Jabala ibn al-Ayham () was the last ruler, or

phylarch A phylarch (, ) is a Greek title meaning "ruler of a tribe", from ''phyle'', "tribe" + ''archein'' "to rule". Athens In Classical Athens, a phylarch was the elected commander of the cavalry provided by each of the city's ten tribes. In 442/44 ...

, of the

Ghassanid The Ghassanids, also known as the Jafnids, were an Arab tribe. Originally from South Arabia, they migrated to the Levant in the 3rd century and established what would eventually become a Christian kingdom under the aegis of the Byzantine Empi ...

dynasty in

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

in the 7th century. He commanded

Arab Christian Arab Christians () are the Arabs who adhere to Christianity. The number of Arab Christians who live in the Middle East was estimated in 2012 to be between 10 and 15 million. Arab Christian communities can be found throughout the Arab world, bu ...

tribal contingents on behalf of the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived History of the Roman Empire, the events that caused the ...

against Arab Muslim forces during the

Muslim conquest of Syria The Muslim conquest of the Levant (; ), or Arab conquest of Syria, was a 634–638 CE invasion of Byzantine Syria by the Rashidun Caliphate. A part of the wider Arab–Byzantine wars, the Levant was brought under Arab Muslim rule and developed ...

in the 630s. In the battles of Dumat al-Jandal in northern Arabia and the decisive battle of Yarmuk in southern Syria in 636, his forces were defeated. He supposedly converted to Islam, before breaking ties with the faith in protest to indignities he consequently suffered related to Islamic egalitarian principles. Afterward, he left Syria permanently, taking refuge with his tribesmen in Byzantine

Anatolia Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

. Historians are divided on the historicity of Jabala due the lack of contemporary source material, with some arguing his personality was essentially a literary device of later Islamic writers.

Sources

There are no contemporary sources about Jabala, with the narratives of his life derived from

Abbasid The Abbasid Caliphate or Abbasid Empire (; ) was the third caliphate to succeed the prophets and messengers in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib (566–653 C ...

-era (post-750 CE) literature. However, a seal dated to the late 6th or early 7th century inscribed with the words 'Gabala,

patrikios The patricians (from ) were originally a group of ruling class families in ancient Rome. The distinction was highly significant in the Roman Kingdom and the early Republic, but its relevance waned after the Conflict of the Orders (494 BC to 287 B ...

' next to etches of Christian crosses has led to speculative identification with Jabala ibn al-Ayham by the historian Irfan Shahid.

Life

Fight against the Arab invasion

In the stories of Jabala in the Islamic literature, he is figured as the last

king and a military leader of the

's Christian Arab contingent during the

. He is cited in such a capacity during the siege of Dumat al-Jandal in , where he commands the Ghassanids and Tanukhid tribes against the Muslims, at the

Battle of Yarmouk The Battle of the Yarmuk (also spelled Yarmouk; ) was a major battle between the army of the Byzantine Empire and the Arab Muslim forces of the Rashidun Caliphate. The battle consisted of a series of engagements that lasted for six days in Aug ...

in 636, during which the Muslim Arabs routed the Byzantines and went on to conquer

from them. According to the Abbasid-era authors

Ibn Ishaq Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Ishaq ibn Yasar al-Muttalibi (; – , known simply as Ibn Ishaq, was an 8th-century Muslim historian and hagiographer who collected oral traditions that formed the basis of an important biography of the Islamic proph ...

, al-Waqidi, and

al-Baladhuri ʾAḥmad ibn Yaḥyā ibn Jābir al-Balādhurī () was a 9th-century West Asian historian. One of the eminent Middle Eastern historians of his age, he spent most of his life in Baghdad and enjoyed great influence at the court of the caliph al ...

, in Yarmouk, Jabala led 12,000 men of the Ghassanids and the other Christian tribes of Lakhm, Judham, and groups of the

Quda'a The Quda'a () were a confederation of Arab tribes, including the powerful Banu Kalb, Kalb and Tanukh, mainly concentrated throughout Syria (region), Syria and northwestern Arabia, from at least the 4th century CE, during Byzantine Empire, Byzanti ...

tribe, such as the

Balqayn Banū al-Qayn () (also spelled Banūʾl Qayn, Balqayn or al-Qayn ibn Jasr) were an Arab tribe that was active between the early Roman era in the Near East through the early Islamic era (7th–8th centuries CE), as far as the historical record is c ...

and

Bali Bali (English:; Balinese language, Balinese: ) is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller o ...

. The Islamic literature abounds with stories of Jabala's conversion to Islam sometime after Yarmouk, then leaving Islam and taking refuge under Emperor

Heraclius Heraclius (; 11 February 641) was Byzantine emperor from 610 to 641. His rise to power began in 608, when he and his father, Heraclius the Elder, the Exarch of Africa, led a revolt against the unpopular emperor Phocas. Heraclius's reign was ...

. There are different versions of the stories, but they generally have Jabala arrive to the Muslim capital at

Medina Medina, officially al-Madinah al-Munawwarah (, ), also known as Taybah () and known in pre-Islamic times as Yathrib (), is the capital of Medina Province (Saudi Arabia), Medina Province in the Hejaz region of western Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, ...

with his entourage, set off for the

Hajj Hajj (; ; also spelled Hadj, Haj or Haji) is an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the holiest city for Muslims. Hajj is a mandatory religious duty for capable Muslims that must be carried out at least once in their lifetim ...

pilgrimage with Caliph

Umar Umar ibn al-Khattab (; ), also spelled Omar, was the second Rashidun caliph, ruling from August 634 until his assassination in 644. He succeeded Abu Bakr () and is regarded as a senior companion and father-in-law of the Islamic prophet Mu ...

, have an altercation with a lowly pilgrim whose nose he ultimately breaks, threaten to leave Islam, and finally make a nightly escape which ends with his relocation to Byzantine territory.

Retreat into Byzantine territory

Jabala's flight to Byzantium supposedly occurred in and he made the trek through

Raqqa Raqqa (, also , Kurdish language, Kurdish: ''Reqa'') is a city in Syria on the North bank of the Euphrates River, about east of Aleppo. It is located east of the Tabqa Dam, Syria's largest dam. The Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine city and b ...

(Byzantine Callinicum) with 30,000 of his or allied Christian Arab tribesmen (incl.

Tanukhids The Tanukh (, sometimes referred to as the Tanukhids (, ), was an Arab tribal group whose history in the Arabian Peninsula and the Fertile Crescent spanned the 2nd century CE to the 17th century. The group began as a confederation of Arab tribes ...

and Iyad Arabs) and their families. While they were close to Baghras crossing to Cilicia, they were attacked by Maisara bin Masruq who had been dispatched by Abu Ubadayah. While some sources claims that the refugees were massacred, a complete annihilation is unlikely as the force of Maisara bin Masruq was much smaller and it is known that several Arabs later served Byzantium. The survivors thereafter taking abode in the

Charsianon Charsianon () was the name of a Byzantine fortress and the corresponding theme (a military-civilian province) in the region of Cappadocia in eastern Anatolia (modern Turkey). History The fortress of Charsianon (Greek: Χαρσιανόν κάστ ...

region of Byzantine

. The geographer al-Istakhri mentions the descendants of these tribesmen in that region during the 10th century. According to the historian

Walter Kaegi Walter Emil Kaegi (November 8, 1937, New Albany, Indiana – February 24, 2022) was a historian and scholar of Byzantine history, professor of history at the University of Chicago, and a Voting Member of The Oriental Institute. He received his B. ...

, the purported flight of so many Arab tribesmen was a motivating factor for the Muslims to conquer Raqqa and

Upper Mesopotamia Upper Mesopotamia constitutes the Upland and lowland, uplands and great outwash plain of northwestern Iraq, northeastern Syria and southeastern Turkey, in the northern Middle East. Since the early Muslim conquests of the mid-7th century, the regio ...

in general, so as to prevent such nomadic exodus from the conquered lands to Byzantium; such exodus contravened caliph

's policy of subjugating all nomadic Arab tribes under the Caliphate's rule. The Byzantine emperor

Nikephoros I Nikephoros I (; 750 – 26 July 811), also known as Nicephorus I, was Byzantine emperor from 802 to 811. He was General Logothete (finance minister) under Empress Irene, but later overthrew her to seize the throne for himself. Prior to becomi ...

is said to have been a descendant of Jabala.

Assessment

Shahid considers the existence of Jabala as possible "evidence" for the Byzantines' revival of the Ghassanid

ate following its destruction during the Sasanian Persian invasion of Byzantine Syria in 614. In the view of historian Julia Bray, Jabala's references in the Islamic literature represents "the archetype" of the bygone era "of , Christianity, and kingship" in Arab history, and the transition to the new Islamic era. The historian Greg Fisher assesses Jabala as "a semi-mythical figure" used in the literature to "test the purity of the new uslimfaith, celebrate the greatness of the empire that the uslim conquerorssupplanted, and serve all kinds of other useful literary and rhetorical purposes".

References

Bibliography

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