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Battle of Dhi Qar

Pre-Islamic battle fought between Arabs in southern Iraq and a Sassanid Persian army

Battle of Dhi Qar معركة ذي قار
Date 604-11 Location Sasanian Empire (Dhi Qar, Southern Iraq) Result Arab victory[1]
Belligerents
Sassanid Persia Pro-Sasanian Arabs	Banu Bakr Banu Ijl Banu Yashkur Banu Dhuhl Banu Qays Banu Taym ibn Tha'labah Abd al-Qays Banu Tamim
Commanders and leaders
Iyas ibn Qabisah al-Ta'i Hamrez al-Tasatturi  † Al-Nu'man bin Zara'a  † Khalid bin Yazid al-Buhrani  † Khanabarin  † Hamarz  † Hormuzan	Hani' bin Qubaisah Hantala bin Tha'laba al-Ajli Abd Amr bin Bashar al-Dhubai'y Jabala bin Ba'ith al-Yashkury Al-Harith bin Wa'la al-Thahli Al-Harith bin Rabi'a al-Taimi
Strength
2,000 Persian soldiers, with 3,000 Arabs[2]	2,000-5,000
Casualties and losses
Almost all the army lost	Minimal

The Battle of Dhi Qar (Arabic: يوم ذي قار), also known as the War of the Camel's Udder,^[3] was a pre-Islamic battle fought between Arab tribes and the Sassanid EmpireinSouthern Iraq. The battle occurred after the death of Al-Nu'man III by the orders of Khosru II.^[4]

The dating of the event is disputed. The Encyclopædia Iranica entry on the subject says:

"According to certain Muslim traditions, the battle took place in the year 1/623 or 2/624... Ebn Ḥabīb... dated it earlier, between 606 and 622, but modern scholars have narrowed this range to 604-11"^[2]

The battle of Dhū-Qār is reported in many classical works of Arabic history and literature. The longest, but not necessarily most representative, version is Bishr ibn Marwān al-Asadī's Ḥarb Banī Shaybān maʻa Kisrá Ānūshirwān (Arabic: حرب بني شيبان مع كسرى آنوشروان).^[5]

See also[edit]

• Fijar Wars
• Al-Nu'man III

References[edit]

Sources[edit]

• Bosworth, C. E. (1983). "Iran and the Arabs Before Islam". In Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). The Cambridge History of Iran: The Seleucid, Parthian, and Sasanian periods (1). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 593–612. ISBN 978-0-521-200929.
• Morony, Michael G. (2005) [1984]. Iraq After The Muslim Conquest. Gorgias Press LLC. ISBN 978-1-59333-315-7.^{[permanent dead link]}