Al-Hira

Al-Hira (Arabic: الحيرة, romanized: al-Ḥīra^[1] Middle Persian: Hērt ^[2]) was an ancient city in Mesopotamia located south of what is now Kufa in south-central Iraq.

Hira

al-Ḥīra الحيرة
A Persian miniature from the 15th century describing the constructing of Khawarnaq (Persian: خورنگاه, which means Mansion) in Hira, the capital city of the Lakhmids; miniature painting by Kamāl ud-Dīn Behzād
Shown within Iraq
Location	Iraq
Region	Najaf Governorate
Coordinates	31.98°N 44.39°E / 31.98; 44.39

History

Kingdom of the Lakhmids

Al-Hirah was a significant city in pre-Islamic Arab history. Al-Hirah (4th-7th centuries) served as the capital of the Lakhmids, an Arab vassal kingdom of the Sasanian Empire, whom it helped in containing the nomadic Arabs to the south. The Lakhmid rulers of al-Hirah were recognized by Shapur II (309-379), the tenth Sasanian emperor.

A particular Mār 'Abdīšo' was born in Maysan and moved to Ḥīrā after studying elsewhere under Mār 'Abdā. There he gained widespread respect as he built a monastery and lived a pious life. The Sasanian emperor Bahram V won the throne with support of al-Mundhir I ibn al-Nu'man, king of Ḥīrā, in 420. He was amazed and showed great respect as he encountered the saint near the village of Bēṯ 'Arbī on his way back from the imperial capital Seleucia-Ctesiphon.^[3]

From c. 527, al-Hirah was opposed by the Ghassanids, a Byzantine-sponsored Arab state in Syria and Palestine. The two powers engaged in a long conflict of their own that functioned as a proxy war for the Byzantine and Sasanian Empires.

In 531, the Sasanians defeated the Byzantine general Belisarius at the Battle of Callinicum south of Edessa (now Urfa, in southeastern Turkey), with the help of al-Hirah. In 602, Khosrow II deposed al-Nu'man III ibn al-Mundhir and annexed al-Hirah.

Ecclesiastical history

Main article: Ibad

Hirta was the seat of a bishopric of the Church of the East from the 4th century until the 11th century. It belonged to the Patriarchal Province of Seleucia-Ctesiphon.

Today, Hirta is a titular Catholic diocese in Iraq.

Conquered by the Arabs

Following the Battle of Hira, the city was recaptured by an army of the Hira Arab Bakr tribe under the command of Abu Bakr in May 633.^[4]

See also

• Abda of Hira
• Lakhmid kingdom
• Kingdom of Hatra

References

1. Thomas A. Carlson et al., “Ḥirta — ܚܐܪܬܐ ” in The Syriac Gazetteer last modified June 30, 2014, http://syriaca.org/place/219 Archived 2020-01-22 at the Wayback Machine.
2. Daryaee 2002, p. 42.
3. Anthony Alcock (2014). The Chronicle of Seert.
4. Decline and fall of Sassanian Empire: The Sassanian Parthian Confederacy and the Arab conquest of Iran.

Sources

• Bosworth, C. E., ed. (1999). The History of al-Ṭabarī, Volume V: The Sāsānids, the Byzantines, the Lakhmids, and Yemen. SUNY Series in Near Eastern Studies. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-4355-2.
• Daryaee, Touraj (2002). Šahrestānīhā Ī Ērānšahr. Mazda Publishers. pp. 1–81. ISBN 1568591438.
• Martindale, John R., ed. (1992). The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire: Volume III, AD 527–641. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 258. ISBN 0-521-20160-8.

External links

• Bosworth, C. Edmund (2003). "ḤIRA". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. XII, Fasc. 3. pp. 322–323.