The Battle of Hadhramaut ended Aksumite rule over Yemen and established Sasanian Persian influence over the Arabian Peninsula.
Key Facts
- Year
- 570 CE
- Sasanian force size
- 800 cavalrymen of Dailamite origin
- Ships dispatched
- 8 ships (2 wrecked)
- Aksumite king killed
- Masruq ibn Abraha
- Sasanian commander
- Spahbed Vahrez
- Capital captured after battle
- Sanaa
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
The Abyssinian (Aksumite) occupation of Yemen, which had lasted until around 570, provoked a Yemeni nationalist reaction led by Sayf ibn Dhi-Yazan, a member of the Himyarite royal line. After failed appeals to the Byzantines and Lakhmids, he secured support from Sasanian king Khosrau I, who reluctantly agreed to send a military force.
A Sasanian force of approximately 800 Dailamite cavalrymen sailed around the Arabian Peninsula, landed in Hadramaut, and engaged the Aksumite army under King Masruq ibn Abraha. Under the command of Spahbed Vahrez, the Sasanian forces defeated the Aksumites, killed Masruq, and subsequently marched on and occupied the Yemeni capital of Sanaa.
The defeat ended Aksumite control over Yemen and opened the region to Sasanian Persian dominance. This shift in power altered the political balance of the Arabian Peninsula and contributed to the broader context of rivalry between the Byzantine-allied Aksumites and the Sasanian Empire in the years preceding the rise of Islam.
Belligerents & Mobilization Analysis
Side A
2 belligerents
Spahbed Vahrez, Sayf ibn Dhi-Yazan.
Side B
1 belligerent
Masruq ibn Abraha.