Al-Hirah

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Al-Hirah

Al Hira (Arabic,??????) was an ancient city located south of al-Kufah in south-central Iraq

Iraq

Iraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros Mountains, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
. It was a significant city in pre-Islamic Arab

Arab

An Arab is a person who Identity as such on linguistic or cultural grounds. The plural form, Arabs , refers to the Ethnocultural group at large....
history. Originally a military encampment, in the 5th and 6th centuries CE it became the capital of the Lakhmids

Lakhmids

The Lakhmids , Banu Lakhm , Muntherids , were a group of Arab Christians who lived in Southern Iraq, and made al-Hirah their capital in ....
.

The Arabs were migrating into the Near East

Near East

Near East today is an ambiguous term that covers different countries for archeologists and historians, on one hand, and for political scientists, economists, and journalists, on the other....
from the 9th century BCE.

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Al Hira (Arabic,??????) was an ancient city located south of al-Kufah in south-central Iraq

Iraq

Arab

Lakhmids

The Lakhmids , Banu Lakhm , Muntherids , were a group of Arab Christians who lived in Southern Iraq, and made al-Hirah their capital in ....
.

The Arabs were migrating into the Near East

Near East

Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia is the area of the Tigris-Euphrates river system, along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, largely corresponding to modern Iraq, as well as some parts of northeastern Syria, some parts of southeastern Turkey, and some parts of the Khuzestan Province of southwestern Iran....
had a substantial Arab population. Under the Sasanid Empire, southern Mesopotamia was sometimes called Arabistan

Arabistan

"Arabistan" or "Arabestan" may refer to:*The name of the Arabian Peninsula*The country "Arabistan al-Saudiyah", which is the name which is used by some countries in the region for Saudi Arabia....
. The first historical Arab kingdom outside Arabia, Hira (4th-7th centuries), in southern Iraq, was a vassal of the Sassanians, whom it helped in containing the nomadic Arabs to the south. The rulers of Hira, identified as Lakhmids

Lakhmids

The Lakhmids , Banu Lakhm , Muntherids , were a group of Arab Christians who lived in Southern Iraq, and made al-Hirah their capital in ....
, were recognized by Shapur II

Shapur II

Shapur II was the ninth King of the Sassanid Empire from 309 to 379. During his long reign, the Sassanid Empire saw its first golden era since the reign of Shapur I ....
(337-358 CE).

Hira was either Christian or strongly influenced by Christianity

Christianity

Christianity is a Monotheistic religion #Christian view religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus as New Testament view on Jesus' life....
. The Sassanian

Sassanid Empire

The Sassanid Empire or Sassanian Dynasty is the name of the last pre-Islamic Iranian empire. It was one of the two main powers in Western Asia for a period of more than 400 years....
Emperor Bahram V won the throne with support of Mundhir, Lakhmid Prince of Hira, in 420.

In 542, Khosrau I of Persia

Persian Empire

The 'Persian Empire' was a series of successive Iranian or Persianization empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau, the original Persian homeland, and beyond in Southwest Asia, South Asia, Central Asia and the Caucasus....
stopped the Byzantine

Byzantine Empire

Byzantine Empire and Eastern Roman Empire are conventional names used to describe the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered on its capital of Constantinople....
general Belisarius

Belisarius

Flavius Belisarius is often described as one of the greatest generals of the Byzantine Empire. He was instrumental to Byzantine Emperor Justinian I's ambitious project of reconquering much of the Western Roman Empire, which had been lost just under a century previously....
at Callinicum, south of Edessa

Edessa, Mesopotamia

Edessa is the historical name of a Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac people town in northern Mesopotamia, refounded on an ancient site by Seleucus I Nicator....
(southeastern Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in southwest Asia and Thrace in the Balkans region of Southern Europe....
), with the help of al Hira. In 602, Khosrau II deposed Numan III of al Hira and annexed his kingdom. Islam overran the Sasanid Empire in the 7th century.

There is evidence for a parallel Arab kingdom in today's Syria

Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is an Arab-majority country in Southwest Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Israel to the southwest, Jordan to the south, Iraq to the east, and Turkey to the north....
, called Ghassan and founded under Byzantine auspices. Around 527, al Hira and the Ghassanids

Ghassanids

The Ghassanids were a group of South Arabian Christian tribes that emigrated in the early 3rd century from Yemen to the Hauran in southern Syria, Jordan and the Holy Land where they intermarried with Hellenized Ancient Rome settlers and Greek-speaking Early Christian communities....
engaged in a proxy war for their respective imperial suzerains. Some claim that the first Arabic kingdom was founded in Hatra

Hatra

Hatra is an ancient ruined city in the Ninawa Governorate and al-Jazira, Mesopotamia of Iraq. It is today called al-Hadr, and it stands in the ancient Persian province of Khvarvaran....
, in northern Iraq.

Following the Siege of Hira

Battle of Hira

Al-Hirah city, widely known for its size and wealth, was a Sassanian dukedom as it was the capital of the Persian Empire province of Iraq. Many of its Lakhmid Christian Arab inhabitants patrolled the desert on behalf of the Sassanians....
, the city was captured by Muslim army of Rashidun Caliphate under the command of Khalid ibn Walid in May 633 A.D.