A Christian Insurgency in Islamic Syria: The Jarājima (Mardaites) between Byzantium and the Caliphate

In the century following the Arab conquest, the Byzantine Empire launched several campaigns aimed at retaking lost territory across the Middle East. Perhaps the most threatening of these relied on the muscle of a group known as Jarājima in Arabic and as Mardaites in Greek. These were mountain Christians, who helped the Byzantines reestablish control over the coastal highlands between Antioch and Jerusalem at the end of the seventh century, creating a short-lived Christian guerilla zone on the doorstep of the Umayyads’ most important province. In the process, they terrified caliphs, gave hope to emperors, and left a deep impression on the historical record of the period. This chapter first establishes a clear chronology for the Jarājima from their first appearance during the Arab conquest of the 630s, to their last gasp as a militarized movement during the little-studied revolt of Theodore in 759-60. It then explores the afterlife of the Jarājima until their disappearance from the historical record in the tenth century. The chapter then answers some of the outstanding questions about the Jarājima regarding their confessional, ethnic, and cultural make-up, before examining the Jarājima in their wider historical context, especially of revolts elsewhere in the early post-Conquest territories.