Wahrez is first mentioned in the prelude to the
Iberian War, where he was sent by the Sasanian king (
shah)
Kavadh I (r. 498–531) to
Caucasian Iberia in order to subdue a revolt under
Vakhtang I of Iberia. During the reign of Kavadh's son,
Khosrau I, the Yemenites had requested assistance against
Axum dominance, who had occupied their country.
Sayf ibn Dhi-Yazan, the son of
Dhu Yazan, went to Khosrau and offered him all of Yemen if his army would defeat the Axumites. from ''
Tarikh-i Bal'ami'' Khosrau then sent Wahrez and his son Nawzadh to
Yemen at the head of a small expeditionary force, numbering around 800, of low-ranking
Azatan (Azadan) nobility. According to other traditions, it consisted of prisoners that were sentenced to death, while according to another version, the force also included (or entirely consisted of) warriors from
Daylam and nearby regions. Only two out of eight ships (i.e. 600 men) safely reached the Yemeni coast, who joined the local Himyarite allies and engaged the combined forces of the Aksumites, their Himyarite allies, and certain "
Bedouins". During the fighting, Nawzadh was killed, However, in AD 575 or 578, the vassal king was killed by the
Ethiopians, which forced Wahrez to return to Yemen with a force of 4000 men, and expel the Axumites once again. He then made
Maʿdī Karib, the son of Sayf, the new king of Yemen. Wahrez was then appointed as governor of Yemen by
Khosrau I, which would remain in Sasanian hands until the arrival of
Islam. Wahrez was succeeded by his son
Marzubān as governor of Yemen. == References ==