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.
[1] The sole Greek source that mentioned the tribe, namely its royal Zokomid household, was Sozomen (d. c. 450 CE); the latter has been described as "valuable for writing the history of the Arab foederati in both the fourth and fifth centuries", according to modern historian Irfan Shahîd.
[6] The historian Werner Caskel notes that while Ibn al-Kalbi's account contains several fabrications and invented members, his record of the Salihids' premier family, the Daja'ima (Zokomids) is largely credible.
[13] The 8th-century historian Umar ibn Shabba reported that as early as the 3rd century, the Salihids had allied with the Palmyrene Empire and were settled by the latter in the manāẓir al-Shām (watchtowers of the Limes Arabicus, the Byzantine–Arabian frontier) between the Balqa (central Transjordan) and Huwwarin.
[14] Most sources point to an original migration from Wadi Sirhan, a valley whose northern end opened into the Byzantine province of Arabia Petraea.
[15] The Salihids' first settlements in the Limes Arabicus and their main power base were likely in the provinces of Arabia, Palaestina Salutaris and Phoenice Libanensis, all situated in the southern Levant.
[12] According to historian Warwick Ball, the Salihids became Byzantium's chief Arab ally by the end of the 4th century following the decline of the Tanukhids, whose power and favor deteriorated particularly as a result of a failed revolt in 383.
[12] The founder of the Zokomid household, Zokomos, known in Arabic as Ḥamāṭa and nicknamed Ḍujʿum (the mighty) was already a powerful tribal figure before his service with Byzantium.
From Dawud's daughter's verse, it is apparent that the battle took place between al-Qurnatayn (modern al-Shaykh Saad) in the Hauran and Mount Harib in the Golan Heights.
[26] He too was a jarrar, according to Ibn Habib, and participated in the battle of al-Baradān, which most likely took place at a spring in the vast Samawah (the desert between Syria and southern Iraq).
[27] After an initial Salhid success, the battle turned in favor of the opposing Kinda tribe led by Akil al-Murar Hujr, and Ziyad was slain.
[34] Between 502 and 529, they constituted one of many Arab foederati and directly answered to the dux (governor) of their province or the magister militum per Orientem (commander of the field army of Oriens).
[26] When the Ghassanids under their king Jabala ibn al-Ḥarith were made the supreme phylarchs over all the Arab federate tribes, the Salihids became their subordinates, though tensions and clashes persisted between them.
At Dumat al-Jandal in northern Arabia, a Byzantine army composed of the Salihids, Kalb, Tanukhids and Ghassanids, was defeated by the Muslim commander Iyad ibn Ghanm.
Later, this same Arab Christian coalition, boosted by the Lakhmids and the Judham, was defeated by the Muslim general Khalid ibn al-Walid at Ziza in the Balqa.
[37] During early Umayyad rule, the Kalb-led Quda'a confederation maintained a privileged position in government and during the Second Muslim Civil War (680–692) entered a long-running feud with its chief tribal rival, the Qays of northern Syria.
[39] According to Abbasid-era geographers, members of the Salih were found living near Kufa in southern Iraq alongside their Tayyid allies, and near Latakia in northern Syria.
Moreover, in the vicinity of these places lives the al-Salīḥāt (colloquially: Sleiḥat) tribe; Shahid asserts that the latter are "almost certainly, because of the rarity of the name, the descendants of the ancient Salīḥids".