Note 317 — Chapter XIX · CAMPAIGN IN NORTHERN SYRIA. A.H. XV. A.D. 636.
Reading edition
The story is variously told, but the main facts, as given in the text, appear beyond doubt. Tradition gives us first a romantic tale of what happened at ‘the Iron Bridge’ on the Orontes, where Jabala was posted to cover Antioch. There a Mussulman chief was brought in a prisoner to Jabala’s camp. He happened to be descended from the same ancestry, and on his reciting the poem of Hassân on the glories of the Ghassanide dynasty, he was dismissed with rich presents; and, in the end, Jabala himself went over to the Moslem camp.
After he had retired to the Byzantine Court, an envoy arrived at Constantinople, with diplomatic communications from Medîna, and to him Jabala made known his sorrows and pining after the desert. Pressed to return to Arabia, he agreed to do so, if Omar would give him one of his daughters in marriage and designate him his successor. He at the same time sent a rich gift to Hassân, who composed a poem, still extant, in token of his gratitude. The following is a couplet from the same:—
‘Jabala, the son of Jafna, forgot me not, when he reigned in Syria, Nor yet after he had returned at Constantinople to the Christian faith.’
We are to believe that Omar accepted the offer! but the officer who carried the answer to Constantinople found that Jabala had died (A.H. XX.). Others hold that Jabala survived to the reign of Muâvia, who tempted him in vain to return to Syria by the promise of a property at Damascus.
The colony of his descendants and followers is said to have survived at Constantinople till the fall of the Cæsars; and a colour of likelihood is given to the statement from the frequent recurrence of the name Gabala among the notables at the court of Heraclius’ successors. (See Caussin de Perceval, vol. iii. p. 510.)