Lakhmid kingdom of al-Hira
Years: 266 - 609
The Lakhmids, Banu Lakhm, Muntherids, are a group of Arab Christians who live in Southern Iraq, and make al-Hirah their capital in 266.
Poets describe it as a Paradise on earth, an Arab Poet describes the city's pleasant climate and beauty "One day in al-Hirah is better than a year of treatment".
The al-Hirah ruins are located three kilometers south of Kufa, on the west bank of the Euphrates.
Their descendants today are the Mandharis, who are a prominent tribe who are considered Sheikhs in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, and the Sultanate of Oman; the Abbabids, another prominent tribe in Yemen and the southern part of The Sultanate of Oman; and the Na'amanis, another Arab tribe in Oman, all of which belong to either Ibadhi or Sunni Islam.
Some other famous descendants include the powerful Druze Arslan princely family.
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One 'Amr, the leader of the large Arab tribe known as Banu Lakhm, had founded the Lakhmid Kingdom centered on the southern Mesopotamian city of al-Hirah, and after his son Imru' al-Qais converted to Christianity, the whole city had gradually converted to this faith.
Imru' al-Qais, dreaming of a unified and independent Arab kingdom, has seized many cities in Arabia and defeated Shemrir al-A'asha, the king of Himyar.
He has since formed a large army and developed his kingdom as a naval power, which consists of a fleet of ships operating along the Bahraini coast.
From this position, he attacks the coastal cities of Persia, which at this time is in civil war, due to a dispute as to the succession, even raiding the birthplace of the Sassanid kings, the province of Pars (Fars).
The Lakhmid Kingdom had been founded by the Lakhum tribe that emigrated from Yemen in the seconnd century and ruled by the Banu Lakhm, hence the name given it.
The founder of the dynasty was 'Amr, whose son Imra' ul-Qays (not to be confused with the famous poet Imru' al-Qais who lived in the sixth century) is claimed to have converted to Christianity according to Western authors.
Imra' ul-Qays dreams of a unified and independent Arab kingdom and, following that dream, had seized many cities in Arabia.
He had then formed a large army and developed the Kingdom as a naval power, which consists of a fleet of ships operating along the Bahraini coast.
From this position he has attacked the coastal cities of Persia—which at that time was in civil war due to a dispute as to the succession—even raiding the birthplace of the Sassanid kings, the province of Pars (Fars).
The Persians, led by Shapur II, had initiated a campaign against the Arab kingdom in 325.
When Imra' ul-Qays realizes that a mighty Persian army composed of sixty thousand warriors is approaching his kingdom, he asks for the assistance of the Roman Empire, but no help comes from that quarter.
The Persians advance toward al-Hirah and a series of vicious battles takes place over al-Hirah and the surrounding cities.
Shapur crushes the Lakhmid army and captures al-Hirah, then orders the extermination of its population in retaliation for their raids on Pars.
In this, the young Shapur acts much more violently than is customary at this time in order to demonstrate to the Arab Kingdoms and the Persian nobility his power and authority.
Shapur's title in Arabic is Zol 'Aktaf, meaning the one who pierces shoulders, as he did this with some of his captives.
He installs Aus ibn Qallam and gives the city autonomy, thus making the kingdom a buffer zone between the Persian Empire and the territory of other Arabs in the Peninsula.
Imra' ul-Qays escapes to Bahrain, taking his dream of a unified Arab nation with him.
The deposed Lakhmid ruler Imru' al-Qais had escaped to Bahrain and then to Syria, seeking the promised assistance from the Romans, which never materializes.
Remaining there until he dies, he is entombed at al-Nimarah in the Syrian desert.
His funerary inscription claims the title "King of all the Arabs" and states that he had campaigned successfully over the entire north and center of the Arabian Peninsula, as far as the border of Najran.
Two years after his death, in the year 330, a revolt takes place in which the ruler, Aus ibn Qallam, a puppet of the Persians, killed and succeeded by 'Amr, the son of Imru' al-Qais.
Yazdegerd has tried to emancipate himself from the dominion of the magnates and of the Magi (a priestly caste serving a number of religions); thus, Christian and Zoroastrian sources view his reign differently.
Because he had stopped the persecution of the Christians, the Christian writers praise his clemency, but the sources dependent on Zoroastrian tradition refer to him as “Yazdegerd the Sinner.” He has also tried to limit the power of the nobles, but had finally answered their resistance with severity.
He has lived in peace and friendship with the Roman Empire and is therefore praised by Greek authors.
He appears to have been murdered in Khorasan, after which the nobles refuse to admit any of his sons to the throne.
However, one of them, Bahram, has the support of al-Mundhir, Lakhmid Arab king of Al-Hirah in Mesene (east of the lower Euphrates) and a Sassanian vassal, and also, apparently, of Mihr-Narseh, chief minister in Yazdegerd's last years, who is retained in office.
After Yazdegerd's death in 421, Persian nobles try to reclaim Bahram from Mundhir, so Mundhir sends his son Nu'man ahead with a brigade, then personally escorts Bahram with another brigade of 20,000 soldiers to Ctesiphon, where the nobles, after some negotiations, acknowledge Bahram as their ruler.
Bahram V, known as Gor (“the wild ass,” for his prowess in hunting the onager, reverses his father‘s policy of religious toleration, and revives the violent persecution of Christians in the Persian empire.
…Ardaburius foils his opponent's attempt to ravage Mesopotamia, and besieges the Persians at Nisibis.
Bahram, in alliance with the Lakhmid Arabs of Hirah, marches with al-Mundhir to lift the siege.
The Roman-Sassanid War escalates as Theodosius transfers further troops to the East, while Bahram personally takes the field, supported by a large contingent of Lakhmid Arabs, and drives the Romans from Nisibis.
Mundhir marches into Roman territory and ravages imperial lands as far as Antioch, where he is routed by Vitianus.
While Al-Mundhir’s troops are crossing the Euphrates on their return, many of his forces drown.
Syriac sources give a figure of those who drowned at seventy thousand while Socrates give a higher figure of one hundred thousand.
The Ghassanids, Lakhmids and Kindites are all Kahani and Qatani Arab vassal kingdoms appointed by the East Romans, Persians and Himyarites to protect their borders and imperial interests from the raids of the rising threat of the Adnani tribes.
The Kindites in the fifth and sixth centuries make the first real concerted effort to unite all the tribes of Central Arabia through alliances, and focus on wars with the Lakhmids.
The Ghassanids, a pro-Roman Christian Arab dynasty whose kingdom encompasses parts of present Syria, Jordan, and Israel, wage near-incessant war with the Lakhmids.
The wars between the two are proxy wars waged at the bidding of either the Persians or the Eastern Romans.
Al-Mundhir III ibn al-Nu'man, the son of al-Nu'man II ibn al-Aswad, succeeds his father as Lakhmid king either immediately upon his death in 503 or after a short interregnum by Abu Ya'fur ibn Alqama.
Allied to Persia, he begins to make successful challenges to Ghassanid power.