ABSTRACT
The Islamic chronicles portray Qubadh's loss of control of his Arab provinces as a product of his misrule and zandaqa. Anushirvan's amelioration of the situation with the Arabs is depicted as part of his successful program of imperial restoration. This chapter examines the reports of the Himyarite embassy to Anushirvan's court in search of aid against the Abyssinian occupiers of South Arabia, and the subsequent Iranian-Yemeni conquest of that region. These accounts highlight the eloquence and dignity of the Arab visitor in the face of the Iranians' imposing ceremonial. The chapter analyzes the more general absorption of the South Arabian tradition into the canon of Arab-Islamic kerygmatic history. It examines other notable events of Anushirvan's reign, including the infamous Yawm al-Safqa, which refers to the Sasanians' massacre of Banu Tamim tribesmen at the al-Mushaqqar castle near Hajar, and the inauspicious omens taking place in Iran on the eve of the Prophet's birth that signaled the fall of the Sasanian dynasty.
