Al-Abnāʾ was a term that was used in pre-Islamic and early Islamic Yemen to refer to those who were descended from Sasanian officers and soldiers of Persian origin who intermarried with local Arab women. These Persians had been garrisoned in Sanaa and its surrounding after the Sasanian reconquest of Yemen in the 570s. Their leaders converted to Islam and were active in the early Islamic conflicts. They were gradually absorbed into the local population.
Name
According to a commentary on a poem by Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani in Kitab al-Aghani, up to his time, these people were called banū al-aḥrār in Sanaa and al-abnāʾ in Yemen. They were called "Sons of the free people" because it was narrated that in ancient times a strong storm hit Yemen and revealed a stone inscription that says, "who rules Dhamar? Himyar the Good. Who rules Dhamar? The evil Abyssinians. Who rules Dhamar? The free Persians". A similar stone inscription was said to have been found under Ka'aba in pre-Islamic times.
History
What is known about their history is mostly about their early and their late history. It is uncertain whether they kept practicing Zoroastrianism, or had been influenced by the South Arabian paganism and the local Christianity. According to al-Tabari, Kharrah/Khurrah Khosraw, the fourth Sasanian governor of Yemen, was replaced by Badhan due to too much assimilation of the former to the local society. The authority of the Persian governors of Yemen was reduced during the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628. This coincided with the rise of Islam. The Persian leaders in Yemen, including Badhan, Fayruz al-Daylami, and Wahb ibn Munabbih, responded favorably to the diplomatic missions from Muhammad, and converted to Islam in 631. After Badhan's death, his son Shahr partially replaces his father as governor, but is killed by the rebellious Al-Aswad Al-Ansi, who claimed prophet-hood, in the First Ridda War. Al-Aswad was later killed by Fayruz al-Daylami, who became the governor of Yemen. After that, Ghayth ibn Abd Yaghuth rebels, this time against al-abna' themselves, seeking their expulsion from the Arabian Peninsula. Dādawayh, an al-abna' leader, was killed, while Fayruz al-Daylami and Jushnas managed to flee with their allies, and later defeated Ghayth ibn Abd Yaghuth. Fayruz al-Daylami and the abna' were later active in the fertile crescent and Yemen under Caliph Umar during the Second Ridda War. The abna' retained their distinct identity during the Islamic period. Their nisba was al-Abnāwī. These people were gradually absorbed into the local population and thus disappeared from records. Descendants of al-Abna' live in the al-Furs village in Wadi Rijam, al-Abna' village in Wadi al-Sir in Bani Hushish District and in Khulan al-Tyal, Bayt Baws and Bani Bahlul. This title "al-abna'" may have been the root of the title "al-abna'" used to refer to the influential Persians of Baghdad in Abbasid period. The "abna'" recorded in some conflicts among Arabs of Khorasan in Umayyad period is not related to the abna' of Yemen.
