Al-Hira (Arabic: الحيرة, romanized: al-Ḥīra[1] Middle Persian: Hērt [2]) was an ancient city in Mesopotamia located south of what is now Kufa in south-central Iraq.

The Sasanian emperor Bahram V won the throne with support of al-Mundhir I ibn al-Nu'man, king of Ḥīrā, in 420.

He was amazed and showed great respect as he encountered the saint near the village of Bēṯ 'Arbī on his way back from the imperial capital Seleucia-Ctesiphon.

The two powers engaged in a long conflict of their own that functioned as a proxy war for the Byzantine and Sasanian Empires.

In 531, the Sasanians defeated the Byzantine general Belisarius at the Battle of Callinicum south of Edessa (now Urfa, in southeastern Turkey), with the help of al-Hirah.