Ghassanid Kingdom

The Ghassanids, also called the Jafnids, were a Christian Arab kingdom and tribal confederation based in the Levant. Their genealogies traced descent to the Azd tribes of Arabia, and from the third and fourth centuries they were the leading Arab confederation in the Hejaz before migrating north into Syria. They became clients of the Roman Empire, serving as foederati who defended the eastern frontier against Bedouin raids and the Sasanian-allied Lakhmids. The relationship was sealed by the title of patrician granted to their king al-Harith ibn Jabalah under Justinian I, when the Ghassanids rose from one of several Arab allies to exercise collective authority over the others. Their court at al-Jabiya, in the Golan, was a centre of Monophysite Christianity and Arabic poetry, and their kings campaigned for Byzantium in the wars against Persia, including the great war of 602-628. After the Muslim conquests the Ghassanid role ended: they were defeated at the Yarmuk in 636 and their lands passed to the Rashidun Caliphate. Many Ghassanids remained Christian, dispersing into the Melkite and Syriac churches, and their memory survived in Arab genealogies and in the traditions of later Levantine communities.