Hind was the daughter of
al-Nu'man III ibn al-Mundhir, the last
Lakhmid king of
al-Hira () and an
Eastern Christian Arab mother. According to the
Ḥarb Banī Shaybān maʻa Kisrà Ānūshirwān,
Khosrow II, emperor of the
Sasanian Empire () and her father's overlord, demanded Hind in marriage. Thinking better of the arrangement, al-Nuʿmān sent Hind to seek refuge among the Arabs, and was subsequently attacked and imprisoned by Khosrow. After failing to find sanctuary with the
Ghassanids and other Arab tribes, Hind was granted sanctuary among the
Banu Shayban through the intercession of their princess
al-Ḥujayjah. It was supposedly for this reason that the Banu Shayban had to fight the
Battle of Dhi Qar in . She was then sent to marry
al-Nu'man ibn al-Rayyan, "her only cousin to survive the Persian attack on the Kingdom of al-Ḥirah", after which Khosrow granted him the throne of al-Hirah. Ali ibn Nasr al-Katib's
Encyclopedia of Pleasure tells that Hind loved a woman named
Hind bint al-Khuss al-Zarqāʾ. When al-Zarqāʾ died, her faithful lover "cropped her hair, wore black clothes, rejected worldly pleasures, vowed to God that she would lead an ascetic life until she passed away". Hind bint al-Nuʿmān even built a
monastery to commemorate her love for al-Zarqāʾ. This source figures the two characters as the first
lesbians in Arab culture. ==Works==