Chapter 5 - The Shape of the Sixth Century II

Summary

This chapter aims to present a story of North Arabia in which the Arabians play the part of the protagonist rather than the minor role in a story of empires. This is be done by investigating the Konfliktbeziehung (conflictual relation) between empires and local dynasties and analysing the influence of foreign forces in the self-representation, cross-cultural assimilation and propaganda of the Arabian elites. Through a focus on degrees of participation and mediation as well as on buffer zone policies, a comparison is made between the North Arabians and those of other similar political entities in the first millennium. In a similar fashion to other first-millennium political entities, the Jafnids adopted the Roman lingua franca and its system of belief. Nonetheless, they found a way to rebrand Rome’s ‘identity signs’ as their own, as suggested by their adherence to Miaphysitism. Therefore, the chapter sheds light on their relationship with faith and the Church through an inquiry into their role as agents of cultural transformations in sixth-century North Arabia.