After al-Harith's death, his four sons, each ruling over a different grouping of tribes within the Ma'add confederation, became absorbed in their constituents' blood feuds, greatly weakening the kingdom in Najd.

The Kinda tribe originally had their abode in South Arabia, possibly in Hadramawt, where they served as nomad auxiliaries for the armies of the Sabaean and Himyarite kings.

By at least the mid-4th century they were launching campaigns into central, eastern and northeastern Arabia against the tribes or confederations of Ma'add, Iyad, Murad and Abd al-Qays.

[2] An inscription from the late 5th century mentions that the Himyarite king Abikarib As'ad traveled to the "land of Ma'add on the occasion of the establishment of certain of their tribes".

[2] The medieval Arabic literary works of al-Isfahani and Ibn Habib similarly mention that Abikarib campaigned in central Arabia and established the Kindite chief Hujr over Ma'add.

Himyarite attempts to extend their commercial interests into the region may have been related to the introduction of Kindite rule, though Bamyeh holds there is scant evidence such economic designs ever took shape.

[10] The Arabic traditions note that his authority was rejected by the Rabi'a tribes, which included the Bakr and Taghlib among others and whose territory was in the northern parts of Arabia leading to Mesopotamia.

[11] Although there are no particular achievements attributed to Hujr's sons, his grandson, al-Harith ibn Amr, became the best-known Kindite among the tribes of Arabia, as well as among the Byzantines and Sasanians, and their Ghassanid and Lakhmid clients.

[6] This may have been associated with the Day of al-Baradan, referred to in the Arabic sources, which was a battle most likely at a spring in the vast Samawah (the part of the Syrian Desert between Syria and southern Iraq).

[16] In May 503, a likely Kindite chieftain, Asoudos (al-Aswad), led a contingent of Arabs fighting alongside the Byzantine commanders Romanus and Areobindus in a campaign against the Sasanians in Nisibis.

[6] About two years after al-Harith's death the Byzantines, seeking to build an alliance against the Sasanians, dispatched envoys Julian and Nonossus to enlist Axum, Himyar, and the Kinda.

[19] It was prompted by internal strife among the tribes of Ma'add whose leaders requested the division by al-Harith, who may have also neglected his role as arbiter of disputes among his nomadic subjects.

[20] Hujr was installed over the brother tribes of Banu Asad and Kinana from the Mudar division and whose abodes were in Jabal Shammar and the Tihama, respectively.

[21] The Asad bridled under Hujr's rule and may have viewed his father's death or expulsion from al-Hira as a point of weakness in Kinda's power.

[23] Besides seeking to neutralize the Kindites who had earlier attempted to topple his Lakhmid dynasty, al-Mundhir was also likely interested in extending his dominion over the Rabi'a tribes, which had migrated closer to his domains from central Arabia over the preceding decades.

[26] Most of the Tamim tribesmen who accompanied the Kindite kings in the confrontation melted away, leaving the Taghlib and Bakr as the main belligerents in the fighting with Salama and Shurahbil at their helm.

Both brothers lost control of their tribal subjects and may have been killed at Mundhir's direction, prompting the Kinda's abandonment of the Najd for their ancestral homeland in Hadramawt.

[29] The al-Jawn dispatched contingents in support of the Tamim in their assault against the Amir in what became known as the battle of Shi'b Jabala in Najd, dated variously by modern historians to circa 550, 570 or 580.

[32] Their loss at Shi'b Jabala and the following confrontation with the Amir at Dhu Nuwas especially contributed to the Kinda's abandonment of the Najd and the Yamama and return to Hadramawt.

With their influence in tatters in central Arabia, they likely saw the Sasanian conquest as an opportunity to resume their role as confederates of the Persians in their original abode where many of their tribesmen remained.

[33] The Kindite migration back to Hadramawt included some 30,000 members of the tribe departing their settlements of Ghamr Dhi Kinda in Najd and Hajar and al-Mushaqqar in the Yamama.

The most important Arabic Christian inscription of the pre-Islamic period commemorates the construction of a church in al-Hira by al-Harith ibn Amr's daughter Hind.

They also played a key role in spreading literacy among the tribes of Arabia, having learned the nascent Arabic language in al-Hira and thereafter disseminating it in their desert realms.