The Sasanian Empire

The Sasanian Empire was the Persian state founded by Ardashir from 226 CE. He gathered the Persians together and brought under his control the Arabs living on the edges of his realm, and the people of al-Hira and al-Anbar submitted to him ^{1 2}.

The Persians had ruled Iraq and its surroundings since Cyrus the Great united them. No one challenged them until Alexander the Macedonian in 326 BCE defeated their king Darius I and broke their power. Their lands were then divided and ruled by kings known as the Petty Kings (muluk al-tawa'if), who went on governing the divided lands until 230 CE ¹. In the days of these kings, the Qahtanis migrated and settled part of the Iraqi countryside, and those who migrated from the Adnanis followed them ¹.

Ardashir judged that it was impossible for him to rule the Arabs directly and stop them raiding his frontiers, unless he made over them a man of their own with a supporting tribal following (asabiyya) that would back him and restrain them. He could use them against the kings of Rome, and the Arabs of Iraq would stand opposite the Arabs of Syria, whom the Romans had cultivated. He kept at the court of the king of al-Hira a unit of Persian troops to call on against desert Arabs who rebelled ³. Thus came the governorship of Jadhima al-Abrash and then the kings of Lakhm ³. Ardashir's subjugation of the Arabs was the reason Qudaa migrated to Syria ¹.

In the time of Qubadh ibn Firuz, Mazdak appeared and called for licentiousness. Qubadh followed him, and so did many of his subjects. Qubadh removed al-Mundhir ibn Ma' al-Sama' for refusing that doctrine. He was succeeded by Khosrow Anushirvan, who strongly disliked this doctrine and killed Mazdak and many of those who adhered to it ³.

After the Battle of the Elephant, the Yemenis asked the Persians for help against Abyssinia. When Sayf ibn Dhi Yazan was assassinated, Khosrow appointed a Persian official over Sana'a and made Yemen a Persian province, until its last governor, Badhan, embraced Islam in 638 CE ¹. Zoroastrianism was found among the Arabs living beside Persia, in the Arab part of Iraq, in Bahrain and in Hajar ⁴.

Khosrow imprisoned al-Nu'man ibn al-Mundhir and demanded his deposit from the Banu Shayban. This led to the Battle of Dhu Qar, in which the Persians were routed in a crushing defeat. It was the first day on which the Arabs triumphed over the non-Arabs ³.