The Ghassanids (Arabic: الغساسنة‎‎‏; al-Ghasāsinah, also Banū Ghassān "Sons of Ghassān") were a group of Arabs, descended from the Azd tribes, that emigrated in the early 3rd century from the Southern Arabian Peninsula to the Levant region, where some merged with Greek-speaking Christians' communities, converting to Christianity in the first few centuries AD while others were already Christians before emigrating north to escape religious persecution. Few Ghassanids became Muslim following the Islamic Conquest; most Ghassanids remained Christian and joined Melkite and Syriac communities within what is now Jordan, Palestine, Syria and Lebanon.