* Nitl - Pict. * Rasas - Pict. THE CHURCH OF ST. SERGIUS OF NITL
A CENTRE OF THE CHRISTIAN ARABS IN THE STEPPE AT THE DOORS OF
MADABA Director: - Michele Piccirillo Equipe: - Basema Hamarneh,
Stefano De Luca, Vincent Michel. Sections, prospects, plans: -
Eugenio Alliata Photographers: - Max Mandel, Fr. Michele
Piccirillo From the contemporary literature of the Byzantine
period, written in Greek and Syriac, we know that the steppe to
the east of the cultivated land was inhabited by the semi-
nomadic tribes at the service of the empire. This stretch of
land, which we improperly call desert, is known to the Arabs as
badiah or barriyah. In 502, at the time of Emperor Anastasius,
the group of the Banu Ghassan and the roman empire of the east
signed a treaty, successively reconfirmed at the time of Justin
and Justinian, with which the christianised Bedouin tribes were
entrusted with the defence of the immense territory which
extended to the Euphrates river, border with the Persian empire.
All the sixth century was