The Ghassanid Kingdom

Summary

The kingdom of the Ghassanids, the house of Jafna of the Azd, were kings of the Arabs and agents of the Romans in Syria. The Sealed Nectar counts them with the kings of Yemen and al-Hira among the crowned kings who were not independent ¹.

Before them: the Dajaima

In the age when the Arabs were in turmoil through migrations, clans of Qudaa reached the edges of Syria. They were from the Banu Sulayh ibn Hulwan, and among them were the Banu Dajam, known as the Dajaima. The Romans made use of them to keep the desert Arabs from troubling them, and as a force against the Persians. They appointed one of them as king. Among their most famous kings was Ziyad ibn al-Habula. Their period is roughly estimated as running from the early second century CE to about its end ² ³ ⁴.

The rise of the Ghassanids

The Dajaima's rule ended when the Ghassanids came and overcame them in what they held. The Romans then made the Ghassanids kings over the Arabs of Syria, with Dumat al-Jandal as their seat ². The father of the Ghassanid kings was Jafna ibn Amr al-Azdi. The name is traced to a water source in the Hijaz known as Ghassan ⁵.

The end

The Ghassanids continued to rule Syria as agents of the Roman kings until the Battle of Yarmouk in 13 AH. Their last king, Jabala ibn al-Ayham, submitted to Islam in the time of Umar ibn al-Khattab (may God be pleased with him) ² ³.

Religion and dependency

The Ghassanids embraced Christianity because of their proximity to the Romans ⁶. The tribes of the Syrian desert were subject to the Ghassanids in name only, not in fact ⁷.

For young visitors

The Ghassanids were Arab kings in the land of Syria who served the Roman emperor. Their last king, Jabala, became a Muslim in the time of Umar.

Sources

al-Raheeq al-Makhtum — Safi al-Rahman al-Mubarakpuri , p.23

al-Raheeq al-Makhtum — Safi al-Rahman al-Mubarakpuri , p.27

Muhadarat Tarikh al-Umam al-Islamiyya — Muhammad al-Khudari , 1/34

Tarikh Ard al-Quran — Sulayman al-Nadwi , 2/80-82

al-Raheeq al-Makhtum — Safi al-Rahman al-Mubarakpuri , p.17

al-Raheeq al-Makhtum — Safi al-Rahman al-Mubarakpuri , p.41

al-Raheeq al-Makhtum — Safi al-Rahman al-Mubarakpuri , p.32

Battle of the Yarmuk

A great battle between the Muslims and the Byzantines at the Yarmuk river. After the defeat Abu Ubayda called for withdrawal, and the Muslims moved until they set their camps at Marj al-Suffar, then encamped at Damascus. Al-Waqidi reported that it was in 15 AH; al-Tabari's report of the account of Sayf places it in 13 AH. According to al-Baladhuri: Heraclius gathered a host of Byzantines, Syrians, people of al-Jazira and Armenia numbering some two hundred thousand, put one of his intimates in command, and sent Jabala ibn al-Ayham al-Ghassani at its vanguard, with the Arabized Syrians of Lakhm and Judham. The Muslims numbered twenty-four thousand. The Byzantines and their followers were chained together so that they would not be tempted to flee. They fought at the Yarmuk with the fiercest of battles; God slew some seventy thousand of them, and their remnant fled to Palestine, Antioch, Aleppo, al-Jazira and Armenia. Muslim women also fought hard on the day of the Yarmuk, and Hind bint Utba, mother of Mu'awiya, kept calling out: bite the sheaths with your swords. On that day the eye of al-Ash'ath ibn Qays was lost, as were the eye of Hashim ibn Utba ibn Abi Waqqas al-Zuhri, called al-Mirqal, and the eye of Qays ibn Maksuh. Amir ibn Abi Waqqas, who had carried Umar's letter to Abu Ubayda confirming his governorship of Syria, was martyred; it is also said that he died in the plague, or at Ajnadayn, but this is not established. Abu Ubayda appointed Habib ibn Maslama al-Fihri over the pursuing cavalry, to kill whoever they overtook. Jabala ibn al-Ayham sided with the Ansar and said: you are our brothers and the sons of our father; he showed Islam, then apostatised and entered Byzantine lands when Umar sought retaliation from him. In another account, Umar found him still a Christian; he refused the jizya out of pride and entered Byzantine lands with thirty thousand men. Umar regretted it, and Ubada ibn al-Samit reproached him that had he accepted his alms, he would have become a Muslim. So Umar sent Umayr ibn Sa'd al-Ansari with an army in 21 AH and ordered him to coax Jabala and bring him back, on condition that he pay what he had offered in alms and keep his religion; but Jabala refused except to stay, and Umayr reached a place known as al-Himar, fell upon its people and laid it waste. On the day of the Yarmuk the Muslims returned to the people of Homs the tribute they had taken from them, saying they had been too occupied to aid them. The people of Homs replied that the justice of their rule was dearer to them than the oppression they had suffered, and that they would repel Heraclius's troops from the city alongside their governor. The Jews rose and said: by the Torah, Heraclius's governor shall not enter the city of Homs unless we are overcome and worn out; they shut the gates and guarded them, and the Christians and Jews of the other cities under treaty did likewise. When news of the Yarmuk reached Heraclius he fled from Antioch to Constantinople, and when he crossed the pass he said: farewell, O Syria. The battle was in Rajab of 15 AH.

At a glance

In time