Ghassanids

The Ghassanids were Arab Christians that emigrated in 250 CE from Yemen to the Hauran, in southern Syria. The term Ghassan refers to the kingdom of the Ghassanids, and supposedly means "a spring of water". The Ghassanid emigration has been passed down in the rich oral tradition of southern Syria. It is said that the Ghassanids came from the city of Ma'rib in Yemen. 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" refers to that exodus in history. The emigrants were from the southern Arab tribe of Azd. The king Jafna bin ‘Amr emigrated with his family and retinue north and settled in Hauran (south of Damascus) where the Ghassanid state was founded. There it is assumed that the Ghassanids adopted the religion of Christianity from the native Aramaeans and Romans. Modern southern-Syrians are a mix of these three peoples.

The Ghassanid kingdom was an ally of the Byzantine Empire. More accurately the kings can be described as phylarchs, native rulers of subject frontier states. The capital was at Jabiyah in the Golan Heights. Geographically, it occupied much of Syria, Palestine, Jordan and the northern Hijaz as far south as Yathrib (Medina). It acted as guardian of trade routes, policed Bedouin tribes and was a source of troops for the Byzantine army.The Ghassanid king al-Harith ibn Jabalah (reigned 529-569) supported the Byzantines against Sassanid Persia and was given the title patricius in 529 by the emperor Justinian. Al-Harith was a Monophysite Christian; he helped to revive the Syrian Monophysite (Jacobite) Church and supported Monophysite development despite Orthodox Byzantium regarding it as heretical. 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 of al-Hirah (Southern Iraq 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 at their courts. Ghassan remained a Byzantine vassal state until its rulers were overthrown by the Muslims in the 7th century, following the Battle of Yarmuk. It was at this battle that some 12,000 Ghassanid Arabs defected to the Muslim side due to the Muslims offering to pay their arrears in wages. Their real power, however, had been destroyed by the Persian invasion in 614.

Ghassanid Kings

1. Jafnah I ibn `Amr(220-265)
2. `Amr I ibn Jafnah(265-270)
3. Tha'labah ibn Amr(270-287)
4. al-Harith I ibn Th`alabah(287-307)
5. Jabalah I ibn al-Harith I(307-317)
6. al-Harith II ibn Jabalah "ibn Maria"(317-327)
7. al-Mundhir I Senior ibn al-Harith II(327-330) with...
8. al-Aiham ibn al-Harith II(327-330) and...
9. al-Mundhir II Junior ibn al-Harith II(327-340) and...
10. al-Nu`man I ibn al-Harith II(327-342) and...
11. `Amr II ibn al-Harith II(330-356) and...
12. Jabalah II ibn al-Harith II(327-361)
13. Jafnah II ibn al-Mundhir I(361-391) with...
14. al-Nu`man II ibn al-Mundhir I(361-362)
15. al-Nu`man III ibn 'Amr ibn al-Mundhir I(391-418)
16. Jabalah III ibn al-Nu`man(418-434)
17. al-Nu`man IV ibn al-Aiham(434-455) with...
18. al-Harith III ibn al-Aiham(434-456) and...
19. al-Nu`man V ibn al-Harith(434-453)
20. al-Mundhir II ibn al-Nu`man(453-472) with...
21. `Amr III ibn al-Nu`man(453-486) and...
22. Hijr ibn al-Nu`man(453-465)
23. al-Harith IV ibn Hijr(486-512)
24. Jabalah IV ibn al-Harith(512-529)
25. al-Harith V ibn Jabalah(529-569)
26. al-Mundhir III ibn al-Harith(569-581) with...
27. Abu Kirab al-Nu`man ibn al-Harith(570-582)
28. al-Nu`man VI ibn al-Mundhir(582-583)
29. al-Harith VI ibn al-Harith(583)
30. al-Nu'man VII ibn al-Harith Abu Kirab(583- ?)
31. al-Aiham ibn Jabalah(? -614)
32. al-Mundhir IV ibn Jabalah(614- ?)
33. Sharahil ibn Jabalah(? -618)
34. Amr IV ibn Jabalah(618-628)
35. Jabalah V ibn al-Harith(628-632)
36. Jabalah VI ibn al-Aiham(632-638)

External links

• Aramco world article on Ghassanids (http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/198302/the.king.of.ghassan.htm)
• Britannica entry on Ghassanids (http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?tocId=9036664)
• Ghannoum family history of Ghassanids (http://www.ghannoum.net/ghassanids.htm)
• Small entry on Ghassanids by xmission (http://www.xmission.com/~bob/lote13/Nations/Ghassanids.html)