Al-No'man Ibn al-Munthir Ibn Ma' al-Sama'

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Al-No'man Ibn al-Munthir Ibn Ma' al-Sama' Arabic النعمان بين المنذر بن ماء السماء (died 608) was an Arab king and the last king of the pre-Islamic Manathira kingdom in Iraq in their capital Al-Hira. He came to throne in 592.

[edit] Rule

As his predecessors he was an Arab ally to the Sassanid empire. He built the city of Numaniya on the right bank of Tigris. He was mentioned in the poetry of Al-Nabiga Al-Zibyani, Hassan Bin Thabit and Hatim Al-Taee. He was known to have a good day in which he reward the first stranger he sees, and a bad day in which he would kill the first stranger he sees. When the emperor of Persia asked Al-No'man to send his daughters and the daughters of his brothers as mistresses to him, Al-No'man refused so the emperor of Persia overthrow him from the throne and kept in him prison then killed him later, some say he was killed by throwing him under the legs of the elephants. Al-No'man before being killed kept the females of his family with the tribe of Bani Sheaban. The refusal of the tribe of Bani Sheaban giving the women to the emperor of Persia lead to one of the major pre-Islamic battles, the battle of Zee Qaar.

[edit] Legend

It is said that once on the bad day Al-No'man Ibn al-Munthir was on a desert trip and he got lost in desert. He was rescued by a Bedouin not knowing that he was the king, who took him to his tent and gave him food and water. But after all this the king announced himself and said he has to kill the Bedouin to keep his bad day tradition, so the Bedouin asked the king to leave him alive for a year because his family needs him and he will come to him on the same day to execute him and the king agreed. After a year on the same day the Bedouin kept his word and came to the king to execute him. Al-No'man admired the Bedouin for keeping his word; he rewarded him and canceled the bad day.