The Lakhmids of Hirah

Last updated: May 18th, 2025 at 7:56 am · Est. Reading Time: 3 minutes

The Lakhmids were the semi-autonomous rulers over the Arabs of Iraq in pre-Islamic times.  They were appointed by and answerable to Sasanian Iran.

Origin

The Lakhmids were overseeing the Arab population of eastern Arabia by 293 CE.

A victory inscription of the Shahanshah Narseh, written around 293 CE, discovered in Iraqi Kurdistan and known as the Paikuli inscription, enumerates the kings who recognized Narseh as king of kings, Shahanshah.  One of those kings is ‘Amru, king of the Lakhmids.’¹  This is the earliest extant mention of the Lakhmids.

Reason Behind Appointment

The stateless Tribal Zone of pre-Islamic Arabia was very near to Madain, the capital of Sasanian Iran.  Tribes living in We know that north Arabian tribes had developed a new design of camel saddle by the 3^rd century CE.  It is called ‘North Arabian camel-saddle’ (raḥl).  This saddle seated a rider on top of the camel hump more securely and allowed him to use lancet as well as sword conveniently.²  Some scholars believe that the invention transformed the military capabilities of Arab nomads.³  Diamond cuts diamond.  Sasanian kings used the Arabs of the Lakhmids to counter raids from the Tribal Zone.⁴

 Lakhmid’s Seat of Power

The Lakhmids used to control the Arabs of eastern Arabia from Hirah.  They were sedentary Arabs.

Duties of the Lakhmids

The Lakhmids had two duties.  The first one was to repel any attack by Arab Bedouins on Madain or other Iranian settlements.  The second was to fight against the Byzantine Empire and its Arab proxies on behalf of Sasanian Iran.⁵

Sources of Lakhmid’s Strength

The Sasanian Iran’s government used to support the Lakhmids with their regular cavalry, Asawirah (asāwira اساورة).  The Sasanian government also allotted fiefs to the Lakhmids.  They could use the income from there to recruit soldiers from Arab tribes.  They, like any other Arab, also raided to supplement their income.  Finally, they used to levy taxes on subordinate Arab tribes.⁶

End of the Lakhmids

Sasanian King Khosrow II Parvez assassinated the last Lakhmid kinglet, Nu’man III bin Mundhir IV, around 602 CE, virtually ending the era of Lakhmid power.⁷

The Reasons for the Downfall

Historical sources do not shed any light on the real reasons for the fallout between Khosrow Parvez and Nu’man bin Mundhir.  Early Islamic sources mention that Nu’man had refused to give hand of his daughter, Hind, in marriage to Khosrow.  This does not explain the end of a centuries-old partnership between the two houses.  Political reasons must be behind the fallout.  Two political reasons have been speculated.  First, the Lakhmids were striving to get full independence.  Second, they had become unable to prevent the raids of the Bedouins on Sasanian property.⁹

Further Reading

Meir J. Kister, “Al-Hira: Some notes on its Relations with Arabia,” Arabica 15 (1968): 143 – 169.

Yasmine Zahran, The Lakhmids of Hira: Sons of the water of Heaven.  London: Stacy, 2009.

‘Abd al-Ḥusain Zarrinkūb, “The Arab Conquest of Iran and its Aftermath,” in Cambridge History of Iran volume IV, ed. Richard N. Frye (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975), 3.

Endnotes

1. Helmut Humbach and Prods O. Skjaervo, The Sasanian Inscription of Paikuli (Munich: Wiesbaden, 1983), 53.
2. For the development of the North Arabian camel-saddle see: Richard W Bulliet, The Camel and the Wheel (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1975), 87 – 110.
3. Michael J. Zwettler, “Ma’add in Late-Ancient Arabian Epigraphy and Other pre-Islamic sources,” Wiener Zeitschrift für Kunde des Morgenlandes 90 (2000):  268 – 270.
4. Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al-Ṭabarī, Vol. V, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. C. E. Bosworth, Albany: State University of New York Press, 1999.
5. Joshua the Stylite, The Chronicle of Joshua the Stylite, ed. and trans. W. Wright (Cambridge: 1882), 46 – 47, Paragraphs LVI and LVII.
6. Abu al-Baqā’ Hibatallāh, Kitāb al-manāqib al-Māzayadiyah fi akhbār al-mulūk al-Asadiyah, ed. Ṣāliḥ Mu.sā Darādikah and Muh.ammad ‘Abd al Qādir Khrīsāt, Amman: Maktabat al-Risālah al-Hadīthah, 1984. (British Museum, London, ms ADD. 23) Abu al Baqa.’ Hibar Allah, al al-Manaqib al Mazyadiyya, ed. S. Daradka and M. Khuraysa.t (Amman, 1984) in two volumes
7. The Chronicle of Khuzistan, A Short Chronicle on the End of the Sasanian Empire and Early Islam: 590 – 660 A.D., ed. and trans. Nasir al-Ka’bi (Piscataway, NJ: Gorbias Press, 1916), 24 – 26.
9. ⁸Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al-Ṭabarī, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. C. E. Bosworth (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1999), 5:289-291.