Jabala ibn al-Aiham

Jabala ibn al-Aiham (Arabic: جبلة بن الأيهم) was the last ruler of the Ghassanid state in Syria and Jordan in the 7th century. He commanded a Christian Arab army in the Battle of Yarmouk in 636, but ordered his followers not to fight the Muslim army after he was given peace by the Muslims to be secured in his religious freedom and his followers. After the Muslim conquest of the Levant he converted to Islam around the year 638. His conversion was apparently short-lived, however. According to al-Baladhuri, two years after the defeat at Yarmouk and his apparent conversion to Islam, he was ordered to justice by the Caliph Omar Ibn Al Khattab after slapping a poor man and ridiculing him. Not wishing to, he absconded at night. After returning to Heraclius, he was given a state ruling of as many as 30,000 followers, in the Byzantine Empire. He lived in Anatolia until he died in the year 645.

Jabalah Ibn-Al-Aiham's ordeal with Islam

There are different opinions about why Jabalah and his followers did not convert to Islam. All the opinions go along the general idea that the Ghassanids were not interested yet in giving up their status as the lords and nobility of Syria. Jabalah Ibn-Al-Aiham sided with the Ansar (Azdi Muslims from Medina) saying, "You are our brethren and the sons of our fathers" and professed Islam. After the arrival of 'Umar ibn-al-Khattab in Syria, in the year 17 (638 AD), Jabalah was conducting a pilgrimage in Mecca. Al-Baladhuri's account states that during his tawaf around the kaaba, a poor man mistakenly stepped on his robe, making Jabalah almost trip over. This angered Jabalah so much that he hit the man in the eye, after which the man went to the Caliph 'Umar bin Khattab, who then requested that Jabalah be summoned to trial. After displaying the facts of the case, 'Umar ordered that Jabalah be hit by the poor man on the eye in the same manner by which the man himself was hit, but Jabala resisted this saying "Is his eye like mine?" upon which the Caliph 'Umar responded that "Islam has made you both equal." Jabalah requested that the Caliph carry out the sentence the next morning, and he fled to his village during the night. He then apostatized and went to the land of the Greeks (the Byzantines). This Jabalah was the king of Ghassan and the successor of al-Harith ibn-abi-Shimr.