbul dhu Yaz'an, against Najrān, a predominantly Christian oasis, with a good number of Jews, who had supported with troops his earlier rebellion, but refused to recognize his authority after the massacre of the Aksumite garrison. The general blocked the caravan route connecting Najrān with Eastern Arabia. Religion During this period, references to pagan gods disappeared from royal inscriptions and texts on public buildings, and were replaced by references to a single deity. Inscriptions in the Sabean language, and sometimes Hebrew, called this deity Rahman (the Merciful), “Lord of the Heavens and Earth,” the “God of Israel” and “Lord of the Jews”. Prayers invoking Rahman's blessings on the “people of Israel” often ended with the Hebrew words shalom and amen. There is evidence that the solar goddess Shams was especially favoured in Himyar, being the national goddess and possibly an ancestral deity. Military As the Byzantines were usually equipped with such of horses armour, Indian fenestrated battle axe, round shield, spear, and scale or mail armour, Paul Yule presumed the Himyarite soldiers armed in comparable fashion, if not systematically as such. Language It is a matter of debate whether the Ṣayhadic Himyarite language was spoken in the south-western Arabian peninsula until the 10th century. The few 'Himyarite' texts seem to be rhymed. List of rulers Himyarite dynasties after the coming of Islam After the spread of Islam in Yemen, Himyarite noble families were able to re-establish control over parts of Yemen. Yufirid Dynasty over most of Yemen (847–997) Mahdid Dynasty over Southern Tihama (1159–1174) Manakhis over Taiz (ninth century) Many Himyarites participated in the Muslim conquest of Syria in the 630s and, along with other South Arabian tribes, settled in city of Homs after its capture in 637. The city became the center of these tribes in Islamic Syria, which served as the center of the Caliphate during Umayyad rule (661–750).