vol 5.17

The description stemmed from al-Mundhir the Elder's 839 forwarding

as a present for Anusharwan a slave girl whom he had

acquired as plunder when he had raided al-Harith the Elder al-

Ghassanl, son of Abu Shamir, 840 and whose description he had

sent in a letter to Anusharwan:

"(She is] of medium height, with a clear skin color and fine

teeth, white, gleaming like the moon, pronounced eyebrows, dark

and wide eyed, with a high, aquiline nose, slender eyelashs over

fine eyes, smooth cheeks, with a delectable body, plentiful hair, a

good-sized skull so that ear-drops hang far apart, with a high neck,

a wide bosom, and well-rounded breasts. [She has] stout shoulder

and upper arm bones, fine wrists, delicate hands with long and

straight fingers; a pulled-in abdomen, neat waist, slender at the

girdle, ample hips, a well-rounded rear and strong thighs, a fine

posterior and fleshy buttocks, good-sized knees, filled-out calves

so that her ornamental anklets fit snugly, but with delicate ankle

bones and feet. [She] walks with slow steps, is somnolent and

remains inside in the fierce light of day and has a tender skin

where this is exposed. [She is] obedient to her lord and master, not

flat-nosed or with a tanned skin, humble and submissive although

of noble birth and not brought up in penurious circumstances,

modest, sedate, mild in character, and steady minded. [She has]

noble maternal relatives 841 and she is satisfied with her paternal

lineage, without reference to her clan, and with her clan without

reference to her tribe. Experience of life has made her of fine conduct

and attainments ( adab ). Her ways of thought are those of

839. That is, the Lakhmid al-Mundhir in (r. 504-54, interrupted by the Kindi

occupation of al-Hirah in the mid-520s).

840. That is, the Jafnid/Ghassanid al-Harith (Arethas) (r. 529-69), son of Abu

Shamir Jabalah fd. 528). See Shahid, Byzantium and the Arabs in the Sixth Century, I/i, 69.

841 . Following the emendation al-khal of Addenda et emendanda, p. dxciv, for

the text's al-hal.

354

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noble people, but her actions those of the poor and needy. [She is]

skillful with her hands, restrained with her tongue, has a gentle

voice,- she is an adornment to the house, and puts the enemy to

shame. If you wish for [sexual contact with] her, she shows eagerness

for it; if you prefer to leave her alone, she is content to abstain.

She becomes wide eyed [with sexual longing], her cheeks

blush red, her lips tremble, and she hastens toward you before you

can fall upon her/' 842

Kisra accepted this description and ordered it to be set down in

permanent form in his chancery registers. [The Persian rulers]

kept on handing it down to each other until it finally reached

Kisra, son of Hurmuz.

Zayd read out the description to al-Nu'man, but the latter found

the topic distasteful, and said to Zayd, with the envoy listening at

the same time, "Aren't all the wide-eyed ones ('in) of the Sawad

and Persia enough to fulfill your needs?" The envoy said to Zayd,

"What are the 'wide-eyed ones' ?" 843 He replied, "Wild cows [al-

baqar )." 844 Zayd said to al-Nu'man, "Kisra only desires to show

you honor; if he had known that this [demand] was distressing for

you, he would not have written to you in these terms." Al-

Nu'man gave them both hospitality for two days and then wrote

to Kisra, "That which the king seeks I do not possess," and he told

Zayd, "Make my excuses to the king."

When Zayd went back to Kisra, he told the envoy who had come

with him, "Tell the king everything you heard from al-Nu'man,

for I shall give him the same account as you and not contradict

you at all regarding it." When the two of them went into Kisra's

presence, Zayd said, "This is his letter," and he read it out to him.

Kisra retorted, "Where, then is what you [previously] told me

842. This bravura piece of rhetorical prose, with its balanced phrases and

rhymes, appears also in Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani, Aghaai 3 , n, 29-30, with various

divergencies of wording. On the theme of descriptions of female beauty in Iranian

and Persian literatures, from the Avesta onward, see Elr s.v. Erotic Literature

(Djalal Khaleghi-Motlagh).

843. a'yan, f. 'ayna', pi. 'in, "wide-eyed, dark-eyed," is a favorite attribute of the

wild cow or oryx, and thence, of women, in early Arabic poetry, appearing in the

Qur’an as a description of the houris of the Paradise intended for the justified

believers, e.g., in XXXVII, 47/49, XLIV, 54, LII, 20, LVI, 20.

844. The account in al-Mas'udi, Muruj, ID, 205-206 - §§ 1065-66, uses the

synonym for wild cow, mahat.

[The Last Sasanid Kings]

355

about?" Zayd said, "I told you about their (i.e., the Arabs') tenaciousness

in keeping their women from others, and that this arises

from their miserable way of life; they prefer starvation and nakedness

to satiety and fine clothes, and the fiery and tempestuous

winds to the ease and pleasantness of this land of yours, to the

point that they call it a prison . 845 Now just ask this envoy who

accompanied me about what he (i.e., al-Nu'man) said, for I have

too great a regard for the king's exalted position to be able to repeat

what he said and the answer that he gave the king." Kisra thereupon

asked the envoy, "What did he say?" The envoy replied, "He

said, O king, 'Hasn't he got enough horn the wild cows of the

Sawad without seeking after what we ourselves have?"' Signs of

anger became apparent in Kisra's face and he felt violently moved

in his heart, but he merely remarked, "Many a wretch has had

worse things than this in mind, yet his intentions have come to

naught in the end!" These words became generally circulated and

reached the ears of al-Nu'man.

Kisra then remained silent regarding this topic for several

months. Al-Nu'man, meanwhile, was preparing for whatever

might befall and was expecting [the worst], when Kisra's letter

reached him [containing the command]: "Come here, for the king

has business with you!" He set off [precipitately] when the king's

letter reached him, taking with him his weapons and whatever

else he was able [to carry]. He arrived at the two mountains of

Tayyi ’, 846 accompanied by [his wife] Far'ah bt. Sa'd b. Harithah b.

Lam, who had borne him both a male and a female child, and also

[his wife] Zaynab, bt. Aws b. Harithah [b. Lam]. Al-Nu'man made

for the land of the Tayyi’, hoping that they would take him in

among themselves and protect him, but they refused to do this,

saying, "Were it not for the marriage bonds between us, we would

845. Contrasting the harshness and misery of the desert existence of the Bedouins with the ease of life in the hadar or settled lands such as al-Hirah and the

Persian lands in Mesopotamia.

846. The "two mountains of Tayyi’," Aja’ and Salma, were in what is now the

Jabal Shammar of northern Najd, to the south and southeast of modem Hi’il, and

are often mentioned in old poetry. See al-Bakn, Mu' jam ma ista'jam, I, ro9-io, TIT, 75°; Yaqut, Buldan, I, 94-99, in, 238-39; Musil, Northern Negd, a Topographical Itinerary, New York 1928, 76-77, 88-89; Thilo, Die Ortsnamen in der alt- arabischen Poesie, 26, 90.

356

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attack you, for we do not want to be drawn into emnity with

Kisra ." 847 Al-Nu'man went onward, but no one would receive

him except for the Banu Rawahah b. Sa'd from the Banu 'Abs, who

said, "We will fight at your side, if you wish," because of an act of

favor al-Nu'man had shown to them over the matter of Marwan

al-Qaraz. However, he replied, "I don't want to bring about your

destruction, for you don't have the strength to prevail over

Kisra ." 848 So he traveled onward until he encamped secretly at

Dhu Qar amongst the Banu Shayban. Here he met Hani’ b. Mas'ud

b. 'Amir b. 'Amr b. Abi Rabi’ah b. Dhuhl b. Shayban, who was a

mighty chief. At that time, the sheikhly rule in Rabi’ah was

among the house of Dhu al-Jaddayn, held by Qays b. Mas'ud b.

Qays b. Khalid b. Dhi al-Jaddayn . 849 Kisra had made a grant to

847. The tribe of Tayyi’, whose ancient pasture grounds were in northern Najd,

as the connection of their name with the two mountains there shows (see n. 846

above), were accounted Yemeni in genealogy. Al-Nu'man's marriage with two Ta’I wives suggests that the tribe had links with the Lakhmids, but these were not

strong enough to offset the need to keep up good relations with the Sasanids, and it was a man of Tayyi’, Iyas b. Qabisah, whom Khusraw appointed after al-Nu'man's death as the first, and last, non-Lakhmid governor in al-Hirah and the former Lakhmid lands and who commanded the forces of the Persians and their Arab allies at Dhu Qar (see al-Tabari, I, 1017, p. 341 above). Christianity seems to have acquired some hold among the Tayyi’ in pre-Islamic times, presumably among those of the tribe who frequented the fringes of Iraq, and Iyas was a Christian. See Ibn al- Kalbi-Caskel-Strenziok, Jamhaiat al-nasab, I, Tables 176, 249-57, H, 57 _ <>i, 176; EP-, s.v. Tayyi’ (Irfan Shahid). As Noldeke noted, trans. 329 n. 2, al-Nu'man's own adoption of Christianity — the first of his line to do so — was nominal enough for him to remain polygamous and to take at least two wives.

848. The 'Abs were a component of the great North Arab group of Ghatafan, part

of Qays 'Aylan, with the Banu Rawahah coming in the tribal silsilat al-nasab five

generations after 'Abs himself. Their pasture grounds lay between the Jabal Sham-

mar and northern Hijaz, hence just beyond those of Tayyi’- The "matter of Marwan al-Qaraz" involved al-Nu'man's securing this man's release from al-Nu'man's uncle and the previous ruler in al-Hirah 'Amr b. al-Mundhir or b. Hind, and the affair is referred to in the poetry of Zuhayr b. Abi Sulma (who was bom and reared among the Banu 'Abdallah of Ghatafan), as is the magnanimous reception of the fugitive Lakhmid by the Banu Rawahah b. Sa'd. See Ibn al-Kalbl-Caskel-Strenziok, Jamharat al-nasab, I, Tables 92, 132-33, 136, n, 20-21, 135—36; EP-, s.v. Ghatafan (J. W. Frick); and on al-Nu'man's flight and attempts to secure jiwar or tribal protection, see Rothstein, Lahmiden, 117-18.

849. Dhu al-Jaddayn were one of the leading families of Bakr (see Ibn al-Kalbi-

Caskel-Strenziok, Jamhaiat al-nasab, I, Table 144, II, 24), from the Hammam b.

Murrah, a dominant branch of the Shayhan. Equally influential with Qays was his

son, the poet and warrior Bistam. See EP-, s.v. Bistam b. Kays (M. J. Kister).

[The Last Sasanid Kings]

357

Qays b. Mas'ud of al-Ubullah , 850 hence al-Nu'man was fearful of

entrusting his family and dependents to him because of that fact;

whereas, he knew that Hani’ would protect him as he would his

own life.

Al-Nu'man then (i.e., after leaving his family and dependents

with Hani’) proceeded toward Kisra's court. On die stone bridge of

Sabaf 851 he met Zayd b. 'Adi, who said to him, "Save yourself, [if

you can,] O Little Nu'man (Nu'aym)!" Al-Nu'man replied, "You

have done this, O Zayd, but by God, if I manage to survive, I shall

do with you what I did with your father!" Zayd told him, "Go on,

Little Nu'man, for by God, I have prepared for you at Kisra's court

bonds to hobble your feet which even a high-spirited colt couldn't

break! " 852 When the news of his arrival at court reached Kisra, the

latter sent guards to him who put him in fetters, and he consigned

him to Khaniqin . 853 There he remained in gaol until an outbreak

850. Al-Ubullah [< Greek Apologos) lay on the right bank of the Euphrates-

Tigris estuary, at the mouth of a canal of the same name, the Nahr al-Ubullah. The

town existed in Sasanid times and possibly earlier, and in the later Sasanid period,

at least, came normally within the dominions of the Lakhmids. With the advent of

Islam, al-Ubullah was to some extent eclipsed by the mi$r of al-Ba?rah, founded

further inland, but it continued to be a port of major significance for trade with the

Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean shores all through mediaeval Islamic times until the Mongol invasions. See Yaqut, Buldan, I, 76-78; Le Strange, Lands, 47-48; Wilson, The Persian Gulf, 62-64; Morony, Iraq after the Muslim Conquest, 161-62; EP, s.v. al-Ubullah (J. H. Kramers). According to Abu al-Faraj al-l$fahanl, AghanP , XXm, 54, Khusraw made the grant to Qays b. Mas'ud so that the latter would ward off the tribesmen of Bakr b. Wa'il from the Sawad. See Donner, "The Bakr b. Wa’il Tribes and Politics in Northeastern Arabia on the Eve of Islam," 27-28.

851. See for this, n. 327 above.

852. As Ndldeke noted, trans. 331 n. 2, another brother of Zayd's, 'Amr (not

'Ammar) b. 'Adi b. Zayd, acted as adviser on Arab affairs and translator for Khusraw

Abarwez, and fought at Dhu Qar on the Persian side, where he was killed. See

AghanP, XXIV, 61-62, 73-74- The family of 'Adi b. Zayd continued to be of

significance in al-HIrah until well into 'Abbasid times, when al-Ya'qubi, Buldan,

309, tr. 141, describes them in his own time (late third/ninth century) as among the upper social strata there (' ilyat ahl al-Hirah ) and still firmly attached to their

Christian faith.

853- This town lay to the northeast of Ctesiphon and the later Baghdad on the

highway through Jibal to al-Rayy and Khurasan; at the present day, it comes just

within the borders of Iraq. The early Islamic geographers praise a fine, brick-built

bridge there, spanning the Hulwan river, an affluent of the Diyala, and this apparently dated back to the town's pre-Islamic existence. The fact that al-Nu'man was imprisoned there suggests the presence there of a Sasanid fortress also. See Yaqut, Buldan, n, 340-41; Le Strange, Lands, 62-63; Schwarz, Iran, 687-89; Barthold, Historical Geography, 199, 202; EP-, s.v. Khanikln (P. Schwarz). In his Iran im Mittelalter, 688 n. 1, Schwarz details the information of the Arabic sources on al- Nu'man's mode of death: either from plague or through being trampled by elephants.

358

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of plague occurred and he died in prison. People think that he died

at Sabat on account of a verse by al-A'sha,

It happened thus, and he was not able to save his master (i.e.,

al-Nu'man, the master of the noble steed addressed in the

preceding verses) from death at Sabat, dying while he was

incarcerated. 854

In fact, he died at Khaniqln, just a short while before the coming of

Islam. Soon afterward, God sent His prophet; al-Nu'man's fate

was the cause of the battle of Dhu Qar. 855

There was related to me a narrative going back to Abu 'Ubaydah

Ma'mar b. al-Muthanna — Abu al-Mukhtar Firas b. Khindif and a

number of the learned scholars of the Arabs whom Abu 'Ubaydah

expressly named, as follows: 856 When al-Nu'man killed 'Adi, the

latter's brother and son hatched a plot against al-Nu'man at

Kisra's court, and falsified a letter sent by al-Nu'man to Kisra

exculpating himself with expressions that roused Kisra's anger.

Hence he ordered al-Nu'man to be killed. When al-Nu'man had

become fearful of Kisra, he had deposited his coat of mail, his

valuables, and other arms with Hani’ b. Mas'ud b. 'Amir al-KhasIb

b. 'Amr al-Muzdalif b. Abi Rabi’ah b. Dhuhl b. Shayban b.

Tha'labah; this was because al-Nu'man had given him two of his

daughters in marriage. Abu 'Ubaydah added, however, that "Other

854. Diwan, 147, no. 33 v.18. Cf. Noldeke, trans. 331 n.4.

855. This could be considered as true in an indirect way, in that the end of the

Lakhmids does seem to have facilitated increased depredations by Bedouin tribes

like the Bakr on the now less strongly defended desert fringes of Iraq. Whether

Khusraw had any serious reason for thinking that al-Nu'man was aiming at a

policy more independent of his Persian overlord is impossible now to determine.

See Bosworth, "Iran and the Arabs before Islam," 607-608.

Other accounts in the Arabic sources of al-Nu'man's fall from favor and his

consequent fate are given in al-Ya'qubi, Ta’rikh, I, 245-46; al-Mas'udi, Muruj, HI,

205-T0 » §§ ro65-7Q; Hamzah al-I$fahani, Ta'rikh, 94-95 (al-Dinawari, on the

other hand, takes very little account of the Lakhmids). See also Noldeke, trans. 332 n. 1.

856. This is now the continuation of the riwayah from Abu 'Ubaydah begun by

al-Tabari at I, 1016, p. 339 above.

[The Last Sasanid Kings]

359

authorities state that Hani’ b. Mas'ud was no longer alive at the

time of this happening; the person in question was Hani’ b.

Qabisah b. Hani’ b. Mas’ud, and I consider this to be correct." 857

After Kisra had had al-Nu'man killed, he appointed Iyas b.

Qabisah al-Ta’I as governor over al-HIrah and the other former

territories of al-Nu'man. 858 Abu 'Ubaydah related: When Kisra

had fled from Bahram [Chubin], he passed by Iyas b. Qabisah, and

the latter gave him a horse and slaughtered a camel for him ; in this

way, Kisra showed his gratitude. 859 Kisra sent a message to Iyas

enquiring where al-Nu'man's deposited possessions were. Iyas replied

 that al-Nu'man had found a safe refuge for them among the

Bakr b. Wa’il. So Kisra ordered Iyas to get possession of what al-

Nu'man had left behind and to forward that to him. Iyas sent a

message to Hani’, "Send to me the coats of mail and other items

al-Nu'man entrusted to you" (the lowest estimate of these mailed

coats was four hundred, and the highest was eight hundred). But

Hani’ refused to hand over what he had engaged to protect. 860

He related: When Hani’ withheld these, Kisra was filled with

anger and gave out that he would extirpate the Bakr b. Wa’il. At

that moment, he had at his court al-Nu'man b. Zur'ah al-Taghlibl,

857. Hani’ b. Qabisah b. Mas'ud al-Shaybani and Iyas b. Qabisah al-Ta% or his

son Farwah b. Iyas — Iyas being at this point the Persian ruler's viceroy in al-

HIrah — are mentioned in al-Baladhuri, Futuh, 243, as yielding up the city in

12/633 t0 Khalid b. al-Walid's forces on the basis of a peace treaty, with the

provision that the HIran leaders were now to act as spies for the Arabs against the

Persians.

858. Iyas, noted above as involved (unless his son Farwah is meant) in the

surrender of al-HIrah to the Arabs, was the son of Khusraw's adviser Qabisah, the

tribe of Tayyi’ having links with the Sasanid ruling house (see n. 847 above). He

was thus an appropriate person to appoint as governor in al-HIrah. However, at his side Khusraw placed his commander Nakhlrjan (on this name, see n. 377 above), who was later to play an eminent role in the defense of al-Mada’in against the Arabs (see al-Tabari, I, 2419-22, etc., below), as financial controller and tribute collector. Iyas was to govern in al-HIrah from 600 to 61 1. See Rothstein,

Lahmiden, no, 116, 120 and n. 1.

859. As Noldeke, trans. 333 n. 2, commented, this gratitude was rather belated.

Al-Mas'udI, Muruj, n, 216-17, has different details on the fugitive Khusraw's

desperate search for a mount, including the detail that al-Nu'man refused to give

the king his own celebrated horse al-Yahmum.

860. This refusal to hand over valuable war material is confirmed by some

verses of al-A'sha in Abu al-Faraj al-l$fahanl, AghanP, XXTV, 79.

36 o

[The Last Sasanid Kings]

who was eager for the destruction of the Bakr b. Wa’il . 861 Al-

Nu'man said to Kisra, "O best of rulers, shall I show you how Bakr

might be attacked unawares?" Kisra replied, "Yes!" Al-Nu'man

said, "Leave them alone, so that they can go to their summer

encampments, for if they do take up these summer quarters they

will alight at one of their watering places called Dhu Qar just as a

moth falls into a fire, and then you can fall upon them exactly as

you wish. I myself can take charge of this and get rid of them for

you." Al-Nu'man's phrase "they will alight just like a moth fall-

ing into a fire" was translated for Kisra, and he accordingly left

them alone for the time being.

But then when the Bakr b. Wa’il migrated to their summer quarters,

 they went along and encamped at the bend of Dhu Qar, one

night's journey away from Dhu Qar itself. Kisra sent al-Nu'man b.

Zur'ah to them with the message that they were to chose one of

three courses of action (literally, "aims, targets"). Al-Nu'man en-

camped at Hand's and told him, "I am the king's envoy to you. I

offer you three courses of action. Either you submit yourselves,

and the king will make a decision concerning you however he

pleases; or you remove yourselves from the land; or be apprised of

the imminence of war ." 862 They took counsel together, and left

the decision to Hanzalah b. Tha'labah b. Sayyar al-'Ijll, whose

advice they regarded as auspicious . 863 Hanzalah told them, "I

can't see any other course but fighting, for if you place yourself in

his hands, you will be killed and your children enslaved. If you

flee, you will die of thirst, and the Tamim will come upon you and

put you to death. So apprise the king of imminent war."

The king sent messages to Iyas, to al-Harmarz al-Tustari, whose

fortress was at al-Qutqutanah, and to Jalabzin , 864 who held the

861. The two tribes of Bakr and Taghlib, although forming the major part of

Rabi'ah, were at odds with each other for much of the sixth century. See EP, s.v.

Bakr b. Wa’il (W. Caskel).

862. Echoing Qur’an, II, 279, fa-'dhanu bi-haib in min Allah wa-rasuhhi.

863. The 'Ijl b. Lujaym were a component of Bakr,- see EP, s.v. Tdjl (W.M. Watt).

The sayyid Hanzalah b. Tha'labah is described in AghanP, XXIV, 67, as bald

headed, large bellied and with a reddish-brown skin, which Noldeke, trans. 334 n.

3, regarded as probably an authentic description, since it deviates radically from

the usual ideal of the spare desert warrior with long locks of hair.

864. This rendering of the Persian commander's name approaches more closely

to the Zalabzan of the Byzantine Greek historians (see n. 739 above) than the

Khunabizin of the Naqa’id Jarii wa-al-Fatazdaq, n, 640, 643, 644; see Addenda et

emendanda, p. cxcv.

[The Last Sasanid Kings] 361

fortress at Bariq. Kisra further wrote to [the above-mentioned]

Qays b. Mas'ud b. Qays b. Khalid b. Dhi al-Jaddayn, whom Kisra

had appointed over the frontier zone ( al-taff ) of Safawan, with

instructions to meet up with Iyas, and when they were all assembled,

Iyas was to be their leader. 865 The Persians brought along

troops and elephants on which were mounted cavalrymen. At this

time, the Prophet had already begun his mission and the authority

of the Persians had become weak. The Prophet said, "Today the

Arabs have received satisfaction from the Persians." Note was

taken of that day, and behold, it was the day of the battle.

When the armies of the Persians and their allies drew near, Qays

b. Mas'ud slipped away by night and went to Hani’. He told him,

"Give your troops al-Nu'man [b. al-Mundhir]'s weapons in order

thereby to increase the troops' strength. If they should perish, they

will merely share the fate of those who bore them [originally], and

you will have acted with all prudence and resolution; and if they

are victorious, they will give them back to you." 866 Hani’ did that,

and divided out the mailed coats and weapons among the strongest

and stoutest of his troops. When the [Persian] army drew near

to the Bakr, Hani’ shouted to the latter, "O men of the Bakr tribe!

You won't be able to withstand Kisra's troops and their Arab al-

lies, so gallop back to the desert!" The tribesmen rushed headlong

to do that, but Hanzalah b. Tha'labah b. Sayyar sprang up and said

to Hani’, "You admittedly want us to flee to safety, but you are

thereby increasing the likelihood of your consigning us to destruction!"

Thus he persuaded the tribesmen to go back, and he cut

through the leather straps of the litters [on the camels] so that the

865. The three places mentioned here were points along the zone of frontier

posts and fortresses to the west of the middle and lower Euphrates. See Yaqut,

Buldan, I, 319-20, HI, 225, IV, 374 (al-Qujqutanah as the place of al-Nu'man's

imprisonment, but this is less likely than the fortress at Khaniqin mentioned by al-

Tabari at 1 , 1028, p. 3 5 7 above); Morony, Iraq after the Muslim Conquest, 151,153.

866. As noted by Noldeke, trans. 336 n. 1, Qays b. Mas'ud was subsequently

imprisoned by Khusraw in Saba{ on the grounds that he had not prevented Bedouin incursions across the fronier zone of al-faff, confirmed by poetry allegedly composed by Qays himself in Abu al-Faraj al-I?fahani, Aghdnl 3 , XXIV, 57-59, Abu 'Ubaydah's information here does confirm that Qays may have had a secret understanding with his fellow members of Bakr. However, in al-Tabari, 1 , 103s, p. 367 below, al-A'sha satirizes Qays for cowardice and flight in battle.

362 [The Last Sasanid Kings]

Bakr would not be able to take their womenfolk with them if they

were to flee. He therefore acquired the name of "the one who cuts

the thongs" ( muqatti ' al-wudun), wudun being the straps securing

the saddles and litters, or else "the one who cuts the belly

girths" ( muqatti ' al-butn), butn being the straps securing the loadbearing frameworks on draught camels ( al-aqtdb ). 867 Hanzalah

also erected a tent for himself in the depression of Dhu Qar and

took an oath that he would not flee unless the tent itself fled.

Some of them (i.e., the Bakr) went forward, but the greater part of

them went back and spent half a month at a watering place getting

water for themselves [and their herds).

The Persians came upon them and fought with them at the bend

[of Dhu Qar]. The Persians suffered from thirst, hence they fled,

without making a stand and being hard pressed, back to al-

Jubabat, 868 with the Bakr and the 'Ijl, the foremost of the Bakr,

pursuing them. The 'Ijl were in the forefront and fought in an

exemplary fashion on that day. The Persian troops came together

[at first] in a compact mass, so that people said, "The 'Ijl are finished!"

Then [the rest of] the Bakr rallied to the attack and found

the 'Ijl standing fast and fighting back. One of their women

recited:

If the uncircumcised ones ( al-ghuzal ) gain the victory, they will

ravish us (literally, "place [their penises] inside us");

onwards, may your lives be ransoms for yourselves, O Banu

'Ijl!

She also said, urging on the combattants:

If you put the enemy to flight, we shall embrace [you] and

spread out soft rugs [for you].

But if you flee, we shall avoid [you], showing no tender

affection! 869

867. This incident appears also in AghanP, XXIV, 68-71.

868. Al-Jubabah (thus sing.) is merely noted by Yaqut, Buldan, n, 98, as a place

near Dhu Qar, and a watering place of the Abu Bakr b. Kilab.

869. These three verses of the 'Ijli woman figure in the account of Dhu Qar in

the Naqa’id Jarir wa-al-Farazdaq, II, 641, while the second and third verses, with a slight variant, are attributed in Ibn Hisham, Sirat al-nabi, ed,. Wiistenfeld, 562 -

ed. al-Saqqa et al., Ill, 72, tr. 374, to Hind bt. 'Utbah when she urged on Quraysh

against the Muslims at the battle of Uhud, in the year 3/625.

[The Last Sasanid Kings]

363

They fought with the Persians at al-Jubabat for a whole day.

Then the Persians suffered thirst and made toward the depression

of Dhu Qar. The [tribe of] Iyad, who were auxiliary troops against

the Bakr with Iyas b. Qabisah , 870 secretly sent a message to the

Bakr: "Which is more attractive to you, that we should arise and

steal away under cover of night, or stay here and take to flight

when you encounter the enemy?" They replied, "Nay, stand fast,

and then, when the enemy engage in battle, take to flight with

them." He related: Bakr b. Wa’il fell upon the enemy next morning,

with their womenfolk ( al-zu'un , literally, "those mounted on

camels in litters") standing nearby, inciting the men to fight.

Yazid b. Himar al-Sakunl, a confederate of the Banu Shayban, said,

"O Banu Shayban, follow my leadership and let me make an ambush

against the enemy." They did that, and made Yazid b. Himar

their leader. Then they concealed themselves in an ambush at a

place near Dhu Qar called al-Jubb , 871 and showed themselves

stout warriors there. Commanding Iyas b. Qablsah's right wing

was al-Hamarz, and over his left wing was al-Jalabzin; commanding

the right wing of Hani’ b. Qabisah, the leader of the Bakr, was

Yazid b. Mus'hir al-Shaybanl, and over his left was Hanzalah b.

Tha'labah b. Sayyar al-'Ijll. The people began to urge on their fellows

and to compose rajaz verses [to encourage them]. Hanzalah

b. Tha'labah recited:

Your hosts have already become a compact mass, so fight

fiercely! What excuse shall I have, since I am stro ngl y

armed and robust ? 872

The bow has a thick string, like the foreleg of a young camel or

stronger.

870. The Iyad were a North Arab tribe, whose eponymous forebear was said by

the genealogists to be a son of Nizar b. Ma'add and a brother of Rabi'ah and Mudar.

Some Iyad settled at al-HIrah and became Christians; others remained nomadic,

and at the end of the sixth century and beginning of the seventh century were

among the tribes in the service of the Sasanids as frontier auxiliaries until their

defection from the Persian side as narrated below. See Ibn al-Kalbi-Caskel-

Strenziok, Jamharat al-nasab, I, Tables 174-75, H, 29-30, 359-60; EP, s.v. Iyad ( J. W. Fuck). For Iyas b. Qabi$ah, see above nn. 810, 858.

871. Literally, "depression, hollow."

872. Following the mud’* 0 of the Leiden and Cairo texts and of the Naqa'id.

Nbldeke's translation, 338, "da ich . . . sterben muss" would require nmd^ <

awda, "he perished."

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364 [The Last Sasanid Kings]

The celebrated deeds of my people have become clear. Indeed,

there is no escape from death.

Here is 'Umayr, whose tribe 873 rushes impetuously forward in

battle , 874 with none able to repel it,

Until his reddish-colored horse becomes like a dark-brown one

(i.e., with the blood of battle); they have cleared the way, O

Banu Shayban, and stood firm on their own ! 875

Myself, my father and my grandfather I give as your ransom!

Hanzalah further recited,

0 my people, rejoice in yourselves at fighting! [This is] the most

suitable of days for putting the Persians to flight ! 876

Yazid b. al-Mukassir b. Hanzalah b. Tha'labah b. Sayyar recited:

The one of you who flees abandons his wives and the alien

under his protection, and flees also from his boon

companion.

1 am the son of Sayyar, with his toughness and endurance

(literally, "hanging on to his bit"); indeed, the sandal thongs

have been cut from his own hide.

All men grow in the way of their forefathers, whether nurtured

from defective blood or of pure stock . 877

Firas related: Then they handed over the command, after

Hani ’, 878 to Hanzalah. He went along to his daughter Mariyah,

who was the mother of ten sons, one of these being Jabir b. Abjar , 879

 and cut through the leather straps of her litter so that she

873. The Cairo text, II, 209, has the reading tahtahu for hayyuhu, followed in

the text of the Naqa'id Jarir wa-al-Farazdaq.

874. Following the emendation in Addenda et emendanda, p. dxcv,

taqdumat an

875. Following, with the text of the Naqa’id, the probable emendations to the

second hemistich given in Addenda et emendanda, loc. cit., with statements

[khallaw . . . wa-stabaddu ) rather than imperative verbs and commands.

876. These verses of Hanzalah figure in the Naqa’id, n, 642.

877. These verses are in the Naqa’id, n, 643, with the poet's name as Yazid al-

Mukassir b. Hanzalah, i.e., the son, not the grandson, of the previously cited poet.

878. That is, because, as recorded by al-Tabari at 1 , 1031, p. 361 above, Hani’ had left the field.

879. Noldeke noted, trans. 339 n. 3, that the Hajjar b. Abjar b. Jabir b. Bujayr

al-’Ijll mentioned in the historical sources was probably Jabir's brother. This Hajjar was prominent in fighting the Muslims during the Riddah wars in al-Bahrayn

during Abu Bakr's caliphate, but apparently became a Muslim under 'Umar, especially as Ibn Sa’d, Jabaqat, VI, 161 (but not, e.g., Ibn al-Athir, Usd al-ghabah ), devotes a notice to him since, after conversion, he could technically be considered as a Companion of the Prophet; cf. also Donner, "The Bakr b. Wa’il Tribes and Politics in Northeastern Arabia on the Eve of Islam," 31-32. His father Abjar seems, however, to have remained Christian until his death toward the end of 'Ah's reign. See al-Tabari, I, 3460, and Hawting, The History of al-Tabari, an

Annotated Translation, XVII, The First Civil War, 217 and n. 8 5 8. Noldeke further noted the antiquity of the name Abjar/Abgar among the Arabs, going back to the kings of Edessa, among whom some ten of that name are known. See Segal, Edessa, ‘The Blessed City,’ index s.w. Abgar I, etc.

[The Last Sasanid Kings] 365

fell to the ground, and he did the same with the straps of the other

women so that they all fell to the ground. The daughter of al-

Qarin, the woman of Shayban, cried out when the women fell to

the ground,

Woe to you, O Banu Shayban, rank upon rank! If you are put to

flight, the uncircumcised ones ( al-qulaq ) will ravish us

(literally, "will plunge into us"]!

Seven hundred of the Banu Shayban cut the arms of the sleeves

of their garments from the shoulder pieces so that their arms

would be freer for wielding their sword, and then they engaged the

enemy fiercely in battle. He related: Al-Hamarz cried out [in Persian],

"Man to man!" [maid, u maid). Burd b. Harithah al-

Yashkuri 880 exclaimed, "What is he saying?" They told him, "He

is issuing a summonse to single combat, man to man." He replied,

"By your father! He has spoken justly!" Burd advanced against

him and slew him. Surayd b. Abi Kahil recited: 881

Little Burd (Burayd) 882 is one of us, [who proved himself in

battle] when he went out against your hordes, when you did

not want to let him draw near to the Marzban with the

bracelets on his arm. 883

880. The Banu Yashkur were a tribe of Bakr, with much of the tribe living as

sedentaries in al-Yamamah. See Ibn al-Kalbi-Caskel-Strenziok, famharat al-nasab, I, Tables 141, 162, II, 26, 592.

881. Surayd b. Abi Kahil Shabib al-Yashkuri was a poet of the mukhadram. See

Sezgin, GAS, II, 165-66.

882. The parallel verse in the Naqa’id, n, 643, has for this name "Yazid," but the

text shortly afterward mentions Burayd as a variant for Yazid.

883. Abu al-Faraj al-l?fahanl, AghanP, XXIV, 71, mentions that the Persian

cavalrymen of al-Hamarz rode out against the Bakr wearing arm bracelets (musawwar) and with pearls in each ear. Variants for the last word of this verse, al-Tabari's al-musawwara, are given in both the Naqa’id and the Aghani, and from the latter (where two verses are quoted), the correct rhyme emerges as -ru and not -ra.

[1034]

366

[The Last Sasanid Kings]

That is, you did not consider him [as an outstanding warrior).

Hanzalah b. Tha'labah b. Sayyar called out, "O my people, don't

just stand there facing them, or they will overwhelm you with

arrows! The left wing of the Bakr, led by Hanzalah, attacked the

[Persian] army's right wing (whose commander, al-Hamarz, Burd

had just killed], and the right wing of the Bakr, led by Yazid b.

Mus'hir, attacked the [Persian] army's left wing (commanded by

Jalabzin). The concealed force under Yazid b. Himar came up behind

them from al-Jubb of Dhu Qar, and launched an attack on the

enemy's center, where Iyas b. Qabisah was. The Iyad turned round

and fled, just as they had undertaken to do, and the Persians also

fled.

Salit said: The [Arab] captives whom we took, who were on that

day in the Persian forces, related to us thus, saying: When the two

sides clashed, Bakr took to flight, so we said, 'They are making for

the watering place." But when they crossed the wadi and emerged

from the bed of its stream onto the other side, we said, 'This is

flight." This happened in the midday heat 884 of a day in the midst

of summer. A detachment of the Tjl approached, tightly packed

like a bundle of reeds, with no gaps in between; they did not offer

impediment to any fugitives (i.e., from the other branches of the

Bakr) and they did not mingle with others of the enemy. Then they

urged each other on to the attack, advanced in a mass and hurled

themselves frontally at the enemy. There was nothing more to be

done; they had made the enemy yield, and these last turned and

fled. They slew the Persians and those with them from the depression

of Dhu Qar as far as al-Rahidah. 885 Firas related: I was further

informed that they pursued the Persians closely, not looking for

plunder or anything else, unti they met up with each other at

Adam, 886 a place near Dhu Qar. There were found to be thirty

riders from the Banu 'Ijl and sixty from the rest of the Bakr. They

killed Jalabzin, slain by the hand of Hanzalah b. Tha'labah. -

884. Naqa’id, n, 644, has hadd, "intensity, acute part of something," for al-

Tabari's han.

885. Unidentified.

886. Yaqut, Buldan, 1 , 1 62, knows this only as a place associated with the events

of Dhu Qar.

[The Last Sasanid Kings] 367

Maymun b. Qays (i.e., al-A'sha) recited the poem, praising the Banu

Shayban in particular:

I would give as a ransom for the Banu Dhuhl b. Shayban my

she-camel and its rider (i.e., myself) on the day of the

encounter, but this would be too little. 887

They combatted fiercely the vanguard of al-Hamarz at the bend,

the bend of Quraqir, until he turned and fled.

Qays [b. Mas'ud] escaped from our group, and I commented,

"Perhaps, if he were wearing sandals there, he threw them

off" (i.e., in order to escape more easily).

This shows that Qays was in fact present at Dhu Qar.

Bukayr, the deaf one ( al-asamm ) of the Banu al-Harith b.

'Ubad, 888 eulogised the Banu Shayban thus:

[O serving girl,] if you pour out wine for those who are wont to

enjoy it (or, "deserve it"), then pour it out as an act of

honor for the sons of Hammam,

And for all of the Abu Rabi’ah and the Muhallim, 889 who

attained the foremost place on the most noble of battle

days.

They attacked the Free Ones {Banu al-Ahiar ) 890 on the day

when they encountered them in battle, with Mashrafi

swords 891 on the place where the skull rests firmly.

Arabs numbering three thousand and a force of two thousand

Persians, from those who wear cloths over their mouths

( ban I al-faddam ) 892

887. Following the reading wa-qallati of al-A'sha, Diwan, 179, no. 40 v. i f

Naqa'id, n, 644; AghdnP, XXIV, 78; and Addenda et emendanda, p. dxcv, I do not see how Noldeke, trans. 342, got his rendering "(geb' ich . . . ] und meinen Renner" from wa-fullati.

888. Al-Harith b. 'Ubad b. pubay'ah were a clan of the important Tha'labah

branch of Bakr. See Ibn al-Kalbi-Caskel-Strenziok, Jamharat al-nasab, I, Table 1 5 5 , H, 25,314-

889. Muhallim b. Dhuhl were a clan of Shayban. See Ibn al-Kalbi-Caskel-

Strenziok, Jamharat al-nasab, I, Table 142, n, 421,

890. See for these, n. 604 above.

891. Clearly a superior kind of sword. The lexica give various explanations for

the term, including one connecting it with the mashdrif al-Sbam, "the highlan ds

of Syria," possibly the Hawran massif, which would be near the place of ori gin of

the later, famed swords of Damascus. See Lane, Lexicon, 1539a.

892. Noldeke, trans. 343 n. 2, noted the reference here to the panddm, paitidana, of the Zoroastrians (cf. Bartholomae, Altiianisches Worterbuch, cols.

830-31), MP padam, NP pandamah, worn across the mouth in order to avoid

contamination with the breath of sacred objects.

368 [The Last Sasanid Kings]

The son of Qays made a charge, and the fame of it for him has

traveled as far as the peoples of Iraq and Syria,

[That is,] 'Amr, and 'Amr is not decrepit with age or weak

minded among them (i.e., his people of Qays), nor

inexperienced and a mere youth. 893

Since al-A'sha and al-Asamm praised the Banu Shayban specifically,

the Lahazim 894 grew angry, and Abu Kalbah, one of the Banu

Qays, 895 reproached those two poets strongly for this:

May you be mutilated, O two poets of a people of exalted fame!

May your noses be cut off with a saw!

I mean the deaf one { al-asamm ) and our weak-sighted one

( a'shana ) who, when they both come together, do not find

help for [defective] hearing from seeing.

If it had not been for the riders of the Lahazim, who are not

feeble and defenseless, they would not have been able to

spend the summer [any longer] at Dhu Qar.

We came upon them from their left side, just as those going to

water [their beasts] become intermingled with those

returning from the water (i.e troops traveling in opposite

directions, with the enemy fleeing and ourselves wheeling

round and returning to the battle field). 896

893. These verses also in Naqa'id, II, 644-45; Aghdni, XXIV, 77-78.

894 The Lahazim were a grouping of Bakri tribes, defined in the Umayyad al-

Basrah of some eighty years later than this time as the Qays b. Tha'labah and their

confederates,- the 'Anazah; and the Taymallat b. Tha'labah and their confederates,

the 'Ijl. See al-Tabari, n, 448, tr. Hawting, The History of al-Tabari, an Annotated

Translation, XX, The Collapse of Sufyanid Authority and the Coming of the

Marwdnids, 25-26; cf. Ibn al-Kalbi-Caskel-Strenziok, Jamharat al-nasab, II, 27.

The term lahazim is said by the lexicographers to be the plural of lihzimah,

"mastoid bone, hinge of the jawbone with the skull," the idea of hardness being

transfered to the solidity of the tribal alliance. See Glossarium, p. cdlxxiii; Ul-

lmann, WbKAS, II, Letter lam, Pt. 2, 1516-19; El 1 - s.v. Taimallat b. Tha'laba (G. Levi Della Vida).

895. Attached by Ibn Durayd, Ishtiqaq, 3 5 5, to the clan of 'Ukabah b. Qays, part

of Murrah of Shayban. See Ibn al-Kalbi-Caskel-Strenziok, Jamharat al-nasab, I,

Table 141, n, 566.

896. Naqa’id, n, 645, in part quoted, but with additional verses, in AghanP,

XXIV, 77-

[The Last Sasanid Kings]

369

Abu 'Amr b. al-'Ala’ said: When Abu Kalbah's words reached al-

A'sha, he commented, "He has spoken truly," and recited verses

in extenuation of himself, some of which are:

When a deaf person is linked through a connection with a

weak-sighted one, they both wander around distractedly,

lost and in distress.

For I am not able to see what he can see, while he is never able

to hear my reply . 897

Al-A'sha recited concerning the day of battle,

There came to us from the Free Ones {Banu al-Ahiai) a word

that was not conformable.

They wanted to hack down the tree of our nobility, but we were

defending ourselves against serious events . 898

He also recited to Qays b. Mas'ud,

O Qays b. Mas’ud b. Qays b. Khalid, you are a man in whose

youthful vigor the whole of Wa’il 899 places its hopes!

Are you combining in a single year both raiding and journeying

abroad? Would that the midwives had drowned Qays [at his

birth ]! 900

Al-A'sha of the Banu Rabi’ah said , 901

We stood our ground firmly on the morning of Dhu Qar, when

[the enemy] tribes were present there in swarms, having

come together to give aid.

They had brought on that occasion a dark-colored [army], an

intimidatory host, with closely compacted squadrons of

riders, a crushing force,

897. al-A'sha, Diwan, 206, no. 57 w. 1-2; Naqa'id, n, 645.

898. Diwan, 104, no. 56, w. 5-6; Naqa’i<J, n, 645, with al-hakama for al-

khutamd at the end of the second verse.

899. That is, Wa’il b. Jadilah b. Asad b. Rabi’ah, from whom sprang the two great

tribes of Bakr and Taghlib. See EP, s.v. Rabi'a and Mudar (H. Kindermann).

900. Diwan, 128, no. 26 w. 1-2; Naqa'id, II, 645-46.

901. That is, A’sha BanI Abl Rabi'ah or A'sha Shayban, 'Abdallah b. Kharijah,

another of the many poets with this sobriquet, numbered at seventeen by the

Arabic literary biographers. This al-A'sha was a poet of al-Kufah and a staunch

adherent of the Marwanids, dying ca. 100/718-19. See Noldeke, trans. 344 n. 6; EP, s.v. al-A'sha (ed.).

370

[The Last Sasanid Kings]

For a hateful day of battle, until the moment when the shades

of its blackness fell away from us, revealing us as warriors

with unsheathed swords.

They thereupon turned their backs on us totally, 902 and we only

had to ward off Nu'man b. Zur'ah 903

And we drove away the threatening rain-cloud {'arid) of the free

ones as if going to water, just as the sand grouse (qata)

alight for water at a desert pool with exiguous water. 904

Mention of Those Vassal Rulers Set over the Desert

Frontier of the Arabs at al-HIrah as Appointees of the

Monarchs of Persia, after 'Amr b. Hind

We have already mentioned previously those members of the

house of Nasr b. Rabi’ah who held this power as vassal rulers on

[1038] behalf of the monarchs of Persia up to the time of 'Amr b. Hind's

death, and the durations of their respective periods of office as

vassal rulers, after 'Amr b. Hind up to the time when al-Nu'man b.

al-Mundhir held power. 905

The person who exercised this office after 'Amr b. Hind was his

[full] brother Qabus b. al-Mundhir, 906 whose mother was likewise

Hind bt. al-Harith b. 'Amr; he held power for four years, of which

eight months fell in the reign of Anusharwan and three years and

four months in the reign of the latter's son Hurmuz. 907 After

902. akta'Ina, also translatable "as if they were completely mutilated," as by

Noldeke, trans. 345.

903. That is, die Taghlibi chief and enemy of the Bakr, who at Khusraw's court

advised the course of action that led to the Yawm Dhl Qai; see al-Tabari, I, 1030,

pp. 359-60 above. According to Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahanl, AghanP, XXIV, 72-73, he escaped from the field of Dhu Qar.

904. Diwan, 281 no. 16 w. 1-5.

905. See al-Tabari, I, 833-34, 845-46, 850-54, 858ff., 899-900. 946, 981, 1016-

30, pp. 44, 67, 74-82, 87ff., 161-63, 237, 286, 339-59 above.

906. The appearance of this purely Persian name, an Arabized form of Kawus (<

Avestan Kawi-Usan, see Noldeke, 345 n. 4 ; Justi, Namenbuch, 334-46; Mayrhofer, Die altiranischen Namen, nos. 208, 210, 323), among the Lakhmids, is an indication of the strength of Persian cultural influence within the dynasty. See further on this, Bosworth, "Iran and the Arabs before Islam," 6o9ff.

907. On this count, Qabus would have reigned from 578 or 579 to 582 or 583,

since Khusraw Anusharwan died in 579, but we know that he was ruling a decade

or so before then, since he was defeated by the Jafnid/Ghassanid al-Mundhir b. al-

Harith on Ascension Day 570. His four years' reign must have been from 5 69 or 5 70 to 573 or 574, i.e., entirely within Anusharwan's reign, as confirmed by Hamzah al- I$fahanl, Ta'nkh, 94. See Noldeke, trans. 345 n. i; Rothstein, Lahmiden, 72, 102- 106. Rothstein, op. cit., 102, pointed out that what we know of'Qabus's military activities does not confirm Hamzah's allegation that he was a weak and ineffectual ruler, and he believed that the contemptuous nickname given to Qabus of Qaynat al-'Urus (read thus for Hamzah's Fitnat al-Urus), "slavegirl who looks after the bride's dwelling and wedding outfit," stemmed from some satirical poetry aimed at him.

[The Last Sasanid Kings]

37i

Qabus b. al-Mundhir there came to power al-Suhrab , 908 then after

him the father of al-Nu'man, al-Mundhir b. al-Mundhir, who held

power for four years ,- 909 then after him, al-Nu'man b. al-Mundhir,

Abu Qabus, for twenty-two years, of which seven years and eight

months fell in the reign of Hurmuz, son of Anusharwan, and fourteen

years and four months in the reign of Kisra Abarwiz, son of

Hurmuz . 910 Then there held power Iyas b. Qablsah al-Ta’i, together

with al-Nakhirajan, for nine years in the reign of Kisra, son

908. As Noldeke said, trans. 340 n. 1, this man with so typical a Persian name

can hardly have been a Lakhmid (despite what has been said in n. 906 above about Persian cultural influence within the Lakhmid house, the name of Suhrab is totally unattested among them) but must have been a Persian official sent out by

Anusharwan during an interregnum between Qabus's death and the eventual accession of al-Mundhir IV b. al-Mundhir m. According to Hamzah al-I?fahani, Ta’- rikh, 94, this official (whose name is corruptly written here as F.y.sh.h.r.t ) administered al-Hlrah for one year only. See Rothstein, Lahmiden, 106-107.

909. Al-Mundhir IV b. al-Mundhir HI (also a full brother of 'Amr and Qabus,

since according to Noldeke, trans. 346 n. 2, a poet cited in the Hamasah of Abu

Tammam addresses him as ". . . b. Hind") must in fact have reigned rather more

than four years, from ca. 574 to 580. Noldeke mentioned, 346 n. 1, the apparent

reluctance of the Christian Tbad of al-Hlrah to accept the pagan al-Mundhir as

ruler, but Rothstein pointed out that all the Lakhmid rulers with the exception of

the last one were pagans, and the fact that al-Mundhir was unable immediately to

succeed his brother Qabus must have had other causes. In the process of al-

Mundhir's eventual succession to the throne in al-Hirah, Adi's father Zayd b. (?)

Hammad, Anusharwan's adviser on Arab affairs, may have played a significant

rdle. Al-Mundhir had at one point been involved in fighting with the Jafnids/

Ghassanids, but we have no exact details of the circumstances of his death. See

Rothstein, Lahmiden, 107.

910. Al-Nu'man HI, who is also found with the kunyah of Abu al-Mundhir and

whose mother was the slavegirl Salma or Sulma (see al-Tabari, I, 1017, p. 34r

above), reigned 580-602 as the last of the Lakhmid kings in al-Hirah. See Noldeke, trans. 347 n. i; Rothstein, Lahmiden, 107-19, 142-43. Al-Nu'man figures frequently in the lives of the poets who frequented his court in the final florescence of Arabic culture at al-Hirah; he was the first and last of his line to become a Nestorian Christian, however nominally, doubtless under the influence of his upbringing in the family circle of 'Adi b. Zayd. See EP, s.v. al-Nu'man (HI) b. al- Mundhir (Irfan Shahid).

372 [The Last Sasanid Kings]

of Hurmuz. 911 According to what Hisham b. Muhammad has asserted,

one year and eight months from the beginning of Iyas b.

Qabisah's tenure of power, the Prophet was sent [by God] on his

mission. 912 His successor Azadhbih, son of [Adhur] Mahan (?), son

of Mihrbundadh, from Hamadhan, held power for seventeen years,

of which fourteen years and eight months fell within the time of

Kisra, son of Hurmuz; eight months in the time of Shiruyah, son of

[1039] Kisra; one year and seven months in the time of Ardashir, son of

Shiruyah; and one month in the time of Buran-dukht, daughter of

Kisra. 913 Al-Mundhir b. al-Nu'man b. al-Mundhir then held

power. He is the one whom the Arabs called al-Gharur ("the one

who deludes, deceives") and who was killed in al-Bahrayn at the

battle of Juwatha; he held power for eight months until Khalid b.

al-Walid marched on al-HIrah and was the last survivor of the

house of Nasr b. Rabi’ah. Their power crumbled with the collapse

of the royal power in Persia. 914

91 1. Iyas's nine years' of governorship was from 602-11, and this was in partnership with the Persian commander Nakhirjan (on whom, see n. 377 above).

Rothstein, lahmiden, 119-20, suggested that this arrangement could have been

the prelude to the incorporation of the Lakhmid territories into the Persian empire

as one of its provinces.

912. This is almost certainly too early; the Prophet's mab'ath or mission is

more probably to be placed in 610 (the call to prophethood, nubuwwah, and his

nonpublic ministry), and then with ca. 61 3 as the date for the tisalah or beginning

of his public ministry in Mecca. See Watt, Muhammad at Mecca, 59.

913. This means a governorship for Azadhbih of nineteen years if he held the

post till the reign of Buran or Buran-dukht (r. 630-31). The reading for his father's

name is very uncertain. Marquart suggested [Adhur] Mahan for a completely un-

dotted consonant skeleton, which would correspond with the name in the Byzan-

tine Greeks historians of Adormaanes, but this was regarded by the editor Noldeke as not very probable; the text could be Ban.y.dn or numerous other possibilities. See Addenda et emendanda, p. dxcv.

914. This later Lakhmid never reigned in al-HIrah but was raised up by the

rebels of al-Bahrayn during the Riddah wars as one of their leaders, doubtless from the prestige of his ancient name and lineage. He is called in the Muslim sources al- Gharur, "the treacherous, deceitful one," but is said to have ruefully called himself, when captured by the Muslims, al-Maghrur, "the deceived one." The accounts of his fate vary: that he was killed at the siege of Juwatha, the fortress of the 'Abd al-Qays in al-Khatt (i.e., in al-Bahrayn); that he was subsequently killed fighting for Musaylimah in al-Yamamah; and (less probably) that he became a Muslim. See al-Baladhuri, Futuh, 84; al-Tabari, I, 1737, tr. Ismail K. Poonawala, The History of al-Tabari, an Annotated Translation, IX, The Last Years of the Prophet, 95, and I, 1959-61, tr. F. M. Donner, ibid., X, The Conquest of Arabia, 136-38; Noldeke, trans. 348 n. 1, with other information on the ultimate fate of the Lakhmid line, including that in al-Mas'udl, Muruj, III, 209-12 - §§ 1071-72, cf. Pellat's index, VI, 268, on the encounter of al-Nu'man's daughter Hurqah/Hariqah/

Hurayqah with Sa'd b. Abl Waqqa? after the Arab victory at al-Qadisiyyah.

Al-ShabushtI, Kitab al-diyarat, 144-46, mentions the Dayr Hind al-$ughra at al-

Hlrah, which Hind, the daughter of al-Nu‘man, is said to have built and to have

stayed there herself as a nun ( mutaiahbibab) until her death; cf. also the editor

Gurgis Awwad's dhayl, 388-90, with information from other sources on the convent and on Hind, and Fiey, L’Assyrie chi Etienne, HI, 215^7. According to the Anonymus Guidi, tr. 9, the Catholicos Isho'yabh II was buried there by Hind when he died. According to the later geographer al-Bakri, Mu'jam md ista'jam, n, 604- 607, Hind and Hurqah/Hariqah/Hurayqah were the same person (Hamzah al-

Isfahanl, Ta’rikb, 95, makes them two separate persons and mentions a third

daughter, \n.f.q.y.i [?]), and al-Bakn quotes Abu al-Faraj [al-I^fahani] that the tribes of both Flind and her father al-Nu'man were visible, side by side, in the Dayr Hind al-Awwal |« al-§ughraj during the time of Harun al-Rashld (i.e., ca. a.d. 800). Fiey, op. cit., m, ir6 n. 4, suggested that Hurqah, etc., was this princess's pagan name before the adoption of Christianity by her father and herself. Concerning Khalid's march on al-HIrah, see Musil, The Middle Euphrates, 283-92.

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373

According to what Hisham [b. Muhammad] has asserted, the

total of the rulers of the house of Na§r plus their deputies from the

'Ibad and the Persians, was twenty rulers. He related: The total

number of years during which they held power was 522 years and

eight months. 915

The Story Returns to the Mention of al-Maruzan, Who

Governed Yemen on Behalf of Hurmuz and His Son

Abarwiz, and His Successors 916

There was related to me a narrative going back to Hisham b.

Muhammad, who said: Hurmuz, son of Kisra, dismissed W.y.n

(?) 917 from Yemen and appointed in his stead al-Maruzan. The

latter remained in Yemen long enough to have children bom to

him there and for these to grow to puberty. 918 But then the people

9 15 - Ndldeke, trans. 349 n. 1, basing himself on the figures for each reign in the

corrected text of Hamzah al-I$fahani's Ta'rikh, found this a remarkably accurate

computation.

916. From this point onward, there resumes the story from Ibn al-Kalbi on

events in Yemen under Persian rule broken off by al-Tabari at I, 988, p. 294 above, and then on the end of Khusraw Abarwez's reign and the rule of his successors.

917. See al-Tabari, I, 988, p. 294 above.

918. Such children, bom of Persian fathers who were soldiers or officials during

the half-century or so of Persian dominance in Yemen, and local Arab mothers,

came to form the so-called Abna’ or "Sons." The virtual collapse of the Sasanid

empire in 628 left these Abna’ and other surviving representatives of Persian power in Yemen remote and isolated from their homeland with virtually no hope of human replenishments or material help from Persia. Hence when M uhamma d was extending his power into the more distant parts of the Arabian peninsula, the

Abna’ were inclined to come to terms with the Prophet, with their leader, the

governor Badhan or Badham (see n. 609 above) recorded as submitting and becoming a Muslim in 10/631. See Eli, s.v. Abna’ (C. E. Bosworth); EP Suppl. s.v. Badham, Badhan (Bosworth).

374

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of one of the mountains of Yemen called al-Masani' 919 rebelled

against him and refused to hand over to him the land tax. Al-

Masani' is a long mountain, difficult of access, with another

mountain adjacent to it with a plain that is not very wide lying

between them; moreover, no one can possibly conceive in his

mind the idea of climbing up to it. Al-Maruzan proceeded to al-

Masani', and when he arrived there he perceived that there was no

way up to the mountain except via a single way of access which a

man could defend single handed.

When al-Maruzan saw that there was no way for him to reach it,

he climbed up the mountain which faced the people of al-

Masani' 's fortress, and looked for the narrowest gap between it

and the mountain he himself was on, with nothing but empty

space stretching down below him. He realized that the only way of

takng the fortress was from that point. So he ordered his troops to

form themselves into two ranks and then all to shout out to him

with one great shout. He spurred on his horse, it galloped on with

all its force and then he hurled it forward and it jumped across the

chasm, and lo and behold, he was on the top of the fortress. When

the Himyarites saw him and what he had done, they exclaimed,

"This man is a \y.m!" — \y.m meaning in Himyarite "devil." 920

Then he herded them together roughly, spoke to them in Persian

and ordered them to place each other in shackles. He brought

919. Literally, "the constructions," in this case, fortifications. According to

Noldeke, trans. 350 n. 1, the Paris ms. of this part of al-Tabari's text has a remark

identifying al-Masani' with the mountain al-D.l.' and the town of Kawkaban. The

plateau and mountain area of al-Masani' and the Jabal Dila' (this last often men-

tioned by al-Hamdam, Sifat jazirat al-'Arab, 223, 231, 234, etc.) are in fact still

known as such and lie to the west-northwest of San'a’, with the ancient town, now

a provincial capital, of Kawkaban located there. See EP s.v. Kawkaban. 4 (A.

Grohmann).

920. This mysterious word is not so far attested in South Arabian. Noldeke,

trans. 350 n. 2, cited the lexicographers al-Jawhari and Nashwan al-Himyari that it meant "a variety of serpent" and adduced Hebr. 'emah, "something terrifying,

frightful." He further suggested that there might be a connection of the word with

the ’Emlm, the mythical giants of the land of Moab mentioned in Gen. xiv. 5 and

Deut. ii. io-ir ; but this is pure speculation, based on what is probably chance

resemblance of words.

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375

them all down from their fortress, killing one part of them and

enslaving others. He wrote to Kisra, son of Hurmuz, telling him

what he had done. The king marveled at his achievement and

wrote back: "Appoint as your deputy whomever you will, and

come to me!"