'Decadence', 'Decline' and Persistence: Zafar and Himyar

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Abstract

In light of modern aesthetic thought, the idea of a linear development in OSA from good to bad in terms of artistic merit can and must be seen in a far more differentiated way than previously. During the Enlightment, in fact the main ontological model consisted of birth, maturity and decline. Nowadays, however, biological 'decline' is ameliorated analogously by means of a variety of options. Moreover, the post-modern historiographic movement inveighs against primitive evolutionary schemes in history. Historic and art historic parallels offer themselves between Late Antiquity in the Roman World and in Old South Arabia. The probable destruction of Zafar, during the mid 6th century, provides a terminus post quem for our topic.