Al-Hirah

Al Hīra (حيرة) was an ancient city located south of al-Kufah in south-central Iraq. It was a significant city in pre-Islamic Arab history. Originally a military encampment, in the 5th and 6th centuries CE it became the capital of the Lakhmids.

The Arabs were migrating into the Near East from the 9th century BCE. In the 3rd century CE parts of southern Mesopotamia had a substantial Arab population. Under the Sasanid Empire, southern Mesopotamia was sometimes called Arabistan. The first historical Arab kingdom outside Arabia, Hīra (4th-7th centuries), in southern Iraq, was a vassal of the Sassanians, whom it helped in containing the nomadic Arabs to the south. The rulers of Hīra, identified as Lakhmids, were recognized by Shapur II (337-358 CE).

Hīra was either Christian or strongly influenced by Christianity. The Sassanian Emperor Bahram V won the throne with support of Mundhir, Lakhmid Prince of Hīra, in 420. In 542, Khosrau I of Persia stopped the Byzantine general Belisarius at Callinicum, south of Edessa (southeastern Turkey), with the help of al Hīra. In 602, Khosrau II deposed Numan III of al Hīra and annexed his kingdom. Islam overran the Sasanid Empire in the 7th century. There is evidence for a parallel Arab kingdom in today's Syria, called Ghassan and founded under Byzantine auspices. Around 527, al Hīra and the Ghassanids engaged in a proxy war for their respective imperial suzerains. Some claim that the first Arabic kingdom was founded in Hatra, in northern Iraq.