Ghassanids

The Byzantine commonwealth: Ghassanids - The Christian Arabs

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• published: 18 Jul 2009
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The Christian Arabian kingdom of Ghassān The Ghassānid; prominent as a Byzantine ally (Symmachos/ foederati) in the 6th century A.D. in Oriens. From its strategic location in portions of modern Syria, Jordan, and Israel, they have protected the spice trade route from the south of the Arabian Peninsula at Yemen (Arabia Felix) and acted as a buffer against the desert Bedouin invaders. The Ghassanids, who thus came to power as client-kings of the Romans around the year 530 A. D., In the history of Syriac Christianity they were the champions of Mono-physitism, and the representatives of Christianity to their countrymen in the peninsula. In the history of culture they had the double function of being patrons of Arabic poetry and unsuspecting middlemen of Byzantinism (Christian Romanization) to the Arabs outside the limes. The monasteries penetrated deep in the heart of Arabia, into regions to which the church could not penetrate. Thus the monastery turned out to be more influential than the church in the spiritual life of the Arabs, especially in the sphere of indirect Byzantine influence in the Peninsula. The monastery was also the meeting place of two ideals; Christian philanthropy and Arab hospitality The Ghassānid venerated Saint Sergius and protected the Christian pilgrims to the shrine of St Sergius . Ghassān remained a Byzantine vassal state until its rulers were overthrown by the Muslims in the 7th century. Although the Ghassanid realm has vanished; it's people would still has an imprint at the Byzantine history; one of them would raise to the highest byzantine ranks and would be crowned as Emperor Nicephorus I References: Ghassān. (2009). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved July 17, 2009, from Encyclopædia Britannica Byzantium and the Arabs in the Sixth Century, Volume II, Part 1: Toponymy, Monuments, Historical Geography and Frontier Studies. By Irfan Shahîd. (Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection. 2002. Pp. xxxvi, 448; 6 plates Heinz Gaube; Arabs in Sixth-Century Syria: Some Archaeological Observations Bulletin (British Society for Middle Eastern Studies), Vol. 8, No. 2. (1981), pp. 93-98. Irfan Shahid. Byzantium and the Arabs in the Fifth Century. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library, Washington, D.C. 1989. Beginning with pg. 528. Vll. BYZANTINISM AND ARABISM: INTERACTION "Nicephorus I." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 17 Jul. 2009 The soundtrack : Farid al-Atrash فريد الأطرش : The lady Devil - Afrita hanem عفريته هانم ٍُSerbian Music Teodulija I Madam Piano - Dert Sanja Ilić & Balkanika - BaLkan 2000 Anathema