War of Dhi-Qar

Last updated: May 23rd, 2025 at 12:21 pm · Est. Reading Time: 3 minutes

War of Dhi-Qar (Dhi-Qār زى قار) was a series of military confrontations which took place between Arabs opposing the hegemony of Sasanian Iran over Arabia and the forces of Sasanian Iran.  Some Arab supporters of Sasanian Iran fought on their side.

Background

After their fallout, Khosrow II Parvez assassinated the last Lakhmid kinglet, Nu’man III bin Mundhir IV.¹  After the assassination of Nu’man, the Iranians appointed Iyas bin Qabisa (Iyās bin Qabīṣah اِياس بِن قَبِيصه), a Christian from Tayi, as overseer over Arabs.  He was merely a façade for the real ruler of Hirah, who was an Iranian marzban (marzbān مَرزبان of Arabic sources, marzipān of Pahlavi sources.  This was the title of a Sasanian military governor of their border provinces.²   People of Hirah got dissatisfied with the new rulers and were nostalgic about the Lakhmids.  With the Lakhmid buffer removed, Iranians came face to face with the Arabs of the Tribal Zone, who started raiding them.  The Chronicle of Seert informs us that the Arabs of Lakhm revolted after this event.³  This was the political situation at the Sasanian-Arab border just before the war of Dhu-Qar

The Date of the War

The war of Dhi-Qar erupted around 610 CE.  Its exact date is not given by any historical source.  Modern historians give the date by guess.  Hoyland calculates it to have taken place around 610 CE.⁵  If we agree with Ya’qubi totally, the war took place in 623 CE.  This late date doesn’t fit into many other events taking place in the region.

The Participants

The war was not purely Arabs versus Persians, as is portrayed by many historians.  Arab tribes fought on both sides.  However, one Arab faction was fighting on orders of Khosrow II Parvez and with complete support of Iranian cavalry, to keep all Arabs of the region under Khosrow’s hegemony.  The other Arab faction, mainly the clans of Bakr bin Wa’il, were fighting to oppose Sasanian authority over Arabs.⁶

Location of the War

All historic sources agree that the war took place at Dhu-Qar.  Dhu-Qar was an open land and not a locality.  Its exact location is not known.  By looking at the events of the battle, it appears that Dhu-Qar was just near Hirah.

Events

After a prolonged pre-war posturing and minor skirmishes, the two sides fought an open battle at Dhu-Qar.

Results

The Sasanian Iran’s side was defeated.  Usually, when a big power gets defeated, it easily hides it by controlling those narratives of the war, which reach the common people’s ears.  That was not the case in this war.  The Arab media (pre-Islamic Arabic poetry) propagated the news of the Sasanian defeat far and wide in Arabia.

Aftermath of the War

After this unexpected defeat, the Iranians decided to rule Hirah directly.  They removed Iyas bin Qabisa and installed Iranian, Azadhbih (Āzādhbiḥ ازاذبِيح), as governor of Hirah.⁷Arabs of Central Arabia, loyal to the Lakhmids, seceded from Hirah during these upheavals, and so did Bahrain. The Battle of Dhi-Qar set the stage for Qadisyah a few decades later.⁸

Further Reading

Abū 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), 360 – 365.

https://historyofislam.org/pre-islamic-arab-politics

Endnotes

1. 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.
2. 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), 5:360, 371.
3. Chronicle of Siirt, Patrologia Orientalis ed. and trans. Addai Scher, (Paris: Librairie de Paris, 1918). Vol 13, P 539 (ch. 87).
5. Robert G. Hoyland, In God’s Path: the Arab Conquests and the Creation of an Islamic Empire (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015), 49.  Ya’qubi, an early Islamic source, gives the impression that it was four or five months after the battle of Badr.  Ya’qubi insists that on this occasion the prophet said, “Today is the first day on which the Arabs have obtained their due from the Persians, and it was through me that they were given victory.”⁴Ya’qūbī, Ibn Wāḍiḥ al-, The Works of Ibn Wāḍīḥ al-Ya’qūbī: An English Translation, Eds. and Trans. Matthew S. Gordon, Chase F. Robinson, Everett K. Rowson, and Michael Fishbein, (Leiden: Brill, 2018),645.
6. Abū 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), 360 – 365.; Robert G. Hoyland, In God’s Path: the Arab Conquests and the Creation of an Islamic Empire (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015), 49.
7. 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), 372.
8. Yasmine Zahran. The Lakhmids of Hira: Sons of the water of Heaven (London: Stacy, 2009), 55.