Al-Mundhir IV ibn al-Mundhir ( Arabic: المنذر بن المنذر) was the king of the Lakhmid Arabs in 575–580.

The son of al-Mundhir III ibn al-Nu'man ( r. 502–554), he succeeded to the throne after his brothers Amr ( r. 554–569) and Qabus ( r. 569 – c. 574). ^[1] His succession was unpopular with the inhabitants of the capital, al-Hirah, because of his violent nature and his paganism. A Persian governor, Suhrab, was appointed and ruled Hirah for a year, until Zayd ibn Hammad (father of the poet Adi ibn Zayd) persuaded the people to accept Mundhir as their king. ^[1]

The events of his reign are mostly obscure, except for the sack and razing of Hirah by the Ghassanids under al-Mundhir III ibn al-Harith. ^[1] He was succeeded by his son al-Nu'man III ibn al-Mundhir ( r. 580–602), ^[1] the last Lakhmid king of Hirah.

Two of his wives are known by name: Salma bint al-Sa'igh, the mother of his heir al-Nu'man, a Jew captured during a raid on Fadak; and the Christian Mariya bint al-Harith ibn Julhum from the tribe of Taym al-Ribab, mother of a son named al-Aswad. ^[1] Mundhir had twelve or thirteen sons, but only al-Nu'man and al-Aswad are known by name. ^[1]

References

Sources

• Bosworth, C. E., ed. (1999). The History of al-Ṭabarī, Volume V: The Sāsānids, the Byzantines, the Lakhmids, and Yemen. SUNY Series in Near Eastern Studies. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. pp. 370–371. ISBN  978-0-7914-4355-2.
• Shahîd, Irfan (1991). "al-Mund̲h̲ir IV". In Bosworth, C. E.; van Donzel, E. & Pellat, Ch. (eds.). The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Volume VI: Mahk–Mid. Leiden: E. J. Brill. p. 568. ISBN  978-90-04-08112-3.
• Michael Whitby, ed. (2000). The ecclesiastical history of Evagrius Scholasticus (PDF). Liverpool University Press. p. 292. ISBN  0-85323-605-4. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-11-03.