Al Hirah was an ancient city located south of al-Kufah in south-central Iraq. It was a significant city in pre-Islamic Arab history. Originally a military encampment, in the 5th and 6th centuries AD it became the capital of the Lakhmids.

The Arabs were migrating into the Near East from the 9th century BCE. In the 3rd century CE parts of Mesopotamia had a substantial Arab population. Under the Sasanid Empire, northern Mesopotamia was sometimes called Arabistan. The first historical Arab kingdom outside Arabia, Al Hirah (4th-7th centuries), in southern Iraq, was a vassal of the Sasanids , whom it helped in containing the nomadic Arabs to the south. The rulers of al Hirah, identified as Lakhmids, were recognized by Shapur II (337-358 AD).

Al Hirah was either Christian or strongly influenced by Christianity. The Sasanian emperor Bahram V won the throne with support of al Mundir prince of al Hirah in 420. In 542, Khosrau I of Persia stopped the Byzantine general Belisarius at Callinicum , south of Edessa (southeastern Turkey), with the help of al Hirah. In 602, Khosrau II deposed Numan III of al Hirah and annexed his kingdom. Islam overran the Sasanid Empire in the 8th century. There is evidence for a parallel Arab kingdom in today's Jordan, called Ghassa and founded under Byzantine auspices. Around 527, al Hirah and Ghassa engaged in a proxy war for their respective imperial suzerains. Some claim that the first Arabic kingdom was founded in Hatra, in northern Iraq (Parthia).