Ghassanids

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Ghassanids

The Ghassanids (Arabic

Arabic language

Arabic is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages languages such as Hebrew language and Aramaic language....
: ) (al-Ghasasinah, also Banu Ghassan "Sons of Ghassan") were a group of South Arabian

South Arabian

The Modern South Arabian languages are spoken mainly by tiny minority populations on the Arabian Peninsula in Yemen and Oman. In the opinion of many linguists, it should not be confused with Old South Arabian, which together with the Ethiopian Semitic languages forms the Western South Semitic branch....
Christian tribes that emigrated in the early 3rd century from Yemen

Yemen

Hauran

Hauran, also Hawran or Houran, The Hauran is mentioned in the Bible describing the boundary area of the Israelite Kingdom at the time....
in southern Syria

Syria

Jordan

Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is an Arab country in Southwest Asia spanning the southern part of the Syrian Desert down to the Gulf of Aqaba....
and the Holy Land

Holy Land

The Holy Land , generally refers to the geographical region of the Levant called Land of Canaan or Land of Israel in the Bible, and constitutes the Promised land....
where they intermarried with Hellenized Roman

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC....
settlers and Greek-speaking Early Christian communities. The term Ghassan refers to the kingdom of the Ghassanids.

Ghassanid emigration has been passed down in the rich oral tradition of southern Syria

Syria

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The Ghassanids (Arabic

Arabic language

South Arabian

Yemen

Hauran

Hauran, also Hawran or Houran, The Hauran is mentioned in the Bible describing the boundary area of the Israelite Kingdom at the time....
in southern Syria

Syria

Jordan

Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is an Arab country in Southwest Asia spanning the southern part of the Syrian Desert down to the Gulf of Aqaba....
and the Holy Land

Holy Land

Ancient Rome

Migration from Yemen 3rd Century AD

The Ghassanid emigration has been passed down in the rich oral tradition of southern Syria

Syria

Ma'rib

Ma'rib or Marib is the capital town of the Ma'rib Governorate, Yemen and was the capital of the Sabaean kingdom . It is located at , approximately 120 kilometers east of Yemen's modern capital, Sana'a....
in Yemen

Yemen

Yemen , officially the Republic of Yemen is an Arab country located on the Arabian Peninsula in Southwest Asia. Yemen has an estimated population of more than 23 million people and is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the North, the Red Sea to the West, the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Aden to the South, and Oman to the east....
. There was a dam in this city, however one year there was so much rain that the dam was carried away by the ensuing flood. Thus the people there had to leave. The inhabitants emigrated seeking to live in less arid lands and became scattered far and wide. The proverb “They were scattered like the people of Saba

Sheba

Sheba was a southern kingdom mentioned in the Tanakh and the Qur'an. The actual location of the historical kingdom is disputed between southern Arabia and the Horn of Africa; the kingdom may have been situated in either present-day Ethiopia or present-day Yemen, or both....
” refers to that exodus in history. The emigrants were from the southern Arab

Arab

An Arab is a person who Identity as such on linguistic or cultural grounds. The plural form, Arabs , refers to the Ethnocultural group at large....
tribe of Azd

Azd

The Azd or Al Azd, are an Arabian tribe. They were a branch of the Kahlan tribe, which was one of the two branches of Qahtanite the other being Himyar....
of the Kahlan

Kahlan

Kahlan was one of the main tribal federations of Saba'a in Yemen....
branch of Qahtani tribes.

Settling Syria

The king Jafna bin ‘Amr emigrated with his family and retinue north and settled in Hauran

Hauran

Hauran, also Hawran or Houran, The Hauran is mentioned in the Bible describing the boundary area of the Israelite Kingdom at the time....
(south of Damascus

Damascus

Damascus is the capital and largest city of Syria. It is List of oldest continuously inhabited cities and its current population is estimated at about 4,000,000....
). where the Ghassanid state was founded. There it is assumed that the Ghassanids adopted the religion of Christianity

Christianity

Christianity is a Monotheistic religion #Christian view religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus as New Testament view on Jesus' life....
from the native Aramaeans

Aramaeans

The Aramaeans were a West Semitic semi-nomadic and pastoralist people who lived in upper Mesopotamia and Aram . Aramaeans never had a unified empire; they were divided into independent kingdoms all across the Near East....
.

The Ghassanid Kingdom in the Roman era

The Romans found a powerful ally in the new coming Arabs of Southern Syria

Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is an Arab-majority country in Southwest Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Israel to the southwest, Jordan to the south, Iraq to the east, and Turkey to the north....
. The Ghassanids were the buffer zone against the other Bedouins penetrating Roman territory. More accurately the kings can be described as phylarchs, native rulers of subject frontier states. The capital was at Jabiyah in the Golan Heights

Golan Heights

The Golan Heights is a contested, strategic plateau and mountainous region at the southern end of the Anti-Lebanon Mountains. The term Golan Heights actually has two separate meanings, one geography and one political:...
. Geographically, it occupied much of Syria

Syria

Lebanon

Lebanon , officially the Republic of Lebanon or Lebanese Republic , is a country in Western Asia, on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea....
), Jordan

Jordan

Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is an Arab country in Southwest Asia spanning the southern part of the Syrian Desert down to the Gulf of Aqaba....
and Israel

Israel

Israel officially the State of Israel , is a country in the Middle East located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area....
, and its authority extended via tribal alliances with other Azdi tribes all the way to the northern Hijaz as far south as Yathrib (Medina

Medina

Medina is a city in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia, and serves as the capital of the Al Madinah Province. It is the second holiest city in Islam, and the burial place of the Prophet Muhammad....
).

Phillip the Arab

Precise Arab ancestry of the Roman Emperor

Roman Emperor

The Roman Emperor was the ruler of the Roman Empire during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office: Latin language titles such as imperator , Augustus , Caesar and princeps were all associated with it....
Philip the Arab

Philip the Arab

Marcus Julius Philippus or Philippus I Arabs , known in English language as Philip the Arab or formerly in English as Philip the Arabian, was a Roman Emperor from 244 to 249....
is not known, since all sources give only the Latin names of him and his family members. However, having originated from the general area in which the Ghassanids settled, many historians consider he may have been of that origin. His being mentioned either as a Christian himself or at least tolerant of Christians would fit with his originating from a people which was in the process of Christianization at the time of his rule.

The Ghassanid kingdom in the Byzantine era

The Byzantine Empire

Byzantine Empire

Byzantine Empire and Eastern Roman Empire are conventional names used to describe the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered on its capital of Constantinople....
was focused more on the East and a long war with the Persians was always their main concern. The Ghassanids maintained their rule as the guardian of trade routes, policed Bedouin

Bedouin

The Bedouin, , are predominantly Muslim, desert-dwelling Arab nomadic pastoralist, or previously nomadic group, found throughout most of the desert belt extending from the Atlantic coast of the Sahara via the Western Desert , Sinai Peninsula, and Negev to the Arabian Desert....
tribes and was a source of troops for the Byzantine army. The Ghassanid king al-Harith ibn Jabalah

Al-Harith ibn Jabalah

Al-Harith ibn Jabalah was a king of the Ghassanids, a pre-Islamic Arab people who lived on the eastern frontier of the Byzantine Empire. He reigned from 529 to 569....
(reigned 529–569) supported the Byzantines against Sassanid Persia

Persian Empire

The 'Persian Empire' was a series of successive Iranian or Persianization empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau, the original Persian homeland, and beyond in Southwest Asia, South Asia, Central Asia and the Caucasus....
and was given the title patricius

Patricius

Patricius may refer to:People* Patricius, a leader of the War against Gallus, 4th-century Jewish revolt* Patricius, father of Saint Augustine of Hippo...
in 529 by the emperor Justinian I

Justinian I

Flavius Petrus Sabbatius Iustinianus , AD 482 or 483 ? 13 or 14 November 565, was the second member of the Justinian Dynasty and List of Roman Emperors from 527 until his death....
. Al-Harith was a Miaphysite Christian; he helped to revive the Syrian Miaphysite (Jacobite) Church

Syriac Orthodox Church

The Syriac Orthodox Church is an autocephaly Oriental Orthodox church based in the Middle East, with members spread throughout the world. It schism with Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism over the Council of Chalcedon, which the Syriac Orthodox Church rejects....
and supported Miaphysite development despite Orthodox

Orthodox Christianity

KAHThe term Orthodox Christianity may refer to:* The Eastern Orthodox Church: the Eastern Christianity churches of Byzantine Rite tradition that adhere to the first seven Ecumenical Councils, and are in full communion with the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and with each other....
Byzantium regarding it as heretical

Heresy

Heresy is an introduced change to some system of belief, especially a religion, that conflicts with the previously established canon of that belief....
. Later Byzantine mistrust and persecution of such religious unorthodoxy brought down his successors, al-Mundhir (reigned 569-582) and Nu'man.

The Ghassanids, who had successfully opposed the Persian allied Lakhmids

Lakhmids

The Lakhmids , Banu Lakhm , Muntherids , were a group of Arab Christians who lived in Southern Iraq, and made al-Hirah their capital in ....
of al-Hirah (Southern Iraq

Iraq

Iraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros Mountains, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
and Northern Arabia), prospered economically and engaged in much religious and public building; they also patronised the arts and at one time entertained the poets Nabighah adh-Dhubyani and Hassan ibn Thabit

Hassan ibn Thabit

Hassan ibn Thabit was an Arabian poet and one of the Sahaba, or companions of Muhammad. He was born in Yathrib , and was member of the Banu Khazraj tribe....
at their courts.

The Ghassanids and Islam

The Ghassanids remained a Byzantine vassal state

Vassal state

The term vassal state commonly refers to any state that was subordinate to another in the pre-modern international system. The vassal in these cases was the ruler, rather than the state itself....
until its rulers were overthrown by the Muslims in the 7th century, following the Battle of Yarmuk in 636 AD. It was at this battle that some 12,000 Ghassanid Arabs defected to the Muslim side.

Jabalah ibn-al-Aiham ordeal with Islam

There are different opinions why Jabalah and his followers didn't convert to Islam. All the opinions go along the general idea that the Ghassanids were not interested yet in giving up their status as the lords and nobility of Syria

Syria

Jabalah ibn-al-Aiham sided with the Ansar (Azdi Muslims from Medina) saying, "You are our brethren and the sons of our fathers" and professed Islam. After the arrival of 'Umar ibn-al-Khattab in Syria
Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is an Arab-majority country in Southwest Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Israel to the southwest, Jordan to the south, Iraq to the east, and Turkey to the north....
, year 17 (636AD), Jabalah had a dispute with one of the Muzainah (Non Arab Caste) and knocked out his eve. 'Umar ordered that he be punished, upon which Jabalah said, "Is his eye like mine? Never, by Allah, shall I abide in a town where I am under authority." He then apostatized and went to the land of the Greeks (the Byzantines). This Jabalah was the king of Ghassan and the successor of al-Harith ibn-abi-Shimr.

The Ghassanids After Jabalah

In the Levant

Most of the Ghassanids remained Christians and stayed in the Levant.

Many Christian as well as Muslim families of Syria

Syria

Jordan

Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is an Arab country in Southwest Asia spanning the southern part of the Syrian Desert down to the Gulf of Aqaba....
, Lebanon

Lebanon

Lebanon , officially the Republic of Lebanon or Lebanese Republic , is a country in Western Asia, on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea....
, and Palestine trace their roots to the Ghassanid dynasty, including the Abla, Abou Haidar,Al Ashkar, Al-Khazen sheikhs, Aranki,Atiyah, Ayoub, Ammari, Batarseh,Barsa, Barakat, Bayouth, Chakar, Chalhoub, Dibh, Fares, Farhat, Farhoud, Gharios

Gharios

Gharios is the name of Saint Gurias the Ascetic of Edessa, Mesopotamia , martyr of the IV century; he died in 305 AD. It is also the name of one of the most socially and economically prominent families in Lebanon rooting back their ancestries to the Sheiks Chemor of Kfarhata ....
, Ghanem ,Ghanma, Ghannoum, Ghulmiyyah, Habib, Hanna, Hamra, Howayek, Hadadin, Ishaq, Jabara (Jebara or Gebara, Gibara), Kandil, Karadsheh, Khazens, Khoury, Lahd, Maalouf, Madi, Makhlouf, Matar, Moghabghab, Mokdad, Nawfal (of Tripoli), Nayfeh, Nimri, Obeid, Oweis, Rached, Rafeedie/Rafidi, Rahhal, Razook, Saab, Saah, Salama, Saliba, Samara, Sarkis, Shammas, Sheiks Chemor

Sheiks Chemor

Chemor An ancient well known family. Being from the Yamanis, the Chemors left Akoura in the 17th century after the victory of the Qaysi party headed by Hachem over the Yamani party headed by Malik Bin Abi Al Ghaith....
, Semaan (of Kaftoun), Sfeir, Shdid, Smeirat, Sweiss, Sweidan, Theeba and Tyan. The religious backgrounds of these families tend to be either Greek Orthodox

Antiochian Orthodox Church

The Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch, also known as the Eastern Orthodox Church of Antioch and All the East, the Antiochian Orthodox Church, the Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East, and the Orthodox Church of Antioch,, claims to be one of the five churches that composed the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic...
or Greek Catholic

Melkite Greek Catholic Church

The Melkite Greek Catholic Church is an Eastern Catholic sui juris particular Church in full union with the Roman Catholic Church. The church's origins lie in the Near East, but, today, Melkite Catholics are spread throughout the world....
and some are Maronite Catholic, despite the Ghassanids' initial affiliation to Non-Chalcedonian

Chalcedonian

Chalcedonian describes churches and theologians which accept the definition given at the Council of Chalcedon of how the divine and human relate in the person of Jesus Christ....
Syriac Orthodox Christianity. They are identified by being Christian families with South Arabian

South Arabian

Ramallah

Ramallah is a Palestinian people city in the central West Bank adjacent to al-Bireh with a population nearly 25,500. Ramallah is located 10 kilometers north of Jerusalem and currently serves as the administrative capital of the Palestinian National Authority....
, and most villages around like Birzeit and Al-Taybeh, was a Christian majority city until the 1960s when many Palestinian Arab Christians emigrated to America

United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
and Canada

Canada

Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean....
. Most of the Arab Christian families of Ramallah

Ramallah

Ramallah is a Palestinian people city in the central West Bank adjacent to al-Bireh with a population nearly 25,500. Ramallah is located 10 kilometers north of Jerusalem and currently serves as the administrative capital of the Palestinian National Authority....
are linked to the Ghassanid Arab tribe known as the Hadadins.

The City of Fuheis,Jordan

Jordan

Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is an Arab country in Southwest Asia spanning the southern part of the Syrian Desert down to the Gulf of Aqaba....
is a predominately Arab Christians town with many of its families trace their roots to the Ghassanid tribe, they include the Aranki, Jreisat, Farahat, Dawod, Makhamreh, Smeirat, Kawar, Medaain, Samawi, and Sweiss families.

In the city of Karak in Jordan, the Ghassassneh tribe who are Muslim also claim descent from the Ghassanids. The tribe is mostly made up of Suheimat, Dhmour, Sarayreh, Imbaydeen, Bawaleez, Karakieen

In the Byzantine empire

Jabalah and about 30,000 Ghassanids left Syria

Syria

Byzantine

The word Byzantine may refer to:Topics directly related to the Byzantine Empire* A citizen of Byzantine Empire, or native Greeks during the Middle Ages ....
borders they were never able to build another kingdom. However, they maintained a high status within the Byzantine empire

Byzantine Empire

Byzantine Empire and Eastern Roman Empire are conventional names used to describe the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered on its capital of Constantinople....
from 802AD to 813AD.

Nikephoros was credited for his efforts to revive the greatness of the Byzantine empire in the 9th century. He was the first Byzantine emperor to refuse paying the Tribute to the Caliph in Baghdad. However, he was betrayed by his own officers and later defeated in Phrygia, forcing him to make peace and focus on the Balkans; during his era he settled Byzantine loyal tribes from Anatolia in what is today northern Greece to prevent Bulgar incursions.

In Alexanderia and Malta

After the council of Nicea a small group of Ghassanids settled Alexanderia. Three centuries later a bigger Ghassanid settlement was present in Alexanderia. This group spread to Northern Egypt and Malta prodcuing the Schebbara's (Gebara) Maltese nobility that sold the peninsula named after them. The capital Valleta will be buit on the Xiberras peninsula in the 16th century.

In the rest of the World

Ghassanid Christian families are found in Syria

Syria

Palestine

Palestine is a name which has been widely used since Roman times to refer to the region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. It is derived from a name used already much earlier for a narrower geographical region, mainly along the coastal region....
, Jordan

Jordan

Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is an Arab country in Southwest Asia spanning the southern part of the Syrian Desert down to the Gulf of Aqaba....
, and Lebanon

Lebanon

Lebanon , officially the Republic of Lebanon or Lebanese Republic , is a country in Western Asia, on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea....
. Many native Christians in these countries are Ghassanid Christians. Many have since emigrated to the Americas, Europe

Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
and the rest of the world due to persecution during the Ottoman period in the 19th century, the creation of Israel

Israel

Israel officially the State of Israel , is a country in the Middle East located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area....
in 1948, with the Palestinian Nakba as a result and following the Lebanese civil war.

=Ghassanid Kings=

Jafnah I ibn `Amr (220-265)
`Amr I ibn Jafnah (265-270)
Tha'labah ibn Amr (270-287)
al-Harith I ibn Th`alabah (287-307)
Jabalah I ibn al-Harith I (307-317)
al-Harith II ibn Jabalah "ibn Maria" (317-327)
al-Mundhir I Senior ibn al-Harith II (327-330) with...
al-Aiham ibn al-Harith II (327-330) and...
al-Mundhir II Junior ibn al-Harith II (327-340) and...
al-Nu`man I ibn al-Harith II (327-342) and...
`Amr II ibn al-Harith II (330-356) and...
Jabalah II ibn al-Harith II (327-361)
Jafnah II ibn al-Mundhir I (361-391) with...
al-Nu`man II ibn al-Mundhir I (361-362)
al-Nu`man III ibn 'Amr ibn al-Mundhir I (391-418)
Jabalah III ibn al-Nu`man (418-434)
al-Nu`man IV ibn al-Aiham (434-455) with...
al-Harith III ibn al-Aiham (434-456) and...
al-Nu`man V ibn al-Harith (434-453)
al-Mundhir II ibn al-Nu`man (453-472) with...
`Amr III ibn al-Nu`man (453-486) and...
Hijr ibn al-Nu`man (453-465)
al-Harith IV ibn Hijr (486-512)
Jabalah IV ibn al-Harith (512-529)
al-Harith V ibn Jabalah
Al-Harith ibn Jabalah

Al-Harith ibn Jabalah was a king of the Ghassanids, a pre-Islamic Arab people who lived on the eastern frontier of the Byzantine Empire. He reigned from 529 to 569....
(529-569)
al-Mundhir III ibn al-Harith (569-581) with...
Abu Kirab al-Nu`man ibn al-Harith (570-582)
al-Nu`man VI ibn al-Mundhir (582-583)
al-Harith VI ibn al-Harith (583)
al-Nu'man VII ibn al-Harith Abu Kirab (583- ?)
al-Aiham ibn Jabalah (? -614)
al-Mundhir IV ibn Jabalah (614- ?)
Sharahil ibn Jabalah (? -618)
Amr IV ibn Jabalah (618-628)
Jabalah V ibn al-Harith (628-632)
Jabalah VI ibn al-Aiham
Jabalah ibn al-Aiham

Jabalah ibn al-Aiham was the last ruler of the Ghassanid state in Syria and Jordan in the seventh century AD. He commanded a Christian Arab army in the Battle of Yarmouk in 636....
(632-638)

"Ghassan" as a first name

Arab Nationalism

Arab nationalism

Arab nationalism is a nationalist ideology which rose to prominence amongst Arabs from the early 20th century onwards. Its central premise is that the peoples and countries of the Arab World, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Arabian Sea, constitute one nation and are bound together by their common linguistic, cultural, and historical heritage....
, seeking to unite all Arabs regardless of their religious affiliation, took up the memory of the Ghassanids as part of its historic heritage. "Ghassan" is currently used as an Arab first name, attested among Muslims as well as Christians - a tribute to the lasting impression made by the Ghassanids' valour, even among their foes. Present-day use of the name does not necessarily imply that the bearer claims a Ghassanid descent (see Ghassan (disambiguation)).

External links

Sources

Bosra of the Ghassanids in the Catholic Encyclopedia
Almaqhafi, Awwad: Qabayl Wa Biton Al-Arab
Almsaodi, Abdulaziz; Tarikh Qabayl Al-Arab
Zahran, Yasmine; ; Stacey International Publishers, 2007.