Al-Mundhir IV ibn al-Mundhir
Al-Mundhir IV ibn al-Mundhir (Arabic: المنذر بن المنذر) was the king of the Lakhmid Arabs in 574–580.
The son of the great al-Mundhir III ibn al-Nu'man (r. 502–554), he succeeded to the throne after his brothers 'Amr III ibn al-Mundhir (r. 554–569) and Qabus ibn al-Mundhir (r. 569–573). His succession was unpopular with the inhabitants of the capital, al-Hirah, because of his violent nature and his paganism. A Persian governor, Suhrab, was appointed and ruled Hirah for a year, until Zayd ibn Hammad persuaded the people to accept Mundhir as their king. The events of his reign are mostly obscure, except for the sack and razing of Hirah by the Ghassanids under al-Mundhir III ibn al-Harith in 575. Arrested by Maurice, he was exiled in Sicily with his wife and some of his sons. He was succeeded by his son al-Nu'man III ibn al-Mundhir (r. 580–602), the last Lakhmid king of Hirah.
Two of his wives are known by name: the Jewish captive Salma bint al-Sa'igh, the mother of his heir Nu'man, and the Christian Mariya bint al-Harith ibn Djulhum. Mundhir is known to have had twelve or thirteen sons.
Sources
- Bosworth, Clifford Edmund, ed. (1999). The History of Al-Ṭabarī, Volume V: The Sāsānids, the Byzantines, the Lakhmids, and Yemen. State University of New York Press. pp. 370–371. ISBN 978-0-7914-4355-2.
- Shahîd, Irfan (1991). "Al-Mundhir IV". The Encyclopedia of Islam, New Edition, Volume VI: Mahk–Mid. Leiden and New York: BRILL. p. 568. ISBN 9004081127.
- Michael Whitby, ed. (2000). The ecclesiastical history of Evagrius Scholasticus (PDF). Liverpool University Press. p. 292. ISBN 0-85323-605-4.