Al-Nadirah

The medieval story of al-Nadirah is about the fall of Hatra and its princess, who fell in love with the young king Shapur I while he was besieging the city.

This partially fictional narrative is recorded in Persian and Arabic sources of the early Islamic period, and some of its elements inspired some modern stories.

She betrayed the fortified capital, Hatra, to the Persian king Shapur I after seeing and falling in love with him while he was besieging the city.

[1][2][3][4] The story is mentioned in Arabic and Persian literature and the poetry of the early Islamic period, including al-Tabari's Tarikh al-Tabari, Mirkhond's Rawzat as-Safa',[1][2][5] Ibn Khallikan's Wafayāt al-Aʿyān,[6] and Ferdowsi's Shahnama, where she is recorded as Mālikah (مالكه), daughter of king Tā'ir (طایر), while the Persian king is Shapur II, instead of Shapur I.

[2] The theme of Al-Nadirah's legend was used in Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale "The Princess and the Pea"[8] and Ahmed Shawqi's Waraqat al-As (The Myrtle Leaf).

The fortified desert city of Hatra , which had repelled three Roman and one Sasanian sieges, fell to the Sasanian king Shapur I in 241.
Silver coin of Shapur I