2 See note at p. clxvii.
3 See p. clvi.
4 These are the accounts of the Arab writers.
5 Arethas or Harith is a very frequent name of the Ghassan princes; but there is no ground (as held by Scaliger,) for believing that it was a title common to all the Syrian phylarchs. Several of the Ghassinite kings called Jabala, are also styled Harith. This surname, which signifies a lion, was probably adopted by them in opposition to that of Mundzir (a dog,) borne by many of their rivals, the Kings of Hira. M. C. de Perceval vol. ii. p.210; see above, note, chap. ii. p. cxxi.
6 See above, p. clvi.
7 This would be the period when politically its introduction was most probable. But there is no direct proof. Sozomenes asserted that an Arab Prince Zacome (called by Liquien Zaracome,) having obtained a son through the prayers of a monk, was with his whole tribe converted to Christianity: but it is difficult to identify any such prince in the Ghassan line. The nearest approach M. C. de Perceval can make is in the name of Arcam, a grandson or THALABA. Ibid., p. 215.
8 See Gibbon's Decline and Fall, chap. xxiv. But the name of "Malek Rodosaces, the renowned Emir of the tribe of Ghassan," it is not possible to connect with any in the Ghassan line.
9 This is from the Grecian historians, Theophanes and Ammianus. M. C. de Perceval shows that the Arabs appeared to have confounded Mavia with Maria, a princess who lived about a century later - another specimen of the critical skill of our Arab historians. The error might easily occur in careless Arabic writing.
10 Thus,
Take it, even if at the cost of the earrings of Mary." Each, they say, was formed of a pearl the size of a pigeon's egg.
11 It is described by Procopius as bounded by Palestine on the north, by the country of the Maddenians on the south, stretching ten days' journey to the east, and producing only palms. M. C. de Perceval, vol.ii. p.231.
12 Malala and Theophanes refer to Harith as having been in hostility with the Roman commander of Phenicia, and obliged to quit the province and betake hiruseif in exile to the desert. During some such interregnum, the princes here referred to may have reigned: or Palestine may have formed a phylarchy separate from that of the Bani Ghassan. It seems difficult to believe that Abocharab, the chief of Palestine, could have been the Harith al Arnj or the Arabs. Idem, p. 237, note.
13 Hitherto the title had been Phylarch.
14 See Gibbon's Decline and Fall, chap. xli.
15 See Gibbon's Decline and Fall, chap. xlii.
16 See above, p. clxxvi. et. seq.
17 At the end of the 5th century the rule or the chief branch of the Ghasssanites extended over Jaulan and Hauran, as the following verses by Nabigha Dzobiani, on the Death of Noman VI. (597-600 A.D.) prove.
Jaulan (Caulonitis, or the Golan of Deut. chap. iv. 43; Joshua, chap. xx.;
I Chron. chap. vi.) is the high mountunous country east of the lake of Tiberias. Hauran (Auranitis) is adjacent to it.
18 At this time there was, apparently, a division in the kingdom; for we find Hojr II and Amr V., two grandsons of Harith the Lame, ruling over the Arabs of Palestine as far as Ayla on the Red Sea, (590-615 A.D.) Thus Hassan ibnThabit writes: -
"Who shall deceive time, or feel secure from its attack henceforth, after Amr and Hojr -the two princes who ruled over the bond and the free, from the snow capt hills to the boundaries of Ayla" M. C. de Perceval vol.ii. p. 249.
The "mountains of snow" are probably the high ranges of Tiberias. This branch was probably overthrown in the destructive war again kindled between Persia and the West, in the first stage of which Chosroes overran Syria, plundered Antioch Damascus and Jerusalem, and carried his ravages even to the borders of Egypt.
19 Katib al Wackidi p. 50.
20 See also the account of an embassy from Mahomet to certain rulers in Amman. Idem., p. 59 1/2.
21 Thaalebi; Tabacat al Muluk; M. C. de Perceval, vol. ii p. 2.
22See Katib al Wackidi p. 51; and M. C. de Perceval, vol. ii. p. 257.
