LAKHMID

The Lakhmid Kingdom came into power when its founder, ‘Anr ibn Abi, broke away from the Tanukhid Dynasty following the death of his uncle, King Jadhima al-Abrash. Save for a Persian invasion in 325, the Lakhmids ruled as a Sasanian Empire vassal state until the seventh century, when following suspicions of treason committed by Lakhmid King Nu’man III [i] against the Sasanian King Khosrau II [ii], the Lakhmid King was killed and the Kingdom annexed. Post-annexation, the Sasanian Empire collapsed during the Islamic conquest of Persia [iii], with former members of the Lakhmid Dynasty acting on behalf of Rashidun Caliphate [iv] general Khalid ibn al-Walid [v].

For a period of their rule, the Lakhmids maintained good relations with the Persian Empire. The fourteenth Sasanian King of Persia, Bahram V [vi], lived in the capital city, al-Hirah, and studied under the court of Lakhmid ruler, King al-Mundhir I ibn al-Nu'man. Nevertheless, following the annexation of the kingdom by the Sasanian Empire relations between the Lakhmids and Persians soured, resulting in the battle of Dhi Qar [vii], in which the Persian Sasanian were defeated. Throughout much of their rule, the Lakhmids’ greatest rival was the Ghassanids [viii], a Byzantine vassal state that emigrated from Yemen to southern Syria in the third century.

According to 10th-century scholar Al-Tabari, the second Lakhmid ruler, Imru al-Qays made expansions and established a naval presence along the coast of Bahrain. The Lakhmid Dynasty left a legacy of descendants throughout the SWANA region, including former Lebanese minister of defense, Talal Arslan [ix]. The Lebanese Druze family is believed to have taken the name Arslan from Lakhmid prince Arslan bin Malek bin Barakat after the dissolution of the dynasty. Al-Hirah, the Lakhmid Kingdom’s capital was located 3 kilometers from the modern Iraqi city of Kufa, which became the capital city of the Abbasid Caliphate [x] and home of the Kufic Arabic script.

From the dynasty’s inception in the late third century until the death of King Nu’man, the Lakhmid Kingdom was considered to be a vassal state of the Sasanian Empire. ‘Amr ibn Adi, the first ruler of the kingdom, was a member of the Banu Lakhm Dynasty. ‘Amr Adi inherited the kingdom from his uncle, which ended the previous Tanukhid Dynasty. In 272, the Lakhmid Kingdom became a vassal to the Sasanian Empire [xi]. Little is known about the Lakhmid Kingdom’s structure for the first two centuries of its existence, with Byzantine [xii] records only providing detail around the end of the fifth century.

The Lakhmid Kingdom’s history was shaped by King Imru’ al-Qays’ vision of a unified, independent Arab kingdom and his expansion into cities across the Arabian Peninsula, with evidence of Lakhmid expansion as far south as Najran [xiii], a city on the modern-day Saudi Arabia-Yemen border. In 325, Imru’ al-Qay faced a devastating military defeat by Persian King Shapur II [xiv], largely due to a lack of military assistance from the Roman Empire promised by Constatius II [xv]. This defeat ushered in the non-dynastic rule of Aws ibn Qallam until the Lakhmid revolt two years after Imru’ al-Qays death, reinstating Lakhmid rule under his son.

Upon the Lakhmid Kingdom’s establishment, ‘Amr ibn Adi resettled the abandoned city of al-Hirah into the kingdom’s capital. Under ruler Imru' al-Qays ibn 'Amr, the Lakhmid Kingdom also developed successful naval powers and expanded across the Arabian peninsula. The army was also successful during Lakhmid rule, and under al-Mundhir III ibn al-Nu'man, defeated Byzantine general Belisarius [xvi] at the battle of Callinicum [xvii] in 531. Al-Hirah and other cities served as the birthplaces for famous poets such as 'Alqama ibn 'Abada [xviii], al-Nabigha al-Dhubyani [xix], and ʿAdi bin Zayd al-ʿIbadi [xx], and were visited by other notable poets like Tarafa ibn al-Abd [xxi] and Amr ibn Kulthūm [xxii].

The Lakhmid Kingdom engaged in regional trade during the Late Antiquity Era [xxiii], with Qana [xxiv] in South Yemen, Hadrhamaut Empire [xxv], as the largest seaport. The Lakhmid Kingdom was a border between the Sasanian Persian Empire and other Arab Kingdoms of the time. Agriculture was the main production mode during the majority of the Lakhmid era, leading the kingdom to invest in canals and infrastructure to promote agriculture. During the third and fourth centuries, the Sasanian Empire was an important stop along the Silk Road trade route, and pottery fragments [xxvi] from Iraq have been found in suspected outposts along the route, along with Sasanian coins [xxvii].