Bahra'

After converting to Christianity, and becoming part of the Ghassanid-led tribal federates of the Byzantines in the late 6th century, the Bahra' were tasked with guarding Resafa.

[2] This tradition holds that Bahra' had five sons Ahwad, Qasit, Abada, Qasr and Adi, all of whose progeny became large clans of the tribe.

[2] There are scant records of the Bahra' tribe in the pre-Islamic era, but it is apparent that they were part of the Ghassanid-led Arab tribal federates of the Byzantine Empire in the Syrian Desert.

Historian Irfan Shahid stipulates that the Bahra' were in charge of protecting Resafa and the trade routes running through it from non-federate Bedouin tribes and the Lakhmids, guarding the pilgrimage shrine of St. Sergius, and possibly facilitating supplies to the town.

[7] By the time the Arab ruler Sayf al-Dawla formed his emirate in northern Syria in the 10th century, the abode of the Bahra' lay in the mountainous coastal region between Latakia and Tripoli.