VOL 5.14

The story returns to the completion of the reign of Kisra

Anusharwan.

[The Remainder of Kisra Anusharwan's

Reign and the Last Sasanid Kings]

9

There related to us 'All b. Harb al-Mawsili — Abu Ayyub Ya'la b.

'Imran al-Bajall — Makhzum b. Hani’ al-Makhzumi — his father,

who was a hundred and fifty years old. He said: When it was the

night in which the Messenger of God was bom, the Aywan of

Kisra was shaken and fourteen pinnacles of it fell down ,- 666 the

[sacred] fire of Fars, which had not previously been extinguished

for a thousand years, was extinguished ; 667 the waters of the lake of

Sawah sank into the earth ; 668 and the Chief Mobadh saw in a

dream refractory camels running before noble Arab horses which

had crossed the Tigris and had spread through those districts of

it 669 next morning, Kisra was affrighted by what he had seen.

He resolutely held himself back in patience, but then he considered

that he ought not to conceal it from his ministers and

Marzbans. He put on his crown and seated himself on his throne,

666. That is, the Aywan or "Jaq-i Kisra, the great Sasanid palace in the district of

Aspanbar at al-Mada’in, on the east bank of the Tigris, where its ruinous partial

shell still exists. See Le Strange, Lands, 34; Herrmann, The Iranian Revival, 126-

28; El 2 , s.v. al-Mada’in (M. Streck-M. J. Morony).

667. Presumably the great fire temple at I§takhr, i.e., at Persepolis, at whose

ruins al-Mas'udi marvelled. See his Muruj, HI, 76-77 - § 1403; Eh, s.v. AtaSkada

(M. Boyce).

668. Sawah is a town of northwestern Persia, in the mediaeval Islamic province

of Jibal, not however known to have existed in pre-Islamic times. It was nevertheless made the site of one of these tales of portents announcing the Prophet's birth. See Yaqut, Buldan, ID, 179-80; Le Strange, Lands, 211-12; Schwarz, Iran, 339-42; El 2 , s.v. Sawa (C. E. Bosworth-H. H. Schaeder).

669. These portents are mentioned also by al-Mas'udi, Muruj, I, 217, n, 228 - §§

231, 649.

286

[The Remainder of Kisra Anusharwan's Reign]

and gathered them around him. When they were all gathered together

around him, he told them why he had sent for them and

what he had summoned them for. While they were engaged in all

this, a letter arrived bringing news of the extinguishing of the

[sacred] fire, so that his distress of spirit increased. The Chief

Mobadh said, "I too— may God grant the king righteousness— had

a dream that same night," and he recounted to him his dream

about the camels. The king said, "What is this thing, O Chief

Mobadh," although he himself was the most knowing about the

real meaning of that. The Chief Mobadh replied, "An event which

is issuing from the Arabs."

On hearing that, Kisra wrote a letter, as follows: "From Kisra,

the king of kings, to al-Nu'man b. al-Mundhir. As follows: Send

to me a man who is knowledgeable about what I wish to ask

him ," so al-Nu'man dispatched to him 'Abd al-Masih b. 'Amr b.

Hayyan b. Buqaylah al-Ghassanl. 670 When the letter reached

Kisra, Kisra asked him, "Do you know what I wish to ask you?"

He replied, "Let the king tell me about it; and if I am knowledge-

able about it, [well and good], but if not, I can tell him about

someone who will know it for him." Kisra accordingly told him

about his dream. 'Abd al-Masih said, "A maternal uncle of mine

who lives in the elevated regions of Syria, called Satih, will have

knowledge about it." 671 Kisra said, "Go to him, and ask him what

I have just asked you, and bring me back his answer." 'Abd al-

Masih rode off on his mount until he came to Satih, who was,

however, on the verge of death. He greeted him and wished him

long life, but Satih returned no answer. Hence 'Abd al-Masih began

to recite: 672

670. This member of the Christian 'Ibad of al-Hirah seems to have been a historical person, although his role in these events and the attribution to him of an age of 350 years are clearly embellishments. He is said to have negotiated with Khalid b. al-Walld for the surrender of al-Hirah to the incoming Muslim Arabs. See al- Baladhuri, Futuh, 243; al-Mas'udi, Muruj, I, 217-22 - §§ 231-33; Abu al-Faraj al- Isfahani, AghanP, XVI, 194-95.

Buqaylah was one of the clans of al-Hirah, of Ghassanid tribal origin, as appears

also from al-Tabari, 1 , 1023, p. 349 below, which had a castle ( qasr ) of its own. See al-Ya'qubi, Kitab al-buldan, 309, tr. G. Wiet, 140-41; Noldeke, trans. 254 n. 2; Rothstein, Lahmiden, 114 n. 2.

671. For Satih, see al-Tabari, I, 9iiff., pp. i78ff. above.

672. Noldeke noted, trans. 255 n. 1, that the manuscripts have considerable

variation in the readings of various words and in the order of these rajaz verses,

with interchanging of hemistichs, and that the text and interpretation of the poem

is uncertain in parts. Older poets, as here 'Abd al-Masih, use the mashfur form of

the rajaz meter in which, in each bayt, every shafr rhymes with the following

hemistich and not just with regard to the two hemistichs of the first bayt; with a

common rhyme for the whole poem, hemistich by hemistich, interchange of hemi-

stichs within bayts is easy. See Wright, A Grammar of the Arabic Language, n,

362A-B.

[The Remainder of Kisra Anusharwan's Reign] 287

Is the proud lord of Yemen deaf, or does he hear? Or has he gone

away, and has the course of untimely death made away

with him?

O you who are able to give the interpretation of an affair which

was too difficult for this man and that, the shaykh of the

tribe, from the house of Sanan, has come to you,

Whose mother is from the house of Dhi’b b. Hajan, a blue-eyed

one, with sharpened fang, whose ears are ringing, 673

A shining white one, with an ample cloak and corselet of mail,

the envoy of the prince ( qayl ) of the Persians, who journeys

onward during the time for sleeping.

A stout, compactly built she-camel travels through the land,

which conveys me up a rocky slope at one time and down

it the next,

Fearing neither thunderbolts nor the misfortunes of time, until

it becomes lean and emaciated in the breast and the part

between the thighs (i.e., from traveling continuously).

The fine dust of the deserted encampments' traces swirls round

it in the wind, as if it were galloping vigorously from the

two slopes of Thakan. 674

When Satlb heard the verses, he raised his head and said: Abd

al-Masih — traveling on a camel — to Satih — who is already on the

brink of the tomb — the king of the sons of Sasan has sent you —

because of the Aywan's being shaken — and the extinguishing of

the fires — and the dream of the Chief Mobadh — of refractory

camels running before noble Arab horses — which had crossed the

Tigris and spread through those districts of it — O Abd al-Masih,

673 . Sanan and Dhi’b b. Hajan must be tribal groups of Yemen, but do not figure

in such works as Ibn al-Kalbl's famharat al-nasab or al-Hamdiml's §ifat jazirat

al-'Aiab.

674. Thakan is listed by al-Bakri, Mu'jam ma ista'jam, I, 342, and Yaqut,

Buldan, n, 82, but with no mention of its location and with this verse as the only

shahid for it.

288

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when there has been much recounting of stories — and the man

with the staff has been sent 675 — and the valley of al-Samawah 676

has overflowed (i.e., with invading troops) — and the waters of the

lake of Sawah have sunk into the earth— and the [sacred] fire of

Fars has been extinguished— then Syria is no longer for Satih

Syria — kings and queens from amongst them (i.e., the last

Sasanids) shall reign — according to the number of pinnacles (i.e.,

those fallen from the Aywan)— and everything whose coming is

decreed will come." Then Satih expired on the spot. 'Abd al-Masih

now mounted his steed and recited:

Gird yourself for action, for you are keen in resolution,

vigorous! Let not separation and mutability affright you!

If the dominion of the sons of Sasan escapes from their hands,

well, time is made up of different evolutions and lengthy

periods.

How oft, O how oft did they reach a lofty stage in which lions

which tear their prey were afraid of their mighty onrush!

To them belongs Mihran, the man of the lofty tower, 677 and his

brothers, the two Hurmuzs, Sabur and [the other] Sabur.

The people are all half brothers and sisters of each other; when

one of them comes to realize that another one has become

lacking in some way, that person is cast aside and treated

with contempt.

But they are also brothers from the same mother; when they see

some item of property, that item is protected and supported

in the owner's absence.

Good and bad fortune are closely linked together like a rope

binding two camels; good fortune is sought after, but bad

fortune is avoided.

When 'Abd al-Masih arrived back to Kisra, he informed him of

Satlh's words. Kisra commented, "Once fourteen of us have reigned,

675. That is, 'Umar b. al-Khattab, the second caliph, mentioned here as bearing

his staff of office [hirawah, the equivalent of the qadib or 'a$d) r with which the

stem 'Umar trounced malefactors and which became one of the insignia of the

caliphal office. See EP-, s.v. Kadib (D. Sourdel).

676. That is, "the elevated land," the desert region between the Euphrates and

Syria. See EP, s.v. al-Samawa (C. E. Bosworth).

677. See al-Tabari, I, 885, p. 13 1 and n. 340 above.

[The Remainder of Kisra Anusharwan's Reign] 289

things will happen!" Ten of them, however, reigned for a

total of four years only, and the rest of them held power until the

reign of TJthman b. 'Affan. 678

I received reports going back to Hisham b. Muhammad, 679 who

said: [On one occasion,] Wahriz dispatched wealth and valuable

specialities of Yemen to Kisra. When these reached the territory of

the Banu Tamlm, $a'sa'ah b. Najiyah b. 'Iqal al-Mujashi'I 680 summoned t

he Banu Tamim to fall upon the caravan, but they refused.

When the caravan reached the territory of the Banu Yarbu', 681

§a'$a'ah summoned these last to do that, but they were fearful of

doing it. He said, O Banu Yarbu', I can foresee that this caravan

will pass into the territory of the Banu Bakr b. Wa’il and they will

attack it, and they will then use the wealth acquired hereby to

make war on you!" 682 When they heard that, they plundered the

caravan. A man of the Banu Salit called al-Nafcif seized a saddle bag

filled with jewels, hence people said, "He has seized the treasure

of al-Natif," and this became proverbial. $a'§a'ah acquired a palmleaf

basket containing silver ingots. The people of the caravan

went to Hawdhah b. 'All al-Hanafl in al-Yamamah, 683 who -

678. The ten ephemeral rulers mentioned here would presumably be those transient rulers, pretenders, and usurpers who filled the four years or so after Heraclius's invasion of Mesopotamia in 627 had left a legacy of chaos and confusion within the Persian ruling classes; see al-Tabari, 1 , 1045-66, pp. 381-409 below. Of the kings after Anusharwan, only three persons, Hormizd IV, Khusraw II Abarwez, and Yazdagird ID, could be said to have enjoyed reigns of reasonable duration.

679. Noldeke, trans. 25 7 n. 3, noted that the Arabic sources on the conflict of the

Persians with the Arabs of Tamim give considerably varying stories but fall substantially into two versions, the one largely agreeing with die account here, the

other, however, quite aberrant; and he stressed the vivacity and generally realistic

nature of the Arabic narratives on this topic.

680. Grandfather of the famous Umayyad poet al-Farazdaq, and called muhyi al-

maw’udat "he who restores to life those female children meant for killing ," because he ransomed — allegedly as many as three or four hundred — girls about to be slaughtered by their destitute parents. See Abu al-Faraj al-I§fahani, AghdnP, XXI, 276-77.

681. An important group of the Tamim b. Murr, as were the Mujashi*. The Sallf

mentioned below were a subgroup of them. See Ibn al-Kalbi-Caskel-Strenziok,

Jamhazat al-nasab, I, Tables 68-71, II, 9, 591; EP-, s.v. Yarbu', Banu (G. Levi Della Vida).

682. The Bakr and the Tamim were ancient enemies, as was to be seen at the

"Day of Dhu Qar," see al-Tabari, I, loisff., pp. 338ff. below.

683. Hawdhah was one of the leading men of the Hanlfah b. Lujaym, a component tribe of the Bakr and occupiers of the rich eastern Arabian province of al- Yamamah (see on the Hanifah, Ibn al-Kalbi-Caskel-Strenziok, Jamharat al-nasab, I, Table 156, II, 25, 297). It was to Hawdhah (who was, as emerges from the poem cited by al-Tabari, 1, 987, p. 293 below, penultimate verse, a Christian, like much of the Banu Hanifah at this time), together with Thumamah b. Uthal, that Muhammad sent an envoy with a letter for "the king of al-Yamamah" inviting him to become a Muslim, and Hawdhah was allegedly at one point in correspondence with Muhammad offering to become a Muslim if he could have the succession to the Prophet's office after Muhammad's death; but Hawdhah himself died shortly afterward and before the Prophet, probably in 8/630. See Ibn Hisham, Shat al-nabi, ed. Wiistenfeld, 97r-2 = ed. al-Saqqa et al., IV, 254, tr. 653, 789; al-Baladhuri, Futuh, 86-87; EP, s.v. Musaylima (W. Montgomery Watt).

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provided them with clothing, food supplies, and mounts, and personally accompanied them until he reached Kisra's presence.

Hawdhah was a handsome and eloquent man, and Kisra was favorably

impressed by him and accounted to his credit what he had

done. He called for a circlet of pearls, and it was placed on

Hawdhah's head [as a diadem], and he gave him a brocade coat of

honor and many other items of clothing; because of all that,

Hawdhah was called "the man with the crown." Kisra said to

Hawdhah, "Do you know whether these fellows, who have done

this deed, are from your own tribe?" He answered, "No." Kisra

said, "Is there a peace agreement between you and them?" He

replied, "[No,] there is death between us." Kisra said, "Your requirement

is now about to be fulfilled," and he resolved to send a

force of cavalry against the Banu Tamim.

He was informed, however, "Their land is a bad land, made up of

deserts and wastes, with tracks that cannot be followed. Their

water comes from wells, and one cannot be sure that they will not

block them up, with the result that your troops will perish." He

was advised to write to his governor in al-Bahrayn, Azadh Firuz,

son of Jushnas, whom the Arabs called al-Muka'bir ("the Mutilator"),

because he used to cut off hands and feet. 684 He had sworn

not to leave, among the Banu Tamim, a single eye that could flow

with tears. Kisra followed this advice, and sent an envoy to him.

He also summoned Hawdhah again, and gave him a further, fresh

lot of honors and presents, and told him, "Travel back with this

envoy of mine, and secure a satisfactory solution (i.e., secure -

684. After his operations against Tamim, al-Muka'bir apparently remained in

eastern Arabia, since he later led the Persian forces there together with their allies

against Abu Bakr's commander al-'Ala’ b. al-Hadrami during the opening years of

'Umar's caliphate, but he eventually submitted and became a Muslim. See al-

Baladhuri, Futuh, 85-86.

[The Remainder of Kisra Anusharwan's Reign]

291

revenge) for both myself and yourself." Hawdhah and the army

reached al-Muka'bir just before the time for gleaning. Meanwhile,

at that moment the Banu Tamlm had moved to Hajar in order to

get provisions and gleanings. Al-Muka'bir's herald proclaimed,

"Let those of the Banu Tamim who are here, come forward, for the

king has decreed that provisions and food should be made available

for them and divided out among them." They came forward,

and he brought them into al-Mushaqqar, which is a fortified place

facing another fortress called al-§afa and separated from it by a

river called the Muhallim. 685

The builder of al-Mushaqqar was one of Kisra's cavalry troops

called Basak (?), son of Mahbudh, 686 whom Kisra had sent expressly

for its construction. When he began work on it, he was

told, "These workmen will not remain in this place unless they

are provided with womenfolk; but if you do that, the construction

work will be completed, and they will remain working on it until

they have finished it." So he had brought for them whores from

the regions of the Sawad and al-Ahwaz, and had skins of wine for

them, from the land of Fars, conveyed across the sea. The workmen

and the women married each other and begat children, and

soon comprised the greater part of the population of the town of

Hajar. The people spoke Arabic and claimed kinship with the 'Abd

al-Qays. When Islam came, they said to the 'Abd al-Qays, "You

know well our numerical strength, our formidable equipment and

685. The port and fortress of al-Mushaqqar was the seat of Persian military

power in the region of Hajar or the eastern Arabian shorelands, with the place's

foundation variously attributed to the rulers of Kindah, the Persian commander

mentioned below, etc. It lay in the territory of the 'Abd al-Qays tribe (on whom see al-Tabari, I, 836, p. 5 1 and n. 1 50 above), but its exact site is unknown. See EP, s.v. al-Mushakkar (C. E. Bosworth). At all events, it became a notable center for the extension of Sasanid political control over the western shores of the Persian Gulf.

By the mid-sixth century, the Arab poet of Bakr, Jarafah b. 'Abd, could call the

Arabs of Bahrayn, with a distinct note of contempt, 'abid Asbadh (where Asbadh

stems from asb, "horse," + ped, "chief, commander," pace Noldeke's etymology,

trans. 260 n. i, from ispabadh ) "slaves of the commander of mounted warriors,"

i.e., of the Persian mailed cavalrymen, while other poets refer to the Persians

settled in eastern Arabia as Asbadhls. See Siddiqi, Studien fiber die persischen

Fremdworter, 78-79.

686. On these two names (the second of which is, however, uncertain), see

Noldeke, trans. 260 n. 3, and Justi, Namenbuch, 185 (Mahbodh), 3S7— 58 fWasaka, Vasaces). For the father Mahbudh, Mahbodh, who played a great role as commander in fighting between the Persians and Byzantines during Hormizd's reign, see Noldeke, trans. loc. cit. and 438 n. 4, and n. 703 below.

292 [The Remainder of Kisra Anusharwan's Reign]

weapons, and our great proficiency, so enroll us formally among

your tribe and give us your daughters in marriage." They responded,

"No, but remain here as you were as our brothers and

clients ( mawali )." One man of *Abd al-Qays said, "O tribesmen of

'Abd al-Qays! Follow my suggestion and enroll them as full members

 of the tribe, for the likes of those people are very much to be

desired." But another member of the tribe said, "Aren't you

ashamed of yourself? Are you telling us to take into our midst

people who, as you know, have such beginnings and origins?" The

first man replied, "If you don't adopt them into the tribe, other

Arabs will." The second man answered, "In that case, we shan't

worry about them in future!" Thereupon, they (i.e., those people

from the mixed population of Hajar) became dispersed among the

Arabs. Some remained with the 'Abd al-Qays and were then reckoned

as part of them, with no one gainsaying this attribution.

Once al-Muka'bir had got the Banu Tamim within al-

Mushaqqar, he massacred their menfolk and spared only the boys.

On that day was killed Qa'nab al-Riyahi, the knight of the Banu

Yarbu'; two men of the Shann, who served the kings [of Persia]

with alternate spells of duty, killed him. 687 The boys were put in

boats and conveyed across to Fars; some of them were castrated as

eunuchs. Hubayrah b. Hudayr al-'AdawI related: After the conquest

 of Istakhr, there came to us a number of these deportees, one

of them a eunuch and another a tailor. 688 A man of the Banu

Tamim called Ubayy b. Wahb attacked the chain holding the gate

 [of the city], cut through it, and escaped. He then recited:

I remember Hind, although it is not the time for remembrance;

I remember her, even though several months' journey

separates me from her.

687. This encounter was the Yawm al-Safqah, described at length in Abu al-

Faraj Isfahan!, Aghani 3 , XVII, 318-21, cf. Sir Charles Lyall, Translations from

Ancient Arabian Poetry, Chiefly Pre-lslamic, 87-88. Qa'nab b. 'Attab al-Riyahi

had been one of the plunderers of the Persian caravan from Yemen (Abu al-Faraj al- Isfahani, op. cit., XVII, 318). Shann were a clan of 'Abd al-Qays; see Ibn al-Kalbi- Caskel-Strenziok, Jamharat al-nasab, I, Table 168, II, 28, 526,

688. Noldeke, trans. 262 n. 1, pointed out that the Muslims did not conquer

Istakhr till the 640s (actually in 23/643; see EP-, s.v. Istakhr [M. Streck-M. J.

Morony]), hence the events mentioned here happened almost certainly later than

the time of Khusraw I Anusharwan, since he died early in 579.

[The Remainder of Kisra Anusharwan's Reign] 293

[She is] from Hijaz, from the highlands, and her people dwell

where the autumn rains pour down, between Zur and

Min war. 689

Ho there, has it come to my people, despite the distance

separating us, that I defended my sacred interests ( dhimaii)

on that day of the gateway of al-Mushaqqar?

I struck with my sword the panel of the gateway such a blow,

which would have made the most firmly built gateway

spring open.

On that day, Hawdhah b. 'All interceded with al-Muka'bir for a

hundred of the captives from the Banu Tamim,- the latter granted

them to Hawdhah on Easter Day, and Hawdhah freed them. Concerning

this, al-A'sha recited:

Question Tamim about him, how it was in the days when they

were sold, when they came to him as captives, all of them

reduced to submissiveness,

In the midst of al-Mushaqqar. among a host of dust-smeared,

dark-colored ones (i.e., the victorious army), unable to

secure any beneficial aid afer the hurt [they had previously

suffered].

He said to the king, "Free a hundred of them," speaking gently,

in a low voice, not raising it.

So he released a hundred from the band of captives, and all of

them became freed of their bonds.

He put them forward openly, on Easter Day, as an offering,

hoping [for a reward] from God for what he had done as a

benefit and had wrought.

But they (i.e., the freed Tamlrms] did not consider as an act of

benevolence all that which had just been vouchsafed [for

them], even though their spokesman expressed a need for

due acknowledgment (or: spoke the truth about it, qala

qa’iluha haqq an biha) and exerted himself in that. 690

689. Noldeke vocalized mu$ab and translated "on the hills of al-Kharif," but the

vocalization al-ma$ab, "place where rains pour down," is followed here, with al-

khaiif in its usual sense of "autumn." Yaqut, Bvddan, V, 21 6, mentions Manwar as a mountain, but clearly had no idea of its location.

690. al-A'sha Maymun, Diwan, no. 13, w. 62-63, 67-69, 71; cf. Lyall, Transla-

tions of Ancient Arabian poetry, 88-89.

294

[The Remainder of Kisra Anusharwan's Reign]

He describes the Banu Tamim here as ungrateful.

Hisham related: When Wahriz was close to death — this being

toward the end of Anusharwan's reign — he called for his bow and

an arrow, and said, "Set me up," so they did this. He shot the

arrow and said, "See where my arrow falls to earth, and make my

grave there." His arrow fell behind the monastery — that is, the

church near Nu'm, a place called till today "the grave of

Wahriz ." 691 When the news of Wahriz's death reached Kisra, he

sent out to Yemen a knight called W.y.n (?), who proved a pertinacious

 tyrant . 692 Hence Hurmuz, the son of Kisra, dismissed

him and apppointed as governor in his stead al-Marazan . 693 This

last remained in Yemen, and had children bom there who grew up

to the age of puberty.

At this point Kisra Anusharwan died, after a reign of forty-eight

years . 694

691. Yaqut, Bulddn, II, 539, could only conjecture that this place was in the

vicinity of Rahbat Malik b. Tawq, the latter place, in fact, in Syria (ibid., Ill, 34-36). This dayr Nu'm must, however, have been in Yemen.

692. Marquart surmised that this was the al-Binajanof al-Tabari, 1 , 958, pp. 251-

52 above, but the editor Noldeke thought it more probable that there were two

separate persons, W.y.n and W.y.najan (= al-BInajan). See Addenda et emendanda, p. Dxcm.

693. Thus corrected in Addenda et emendanda, loc. cit., following Marquart,

from the text's al-Marwazan, in the light of the form of the name in parallel Greek

and Armenian sources; previously, Noldeke in his trans. 264 n. 1, had rendered the name as Marwazan.

694. Khusraw I Anusharwan's reign was 531-79- His name appears on his coins

as HWSRWB. See on his coins Paruck, Sasanian Coins, 65-66, 380-84, 470-79,

Plates XX-XXI, Tables XX-XXV; Gobi, Sasanian Numismatics, 52, Table XI, Plate 12; Sellwood, Whitting, and Williams, An Introduction to Sasanian Coins, 21, 140-44; Malek, "A Survey of Research on Sasanian Coins," 237.

The Arabic sources devote considerable space to this important reign, concur-

rent as it was with many events within Arabia significant for the birth of Islam. See Ibn Qutaybah, Ma'arif, 663-64; al-Ya'qubi, Ta'rikh, 1 , 186-67; al-Dlnawari, op. cit., 67-74; al-Mas'udi, Muruj, II, i96-2ri - §§ 618-31; idem, Tanbih, 101-102, tr. 145-46; Hamzah al-Isfahani, Ta'rikh, 51-53; Ibn al-Athir, Kamil, I, 434-42, 455 - 57. Of Persian sources, see Tabarl-Bal'ami, trans. n, 159-64, 219-32. Of modem

studies, see Christensen, Sassanides, 363-440; Frye, The Heritage of Persia, 228-

33; idem, "The Political History of Iran under the Sasanians," 153-62, 178; EP,

s.w. Anusharwan (H. Mass6), Kisra and Sasanids (M. Morony).

Al-Tabari, in company with other early historical writers like al-Ya'qubi and

Hamzah al-Isfahanl, does not mention Buzurgmihr/Buzurjmihr, famed sage and

minister of Anusharwan so famed in later Islamic lore and legend (al-DInawari, al- Akhbar al-tiwal, 72, has a single, brief reference, but Ibn Qutaybah in his ’ Uyun al- akhbaz has frequent mentions and quotations from his hik rrmh) Extensive mention of him only appears in writers of the mid-fourth/tenth century onward, such as al-Mas'udi, al-Tha'labi and especially Firdawsi, but thereafter he figures as the epitome of good counsel and wisdom in the "Mirrors for Princes" and s imilar adab works. This paragon may have arisen out of the Burzmihr who was a secretary of AnQasharwin's but who was, according to the Shah-namah, executed by that ruler's successor Hormizd IV. Christensen, "La l6gende du sage Buzurjmihr," 81— 128, although now outdated, traced how the stories round him first appeared in Middle Persian literature and then grew in the Islamic period. De Blois, in his Buizoy’s Voyage to India and the Origin of the Book of Kalilah wa Dimnah, 48- 50, subjects Christensen's ideas to stringent analysis and concludes that Buzurgmihr remains a very shadowy individual, if he existed at all; nor does he think that there are any grounds for identifying him with Khusraw Anusharwan's physician Burzoy, sent to India, according to the story, to fetch back a copy of the wonderful book Kalilah wa-Dimnah. See also EP, s.v. Buzurgmihr (H. Massd); Eh, s.v. Bozorgmehr-e Boktagan (Djalal Khaleghi Motlagh).

295

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[Hurmuz]

Then there assumed the royal power Hurmuz. He was the son of

King Anusharwan, and his mother was the daughter of Khaqan the

Elder. 695

I received reports going back to Hisham b. Muhammad, who

said: This Hurmuz, son of Kisra, was well educated and full of

good intentions of benevolence toward the weak and destitute,

but he attacked the power of the nobles, so that they showed

themselves hostile and hated him, exactly as he in turn hated

them. When he assumed the crown, he gathered round himself the

members of the nobility of his kingdom. They enthusiastically

called down blessings on his head and offered up thanks for his

father. Hurmuz gave them promises of benevolent rule; he was

anxious to behave toward his subjects with justice but implacable

against the great men of the kingdom, because of their oppressing

the lowly folk. 696

695. See al-Tabari, I, 899, p. 160 and n. 404. According to al-DInawari, al-

Akhbar al-tfwal, 74-75/ Hormizd was the only son of Anusharwan's who was bom

of a noble mother, all the others being awlad suqah.

696. Hormizd's policy of favoring the masses as a counterweight to the upper

classes, who represented a threat to his despotic royal power, is stressed in the

Arabic sources. Al-DInawari, al-Akhb&i al-fiwal, 75-77, puts into his mouth a

lengthy accession speech enunciating guidelines for his future policy, including

protection of the weaker, vulnerable members of society ( al-du'afa ' wa-ahl al -

di'ah) against the oppression of the upper classes { al-ilyah ). This was a reversal of his father's cultivation of the support of the nobility and the Zoroastrian clergy,

and the hostility of these latter entrenched interests was to contribute to Hormizd's downfall, blinding, and death, see al-Tabari, I, 993, p. 303 below. Neverthe- less, Hormizd's justice is stressed, a justice greater than that of Anusharwan, in the opinion of Tabari-Bal'ami, tr. II, 246-47. Also, Christian sources praise him for his tolerance, which included special favor for the Nestorian Catholicos at Seleucia- Ctesiphon, Isho'yahb I (in office 582-95). See Noldeke, trans. 268 n. 3; Labourt, Le Chiistianisme dans l’empiie perse, 200-203; Christensen, Sassanides, 441-43; Frye, "The Political History of Iran under the Sasanians," 162.

296 [The Last Sasanid Kings]

His justice reached such a point that he once went to Mah in

order to spend the summer there. 697 In the course of his journey

thither, he gave orders for it to be proclaimed amongst his troops

and all the others in his army camp that they were to avoid the

cultivated fields and not to cause harm to any of the landholders

( dahaqin ) there. They were also to keep their mounts under control

 so that they caused no damage to the fields. He appointed a

man who was to familiarize himself with the sort of thing that

was going on in the army camp and to punish anyone who transgressed

his command.

His own son Kisra was in the army camp, and one of his riding

beasts wandered off and strayed into one of the tilled fields along

the way, started grazing, and created damage there. The animal

was caught and brought to the man whom Hurmuz had appointed

to punish anyone who caused damage to the tillage, or the owner

of any beast that caused such damage, and to compel the offender

to pay compensation. However, the man was not able to enforce

Hurmuz's orders against Kisra nor against any of those in Kisra's

retinue, hence he brought to Hurmuz's notice the damage he had

observed that beast causing. Hurmuz ordered that he should crop

that animals 's ears and dock its tail, and that he should exact

compensation from Kisra. The man left Hurmuz's presence in

order to put the king's orders into effect regarding Kisra and his

riding beast, but Kisra secretly induced a group of the great men to

ask him to go easy in putting the command into effect. They met

him and talked to him about this, but he refused to listen. They

asked him to delay putting into practice Hurmuz's order to him

concerning the beast, until they had a chance to speak with the

king and to persuade him to leave the animal alone. He agreed to

this. That group of great men went to Hurmuz and told him that

the steed that had done the damage was an ill-natured beast and

697. See for this place, al-Tabari, I, 865, p. 97 and n. 249 above.

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297

that it had wandered off and entered the tilled field; they asked

Hurmuz to withdraw his order that the beast's ears should be

cropped and its tail docked because this would be a bad augury for

Kisra. Despite this, Hurmuz refused their request; on his orders,

the steed's ears were cropped and its tail docked, and Kisra was

made to pay compensation in the same amount as other people

were made to pay. Then Hurmuz moved off from his army

camp. 698

One day, at the time when the vines were ripening, Hurmuz

rode out to Sabat near al-Mada’in. His route went past orchards

and vineyards. One of the men from Hurmuz's cavalry division

who was riding with him noted a vineyard and saw in it partly

ripened grapes. He picked some clusters and gave them to a squire

[ghulam] who was accompanying him, telling him, "Take these

back to our quarters, cook them with some meat, and make a

broth out of it, for this is very wholesome and beneficial at this

time." The guardian of that vineyard came up to him, gripped him

fast and shouted loudly. The man's anxiety about being punished

by Hurmuz for picking those grapes reached such a pitch that he

handed over to the guardian of the vineyard a belt ornamented

with gold, which he was wearing, in exchange for the half-ripe

grapes he had picked from his vines, and thereby indemnified

himself against punishment. He considered that the guardian's

acceptance of the belt from him, and his letting him go free, was

an act of grace the guardian had bestowed on him and a kind act he

had accorded him.

It is said that Hurmuz was a successful and victorious com-

mander, who never set his hand to anything that he did not attain.

He was, moreover, well educated, skillful, and shrewd, but bad

intentioned, a defect he inherited from his maternal relations, the

Turks. He removed the nobles [from his court and entourage] and

killed 13,600 men from the religious classes and from those of

good family and noble birth. His sole aim was to win over the

lower classes and to make them favorably disposed towards him.

He imprisoned a great number of the great men, and degraded

them and stripped them of their offices and ranks. He provide well

698. This story also in al-Dlnawari, al-Akhbar al-fiwal, 77-78.

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for the mass of troops ( al-jund ), but deprived the cavalrymen {al-

asawirah) of resources. Hence a great number of those in his entourage

became evil intentioned toward him, as a consequence of

the fact that God wished to change their (i.e., the Persians') rule

and transfer their royal power to someone else. Everything has its

own particular cause . 699

The Herbadhs presented Hurmuz with a petition that embodied

their desire to persecute the Christians. The king endorsed the

document with the words, "Just as our royal throne cannot stand

on its two front legs without the two back ones, our kingdom

cannot stand or endure firmly if we cause the Christians and adherents

of other faiths, who differ in belief from ourselves, to

become hostile to us. So renounce this desire to persecute the

Christians and become assiduous in good works, so that the

Christians and the adherents of other faiths may see this, praise

you for it, and feel themselves drawn toward your religion ." 700

I received reports going back to Hisham b. Muhammad, who

said: The Turks marched out against Hurmuz. Other authorities

state that, in the eleventh year of his reign, Shabah, the supreme

ruler of the Turks , 701 advanced against him with three hundred

699. Cf. al-Dinawari, al-Akhbai al-tiwal, 78, and Al-Mas'udi, Muruj, II, 211-12,

the latter source stating that Hormizd killed thirteen thousand from the upper

classes {al-khawa$s) of Persia and destroyed the bases of the Zoroastrian state

church. The asawiiah or mailed, heavy cavalrymen were recruited from the

classes of the nobility and gentry (see n. 258 above), while what is here called the

jund represented the infantry and other less favored elements of the forces.

700. As mentioned in n. 696 above, Nestorian Christian sources give a favorable

picture of Hormizd and his policies.

701. Shabah (if this is the correct form of a dubiously written name) was more

probably a ruler of the northern Hephthalites, or a vassal ruler in the upper Oxus

regions of the Turkish, rather than the Qaghan of the Western Turks. In the 580s,

Tardu (Chinese, Ta-t’ou), son of Ishtemi or Istemi (see n. 394 above), was Qaghan of what the Chinese knew as the Western Frontier Region, with Central Asia stiicto sensu and the fringes of Transoxania controlled by other members of the Turkish ruling house, Taspar (or Taghpar), son of Bumin (r. 5 72-8 r), then Nivar (Chinese, She-tu), who was ousted by Apa, son of Muhan (Chinese, Ta-lo-pien], who in 583 founded the state of the Western Turks, until he lost power in 5 87. See Sinor, "The Establishment and Dissolution of the Turk Empire," 304-306; Sinor and S. G. Klyashtomy, "The Turk Empire," 333-34. None of these names resembles that of Shabah, and these Turkish potentates were in any case too heavily involved in internal warfare and internecine rivalries within Inner Asia to have begun hostilities with an external power like the Sasanids.

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299

thousand warriors until he reached Badhghls and Harat ; 702 that

the king of the Byzantines moved into the outer districts of his

empire ( al-dawahi) with eighty thousand warriors heading toward

him ; 703 and that the king of the Khazars moved with a large army

toward al-Bab wa-al-Abwab fi.e., Darband), wreaking damage and

702. Badhghls is the region of what is now northwestern Af ghani stan lying to

the north of Herat, the name being known, in the form Waitigaesa, since Avestan

times. See Yaqut, Buldan, I, 318; Marquart, EranSahr, 64-65, 67, 70, 77-78; Le

Strange, Lands, 412-13; Barthold, Historical Geography, 47-49 ; EP-, s.v. Badghls or Ba dhgh ls (W. Barthold and F. R. Allchin); Elr, s.v Badgis. I. General and the early periodic E. Bosworth).

703. The course of Perso-Byzantine relations after the war of 540-45 between

Khusraw Anusharwan and Justinian (see al-Tabari, I, 958-60, p. 252-55 above)

until this point is not noted by al-Tabari but was in fact very eventful. There was a

prolonged war in Lazica, the westernmost, coastal region of Georgia, the Colchis of Antiquity, from 549 to 561, in which Persia, endeavoring to extend her influence over Armenia and Georgia, had confronted Byzantium, equally concerned to assert a protectorate over these Christian kingdoms (for Sasanid policy in Persarmenia, that part of eastern Armenia where the Persians claimed control, see Elr, s.v. Armenia and Iran. ii. The Pre-Islamic Period. 6. The Sasanian Period. II: Persarmenia [M.L. Chaumontj), and this formed the second of Anusharwan's wars with the Greeks. The peace treaty of 561, the negotiations for which are described in detail by the Greek historian Menander Protector, giving the text of the Greek version of the treaty in extenso, and whose chief Persian representative in them was Izadh-Gushnasp (later to be a partisan of Bahram Chubin's, see al-Tabari, I, 997 ; P- 307 below), provided for a fifty years' peace, on analogy with that of 422 between Theodosius II and Bahram V Gur, involving Byzantium's paying an an nual tribute in return for Persia's renouncing all rights over Lazica and consequent access to the Black Sea. There was also a commercial clause by means of which both powers aimed at controlling — with the imposition of appropriate customs dues — trade conducted by Arab merchants from the Persian Gulf shores and across the Syrian Desert, and a military clause that seems to have aimed at preventing intertribal, or rather, interdynastic hostilities between the respective Arab allies of the Byzantines and Persians, the Jafnids/Ghassanids and the Lakhmids (see Shahid, "The Arabs in the Peace Treaty of 561," 191-211).

Justinian's expansionist efforts during his long reign were largely concentrated

on the west of his empire, and he had been generally content to maintain the status quo in the east. But his nephew and successor Justin II (r. 567-78), having lost much of Italy to the Germanic Lombards who invaded the Po valley in 5 68, looked to the east for compensatory military glory. Hence the fifty years' peace lasted only ten years. In 572 Justin renounced payment of the tribute and intervened in Armenia to support a revolt of local Christians against the persecutions and attempts to impose Zoroastrianism of the Persian Marzban Chihr-Gushnasp from the prominent Suren family. By supporting the Armenian rebels, Justin hoped to take advantage of Anusharwan's preoccupations in the east with the Turkish Khaqan Sinjibu (see al-Tabari, I, 895-96, pp. 152-53 above).

The result was a third war which began with a Persian invasion of Syria, capturing Daras/Dara and threatening Antioch. The war dragged on for twenty years,

300

[The Last Sasanid Kings]

destruction . 704 [They further state] that two men from the Arabs,

one called 'Abbas the Squinter and the other 'Amr the Blue-Eyed

One, encamped with a mighty host of Arabs on the banks of the

Euphrates and mounted raids against the inhabitants of the

Sawad . 705 His enemies became emboldened against him and

despite an armistice of 575—78 negotiated on the Persian side by the commander

Mahbodh (whose son Basak (?) is named in al-Tabari, I, 985, p. 291 above, as the

fortifier of al-Mushaqqar in eastern Arabia) and on the Greek side by Tiberius (who became emperor as Tiberius II Constantine, r. 578-82, but who was already Caesar and acting emperor after Justin lapsed into insanity in December 574). The truce enabled the Magister Militum per Oiientem Maurice (subsequently emperor, r. 582-602) to build up his forces for a campaign in the east in 578, but this was

preempted by a Persian invasion, under the general Mahbodh, of the Armenian

Taurus region, checked by a counterattack of Maurice which carried the Byzantine offensive as far as the region of Adiabene in northern Mesopotamia. Attempts at a further peace between Tiberius and Anusharwan were aborted by the Persian king's sudden death in spring 579, for his successor Hormizd preferred to break off relations and continue the war ; a sticking-point was the Byzantines' continued refusal to extradite the Armenian leaders of the 572 revolt in Persarmenia.

With the resumption of hostilities, Maurice prepared for war, and now in 580

aimed at involving the Jafnid/Ghassanid al-Mundhir b. al-Harith (r. 569-82) in

warfare along the Syrian Desert fringes (see Noldeke, Die Ghassdnischen Fiirsten, 27-28; Shahid, Byzantium and the Arabs in the Sixth Century, I/i, 396ff.). After further peace negotiations in 580-81 failed, the Byzantine army under Maurice secured resounding victories in Upper Mesopotamia, including at Constantina/ Tall Mawzan, but was still unable to capture the key fortresses of Nisibin and Daras/Dara. The war then continued through Hormizd's reign, with the Byzantine armies commanded by Maurice's brother-in-law Philippicus, by Priscus and then by Phillippicus again till 589, and with fighting concentrated upon such points as Amida/Amid, Martyropolis/Mayyafariqin, and Daras/Dara. In 589 Hormizd ordered Bahrain Chubln (on whom see n. 706 below), fresh from his victories in the

east against the Hephthalites, to invade Siunik' (the region between Lake Sevan

and the middle course of the Araxes/Aras river) but Bahram suffered a decisive

defeat at the hands of the Byzantine general Romanus; it was apparently Hormizd's humiliating treament of the momentarily unsuccessful, but until then highly successful, Bahram (the Greek historians state that the emperor sent to him women's garments, emblems of weakness and cowardice, while Bahram responded with a letter addressed to his sovereign merely as "Hormizd, son of Khusraw"), which finally provoked him into rebellion against the king.

See on these events, Bury, A History of the Later Roman Empire from Arcadius

to Irene, I, 441-68, II, 95-1 io ; idem, History of the Later Roman Empire from the

Death of Theodosius to the Death of Justinian, I, 113-23; M. J. Higgins, The

Persian War of the Emperor Maurice ($ 82-602). Part I. The Chronology, with a

Brief History of the Persian Calendar, 24-41; Christensen, Sassanides, 372-74;

Stein, Histoite du Bas-Empiie, II, 503-2 1 ; P. Goubert, Byzance avant l’lslam. I.

Byzance et l’Orient sous les successeurs de Justinien. L’Empireut Maurice, 63-

127; Frye, "The Political History of Iran under the Sasanians," 155-56, 158-60,

162-63; Whitby, "Procopius and the Development of Roman Defences in Upper

Mesopotamia," 729-30. j Qawahi, sing, dahiyah, literally, "exposed, outer side," was a term specially

used in early Islamic times for the zones of advanced frontier defenses marking the Byzantine-Arab frontier in the Taurus region of southeastern Anatolia.

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301

raided his lands. They so encompassed his lands that these last

became known as a sieve with many holes. It is further said that

enemies had encompassed the land of Persia from all sides like the

bowstring over the two curved ends of the bow. Shabah, king of

the Turks, sent a message to Hurmuz and the great men of the

Persians, announcing his advance with his troops and saying, "Put

in good repair the bridges over the rivers and wadis so that I may

cross over them to your land, and construct bridges over all those

rivers which do not already have them. Also, do likewise regarding

all the rivers and wadis that lie along my route from your land to

that of the Byzantines, because I have determined on marching

against them from your land."

Hurmuz became very fearful at all these threats coming upon

him, and sought counsel regarding them. The decision was

reached for him to move against the king of the Turks. So Hurmuz

sent against him a man from the people of al-Rayy called Bahram,

son of Bahram fushnas, known as Jubin, with twelve thousand

men whom Bahram had personally selected — mature and experienced

 men, not youngsters. 706 It is stated alternatively that Hur-

704. It does seem that the Khazars had become established in the eastern

Caucasus region by the later sixth century, see Dunlop, The History of the Jewish

Khazars, 43-45; but we have no precise historical mention of this invasion.

705. These two contemptuous and pejorative names (blueness - haggardness,

lividness, or blue-eyedness, being regarded as a defect, reflected in the linking of

the color with the mujrimm or sinners at the Last Judgment in Qur’an, XX, 102)

may well be fictitious ones. Nothing is otherwise known of these two raiders from

the desert except that al-Mas’udi, Muruj, n, 212 - § 633, gives 'Amr the further

sobriquet of al-Afwah, "the big-mouthed one," and unhelpfully says that the raiders came from the direction of Yemen.

706. Bahram Chubin (literally "wooden," but explicable, according to A. Sh.

Shahbazi, see below, from his tall and slender physique, hence with the sense of

"lance, javelin shaft") stemmed from the great family of Mihran (see al-Tabari, I,

885, p. 13 1 and n. 340 above) in Rayy and was commander on the eastern frontiers of the Sasanid realm. His military exploits in the east and his subsequent usurpation of royal power made such an impression on popular consciousness that there arose a popular romance in Pahlavi, the no longer extant Wahram Gdben-n&mag.

This romance, together with a Book of Rustam and Isfandiyar, was translated into

Arabic by a secretary of "Hisham" (the Umayyad caliph Hisham b. 'Abd al-Malik? ), one Jabalah b. Salim. See Ibn al-Nadim, Fihrist, 305, 364, tr. Bayard Dodge, II, 589, 716; Ndldeke, trans. 474-48, Excursus 6> Christensen, Romanen om Bahrdm Tschdbin, et rekonstruktionsforseg. In his own time, Bahram had been hailed by many as something of a messianic figure who was to save the Sasanid kingdom from chaos and to restore the glories of his Arsacid forebears, although subsequent writings on the downfall of the Sasanid kingdom, written in Pahlavi and stemming from the early Islamic period, generally take what might be called a Persian legitimist view and portray Bahram as a base-bom usurper whose actions contributed to the decline and confusion of the state in its last decades. See K. Czegl6dy, "Bahram Cobin and the Persian Apocalyptic Literature," 32-43, and on him on general, Noldeke, trans. 270 n. 3; Christensen, Sassanides, 443-45; Frye, "The Political History of Iran under the Sasanians," 163-65; EP-, s.v. Bahram (Cl. Huart and H. Masse); Eli, s.v. Bahram. vii. Bahram VI Cobln (A. Sh. Shahbazi).

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muz mustered at that time all those in his capital registered on the

diwan rolls ( al-diwaniyyah ), 707 amounting to seventy thousand

warriors. Bahram advanced rapidly with the troops who had joined

him until he had passed Harat and Badhghis. Shabah was unaware

of Bahrain's presence until the latter fixed his encampment in his

vicinity. Messages went backward and forward between them,

and clashes of arms, and Bahram killed Shabah with an arrow shot

at him. It is said that, in the realm of the Persians, supreme skill in

archery was attributed to three men: ’.r.sh.sh.yat.y.n's shot in the

war between Manushihr and Afrasiyab (text, "Firasiyat"); 708

Sukhra's shot in the war against the Turks,- 709 and this shot of

Bahrain's. He declared Shabah's encampment to be lawful booty,

and established himself in that place. B.r.mudhah, 710 Shabah's

707. An anachronistic use of the Islamic administrative term, that used to

denote the register of names of the Arab muqatilah or warriors and their pay

allotments, the system instituted, so the story goes, by the caliph 'Umar I, al-

though the word itself is assumed to stem ultimately from Old Persian dipi-,

"document, inscription," but probably with even older antecedents. See EIt, s.v.

Divan, i. The term (F. C. de Blois), and also al-Tabari, I, 877, p. 116 above, where

diwan is used for the king Firuz's perpatetic exchequer.

708. Thus in Noldeke's text, but n. e offers a variety of readings from the manuscripts, with Marquart, in Addenda et emendanda, p. dxciv, following Darmesteter, offering also hishshibdtir. For his translation, 271, Noldeke chose from among the various readings Arishsatin. The first element of the name is clearly the personal name Arish, the MP form of Avestan EraxSa-, of uncertain meaning. In

Iranian legendary history, Arish or Kay Arish, the Avestan Kawi Arshan, was the

celebrated archer who shot an arrow a prodigious distance to establish the bound-

ary between Iran and Afrasiyab's Turan, as mentioned here. The Arsacids traced

their descent back to Kay Arish, regarded in the Pahlavi sources as the grandson of Kay Kawad. See Noldeke, trans. 271 n. 2; Justi, Namenbuch, 29-30, 88-89; Mayr- hofer, Die altiranischen Namen, 38 no. 114; Yarshater, "Iranian National History" 373/ 406, 444, 475. Noldeke was, however, unable to suggest any plausible explanation of the second element satin (or however it should be read)

709. See I, 877, p. 1 16 above, for this incident.

710. Again a doubtful rendering of a name that does not look very Turkish in its

present form. Al-DInawari, al-Akhbai al-fiwdl, 81, has the much more Turkish-

looking Y.lt.kin for it, but N6ldeke was very likely correct in suspecting that this

was the invention of a later age when names for soldiers, etc., compounded with

the ancient Turkish, originally princely, title of tSgin were becoming f amiliar

within the Islamic world.

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303

son, who was the equal of his father, marched against Bahram.

Bahrain attacked him, put him to flight, and besieged him in a

certain fortress of his. Bahram pressed B.r.mudhah so hard that he

surrendered to him. Bahram sent him back captive to Hurmuz and

plundered immense treasures that were laid up in the fortress. It is

said that he transported to Hurmuz wealth, jewels, vessels,

weapons, and other plundered items amounting to two hundred

fifty-thousand camels' loads. Hurmuz thanked Bahram for the

booty he had gained and which had reached him.

However, Bahram was afraid of Hurmuz's violence, as were the

troops who were with him, so he threw off allegiance to Hurmuz,

advanced toward al-Mada’in, showed vexation at Hurmuz's behavior,

and proclaimed that Hurmuz's son Abarwiz was more fitted

for the royal power than he. Certain of those in Hurmuz's

court circle threw in their lot with the rebels. For this reason

Abarwiz, fearing Hurmuz, fled to Azerbaijan; a number of the

Marzbans and Isbahbadhs joined him there and gave him then-

allegiance. The great men and the nobles at al-Mada’in, including

Binduyah (text, "Bindi") and Bisfam, maternal uncles of Abarwiz,

rose up, deposed Hurmuz, blinded him with a red-hot needle but

left him alive, shrinking from the crime of actually killing him . 71 1

71 1. Binduyah (a hypocoristic from Winda-(famah?) "possessing royal glory,"

see Justi, Namenbuch, 368-69, 370-71) and Bisfam (see on this name n. 237 above) were members of one of the seven greatest families of Persia, regarded as almost on a level with the families of the Arsacids and Sisanids, that of Spabadh. Their father Shabur had been killed by Hormizd in his purge of magnates of the realm whom he regarded with suspicion (see al-Tabari, I, 990, p. 297 above), hence the revenge of the two sons in this rebellion against the king. See Noldeke, trans. 273 n. 1, 439 Excursus 3; Eh, s.v. Besfam o Bendoy (A. Sh. Shahbazi).

The mode of blinding mentioned here ( Ar. samala, Pers. mil kasbidan ) was often

employed in order to avoid physical desecration or disfiguring of the body of a

person invested with the divinely buttressed aura of kingship, etc. Procopius, The

Persian War, I.vi.17, states that the Persians used either to pour boiling olive oil

into the victim's wide-open eyes or else to prick the eyeballs with a heated needle.

Al-Tabari, I, 998, p. 310 below, and other sources state further that Hormizd was

shortly afterward murdered, either directly on Khusraw Abarwez's orders, as the

Byzantine chronicler Theophylactus Simocatta alleges, or with his complicity, as

al-Tabari says. See Christensen, Sassanides, 444.

3°4

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News of this reached Abarwiz, and he set out from Azerbaijan,

with his retinue, for the capital, hastening to get there before

Bahram. Having arrived at al-Mada’in, Abarwiz seized the royal

power and prepared to defend himself against Bahram. The two of

them met together on the bank of the Nahrawan river, 712 where

disputation and confrontation took place between them. Abarwiz

sought to convince Bahram that he would guarantee his security,

exalt him in rank, and raise the status of his governorship; but

[994] Bahram would not accept that. 713

Various battles took place between them, until Abarwiz was

compelled to flee to Byzantium, seeking help from its king, after a

fierce battle and a night attack launched by both sides. It is said

that Bahram had with him a detachment of especially strong

troops, including a group of three of the leading Turkish warriors,

unequalled among the rest of the Turks for their equestrian skills

[furusiyyah] and their strength, who had undertaken to Bahram

that they would kill Abarwiz. On the morning after the night

attack, Abarwiz stood firm and summoned his troops to give battle

to Bahram, but they were reluctant to stir. The group of three

Turks attacked him, but Abarwiz went out to engage them and

killed them one by one with his own hand. He then abandoned the

battlefield, aware that his followers had been reluctant to fight

and were wavering in their allegiance. He went to his father at

Ctesiphon, entered his presence, told him what was apparent to

him regarding his troops' attitude, and sought his advice. Hurmuz

advised him to make his way to Mawriq (Maurice), the king of the

Byzantines, in order to seek help from him. He placed his women-

folk and children in a place secure from Bahram and set off with a

small number of companions, including Binduyah, Bistam and

Kurdi, brother of Bahram Jubln. He reached Antioch, and wrote to

712. That is, the canal that ran a two hundred miles' course, parallel to and

eastward of the Tigris, from near Takrit in the north to Madharaya in the south.

See further on the region of Nahrawan n. 615 above.

713. As Noldeke, trans. 273 n. 1, and 274 n. 2, observed, the course of all these

events, which were to culminate in Khusraw Abarwez's triumph over Bahram

Chubin, is extremely confused in the sources, with Theophylactus having the

clearest and fullest narrative here. See Christensen, Sassanides, 444-45; Eh, s.v.

Bahram. vii. Bahram VI Cobin (A. Sh. Shahbazi).

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305

Mawriq. The latter received him and gave him in marriage his

daughter, called Maryam (Mary), who Was very precious to him.

The complete extent of Hurmuz, son of Kisra's reign was, according

to certain authorities, eleven years, nine months, and ten days,

and according to Hisham b. Muhammad, twelve years. 714

[Kisra II Abarwiz ]

Then there assumed the royal power Kisra Abarwiz. 715 [995]

[He was] the son of Hurmuz, the son of Kisra Anusharwan, and

was one of the outstanding kings of the dynasty in regard to bravery,

one of them with the most incisive judgment, and one with

the most far-sighted perceptions. According to what has been

mentioned, his strength in battle, valor, successfulness, victoriousness, accumulation of wealth and treasuries, the assistance

to his cause of fate and of the times, reached a pitch that had never

been vouchsafed to any king more exalted than he. Hence he was

called Abarwiz, meaning in Arabic "The Victorious One."

714. For more detailed comment on these events, including Bahrain's revolt,

Khusraw Abarwez's appeal to the Byzantine emperor Maurice, and his alleged

marriage to a Byzantine princess, see die second, fuller narrative of these events by al-Tabari at I, 995!!., pp. 305#. below.

In the Arabic and Persian sources, the story of the three-sided struggle between

Hormizd, Khusraw Abarwez, and Bahram Chubln is given in detail by al-Dinawari, al-Akhbar al-fiwal, 79-84 and Jabari-Bal’ami, tr. n, i66ff., and more cursorily by al-Ya'qubi, Ta’rikh, I, 187-91, and al-Mas'udi, Muruj, II, 212-15 * §§ 633-35. Of modem studies, see Christensen, Sassanides, 444-46; Frye, "The Political History of Iran under the Sasanians," 164-65, 178, Eh, s.v. Bahram VI Cabin (A. Sh. Shahbazi).

Hormizd IV's period of power was 579-90, see Frye, op. cit., 178. His name

appears on his coins as AUHRMZDY. See on his coins Paruck, Sasanian Coins, 66, 384-85, 479-83, Plate XX, Tables XXVI-XXVII; Gobi, Sasanian Numismatics, 52, Table XI, Plate 12; Sellwood, Whitting, and Williams, An Introduction to Sasanian Coins, 21, 145-47; Malek, "A Survey of Research on Sasanian Numismatics," 237.

The Arabic sources on his reign in general include Ibn Qutaybah, Ma'arif, 664;

al-Ya'qubi, op. cit., I, 187-91; al-Dinawari, op. cit., 74-84; al-Mas'udi, Muruj, n,

195-211 - §§ 617-31; idem, Tanbih, 102, tr. 146; Hamzah al-I?fahani, Ta’rikh, 53;

Ibn al-Athlr, Kamil, I, 469-72. Of Persian sources, see Tabari-Bal'ami, trans. II,

246-53. Of modem studies, see the ones detailed in the previous paragraph.

715. MP abarwez, NP parwez, "victorious." See Justi, Namenbuch, 19;

Nfildeke, trans. 275 n. 3. This point is the beginning of the second, fuller narrative

of events surrounding the deposition of Hormizd, the revolt of Bahram Chubin and the eventual triumph of Khusraw Abarwez.

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It is mentioned that, when he became apprehensive of what his

father Hurmuz intended, on account of the scheming of Bahram

Jubln over this, and when it had reached the point that Hurmuz

imagined that Abarwlz was planning to seize the royal power for

himself, Abarwlz left secretly for Azerbaijan. Subsequently, he

proclaimed his cause openly there. When he reached that region, a

group of the Isbahbadhs and others who were there rallied to him

and gave him their allegiance, promising to give him aid, but he

made no [positive] steps toward that. It is also said that, when

Adhln Jushnas, 716 who had been sent to combat Bahram Jubln,

was killed, the army accompanying Adhln Jushnas scattered and

finally made its way to al-Mada’in. Jubln pursued them, and Hurmuz's

position became very unsure. Adhin Jushnas's sister,

who had been the youthful companion of Abarwiz, wrote to him,

informing him of Hurmuz's weak position as a result of what had

happened to Adhln Jushnas and telling him that the great men of

state had resolved upon deposing Hurmuz. She further told him

that, if Jubln reached al-Mada’in before he could get there, Jubln

would occupy it. When the letter reached Abarwiz, he gathered

together all the troops he could from Armenia and Azerbaijan, and

with them marched on al-Mada’in. The leading figures and nobles

rallied to him, full of joy at his arrival. He assumed the royal

crown and seated himself on his throne. He said: "It is part of our

religion to choose piety [above all other things], and part of our

considered opinion to do good works. Our grandfather Kisra, son

of Qubadh, was like a parent for you, and our father Hurmuz was a

just judge for you,- so ensure that you remain obedient and submissive

 now."

On the third day, Abarwiz went to his father, prostrated himself

before him and said, "May God grant you long life, O king! You

716. This name appears variously in the sources. Noldeke adopted his reading

here, see trans. 276 n. 2, on a basis of the readings of al-Tabari and al-Ya'qubi alone among the sources. Justi, Namenbuch, 5, 354-55, interpreted this putative name as from adhin "ornament" + gushnasp "strong, powerful." But Mr F. C. de Blois has pointed out that Justi's translation is certainly wrong: rather, for adhin read MP ewen "manner, custom" (NP a'in), while gushnasp means "stallion" and is also the name of a sacred fire. He suggests that a rendering *Adur-gushnasp would make better sense here.

717. Correcting the name Bahram of the text to Hurmuz, as in Addenda et

emendanda, p. dxciv, and Noldeke, trans. 276.

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307

know that I am innocent of what your false-hearted subjects (literally, "hypocrites," munafiqun ) did to you. I went into hiding and

made for Azerbaijan out of fear that you had the intention to kill

me." Hurmuz gave credence to this apology, saying, "O my dear

son, I have two requests to make of you, so aid me in implementing

these. The first one is that you should take vengeance on my

behalf upon those who took part in my deposition and blinding, 718

and that you should show no mercy toward them. The second one

is that you should appoint every day three persons of firm judgment

to keep me company and that you should instruct them to

come into my presence." Abarwiz showed himself humble and

submissive toward him, and said, "O king, may God grant you

long life! The rebel Bahram is threatening us from very near and

has on his side courage and bravery; we do not at present have the

power to stretch forth our hand against those who perpetrated

what they did against you, but if God gives me the upper hand over

the false-hearted one, then I shall act as your representative and

the willing agent of your hand."

Bahram got news of Kisra's approach and of how the people had

made Abarwiz king. He hastened toward al-Mada’in with his

troops. Abarwiz sent out spies against him. When Bahram drew

near to him, Abarwiz thought that the best course was to negotiate

with him peaceably. So he girded on his weapons, and ordered

Binduyah, Bistam, a group of the great men whom he trusted, and

a thousand men of his troops to put on their best array and gird on

their weapons. Abarwiz set out from his fortress with them

against Bahram, with the people calling down blessings on his

head, and surrounded by Binduyah, Bistam, and all the other leading

figures until he halted on the bank of the Nahrawan river.

When Bahram perceived the full extent of Abarwiz's panoply, he

set out on a piebald mount ( birdhawn . . . ablaq), which he especially

 held dear, wearing no mailed coat and accompanied by Izadh

Jushnas 719 and three men who were kinsmen of the king of the

Turks. These last had pledged their lives to Bahram that they

718. That is, on Binduyah, Bistam, and their allies, see al-Tabari, I, 993, p. 303

above.

719. That is, izad "God" + gushnasp (see n. 716 above); see Justi, Nameabuch,

145 - 46 , 354 - 55 -

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would hand over to him Abarwlz as a prisoner, and he had given

them extensive wealth as payment for this.