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northern Arabs of Syria and Irak were subject to the two independent princes of Ghassan and Hirah, the dominions of the latter including the tribes who were nominally subject to the kingdom of Persia, the former those who occupied the districts bordering on Syria, Mesopotamia, and Egypt. The family of the kings of Hirah appears to have originated from some of the chiefs who had accompanied the warlike expeditions of the tobbaas of Hamyar into Sogd and Persia. The first king of Hirah, called by the historians simply Malek, who is said to have been a descendant of Kahlan, mounted the throne soon after the death of Alexander, but on the death of his nephew Jodhaimah, the third king of that dynasty, the crown was seized by the sons of Lachm, a descendant of Saba. The capital of Malek was called Anbar, but Jodhaimah, who had by his conquests extended the boundaries of his kingdom, moved the seat of