Arabic Linguistic Identity and the Tribal Confederacy of the Ghassan on the Eve of the Islamic Conquests

Abstract

In 528/9 AD, al-Harith, the leader of a tribal confederation known as the Ghassan, was recognized as Rome’s ally on the eastern frontier. This alliance established the Ghassan, despite following a heretical Christian sect, as the principal authority in what is modern-day Syria and Jordan. This alliance also secured the Ghassan’s right to collect taxes independently and to mobilize against the Empire’s enemies. Moreover, Ghassanid leaders received distinguished epithets which had previously been reserved largely for the Roman aristocracy. A recently discovered mosaic in northern Jordan suggests that these titles were being used by the Ghassan not in isolation but as stratified ranks for their ruling class. Furthermore, this mosaic, along with significant epigraphic evidence, suggests that the Ghassan spoke Arabic well before the Islamic conquests, despite many scholars’ belief that the Ghassan spoke Christian Palestinian Aramaic. Although it is difficult to define an Arab identity prior to the Islamic conquests, the Arabs of South Arabia would have shared at least a common language with the Ghassan to the North. Additionally, it cannot be doubted that the Ghassan would have had direct contact with Muhammad’s ancestors through trade routes such as Wadi Sirhan. Early adherents to Islam may have seen this Arab group in the North, which had been able to achieve a semi-autonomous existence on the Roman frontier, despite neither following the orthodox faith nor being native speakers of Greek or Latin, as a potential model for a new Arab polity.