Everything about The Mardaites totally explained
The
Mardaites (
Arabic,
المردة) were a cluster of
Aramaic tribal groups, inhabiting the highland regions of southern
Anatolia,
Isauria,
Syria, and
Lebanon, whose origins are unknown. Some sources say they were
Persian Zoroastrians who converted to
Christianity, others claim
Armenian heritage. However, most agree that they were
Syriac-
Aramaeanswho became
Maronite Christians.
According to some historians, after the conquest of the
Levant by the
Arab caliphate, the Mardaites around Mount Lebanon obtained control of their areas of settlement in the rugged hinterland of
Mount Lebanon and were used by
Byzantine rulers used as proxies to wage
guerrilla warfare on
Caliphate territories, on occasion raiding sites as important as
Damascus. After the
Battle of Yarmuk, the Caliph
Umar appointed
Muawiyah ibn Abu Sufyan, (later the first Caliph of the Umayyad dynasty) governor of Syria, and charged him with the subjugation of the Mardaites. Later, as Caliph, Muawiyah negotiated an agreement in 667 CE with the Byzantine Emperor
Constantine IV, in exchange for an annual tribute.
In the 690's,
Justinian II relocated a large number of them in
Macedonia as part of a peace treaty with the Caliphate. One of the relocated "Isaurians", as they were called, would eventually become Emperor
Leo III. Some historians view the Mardaites as the ancestors of the present-day
Vlachs.
Other historians, however, downplay the importance of the Mardaites in the context of
Byzantine-
Omayyad relations and doubt that they achieved a level of independence beyond a form of tribal self-rule in mountainous areas of limited strategic and symbolic relevance. These scholars remember that, at a later stage, the
Byzantines even persecuted the
Maronites because they accused the latter of supporting the
Monothelite doctrine, which the Byzantine viewed as
heretical.
Some Maronites' claim of a Mardaite ancestry, for example with the creation of a
Marada Brigade during the
Lebanese Civil War, derive from the same attempt as those of
Phoenicianists to stress the non-Arab origin of Maronites in order to preserve their separate ethnic identity.
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