VOL 5.15

When Bahram saw Kisra's fine figure, his splendid outfit, his

crown going with him, accompanied by the unfurled banner of

Kawah ( dirafsh-i Kabiydn ), their supremely mighty flag , 720 and

when he saw Binduyah, Bistam, and the rest of the great men,

their fine weapons, their splendor, and their mounts, he became

downcast at all this, and commented to his companions, "Do you

not see that the son of a whore has put on flesh and grown fat, has

made the transition from youth to manhood experience, has acquired

an ample beard and a full-grown mustache , 721 and his body

has become stout." While he was uttering these words, having

stationed himself on the bank of the Nahrawan river, Kisra said to

one of those standing with him, "Which of these is Bahram?" One

of Bahrain's brothers called Kurdi, who had never wavered in his

allegiance to Abarwlz and had remained one of his followers, said,

"May God grant you long life, the man on the piebald steed!" Kisra

began his speech with the following words: "O Bahram, you are

one of the supports of our kingdom and a pillar for our subjects,-

you have exerted yourself nobly in our service. We have seen fit to

choose some day auspicious for you 722 in order to appoint you to

720. This banner is said to have been originally the apron of the blacksmith

Kawah who, in the Iranian national epic, led a successful revolt against the tyrant

Zohak, although the legend is, according to Christensen, of comparatively late,

Sasanid origin. By that time, it was equated with the royal standard of the Persian

kings, and several Arabic authors (e.g., al-Tabari, 1, 2174-75; al-Mas'udi, Muruj, IV, 224 » § 1556; al-Khwarazmi, Mafatlh al-'ulum, 115) purport to describe it. By the time of these authors, however, the banner had long ceased to exist, being cap-

tured, according to the historians, at the decisive battle of al-Qadisiyyah between

the Persians and Arabs in 15/636 or 16/637. See Noldeke, trans. 278 n. i;

Christensen, Les Kayanides, 43; idem, Sassanides, 502-504; El 2 , s.v. Kawah (Ed.).

721. Following the preferred reading of the Sprenger ms. sharibihi (text, n. c), for

the text's shababihi.

722. That is, auspicious from the astrological aspect. It is emphasized in later

Islamic literature, and, in particular, in the works of the third/ninth-century author al-Jahiz of Basrah and apocryphal works attributed to him, that hemerology,

the skill of choosing auspicious days for planned actions, had in considerable

measure passed to the Arabs from the Persians, with the official astrologers already significant figures at the Sasanid court. In the Kitab al-taj or Kitab akhlaq al- muluk, attributed (but almost certainly falsely) to al-fahiz, it is stated that when Ardashir I Pabagan divided up Persian society into four classes (an item of informa- tion that figures extensively in the sources; see Marlow, Hierarchy and Egalitarianism in Islamic Thought, 79-83), physicians, scribes, and astrologers formed the third class. See Kit&b al-tdj, tr. 5 j; Gabrieli, "Etichetta di corte e costumi sasanidinel Kitab Ahlaq al-Muluk di al-Gahi?," 296-97; EP, s.v. Ikhtiyarat (T. Fahd).

[The Last Sasanid Kings]

309

the office of Isbahbadh of the whole land of Persia." Bahrain, however,

replied, "But I have chosen for you a day for crucifying you! "

Kisra was filled with trepidation, even though nothing of it

showed in his face. Bahram said to Abarwiz, "O son of an adulteress,

raised in the tents of the Kurds!" and other words like it,

and accepted nothing whatever of what Abarwiz had offered him.

There was mention of Arish, Bahrain's forefather, and Abarwiz

reproached him over Arish's obedience to Abarwiz's own forefather

Manushihr . 723 The two of them separated, each one showing

the most violent hostility to the other.

Bahram had a sister called Kurdiyah, one of the most accomplished

of women and most endowed of them with qualities,

whom he had married . 724 She reproached Bahram for his evil

speech adressed to Kisra and his attempt to bring him under his

own obedience, but he would have none of it. A martial engagement

between Kisra and Bahram took place. It is said that, on the

morning after the night battle, Kisra sallied forth for combat in

person. The three Turks saw him and made for him, but Abarwiz

killed them with his own hand. He urged on his troops to battle,

but perceived that they were flagging. He decided to go to some

other monarch and seek military help from him. He went first to

his father [Hurmuz], seeking his advice; Hurmuz considered that

Abarwiz's best course was to make his way to the king of the

Byzantines. He placed his womenfolk in a secure place and set out

with a small body of men, including Binduyah, Bistam, and

Bahrain's brother Kurd!. When they left al-Mada’in, the mass of

Abarwiz's supporters ( al-qawm ), however, were afraid that

Bahram would restore Hurmuz to the royal power and write to the

king of the Byzantines on his behalf that Abarwiz's delegation be

723. On Arish, see n. 708 above, where is mentioned the”claims of the Arsacids,

Bahrain's alleged forebears, to descent from the Kay Arish of Iranian legendary

history.

724. As N&ldeke observed, trans. 279 n. 6, such a marriage would be allowable

and even praiseworthy in Zoroastrian law and custom, though repugnant to the

Muslim Firdawsi, who suppresses mention of it in the Shah-namah. It would also

have been unacceptable to the pre-Islamic Arabs; see Robertson Smith, Kinship

and Marriage in Early Arabia, 164.

3io

[The Last Sasanid Kings]

sent back so that they might be put to death. They told this to

Abarwiz and sought permission from him to kill Hurmuz; but he

made no reply. Hence Binduyah, Bistam, and some of their followers

went to Hurmuz, strangled him to death, and then returned

to Kisra. They said, "You can now proceed under the best

possible auguries ." 725

They urged on their mounts and came to the Euphrates, crossed

it, and took the way through the desert under the guidance of a

man called Khurshldhan , 726 arriving at a certain monastery on the

edge of the cultivated land. While they encamped in the courtyard

there, a cavalry squadron of Bahrain's, commanded by a man

called Bahram, son of Siyawush, came upon them by surprise.

Once they became aware of this, Binduyah woke Abarwiz from his

slumber and told him, "Use some stratagem [for escaping], for the

enemy are on top of you." Kisra replied, "I have no means of

escaping," so Binduyah told him that he would sacrifice his own

life for him, and asked him to hand over his weapons and equipment

 and to flee with his retainers from the monastery. They did

this, and hurried on ahead of the enemy until they were able to

conceal themselves in the mountains. When Bahram, son of

Siyawush, arrived, Binduyah, girded with Abaarwlz's weapons and

equipment, showed himself to Bahram from the top of the monastery,

and let Bahram thereby imagine that he was Abarwiz. He

asked Bahram to grant him a respite until the next morning, when

he would peacefully deliver himself into his hands. Hence Bahram

left him alone and only later was his stratagem revealed. Bahram,

son of Siyawush, took Binduyah back with him to Jubln, who

consigned Binduyah to imprisonment in Bahrain's custody.

It is said that Bahram [Jubln] entered the royal palaces at al-

Mada’in and sat down on the royal throne. The prominent leaders

and great men of state gathered round him, and Bahram addressed

725. These words, and those of other sources, no doubt express the degree of

Khusraw's complicity in his father's killing: satisfaction with the result without

having to stain his own hands with blood. Khusraw's conduct here was certainly

Machiavellian,- Noldeke, 281 n. 1, adduces the parallel of the Russian emperor

Alexander I, who in 1801 certainly had prior knowledge of the planned murder of

his father Paul I.

72 6. That is, Khurshedh, Avestan hvaia-xSaeta, literally "sun." See Justi,

Namenbuch, 180; Bartholomae, Altiianisches Worterbuch, col. 1848.

[The Last Sasanid Kings]

3ii

them, abusing Abarwiz violently and blaming him. Several sessions

of argument and disputation took place between him and

the prominent leaders, all of whom were averse to him. Nevertheless,

Bahram seated himself on the royal throne and had himself

crowned, and the people gave him obedience out of fear . 727 It is

said that Bahram, son of Siyawush, agreed with Binduyah on assassinating

Jubin, but the latter got to know about it, and had

Bahram, son of Siyawush, executed. Binduyah, however, escaped

and managed to reach Azerbaijan.

Abarwiz journeyed onward until he reached Antioch, and from

there wrote to Mawriq, the king of the Byzantines, sending to him

a delegation of his retainers and asking him for military aid . 728

727. Bahram Chubln entered Ctesiphon in summer 590. There was clearly a

reluctance among the great men of state in the capital that the ancient house of the

Sasanids should be set aside by Bahram. The latter, for his part, claimed to be the

restorer of the even more ancient house of the Arsacids, who had been displaced by the upstart Ardashir (I) b. Sasan, son of a mere shepherd, and he took advantage of apocalyptic beliefs which, so he asserted, foretold himself as the future savior of the land of Iran from such external foes as the Byzantines and the Hephthalites. In Ctesiphon he assumed the complete royal style, being crowned and issuing coins, although according to Theophylactus and al-Dinawari, al-Akhbar al-tiwdl, 90, he hedged his bets by proclaiming to the nobles that he was only acting as regent for Hormizd's young son Shahriyar until the latter should reach maturity. Despite his efforts, Bahram was never able to persuade the Persian aristocracy and the Zoroastrian clergy that he held a social position above their own or that he enjoyed the divine favor, and a strong party of them continued to favor the cause of Khusraw Abarwez as successor to his father. Bahram had accordingly to turn to other elements for support, including that of the Jews; subsequently, Khusraw's commander Mahbodh slaughtered many Jews in retaliation. See Neusner, "Jews in Iran," 916.

Bahram VI Chubln reigned in Ctesiphon 590-91. His name appears on his coins

as VRHR’N. See on his coins, Paruck, Sdsdnian Coins, 66-67, 385-86, 483-84,

Plate XX, Table XXVII; Gdbl, Sasanian Numismatics, 52, Table XI, Plate 12; Sellwood, Whitting, and Williams, An Introduction to Sasanian Coins, 21, 148-49; Malek, "A Survey of Research on Sasanian Numismatics," 237.

See on his career and reign Noldeke, trans. 282 n. 2; Christensen, Sassanides,

444-45; Czegl6dy, "Bahram Cobin and the Persian Apocalyptic Literature," 25-

27 ; Eh, s.v. Bahram. vii. Bahram VI Cobin (A. Sh. Shahbazij.

728. Both the exact date of Khusraw Abarwez's appeal to Maurice and the exact

route he followed from the Persian capital to the Byzantine lands present certain

problems. However, it seems likely that the date was the late spring of 590. Antioch, mentioned here by al-Tabari as the place to which Khusraw fled, was deep in Byzantine territory, and it is much more probable, on the basis of fairly exact itineraries in Theophylactus and the Anonymus Guidi, that Khusraw and his

entourage traveled horn the region of Ctesiphon up the Euphrates valley via FIruz Shapur/al-Anbar, Hit and 'Anah to Circesium/Qarqlsiya at the confluence of the

Khabur and Euphrates, the first fortified point within Byzantine territory.

Bahrain had tried to purchase Byzantine neutrality in the struggle by offering to

cede Nisibin and the lands held by the Persians right up to the Tigris. But Maurice

must have felt that it was better for Byzantine interests to have a young and

inexperienced Khusraw Abarwez on the throne than the battle-hardened warrior

Bahram, and he may also have hoped to extract concessions for the Christians

within the Persian realm if Khusraw were to prevail. At all events, Maurice

disregarded the advice of the Senate in Constantinople, which was suspicious of

affordng any help to the ancestral foe, and a Byzantine army to be commanded by

the Magister Militum Narses was promised as aid for Khusraw. See Bury, A History of the Later Roman Empire from Arcadius to Irene, n, 112; Higgins, The Persian War of the Emperor Maurice (582-602), Part I, 42-54; Goubert, Byzance avant l’lslam, I, 131-45.

312

[The Last Sasanid Kings]

Mawrlq agreed to this, and things went so far that he gave Abarwlz

his daughter Maryam in marriage and had her conveyed to him . 729

Furthermore, he sent to Abarwlz his brother Thiyadhus (Theodosius ) 730

 with an army of sixty thousand warriors, headed by a

man called Sarjis (Sergius), who was [in practice] in charge of all

the army's affairs, and another man whose strength was equal to a

thousand men . 731 He laid down as conditions that Abarwlz should

729. As Noldeke pointed out, trans. 283 n. 2, the Persian historical tradition and

later romantic literature makes this Byzantine princess the mother of Khusraw

Abarwez's son and successor Kawad II Sheroy, whereas the Greek sources do not

mention her. Noldeke did not at the time when he made his translation of al-

Tabari know of the Syriac Anonymus Guidi (the earlier, greater part of which may, it has recently been suggested, have been written by Elias of Marw: personal

communication from Dr. Sebastian Brock). This chronicle does in fact, mention

her as one of Khusraw's two Christian wives (see trans. Noldeke, 10). Another

Syriac chronicler like Dionysius of Tell Mahre records the marriage with much

circumstantial detail, e.g., that she was accompanied to the Persian capital by

bishops and clergy and that Khusraw built for her two places of worship ( haykle j, one dedicated to St. Sergius and the other to Mary, the Mother of Jesus (see trans.

Palmer, The Seventh Century in the West-Syrian Chronicles, 117). It seems that

there was some confusion between the Byzantine princess Maria and the cele-

brated Shirin, Khusraw's beloved, the subject of so many later Persian romances,

and Theophylactus makes Sire likewise of Byzantine origin. However, Shirin is

said by the Anonymus Guidi, loc. cit., to have been of Aramaean origin from the

district around what was later al-Ba§rah. As the mother of Khusraw's son Mardan

Shah and the mother or foster mother of another son, Shahriyar, she showed

herself hostile to Sheroy after her husband's death. The historicity of Khusraw's

supposed marriage with Maria must remain very dubious. See von Gutschmid,

"Bemerkungen zu Tabari's Sasanidengeschichte," 744; Labourt, Le Christianisme

dans l’empire perse, 208-209; Garsoian, "Byzantium and the Sasanians," 579.

730. Noldeke, trans. 284 n. 1, corrected "brother" to "son," as in al-DInawari,

al-Akhbar al-tiwal, 92, and later Persian sources.

731. al-DInawari, al-Akhbar al-tiwal, 92, speaks of "ten men from among the

Hazarmardan," hazaimaid "(having the strength of] a thousand men," being a

frequent sobriquet of valiant warriors, as Ndldeke, trans. 284 n. 2, points out.

[The Last Sasanid Kings]

3i3

treat him with respect and cease requiring the tribute his forefathers

had exacted from the kings of the Byzantines. When the

Byzantine troops reached Abarwlz, he was filled with joy and allowed

 them five days' rest after their arrival. Then he reviewed

them and appointed officers (' mafd ’) over them. The army included

 in its numbers Thiyadhus, Sarjis, and the champion warrior

who was the equal of a thousand men. He went with them

until he reached Azerbaijan and encamped on a plain called al-

Danaq (?). 732 Binduyah and a man from the I§bahbadhs of that

region called Mushll 733 with forty thousand warriors met up with

him there, and people from Fars, Isbahan, and Khurasan rushed 734

to Abarwiz's standard.

Bahram got news of Abarwiz's taking up his position on the

plain of al-Danaq and set out toward him from al-Mada’in. Several

violent clashes took place between them in which the Byzantine

champion was killed. It is said that Abarwlz engaged Bahrain's

forces, quite separately from the main body of the army, with just

fourteen of his soldiers, including Bahrain's brother Kurd!, Binduyah,

Bistam, Sabur, son of Airiyan, Abadh, son of Farrukhzadh,

and Farrukh Hurmuz , 735 in a fierce hand-to-hand fight. The

Zoroastrians ( al-Majus ) assert that Abarwlz got trapped in a defile

and Bahram pursued him thither, but when Bahram was sure that

he had Abarwlz in his power, something that could not be comprehended

(i.e., some supernatural power) took the latter up to the

732. Minorsky, "Roman and Byzantine Campaigns in Atropatene," 88-89,

discussed the readings for this unidentified name, which include Firdawsi's Duk,

and he thought that MP d.w.k might lie behind it. He also noted the frequent

confusion in Arabic orthography of final led/ and lam and the existence of a place

name Dul to the southeast of Lake Urmiya. For the probable location of the final

battle between Bahram and the combined forces of the Byzantine army and

Khusraw, see n. 736 below,

733. Reading thus for the text's Musil, since Ndldeke, trans. 285 n. 3, identified

him as Mushel, the Armenian ruler of Mush in eastern Anatolia, bom the famous

Mamikonian family.

734. Following the reading wa-inqadda in Addenda et emendanda, p. dxciv.

735. Following the reconstruction of these names — all fourteen of them being

given in Firdawsi's Shdh-ndmah— in Addenda et emendanda, p. dxciv, two of

them, Sabur, son of Afriyan, and Abadh, son of Farrukhzad, being to a considerable extent differently rendered in Noldeke's original edition and his translation, 286, rendering some of the etymological speculations in his n. 2 invalid.

314

[The Last Sasanid Kings]

top of the mountain. It is mentioned that the astrologers agreed

that Abarwlz would reign for forty-eight years. Abarwiz went out

to engage Bahrain in single combat. He wrested Bahrain's spear

from his hand and battered his head with it until the spear broke.

Bahram became downhearted about his cause; he grew fearful, and

realized that he had no hope of withstanding Abarwiz. Hence he

retreated toward Khurasan and thence to the Turks . 736

Abarwiz, meanwhile, journeyed to al-Mada’in after he had

distributed twenty million [dirhams] among the Byzantine troops

and had sent them back to Mawrlq. It is said that Abarwiz wrote a

letter to the Christians giving them permission to establish their

churches (' imarat biya'ihim) and allowing anyone who wished,

with the exception of the Zoroastrians, to adopt their faith . 737 In

736. Bahrain's troops in the vicinity of Nisibln had at the beginning of 591 gone

over to Khusraw's side on hearing of the latter's alliance with the Byzantines, so

that Khusraw then controlled Upper Mesopotamia. The combined forces of Narses and Khusraw's general Mabodh captured Seleucia, Ctesiphon, and Weh Andiyog Shabur in summer 591, and Bahram then faced the combined threat of Narses' army plus a mixed Persian-Armenian-Byzantine force under Binduyah and the Greek general John Mysticus, moving southward from Armenia into Upper Mesopotamia. In Azerbaijan, on a plain to the east of Lake Urmiya, by a river called by the Byzantine historians Balarath, near the fortified point of Ganzakos (identified by Minorsky with the course of the Miiri Chay to the south of modem Maraghah), the armies met. Although Bahrain's army included a contingent of "Turks" plus a troop of war elephants, it was decisively defeated, with the victors seizing Bahrain's royal tent, harem, children, and jewels. He himself managed to escape with a small force of some four thousand men to Nishapur and thence across the Oxus to the "land of the Turks." See Higgins, The Persian War of the Emperor Maurice (582-602), Part I, 51-54; Minorsky, "The Roman and Byzantine Campaigns in Atropatene," 87-91; Goubert, Byzance avant I’lslam, 1 , 147-61; Elr, s.v. Bahram. vii. Bahram (VI) Cobin (A. Sh. Shahbazi).

737. As Noldeke noted, trans. 288 n. 1, Zoroastrian church law — like the subsequent Islamic one — prescribed death as the penalty for apostasy from that faith.

The Greek and Syriac sources record that Khusraw Anusharwan had executed

high-bom Persian converts to Christianity and had put to death the Monophysite

Catholicos because he had baptised members of the imperial family; in the Perso-

Byzantine treaty of 562 (see n. 703 above), this penalty for proselytism had been

prescribed as the reflex of freedom of worship for the Christians. On Khusraw

Abarwez's policy toward the Christians, see Labourt, Le Christianisme dans l’empire perse, 208-35; Asmussen, "Christians in Iran," 946. Labourt highlights the great influence at Khusraw's court of his treasurer, the Nestorian Yazdln, descendant of the martyr Pethion (see n. 487 above) and the official responsible for collecting the land tax. Yazdln was a member of a rich and influential Nestorian family from the vicinity of Dastagird in eastern Iraq (see on this place, n. 756 below); a Yezdinabadh mentioned in Adiabene may reflect their property interests. This family was for long prominent in the financial administration of the Persian realm, and various of its members were generous benefactors of the Nestorian Church.

Nevertheless, the see of Seleucia-Ctesiphon remained vacant from the Catholicos

Gregory's death in 609 till the end of Khusraw's reign in 628, and Yazdin was

unable to secure authorisation for his replacement |op. cit., 230-31).

[The Last Sasanid Kings] 315

this connection he adduced the fact that Anusharwan had made a

peace agreement with [kana hadana) Qaysar regarding the tribute

that he exacted from the Byzantine ruler, and had stipulated that

those of his [Zoroastrian] compatriots who were in the Byzantine

ruler's lands should be kindly treated and that the monarch should

build fire temples for them in his lands. Qay$ar, for his part, had

made a similar stipulation in regard to the Christians [in the Persian lands]. 738

Bahram remained among the Turks, highly honored by the king,

until Abarwiz intrigued against him by sending a man called Hurmuz. 739

He sent him to the Turks with valuable jewels and other

things, and Hurmuz was able to worm his way into the confidence

738. The peace treaty of autumn $91, which concluded the Byzantine intervention in Persia, involved honors and presents for the Byzantine commanders and for the Armenian allies of Khusraw, with the Prince Srpbat Bagratuni being appointed Marzban of Hyrcania/ Gurgan. Khusraw now renounced his claims to some two- thirds of Armenia. Maurice recovered the town of Martyropolis, captured by the Persians in $88, and Daras/Dara was returned to him, although there was no question of the wide range of territory promised to Maurice by Bahram being relinquished, and Ni$ibin remained firmly in Persian hands. The financial provisions were important, but the twenty million dirhams mentioned by al-Tabari here were in practice a lesser sum, since they had to be set against the arrears of tribute due from the Byzantines in previous years. In the sphere of protocol, the Persian emperor now for the first time agreed to address the Byzantine monarch as Basileus in official correspondence instead of just Caesar (although it was to be

Heraclius in 629, after his crushing victory over the Sasanids, who was formally to adopt the title Basileus, previously used informally; see I. Shahid, "The Iranian

Factor in Byzantium during the Reign of Heraclius," 295-96). According to Theophylactus, Maurice agreed to leave behind at Ctesiphon a force of one thousand Byzantine troops as Khusraw's personal guard. See Noldeke, trans. 287 n. i; Bury, History of the Later Roman Empire from Arcadius to Irene, n, 112; Goubert, Byzance avant l’lslam, I, 163-70; Elr, s.v. Byzantine-Iranian Relations. 1. Before the Islamic Conquest (A. Sh. Shahbazi).

739. This man appears in, e.g., al-Dinawari, al-Akhbar al-tiwal, 80, 83, and al-

Ya'qubi, Ta’rikh, I, 193-94, with the further component to his name of Jarabzin

(with Jalabzin also found in the sources, including al-Tabari, 1 , 1030, p. 360-61 and n. 864 below), the Zalabzan of Byzantine Greek historians. See Nfildeke, trans.

289 n. 1.

316

[The Last Sasanid Kings]

of Khatun, the king's wife, and win her over with those jewels and

other things, until she engaged agents who secretly brought about

Bahrain's death . 740 It is said that Khaqan grieved over his killing,

and sent a message to Kurdiyah, Bahrain's sister and wife, informing

her of the fate that had come upon Bahram through his -

740. The story of Bahrain's murder through feminine wiles is narrated in considerable detail by al-Dinawari, al-Akhbai al-tiwal, 98-100, also in al-Ya'qubi,

Ta’rikh, I, 193-94, at fair length, laconically in al-Mas'udi, Muruj, n, 222-23 = §§

642-43, and Tabari-Bal'ami, trans. II, 302-303. Bahrain's troops are said to have

feared for their continued safety among the "Turks" after their commander's death

and to have returned to the security of the fastnesses of Daylam in the Elburz

mountains, where Sasanid control was negligible, taking part later in the revolt of

Bistam.

At-Tabari records nothing of the fates of Khusraw Abarwez's two great-uncles

Binduyah and Bistam (on whom see n. 711 above). Al-Dinawari, op. cit., 101-105, and al-Ya'qubi, op. cit., I, 194-95, deal with them at length and in the same

romantic guise as the legends around Bahram Chubrn's end, concluding with

Bistam's revolt and eventual death through the craftiness of Kurdiyah, Bahrain's

sister. Certain Greek and Armenian sources have more prosaic but much briefer

references. Theophylactus states that Khusraw took vengeance on all those who

had been involved in the deposition and blinding of his father Hormizd, and had

Binduyah thrown into the Tigris,- the Armenian historian Sebeos says that Bistam

fled to "Parthia" and was later treacherously killed by a "Kushan" ruler of the east.

The Anonymus Guidi, tr. 8-9, also records their deaths. There was thus in

Noldeke's time little hard historical fact on the revolt, but in his trans. 478-87,

Excursus 7, he extracted what he could out of the meager evidence. He concluded

that Khusraw probably dealt with Binduyah fairly quickly, but that Bistam, who

had been appointed Marzban of Khurasan, did not rebel until 591 or early 592, and that he maintained himself virtually independent in northern Persia till the end of 595, since coins of his are extant, dated to what are called years 2-6 of his reign. We

now know considerably more, above all through the information given by al-

Dinawari (known to Noldeke but still in manuscript and apparently not fully

accessible to him) and from fresh numismatic evidence. It seems accordingly that

Bistam held power ca. 590-96 over a considerable stretch of territory in the north,

from Media/Jibal and the Caspian provinces to Khurasan as far as the Oxus, with

the backing of many local magnates and troops from Bahram Chubin's former

army. He minted coins at Rayy, under the name PYLWCY WSTHM, i.e., Peroz

Vistahm, with dates extending over seven regnal years. See on his coins Paruck,

Sasanian Coins, 67, 386, Plate XX; Gobi, Sasanian Numismatics, 53, Table XI,

Plate 13; Sellwood, Whitting, and Williams, An Introduction to Sasanian Coins,

21, iso-si; Malek, "A Survey of Research on Sasanian Numismatics," 237. The

coin sequence, and information in Christian sources, indicate that it was not till

596 that Khusraw Abarwez managed through intrigue to procure Bistam's death

and thus end his separatist movement; he also slew some sixty members of the

families of Binduyah and Bistam. These killings were to form one of the accusations laid at Khusraw's door when he himself was deposed and executed over thirty years later; see al-Tabari, I, pp. 1046-47, 1051-52, 1053-54, pp. 382-84, 387-88, 390-91 below. See Eh, s.v. Bestam o Bendoy (A. Sh. Shahbazi).

[The Last Sasanid Kings]

3i7

responsibility and asking if he could marry her to his brother N.tra [?).

For this reason (i.e., his responsibility for the killing of Bahrain) he

divorced Khatun. It is said that Kurdiyah gave Khaqan a soft answer

but refused N.tra. She gathered round herself the warriors

who had been with her brother, and set off with them from the

land of the Turks toward the borders of the kingdom of Persia.

N.tra the Turk pursued her with twelve thousand warriors, but

she killed him with her own hand. She proceeded onward and

wrote to her brother Kurdi, who subsequently secured for her from

Abarwiz a grant of safe conduct and security ( aman ). When she

reached Abarwiz, he married her. He was highly taken with her,

and thanked her for having (previously) reproached Bahram . 741

Abarwiz showed himself grateful and acted in a kindly way toward

Mawriq . 742

After Kisra had reigned for fourteen years, the Byzantines

deposed Mawriq and killed him, also exterminating all his heirs,

apart from one of his sons who fled to Kisra, and they raised to the

throne as their king a man named Fuqa (Phocas ). 743 When Kisra

heard the news of the Byzantines' breaking their allegiance to

Mawriq and their killing him, he became violently aroused, regarded

 it with revulsion, and was gripped by anger . 744 He gave

741. There does not seem to be any firm historical information that Khusraw

did marry Kurdiya, though it would not be unexpected. The story involving N.tra,

a name which does not look possible as a Turkish one, must be pure legend.

742. See n. 738 above.

743. Text, Qtifa. On the revolution in Constantinople that led to the dethronement and murder in 602 of Maurice and his sons and his replacement as emperor

by the Thracian centurion Phocas, see Bury, A History of the Later Roman Empire from Arcadius to Irene, n, 86-94. In fact, Theodosius, Maurice's eldest son and intended heir over the Balkan, Anatolian, and Near Eastern lands of the empire, seems to have escaped death with the rest of his brothers only for a short while after their execution, although rumors were rife that he had escaped to Persia, as reported here by al-Tabari and by certain Byzantine historians, including Theophylactus. It seems to have been enemies of Phocas who subsequently spread abroad these rumors that Theodosius had survived the bloodbath, made his way to Persia, and then ended his days in the wastes of Colchis (i.e., western Caucasia).

But Khusraw Abarwez might well have given shelter to some Byzantine claimant,

whether genuine or not, as is implied by the Armenian historian Sebeos, in order to use him in as a pawn in any future Perso-Byzantine conflict, as surmised by

Noldeke, trans. 290 n. 2.

744. The killing of Maurice was, nevertheless, only a pretext for the beginning

of hostilities, since there had been tension with Persia already in the latter years of

Maurice's reign. See Bury, A History of the Later Roman Empire from Arcadius to Irene, II, 198-99; Higgins, The Persian Wars of Emperor Maurice (582-602),

passim.

[1002]

318 [The Last Sasanid Kings]

asylum to Mawriq's son, who had come to him as a refugee,

crowned him, and set him up as king of the Byzantines, then sent

him back with a mighty army headed by three of his commanders.

The first one was called Rumiyuzan ( ? ). 745 Kisra sent him to Syria,

which he then subdued and penetrated as far as Palestine. 746 He

came to the city of Jerusalem ( Bayt al-Maqdis ) and took action

against its bishop and all the priests in the city and the rest of the

Christians over the Cross [of Jesus], which had been placed in a

chest of gold and buried, with a vegetable garden planted on top of

it. He pressed them hard until they showed him the spot. He then

dug it out with his own hand and sent it to Kisra in the twenty-

fourth year of his reign. 747 The second commander was called

Shahin and was the Fadhusban of the West. He proceeded onward

until he captured Egypt and Alexandria and the land of Nubia, and

sent back to Kisra the keys of the city of Alexandria in the twenty-

745 . Identified by Noldeke, trans. 290 n. 3, with the Romizan of Michael the

Syrian and Barhebraeus and the Rhousmiazan of Theophanes. Noldeke also

thought it possible that Barhebraeus was correct in identifying him with the other

Persian commander Shahrbaraz mentioned a few lines further on (see on the meaning of this name, n. 749 below), with Shahrbaraz being another component of Romizan's name (but in that place, we have Shahrbaraz equated with Farru(k)han).

It was Shahrbaraz who was actually the Persian commander who conquered Jeru-

salem in 614, hence this would fit with what al-Tabari goes on to say of

Rumiyuzan's conquests in Syria and Palestine.

746. After appearing in Syria, the Persian army had occupied Damascus in 613

and had appeared in Palestine in spring 614 after defeating the Byzantine forces in

the Hawran between al-Dara'ah and Bosra (possibly the battle referred to in Surat

al-Riim, Qur’an, XXX, 2-3, see al-Tabari, I, 1005, 1007, pp. 324, 327 and n. 761

below). See R. Schick, The Christian Communities of Palestine from Byzantine to

Islamic Rule. A Historical and Archaeological Study, 2off.

747. The capture of Jerusalem probably took place in June 614, when the city

suffered a three days' sacking at the hands of the Sasanid troops. The "bishop" was the Patriarch Zacharias, installed at Jerusalem by Phocas's general Bonosus in 609 but now carried off into captivity in Persia; he remained titular Patriarch until his death in exile around the time of the Byzantines' final defeat of the Persian, i.e., ca.

627-28, with Modestus acting as his locum tenens in the years of the Persian

occupation of Palestine and Syria. The True Cross was certainly carried off by the

victors, not to be restored until 629, but the Sponge and the Spear were preserved

and taken to Constantinople. See Noldeke, trans. 291 n. i; Bury, A History of the

Later Roman Empire from Arcadius to Irene, n, 214; 39, 46; Schick, The Christian Communities of Palestine from Byzantine to Islamic Rule, 33-39, 46.

[The Last Sasanid Kings] 319

eighth year of his reign. 748 The third commander was called Farruhan

(i.e., Farrukhan), who had the rank of Shahrbaraz. He led an

expedition to attack Constantinople, until he halted on the bank

of the strait (i.e., the Bosphorus) just near the city, and made his

encampment there. 749 Kisra ordered him to devastate the land of

the Byzantines, as an expression of his anger at the Byzantines'

violence against Mawriq and as an act of vengeance upon them for

him. But none of the Byzantines acknowledged Mawriq's son as

their ruler or offered him any obedience. However, they killed

Fuqa, the king whom they had raised to the throne as ruler over

them, when his evil doing, his impiety toward God, and his reprehensible behavior became apparent to them. They raised to royal

power over themselves a man called Hiraql (Heraclius). 750

748. MP shaken, literally "falcon," see Justi, Namenbuch, 274-75. Shahin's

army probably moved from Palestine against Egypt in autumn 616, so that the

capture of Alexandria was probably in 617. See A. J. Butler, The Arab Conquest of Egypt and the Last Thirty Years of the Roman Dominion, 70-83.

749. Regarding the form Farruhan for the fairly common Persian name Far-

rukhan (an ancient patronymic from Farrukh, literally "fortunate, joyful"; see

Justi, Namenbuch, 94-95, and Gignoux, Noms propres sassanides, 82-83 nos.

352, 354-1 Noldeke, trans. 292 n. 2, noted that the Pahlavi script does not

distinguish between the letters h and kh. Shahrwaraz/Shahrbaraz is a nam e and

not a rank [martabah), with the meaning of "boar (i.e., valiant warrior) of the land," occurring in Middle Persian onomastic, although the simple name Waraz/BarSz is more common, see al-Tabari, 1, 895, 960, pp. 152, 255, and nn. 393, 616 above. That

Farrukhan could also have the name Shahrbaraz seemed to Ndldeke improbable,

but he was not able to resolve the problem. In reality, it was Shahln who trans-

ferred his scene of operations to Anatolia, penetrating as far as Chalcedon on the

shores of the Bosphorus (modem Kadikdy, near Oskudar or Scutari), probably in

616, and according to certain tales meeting with the Emperor Heraclius for nego-

tiations, an act for which he paid with his life when he returned to Khusraw's

court. See Bury, A History of the Later Roman Empire from Arcadius to Irene, n,

216-17. Al-Dinawari, al-Akhbar al-fiwal, 106, states that Shahln led an army of

twenty-four thousand men to the shores of the "gulf of Constantinople" and en-

camped there; the confused account of al-Mas'udl, Muru/, n, 226-27 - § 647, has a

romancelike account of Shahrbaraz's exploits from a base at Antioch involving his

quarrel with Khusraw and in revenge leading the Byzantine emperor and his army

into Persian Mesopotamia.

750. The usurper Phocas's misrule in Constantinople provoked an appeal to the

Exarch of the West at Carthage, who had been appointed by Maurice and who had

maintained a de facto independence during the eight years of Phocas's reign. The

Exarch sent his son Heraclius with a fleet. In autumn 610 Phocas was overthrown

and killed, and Heraclius was crowned emperor in his place,- Phocas left behind

him a reputation in the Byzantine chronicles of tyrannical behavior and ineptitude

during a chaotic reign. See Bury, A History of the Later Roman Empire from

Arcadius to Irene, A, 203-206.

320

[The Last Sasanid Kings]

When Hiraql perceived the perilous state the land of the Byzantines

was in, with the Persian armies devastating it, their killing

of the Byzantine warriors, their carrying off into captivity of the

Byzantines' women and children, their plundering of the Byzantines'

 wealth, and their violation of the inmost parts of their

realm, he shed tears before God and made humble petition to

Him, imploring Him to rescue him and the people of his kingdom

from the Persian armies . 751 He saw in a dream a stout-bodied man,

on a lofty throne and accoutred with fine weapons (i.e., the Persian

king), set up some distance from his side. Another person came

into their presence, threw down that man from his throne, and

said to Hiraql, "I have delivered him into your hands." When

Hiraql woke up, he told no one about his dream. The next night,

Hiraql saw in a dream the man whom he had seen in his previous

dream seated on a lofty throne, and the man who had come in

upon the two of them now came to him with a long chain in his

hand, which he threw round the neck of the man on the throne

and held him in his power with it, saying to Hiraql, "Here, I've

done it; I have handed Kisra over to you completely. So march

against him now, for victory will be yours, you will be given power

over him and you will attain your desire in your campaign." When

these dreams came to him successively, he at last recounted them

to the great men of the Byzantines and to those of them with

751. The Persian invasion of Anatolia had left the Persian army stationed at

Chalcedon on the eastern shore of the Bosphorus, permanently threatening the

Byzantine capital. Syria and Palestine were under Persian occupation, and the

Christians there suffered massacres and the loss of many religious buildings; the

interlude between Heraclius's regaining these provinces and the appearance of the

Muslim Arabs in the mid-63os was too brief to enable the Christian communities

there to recover their lost position. The Copts and Greeks in Egypt likewise en-

dured massacres and saw the destruction of many churches and monasteries,- the

Persian forces spread up the Nile valley as far as Syene/Aswan and westward along

the Mediterranean coast to the Pentapolis (i.e., the modem Cyrenaica). Phocas's

disastrous reign had witnessed the collapse of what remained of the Byzantine

limes on the Sava and lower Danube, allowing the Avars (who had moved westward from Inner Asia before the expanding power of the first Turk empire there] and Slavs to overrun the Balkans and Greece, with the Avars reaching the suburbs of the capital itself in 617. The situation appeared so desperate that in 618 Heraclius contemplated abandoning Constantinople for Carthage, but was deterred by the Patriarch Sergius. See Bury, A History of the Later Roman Empire from Arcadius to Irene, II, 214-18; Butler, The Arab Conquest of Egypt, 54-92.; Schick, The Christian Communities of Palestine, 20-48.

[The Last Sasanid Kings] 321

penetrating judgment. They told him that he would be given

power over Kisra, and advised him to lead an expedition against

him.

Hiraql prepared for the campaign, and appointed one of his sons

as his deputy over the city of Constantinople. 752 He took a

different route from that of Shahrbaraz and proceeded onward un-

til he penetrated deeply into Armenia and encamped at Nisibin

after the space of a year. 753 Shahin, the Fadhusban of the West,

752. On his accession to power, Heraclius had found the empire in desperate

straits. He had to quell the revolt in 610-ri at Ancyra of Phocas's brother Comentiolus, which caused a delay to his plans for rebuiliding the Byzantine war

machine, and he had to force the untrustworthy general of the army in Cappadocia, Priscus, a brother-in-law of Phocas, to relinquish his command and enter a monastery. Heraclius now endeavored to secure his position in the Balkans by making peace with the Khan of the Avars in 620, agreeing to pay him tribute (even if this relief from Avar attacks was only short-lived). He inaugurated extensive reforms

and reorganization in both provincial and central administration. Details are

sparse, but it seems that, once the Persians had been pushed out of Anatolia in 623

(see n. 75 3 below), Heraclius began the extensive settlement there of picked troops, epilekta, possibly the genesis of the military theme system which was to develop in the later seventh century as a response to Arab attacks along the Taurus mountains frontier. Naval forces were also built up ; the Byzantine fleet was used to transport an army in spring 622 to Lazica so that it could campaign successfully in Armenia, and skillful use of sea power prevented any effective link-up of the Persians with their putative allies in the Balkans, the Avars, Slavs, and Bulghars.

The emperor's campaign of revenge was to take on something of the character of a holy war ; Byzantine religious feeling had been profoundly shocked by the Persians' carrying off from Jerusalem the True Cross, and the church contributed extensively of its gold and silver for the financing of Heraclius's efforts. Moreover, once Heraclius had achieved his victory, former Byzantine territory recovered, Greek captives returned from Persia and the True Cross restored to Jerusalem, he was to assume formally the title (hitherto used in an informal fashion only) of basileus, "emperor," with connotations of divine approval of the royal power; Irfan Shahid has suggested that, in the assumption of this imperial title, Heraclius was influenced by the example of Christian monarchy in Armena and was also harking back to the Davidic monarchy over Israel. See Bury, A History of the Later Roman Empire from Arcadius to Irene, n, 244-45; Shahid, "The Iranian Factor in Byzantium during the Reign of Heraclius," 295-320.

The son of Heraclius appointed as his deputy in Constantinople was the ten-

year-old Constantine, the ephemeral emperor Constantine in in the confused

period Just after Heraclius's death in February 641. See Bury, 210-26; W. Enaslin , in The Cambridge Medieval History. IV. The Byzantine Empire. Part II, Government, Church and Civilization, 36-37; W. E. Kaegi, "New Evidence on the Early Reign of Heraclius," 313-24; Frye, "The Political History of Iran under the Sasanians," 169.

753. Heraclius's initial campaign, the first of his six ca mp ai g ns against the

Persians, was aimed at Shahrbaraz, who was still encamped at Chalcedon. It start ed from Cilicia and was largely conducted in Pontus and Cappadocia; in a battle at the opening of 623, at a so far unidentified place, the emperor decisively defeated the Persian commander and thereby relieved the pressure on Constantinople. Further operations were conducted in Cilicia, Armenia, Caucasian Albania, and Azebaijan during the period 623-26 (for Heraclius's operations in the latter region, see Minorsky, "Roman and Byzantine Campaigns in Atropatene," 91-94), The campaign of 627-28 into Upper Mesopotamia and Persia was actually his sixth one, launched in autumn 627 in the year after Heraclius had repelled a second Avar attack on Constantinople, while Shahrbaraz had again penetrated as far as Chalecedon. See Bury, A History of the Later Roman Empire, E, 227-30, 239-41; Frye, "The Political History of Iran under the Sasanians," 169-70.

322

[The Last Sasanid Kings]

was at Kisra's court when Hiraql reached Nisibin, because Kisra

had become angry with him and had dismissed him from that

frontier command ( thaghr ). Shahbaraz, however, was firmly holding

the place where he was stationed because of Kisra's command

to him to remain there and not leave it. 754 Kisra received the news

of Hiraql's descent on Nisibin with his army, and sent to combat

Hiraql one of his commanders called Rahzadh 755 with twelve

thousand warriors, giving him orders to remain at Niniwa (Nineveh)

in the vicinity of the town of al-Mawsil (Mosul), on the banks

of the Tigris, and to prevent the Byzantines from crossing the

river. Kisra had been residing at Daskarat al-Malik 756 when the

news about Hiraql reached him.

Rahzadh put Kisra's command into effect and encamped in the

place he had instructed. Hiraql, however, crossed the Tigris at a

different spot and marched toward the district where the Persian

army lay. Rahzadh sent out spies against Hiraql; they came back

754. Khusraw's attempt to recall Shahrbaraz from Chalcedon in order to rein-

force the Persian defenses in Upper Mesopotamia was foiled, so the story goes, by

the Greeks' interception of his letter and the substitution for it of another letter

telling Shahrbaraz to remain where he was. See Bury, A History of the Later

Roman Empir from Arcadius to Irene, E, 242.

755. Text, Rahzar. This man is the Razates (vars. Ryzates, Razastes) and the

Rozbehan and Rogwehan of the Syriac ones. See Noldeke, trans. 294 n. 3; Bury, A History of the Later Roman Empire from Arcadius to Irene, E, 241 n. 3.

756. This is the Arabic form of the Persian Dastgird (< MP dastgird "landed

estate, including all buildings, beasts, persons, etc., within it"; see B. Geiger, "Mittelpersische Worter und Sachen," 123-28), Syriac Dasqarta, which lay to the

northeast of Ctesiphon on the route via Khaniqln and Hulwan to Media/Jibal, the

site being marked today by the ruins of Eski Baghdad. Yaqut distinguishes it from a Dastjird in Khurasan by calling this one Dastjird al-Kisrawiyyah, "royal Dastjird."

See his Buldan, B, 454, and E, 45 5, for Daskarat al-Malik; Noldeke, trans. 295 n. i; Le Strange, Lands, 62; Christensen, Sassanides, 454-55. The ruins of Khusraw's

splendid palace there, sacked by the Byzantines when they entered the town, were

admired four centuries later by the Arab traveler Abu Dulaf al-Khazrajl, see his

Second Risalah, ed. and tr. Minorsky, text § 38, trans. 46, comm. 94.

[The Last Sasanid Kings]

323

and told him that Hiraql had ninety thousand warriors. Rahzadh

was now convinced that he and the troops at his disposal were

inadequate for withstanding such a number of troops. He wrote

several times to Kisra that Hiraql was pressing heavily on him

with forces so numerous and so well equipped that he and his

troops could not withstand them. To all that, Kisra kept on replying

that, if he was too weak to withstand those Byzantines, he

would not be too weak to get his troops to fight to the last and to

lavish their blood in his service. When Rahzadh had secured the

same reply successively for his letter to Kisra, he got his troops

ready for action and attacked the Byzantines. The latter killed

Rahzadh and six thousand of his men. The rest were routed and

fled precipitately. The news of the Byzantines' killing of Rahzadh

and the victory gained by Hiraql reached Kisra. This catastrophe

crushed his spirits, and he left Daskarat al-Malik for al-Mada’in

and fortified himself within it because he was too weak to stand

up to Hiraql in battle. 757 Hiraql advanced until he was near to alMada’in. But when ever-fresh reports about him kept reaching

Kisra, and he prepared to fight Hiraql, the latter turned back to the

Byzantine lands. 758

Kisra wrote to the three army commanders who had been defeated,

instructing them to send him information about every one

of their troops who had shown weakness in that battle or who had

not stuck fast to their posts. They were to punish these men according

to their degrees of guilt. Through this letter, he provoked

them into rebelliousness against him and into seeking ways to

preserve themselves safe from him. He also wrote to Shahrbaraz,

ordering him to come to him as rapidly as possible and to describe

for him what the Byzantines had done in his province. 759

757. As N6ldeke noted, trans. 296 n. 1, Khusraw's flight from Daskarah/

Dastgird was a great blow to his authority, and contributed to the loss of confidence in him which was to lead to his deposition and death. It had been his seat of government almost continuously since 604 because of a prediction that he would die at Ctesiphon. See Christensen, Sassanides, 454.

758. Not in fact to Anatolia but northeastward into Azerbaijan and its protec-

tive mountains, where he took up quarters in the region of Ganzak for the winter of 627-28. See Bury, A History of the Later Roman Empire, n, 241-42; Minorsky,

"Roman and Byzantine Campaigns in Atropatene," 91-94.

759. It was this letter that was reportedly intercepted by the Greeks, enabling

them to spread disinformation which ensured that Shahrbaraz did not march eastward to shore up the Persian defenses in Iraq; see n. 754 above. The doubts and suspicions of Khusraw's generals were probably justified, and Shahrbaraz, in particular, must have suspected that the king's ire would be directed at him (cf. the

information in the romanticized Arabic report on the authority of 'Ikrimah in al-

Tabari, 1 , 1007-09, pp. 326-30 below). But Khusraw's prestige had fallen so low and his freedom of action in Ctesiphon was so circumscribed that he fell victim to

events there at the beginning of 628, while Heraclius was in Azerbaijan. He fell ill, tried to arrange the succession in favor of his son by Shirin, Mardanshah, but was forestalled by his other son Kawad or Sheroy, imprisoned and executed at the end of February. For details of these events, see al-Tabari, I, 1043-45, PP- 379-8 1

below.

324 [The Last Sasanid Kings]

It has been said that God's words, "Alif, lam, mlm. The Romans

have been defeated in the nearer part of the land , 760 but after their

defeat they will be victorious within a few years. The affair belongs

 to God, before and after, and on that day the believers will

rejoice in God's succor; He succors whom He pleases, and He is

the Mighty, the Compassionate One. The promise of God! God

does not fall short in His promise, but most of the people do not

know.", were only revealed regarding the affairs of Abarwlz, king

of Persia, and Hiraql, king of the Byzantines, and what happened

between them, which I have recounted in these stories . 761

Mention of Those Who Say That

There related to me al-Qasim b. al-Hasan — al-Husayn —

Hajjaj — Abu Bakr b. 'Abdallah — 'Ikrimah, 76 ^ who said: The By-

zantines and the Persians fought together in the nearer part of the

land. He related: The nearer part of the land [refers to] the Day of

760. Fi adna al-ard is usually interpreted as the part of northwestern Arabia

adjacent to the Byzantine frontier. See further n. 761 below.

761. Surat al-Rum, Qur’an, XXX, 1-5. The text is usually read with the passive

verb ghulibat al-Rum and then the active one sa-yaghlibuna and is taken to refer

to some battle during the Persian invasion of the Levant 613-14 (see n. 746 above).

But a less authoritative, single reading has ghalabat al-Rum, ". . . have been victorious," and sa-yughlabuna, "[but] . . . they will be defeated," dubiously taken to refer to the initial Byzantine success against the Arab raid on Mu’tah in 8/630 and the eventual triumph of Muslim arms in Palestine and Syria. See Bell, A Commentary on the Qur’an, U, 69; Paret, Der Koran. Kommentar und Konkordanz, 388. Detailed studies on the surah and its historical background are E. Beck, "Die Sure ar-Rum (30)," 335-55; M. Gotz, "Zum historischen Hintergrund von Sure 30, 1- 5," 111-20.

762. Abu 'Abdallah 'Ikrimah (died probably in 105/723-24) was a noted Suc-

cessor, a mawla or client of Ibn 'Abbas, and an authority for many of his traditions. See Ibn Sa'd, Kitab al-Tabaqat al-kabir, V, 212-16; al-Tabari, HI, 2483-85; El 2 , s.v. 'Ikrima ( J. Schacht).

[The Last Sasanid Kings]

325

Adhri'at, where the two armies met, and the Byzantines were

defeated. 763 This came to the ears of the Prophet and his companions

while they were [still] in Mecca (i.e., before the Hijrah) and

caused them distress. The Prophet disliked the Zoroastrian gentiles

[al-ummiyyun min al-Majus ) gaining the upper hand over the

Byzantine possessors of written scriptures [ahl al-kitab min al-

Rum ]. The unbelievers in Mecca, however, rejoiced and hurled

abuse; they encountered the Prophet's companions and said, "You

are possessors of a written scripture, and die Christians are possessors

of a written scripture, while we are unbelievers. Now our

brethren, the Persians, have been victorious over your brethren,

the possessors of written scriptures, and if you attack us, we shall

certainly be victorious over you." 764 At this point, God sent down

the revelation "Alif, lam, mim. The Romans have been defeated . . ."

 to "they are unheeding about the next life."

763. Adhri'at, in Biblical times the capital of Bashan, the Edrei of Num. xxi. 33,

is the more recent al-Dara'ah or Deraa just north of the Syrian-Jordanian frontier at the southern edge of the Hawran. See Yaqut, Buldan, I, 130-3 1, Le Strange, Palestine, 383; A,-S. Marmardji, Textes gSographiques arabes sur la Palestine, 3; El 2 , s.v. Adhri'at (F. Buhl-N. Eliss£eff ), and n. 746 above. The Cairo text, n, 184, has "the nearest part of the land was, at that time [yawma'idhin, for the Leiden text's yawm ) Adhri'at," with this reading taken from al-Tabari, Tafsix on Surah XXX.

764. Kister has pointed out that the Persians may have tried in the sixth century

to exercise some form of indirect control or influence over Hijaz, including over

Mecca and Medina. The seventh/thirteenth-century, hence comparatively late,

author Ibn Said mentions that, in the time of Qubadh, son of Fayruz, Qubadh

attempted, through the agency of the Kindi chief al-Harith b. 'Amr (on whom see n.

362 above), to impose the doctrine of Mazdak that he had espoused, and some

people in Mecca assented to this summons ( tazandaqa ). Muhammad b. Habib

actually lists the alleged zanadiqah (whoever these may be, however; see below) of Quraysh ( Muhabbai , 161). Hence the Meccan pagans might well have retained memories of the connection with Persia, enough to use this as a way of slighting Muhammad when, at this stage in his mission, he would have had a natural sympathy toward the Christian Byzantines as fellow monotheists. See Kister, "Al- Hlra. Some Notes on Its Relations with Arabia," 144-45. On the other hand, earlier Arabic authors, such as Muhammad b. Habib, in his Muhabbai, loc. cit., and Ibn Qutaybah, in his Ma'diif, 621, state that Quraysh got their zandaqah from al-Hlrah. De Blois has accordingly suggested that, in early Islamic usage, zandaqah nomally means "Manichaeism" and that Manichaeism was conveyed to Mecca by QurashI traders who derived it from converts to Manichaeism horn among the Christian population of al-HIrah, i.e., from elements of the 'Ibadj Ibn Said's story would have arisen from a confusion and conflation of information in the earlier sources. See de Blois, "The 'Sabians' ($abi’un) in Pre-Islamic Arabia," 48-50 and n. 38. See also Ndldeke, trans. 298 n. 1.

326

[The Last Sasanid Kings]

Abu Bakr al-Siddlq went forth to the unbelievers ( al-kuffai ) and

said, "Have you rejoiced at the victory of your brethren over our

brethren? Don't rejoice! May God not give you refreshing solace!

By God, the Byzantines will be victorious over the Persians; our

Prophet has told us that." Ubayy b. Khalaf al-Jumahi came up to

him and said, "You lie, O Abu Fudayl!" 765 Abu Bakr answered

him, "You are a bigger liar, O enemy of God!" He added, "I wager

you ten of my young she- camels against ten of yours. If within the

next three years the Byzantines are victorious over the Persians, I

get the stake; and if the Persians are victorious, you get it." Then

Abu Bakr went to the Prophet and told him this. The Prophet said,

"I didn't express myself thus: 'a few' ( al-bid ') means a number

from three to nine, so raise the stake and extend the period of time

with him." Abu Bakr accordingly went out and met Ubayy, and

the latter commented, "Perhaps you have come to regret [your

wager]?" He replied, "Not at all. Come on, I'll raise the stake with

you and extend the period of time: make it a hundred young she-

camels over a period up to nine years." Ubayy answered, "I

agree." 766

There related to us al-Qasim — al-Husayn — Hajjaj — Abu Bakr —

'Ikrimah, who said: There was in Persia a woman who gave birth

only to kings and heroes. Kisra summoned her and said, "I am

[1007] planning to send an army against the Byzantines and to appoint

one of your sons as its commander. Advise me, which of them

should I nominate?" She replied, "The first one is so-and-so, who

is craftier than a fox and more wary than a falcon; then there is

Farrukhan, who is more incisive than a spear point; and then there

is Shahrbaraz, who is more sagacious ( ahlam ) than such-and-

such. 767 So appoint whichever of them you please." He said, "I

appoint the sagacious one," and he appointed Shahrbaraz. He -

765. Ubayy was a member of the clan of Jumah, which ranged itself with the

Makhzum-'Abd Shams group within Mecca, largely hostile to Muhammad; he

fought in the army of Quraysh at the battle of Uhud, and died of wounds received

there. See al-Tabari, I, 1407, 1409. "Abu Fudayl" was a kunyah or patronymic of

Abu Bakr's, here used as a familiar form of address. The Cairo text, II, 184, has for this kunyah "Abu Fasil."

766. The same story in al-Tabari, Tafsir, XX, 13.

767. As suggested in nn. 745, 749 above, the two components of Shahrbaraz

Farrukhan's name — if this is indeed one person — have apparently been wrongly

separated here and made into two different persons.

[The Last Sasanid Kings]

3 27

proceeded to [the land of] the Byzantines with the Persian army,

defeated the Byzantines, slaughtered them, devastated their

towns, and cut down their olive trees.

Abu Bakr says : 768 I related this narrative to 'A{a’ al-

Khurasanl , 769 and he asked me, "Have you ever seen the land of

Syria?" I said, "No," and he replied, "If you had ever been there

you would have seen the towns that were laid waste and the olive

trees that were cut down ." 770 Later, I actually went to Syria and

saw this." 'Ata’ al-Khurasanl related from Yahya b. Ya'mar, who

said: Qay§ar sent a man called Q.t.mah (?) 771 with a Byzantine

army, and Kisra sent Shahrbaraz. The two met up with each other

at Adhri'at and Busra, which are the nearest parts of Syria to you

(i.e., the Arabs). The Persians encountered the Byzantines and

defeated them. The unbelievers of Quraysh in Mecca rejoiced at

this; whereas, the Meccans were chagrined. God then sent down

the revelation "Alif, lam, mim. The Romans have been defeated ..."

 to the end of the section. Then he mentioned further

another narrative, like 'Ikrimah's but with additional details.

Shahrbaraz kept on relentlessly defeating them and laying waste

their towns until he reached the Bosphorus (al-khalij). But then,

Kisra died. News of this reached them, and Shahrbaraz and his

followers retreated precipitately. Fortune swung round to give the

Byzantines power over the Persians at that point, and they pursued

 and killed them.

He related: 'Ikrimah said in his narrative: When the Persians

were victorious over the Byzantines, Farrukhan was once sitting

and drinking, and said to his companions, "I had a dream, and it

768. That is, the transmitter Abu Bakr b. 'Abdallah b. Muhammad b. Abl

Sabrah, died 163/778-79. See Ibn Hajar, Tahdhlb al-Tahdhlb, XII, 27-38.

769. That is, the Syrian traditionist and Qur’an commentator ’Ata’ b. Abi Muslim Maysarah al-Khurasani, died 135/751-53- See Ibn Sa'd, Jabaqat, VII/2, 102;

Ibn Hajar, Tabdhib al-Tahdhib, VII, 212-15; Sezgin, GAS, I, 33-34.

770. That is, he saw, after the lapse of more than a century, the effects of

devastation, in 61 3-14, by the invading Persian army. See Noldeke, trans. 399 n. 4.

771. This name is obscure. Nfildeke, trans. 300 n. 1, adduced as a possibility the

Jafnid/Ghassanid al-Nu'man b. al-Harith b. Jabalah, to whom Hamzah al-Isfahani,

Ta’rikh, 103, gives the cognomen ( laqab ) Q.Jam, but later, in his Die

Ghass&nischen Fiiisten, 44, Noldeke took this as a confusion with the name of the chief of Kindah, Hujr b. Umm Qatam mentioned in the Mu'allaqah of al-Harith b. Hillizah, it being in any case difficult to take the name Qatam as anything but a female one.

3^8

[The Last Sasanid Kings]

was as if I saw myself on Kisra's throne." 772 This came to Kisra's

ears, and he wrote to Shahrbaraz, "When this letter of mine

reaches you, send to me Farrukhan's head." Shahrbaraz wrote

back to him, however, "O king, you will never find anyone like

Farrukhan who has inflicted so much damage on the enemy or has

such a formidable reputation among them; so don't do this!" Kisra

answered him, "Among the men of Persia there is certainly someone

who can serve as his replacement, so hasten and send me his

head!" Shahrbaraz made further representations to him, which

angered Kisra, and he made no further answer but sent a courier of

the postal and intelligence service [band ) 773 to the people of Persia

announcing, "I hereby remove Shahrbaraz from power over

you and appoint Farrukhan over you in his stead." Then he handed

over to the courier a small sheet and instructed him, "When Farrukhan

assumes royal authority and his brother gives him obe-

dience, then give him this." 774 When Shahrbaraz read the letter,

he said, "I hear and obey!" He got down from his throne. Farrukhan

sat down [in his place], and he handed over the paper.

Farrukhan then said, "Bring Shahrbaraz before me," and pushed

him forward so that his head could be cut off. Shahrbaraz, however,

protested, "Don't be in such a hurry, let me write my last

testament!" and Farrukhan agreed to this. Shahrbaraz called for a

chest and gave him three sheets [of paper from out of it], telling

him, "I sent these sheets to Kisra pleading for you, and now you

want to execute me on the pretext of a single letter." At this,

Farrukhan gave the royal authority back to his brother. 775

772. The dream predicts Shahrbaraz Farrukhan's later elevation to his forty

days' reign in Ctesiphon, see al-Tabari, I, 1062-63, p. 401-403.

773. See on this institution n. r47 above.

774. As emerges a few lines below, the sheet contains an order for Shahrbaraz's

execution. The motif of a letter containing a command to kill the unsuspecting

bearer is an ancient one, and in Arabic lore is exemplified by the “letter of al-

Mutalammis," given to the pre-Islamic poet al-Mutalammis by the Lakhmid 'Amr

b. Hind (see on him n. 414 above) but which he was sharp enough to destroy,

whereas his nephew, the poet Taiatah, duly delivered his letter and thereby

brought about his own death. See EP, s.v. al-Mutalammis (Ch. Pellat). Cf. also the

parallel use, in different circumstances, of a letter containing orders for an execu-

tion, that of Oroetes of Sardis at the behest of King Darius, in Herodotus, ID. 128.

775. The above story continues the separation of Shahrbaraz-Farrukhan into

two different persons, as set forth in nn. 745, 749, 767 above. The second commander involved in the story is presumably in reality the Shahln mentioned by al- Tabari at I, roo3, p. 321 above. For the apparently more historical episode of the

letter of dismissal and death which Khusraw despatched to Shahrbaraz's second-

in-command at the Persian camp in Chalcedon and which was intercepted by the

Byzantines and its contents revealed to Shahrbaraz, see Bury, A History of the

Later Roman Empire from Arcadius to Irene, n, 244. The story became a romantic

tale handed down among the Persians, and is listed as such by Ibn al-Nadlm,

Fihrist, 364 (read Shahrbaraz for Shahrizad ), tr. n, 716.

The whole story of Shahrbaraz's defection from Khusraw's cause to the side of

the Byzantines has recently been discussed, on a basis of the sources available, by

Walter E. Kaegi and Paul M. Cobb. They distinguish the Eastern Christian ones

from the early Islamic ones. Very similar, though with some variation of details,

are the accounts of Theophanes, Michael the Syrian, and Agapius of Manbij; these would seem to go back to the lost Syriac historian Theophilus of Edessa, and in them, Shahrbaraz's defection is attributed to Khusraw's suspicious nature thereby driving his commander into Heraclius's arms. The account in the Short History of Nicephorus, however, simply makes Heraclius's triumph against the Persians the result of his excellent strategy and generalship, with no suggestion of internal stresses and suspicions within the Persian camp. At the side of these Christian accounts are the Islamic ones: the one given on the basis of reports from 'Ikrimah given here by al-Tabari, and the much less-noticed one — because concealed wi thin a history that ostensibly deals only with the conquest of Egypt — going back to the traditionist of the Umayyad period al-Zuhri (see on him n. 789 below) and preserved within the Futuh Mi$r of Ibn 'Abd al-Hakam (said to have d. 171(787-88).

Both Islamic accounts share similarities with the Christian accounts, and could

represent a single, original tradition, although al-Zuhri has the interesting addi-

tional feature of a plausible reason for Khusraw's anger with Shahrbaraz, i.e., the

latter's procrastination, his failure to launch a decisive assault on Constantinople

and thus destroy the Byzantine empire. See Kaegi and Cobb, "Heraclius,

Shahrbaraz, and al-Tabari," 121-43.

[The Last Sasanid Kings]

3*9

Shahrbaraz wrote to Qay§ar, the king of the Byzantines, "I have

a request to make to you which couriers cannot carry and no

documents can convey. Come and meet me, but with just fifty

Byzantine troops, and I will bring just fifty Persian ones." Qaysar,

however, came with five hundred thousand Byzantine troops and

began to place spies along the road before him, fearing that

Shahrbaraz might be contemplating some act of trickery with

him, until his spies returned to him with the information that

Shahrbaraz had with him only fifty men. A carpet was spread out

for them both, and they met in a brocade tent that had been erected

for them. Each of them had a knife by his side. They summoned

an interpreter for their negotiations, and Shahrbaraz said,

"The ones who laid waste your towns were my brother and -

330

[The Last Sasanid Kings]

myself, with our stratagems and our valor. But now Kisra has come to

envy us and wants me to kill my brother. When I refused to do

this, he ordered my brother to kill me. Hence both of us have

thrown off allegiance to him, and are ready to fight at your side

against him/' Qaysar said, "You have made the right choice."

Then one of the two made a sign to his companion, [saying,] "The

secret lies between two people,- if it goes beyond two people, it will

become public knowledge." The other said, "Yes, indeed." So they

both fell upon the interpreter and killed him with their knives. 776

God brought about Kisra's death, and the news of this reached the

Messenger of God on the Day of Hudaybiyah, causing him and his

companions to rejoice. 777

I received information going back to Hisham b. Muhammad,

who said that in the twentieth year of Kisra Abarwiz's reign, God

sent Muhammad [as His prophet]. 778 The latter remained thirteen

years in Mecca, and he emigrated to Medina in the thirty-third

year of Kisra's reign.

776. Acording to Noldeke, trans. 302 n. i, these negotiations in fact refer to a

meeting of Heraclius and Shahrbaraz at the Anatolian town of Arabissos (in Ar-

menia Tertia, what was later Little Armenia, somewhere in the region of the

mediaeval town of Elbistan ; see Shahid, Byzantium and the Arabs in the Sixth

Century, 111, 610-11) in June 629 after Khusraw Abarwez had been deposed and

killed and after Shahrbaraz had led a rebellion at Ctesiphon against his rival for the direction of state affairs under the youthful new king Kawad II Sheroy, had killed the latter after a reign of only eighteen months, and proclaimed himself ruler, though not of Sasanid or Arsacid royal stock (see al-Tabari, I, 1061-63, p. 400-403 below, and cf. Christensen, Sassanides, 497-98; Frye, "The Political History of Iran under the Sasanians," 170-71; Kaegi and Cobb, "Heraclius, Shahrbaraz, and al-Tabari," loc. cit., noting that an anonymous Syriac chronicle from 724 confirms the Arabic sources regarding the location of the meeting at Arabissos and records the construction of a church by Heraclius and Shahrbaraz, dedicated in the name of Eirene, "Peace," at their meeting point). Shahrbaraz's rapid rise to power and ephemeral rule — he was killed by a conspiracy at Ctesiphon led by rival military leaders and great men of state, who subsequently set up as nominal ruler there Khusraw's daughter Buran (see al-Tabari, I, 1063-64, p. 403-405, below) — was aided by Heraclius's support, who had remained at Ganzak in Azerbaijan during the upheavals within the Persian state (see nn. 758-59).

777 . The treaty of Hudaybiyah made between Muhammad and the Meccans was

concluded at that place on the edge of the Meccan Haram in Dhu al-Qa'dah

6/March 628, hence in the month after Khusraw's death. See al-Tabari, Tafsir, XX, 13-14; Buhl, Das Leben Muhammeds, 286-90; Watt, Muhammad at Medina, 46- 52; EP, s.v. al-Hudaybiya (W. M. Watt).

778. That is, in a.d. 610.