Iyas ibn Qabisah al-Ta'i () was governor of

al-Hirah Al-Hira ( Middle Persian: ''Hērt'' ) was an ancient Lakhmid Arabic city in Mesopotamia located south of what is now Kufa in south-central Iraq. The Sasanian Empire, Sasanian government established the Lakhmid state (Al-Hirah) on the edge of the ...

, the capital of the

Lakhmid kingdom The Lakhmid kingdom ( ), also referred to as al-Manādhirah () or as Banū Lakhm (), was an Arab kingdom that was founded and ruled by the Lakhmid dynasty from to 602. Spanning Eastern Arabia and Southern Mesopotamia, it existed as a depende ...

, from 613 to 618CE. He was the son of Qabisah al-Ta'i. He was also the father of Hayyah and Farwah. The last part of Iyas ibn Qabisah's name, al-Ta'i, indicates that he came from the

Tayy The Tayy (/ALA-LC: ''Ṭayyi’''; Musnad: 𐩷𐩺), also known as Ṭayyi, Tayyaye, or Taiyaye, are a large and ancient Arab tribe, among whose descendants today are the tribes of Bani Sakher and Shammar. The '' nisba'' (patronymic) of Tayy i ...

tribe. Iyas ibn Qabisah or his father, was appointed interim governor of

for a few months in 580 by Sasanian monarch,

Hormizd IV Hormizd IV (also spelled Hormozd IV or Ohrmazd IV; ) was the Sasanian King of Kings of Iran from 579 to 590. He was the son and successor of Khosrow I () and his mother was a Khazar princess. During his reign, Hormizd IV had the high aristoc ...

(r. 579–590), while a suitable candidate was sought among the Naṣrid dynasty that used to rule the

. Later that year al-Nu'man III became king of the

and replaced Qabisah as ruler of

. At some point the Persian king awarded Iyas 30 villages along the Euphrates as a grant for life and made him administrator of the district of Ayn al-Tamr. Iyas ibn Qabisah gave

Sasanian The Sasanian Empire (), officially Eranshahr ( , "Empire of the Iranians"), was an Iranian empire that was founded and ruled by the House of Sasan from 224 to 651. Enduring for over four centuries, the length of the Sasanian dynasty's reign ...

king

Khosrow II Khosrow II (spelled Chosroes II in classical sources; and ''Khosrau''), commonly known as Khosrow Parviz (New Persian: , "Khosrow the Victorious"), is considered to be the last great Sasanian King of Kings (Shahanshah) of Iran, ruling from 590 ...

(r. 590–628) a horse and slaughtered a camel for him when he met Iyas having fled from Bahram. Khosrow II showed his gratitude by rewarding Iyas in the following way. Al-Nu'man III ruled until 602 where he was executed by Khosrow, who appointed Iyas ibn Qabisah again as co-governor of

alongside the Persian noble Nakhiragan. Khosrow sent a message to Iyas enquiring where al-Nu'man's deposited possessions were. Iyas replied that al-Nu'man had found a safe refuge for them among the Bakr b. Wa'il. Khosrow ordered Iyas to get possession of what al-Nu'man had left behind and to forward that to him. Iyas sent a message to his brother Hani' saying "Send to me the coats of mail and other items al-Nu'man entrusted to you" (the lowest estimate of these mailed coats was four hundred, and the highest was eight hundred). But Hani' refused to hand over what he had engaged to protect. In response, Iyas commanded pro-Sassanid Arab and Persian troops against the Banu Bakr at the Battle of Dhi Qar, in which the Sassanids were defeated. A range of dates from between about 603 to 623 have been suggested for the Battle by different researchers. Iyas ibn Qabisah and Nakhiragan were succeeded by Azadbeh in 618. Azadbeh was succeeded by Al-Mundhir VI ibn al-Nu'man, who in turn was succeeded by Iyas ibn Qabisah's sons Hayyah and Farwah who surrendered al-Hirah to

Khalid ibn al-Walid Khalid ibn al-Walid ibn al-Mughira al-Makhzumi (; died 642) was a 7th-century Arabs, Arab military commander. He initially led campaigns against Muhammad on behalf of the Quraysh. He later became a Muslim and spent the remainder of his career ...

in 633.

References

Further reading