Lakhmia, also known as the Kingdom of the Banu Lakhm, was an ancient kingdom in the northern part of the Arabian Peninsula with its capital at al-Hirah. The Lakhmids were an Arab tribe who migrated from Yemen in the late second century and set up their state on the southern banks of the Euphrate. For many years they were vassals of the Sassanid Persians, acting as a buffer between Mesopotamia and the tribes of the desert, until they were annexed in 602 by Khusrau II.