The Late Antique Church at Tall al-ʿUmayrī East: New Evidence for the Jafnid Family and the Cult of St. Sergius in Northern Jordan

The discovery of a new church inscription referring to the Jafnid (or “Ghassānid”) leader al-Mundhir in northern Jordan provides new insights into the activities of the family in the region and is a valuable addition to the epigraphic corpus concerning the Jafnids. The initial publication of the inscription in ADAJ, as part of the excavation report, was necessarily limited in its analytical scope. Here we take the opportunity to build on those initial findings to place the inscription in its epigraphic context, in the context of the activities of the Jafnid family, including their public connection to expressions of Christian piety in Provincia Arabia and elsewhere. Finally, we offer a hypothesis about what the title accorded to al-Mundhir on the inscription might reveal about the process of “imperial confirmation” for Arab allies in general and for the Jafnids in particular.