Lakhmid dynasty

Lakhmid dynasty, pre-Islamic tribal dynasty that aided Sasanian Iran in its struggle with the Byzantine Empire and fostered early Arabic poetry.

Centred at the Christian city of Al-Ḥīrah, near present-day Kūfah in southern Iraq, the Lakhmid kingdom originated in the late 3rd century ce and developed essentially as an Iranian vassal state. Gaining a voice in Iranian affairs under King al-Mundhir I (c. 418–462), who raised Bahrām V to the throne of the Sasanian empire, the Lakhmids reached the height of their power in the 6th century, when al-Mundhir III (503–554) raided Byzantine Syria and challenged the pro-Byzantine Arab kingdom of Ghassān. His son ʿAmr ibn Hind (554–569) was patron of the pre-Islamic Arabic poetry of Ṭarafah and others associated with Al-Muʿallaqāt (“The Suspended Odes”).

Although Al-Ḥīrah was a prominent bishopric of the Church of the East, the Lakhmid kings refrained from endorsing Christianity, probably out of political considerations. Al-Nuʿmān III (583–602) was the only Lakhmid king to openly embrace the religion. Upon his death the dynasty became extinct, and its territories were absorbed into the Sasanian empire.