Al-Hira: An Arab Late Antique Metropolis in Sasanian Iraq

Al-Hira was the name of the capital of the Arab principality of the Lakhmids or Nasrids (ca. 300-602 CE). This late antique Arab metropolis was situated at the west bank of the Middle Euphrates, at the fringes of the desert on the Roman-Sasanian frontier zone. It lay at two days’ ride from Ctesiphon, and also in close proximity to the Bedouin tribes of the Arabian Peninsula. Here Christian Aramaic, Arab Bedouin, Jewish, and Persian influences interacted and produced a multicultural urban symbiosis that drew on neighboring civilizations.

In this paper, I will explore al-Hira’s historical impact. One point of focus will be al-Hira’s role in the context of long-term processes of Arab-Persian interaction and transculturation. I will sum up our evidence about the political, cultural, and commercial ties connecting the Lakhmid principality and the Sasanian Empire, then focus on the possible agents of cultural exchange between the two. I will then call attention to the cultural spheres themselves and the issue of where and how Iranian-Arab transculturation as a process can be detected in the Hiran context.

I will then proceed to discuss the local Christian community, known as the Ibad. Its origins remain obscure, but seem to go back to the fourth century CE, and the community grew in importance in the course of the fifth and sixth century. Al-Hira is attested as a bishopric since 410, and the seat seems to have been occupied continuously until the tenth century, when the city fell into decline. The official church in the city followed the dogmatic orientation of the Persian church, commonly known as “Nestorian.” However, Syriac sources point to the frequent presence of Monophysite missionaries in the sixth century, besides Western Syriac monks and ascetics, who had sought refuge from Byzantine persecutions in this marginal area. Via commerce, missionaries, and the visits of itinerant poets who frequented the kingly court, it is likely that reports about the Iranized and Christianized Arabs of al-Hira had some impact on the emergent Muslim community under Muhammad. Finally, I will discuss how the favorable location of al-Hira provided an ideal location for settlement by Arab Muslim forces when they conquered Iraq, so that they founded one of the first Islamic urban foundations, al-Kufa, nearby. Al-Hira’s multicultural synthesis can be seen as a direct precursor to that of al-Kufa, and to Islamic urban culture at large.