Byzantium and the Arabs in the Sixth Century, Vol. II, Pt. 2: Economic, Social, and Cultural History (review)

Volume II, part 1 of Byzantium and the Arabs in the Sixth Century covered federate activities, lands, religious buildings, and writers of the Ghassānids, Byzantium’s “Monophysite” Arab Christian allies. Part 2 deals with the Ghassānids’ role in peninsular and Mediterranean economic history; their group social life including gender attitudes and daily-life customs; and their cultural productions in architecture, visual art, and literature. Every remaining piece of evidence—often unfamiliar to Western-centered scholarship—is unpacked for maximum information and effect, to disclose, in the author’s words, “an entire Arab Christian culture that flourished in the shadow of Byzantium” (p. xxiii).

Section I (“Economic History”) summarizes the Ghassānids’ role in guarding the international trade routes that ran through Mesopotamia, western Arabia, and the eastern approaches to the Holy Land, as well as through the Red Sea—routes vital to both Byzantium and Persia. They protected fairs and markets, collected taxes, and even kept an eye on metal resources. Section II (“Social History”) rests on the three interbraided strands of Ghassānid identity— namely, Arab ethnicity, Byzantine culture, and Christian religion. Extrapolation from varied sources yields information on private-life aspects such as families and education. Poetry especially mentions numerous ruling women who practiced hospitality, went on pilgrimage, and even waged war. The flavor of Ghassānid life is gleaned from Arabic-language sources that describe food and wine, clothing and medicine, music, dance and festivals, and equestrian events, along with the characteristic enjoyment of the countryside (charmingly styled villeggiatura). This material will be a revelation to Western readers.

Section III (“Cultural History”) amplifies earlier work on the settled Ghassānids’ achievements both in building tangible structures and in constructing mentalités embodied in them. Although written sources mention churches and monasteries (along with tombs, gardens, and civil edifices), only recently has an actual Ghassānid church, dedicated to St. Sergius, been excavated (at Nitil in Jordan). Possible monastic remains have, sadly, been pillaged (see the depressing firsthand account on p. 288). It was the monasteries that served as prime cultural centers, combining art traditions from across the late-antique world and providing space for learning and literacy. Even the creation of what is romantically seen as the cultural ideal of “chivalry” (from the word for horse) is traced to Ghassānid equestrianism. Poetry and oratory complete the picture of this heavily oral society that interacted with its neighbors in many cultural spheres.

The closing section (“The Ghassānid Identity”) again interweaves Roman, Christian, and Hellenic traditions with Arab foundations to promote the multicultural nature of Oriens as it would continue through the seventh century and beyond. Once more, this lifework tells its audience that many speakers of Arabic were, and are, Christians.