page_title: Aksumite–Persian wars
section_title: Conflict
hierarchical_section_title: Aksumite–Persian wars / Conflict
caption_attribution_description: English: Egyptian woven pattern on a woolen curtain or trousers. Copy of an imported Sassanid silk, which itself was based on a fresco of king Khosrau II fighting against the Ethiopian forces in Yemen.
context_page_description: Campaignbox Himyarite-Ethiopian wars
  In the late sixth century, Sasanian Empire of Persia and the Ethiopia-based Axumite Empire fought a series of wars over control of the Himyarite Kingdom in Yemen, Southern Arabia. After the Battle of Hadhramaut and the Siege of Sana'a in 570, the Aksumites were expelled from the Arabian peninsula. They had re-established their power there by 575 or 578, when another Persian army invaded Yemen and re-established the deposed king on his throne as their client. It marked the end of Ethiopian rule in Arabia.
context_section_description: Khosrau sent his general Vahrez and his son Nawzadh to Yemen at the head of a small expeditionary force of eight hundred cavalrymen of Dailamite origin, in one version men of good birth who had been consigned to prison but were now given a chance to redeem themselves by achieving victory. The Persian army, onboard eight ships, sailed around the coasts of the Arabian peninsula; and, although two of the ships were wrecked, the rest landed in Hadramaut. The strength of the Persian expeditionary force is variously given as 3,600, 7,500 (Ibn Qutaiba), or 800 (al-Tabari). A modern estimate is 16,000. The army sailed from the port of Obolla, seized the Bahrain Islands, and headed to Sohar, the capital of Oman (al-Tabari was apparently ignorant of the conquest of Oman). He then captured Dhofar and Hadhramut, before landing at Aden
  During the invasion, Nawzadh was killed, which made Vahriz furious at Masruq, the Ethiopian ruler of Yemen. Vahriz then met Masruq in battle and killed the latter with an arrow at Battle of Hadhramaut, which made the Ethiopians flee. 
  He then approached Sana'a, where he is known to have said: "My banner shall never enter [a town] lowered! Break down the gateway!"
  After having captured Sana'a, Vahrez restored Sayf ibn Dhi-Yazan to his throne as a vassal of the Sasanian Empire. Al-Tabari reports that the main reason behind victory of Vahrez over the Axumites was the use of the panjigan (probably a ballista equipped with heavy darts), a piece of military technology with which the local peoples were utterly unfamiliar. After having conquered Yemen, Vahrez then returned to Persia with a great amount of booty.
  However, in 575 or 578, the vassal king was killed by the Ethiopians, which forced Vahrez to return to Yemen with a force of 4000 men, and expel the Ethiopians once again. He then made Maʿdī Karib, the son of Sayf, the new king of Yemen. Vahriz was then appointed as governor of Yemen by Khosrau I, which would remain in Sasanian hands until the arrival of Islam. Vahriz was succeeded by his son Marzbān as governor of Yemen.
caption: Fresco of king Khosrau's I war against Masruq Abraha in Yemen
exif: {}