| Sasanian province of Yemen Yaman | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Province of the Sasanian Empire | |||||||||
| 570–628 | |||||||||
 Map of the Sasanian Empire, with Yemen located in the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula | |||||||||
| Capital | Sana'a | ||||||||
| Historical era | Antiquity | ||||||||
| 570 | |||||||||
• | 570 | ||||||||
• The Sasanian nobles make an alliance with Muhammad | 628 | ||||||||
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| Today part of | Yemen | ||||||||
| History of Yemen |
|---|
 Yemenportal |
Yemen (Middle Persian: Yaman) was a province of the Sasanian Empire in Late Antiquity in southwestern Arabia.
Yemen was conquered in 570 by a small expeditionary aswaran force led by the Sasanian veteran Vahrez−the Himyarite prince Sayf ibn Dhi-Yazan was then appointed as a vassal king of the Sasanians in the country, whilst Vahrez went back to the Sasanian capital of Ctesiphon. One of the main reasons behind the Sasanian conquest was due to their interest in dominating the trade route from Constantinople to India and the Far East, which was now possible with their authority established in Yemen. [1]
However, in 575 or 578, Sayf was killed by the Ethiopians during an uprising, which forced Vahrez to return to Yemen with a force of 4,000 men, and expel the Ethiopians once again. [1] He then installed Sayf's son Ma'di Karib as the new king of Yemen. A large Iranian garrison was this time established in Yemen, with Vahrez as its governor. The Iranian soldiers and bureaucrats started intermarrying with the local population; their offspring became known as the al-Abna' ("the sons"). [2] It is uncertain whether they kept practicing Zoroastrianism, or had been influenced by the South Arabian paganism and the local Christianity. [2] According to al-Tabari, Vahrez's successors were; his son Marzban; his grandson Binagar; his great-grandson Khurrah Khosrow; and then a certain Badhan, who was unrelated to the family of Vahrez.
After the overthrow and death of the last prominent Sasanian king ( shah ) Khosrow II in 628, the Iranian nobles of Yemen made an alliance with the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and thus the country became part of the Islamic political structure. [3] The abna' retained their distinct identity during the Islamic period, but were gradually absorbed into the local population and thus disappeared from records. Their nisba was al-Abnāwī. [2]
| Date | Governor |
|---|---|
| 575 (or 578)-? | Vahrez |
| ?-? | Marzban |
| ?-? | Binagar |
| ?-? | Khurrah Khosrow |
| ?-628 | Badhan |
Khosrow I, traditionally known by his epithet of Anushirvan, was the Sasanian King of Kings of Iran from 531 to 579. He was the son and successor of Kavad I.
Kavad I was the Sasanian King of Kings of Iran from 488 to 531, with a two or three-year interruption. A son of Peroz I, he was crowned by the nobles to replace his deposed and unpopular uncle Balash.
Khosrow II, commonly known as Khosrow Parviz, is considered to be the last great Sasanian king (shah) of Iran, ruling from 590 to 628, with an interruption of one year.
Yazdegerd III was the last Sasanian King of Kings of Iran from 632 to 651. His father was Shahriyar and his grandfather was Khosrow II.
The Lakhmid Kingdom, also referred to in Arabic as al-Manādhirah or Banu Lakhm was an Arab kingdom in Southern Iraq and Eastern Arabia, with al-Hirah as their capital, from the late 3rd century to 602 AD/CE. The state was ruled by the Lakhmid dynasty and were generally but intermittently the allies and clients of the Sasanian Empire, and participant in the Roman–Persian Wars. While the term "Lakhmids" has also been applied to the ruling dynasty, more recent scholarship prefers to refer to the latter as the Naṣrids.
Wahrez was a Sasanian general of Daylamite origin, first mentioned in the prelude to the Iberian War and then during the Aksumite–Persian wars.
Mazun was a Sasanian province in Late Antiquity, which corresponded to modern-day Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, and the northern half of Oman. The province served as a Sasanian outpost and played an important role in the Sasanian efforts to gain control over the Indian Ocean trade, and to establish their dominance in the wealthy regions of Hadramaut and Yemen.
Saif ibn Dhi Yazan al-Himyari or simply known as Saif ibn Dhi Yazan, was a semi-legendary Himyarite king who lived in the 6th century CE. He is well-known for his role in expelling the Aksumites out of Yemen with the help of the Sasanian Empire, and is considered as the liberator of Yemen.
The Daylamites or Dailamites were an Iranian people inhabiting the Daylam—the mountainous regions of northern Iran on the southwest coast of the Caspian Sea, now comprising the southeastern half of Gilan Province.
Bādhān was a Persian abna' leader and the Sasanian governor of Yemen during the reign of Khosrow II. He became a Muslim and a companion of Islamic prophet Muhammad upon witnessing a prophecy of his come true in real time.
The Shapur II's Arab campaign took place in 325, against numerous Arab tribes, due to the Arab incursions into the Sasanian Empire. Shapur II decisively defeated all the Arab tribes during his campaign, and became known as Dhū al-Aktāf to the Arabs, meaning “he who pierces shoulders”.
The Aksumite–Persian wars took place in the 6th century, when the Kingdom of Aksum and the Sasanian Empire fought for control over South Arabia. In the 520s, the Aksumite invasion of South Arabia had led to the annexation of the Himyarite Kingdom and the deposition of Dhu Nuwas, who was persecuting the Christian community of Najran. By 570, the subjugated Himyarite king Saif ibn Dhi Yazan sought to end Aksum's hegemony in the region and, after being rejected by the Byzantine Empire, turned to the Persians for military aid. The Persian king Khosrow I agreed upon the stipulation that Himyarite territory would be annexed by the Sasanian Empire in the event of an Aksumite defeat. Subsequently, the Persian army entered South Arabia and secured decisive victories in the Battle of Hadhramaut and then in the Siege of Sanaa, following which the Aksumites were largely expelled from the Arabian Peninsula, excluding Najran. With the establishment of Sasanian Yemen, Yazan was appointed to govern the region. However, four years into his reign, he was murdered by his Aksumite servants. Facing the return of Aksum to South Arabia, the Sasanian Empire mounted a second invasion and re-conquered Yemen by 578, indefinitely ending Aksumite rule outside of Ethiopia. The Persian army general Wahrez was appointed as Yemen's governor, ensuring the suppression of regional pro-Byzantine influence amidst the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 572–591.
The Battle of Hadhramaut took place in 570 between the armies of the Sasanian Empire under the command of Spahbed Vahrez and Aksumite forces under King Masruq ibn Abraha. The Aksumite army was defeated by the Sasanians and Masruq was killed.
The Siege of Sana'a is a battle fought in the 6th century by the Kingdom of Aksum and the Sasanian Empire.It took place when the Sasanian under general Vahrez besieged the Aksumite city of Sana'a in 570.
The Sasanian reconquest of Yemen took place in 575 or 578 after Aksumite men killed Sayf ibn Dhi Yazan after a reign of some four years and took control of Yemen. The rising took place when the protecting Persian garrison withdrew from Yemen. The Sasanians, this time with a force of 4,000 men, managed to reconquer Yemen and install Sayf’s son, Maʿdī Kareb as ruler.
The Sasanian civil war of 628–632, also known as the Sasanian Interregnum was a conflict that broke out after the execution of the Sasanian king Khosrow II between the nobles of different factions, notably the Parthian (Pahlav) faction, the Persian (Parsig) faction, the Nimruzi faction, and the faction of general Shahrbaraz. Rapid turnover of rulers and increasing provincial landholder power further diminished the empire. Over a period of four years and fourteen successive kings, the Sasanian Empire weakened considerably, and the power of the central authority passed into the hands of its generals, contributing to its fall.
The Sasanian navy was the naval force of the Sasanian Empire active since its establishment. It operated in the Persian Gulf, the Arabian Sea, the Red Sea, and briefly in the Mediterranean Sea.
Al-Abnāʾ was a term that was used in South Arabia to refer to people whose lineage was paternally Iranian and maternally Arab. They represented a distinct community that had come into existence following the end of the Aksumite–Persian wars in the 6th century, when Iranian soldiers began intermarrying with Arab women in Sanaa and throughout Yemen. These couples' offspring and their descendants held an ethnic and cultural identity that was influenced by their mixed heritage from the Sasanian Empire and the Himyarite Kingdom, though they eventually assimilated into the society of the latter. Following the rise of Muhammad in the 7th century, most of the al-Abnāʾ community adopted Islam and took part in the early Muslim conquests, including the Muslim conquest of Iran.
Masrūq ibn Abraha was the last Abyssinian descended ruler of Yemen under the Axumite Empire, as recorded in both Arabic tradition and later Islamic literature. He succeeded his father, Abraha. In 570 or 571, he was killed in the Battle of Hadhramaut in the Yemeni campaign of Wahrez, reportedly by an arrow shot by Wahrez himself.
The Dhu Yazan also known as Al-Yazanin were a prominent Arab tribal clan and elite ruling family of Yemen that were affiliated with the Sabaean Kingdom and later on, the Himyarite Kingdom. They were ultimately deprived from their elite status and ruling by the Sasanian Empire, which controlled Yemen from 570 CE until 678 CE. The Arabian genealogists and historians trace their lineage to a man named 'Amir ibn Aslam who was given the title Dhu Yazan and was a contemporary of the Himyarite ruler Abu Karib, although the Dhu Yazan clan has existed way back during the time of Dhamar Ali Yahbur.
Provinces of the Sasanian Empire | ||
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* indicates short living provinces | ||
