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44-548: Khawarnaq was a medieval castle constructed by the Arab Lakhmids near their capital of al-Hira . The castle is mentioned in both Arabic and Persian sources, albeit it is difficult to determine what information is historical and what is myth. Lakhmids The Nasrid dynasty authority extended over to their Arab allies in Al-Bahrain and Al-Yamama . When Khosrow II deposed and executed Al-Nu'man III ,

88-604: A Christian kingdom under the aegis of the Byzantine Empire , as their society merged with local Chalcedonian Christianity and was largely Hellenized . However, some of the Ghassanids may have already adhered to Christianity before they emigrated from South Arabia to escape religious persecution. As a Byzantine vassal, the Ghassanids participated in the Byzantine–Sasanian Wars , fighting against

132-597: A Ghassanid. After originally settling in the Levant, the Ghassanids became a client state to the Byzantine Empire . The Romans found a powerful ally in the Ghassanids who acted as a buffer zone against the Lakhmids . In addition, as kings of their own people, they were also phylarchs , native rulers of client frontier states. The capital was at Jabiyah in the Golan Heights . Geographically, it occupied much of

176-704: A chosen successor amid the Second Muslim Civil War in 684, Umayyad rule was on the verge of collapse in Syria, having already collapsed throughout the caliphate, where the supporters of a rival caliph, the Mecca -based Ibn al-Zubayr , took charge. The Ghassan, along with their tribal allies in Syria, especially the Kalb, supported continued Umayyad rule to secure their interests under the dynasty, and nominated Mu'awiya's distant cousin, Marwan I , as caliph during

220-714: A false suspicion of treason, and the Lakhmid Kingdom was annexed. Coupled with increasing instability in Persia proper after the downfall of Khosrow in 628, these events heralded the decisive Battle of Qadisiyya in 636 and the Muslim conquest of Persia . Some believed that the annexation of the Lakhmid Kingdom was one of the main factors behind the fall of the Sasanian Empire and the Muslim conquest of Persia as

264-619: A large army and developed the Kingdom as a naval power, which consisted of a fleet of ships operating along the Bahraini coast. From this position he attacked the coastal cities of Iran - which at that time was in civil war, due to a dispute as to the succession - even raiding the birthplace of the Sasanian kings, Fars Province . Imru' al-Qais escaped to Bahrain, taking his dream of a unified Arab nation with him, and then to Syria seeking

308-567: A poem attributed to him, Marwan lauds the Ghassan, as well as the Kalb, Kinda , and Tanukh of Syria, for supporting him. The above tribes thereafter formed the Yaman faction, in opposition to the Qays tribes which backed Dahhak and Ibn al-Zubayr. The Qays–Yaman rivalry contributed to the downfall of Umayyad rule, with each faction supporting different Umayyad dynasts and governors in what became

352-549: A possible Christian affiliation, suggesting that Imru'al Qays' Christianity may have been "orthodox, heretical or of the Manichaean type ". Furthermore, Shahid asserts that the funerary inscription of Imru' al Qays ibn 'Amr lacks Christian formulas and symbols. Imru' al-Qais dreamt of a unified and independent Arab kingdom and, following that dream, he seized many cities in the Arabian Peninsula . He then formed

396-671: A summit of the Syrian tribes in the old Ghassanid capital of Jabiyah . Dahhak ibn Qays al-Fihri , the governor of Damascus, meanwhile, threw his backing behind Ibn al-Zubayr. During the Battle of Marj Rahit , which pitted Marwan against Dahhak in a meadow north of Damascus, the scion of the Ghassanid family in Damascus, Yazid ibn Abi al-Nims, led a revolt there and secured control of the city for Marwan, who routed Dahhak and assumed office. In

440-853: A tribe called the Kassanitai south of the Kinaidokolpitai and the river Baitios (probably the wadi Baysh ). These are probably the people called Casani in Pliny the Elder , Gasandoi in Diodorus Siculus and Kasandreis in Photios I of Constantinople (relying on older sources). The date of the migration to the Levant is unclear, but they are believed to have first arrived in the region of Syria between 250 and 300, with later waves of migration circa 400. Their earliest appearance in records

484-504: Is dated to 473, when their chief, Amorkesos, signed a treaty with the Byzantine Empire acknowledging their status as foederati controlling parts of Palestine . He apparently became a Chalcedonian Christian at this time. By the year 510, the Ghassanids were no longer Miaphysites , but Chalcedonian. The "Assanite Saracen" chief Podosaces that fought alongside the Sasanians during Julian's Persian expedition in 363 might have been

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528-572: The Banu Judham and Banu Amilah . The Byzantines were focused more on the East and a long war with the Sasanians was always their main concern. The Ghassanids maintained their rule as the guardian of trade routes, policed Lakhmid tribes and was a source of troops for the imperial army. The Ghassanid king al-Harith ibn Jabalah (reigned 529–569) supported the Byzantines against the Sasanians and

572-479: The Banu Lakhm tribe that emigrated from Yemen in the second century. The founder of the dynasty was 'Amr, whose son Imru' al-Qais I (not to be confused with the poet Imru' al-Qais who lived in the sixth century) is claimed to have converted to Christianity. However, there is debate on his religious affinity. Theodor Nöldeke noted that Imru' al-Qays ibn 'Amr was not a Christian, while Irfan Shahîd noted

616-654: The Lakhm ", mentioned in the late 3rd-century Paikuli inscription among the vassals of the Sasanian Empire . From this, the term "Lakhmid" has been applied by historians to the Nasrids and their subjects, ruled from al-Hirah. However, as historian Greg Fisher points out, there is "very little information about who made up the people who lived in or around al-Hirah, and there is no reason to suppose that any connection between Nasrid leaders and Lakhm that may have existed in

660-592: The Sasanian -allied Lakhmids , who were also an Arabian tribe, but adhered to the non-Chalcedonian Church of the East . The lands of the Ghassanids also acted as a buffer zone protecting lands that had been annexed by the Romans against raids by Bedouins . After just over 400 years of existence, the Ghassanid kingdom fell to the Rashidun Caliphate during the Muslim conquest of the Levant . A few of

704-789: The Third Muslim Civil War . The Ghassanid Shabib ibn Abi Malik was a leader of the Yaman in Damascus and conspired to assassinate the pro-Qaysi Caliph al-Walid II ( r.  743–744 ). After the latter was killed, the Ghassan marched on Damascus to help install his successor, the Yamani-backed Yazid III ( r.  744–744 ). The toppling of the Umayyads and the advent of the Iraq-based Abbasid Caliphate in 750 "was disastrous for

748-640: The Abbasid dynasts, an Umayyad, Abu al-Umaytir al-Sufyani , took power in Syria in 811, in a bid to reestablish the Umayyad Caliphate. Abu Mushir, whose grandfather was killed by the Abbasids in 750, disdained the Iraqis represented by the Abbasids and supported the restoration of Umayyad rule. He served as Abu al-Umaytir's qadi (chief jurist), but was imprisoned by the Abbasids in the years following

792-489: The Arabs on the eastern fringes of Syria, as evidenced by a spread of urbanization and the sponsorship of several churches, monasteries and other buildings. The surviving descriptions of the Ghassanid courts impart an image of luxury and an active cultural life, with patronage of the arts, music and especially Arab-language poetry. In the words of Ball, "the Ghassanid courts were the most important centres for Arabic poetry before

836-545: The Byzantines, especially against their enemies the Lakhmids, and secured Byzantium's southern flank and its political and commercial interests in Arabia proper. On the other hand, the Ghassanids remained fervently dedicated to Miaphysitism , which brought about their break with Byzantium and Mundhir's own downfall and exile, which was followed after 586 by the dissolution of the Ghassanid federation. The Ghassanids' patronage of

880-537: The Damascene elite into the mid-9th century. Abu Mushir's grandfather, Abd al-A'la, was a hadith scholar and Abu Mushir studied under the famous Syrian scholar Sa'id ibn Abd al-Aziz al-Tanukhi. He became a prominent hadith scholar in Damascus, with special interest in the administrative history of Syria, its local elite's genealogies and local scholars. During the Fourth Muslim Civil War between

924-563: The Ghassan of Syria. The last phylarch of the Ghassan, Jabala ibn al-Ayham , stories of whom are shrouded in legend, led his tribesmen and those of Byzantium's other allied Arab tribes in the Byzantine army that was routed by the Muslims at the Battle of Yarmouk in c.  636 . After supposedly embracing Islam, Jabala left the faith and ultimately withdrew with his tribesmen from Syria to Byzantine-held Anatolia in 639, by which time

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968-479: The Islamic empire in general. Significant remnants of the Ghassan remained in Syria, residing in Damascus and the city's Ghouta countryside. At least nominally and probably gradually, many of these Ghassanids embraced Islam, especially under Mu'awiya's rule. According to the historian Nancy Khalek, they consequently became an "indispensable" group of Muslim society in early Islamic Syria. Mu'awiya actively sought

1012-634: The Lakhmids of al-Hirah in Lower Mesopotamia , prospered economically and engaged in much religious and public building; they also patronized the arts and at one time entertained the Arab poets al-Nabighah and Hassan ibn Thabit at their courts. The nascent Muslim state in Medina , first under the Islamic prophet Muhammad (d. 632) and lastly under the second caliph , Umar ( r.  634–644 ), made abortive attempts to contact or win over

1056-492: The Miaphysite Syrian Church was crucial for its survival and revival, and even its spread, through missionary activities, south into Arabia. According to the historian Warwick Ball , the Ghassanids' promotion of a simpler and more rigidly monotheistic form of Christianity in a specifically Arab context can be said to have anticipated Islam . Ghassanid rule also brought a period of considerable prosperity for

1100-540: The Muslims had conquered most of Byzantine Syria. Unable to make headway with the Ghassan, the Muslim administration in Syria under its governor Mu'awiya succeeded in allying with the Ghassan's old-established Syrian allies, the Banu Kalb . The latter became the cornerstone of Mu'awiya's military power in Syria, and later, when he became head of the Syria-based Umayyad Caliphate in 661, of

1144-667: The Nu'man family armor, but Hani ibn Mas'ud (Nu'man's friend) refused, and the Arab forces of the Sasanian Empire were defeated at the Battle of Dhi Qar , near al-Hirah, the capital of the Lakhmids, in 609. Hira stood just south of what is now the Iraqi city of Kufa. The Abbadid dynasty , which ruled the Taifa of Seville in al-Andalus in the 11th century, was of Lakhmid descent. Poets described al-Hira as paradise on earth; an Arab poet described

1188-455: The Sasanians were defeated in the Battle of Hira by Khalid ibn al-Walid . At that point, the city was abandoned and its materials were used to reconstruct Kufa , its exhausted twin city. According to the Arab historian Abu ʿUbaidah ( d.  824), Khosrow II was angry with the king, al-Nu'man III ibn al-Mundhir, for refusing to give him his daughter in marriage, and therefore imprisoned him. Subsequently, Khosrow sent troops to recover

1232-623: The Sasanians' arch-enemy, the Roman Empire . The Lakhmid Kingdom could have been a major centre of the Church of the East , which was nurtured by the Sasanians, as it opposed the Chalcedonian Christianity of the Romans. The Lakhmids remained influential throughout the sixth century. Nevertheless, in 602, the last Lakhmid king, al-Nu'man III ibn al-Mundhir , was put to death by the Sasanian emperor Khosrow II because of

1276-603: The city's pleasant climate and beauty thus: "One day in al-Hirah is better than a year of treatment". The ruins of al-Hirah are located 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) south of Kufa on the west bank of the Euphrates . Ghassanids The Ghassanids , also known as the Jafnids , were an Arabian tribe . Originally from South Arabia , they migrated to the Levant in the 3rd century and established what would eventually become

1320-566: The eastern Levant , and its authority extended via tribal alliances with other Azdi tribes all the way to the northern Hijaz as far south as Yathrib ( Medina ). The Ghassanids fought alongside the Byzantine Empire against the Persian Sasanians and Arab Lakhmids. The lands of the Ghassanids also continually acted as a buffer zone, protecting Byzantine lands against raids by Bedouin tribes. Among their Arab allies were

1364-468: The last Nasrid ruler, his Arab allies in Najd rose in arms and defeated the Sasanians at the battle of Dhi Qar , which led to the Sasanians losing their control over Eastern Arabia. The victory at Dhi Qar roused confidence and enthusiasm among the Arabs seen as the beginning of a new era. The nature and identity of the Lakhmid Kingdom remains mostly unclear. The ruling Nasrid family emerges with " Amr of

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1408-517: The militarily and administratively experienced Syrian Christians, including the Ghassanids, and members of the tribe served him and later Umayyad caliphs as governors, commanders of the shurta (select troops), scribes, and chamberlains. Several descendants of the tribe's Tha'laba and Imru al-Qays branches are listed in the sources as Umayyad court poets, jurists, and officials in the eastern provinces of Khurasan , Adharbayjan and Armenia . When Mu'awiya's grandson, Caliph Mu'awiya II , died without

1452-692: The power, wealth and status of the Arab tribes in Syria", including the Ghassan, according to the historian Hugh N. Kennedy . By the 9th century, the tribe had adopted a settled life, being recorded by the geographer al-Ya'qubi (d. 890) to be living in the Ghouta gardens region of Damascus and in Gharandal in Transjordan . Two Damascene Ghassanid families in particular achieved prominence in early Islamic Syria, those of Yahya ibn Yahya al-Ghassani (d. 750s) and Abu Mushir al-Ghassani (d. 833). The former

1496-430: The promised assistance from Constantius II which never materialized, so he stayed there until he died. When he died he was entombed at al-Nimarah in the Syrian desert. Imru' al-Qais' funerary inscription is written in an extremely difficult type of script. Recently there has been a revival of interest in the inscription, and controversy has arisen over its precise implications. It is now certain that Imru' al-Qais claimed

1540-479: The rebellion's suppression in 813. His great-grandsons Abd al-Rabb ibn Muhammad and Amr ibn Abd al-A'la also attained fame as Damascene scholars. Medieval Arabic authors used the term Jafnids for the Ghassanids, a term modern scholars prefer at least for the ruling stratum of Ghassanid society. Earlier kings are traditional, actual dates highly uncertain. The Ghassanids reached their peak under al-Harith V and al-Mundhir III. Both were militarily successful allies of

1584-641: The rise of the Caliphal courts under Islam", and their court culture, including their penchant for desert palaces like Qasr ibn Wardan , provided the model for the Umayyad caliphs and their court. After the fall of the first kingdom in the 7th century, several dynasties, both Christian and Muslim, ruled claiming to be a continuation of the House of Ghassan. Besides the claim of the Phocid or Nikephorian Dynasty of

1628-559: The story of the 'Scattering of Azd'. In the latter story, the Azd migrate northward from Yemen and different groups of the tribe split off in different directions, with the Ghassan being one such group. Per the "Scattering of Azd" story, the Ghassanids eventually settled within the Roman limes . The tradition of Ghassanid migration finds support in the Geography of Ptolemy , which locates

1672-400: The third century was still present in the sixth, or that the Nasrids ruled over a homogeneous Lakhmid kingdom". This situation is exacerbated by the fact that the historical sources—mostly Byzantine —start dealing with the Lakhmids in greater detail only from the late 5th century, as well as by the relative lack of archaeological work at al-Hirah. The Lakhmid Kingdom was founded and ruled by

1716-473: The title "King of all the Arabs" and also claimed in the inscription to have campaigned successfully over the entire north and centre of the peninsula, as far as the border of Najran . Two years after his death, in the year 330, a revolt took place where Aws ibn Qallam was killed and succeeded by the son of Imru' al-Qais, 'Amr. Thereafter, the Lakhmids' main rivals were the Ghassanids , who were vassals of

1760-604: The transmissions from Muhammad's Damascus-based companion, Abu Darda . Among some traditions sourced to Yahya ibn Yahya by later Muslim scholars are those regarding the discovery of John the Baptist 's head in the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus and others which praise the mosque's splendor and the Umayyad dynasty in general. Yahya ibn Yahya's sons, grandsons, great-grandsons and great-great-grandsons continued their ancestor's interests in hadith scholarship and remained part of

1804-448: The tribe's members then converted to Islam , while most dispersed themselves amongst Melkites and Syriacs in what is now Jordan , Israel , Syria , Palestine , and Lebanon . In the Arab genealogical tradition which developed during the early Islamic period, the Ghassanids were considered a branch of the Azd tribe of South Arabia / Yemen . In this genealogical scheme, their ancestor

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1848-687: Was Jafnah , a son of Amr Muzayqiya ibn Amir ibn Haritha ibn Imru’ al Qais ibn Tha’labah ibn Mazin ibn Azd , through whom the Ghassanids were purportedly linked with the Ansar (the Aws and Khazraj tribes of Medina ), who were the descendants of Jafna's brother Tha'laba. According to the historian Brian Ulrich , the links between Ghassan, the Ansar, and the wider Azd are historically tenuous, as these groups are almost always counted separately from each other in sources other than post-8th-century genealogical works and

1892-721: Was given in 529 by the emperor Justinian I , the highest imperial title that was ever bestowed upon a foreign ruler; also the status of patricians. In addition to that, al-Harith ibn Jabalah was given the rule over all the Arab allies of the Byzantine Empire. Al-Harith was a Miaphysite Christian; he helped to revive the Syrian Miaphysite (Jacobite) Church and supported Miaphysite development despite Orthodox Byzantium regarding it as heretical . Later Byzantine mistrust and persecution of such religious unorthodoxy brought down his successors, Al-Mundhir III ibn al-Harith (reigned 569–582). The Ghassanids, who had successfully opposed

1936-440: Was the son of Caliph Marwan's head of the shurta , Yahya ibn Qays. Upon returning to Damascus after his stint as a governor of Mosul for the Umayyad caliph Umar II ( r.  717–720 ), Yahya ibn Yahya took up scholarship and became known as the sayyid ahl Dimashq (leader of the people of Damascus), transmitting purported hadiths (traditions and utterances) of Muhammad, which he derived from his uncle Sulayman, who received

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