AL-HIRAH
![](alhirah.jpg)
Hira
/ al-Hirah / Hirta shown within Iraq
Location
:
Iraq
Region
: Najaf Governorate
Coordinates
:
31°53'0 N 44°27'0 E
Al-Hirah
(Arabic: al-Hirah, Syriac: Hirta, Middle Persian: Hert) was an ancient
city in Mesopotamia located south of what is now Kufa in south-central
Iraq.
History
:
Kingdom of the Lakhmids :
![](Kamal-ud-din_Bihzad_-_Construction_of_the_fort_of_Kharnaq.jpg)
A
Persian miniature from the 15th century describing the constructing
of Khawarnaq (Persian: which means Mansion) in Hira, the capital
city of the Lakhmids; miniature painting by Kamal ud-Din Behzad.
Al-Hirah was a significant city in pre-Islamic Arab history. Al-Hirah
(4th-7th centuries) served as the capital of the Lakhmids, an Arab
vassal kingdom of the Sasanian Empire, whom it helped in containing
the nomadic Arabs to the south. The Lakhmid rulers of al-Hirah were
recognized by Shapur II (337-358), the tenth Sasanian emperor.
A
particular Mar 'Abdišo' was born in Maysan (Syriac: Mayšan)
and moved to Hira after studying elsewhere under Mar 'Abda. There
he gained widespread respect as he built a monastery and lived a
pious life. The Sasanian emperor Bahram V won the throne with support
of al-Mundhir I ibn al-Nu'man, king of Hira, in 420. He was amazed
and showed great respect as he encountered the saint near the village
of Bet 'Arbi on his way back from the imperial capital Seleucia-Ctesiphon.
From
c. 527, al-Hirah was opposed by the Ghassanids, a Byzantine-sponsored
Arab state in Syria and Palestine. The two powers engaged in a long
conflict of their own that functioned as a proxy war for the Byzantine
and Sasanian Empires.
In
531, the Sasanians defeated the Byzantine general Belisarius at
the Battle of Callinicum south of Edessa (now in southeastern Turkey),
with the help of al-Hirah. In 602, Khosrow II deposed al-Nu'man
III ibn al-Mundhir and annexed al-Hirah.
Ecclesiastical
history :
Hirta was the seat of a bishopric of the Church of the East from
the 4th century until the 11th century. It belonged to the Patriarchal
Province of Seleucia-Ctesiphon.
Today,
Hirta is a titular Catholic diocese in Iraq.
Spread
of Islam :
Following the Battle of Hira, the city was captured by an army of
the Rashidun Caliphate under the command of Khalid ibn al-Walid
in May 633. [citation needed]
Source
:
https://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Al-Hirah