Battle of Dhi Qar

Battle of Dhi Qar
Date	604–611
Location	Sasanian Empire (Dhi Qar, Southern Iraq)
Result	Arab victory[better source needed]
Belligerents
Sasanian Persia	Banu Bakr; Banu Ijl; Banu Yashkur; Banu Dhuhl; Banu Qays; Banu Taym ibn Tha'labah; Abd al-Qays; Banu Tamim;
Commanders and leaders
Iyas ibn Qabisah al-Ta'i ; Hamrez al-Tasatturi † ; Al-Nu'man bin Zara'a † ; Khalid bin Yazid al-Buhrani † ; Khanabarin † ; Hamarz † ; Hormuzan	Hani' bin Qubaisah ; Hantala bin Tha'laba al-Ajli ; Abd Amr bin Bashar al-Dhubai'y ; Jabala bin Ba'ith al-Yashkury ; Al-Harith bin Wa'la al-Thahli ; Al-Harith bin Rabi'a al-Taimi
Strength
2,000 Persian soldiers, with 3,000 Arabs	2,000–5,000
Casualties and losses
Almost all the army lost	Minimal

The Battle of Dhi Qar (Arabic: يوم ذي قار), also known as the War of the Camel's Udder,^[3] was a pre-Islamic battle fought between Arab tribes and the Sasanian Empire in Southern Iraq. The battle occurred after the death of Al-Nu'man III by the orders of Khosru II.^[4]

The dating of the event is disputed. The Encyclopædia Iranica entry on the subject says:

"According to certain Muslim traditions, the battle took place in the year 1/623 or 2/624... Ebn Ḥabīb... dated it earlier, between 606 and 622, but modern scholars have narrowed this range to 604-11"^[2]

The battle of Dhū-Qār is reported in many classical works of Arabic history and literature. The longest, but not necessarily most representative, version is Bishr ibn Marwān al-Asadī's Ḥarb Banī Shaybān maʻa Kisrá Ānūshirwān (Arabic: حرب بني شيبان مع كسرى آنوشروان).^[5]

References

^ Ahmad, Nawawi (1976). Arab Unity and Disunity (PDF) (Thesis). University of Glasgow. p. 2. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2020-06-02. Retrieved 10 May 2021. Despite the small number of troops involved, the decisive victory of the Arabs is seen as the beginning of a new era, since it gave the Arab tribes a new confidence and enthusiasm.
^ ^a ^b Landau-Tasseron, Ella. "ḎŪ QĀR". ENCYCLOPÆDIA IRANICA. Retrieved 8 January 2012.
^ Mackintosh-Smith, Tim. "ON THE EDGE OF GREATNESS THE DAYS OF THE ARABS" ARABS A 3,000-YEAR HISTORY of PEOPLES, TRIBES and EMPIRES . Yale University Press, 2019, pp.110.
^ Bosworth 1983, p. 3.
^ Ḥarb Banī Shaybān maʻa Kisrá Ānūshirwān, ed. by Muḥammad Jāsim Ḥammādī Mashhadānī (Baghdad: s.n., 1988; first publ. Bombay 1887); Hamad Alajmi, 'Pre-Islamic Poetry and Speech Act Theory: Al-A`sha, Bishr ibn Abi Khazim, and al-Ḥujayjah' (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Indiana University, 2012), p. 163.