'Amr ibn Imru' al-Qays ( ar, عمرو بن امرؤ القيس) was the third
Lakhmid
The Lakhmids ( ar, اللخميون, translit=al-Laḫmiyyūn) referred to in Arabic as al-Manādhirah (, romanized as: ) or Banu Lakhm (, romanized as: ) was an Arab kingdom in Southern Iraq and Eastern Arabia, with al-Hirah as their capital, ...
king of
al-Hirah
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 ...
, reigning in 328–363. A son of the famed
Imru' al-Qays ibn 'Amr
Imru' al-Qays ibn 'Amr ( ar, امرؤ القيس بن عمرو) was the second Lakhmid king. His mother was Maria bint 'Amr, the sister of Ka'b al-Azdi. There is debate on his religious affinity: while Theodor Nöldeke noted that Imru' al-Qays i ...
who had defected to 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 Medite ...
, he returned to
Sassanid
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. Name ...
allegiance.
His mother was Mariya al-Barriyah, a sister of the
Ghassanid
The Ghassanids ( ar, الغساسنة, translit=al-Ġasāsina, also Banu Ghassān (, romanized as: ), also called the Jafnids, were an Arab tribe which founded a kingdom. They emigrated from southern Arabia in the early 3rd century to the Levan ...
king
Tha'laba ibn 'Amr. 'Amr was very active in the wars of his Sassanid Persian overlords against the Romans, and was even nicknamed "warmonger" for the wars he engaged in. In 337 AD the Persian shah
Shapur II
Shapur II ( pal, 𐭱𐭧𐭯𐭥𐭧𐭥𐭩 ; New Persian: , ''Šāpur'', 309 – 379), also known as Shapur the Great, was the tenth Sasanian Empire, Sasanian King of Kings (Shahanshah) of Iran. The List of longest-reigning monarchs, longest ...
harassed the Roman borders and commissioned the Arabs to attack and invade as well.
[Sykes, ''History of Persia'', Vol. I, p.413]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Amr ibn Imru al-Qays
Arab Christians in Mesopotamia
Lakhmid kings
4th-century monarchs in the Middle East
People of the Roman–Sasanian Wars
4th-century Arabs
Vassal rulers of the Sasanian Empire
Arabs from the Sasanian Empire