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JOHN WARBURTON-LEE PHOTOGRAPHY/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

DESERT DIASPORA. Following two disastrous revolts against the Romans, many Jews left Judah for neighboring lands during the first few centuries CE. Some turned south and settled in North Arabia, where inscriptions allow us a window into the lives of the early Jews who made Arabia their home. At Al-Ula—a thriving oasis nestled amid a lush valley of the Hejaz mountains and the capital of the biblical kingdom of Dadan—several short inscriptions indicate that by the fourth century, local diaspora Jews had adjusted to their environment while maintaining their Jewish heritage. Written in Arabic using the Hebrew alphabet, these inscriptions record names like Isaac and Ishmael and express their authors’ religious identity using distinctly Jewish phrases like “in God he trusts.”