The Abyssinian occupation of Yemen lasted until about 570, when a Yemeni national reaction was provoked against Masruq ibn Abraha.

The leader of this patriotic movement was a scion of the Himyarite royal line, Sayf ibn Dhi-Yazan.

The king was reluctant to intervene in a region so distant from Persia, but in the end agreed to send a force of eight hundred cavalrymen of Dailamite origin, in one version men of good birth who had been consigned to prison but were now given a chance to redeem themselves by achieving victory.

The force sailed around the coasts of the Arabian Peninsula; and, although two of the eight ships were wrecked, the rest landed in Hadramaut.

Under their leader Vahrez, they defeated and killed Masruq and marched into the Yemeni capital of Sanaa.