Liberation and Persian Rule of Yemen

The liberation of Yemen from the Abyssinians in 575 CE, under Ma'd Yakrib ibn Sayf Dhu Yazan al-Himyari with Persian help; then his assassination, and Yemen's transformation into a Persian province until the Islam of its last governor, Badhan, in 638 CE. ^{1 2}

After the battle of the Elephant, the Yemenis sought Persian help and resisted the Abyssinians until they drove them out of the land. They gained independence in 575 CE under Ma'd Yakrib ibn Sayf Dhu Yazan al-Himyari, and took him as their king. ¹

Ma'd Yakrib had kept with him a band of Abyssinians who served him and walked in his retinue. They assassinated him one day, and with his death kingship passed out of the house of Dhu Yazan. ¹

Khosrow appointed a Persian governor over Sana'a and made Yemen a Persian province. Persian governors succeeded one another over Yemen until the last of them, Badhan, embraced Islam in 638 CE, and with his Islam Persian sway over the lands of Yemen ended. ¹ Men of Yemen adhered to Zoroastrianism during the Persian occupation. ³

The year of Badhan's Islam, "638 CE", is written as the author gives it. The biographical books place his Islam during the Prophet ﷺ's lifetime, after Khosrow's letter (around 7 AH), so the year needs checking against other sources. It is recorded as it appears.