Siege of Sanaa (570)

Siege of Sanaa
	Part of the Aksumite–Persian wars
Date	570
Location	Sanaa, Kingdom of Aksum15°21′N 44°12′E / 15.35°N 44.2°E
Result	Sasanian victory; Sayf ibn Dhi Yazan is restored as king of Yemen as a vassal state of the Sasanian Empire;
Belligerents
Sasanian Empire	Kingdom of Aksum Barbaria (region)
Commanders and leaders
	Wahrez
Strength
c. 700	Unknown
Casualties and losses
Unknown	Unknown
	Location within Yemen

The siege of Sanaa is a pre-Islamic battle fought in the 6th century by the Kingdom of Aksum and the Sasanian Empire, during the Aksumite–Persian wars. It took place when the Sasanian under general Vahrez besieged the Aksumite city of Sanaa in 570.

bn Hishām transmits a poem attributed to ʿAdī ibn Zayd describing the fall of the Aksumite kingdom following the Persian invasion. The poem includes the line: “On the day they call upon Āl Barbar and al-Yaksūm (Aksum), none of its fugitives shall escape.”^[1] the poem was made in reference to the joint axumite barbar retreat from Siege of Sanaa (570).^[2]

Sources

Bosworth, C. E. (1983). "Abnāʾ". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. I, Fasc. 3. pp. 226–228.
Potts, Daniel T. (2012). "ARABIA ii. The Sasanians and Arabia". Encyclopaedia Iranica.
Zakeri, Mohsen (1995). Sāsānid Soldiers in Early Muslim Society: The Origins of ʿAyyārān and Futuwwa. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz. ISBN 978-3-447-03652-8.

References

↑ Ibn Hishām, ʿAbd al-Malik. Al-Sīra al-Nabawiyya. Edited by Muṣṭafā al-Saqqā, Ibrāhīm al-Abyārī and ʿAbd al-Ḥafīẓ Shalabī. Cairo: Muṣṭafā al-Bābī al-Ḥalabī, 1955, vol. 1, p. 69.
↑ Al-Suhaylī, Al-Rawḍ al-Unuf fī Sharḥ al-Sīra al-Nabawiyya li-Ibn Hishām, commentary on the verse "يوم ينادون آل بربر واليكسوم". See also Ramzi Rouighi, "The Berbers of the Arabs," Studia Islamica 106 (2011): 49–76.

[1] Ibn Hishām, ʿAbd al-Malik. Al-Sīra al-Nabawiyya. Edited by Muṣṭafā al-Saqqā, Ibrāhīm al-Abyārī and ʿAbd al-Ḥafīẓ Shalabī. Cairo: Muṣṭafā al-Bābī al-Ḥalabī, 1955, vol. 1, p. 69.

[2] Al-Suhaylī, Al-Rawḍ al-Unuf fī Sharḥ al-Sīra al-Nabawiyya li-Ibn Hishām, commentary on the verse "يوم ينادون آل بربر واليكسوم". See also Ramzi Rouighi, "The Berbers of the Arabs," Studia Islamica 106 (2011): 49–76.

[1]

[2]