Al-Abna'

Al-Abnāʾ (Arabic: الأبناء, lit. 'the sons') was a term that was used in pre-Islamic and early Islamic Yemen to refer to the descendants of Iranian soldiers who had intermarried with local Arab women in southern Arabia after its conquest by the Sasanian Iranian Empire. Sasanian Iranian troops were garrisoned in Sanaʽa and its surrounding regions following the Sasanian Iranian reconquest of Yemen from the Aksumite Ethiopian Empire in the 570s CE. Their leaders largely converted to Islam following the rise of Muhammad and were active in the early Muslim conflicts. rdf:langString