Al-Nuʿmān III ibn al-Mundhir (), also transcribed Naʿaman, Nuʿaman and Noman and often known by the

patronymic A patronymic, or patronym, is a component of a personal name based on the given name of one's father, grandfather (more specifically an avonymic), or an earlier male ancestor. It is the male equivalent of a matronymic. Patronymics are used, b ...

Abu Qabus (), was the last

Lakhmid 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 Sawad, Southern Mesopotamia, it existed as a d ...

king 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 ...

(582 – ) and a

Nestorian Christian Nestorianism is a term used in Christian theology and Church history to refer to several mutually related but doctrinarily distinct sets of teachings. The first meaning of the term is related to the original teachings of Christian theologian ...

Arab Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...

. He is considered one of the most important Lakhmid rulers.

Biography

Childhood and siblings

Al-Nu'man was the son of

al-Mundhir IV ibn al-Mundhir Al-Mundhir IV ibn al-Mundhir () was the king of the Lakhmid Arabs in 575–580. The son of al-Mundhir III ibn al-Nu'man (), he succeeded to the throne after his brothers Amr () and Qabus (). His succession was unpopular with the inhabitants ...

() and Salma. She was the daughter of a Jewish goldsmith, Wa'il ibn Atiyyah, from Fadak, and had been a slave of al-Harith ibn Hisn, of the

Banu Kalb The Banu Kalb () was an Arab tribe which mainly dwelt in the desert and steppe of northwestern Arabia and central Syria. It was involved in the tribal politics of the Byzantine Empire's eastern frontiers, possibly as early as the 4th century. ...

tribe. The base, and even servile, origin of his mother was often used to mock al-Nu'man by contemporary poets. Furthermore, the Arabic sources unanimously portray al-Nu'man as a particularly ugly individual, and remark on his red hair, small stature, and mottled skin. According to

al-Tabari Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Jarīr ibn Yazīd al-Ṭabarī (; 839–923 CE / 224–310 AH), commonly known as al-Ṭabarī (), was a Sunni Muslim scholar, polymath, historian, exegete, jurist, and theologian from Amol, Tabaristan, present- ...

, he was reared in childhood by the Christian poet

Adi ibn Zayd Adi ibn Zayd al-Ibadi al-Tamimi (; ) was a 6th-century Arab Christian poet from an Ibadi family of al-Hirah. Biography Adi ibn Zayd was born around the year 550 CE in al-Hirah. He was of Tamim descent and came from a Christian family that had ...

, who with his brothers served as secretaries of Arab affairs for the Lakhmids' overlord, the

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. He had numerous brothers—11 or 12 according to the sources—but only one of them, his half-brother al-Aswad, who was raised by the noble clan of the Banu Marina, seems to have been a figure of any consequence.

Reign

Al-Nu'man's succession in 580 was not unopposed, as the clan of Banu Marina backed his brother al-Aswad. The 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 ...

(), appointed

Iyas ibn Qabisah al-Ta'i Iyas ibn Qabisah al-Ta'i () was governor of al-Hirah, the capital of the Lakhmid kingdom, 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, indicate ...

as interim governor, while a suitable candidate was sought among the Lakhmid dynasty. The Arabic sources report that the intervention of Adi ibn Ziyad was decisive: Adi had the other sons of al-Mundhir present themselves first to Hormizd, who asked them whether they could fulfill the duties of the office. To this they all replied, schooled by Adi, "We can control the Arabs for you, except al-Nu'man". When al-Nu'man came last, he confidently promised to not only control the Arabs, but also his siblings, boasting "If I can't cope with them, then I can't cope with anyone!" Pleased with his answer, Hormizd appointed him king and gave him a gold-and-pearl encrusted crown worth 60,000 ''

dirham The dirham, dirhem or drahm is a unit of currency and of mass. It is the name of the currencies of Moroccan dirham, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates dirham, United Arab Emirates and Armenian dram, Armenia, and is the name of a currency subdivisi ...

''s to confirm his position. Al-Nu'man was a strong and energetic ruler, but not much is known about his reign. He was faced with divisions among the tribes and clans subject to him. Thus when he tried to remove the right to lead a division into battle (the so-called ''ridāfa'') from the Yarbu, a subtribe of the

Banu Tamim The Banū Tamīm () are an Arab tribe that originated in Najd and Hejaz in the Arabian Peninsula. It is mainly present in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Iraq, Oman, Jordan and Lebanon, and has a strong presence in Algeria, and Morocco, Palestine, ...

, and give it to the Darim, another subtribe, this provoked a violent clash between the two at Tikhfa. Despite the support given by al-Nu'man to the Darim, the Yarbu won and even took prisoner al-Nu'man's brother and son, who had to be ransomed for one thousand camels. Unlike his predecessors, al-Nu'man was scarcely concerned with the Lakhmids' traditional Arab rivals, the

Ghassanids The Ghassanids, also known as the Jafnids, were an Tribes of Arabia, Arab tribe. Originally from South Arabia, they migrated to the Levant in the 3rd century and established what would eventually become a Christian state, Christian kingdom unde ...

, as the latter had fallen out with their

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

overlords in and been eliminated as a power factor in the region. The only recorded military activity of al-Nu'man is an attack on the Byzantine fortress of

Circesium Circesium ( ', ), known in Arabic as al-Qarqisiya, was a Roman fortress city near the junction of the Euphrates and Khabur rivers, located at the empire's eastern frontier with the Sasanian Empire. Procopius calls it the "farthest fortress" (φ ...

during the

Byzantine–Sasanian War of 572–591 The Byzantine–Sasanian War of 572–591 was a war fought between the Sasanian Empire, Sasanian Empire of Persia and the Byzantine Empire. It was triggered by pro-Byzantine revolts in areas of the Caucasus under Persian hegemony, although othe ...

. According to Arab accounts, al-Nu'man gave refuge to Hormizd's son,

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 ...

(), during his flight from the usurper

Bahram Chobin Bahrām Chōbīn () or Wahrām Chōbēn (Middle Persian: ; died 591), also known by his epithet Mehrbandak ("servant of Mithra"), was a nobleman, general, and political leader of the late Sasanian Empire and briefly its ruler as Bahram VI (). So ...

in 590, and fought alongside him in a battle at

al-Nahrawan The Nahrawan Canal () was a major irrigation system of the Sasanian and early Islamic periods in central Iraq, along the eastern banks of the Tigris and the lower course of the Diyala River. Created in the 6th century, it reached its peak under the ...

against the usurper's forces.

Downfall, death and aftermath

Despite the assistance rendered to Khosrow, after the latter was restored to his throne, the two fell out. The sources provide no clear reason for this, attributing their dispute to al-Nu'man's refusal to give his horse to Khosrow or marry one of his daughters,

Hind A hind is a female deer, especially a red deer. Places * Hind (Sasanian province) (262-484) * Al-Hind, a Persian and Arabic name for the Indian subcontinent * Islamic State – Hind Province, claimed province of the IS in India * Hind (cra ...

, to one of Khosrow's relatives. More likely it had to do with the prior falling out between al-Nu'man and his chief councillor, Adi ibn Zayd, who fell under suspicion of plotting against al-Nu'man and was executed. Adi's son, who had Khosrow's ear, then managed to turn the Persian ruler against al-Nu'man. The latter's conversion to

Nestorian Christianity The Church of the East ( ) or the East Syriac Church, also called the Church of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, the Persian Church, the Assyrian Church, the Babylonian Church, the Chaldean Church or the Nestorian Church, is one of three major branches o ...

may also have been a factor, since Khosrow distrusted the rising influence of Christians in his own court. On the other hand, the Nestorian branch of Christianity was generally seen with less hostility by the Sasanian rulers, and Khosrow himself was married to a Christian,

Shirin Shirin (; died 628) was wife of the Sasanian emperor Khosrow II (). In the revolution after the death of Khosrow's father Hormizd IV, the General Bahram Chobin took power over the Persian empire. Shirin fled with Khosrow to Syria, where they l ...

. Once he became aware of Khosrow's hostility, Al-Nu'man fled his capital and sought refuge among the

Banu Bakr The Banu Bakr bin Wa'il ( '), or simply Banu Bakr, today known as Bani Bakr is an Arabian tribe belonging to the large Rabi'ah, a branch of Adnanite tribe. It is registered as one of the oldest and most ancient Arab gatherings. The tribe is rep ...

, but was eventually forced to surrender and was executed by being crushed by elephants. However, according to a Syriac chronicle, Khosrau invited Nu'man to a feast where he was dishonored and trapped; another Syriac chronicle states that Khosrow captured Nu'man along with his sons, who then were poisoned.Hamad Alajmi, 'Pre-Islamic Poetry and Speech Act Theory: Al-A`sha, Bishr ibn Abi Khazim, and al-Ḥujayjah' (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Indiana University, 2012), p. 4. The end of al-Nu'man's reign is generally placed in by modern scholars. After his arrest, Khosrow entirely removed the Lakhmids from power and entrusted the rule of al-Hira to

. This marked the end of the Lakhmid dynasty, which had effectively shielded Persia against the Arab tribes for almost three centuries. Very quickly, the ill effects of this made themselves felt, when the Bakr, dissatisfied with Iyas, rose in revolt, and defeated a Persian force at the

Battle of Dhi Qar The Battle of Dhi Qar (), also known as the War of the Camel's Udder, was a pre-Islamic battle fought between Arab tribes and the Sasanian Empire in Southern Iraq. The battle occurred after the death of Al-Nu'man III by the orders of Khosru II. ...

. Coupled with increasing instability in Persia proper after the downfall of Khosrow in 628, these events heralded the decisive

Battle of Qadisiyya The Battle of al-Qadisiyyah ( ; ) took place between the Rashidun Caliphate and the Sasanian Empire in November 636. It resulted in a decisive victory for the Rashidun army and is considered to be one of the most significant engagements of the ...

in 636 and the

Arab conquest of Persia As part of the early Muslim conquests, which were initiated by Muhammad in 622, the Rashidun Caliphate conquered the Sasanian Empire between 632 and 654. This event led to the decline of Zoroastrianism, which had been the official religion of ...

Legacy

According to

Irfan Shahîd Irfan Arif Shahîd ( ; January 15, 1926 – November 9, 2016), also known as Erfan Arif Kawar ( ), was an American professor and scholar in the field of Oriental studies. Between 1982 and 2016, he was the Oman Professor of Arabic and Islamic Li ...

, in the later histories, al-Nu'man ibn al-Mundhir's reign "was the most memorable after that of his grandfather, al-Mundhir III". The Lakhmid capital of al-Hira continued to be the major Arab cultural centre of its time, particularly through al-Nu'man's patronage of poets, most notably Adi ibn Zayd and the panegyrist

al-Nabigha Al-Nābighah (), al-Nābighah al-Dhubiyānī, or Nābighah al-Dhubyānī; real name Ziyad ibn Muawiyah (); was one of the last pre-Islamic Arabian poets. "Al-Nabigha" means genius or intelligent in Arabic. Biography His tribe, the Banu Dh ...

. Al-Nu'man was also the first to openly convert to Christianity, likely after the conclusion of the peace with Byzantium in 591. This enhanced al-Hira's importance as a major Nestorian Christian centre, particularly for missionary activities in the

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf, sometimes called the Arabian Gulf, is a Mediterranean seas, mediterranean sea in West Asia. The body of water is an extension of the Arabian Sea and the larger Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.Un ...

and

Eastern Arabia Eastern Arabia () is a region stretched from Basra to Khasab along the Persian Gulf coast and included parts of modern-day Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia (Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia, Eastern Province), and the United Arab ...

, and was the seat of a bishopric.

References

Sources

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