The Role of the Christian Arab Tribes of Iran in the Muslim Conquests in Iraq

The Arab tribes had entered the fertile lands of Mesopotamia (Iraq) since ancient times. Their migration to the area was so extensive that they slowly overwhelmed the native inhabitants in the region and changed the ethnological mix of Iraq. Because of their proximity to Christian centers in Mesopotamia, some of these Arab tribes inevitably converted to Christianity. Backed by the Sassanid Empire, the immigrant Arabs managed to establish the Lakhmid state in Hira (Iraq). The Lakhmids both protected the western boundaries of the Sassanids against the invasion of primitive Arab tribes and acted as a buffer zone between the Sassanid and Byzantine Empires.With the onset of Muslim conquests in Iraq, the Christian Arab tribes had to stand against their own Muslim brothers. This article through studying the positive and negative reactions of the Christian Arabs helps us better understand the conquest of Iraq by the Muslims who came out of Arabian Peninsula.