Tanukhids in the context of "Nabataean Aramaic"

Arab Christians (Arabic: ﺍﻟْﻤَﺴِﻴﺤِﻴُّﻮﻥ ﺍﻟْﻌَﺮَﺏ, romanized: al-Masīḥiyyūn al-ʿArab) are the Arabs who adhere to Christianity. The number of Arab Christians who live in the Middle East was estimated in 2012 to be between 10 and 15 million, although most predominant in Lebanon. Arab Christian communities can be found throughout the Arab world, but are concentrated in the Eastern Mediterranean region of the Levant and Egypt, with smaller communities present throughout the Arabian Peninsula and North Africa.

The history of Arab Christians coincides with the history of Eastern Christianity and the history of the Arabic language; Arab Christian communities either result from pre-existing Christian communities adopting the Arabic language, or from pre-existing Arabic-speaking communities adopting Christianity. The jurisdictions of three of the five patriarchates of the Pentarchy primarily became Arabic-speaking after the early Muslim conquests – the Church of Alexandria, the Church of Antioch and the Church of Jerusalem – and over time many of their adherents adopted the Arabic language and culture. Separately, a number of early Arab kingdoms and tribes adopted Christianity, including the Nabataeans, Lakhmids, Salihids, Tanukhids, Ibadis of al-Hira, and the Ghassanids.

The Salīḥids (Arabic: بنو سليح, romanized: Banū Salīḥ), also known simply as Salīḥ or by their royal house, the Zokomids (Arabic: Ḍajaʿima) were the dominant Arab foederati of the Byzantine Empire in the 5th century. They succeeded the Tanukhids, who were dominant in the 4th century, and were in turn defeated and replaced by the Ghassanids in the early 6th century.

The Salihids were originally concentrated in the Wadi Sirhan and Balqa regions of modern Jordan, but spread as far as northern Syria after entering the service of the Byzantine Empire. The Salihids were charged with collecting tax from Bedouins dwelling within the Limes Arabicus (Byzantine frontier with the Syrian and Arabian deserts) and protecting the frontier from Bedouin raiders. They were ardent Christians and at least one of their phylarchs and kings, Dawud, built a Christian monastery, Deir Dawud.

The Qays–Yaman rivalry refers to the rivalry between the tribal factions of Qays–Mudar and the Yaman. The history of the rivalry centers mainly within the armies and administrations of the Umayyad Caliphate in the 7th and 8th centuries, but persisted to varying degrees among the Arabs through Ottoman rule (1517–1918). Membership in either faction was rooted in the genealogical origins of the tribes, real or perceived, which divided them into south Arabian descendants of Qahtan (the Yaman) or north Arabian descendants of Adnan (Qays–Mudar).

The tribes which constituted the Yaman, most prominently the Kalb, Ghassanids, Tanukh and Judham, were well-established throughout the Syria (the Levant) since the pre-Islamic period, while the Qaysi tribes, namely the Sulaym, Banu Amir and Ghatafan migrated to northern Syria and Upper Mesopotamia with the Muslim armies in the 7th century. The feud did not effectively take shape until after the reign of Caliph Mu'awiya I (r. 661–680), who, along with his Sufyanid descendants, were tied to the Kalb, the leading tribe of Yaman, through marriage and military dependence. When the last Sufyanid caliph died in 684, the Kalb and its allies resolved to ensure continued Umayyad rule to maintain their stately privileges, while the Qays backed Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr's bid for the caliphate. That year, the Kalb routed the Qays at the Battle of Marj Rahit, leading to years of revenge-driven, tit-for-tat raids known as ayyam (days) because the battles were typically day-long affairs.