al-Najashi (Ashama ibn Abjar), the Christian Negus

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Al-Najashi is not a personal name. It is the Arabic form of Ge'ez nəgus, 'king,' used in Islamic sources for the Christian Aksumite ruler who, according to Ibn Ishaq and later sira and hadith, gave shelter to Muhammad's followers around 615 and refused a Quraysh demand to hand them over. Arabic tradition names that king Aṣḥama (Ashama) ibn Abjar, with spelling variants (Ashama, Asmaha, Sahama, Ella-Seham, Asbeha). Islamic accounts add that he later accepted Islam in private and that, when he died in 630, Muhammad prayed the funeral prayer for him in absentia from Medina. Ethiopian royal lists do not preserve the name Ashama. Some lists instead mention a king Adǝrʿaz / Adriaz / Aderaz as Muhammad's contemporary; one later Ethiopian notice dates that reign 603-623, though sources disagree whether that span is given in Ethiopian or Julian years. Attempts to equate Ashama with Ǝllä Ṣäḥam fail on chronology (those Saham kings fall before Kaleb in the lists). Stuart Munro-Hay suggested, as a chronological possibility only, that the Najashi might be Armah, one of the last Aksumite kings to issue coins. That remains a hypothesis. Wolfgang Hahn's numismatic work identifies Armah with Alla Amidas on the coins; it is not, on the evidence opened this turn, a demonstration that Armah was or was not the king of the hijra story. No Aksumite coin or inscription opened this turn carries the Arabic name Ashama.