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47.8%ANMag Issue 26 Global Awareness
Mystic People from Our Past: The Ghassanids
By Ghassan Teffaha, Staff Writer
Beirut, Lebanon − In these times of globalization, some stereotypes and misconceptions still hold about the Arab world, its people and history. Most western people still believe that we, as Arabs, live in tents, have four wives and either sit on barrels of oil or boxes of TNT. One of these misconceptions is the equality of the word Arab with the religion of Islam; hence if you’re an Arab, you’re a Muslim as well. What some fail to notice or acknowledge is that Arabs existed prior to the coming of Islam and its spread. The topic of my second article from the new series that I am reporting on, Mystic People from Our Past, are the Ghassanids.
It is believed that the Ghassanids came from the city of Ma'rib in Yemen. Ma'rib is the city that housed the earliest dam in human history. The area around the dam was considered to be one of the most important cradles of civilization and it is thought that the exodus of all Arab tribes is attributed to the floods that occurred and then destroyed part of the dam in the 2nd century. The Ghassanids migrated north till they reached the area of Houran to the south of Damascus where they established their state under the rule of King Jafna Bin Amr, with Jibayah as their capital. The name Ghassanids comes from the word Ghassan, an old Arabic word meaning a spring of water which is believed to be the reason why King Jafna picked that spot to settle in and create his new state. The Ghassanids quickly allied themselves to the Roman Empire and became the protectors of the southern borders of the Roman Empire from Arab Bedouin penetration. Although they became part of the Roman Empire, they kept an autonomous way of rule which guaranteed their control of important trade routes. This control also helped them in spreading Christianity in the Levant.
The Byzantine Empire took the place of the Roman Empire late in the 3rd century and the Ghassanids maintained their rule as the guardian of trade routes, policing Bedouin tribes and were a source of troops for the Byzantine army. The Ghassanids prospered economically and engaged in much religious and public building. The Ghassanids remained a Byzantine vassal state 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 when the Muslims gave them amnesty and agreed to let them live as free men and women. However, unlike other Christian Arab tribes, the Ghassanids did not convert to Islam as they were not interested yet in giving up their status as the lords and nobility of Syria. With the arrival of Islam and the creation of the Islamic state with the Khalifa as its head, the Ghassanid state collapsed.
As mentioned earlier, most Ghassanids remained Christians, as a matter of fact; Many Christian families of Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, and Palestine trace their roots to the Ghassanid dynasty, including the following family names:
Abou Haidar, Al-Khazen, Ayoub, Ammari, Batarseh, Barakat, Bayouth, Farhat, Farhoud, Gharios, Ghanem ,Ghanma, Ghulmiyyah, Hamra, Howaik, Hadadin, Is-haq, Jabara, Kandil, Lahd, Maalouf, Madi, Makhlouf, Matar, Moghabghab, Mokdad, Nawfal ,Nayfeh, Nimri, Obeid, Oweis, Rached, Rafeedie/Rafidi, Rahhal, Razook, Saab, Saah, Saliba, Smeirat, Swies, Sweidan, Theeba and Tyan. The religious backgrounds of these families tend to be either Greek Orthodox or Greek Catholic and some are Maronites. The Palestinian city of Ramallah was a majority Christian city until the 1960s when many Palestinian Arab Christians emigrated to America and Canada. Most of the Arab Christian families of Ramallah are linked to the Ghassanid Arab tribe known as the Hadadins. The City of Fuheis in Jordan is a predominately Arab Christians town with many of its families trace their roots to the Ghassanid tribe, and they include the Smeirat, Kawar, Medaain, Samawi, and Swies families.