Amr ibn Adi ibn Nasr ibn Rabi'a ( ar, عمرو بن عدي بن نصر بن ربيعة, ʿAmr ibn ʿAdī ibn Naṣr ibn Rabīʿa) was the semi-legendary first
Lakhmid
The Lakhmids ( ar, اللخميون, translit=al-Laḫmiyyūn) referred to in Arabic as al-Manādhirah (, romanized as: ) or Banu Lakhm (, romanized as: ) was an Arabs, Arab kingdom in Sawad , Southern Iraq and Eastern Arabia, with al-Hirah as ...
king of
al-Hira
Al-Hirah ( ar, الحيرة, translit=al-Ḥīra Middle Persian: ''Hērt'' ) was an ancient city in Mesopotamia located south of what is now Kufa in south-central Iraq.
History
Kingdom of the Lakhmids
Al-Hirah was a significant city in pre- I ...
.
Biography
Most of the details of his life are legendary and later inventions; according to
Charles Pellat
Charles Pellat (28 September 1914, in Souk Ahras – 28 October 1992, in Bourg-la-Reine) was an Algerian-born French academic, historian, translator, and scholar of Oriental studies, specialized in Arab studies and Islamic studies. He was an edi ...
, "as the historical reality of this personage and of the events
..became blurred, legend made use of his name to fix the time of events displaced from their historical sequence, and of stories invented to explain proverbs which had become unintelligible".
According to the medieval Arab historians, Amr's father Adi gained the hand of Raqash, the favourite sister of the
Tanukhid
The Tanûkhids ( ar, التنوخيون, transl=al-Tanūḫiyyūn) or Tanukh ( ar, تنوخ, translit=Tanūḫ) or Banū Tanūkh (, romanized as: ) were a confederation of Arab tribes, sometimes characterized as Saracens. They first rose to prom ...
king
Jadhima al-Abrash, by a ruse. Amr is said to have been abducted as a child by a ''
jinn
Jinn ( ar, , ') – also Romanization of Arabic, romanized as djinn or Anglicization, anglicized as genies (with the broader meaning of spirit or demon, depending on sources)
– are Invisibility, invisible creatures in early Arabian mytho ...
'', before being returned to his uncle. He is then said to have been left behind as regent by Jadhima, who marched against al-Zabba (
Zenobia
Septimia Zenobia ( Palmyrene Aramaic: , , vocalized as ; AD 240 – c. 274) was a third-century queen of the Palmyrene Empire in Syria. Many legends surround her ancestry; she was probably not a commoner and she married the ruler of the city ...
), the queen of
Palmyra
Palmyra (; Palmyrene: () ''Tadmor''; ar, تَدْمُر ''Tadmur'') is an ancient city in present-day Homs Governorate, Syria. Archaeological finds date back to the Neolithic period, and documents first mention the city in the early second ...
. When his uncle was killed in battle, Amr vowed to avenge his death; even after Zenobia denied him this chance by committing suicide, he stabbed her corpse.
After his uncle's death, Amr broke away from Tanukhid overlordship and established the independent
Lakhmid
The Lakhmids ( ar, اللخميون, translit=al-Laḫmiyyūn) referred to in Arabic as al-Manādhirah (, romanized as: ) or Banu Lakhm (, romanized as: ) was an Arabs, Arab kingdom in Sawad , Southern Iraq and Eastern Arabia, with al-Hirah as ...
dynasty. According to the 10th-century historian
al-Tabari
( ar, أبو جعفر محمد بن جرير بن يزيد الطبري), more commonly known as al-Ṭabarī (), was a Muslim historian and scholar from Amol, Tabaristan. Among the most prominent figures of the Islamic Golden Age, al-Tabari ...
, Amr resettled the abandoned town of
al-Hira
Al-Hirah ( ar, الحيرة, translit=al-Ḥīra Middle Persian: ''Hērt'' ) was an ancient city in Mesopotamia located south of what is now Kufa in south-central Iraq.
History
Kingdom of the Lakhmids
Al-Hirah was a significant city in pre- I ...
, and ruled there for 118 years—although in another place al-Tabari gives Amr's entire lifespan as 120 years—before being succeeded by his son
Imru al-Qays ibn Amr as client king on behalf of the
Sassanid Persia
The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th centuries AD. Named ...
ns. Most medieval Arab historians agree with this, and only
al-Ya'qubi
ʾAbū l-ʿAbbās ʾAḥmad bin ʾAbī Yaʿqūb bin Ǧaʿfar bin Wahb bin Waḍīḥ al-Yaʿqūbī (died 897/8), commonly referred to simply by his nisba al-Yaʿqūbī, was an Arab Muslim geographer and perhaps the first historian of world cult ...
gives the length of his reign as a plausible 55 years.
Amr was doubtless a historical figure, but it is difficult to establish exact facts on his reign, other than that he lived in the later 3rd century (
Armand-Pierre Caussin de Perceval
Armand-Pierre Caussin de Perceval (1795–1871) was a French orientalist.
He was born in Paris on 13 January 1795. His father, Jean-Jacques-Antoine Caussin de Perceval (1759–1835), was professor of Arabic in the Collège de France.
In 18 ...
suggested his reign as the period 268–288). The archaeological evidence supports his existence, but is contradictory: an inscription found at
al-Namara names Amr and his son, but as clients of the
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...
rather than the Persians, whereas the
Paikuli inscription indicates that Amr was a vassal of the Sassanid king
Narseh
Narseh (also spelled Narses or Narseus; pal, 𐭭𐭥𐭮𐭧𐭩, New Persian: , ''Narsē'') was the seventh Sasanian King of Kings of Iran from 293 to 303.
The youngest son of Shapur I (), Narseh served as the governor of Sakastan, Hind and ...
(). The commonly accepted explanation is that Amr's son at some point defected to the Romans.
Manichaeism
Amr was the most prominent patron of
Manichaeism
Manichaeism (;
in New Persian ; ) is a former major religionR. van den Broek, Wouter J. Hanegraaff ''Gnosis and Hermeticism from Antiquity to Modern Times''SUNY Press, 1998 p. 37 founded in the 3rd century AD by the Parthian Empire, Parthian ...
, and he gave shelter to the religion and managed to convince
Narseh
Narseh (also spelled Narses or Narseus; pal, 𐭭𐭥𐭮𐭧𐭩, New Persian: , ''Narsē'') was the seventh Sasanian King of Kings of Iran from 293 to 303.
The youngest son of Shapur I (), Narseh served as the governor of Sakastan, Hind and ...
to put an end to the persecution of the Manichaeans. However, the persecution of the Manichaeans was resumed after the death of Narseh and the Lakhmid kingdom resumed its support of the Manichaeans.
[6.^ R. E. Emmerick, Werner Sundermann, Peter Zieme, “Studia Manichaica” p.309]
Footnotes
References
Sources
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Amr Ibn Adi
3rd-century Arabs
3rd-century monarchs in the Middle East
Lakhmid kings
Manichaeism
Vassal rulers of the Sasanian Empire
Mythological kings