122 ANCIENT KINGS OF ARABIA. 



was attacked and defeated by Asaad-Abucarb and 

 Hassan, kings of Yemen ; but the disorders that 

 broke out among the ranks of the invading army- 

 saved the kingdom of Hira. Amru I. was the son 

 of Rakash, the sister of Jodaimah, and the handsome 

 Addi, chief of the Beni-Lakhm, who filled the office 

 of the king's cupbearer ; and in his tribe the sove- 

 reign power now became hereditary. This prince 

 threw off for a long time his dependence on Persia, 

 until Shapoor, the son of Ardishecr Babigan, entered 

 Irak with a numerous force, and subdued the greater 

 part of the country between the Tigris and the Eu- 

 phrates. 



A debt of revenge had descended to Amru in the 

 murder of Jodaimah, who was entrapped by the 

 treachery of Zabba, an Arabian princess, in Meso- 

 potamia, and ordered to be bled to death by opening 

 the veins of his arms. This cruel deed demanded 

 an atonement equally severe ; and it was effected by 

 the following stratagem : — Kosair, a confidential ser- 

 vant, was despatched in the disguise of a merchant 

 with a large caravan to Khadr, a strongly-fortified 

 city, where Zabba had her palace. Some assert 

 that, to excite pity, he had, like another Zopyrus, 

 disfigured and mutilated himself by cutting off his 

 nose. Pretending to have brought rich merchan- 

 dise, which he wished to submit to the princess, the 

 gates were without hesitation thrown open. The 

 ' cargo consisted of 2000 large sacks of hair-cloth, 

 each of which concealed two armed men, who, on a 

 given signal, surrounded the royal residence, putting 

 all to slaughter without resistance. Zabba fell by 

 the hand of Kosair, or by swallowing a deadly poison 

 which she kept enclosed in a ring. Amru annexed 

 her territory to that of Irak, and transmitted the 

 government, which he had thus consolidated, with- 

 out interruption to his posterf^. 



Nooman I. signalized himself by his conquests in 

 Syria. The immense spoils he collected increased 



