with provisions that would sustain them, and he sent a letter on their behalf to a Persian king called Shāpūr ibn Khurradhādh, who lodged them in al-Ḥīrah.
Ibn Isḥāq states: Among the remaining descendants of Rabīʿah ibn Naṣr was al-Nuʿmān ibn al-Mun dhir ibn al-Nuʿmān ibn al-Mun dhir ibn ʿAmr ibn ʿAdī ibn Rabīʿah ibn Naṣr—that is, the man who served as governor of al-Ḥīrah on behalf of the Sasanian kings, to whom the Arabs would come in delegation and whom they extolled in verse. What Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq has claimed—that al-Nuʿmān ibn al-Mun dhir was of the line of Rabīʿah ibn Naṣr—is the opinion held by most authorities.
Ibn Isḥāq also related that when the sword of al-Nuʿmān ibn al-Mun dhir was brought to the Commander of the Faithful, ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, he asked Jubayr ibn Muṭʿim from whom it had come. Jubayr replied, “From the remnants of Qunuṣ ibn Maʿd ibn ʿAdnān.” Ibn Isḥāq added, “Allah knows best which of the two reports is accurate.”
(1) Added in manuscript B; agrees with the text of the sīra.
(2) Added in B: Abu al-Qasim al-Suhaili states that there is no king of the Persians named Khurrazad, for they descend from the line of Azdashir bin Babak—their first—to Yazdegerd, that is, the son of Shahrayar bin Abroiz bin Hormuz bin Anushirwan, and their names are all preserved; none bore the name Khurrazad. It is possible that this Khurrazad was his deputy or a ruler among the petty kingdoms, since the era of Rabiʿah bin Nasr coincided with theirs. God knows best. The petty kingdoms existed in Christ’s time, before and after, and it was Alexander son of Philip the Macedonian who divided them after defeating Dara son of Dara and marrying his daughter, to prevent their unification under a single ruler. Each king was followed by a faction of people across a region of the land—some Arabs, some Persians, others—and this arrangement lasted nearly five hundred years. Afterwards the sons of Sasan bin Bahman bin Aspad Gushasp bin Bistalasp rose to power: Ardashir, and after him his son Shapur, who destroyed the fortress and captured it from the satraps. This account is taken, as above, from al-Suhaili (vol. 1: 30–31), with some adaptation.
(3) Added in B, Ṭ, and the sīra.
(4) Sīra (vol. 1: 12).