Arab client kingdom of the Sasanian Empire centered on al-Hira in southern Mesopotamia, serving as a buffer state against nomadic Arab incursions and the rival Byzantine-Ghassanid alliance.
Abolished in 602 CE when the Sasanian emperor Khosrow II deposed the last Lakhmid king al-Nu'man III ibn al-Mundhir (who had converted to Christianity) and directly annexed al-Hira; the kingdom was conquered by Arab-Muslim forces ca. 633 CE.
Covers the Ghassanid-Lakhmid rivalry as mirror-image client kingdoms of Byzantium and Persia; the standard modern scholarly work on both kingdoms' sixth-century relations; Dumbarton Oaks.
Era/regional study of the client-kingdom system mirrored on the Sasanian side by the Lakhmids of al-Hira against the Byzantine-Ghassanid alliance.