The son of al-Mundhir III ibn al-Nu'man (r. 502–554), he succeeded to the throne after his brothers Amr (r. 554–569) and Qabus (r. 569 – c.
A Persian governor, Suhrab, was appointed and ruled Hirah for a year, until Zayd ibn Hammad (father of the poet Adi ibn Zayd) persuaded the people to accept Mundhir as their king.
[1] The events of his reign are mostly obscure, except for the sack and razing of Hirah by the Ghassanids under al-Mundhir III ibn al-Harith.
[1] He was succeeded by his son al-Nu'man III ibn al-Mundhir (r. 580–602),[1] the last Lakhmid king of Hirah.
Two of his wives are known by name: Salma bint al-Sa'igh, the mother of his heir al-Nu'man, a Jew captured during a raid on Fadak; and the Christian Mariya bint al-Harith ibn Julhum from the tribe of Taym al-Ribab, mother of a son named al-Aswad.