Abū Murra Sayf bin Dhī Yazan al-Ḥimyarī ( ar, سيف بن ذي يزن) was a semi-legendary

Himyarite The Himyarite Kingdom ( ar, مملكة حِمْيَر, Mamlakat Ḥimyar, he, ממלכת חִמְיָר), or Himyar ( ar, حِمْيَر, ''Ḥimyar'', / 𐩹𐩧𐩺𐩵𐩬) ( fl. 110 BCE–520s CE), historically referred to as the Homerit ...

king King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

of Yemen who lived between 516 and 578 CE, known for ending

Axumite The Kingdom of Aksum ( gez, መንግሥተ አክሱም, ), also known as the Kingdom of Axum or the Aksumite Empire, was a kingdom centered in Northeast Africa and South Arabia from Classical antiquity to the Middle Ages. Based primarily in wha ...

rule over Southern

Arabia The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate. ...

with the help of the

Sassanid Empire 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 ...

. To reconquer Yemen, Sayf asked

Khosrau I Khosrow I (also spelled Khosrau, Khusro or Chosroes; pal, 𐭧𐭥𐭮𐭫𐭥𐭣𐭩; New Persian: []), traditionally known by his epithet of Anushirvan ( [] "the Immortal Soul"), was the Sasanian Empire, Sasanian King of Kings of Iran from ...

king of the Sasanian Empire to help him fight the Aksumites. According to

Al-Masudi Al-Mas'udi ( ar, أَبُو ٱلْحَسَن عَلِيّ ٱبْن ٱلْحُسَيْن ٱبْن عَلِيّ ٱلْمَسْعُودِيّ, '; –956) was an Arab historian, geographer and traveler. He is sometimes referred to as the "Herodotus ...

Sayf dialogued with the Sassanid king about racial tensions between white and black: Khosrau agreed and sent 800 men with Wahriz as their leader.

Masruq ibn Abraha Masrūq ibn Abraha ( ar, مسروق بن أبرهة) was the Ethiopian ruler of Yemen under the Axumite Empire, as recorded in Arabic and Islamic traditions. He succeeded his father, Abraha Abraha ( Ge’ez: አብርሃ) (also spelled Abreha, ...

, king of Yemen, confronted the army but lost in the battle. The Sasanians advanced to conquer San'a, however, Sayf was instated as King on the understanding that he would send taxes to Khosrau. He was later stabbed to death by Ethiopian servants, and the Sassanians reconquered Yemen and Vahriz was instated as Governor of Yemen, alongside Sayf's son.

Popular culture

Prophet Muhammad's grandfather,

Abd al-Muttalib Shayba ibn Hāshim ( ar, شَيْبَة بْن هَاشِم; 497–578), better known as ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, ( ar, عَبْد ٱلْمُطَّلِب , lit=Servant of Muttalib) was the fourth chief of the Quraysh tribal confederation. He was ...

met Sayf in his palace in Ghamadan. Sayf entered Arab folklore by means of his widely known "biography" '' Sīrat Sayf ibn Dhī-Yazan'' that accounts his conquests of the human and mythical

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 ...

realm, blending historical facts with Arab folklore and mythology. Yazan has become a popular boy name in contemporary Arab culture.

References

Sources

* * * * Rulers of Yemen 6th-century Arabs 6th-century monarchs in the Middle East Pre-Islamic Arabia Abyssinian–Persian wars One Thousand and One Nights characters {{yemen-bio-stub