Ghassanids

Ghassanids

The Ghassanids were a collection of Christian tribes from Southern Arabia which emigrated in the 3rd Century C.E to Southern Syria and Jordan. In this area they intermarried and intermingled with the local Hellenic population and the imported Roman population. The Ghassanids acted as East-Roman and later Byzantine proxies in their incessant border warfare with the Sassanid empire. This border warfare caused trade to be redirected through the relatively untouched deserts of Northern Arabia, which made it easy prey for the nomadic and semi-urban Arab civilization which languished in this area in the 3rd through 6th centuries C.E. The Ghassanids sometimes clashed with their Byzantine masters, as they had long ago accepted the orthodoxy of the monophysite creed of the Miaphysite or Jacobite Christians, which was strictly heretical to the ultra religious Byzantine authorities. The Ghassanids briefly controlled a kingdom in the late 5th century which was promptly swallowed in the wave of Arab conquests. A large proportion of the Ghassanids defected to the Umma of Omar following the Battle of Yarmuk in 636.

Modern Day

The Ghassanids are the main ethnic Christian Arab group in modern Lebanon and parts of Syria & Jordan.

Ghassanid families

Al-Khazen, Aranki, Ayoub, Ammari, Batarseh, Barakat, Bayouth, Chakar, Farhat, Farhoud, Gharios, Ghanem ,Ghanma, Ghannoum, Ghulmiyyah, Hamra, Howayek, Hadadin, Ishaq, Jabara (Jebara or Gebara, Gibara), Kandil, Karadsheh, Khazens, Lahd, Maalouf, Madi, Makhlouf, Matar, Moghabghab, Mokdad, Nayfeh, Nimri, Obeid, Oweis, Rached, Rahhal, Razook, Saab, Saah, Saliba, Sfeir, Sheiks Chemor, Smeirat, Swies, Sweidan, Theeba and Tyan. The religious backgrounds of these families tend to be either Greek Orthodox, Greek Catholic or Maronite Catholic, despite the Ghassanids' initial affiliation to Non-Chalcedonian Syriac Orthodox Christianity. They are identified by being Christian families with South Arabian names.