The Sixth-Century Church Complex at Nitl, Jordan. The Ghassanid Dimension

The Ghassanid Church Complex at Nitl, in the Madaba region of Jordan, is truly a landmark in the history of Arab Federate art and architecture in this Late Antique period. It is the first indubitably Ghassanid Arab monument to be discovered in the south of Oriens, (Biläd al-Shäm), while others, such as Qas†al, have been only inferentially declared Ghassanid, since they are anepigraphic, unlike this one, the inscriptions of which have survived and they establish its Ghassanid identity beyond doubt. It is also the first Ghassanid church to be discovered. The excavation of a Church in this region with a clear Ghassanid Arab patronage could raise the question whether the zealous Ghassanid kings of the region participated, perhaps in a small way, with the Chalcedonian Church of Byzantium in the artistic renaissance in this region.