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Al-Nu'man III
Al-Nu'man III ibn al-Mundhir (c. 550–602) was the last king of the Lakhmids, ruling from Hira in Iraq as a Sasanian Persian vassal over the Arab fron…
Timeline
- c. 550–580Hira · IraqAl-Nu'man III was born in the Lakhmid court and, as a royal member, received a traditional Arab education and Nestorian Christian instruction in Hira. Hira was then an important center of Arab culture and poetry, and its court gathered many famous pre-Islamic poets.
- c. 580–602Hira · IraqDuring his reign al-Nu'man III continued to manage the Arab frontier tribes as a Persian vassal and patronized Arabic poetry. The famous poet Adi ibn Zayd served at his court and was later killed by him. He maintained a delicate political balance between Byzantium and the eastern Arab tribes.
- 602Ctesiphon · IraqAl-Nu'man III was summoned to Ctesiphon by Sasanian king Khosrow II, then arrested and executed, one account says trampled to death by an elephant. His death marked the end of the Lakhmid dynasty; the Persians abolished the Lakhmid Arab buffer state and directly ruled the frontier region, accelerating political instability in the Arabian Peninsula.
Sources
- al-Nu'man (III) b. al-Mundhir (1993)
- The History of al-Tabari, Vol. 5: The Sasanids, the Byzantines, the Lakhmids, and Yemen — al-Tabari; trans. C. E. Bosworth (1999)