Dmitry E. Mishin Yemen Under the Rule of the Sasanids. Article Two. The Reign of Iranian Governors

Abstract

This article is the final part of the study dealing with the Sasanid rule over Yemen (571/2–630-es). The period in question begins in the early 576 when the South-Arabian ruler of Yemen, from the Yazˀan clan, a vassal to the Sasanids, perished. After that, Sasanid king Khusrō I Anushirwan (531–579), distrusting the Yazˀans’ ability to hold Yemen under control, first appointed an Iranian governor. The extant sources allow to approximately trace the sequence and chronology of those governors’ rule over Yemen, although the names of some of them are hard to re-construct. Their sequence seems to be as follows: Wehriz (died at the end of Khusrō I’s reign) — Zarēr / ????-Burzēn — Zarrēn (dismissed by King Hormuzd IV (579–591)) — Marzban / Mard-ōzan / Anōshagān (appointed by Hormuzd IV, died in the reign of Khusrō II Abarwēz (591–628)) — Wēnāgān (?) — Khwarrah-Khusrō — Bādān (appointed by Khusrō II at some stage before the beginning of the 7th century), all of them belonging to the Mihran aristocratic family. The governors kept a firm grasp on the key military and economic places and allowed South-Arabian aristocracy to rule locally, yet precluded it from emancipating. Their relationship with Arabic tribes appears to have been based on pacts. That system enabling the Sasanids to hold their power over Yemen probably fell in 631 when Bādān, in an attempt to avoid Queen Bōrān (630–631)’s persecutions of the Mihrans, embraced Islam and defected to the Muslims.

Keywords:

Arabs; Pre-Islamic Arabia; Sasanids; Yemen

For citation:

Dmitry E. Mishin. Yemen under the Sasanids. Article Two. The Rule of Iranian Governors. The Historical Reporter. 2026. Vol. 58. P. 300–333. DOI: 10.35549/HR.2026.2026.58.011

Received 02.03.2026. Revised 02.04.2026. Accepted 04.05.2026. 

Dmitry E. Mishin

C.Sc. (History), Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences. Moscow, Russian Federation.

e-mail: d.mishin@ivran.ru

SPIN-code: 1783-3113

AuthorID: 111810

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