An usurper to the throne who is unrelated to the royal family of Himyar, Dhu Shanatir has sometimes been identified with the Aksumite vassal over Yemen, Ma'dikarib Ya'fur.
According to the Arab historians, Lakhni'ah Yanuf Dhu Shanatir took power in at least 490 CE following a period of internal dissent caused by the death of the last Himyarite king Sharhabil Ya'fur.
[4][5][6] Ibn Ishaq narrates that Lakhni'ah Yanuf Dhu Shanatir had a habit of inviting younger boys to his palace before sodomizing them.
[3] Furthermore, historical inscriptions attest that a king named Ma'dikarib Ya'fur (who was also not from the royal family of Himyar and was appointed by the Aksumite Empire) took the throne directly before Dhu Nuwas.
[8] The historians Franz Altheim and Ruth Stehl, in their work Die Araber in der alten Welt, resolved this issue by proposing the theory that Ma'dikarib Ya'fur was merely a regnal name Lakhni'ah Yanuf Dhu Shanatir took up when he usurped the throne.