Key Pages:
Home
Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology & the Ancient World
Brown University
Box 1837 / 60 George Street
Providence, RI 02912
Telephone: (401) 863-3188
Fax: (401) 863-9423
[email protected]
The Ghassanids, were native rulers of the later period of the Byzantine Empire. They ruled over most of northwestern Arabia and were the counterparts to the Sasanians. The Persian invasion conquered the Ghassan kingdom in 614.
Posted at Mar 10/2011 07:44PM:
ian: What role do they have with the coming of the Muslims and their settlement in the region of greater Syria. Remember that they were ethnically Arab and in many ways paved the way for an Arab dominated state like that of the Umayyads.
Posted at Mar 10/2011 09:50PM:
Aniqa:
The Ghassanids were related to the Awes and the Khazraj. They were supposedly the protectors of the border between Arabia and Syria but they basically take the Arab side and stop being the protectors of the Byzantine state (mostly based on tribal and ethnic ties instead of religious). Most of them convert to Islam because their concept of Christianity is VERY different from Byzantine orthodoxy.