PRINCE OF THE GHASSANIDS
H I S I M P E R I A L A N D R O Y A L H I G H N E S S
VERY IMPORTANT NOTES:
ABOUT TITLES:
The Ghassanid titles are “Malik”, the Arabic equivalent of “King”, “Amir” the Arabic equivalent of “Prince” and “Sheikh”. In the specific case of the El Chemor family - the lawful heir of the Ghassanid Royal titles - the title "Sheikh" it’s related to a sovereign ruler (Al-Akoura and Zghartha-Zawyie from the 13th until the 18th century) hence, it’s also the equivalent of “Prince”. See the examples of Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, etc. where all the princes belonging to the ruling family are “sheikhs”.
“Besides the sovereigns referred to above, there are several oriental potentates who should be mentioned, the rulers of the Sultanates and Sheikdoms of East Africa and the Persian Gulf (…) The style of these sheikhs is His Highness.” From the book “Titles: How the king became His Majesty”, L.G. Pine, New York, 1992 (Barnes & Noble) p. 137-138
There are other kind of lesser “sheikhs” even in Lebanon. Those were either elevated by ruling princes or were mere tax collectors of the Ottoman empire. The aforementioned don’t apply to the El Chemor princes since it’s documented that they were ruling independently since 1211, almost 80 years before the Ottoman empire was even founded and over 300 years before the first emirate was created with prince Fakhr al-Din I (1516–1544) .
ABOUT RECOGNITION:
The titles of the El Chemor family were recognized by the Ottoman empire until its demise (1924 CE) and also by the Lebanese republic until the present date. The family's history was kept and validated for centuries by the Maronite Church under the Holy See (Vatican) and the authority of the Pope.
Please CLICK HERE for an official 2014's article (in Arabic) from the Lebanese Government New's Agency (Lebanese Republic - Ministry of Information) recognizing the titles and validating the book (Historical Scientific Research) written in 1948 about the family's history.
HERE download the full 1948's Historical Scientific Research in Arabic
HERE download the English Legal Translation of the 1948's Historical Scientific Research
Book
"Sheikh El Chemor Rulers of Al-Aqoura (1211-1633) and Rulers of Al-Zawiye (1641-1747)"
Beirut, Lebanon, 1947 Father Ignatios Tannos El-Khoury
Download the full version of the book (in Arabic) in a .PDF file
For further understanding, please, read the article "The El Chemor/Gharios Family Vis-à-vis with the International Law" LEARN MORE
CHAPTER III (page 38)
Translation: Reham Makhlouf
IMPORTANT NOTE: The surname "El Chemor" has this transliteration and pronunciation in Lebanon. The rest of the Arab world pronounces "El Shammar" or "El Shimmar". The term "Chemori" or "Shammari" means from/of "Chemor" or "Shammar"
The Name and Origin of Shammari (El Chemor) Family
It is a reputed deep-rooted allegation that the heads of Al-Chemor tribe are rooted from Bani Chemor, who are the Christian Kings of Ghassan which belong to Al Jafna.
(Abu Chemor, Shammar or Shimmar) is the King of Jibla Al-Ghassani's title since 500 A.D [the birth of Jesus Christ the Savior]
The latest King of Abi Chemor (Shammar) Al Ghassani, is the King of the Levant, Jibla bin Aiham (since 630-636 CE), where he used to live in Al-Balqa-Amman and passed away in the year of 640 CE.
The well-known writer Gerji Zeidan said that when Islam prevailed and started to sweep Christianity in the Levant, King Jibla Al Chemori Al Ghassani fought off and launched a fiercful was against it which ended in his defeat and led to the overrun of Islam over the Ghassani Kingdom where it set forth its authority all over the Kingdom and obliged the Christians to convert to Islam beyond their will, where the King of Jabla was forced to convert to Islam until he was able to flee.
The Caliph Omar bin Al Khattab conquered Jerusalem in 636 A.D, 15 Hijri (the Muslim Calendar), the army leader back then was Obaida bin Jarrah who was asked about the king of Jabla and the reason behind his disappearance after Omar bin Al-Khattab degraded and mistreated him after the king refused to level with a man from Souqa from Fazara tribe.
The Chemori (Shammari) king refused to obey and said that he wants to reconvert to Christianity, Omar threatened to chop his head off if he did so because he is now a Muslim, and said that "I have not seen bin Aiham -the king- since he refused to obey and left, and that he doesn't know where he had gone or where he lives... and I am -Omar- writing to know if you -Obaida- know where he is. Obaida replied; my Lord, we have not been able to locate him and we have been searching for months but came to nothing. We are now certain of what happened to the Christian King and the rest of the Christians. The Levant is the kingdom of that nation, they have been perished, oppressed and obliged to follow and convert to Islam."
A lot of them as history assures, were sticking to their religion like their king but they were forced to flee and seek refuge from the mistreatment of Omar and the rest of the Caliphs.
So Al-Chemor (Al-Shammar) Al Ghassani's and some of their followers were compelled to flee to other lands where they could save themselves and their religion which is essential to them and would never give up on it.
The land is Lebanon, and despite of the differences of history, all historians agreed that even though Islam prevailed and spread, it was not able to take over nor demolish Christianity.
The later centuries witnessed this unique miracle: a minority of Maronite Christians protected themselves behind desolated rocks, caves and valleys as if they were in a deserted island that is standing in the face of the clashes; Islam from one side, worshippers of idols from another and other heresies.
Those Christians stood for their faith and were keen to gain their freedom under the reign of their Patriarchs and representatives.
The Maronite State, the giants or "al Marada", not only was successful in spreading its sovereignty on Lebanon but also on all Phoenicia, from Antakya to the Black Mountain of Suweida to Jerusalem.
This supreme sovereignty was specifically in the 7th Century, during the reign of the King Jibla Al-Chemori (Al-Shammari) and the era of his and his people's immigration (the Shammarees). Lebanon at that time was well fortified against the Muslims and the Romans, and "the giants" were able to defeat all the wars that were launched against them and Islam couldn't prevail there.
They, the Maronites', spread their own sovereignty and security on their land and shielded it for the Eastern Christians. Until now, Lebanon is considered the den of Christianity and the home of their religious freedom.
In the 7th Century, Al 'Aqoura town due to its importance was a Lebanese capital and due to its geographical location the town was shielded and its religion was protected. In comparison with the biggest Eastern cities, Al 'Aqoura used to have 40 churches.
The (Chemori) Shammari tribe was among the Christian tribes who moved to Al-'Aqoura from Syria during the Islamic conquest.
The refugees of Al Ghassani and bani Chemor (Shammar) who seeked refuge to Al 'Aqoura turned into Maronites because the town now only has Maronites Christians and because Al Chemor (Shammari) tribe are the princes and children of kings, the Maronites reigned them over the land where the document states that: "... and Al 'Aqoura is their own village from a long time, they can do as they wish..." and Al Chemori (Shammari) family could have taken over the throne due to their relentless efforts, money or battles, no one knows.
The Maronites heads of Al Chemor (Shammari) tribe belong to Al 'Aqoura, as mentioned before, we conclude that the heads of Chemor (Shammari) tribe are the legitimate descendants of bani Chemor (Shammar) the Ghassani's, which also assures us of this ancestry is:
First: Al Ghassani's were the allies of the Yamni party and their guardians.
... Second, in the beginning of the document, the term used to be "Chemor (Shammar) or Shammer" and transformed to Samar due to the necessity of the wording. And, Al (the) was added to the term because it's a proper noun as in: Al Dhaher, Al Khazen, Al Dahdah, Al Bar'eem, Al Hanna. etc,.
Third: the absence in history of the tradition or copying from any opposite peer to ours.
***
CHAPTER IX (page 120-125)
Translation: Reham Makhlouf
The Chemori (Shammari) Family Branches Outside Kufur Hata
First, Eittu Branch; we have discovered a new branch of the Chemori (Shammari) family where no one from the family in Kufur Hata or outside it could ever dream of, and one of the branches is in the village of Eittu (north) which we were informed by from a written paragraph in "sheemeh (the imposition of the prayers of the priest), and until this day is saved in Eittu with one of Eittu's priests, our dear friend Priest Antonius Al Sous, who he inherited it from the late priest Abd Al Ahad Suleiman. So we went especially for this purpose where we carefully read Al Shaheemeh and copied the exact paragraph which stated that:
"On the 30th of the blessed March 1803, the despicable sinner person had laid hand on the Shaheemeh and his name is not worthy of mentioning in the book of Antoine Basem Khoury who belongs to the Chemor (Shammar) family in the village of Eittu, and he kept this Shaheemeh to himself and requests the follower priest after the mentioning of God to say; God, glory and perfection and thanksgiving to you, O God." And this branch gone extinct from Eittu and is no longer remembered or mentioned. And this branch would have been forgotten and anonymous if we didn't mention it in this book where the reader wouldn't know that the Chemor (Shammari) family has long existed in Eittu before 1803.
And the other branch is in J'eetta village in Kirsawein: this branch was waved by with incomplete information that doesn't satisfy the researcher and said that. Some of it (Chemori or Shammari family) migrated to J'eetta- Kisirwan and Sheikh Sleiman Al Chemor (Shammar) was one of the migrants as was shown from the saved papers by Sheikh "Saleh Rasheed Al-Khazen".
But we were searching for the truth as it is from its original source because we are loyal to the truth of history, we looked for the Sheikh and located him in Jounyeh, we thank him for his great hospitality, he gave us many precious files, writings and hand written documents, the heirloom of his grandfathers the Khawazneh, the leaders and saviors of Kisirwan from Al Manalweh.
After many hours of digging and searching, we were lucky to find what we were looking for which was three papers of property statistics of J'eetta which was documented in the era of "the family of Abi Noufal Al Khazen". And the names of the property owners alongside with the statistic number.
The name of Al Haj Sleiman Al Chemor (Shammar) was one of the names found in the statistics document and the document hold the same date; 1126 Hijri, 1714 A.C and each paper has a different title.
The title of the first title was "the statement of enumeration of J'eetta trees in 1126 Hijri: where Haj Sleiman had 30 berry trees, one vine and 20 olive trees. The title of the second was "the statement of seed supplies" and Haj Sleiman had one whole supply. The third paper stated the name of Haj Sleiman where he had the carrying capacity of nine berry leafs. If it wasn't for Sheikh Saleh Al Khazen, the legacy of Chemor (Shammari) family would have ceased to exist, but thankfully he saved the papers. Al Chemor (Shammari) family settled in J'eetta long before the mentioned year, and maybe they moved to J'eetta in the 7th Century from Al 'Aqoura.
The third branch is Al Chiyah province near Beirut, a reputed family "Gharios al Habbaqi Chemor (Shammar)" from Habbaq family in Jibeil, where it is made up from 60 homes. This Habaqi family claims that it is of (Chemor) Shammari descendant and was keen to contact the heads of Chemor (Shammari) tribe in Kufur Hata. And in 1935, Sheikh Antonius Saleem Chemor (Shammar)and his brother Sheikh Michael payed a visit to "Gharios Habbaqi family" in Chiyah, and both families founded the ground of friendship and harmony between the relatives and in-laws.
Sheikh Michael Saleem, told me that he was invited to the funeral of a person from Al Habbaqi family in Chiyah, where he accepted the condolences with the dead person's family and after that visit or maybe before it, Gharios Habbaqi family add the name Al Chemor (Shammar) to their surname where now one of them is called Awadh Beik Al Chemor (Shammar): Joseph, George, Antonius, Michael, Elias and finally Nu'man Gharios al Chemor (Shammar) and his son Emil.
The researcher Khoury Esteban Bash'alani told us that Gharios family settled in Chiyah since the year 1757 where the researcher carefully read the baptism, marriage and death documents in Chiyah and found that Gharios family was mentioned for the first time in year 1849 and the first name was "Fares bin Anton bin Gharios Al Habbaqi" documented on 19/April/1849 and his brother Yousef in 1852. The documents also state the name of the priest "Yousef Gharios" who became the priest of Al Chiyah from 1877.
Forth: Habbiqa family: in the summer of 1946 a new book and series of the well-known works of our dear friend and scholar bishop Butros Habbiqa was released under the title of "The History of Baskanta and its Families". His works are recognized between the Maronite Patriarch works and he firmly announced {in pages 145-146} that "Al Habbiqa" family is a descendant of the feudal lords of Chemor (Shamar).
He then talked about the origin of Al 'Aqoura heads of tribe, basing his information which was taken from us and he said "we thank the active researcher, Father Aghnatius Tannous, the Lebanese monk, as he generously provided us with this information." And we thank Mr. Habbaqi very much and we please the Lord to save him and help him through his life.
Fifth: Qiddeesi family or Qiddeesi from Rish'ein, which is a descendant of Al Habbiqa family, and Al Qiddeesa family in Tase' and Shataha in Akkar also belong to the same family.
Al-Numan Gharios El Chemor