The Persian Empire
Page 45
The relegation of the Sasanian Empire from a world power to a tributary of the emerging Hephthalite Empire signaled one of the lowest points in Sasanian history. The growing weakness of the Sasanian state allowed the powerful members of the Persian nobility to reemerge and interfere in the decision-making process at the royal court. Among the members of the Persian nobility who played an important role after the death of Peroz was Zarmehr Sokhra of the Karen family, who fought the Hephthalites courageously after the death of Peroz on the battlefield and saved the Sasanian army from total annihilation at the hands of the enemy. Another nobleman, Shapur, who was a member of the powerful Mehran family, criticized Peroz for his tyrannical behavior and his refusal to consult before embarking on adventurous military campaigns. With the power of the Sasanian dynasty diminished, the powerful members of the Persian nobility emerged as the king makers. When a son of Peroz, Zarer, attempted to seize the throne after his father’s death, the Persian nobles assassinated him and instead chose Balash, a brother of Peroz, as the next Sasanian king of kings.
A mild-mannered and peace-loving prince, Balash was viewed as a king who would not make reckless decisions and embark on adventurous military campaigns without consulting the Persian nobility. Once on the throne, Balash displayed his benevolence toward his Christian subjects by allowing them to practice their religion without fear of persecution. Despite his best efforts to restore peace and order, however, the Sasanian state could not recover from chaos and decline, which had already started during the reign of Peroz. The royal treasury was depleted, and the king of kings could not pay the salaries of his troops. Once again Zarmehr Sokhra and Shapur acted as the king makers, deposing Balash and passing the throne to Kavad, the son of Peroz who had spent many years as a hostage with the Hephthalites. Kavad’s familiarity and friendship with the Hephthalites could help the Sasanians rebound from one of the worst and most humiliating periods in their long and glorious history. The fate of Balash after he was deposed remains uncertain.
See also: K&Q, Sasanian: Kavad I; Peroz; Peoples: Hephthalites
Further Reading
Daryaee, Touraj. Sasanian Iran (224–651 BCE): Portrait of a Late Antique Empire. Costa Mesa: Mazda Publishers, 2008.
Frye, R. N. “The Political History of Iran under the Sasanians.” In The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 3(I), edited by Ehsan Yarshater, 116–180. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
Frye, Richard Nelson. The Heritage of Persia. Cleveland: World Publishing, 1963.
Frye, Richard Nelson. The History of Ancient Iran. München: C. H. Beck’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1984.
Tabari. Tarikh-e Tabari, Vol. 2. Translated from Arabic into Persian by Abol Qassem Payandeh. Tehran: Asatir Publications, 1984.
Boran (Puran)
Boran (Puran) was a princess of the Sasanian dynasty who ascended the throne as queen of the Sasanian Empire in 630 CE and ruled until sometime in 631. She seized the reins of power at the historical juncture when Persian power was disintegrating rapidly. Her ascension to the throne demonstrates that the Sasanian political system was open to a female member of the royal family ruling the empire in the absence of a legitimate male candidate.
Boran was the daughter of the Sasanian monarch Khosrow II Parvez (Parviz), who ruled from 590 to 628 CE. Khosrow was overthrown by Kavad, also known as Shiruya (Shiroy), one of his sons who joined a conspiracy against his father. The new monarch promised to end the long and exhausting wars with the Byzantine Empire, restore peace, and reverse the excesses of his father. Instead, Shiruya embarked on a campaign of terror against his own family, ordering the execution of all the male members of the Sasanian royal family, including his father and all his brothers. The Sasanian Empire never recovered from this murderous rampage. Having decimated the Sasanian royal family, Shiruya himself died a few months after he had ascended the Persian throne. Shiruya’s successor, Ardashir III (r. 628–630 CE), could not restore order or impose his authority over the army. The Sasanian commander Shahrbaraz, who had secured the support of the Byzantine emperor Heraclius, rose against Ardashir, killed the Sasanian monarch, and proclaimed himself king of kings. But Shahrbaraz himself was murdered less than two months after seizing the reins of power. After the short reign of Khosrow III in 630 and in the absence of a male successor old enough to assume the reins of power, a daughter, Boran, ascended the Sasanian throne.
Boran was credited for her commitment to justice as well as her compassion and generosity toward her subjects, which was reflected in her decision to forgive a portion of required taxes. She was also noted for her decision to mint new coins and repair roads and bridges. The queen, however, lacked any power to restore calm and order to the Sasanian Empire, which was disintegrating from within. Generals, courtiers, and powerful members of the Persian nobility continued to fight among themselves. As chaos and decline accelerated, Sasanian territory was invaded by the Turks and the Khazars. In the end, however, it was a powerful force bursting out of the Arabian Peninsula, namely the Arab Muslim armies, that brought about the collapse of the Sasanian state. The powerless queen could not do anything to reverse the process of political disintegration. Boran died after a year and four months on the throne. She was succeeded by her sister Azarmidokht, another daughter of Khosrow II who could only manage to rule for a few months. Eventually after a succession of several short-ruled and powerless monarchs, including Hormozd V (r. 631–632 CE) and Khosrow IV (r. 631–633 CE), the Persian nobility placed Yazdegerd, a male member of the Sasanian dynasty, on the throne. Yazdegerd was a son of the Sasanian prince Shahryar, who had been murdered by Shiruya in 628, and a grandson of Khosrow II. He was only eight years old when he ascended the throne. Yazdegerd was crowned not in the Sasanian capital of Ctesiphon but in the fire temple of Ardashir I at Istakhr in southern Iran. In 636 and again in 642 CE, the Sasanian armies were defeated in battles against the Arab Muslims. The Sasanian Empire came to an end in 651 CE, when Yazdegerd III was murdered by a miller with whom he had sought refuge outside the city of Marv in Khorasan.
See also: K&Q, Sasanian: Azarmidokht; Khosrow II Parvez; Kavad II Shiruya; Yazdegerd III
Further Reading
Daryaee, Touraj. Sasanian Iran (224–651 BCE): Portrait of a Late Antique Empire. Costa Mesa: Mazda Publishers, 2008.
Frye, R. N. “The Political History of Iran under the Sasanians.” In The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 3(I), edited by Ehsan Yarshater, 116–180. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
Frye, Richard Nelson. The Heritage of Persia. Cleveland: World Publishing, 1963.
Rawlinson, George. The Seventh Great Oriental Monarchy or the Geography, History, and Antiquities of the Sassanians or New Persian Empire. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1882.
Shahbazi, A. Shapur. “Sasanian Dynasty.” Encyclopaedia Iranica, 2005, http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/sasanian-dynasty.
Tabari. The History of al-Tabarī, Vol. 5, The Sāsānids, the Byzantines, the Lakhmids, and Yemen. Translated by C. E. Bosworth. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1999.
Hormozd I
Hormozd I was the third king of the Sasanian monarchy who ruled from 270 or 272 to 273 BCE. He was the son of Shapur I and the grandson of Ardashir I, the founder of the Sasanian state. After his father attacked and conquered Armenia, Hormozd was appointed king of the Armenians. Hormozd played an important role in the second campaign of his father against the Romans, which began in 253 CE and ended in 256 CE and during which Sasanian forces captured Cappadocia in central Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey).
Hormozd, although not the oldest son of his father, ascended the Sasanian throne after the death of Shapur I. The oldest son of Shapur I was Bahram, who succeeded Hormozd after he died following a short reign. The coinage minted during Hormozd’s reign declares him as the king of kings (shahanshah) of Iranians and non-Iranians (Ērāns and Anērāns). The construction of the town of Hormozd Ardashir has been ascribed to Hormozd I. During his short reign, Hormozd followed the example set by
his father, Shapur I, and allowed the Iranian prophet Mani to continue his missionary activities.
See also: Ancient Cities: Naqsh-e Rostam; K&Q, Sasanian: Bahram I, Bahram II, Bahram III; Shapur I
Further Reading
Errington, Elizabeth, and Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis. From Persepolis to the Punjab: Exploring Ancient Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. London: British Museum Press, 2007.
Shayegan, M. Rahim. “Hormozd I.” Encyclopaedia Iranica, 2004, http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/hormozd-i.
Hormozd II
Hormozd II was the ruler of the Persian Sasanian Empire from 302 to 309 CE. He ascended the Sasanian throne as the shahanshah, or king of kings, of Iranians and non-Iranians (Ērāns and Anērāns) in 302. Six years before in 297 CE, Hormozd’s father, Narseh, had been defeated by the Romans near present-day Erzurum in eastern Turkey. Narseh fled the battlefield, but his queen as well as several members of the royal family were captured by the enemy. The Romans imposed a humiliating peace treaty, forcing the Sasanians to cede Armenia, Iberia (modern-day Georgia), and several provinces in Mesopotamia. The Tigris River was established as the boundary between the Roman Empire and Iran.
Rock relief at Naqsh-e Rostam in Fars in southern Iran depicts the Persian Sasanian king of kings Hormozd II on horseback striking a mounted foe with his lance. Not much is known about the reign of Hormozd II, which began harshly and ended under suspicious circumstances as the king was hunting. (Westend61 GmbH/Alamy Stock Photo)
When Hormozd II ascended the Sasanian throne, he inherited an empire reeling from military defeat and dominated by the Persian nobility and the Zoroastrian religious establishment. The powerful members of the nobility had become sufficiently powerful to interfere in the empire’s decision-making process. We know very little about the reign of Hormozd II. The Muslim historians claimed that Hormozd II attacked Syria and demanded tribute from the Arab king of the Ghassanids, who responded by seeking support from Rome. According to these sources, the Sasanians killed the Ghassanid king before the arrival of the Romans. Hormozd had many children. His son and successor, Shapur II, was born after Hormozd’s death and ruled from 309 to 379 CE.
See also: K&Q, Sasanian: Narseh; Shapur II
Further Reading
Frye, R. N. “The Political History of Iran under the Sasanians.” In The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 3(I), edited by Ehsan Yarshater, 116–180. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
Frye, Richard Nelson. The History of Ancient Iran. München: C. H. Beck’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1984.
Shahbazi, A. Sh. “Hormozd II.” Encyclopaedia Iranica, 2005, http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/hormozd-ii.
Hormozd III
A king of the Persian Sasanian dynasty who ruled for two years between 457 and 459. He was the son of the Sasanian monarch Yazdegerd II (r. 439–457 CE). When Yazdegerd died, a battle for succession erupted between his two sons. At Ray, south of present-day Tehran, the older son, Hormozd, ascended the Sasanian throne, while the younger son, Peroz, fled to the northeastern province of Khorasan and began to raise an army to seize the throne. Meanwhile, Denag (Dinak), the mother of Hormozd III and Peroz, was ruling the empire from its capital at Ctesiphon in present-day southern Iraq (Tabari: Tarikh-e Tabari, 2.628). The reign of Hormozd proved to be short-lived. In 459, Peroz, who had organized an army that included nomadic warriors recruited from Hephthalites of Tokharestan in present-day northern Afghanistan, attacked Hormozd and defeated him on the battlefield. Hormozd III was imprisoned, and no mention of him is made after his overthrow. Having triumphed over his older brother, Peroz seized the Sasanian throne and proclaimed himself king of kings.
See also: K&Q, Sasanian: Peroz; Yazdegerd II
Further Reading
Frye, R. N. “The Political History of Iran under the Sasanians.” In The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 3(I), edited by Ehsan Yarshater, 116–180. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
Frye, Richard Nelson. The History of Ancient Iran. München: C. H. Beck’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1984.
Shahbazi, A. Sh. “Sasanian Dynasty.” Encyclopaedia Iranica, 2005, http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/sasanian-dynasty.
Tabari. The History of al-Tabarī, Vol. 5, The Sāsānids, the Byzantines, the Lakhmids, and Yemen. Translated by C. E. Bosworth. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1999.
Tabari. Tarikh-e Tabari, Vol. 2. Translated from Arabic into Persian by Abol Qassem Payandeh. Tehran: Asatir Publications, 1984.
Hormozd IV
Hormozd IV was a king of the Persian Sasanian Empire. He ruled from 579 and 590 CE. Hormozd, the son of the Sasanian monarch Khosrow I Anushiravan (r. 531–579 CE), ascended the throne in 579 CE after the death of his father and ruled until 590 CE, when he was assassinated in a conspiracy hatched by his son Khosrow and two of his brothers-in-law. Sources do not agree on the maternal lineage of Hormozd IV. Some have maintained that the mother of Hormozd was the daughter of the ruler of the Turk Empire, while others suggest that she was the daughter of the king of the Khazars.
Shortly before his death, Khosrow I had started negotiating a peace treaty with the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantine emperor Tiberius Constantine (r. 578–582 CE) had agreed to allow the Sasanian monarchy to seize Armenia and Arzenere in exchange for Sasanian withdrawal from the Byzantine fortress city of Dara in northern Mesopotamia. After his ascension to the throne, Hormozd refused to continue with the negotiations, which could have brought peace between the two powers. Instead, by making unreasonable demands, he disrupted the peace negotiations and reignited the war with the Byzantine state, which dispatched an army against northern Mesopotamia and Media as well as the Persian capital, Ctesiphon. The war between the Sasanian and Byzantine Empires continued throughout the reign of Hormozd. A Byzantine army invaded and devastated western Iran, penetrating Sasanian territory as far east as Media. Another Roman army moved against the Sasanian capital of Ctesiphon. The Persians responded by attacking Roman-held possessions in Mesopotamia. They also defeated Byzantine armies in Armenia. In 585 and again in 586, the Byzantine emperor took the offensive and scored several impressive victories against Sasanian forces, but they were soon on the defensive, losing their recently gained territories and suffering heavy casualties. The war between the two powers continued until the end of Hormozd’s reign. In 588/589, as the Persian and Byzantine armies fought over the control of Mesopotamia and Armenia, the Sasanian Empire was attacked by nomads from the Caucasus and Central Asia.
Hormozd IV has been criticized by Persian historians for displaying a lack of flexibility in dealing with foreign enemies and for unleashing a harsh policy of repression against the empire’s ruling classes, namely the Persian nobility and the Zoroastrian religious establishment (Tabari: Tarikh-e Tabari, 2.724). According to these sources, Hormozd waged an attack against members of the Persian nobility and persecuted the Zoroastrian religious leadership. Many were dismissed from their posts, and some were executed by order of the Sasanian monarch. These accounts reflect the disappointment of the Persian ruling class with Hormozd’s policies, which favored the lower classes and advocated religious tolerance toward non-Zoroastrian communities of the empire (Tabari: Tarikh-e Tabari, 2.724). His refusal to support the Zoroastrian clergy’s campaign to persecute the Christian community made him particularly unpopular among the religious establishment, while his efforts to reduce the power and influence of the nobility alienated the members of this powerful class from the king.
As already mentioned, in 588 CE the Sasanian Empire was attacked by the Khazars in northern Caucasus and by Hephthalite hordes from Central Asia. The Hephthalite invasion of Iran’s northeastern frontiers was supported by the Turk state, a former ally of the Sasanian Empire, that had collaborated with Khosrow I in destroying the Hephthalite state. To neutralize the threat posed to the northeastern regions of his empire, Hormozd IV appointed Bahram Chobin, a general who hailed from the powerful Mehran family of Ray (south of modern-day Tehran) as the commander of
the Sasanian armies in the east. Bahram marched quickly against the Hephthalite invaders and defeated them. A Sasanian army captured Balkh in present-day northern Afghanistan before crossing the Oxus River (Amu Darya) and inflicting a crushing defeat on a Turk army, killing the Turk ruler, the khaqan, and reaching Bokhara in present-day Uzbekistan.
Bahram’s impressive victories aroused the jealousy of Hormozd IV, who appointed his brilliant general to the difficult task of conquering the kingdom of Lazica. Lazica was situated on the eastern shores of the Black Sea, corresponding with the western region of the present-day Republic of Georgia. The king of Lazica ruled as a vassal of the Byzantine emperor, who viewed the province as an important geographical barrier, one that denied the Persians an access route to the Black Sea. Despite his usual display of courage and bravery, Bahram suffered a defeat at the hands of the Romans. The defeat provided Hormozd IV with a convenient justification to dismiss his popular commander from his post. Disgraced and humiliated by the king’s vindictive behavior, Bahram raised the flag of rebellion in 590 CE. By then, Hormozd was greatly despised by the Persian nobility for his policies, including the reduction of the salaries of army officers and the persecution of powerful members of the Persian nobility. As Bahram began to march at the head of his army against the Sasanian capital of Ctesiphon in present-day southern Iraq, the king’s opponents responded by staging a palace coup and removing Hormozd IV. The leaders of the coup were Bendoy and Bestam, both brothers-in-law of Hormozd who were in contact with Prince Khosrow (later Khosrow II Parvez), who served as the Sasanian governor of Albania (present-day southern Caucasus) and carried the title “Alanshah.” Hormozd IV was replaced by his son Khosrow, who had played an important role in the conspiracy to overthrow his father. Hormozd IV was first imprisoned and then blinded. He was subsequently executed by order of his own son, Khosrow II.