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The Ghassans of Syria

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Last updated: May 23rd, 2025 at 12:22 pm · Est. Reading Time: 4 minutes

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Ghassans were sedentary Arabs of Syria.  They were phylarchs (federates) of Byzantine Rome.

The Beginning of Phylarchy

An Arabic inscription found at Nimarah near present-day Damascus was written in 328 CE.  It mentions King Imru’ l Qays and discusses the defeat of the Asd (Azd) and Madhij tribes at his hands, who then were chased away to Najran, and that Imru’ l Qays was phylarch for the Romans.1  This is the earliest evidence of Arabs being phylarchs in Syria.  As this king Imr al-Qays is identified as the second Lakhmid kinglet, son of ‘Amr of Paikuli inscription fame, one can assume that the first Roman phylarchs were Lakhmids.2

The Reason for Ghassan’s Appointment

A dated Greek inscription at Dakir (Ḍakīr ضَكِير) indicates that Ghassans were phylarchs as early as 455 CE.3 The government of Byzantine Rome used to recognize more than one Arab tribe as phylarch in Syria.  One of them always used to be the main phylarch. Up to the end of the 5th century CE, they were the Salih.  Around 502 CE, a Ghassan leader by the name of Harith bin Tha’labah defeated the Salih.4   This success of the Ghassans prompted the Byzantine authorities to dump Salih and recognize the Ghassans as the main phylarchs in Syria.

The Origin of the Ghassan

According to early Islamic sources, the Ghassans were originally residents of Yemen.  They migrated gradually northward.  They stayed in Yathrib for a while and were relatives of the Aws and Khazraj tribes of Yathrib.5  Ultimately, they moved to Syria, where they settled around the Golan Heights.

Duties of the Ghassans

Main duty of the Ghassans was to control the Arab tribes of Syria and the Tribal Zone of north western Arabia.  They were responsible for preventing of any Arab raid no the Roman settlements of Syria.

Two pre-Islamic inscriptions shed light on this duty of the Ghassans.

Jabal Usays in Syria has produced an inscription in Arabic from 528 CE, recording military expeditions by Ibrahim bin Mughirah (Ibrāhīm bin Mughīrah اِبرَاهِيم بِن مُغِيرَه) of the Aws tribe on behalf of the king Harith (presumably Ghassanid king Harith bin Jabalah, also called Arethas by Procopius).  Ibrahim bin Mughira is identified as a resident of Yathrib by Shahid, who is a world-renowned scholar on the Ghassans.  It means they gave employment to Arabs of central Arabia, even high ranks like the commander of their forces.6  The inscription establishes beyond doubt that one duty of the Ghassans was to control Arab tribes.

A bilingual inscription written in Greek and Arabic and found at Al-Laja (nicknamed Harran inscription, but different from the Harran inscription of Nebonidus) mentions a military expedition to Khaybar and its destruction in 567 CE, which is considered to be that of Ghassan phylarch Harith bin Jabalah to Khaybar.7  This inscription also establishes the role of Ghassans over the Arabs of northwestern Arabia.

Another duty of the Ghassans was to fight for the Byzantine Empire against Sasanian Iran and their proxy Lakhmids.8

The Source of Ghassan’s Power

The government of Byzantine Rome used to provide the Ghassans with a stipend and military support.  Ibn Habib notes that Emperor Anastasius (r. 491 – 518) had promised to provide Harith bin Tha’labah with forty thousand troops in case Arabs attacked him.9  The money Byzantines used to pay to the Ghassan is called ṭu’ma in Arabic sources and Annona in Syriac sources.10

The Ghassans had their resources as well.  They used to recruit soldiers from Arabia.  They used to raise horses, engage in agriculture, and used to raid the weaker Arab tribes to supplement their income.11

The Seat of Ghassan’s Governance

The Ghassans used to rule from their capital, Jabiya.

Further Reading

Irfan Shahīd. Byzantium and the Arabs in the Sixth Century, Vol. 1, Washington: Dumbarton Oaks, 2002.

https://historyofislam.org/historic-sources-of-islam

Endnotes

  1. James A. Bellamy, A New Reading of the Namārah Inscription, Journal of the American Oriental Society 105 no.1 (1985): 31 – 51.  (Muse du Louvre, AO 4083).
  2. Valentina A. Grasso, Pre-Islamic Arabia: Societies, Politics, Cults, and Identities during Late Antiquity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023), 29.
  3. Maurice Sartre, “Deux Phylarques Arabes dans l’Arabie Byzantine,” Le Museon 106 (1993), 145 – 153.
  4. Theophanes the Confessor, The Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor, ed. and trans. Cyril Mango and Roger Scott, (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1997), 223, AM 5995, AD 502/3.; Muhammad Ibn Habib, Kitab al-Muhabbar, ed. I Lichtenstadter (Hyderabad: Da’irat al-Ma’arif al-‘Uthmaniyah, 1942), 371 – 72.
  5. Irfan Shahīd. Byzantium and the Arabs in the Sixth Century, Vol. 1, (Washington: Dumbarton Oaks, 2002), 3, 15.
  6. K. Brisch, “Das omyayyadische Schloss in Usais,” in Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archaologischen Instituts, Abteilung Kairo 19 (1963): 141 – 87, and 20 (1965): 138 – 77.;  Adolf Grohmann, Arabische Palaographie II: Das Schriftwesen; Die Lapidarschrift II, Volume 94 of Denkschriften – Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien.  Philosophich – historische Klasse, (Vienna: Hermann Bohlaus, 1971), 15 – 17, Pl. 1, 2.; Beatrice Gruendler, The Development Of the Arabic Scripts: From the Nabatean Era to the First Islamic Century According to the Dated Texts, (Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press, 1993), 14.Irfan Shahid, Byzantium and the Arabs in the Sixth Century, Vol. 1, part 1 (Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks, 1995), 122, 23.
  7. P. Schroeder, “Epigraphisches aus Syrien”, Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft 38 no. ¾ (1884), 530 – 534, Pl. I.;  R. Dussaud and F. Macler, mission scientifique dans les regions desertiques de la Syrie Moyenne, Nouvelles archives des missions scientifiques et litteraires 10 (Paris, 1903), 726 – 27.  AND E. Littmann, “Osservazioni sulle iscrizioni di Harran e di Zebed,” Rivista degli studi ovientalis 4 (1911), 193 – 98.
  8. Malalas, The chronicle of John Malalas, trans. Elizabeth Jeffreys, Michael Jeffreys, and Roger Scott (Melbourne: Australian Association for Byzantine Studies, 1986), 256, Book 18.
  9. Muhammad Ibn Habib, Kitab al-Muhabbar, ed. I Lichtenstadter (Hyderabad: Da’irat al-Ma’arif al-‘Uthmaniyah, 1942), 371 – 72.
  10. Irfan Shahîd, The Martyrs of Najran: New Documents, (Bruxellles: Société Des Bollandistes, 1971), 62 – 63.;  Wahb Ibn Munabbih, Kitab al-Tījān (San’a, Yemen: 1979), 296.
  11. Irfan Shahīd. Byzantium and the Arabs in the Sixth Century, Vol. 1, (Washington: Dumbarton Oaks, 2002), 57, 67, 77.
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