VOL 5.3

Mention of the Holders of Power in the

Kingdom of Persia after Ardashlr b. Babak

[Sabur I, called Sabur al-Junud ] 81

When Ardashlr b. Babak died, there succeeded to power in Persia 82

his son Sabur. When Ardashlr b. Babak had attained the royal

power, he wrought great slaughter among the Arsacids (al-

Ashakaniyyah), 83 to whom belonged the "Party Kings," until he

had exterminated them, in accordance with an oath which Sasan

the elder, son of Ardashlr, son of Bahman, son of Isfandiyar, the

ancestor of Ardashlr b. Babak, had sworn: that, if at some point, he

should attain the royal power, he would not spare a single one of

the progeny of Ashak, son of Khurrah. He had further laid this

charge on his descendants, and had instructed them in his testament

not to leave alive a single one of the Arsacids if they should

succeed to power [immediately after him] or if one of them should

[eventually] attain to royal power one day. The first of his descendants

 and progeny to achieve this power was Ardashlr, son of

81. That is, "Sabur of the Armies."

82. Here, for the first time in the present text, Far(i)s seems to mean the land of

Persia in general rather than the province of Pars, cradle of ancient Persian mon-

archy, in particular.

83. The Arabic name for the dynasty goes back to the eponymous founder of the

line, Arshaka, Parthian ’r$k, Greek Arsaces, who seized power in northern Parthia

ca. 247 b.c., henceforth the beginning of the Parthian era. See Noldeke, trans. 26

n.i; Bivar, "The Political History of Iran under the Arsacids," 28, 98.

24

Holders of Power after Ardashlr b. Babak

Babak. Hence Ardashlr massacred the Arsacids en bloc, women

and menfolk alike, not sparing a single one of them, in accordance

with the intention of his forefather Sasan. 84

It is mentioned that he left no one alive except a maiden whom

he had found in the royal palace. He was struck by her beauty, and

asked her— she was really the slaughtered king's daughter — about

her origins. She stated that she was the handmaiden of one of the

king's wives. He then asked her whether she was a virgin or had

previously been married. She told him that she was a virgin. So he

had sexual intercourse with her and took her as one of his concubines,

and in due course she became pregnant by him. Now

when she became assured of her own safety in regard to him,

because of her firm position in his affections through her pregnancy,

she informed him that she was really from the progeny of

Ashak. However, he recoiled from her, and summoned Harjand,

son of Sam, 85 a man of great seniority and advanced years, and told

him that she was from Ashak's progeny. Ardashlr went on to say,

“It is incumbent upon us to keep faith with our forefather Sasan's

vow, even though she has become dear to my own heart, as you

well know. So take her away and kill her!" The old man went off

to kill her. She told him that she was pregnant. He took her along to

the midwives, who confirmed that she was indeed pregnant. He

consigned her to an underground cellar. Then he cut off his own

84. Whether the Arsacid royal family, the line of Ardawan, was so thoroughly

exterminated is hard to determine, but the Arsacid dynasty in Armenia, which had

come to power when Tiridates I was crowned king of Armenia by the Roman

emperor Nero in a.d. 66, continued to rule there till the early fifth century; the

Armenian Arsacids considered themselves the holders of legitimate Iranian rule

and, not surprisingly, their relations with the upstart Sasanid supplanters of their

kinsmen in Persia always remained strongly hostile. See D. M. Lang, "Iran, Ar-

menia and Georgia," 517-18. Whatever the fate of members of the Arsacid royal

house in Persia, many of the great Parthian "feudal" families seem gradually to

have made their peace with the Sasanids and to have entered their service; such

was certainly the case with the Karen, Suren, and Mihran families. See Noldeke,

trans. 16 n. r ? Frye, "The Political History of Iran under the Sasanians," 119-20.

85 . Perhaps one should read here Abaisdm (on Abarsam, see n. 29 above) for the

text's H.r.j.n.d ibn Sam, as in al-DInawari, al-Akhbai al-tiwal, 43-45, where he is

described as Ardashir's wazir. This last historian in fact gives the story of Abar-

sam's self-mutilation and the birth of Shapur I, the only one of the other Arabic

sources on the Sasanids to note it. See also Noldeke, trans. 27 n. 2.

Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak 25

genitalia and placed them in a box, which he sealed. He returned to

the king. The king said to him, "What have you done? " He replied,

"I have consigned her to the bowels of he earth," and he handed

over the box to the king, asking him to seal it with his personal seal

and to place it in one of his treasuries; this Ardashir did.

The girl remained with the old man until she gave birth to a

baby boy. The old man did not want to give the king's son a name

inferior to his status, nor did he wish to tell him about his real

rank when he was still a child, but only when he was grown up and

had completed his education and acquisition of good manners

(1 adab ). The old man had actually determined the astral conjunctions

at the moment of the boy's birth and had worked out for him

his horoscope; he realized from this that the child would eventually

become a ruler, hence he gave him a name which would be

both a description and also a true personal name, in that he would

subsequently have a choice regarding it when he knew all about it

(i.e. whether it was intended for him as a descriptive or a personal

name). Hence he called him Shah Bur, which means in Arabic

"king's son" ( ibn al-malik), and he was the first person to be thus

named. 86 This was Ardashir's son, Sabur al-Junud. Other authorities

 say, on the other hand, that he called him Ashah Bur,

meaning in Arabic "the son of Ashak," from whose progeny the

boy's mother stemmed.

Ardashir passed several years in a childless state. Then the faith-

ful old man, who had the child in his care, went into the king's

presence and found him deep in sorrow. He asked him, "What is

making you so sad, O King?" Ardashir replied, "Why should I not

be sad? Although by means of my sword I have seized everything

between the East and the West, although I have conquered everything

 I wanted and although I have complete control over the

kingdom, the kingdom of my forefathers, yet I shall die in the end,

leaving no offspring behind to succeed to my authority, and there

will be no enduring trace of me within the royal power during the

86. Conveniently forgetting here Ardashu^s prematurely deceased brother

Shabur, see al-Tabari, 1 , 816, p. 8, above, and taking no account of the fact that the future Shabur (I) must have been bom well before the defeat of ArdawSn and the overthrow of the Arsacids. See Noldeke, trans. 28 n. r.

i6 Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

future.' 7 But the old man said to him, "May God grant you joy, O

King, and give you long life! I have in my care a fine, noble son of

yours. Call for the box which I entrusted to you, and which you

personally sealed, to be brought in, and I will show you the decisive

proof of that." Ardashir sent for the box. He examined the

impression of his seal, and then he broke it and opened the box. In

it he found the old man's genitalia and a document on which it

was written: "When we ascertained that the daughter of Ashak

had indeed conceived by the King of Kings Ardashir, at the same

time when the latter ordered us to kill her, she being pregnant, we

did not consider it lawful to destroy the noble seed of the king. So

we consigned her to the bowels of the earth, as our monarch had

commanded us, and we exonerated ourselves in his sight from any

guilt (i.e., by the self-mutilation), lest any calumniator find any

means to forge lies against her. We made it our concern to protect

the rightfully sown seed until it should be united once again with

its own kindred. This took place at so-and-so time in so-and-so

year."

On hearing all this, Ardashir ordered the old man to place the

boy among a group of a hundred youths — according to others,

among a thousand youths — all of exactly the same appearance and

height as the boy, and then to parade them before him in a body,

avoiding any distinguishing features of clothing, height, and demeanor.

The old man did this. When Ardashir looked at this group

of youths, his instinct immediately recognized his own son out of

all the throng, and he found him pleasing, without there having

been made any indication of him or muttered hint concerning him

to the king. Then he gave commands for them all to be brought

into the antechamber of the royal palace (hu/rat al-aywdn). They

were provided with polo sticks, and they set to playing with a ball,

the king meanwhile being seated on his throne inside the palace

proper [al-aywdn]. 87 The ball flew into the palace chamber where

the king was. All the youths held back from entering the place

chamber, but Sabur pushed his way forward from their midst and

went in. Ardashir now deduced from Sabur's entry into his -

87. Historical romance and legend does in fact describe Ardashir as the first

prominent enthusiast for polo, as, e.g., in the Karnamag-i ArdaSIr-i Pabagan. See

£P, s.v. Cawgan (H. Masse).

Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak 27

presence, his thrusting forward and his temerity — all this being in

addition to the feeling in his heart for acceptance of Sabur, which

he had felt on the first occasion when he saw him, and his tender

sentiments toward him, quite lacking in regard to all his

comrades — that he was indeed his own son. Ardashir said to him

in Persian, "What is your name?" The youth answered, "Shah

Bur." Ardashir exclaimed, "The king's son (shah bur)!" When he

was completely certain that the youth really was his son, he publicly acknowledged him and hailed him as heir after himself. 88

The Persian people had already experienced, before the royal

power passed to Sabur and during his father's lifetime, Sabur's

intelligence, virtue, and knowledge, combined with ardor in battle,

eloquence, and wit, tenderness toward the subjects, and mildness.

When the crown was [eventually] placed on his head (i.e.,

after his father's death), he gathered together before him all the

great men of state. They then sent up prayers for his long life and

went on at length in mentioning his father and the latter's excellent

characteristics. Sabur informed them that they could not

have invoked his benevolence by any means more acceptable to

him than by what they had said about his father, and he gave them

promises of beneficence. Then he gave orders that the riches in the

treasuries were to be lavished on the people (al-nas, i.e., the landed

and military classes who were the supports of the state), sharing

them out among those whom he deemed worthy of receiving

them— the prominent persons, the troops, and those [of them]

who had fallen into indigence (ahl al-hajah). He wrote to his governors

in the provinces and outlying districts that they were to do

likewise with the wealth under their control. 89 In this way, he

distributed his bounty and beneficence to those near and far, noble

and humble, the aristocracy and the generality of people, so that

all shared in this benevolence and their standard of daily life was

thereby raised. Then he chose governors over the populace, and

88. As Noldeke notes, trans. 30 n. 2, this tale of Ardashir's recognition of Shabur

as his son and his appointing him his heir, is pure fantasy.

89. Noldeke, trans. 31 n. 1, regarded it as highly unlikely that a powerful mon-

arch like Shabur, who intended vigorously to prosecute the wars with the Romans, would thus dissipate the wealth in his treasuries, especially as Persian rulers seem, even at the best of times, always to have been short of money for their military ventures.

28

Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

kept a keen watch over them and over the subjects in general.

Thus the meritoriousness of his good conduct became clear, his

fame spread widely and he stood out above all other monarchs.

It is said that, in the eleventh year of his reign, he marched

against the city of Nisibin , 90 where there was a garrison of Roman

troops, and besieged them for a considerable period of time . 91 But

then he received news of happenings in one of the regions of

Khurasan that required his personal attention, so he headed for

there, restored order and returned to Nisibin. They allege that the

city's wall split asunder of its own accord, and a breach was

opened up for Sabur, by means of which he was able to gain entry.

He then killed the [defending] soldiers, enslaved the women and

children, and seized an immense sum of wealth stored up there for

Qaysar (i.e., the Roman emperor). Then he traversed the territory

to Syria and Roman Anatolia ( bilad al-Rum), and conquered a

90. Nisibin or Nasibin, Greek Nasibis, was one of the most important towns

and fortresses of Upper Mesopotamia, situated on the Himas river, an affluent of

the Khabur, in the plain to the south of the mountainous region of Tur 'Abdin. In

Roman and Byzantine times it came within the district of Beth 'Arabhaye, and in

early Islamic times, in that of Diyar Rabi'ah within the province of al-jazlrah.

Known as a settlement in Assyrian times, possession of it oscillated between the

Parthians and the Romans, until in a.d. 195 Septimius Severus came to Ni?ibin

and made it the capital of the new province of Septimia Nesibi Colonia. Control of the region was disputed by the Romans and Persians more or less continuously in the third and fourth centuries, with this campaign of Shabur I's falling in the 250s (see n. 91 below); but after the peace agreement of 363 between Jovian and Shabur n, Nisibin and Sinjar or Singara passed under Persian control more or less permanently. This period of Persian domination enabled Nisibin to become an especially flourishing center of the (to the Byzantines, heretical) Nestorian Church; under this last, it functioned as the metropolitan seat for the region of Beth 'Arabhaye.

See Yaqut, Buldan, V, 288-89; PW, XVII/i, s.v. Nisibis (J. Sturm); Le Strange,

Lands, 94-95; Labourt, Le Christianisme dans l’empiie perse, 83; Christensen,

Sassanides, 218-24; Canard, Histoiie de la dynastie des H’amdanides, ioo-ioi;

Frye, "The Political History of Iran under the Sasanians," 125, 137-38; EP, s.v.

Nasibin (E. Honigmann-C. E. Bosworth).

91. No clear picture emerges from the scattered details in the sources about

Shabur's wars against Rome, with a resultant uncertainty about chronology. The

eleventh year of Shabur's reign would be 25 1, and it is possible that Nisibin was

attacked (and for at least the second time) in 251 or 252; but Shabur's expeditions

into Asia Minor and Syria must have extended beyond that date, and the emperor

Valerian did not in any case begin his reign until 2 5 3 . See Noldeke, trans. 3 1 n. 3; E. Stein, Histoiie du Bas-Empire. I. De Pet at romain d l'et at byzantin (284-476), 6 ; and the discussion of the dating of the Persian capture of Nisibin at this time in E. Kettenhofen, Die romisch-persischen Kriege des 3. fahrhunderts nach Chr. nach der Inschrift Sapuhrs I. an dei Ka'be-ye ZartoSt ($KZ), 44-46.

Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

29

large number of the cities there. Among these, he is said to have

conquered Qaluqiyyah (Cilicia) and Qadhuqiyyah (Cappadocia)

and to have besieged one of the [Roman] kings who happened to be

in Anatolia called al-Riyanus (Valerian[us ]) 92 in the city of Antioch.

He took him prisoner, and transported him, and a large number

of the troops who were with him, and settled them at Junday

Sabur ( Jundlshapur ). 93 It is mentioned that he compelled al-

92. That is, the emperor Valerian, Publius Licinius Valerianus (r. 253-60). See

on him Deikleine Pauly, V, s.v. Valerianus (G. Winckler). W. B. Henning observed that it was strange that the tradition that came down to al-Tabari from the Xwaday-namag, with the name as al-Riyanus, rendered the Roman emperor's

name more correctly than did Shabur's victory inscription (see next note), with its

wry'rnswy. See his "The Great Inscription of Shapur I," 834.

93. According to the trilingual (in Parthian, Middle Persian, and Greek) inscrip-

tion erected by Shabur on the Ka'bah-yi Zardusht at Naqsh-i Rustam in 260 or

shortly afterward, the Persian emperor captured Valerian with his own hands. The

question of the exact dating of the capture of the Roman emperor — for which

August or September 260 would seem to be tezmini post quem — is discussed by

Kettenhofen, Die tomisch-peisischen Kziege des 3. Jahzhunderts nach Chr., 97-

99 -

The discovery of the Ka'ba-yi Zardusht trilinguis (§KZ) by the Chicago University Persepolis Expedition of 1936-39 marked a great step forward in our knowledge of the campaigns of Shabur against the Romans and of the history of the early Sasanid rulers in general. Wiesehofer has emphasized that inscriptions like this one at Naqsh-i Rustam, the inscription of Narseh at Paikuli (see n. 141 below) and that of the High Priest Kerder at Naqsh-i Rajab, are important inter alia for their information on the early Sasanid court and its officials, and on the contemporary conception of royal power and its relationship to the divinity Ahura Mazda, and, in part, as zes gestae, the exploits of the Sasanids, thus supplying a corrective to non- Persian sources such as the Byzantine ones; see his Ancient Persia, pp. 154-55.

The information of the three texts making up the complete Ka'ba-yi Zardusht

inscription, as edited by Martin Sprengling (the two Middle Iranian texts) and

Andr6 Maricq (the Greek text) has been compared and integrated with the information of the Greek and Latin historical texts, of coin legends, etc., by Kettenhofen in his monograph mentioned in the previous paragraph, meant to accompany his TAVO map (BV 11) Voidezez Orient. Romei und Sasaniden in der Zeit der Reichskrise (224-284 n. Chr.) and its Sonderkarte, Die Kriege Sapuhrs 1 . mit Romnach $KZ; the monograph itself includes three maps illustrating Roman and Sasanid campaigns in Asia Minor, Syria, and Mesopotamia. A new Gesamtedition of the three SKZ texts is being prepared by Dr. Philip Huyse and will appear as part of the Corpus Inscriptionum Iianicarum under (die title Die dreispzachige In- schzift Sabuhr’s I. an der Ka'ba-i ZarduSt ($KZ).

Shabur's victories over the Romans were also immortalised for him in such rock

reliefs as at Naqsh-i Rustam and in those of the Bishapur gorge. See H enning, "The Great Inscription of Shapur I," 833-35; Christensen, Sassanides, 221-24; Herrmann, The Iranian Revival, 92-94, 96-98; Gignoux, "Middle Persian Inscription

30

Holders of Power after Ardashlr b. Babak

Riyanus to set to work building a dam ( shadmwan ) at Tustar,

whose breadth was to be one thousand cubits . 94 The Roman [emperor] constructed this with the aid of a group of men whom he

had caused to be brought from Anatolia, and he held Sabur to a

promise to free him once the dam was completed. It is said that

" 1207-1209.

The Sasanid foundation, or rather re-foundation, in al-Ahwaz or Khuzistan of

Gondeshabur is given by al-Tabari, I, 830-31, pp. 38-39 below, the original name

in New Persian of Bih-az-Andiyu Sabur "Better than Antioch (has) Sabur (built

this)," repeated thus in Hamzah al-Isfahani, 45 (the MP equivalent would be *Weh az Andiyog Shahbuhr [kird]}. Noldeke, trans. 42 n. 2, was skeptical, and thought that Wandew-Sabur "Acquired by Shabur'' was the true form, eventually yielding Gondeshabur and the Arabised form Jundaysabur; but Mr F. C. de Blois tells me that he is in turn skeptical of Noldeke's theory, since "Acquired by Sabur" would be ‘Windad Shahbuhr. D. T. Potts has recently discussed the etymology of the place's name in the light of two Greek inscriptions found at Susa which mention a local river Gondeisos, and has suggested that the name of this river derives from a military center and fortress there of the Parthian period, *Gond-dez, subsequently called *Gond-dez-i Shabur when the Sasanid ruler restored and refounded it. The alternative name * Weh az Andiyog Shahbuhr would have been applied to it when the people from Antioch were planted there. See his "GundeSapur and the Gondeisos," 323-35. Al-Dlnawari, al-Akhbai al-tiwal, 46, has the cryptic information that, in al-khuziyyah (i.e., the local language of Khuzistan), the town was called N.y.lat, now rendered by the people there as N.y.lab. Under the Sasanids, Gondeshabur flourished as the main urban center of Khuzistan. In early Islamic times it was famed as a center of medical knowledge and practice, skills that must have been brought thither in Sasanid times by Nestorian Christians. See Noldeke, trans. 41 n. 2; Yaqut, Buldan, II, 170-71; Le Strange, Lands, 238; Schwarz, Iran im Mittelalter, 346-50; Barthold, Historical Geography, 187-88; Frye, "The Political History of Iran under the Sasanians," 126; El 2 s.v. Gondeshapur (Cl. Huart and Aydin Sayili). On the improbability of Indian influence there, cf. n. 180 below.

Al-Tabari does not actually mention the building of what was Shabur's most

favored urban foundation, that of Bishapur to the west of Is^akhr, probably com-

pleted by him ca. 266. As at Gondeshabur and at Shushtar (see on this last n. 94

below), Roman prisoners of war are said to have been settled there. Many buildings of the Sasanid and Islamic period remain on the site, although by the tenth century the town was in ruins, eclipsed by the rising town of Kazarun. Also notable are the nearby reliefs carved at Shabur's behest on the bank of the Tang-i Chawgan river. See Herrmann, The Iranian Revival, 101-104; Eh, s.v. BiSapur (E. J. Keall).

94. This dam, popularly known as the Band-i Qay?ar "Emperor's dam" from the

alleged, but probably legendary, role of the captured Roman ruler in building it

(although Roman prisoners of war were very probably involved in this work, as also at the monuments of BIshabur; cf. Christensen, Sassanides, 220-21, and Nina

Garsoian, "Byzantium and the Sasanians," 581), came to be regarded as one of the

wonders of the world by the mediaeval Muslims. It was in reality only one of many shadurwans on the Dujayl or Karun, barriers that divided up the river's waters into irrigation channels running off from the main flow and that at the same time relieved the pressure of waters in winter and spring from the snows that fell in the

Holders of Power after Ardashlr b. Babak

3i

Sabur took from al-Riyanus a great financial indemnity, and set

him free after cutting off his nose; others, however, say that Sabur

killed him. 95

Now there was, facing Takrit 96 and between the Tigris and Euphrates, a city called al-Iiadr (Hatra), 97 and there was there a man Zagros Mountains, where the Karun and its affluents rise.

Tustar (Persian, Shus(h}tar) was in early Islamic times the next most important

town of Khuzistan after the provincial capital al-Ahwaz, and was situated on the

Karun,- but its pre-Islamic history goes back at least to the time of Pliny (first

century a.d.), who mentions it. See Yaqut, Bulddn, n, 29-3 1; Le Strange, Lands;

Markwart-Messina, Catalogue of the Provincial Capitals, 97; El 2 , s.v. Shushtar ( J. H. Kramers-C. E. Bosworth).

The term shadurwan has many meanings in early Islamic usage, often in con-

nection with irrigation devices, but the basic meaning seems to be that of a raised

platform or dais, this being then extended to masonry walls and revetments for

storing and controling waters and their flow. E. Benveniste thought that this obvi-

ously Iranian word was probably Parthian in origin. See his "Le sens du mot persan shadurv&n," 31-37; Bosworth, "Some Remarks on the Terminology of Irrigation Practices and Hydraulic Constructions in the Eastern Arab and Iranian Worlds in the Third-Fifth Centuries a.h.," 83-84.

95. Nothing definite is known of Valerian's death. The Byzantine historian

Agathias (who derived much of his information on the Sasanids from the inter-

preter Sergius, who had been given access to the Persian royal annals while in the

Persian capital on diplomatic work) says that Shabur, a notoriously bloodthirsty

monarch, had Valerian flayed alive, but this is unconfirmed elsewhere. See Averil

Cameron, "Agathias on the Sassanians," 120-21, 138.

96. Reading bi-hiyal as in Noldeke's text, whereas he had in his translation, 33,

followed a defective reading, bi-jibal. There are, of course, no hills, let alone

mountains, near Takrit, lying as this town does on the Tigris; see EP, s.v.Takrit ( J. H. Kramers and C. E. Bosworth).

97. The city of Hatra, Greek Atrai, lay to the southwest of Maw$il on the Nahr

Tharthar, an affluent of the Tigris, but even by early Islamic times the exact site

was not known to the Arabs. In the Parthian period, Hatra was the center of one of

a chain of Arab principalities along the fringes of the Syrian Desert through Commagene and Edessa to Emesa and Palmyra, but was clearly under considerable Iranian political and cultural influence.

Various of its princes bore Iranian names, such as the typically Parthian one of Sanatruk (which may be behind the Arabic name of the ruler given here, al-Safirun; for suggestions on the etymology of the name Sanatriik itself, see Eilers, "Iran and Mesopotamia," 491 n. 3) and that of Vologases, and Hatra was usually an ally of the Arsacids against Roman pressure.

With the fall of its Parthian protectors, Hatra declined in power. It passed tem-

porarily under Roman control, bringing down on it the wrath of Shapur I in the

middle years of the third century, as related here (other, less likely, dates for this

are given in Arabic sources other than al-Tabari).

Hatra became famed in early Islamic lore as a symbol of the transience of earthly

power, since it seemed by then to have disappeared from the face of the earth, and

the story of the city's betrayal by al-I?ayzan's daughter al-Na<Jirah struck the

popular imagination. It must have entered into Arabic literature either through Ibn

3 *

Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

from the Jaramiqah 98 called al-Satirun. He is the person about

whom Abu Du’ad al-Iyadl speaks : 99

I see how death has come down from al-Hadr upon the leader of

its people, al-Satirun.

The Arabs, however, called him al-Dayzan . 100 It is said that he

was a man from the people of Ba Jarma, but according to Hisham b.

[Muhammad] al-Kalbl, he was an Arab from Quda'ah, his genealogy

being al-Dayzan b. Mu'awiyah b. al-'Abld b. al-Ajram b. 'Amr

b. al-Nakha' b. Salih b. Hulwan b. 'Imran b. al-Hafi b. Quda'ah,

that his mother Jayhalah was from the tribe of Tazid b. Hulwan

al-Muqaffa"s Arabic version of the Khwaday-namag or through the traditions

transmitted by Ibn al-Kalbi, and here utilized by al-Tabari, based inter alia on

references in the verses of the poets of al-HIrah, Abu Du’ad al-Iyadi, and 'Adi b.

Zayd. As Yarshater has noted, "Iranian National History," 400-401, intriguing

anecdotes and touches like this may have evolved to provide an element of entertainment within the narratives of dynastic and political history. See Noldeke,

trans. 33 n. 4; PW, VII/2, s.v. Hatra (M. Streck); Christensen, Sassanides, 218-19; F. Altheim and R. Stiehl, Die Aiabei in der alten Welt, II, I9iff., IV, 263ff.j Eilers,

"Iran and Mesopotamia," 490-9 1; Bosworth, "Iran and the Arabs before Islam,"

594-96; EP-, s.v. al-Hadr (Ch. Pellat).

98. That is, from the inhabitants of Ba Jarma, Syriac Be(th) Garme, the region to

the east of the middle Tigris and of Takrit, lying south of the Lesser Zab and the

region of Adiabene; it extended to Shahrazur and the fringes of the Zagros range. As an important Christian region in Sasanid times, it was the seat of a metropolitan bishopric. Arabic Jaramiqah, sing. Jarmaqi, derives from Syriac Garmaqaye. See Noldeke, trans. 35 n. i; Marquart, EranSahr, 21-22; Fiey, Assyrie chrdtienne, III, n-145; Morony, Iraq after the Muslim Conquest, 335-36.

99. Pre-Islamic poet of al-HIrah, floruit in the middle years of the sixth century

under the Lakhmid al-Mundhir Id; he was classed among the muqillun, those

poets who only composed a small amount of verse. This verse is given in G. E. von Grunebaum, "Abu Du’ad al-Iyadl. Collection of Fragments," as one of a fragment of thirteen verses. See on the poet, Abu al-Faraj al-Isfaham, Kitab al-AghanP • XVI, 373-81; Rothstein, Lahmiden, 28, 133; Blachere, Histoire de la literature arabe, II, 294-95; EP-, s.v. Abu Du’ad al-Iyadi (Ch. Pellat).

100. Noldeke, trans. 35 n. 1, nevertheless thought that al-Satirun and Payzan

were two separate persons: the first name a non-Arabic one [see n. 97 above), and

the second one Arabic, and averred that the only sure name of a king of Hatra that

we know is the Barsemias/Barsemios, a clearly Aramiac name, in Herodian, which he interpreted as Barsamya but which von Gutschmid, "Bemerkungen zu Tabari's Sasanidengeschichte," 735, preferred to read as Barsenios - Barsln. Noldeke surmised that the Dayzan mentioned here might possibly have been the founder of the Payzanabadh/Tayzanabadh of al-Baladhun, Futuh, 284, and likewise connected with the Marj al-Dayazin on the middle Euphrates near al-Raqqah of Yaqut, Buldan, V, 101.

Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

33

and that he was exclusively known by his mother's name. 101 Ibn

al-Kalbi goes on to assert that he was the ruler over the land of al-

Jazlrah and that he had with him [as his supporters] innumerable

numbers of the Banu 'Abld b. al-Ajram and [other] tribes of

Quda’ah. [It is said that] his kingdom stretched as far as Syria.

When Sabur, son of Ardashir, was away in the region of

Khurasan, al-Dayzan made an incursion into the Sawad. When

Sabur got back from his period of absence, he was told what al-

Dayzan had been up to. 'Amr b. Ilah (?) b. al-Judayy b. al-Daha’ b.

Jusham b. Hulwan b. 'Imran b. al-Hafi b. Quda'ah composed these

verses in connection with al-Dayzan's actions: 102

We encountered them [in battle] with a host of the [Banu] 'Ilaf

and with [a troop of] strong-hoofed stallions.

The Persians received at our hands exemplary punishment, and

we massacred the Herbadhs of Shahrazur. 103

We advanced toward the Persians | al-A'ajim ) from afar with a

host from al-Jazirah as in a blaze of fire. 104

When Sabur was informed about what al-Dayzan had done, he

headed towards him until he halted before al-Dayzan's fortress,

while al-Dayzan entrenched himself within it. Ibn al-Kalbi asserts

that Sabur was involved in the siege of the fortress for four years,

completely unable to destroy it or to get his hands on al-Dayzan.

101. That is, as Ibn Jayhalah; cf. al-Baladhuri, Futuh, 284.

102. Ndldeke, trans. 39 n. 1, was skeptical about the contemporaneity of this

poet with the events alluded to and thought that the (later) author must have had

al-A'sha's verses in mind. In Abu al-Faraj al-I$fahani, AghdnP - II, 142-43, giving

the story of Sabur's destruction of al-Hadr, the poet's name appears as 'Amr b.

Alah.

103. The place-name Shahrazur in western Kurdistan, though admittedly a

place with a pre-Islamic history (see EP ,s.v. Shahrazur (V. Minorsky-C. E.

Bosworth), gives little sense in this context. Noldeke, trans. 36 n. 3, endeavoring to improve the reading of these verses from parallel sources, opined that the reading Bahiasii - Bih Ardashir (cf. al-Tabari, 1 , 820, p. 16 above) of Abu al-Faraj al-I$faham, Aghani l ‘ II, 37 (wrongly corrected to Shahiazui in Aghani 3 ?) was certainly the right one. It undoubtedly makes more sense that Zoroastrian priests, herbeds, should be encountered in the central Mesopotamian plain than in the mountains of Kurdistan.

104. Following Noldeke's suggestion, loc. cit., that one should follow the reading of Abu al-Faraj al-I$faham, Aghani 1 > mil-jazirati, for the text's ka-al-jazirati.

34

Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

However, al-A'sha Maymun b. Qays 105 has mentioned in his

poem that Sabur was engaged in the siege of the fortress for only

two years, saying:

Have you not seen al-Hadr, whose people always enjoyed ease of

life? But does anyone favored with ease of life enjoy it for

ever?

Shahabur of the Hosts (al-Junud) remained before it for two

years, wielding his battle axes there.

But his (i.e., the ruler of al-HIrah's) Lord vouchsafed him no

access of strength, and pivots such as his could not remain

firm (i.e., the ease of life he had enjoyed could not endure

forever).

When his Lord saw what he was doing, He swept down on him

[829] with a violent blow, without him being able to retaliate.

He had called upon his partisans, "Come forward to your

affair, which has been already severed,

And die noble deaths through your own swords; I see that the

real warrior takes on for himself the burden of death with

equanimity. " 1 06

One of al-Dayzan's daughters, called al-Nadlrah, 107 was menstruous,

 hence was segregated in the outer suburb of the city, as

was the custom of the time with women during their menstrual

periods. According to what was generally acknowledged, she was

one of the most beautiful women of her time, just as Sabur was

one of the most handsome men of his age. The two of them saw

each other, and fell madly in love with each other. She sent a

105. Here giving the full name of the poet (on whom see n. 106, below) in order

to distinguish him from several Arabic poets with the cognomen al-A'sha "the

night-blind one."

106. R. Geyer, Gedichte von Abu Maimi in ibn Qais al-’A'shd, Arabic text

33-34, poem no. 4, w. 60-65. F° r this mukhadzam poet (d. after 3/625) who

frequented the Lakhmid court at al-Hirah in the early part of his life, see Rothstein, Lahmiden, 2i> Siddiqi, Studien iibez die persische Fzezndwdztez, 77; Blachfcre, Histoize de la littezatuze aiabe, II, 321-25; EP, s.v. al-A'sha, Maymun b. Kays (W. Caskel). Noldeke, trans. 37 n. 4, pointed out that there is no mention— at least, in this fragment of what was probably a longer poem— of Dayzan and his daughter al- Nadirah's treachery; the verses merely stress the well-worn theme of the fragility and perishability of human endeavor.

107. In al-DInawari, al-Akhbaz al-fiwal, 48, she is called Mulaykah.

Holders of Power after Ardashlr b. Babak

35

message to him with the words, "What would you give me if I

were to indicate to you how you could bring about the destruction

of the wall of this city and how you could kill my father?" He

replied, "Whatever you might choose; and I would elevate you

above all my other wives and would make you my closest spouse

to their exclusion." She instructed him, "Take a silver-colored

collar dove, and write on its leg with the menstrual blood of a

blue-eyed virgin girl. Then release it, and it will alight on the city

wall, and the latter will crumble away ." 108 That was in fact the

talisman of the city, and only this could destroy the city. So Sabur

did that and got ready to attack them (sc., the city's defenders).

The king of al-Hadr's daughter went on to say, "I will give the

guards wine, and when they are laid out on the ground [by its

stupefying effects], kill them and enter the city ." 109 He did all

this,- the city's defenses collapsed totally, and he took it by storm

and killed al-Dayzan on that very day. The splinter groups from

Quda'ah, who were with al-Dayzan, were annihilated, so that no

part of them known as such remains to this present day. Some

clans of the Banu Hulwan 110 were likewise completely destroyed.

'Amr b. Ilah, who was with al-Dayzan, has said:

Have you not been filled with grief as the reports come in about

what has happened to the leading men of the Banu ’Abid,

And of the slaying of [al-] Dayzan and his brothers, and of the

108. In many premodem societies, menstrual blood has been regarded as pos-

sessing special power, in certain cases for healing but more often for wreaking

violent and harmful effects,- whence the taboos that usually surround menstruous

women and the menstrual flow and which often cause them to be separated from

the rest of the community at times of menstruation (as was the case here with al-

Nadirah, see above). Pliny the Elder wrote in his Natural History, Book XXVIII.

XXm. 77, "Over and above all this there is no limit to women's power . . . Wild

indeed are the stories told of mysterious and awful power of the menstruous

discharge itself . . (tr. Rackham, VII, 55).

Here, the violent effect, the shock to the order of nature that spontaneously

brings about the destruction of the walls of Hatra, arises from the passage of

unclean menstrual blood from the pure virgin to the pure dove and its consequent

supernatural effect.

109. Noldeke, trans. 38 n. 4, notes that this additional explanation for the fall of

the city is superfluous, given the magical effect of the dove smeared with men-

strual blood, and must be an attempt at a rationalizing explanation of events.

110. Hulwan was the great-grandson of Quda'ah; see Ibn al-Kalbl-Caskel-

Strenziok, Jamharat al-nasab, I, Table 279, n, 331.

36

Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

men of Tazid, who were wont to ride forth in the cavalry

squadrons?

Sabur of the Hosts attacked them with war elephants, richly

caparisoned, and with his heroic warriors,

And he destroyed the stone blocks of the fortress's columns,

whose foundation stones were like iron blocks. 111

Sabur then reduced the city to ruins and carried off al-Dayzan's

daughter al-Nadirah, marrying her at 'Ayn al-Tamr. 112 It is mentioned

 that she complained volubly the whole night through

about the hardness of her bed, even though this was of finely

woven silk cloth stuffed with raw silk. A search was made for

what was distressing her, and behold, it turned out to be a myrtle

[830] leaf stuck in one of the folds of the skin of her abdomen which was

irritating her. 113 [Ibn al-Kalbi] goes on to relate: Because her skin

was so fine, one could see right to her marrow. Sabur thereupon

said to her, "Tell me then, what did your father give you to eat?"

She replied, "Cream, marrow from bones and honey from virgin

bees, together with the choicest wine!" He exclaimed, "By your

father! I have known you more recently than your father, and am

dearer to you than him, who gave you such food as you mention!"

(i.e., you should not therefore start complaining). So he commanded

a man to mount a wild, unbroken horse; he tied her locks

of hair to its tail, and then made the horse gallop off 1 14 until it tore

her into pieces.

hi. These verses are also given in Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahanl, AghanP’ II, 142-43;

al-Mas'udl, Muruj, TV, 85 - § 1411 (three verses); Yaqut, Buldan, II, 268-69.

Noldeke, trans. 39 n. i, doubted very much the authenticity of Arabic poetry from

so early a period.

1 12. This was a tassuj or administrative subdistrict to the west of the Euphrates

and south of Hit on the Syrian Desert fringes,- the settlement of 'Ayn al-Tamr "the

spring of the date palm" still had a small fortress in al-Maqdisi's time (fourth/tenth

century), but the site has now disappeared. See Yaqut, Buldan, IV, 176-77; Le

Strange, Lands, 65, 8i; Musil, The Middle Euphrates, 41-41, 28s, 289-90, 295-

31 1. For the term tassuj, see EP-, s.v. Tassudj (M. J. Morony), and the remarks on

Sasanid administrative geography in n. 1 17 below.

1 13. This folkloric motif turns up in Hans Christian Andersen's story of "The

Princess and the Pea." Cf. Christensen, "La princess sur la feuille de myrte et la

princesse sur la poie," 241-57.

1 14. For this verb istarkada, see Glossarium, p. cclxix. Noldeke, trans. 39 n. 4,

compared al-Nadirah's fate with the (apparently authentic) account of the death of

the Merovingian queen Brunhilda, dragged to her death at a horse's tail in 613, as

narrated by the chronicler Fredegar.

Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

37

A poet has said in connection with this:

The fortress has become desolate on account of [al-] Nadlrah,

likewise al-Mirba' because of her and the banks of the

Tharthar . 115

The poets have written extensively about this (al-] Dayzan in

their verse. 'Adi b. Zayd alludes to him in his words : 116

And [where is now] the ruler ( akhu } of al-Hadr, who once built

it and for whom the taxation of the Tigris and the Khabur

was collected?

He raised it up firmly with marble and covered it over with

plaster, yet the birds have found nesting places in its

pinnacles.

The blows of ill fortune did not frighten him, yet kingly power

ebbed away from him and his portals are now forsaken.

It is also said that Sabur built in Maysan (the town of] Shadh

Sabur, which is called in Aramaic ( al-naba\iyydh) Dima . 117

115. This verse is in fact by 'Adi b. Zayd (see n. 1 16 below) and is included in the collected Diwan 'Adi b. Zayd al-'Ibadi, ed. al-Mu'aybidi, 13s, fragment no. 67. The Tharthar river flowed past al-Hadr, and al-Mirba' ("place with vegetation from spring rains") must have been a local site.

1 16. 'Adi b. Zayd, of Tamiml origin, flourished in the second half of the sixth

century as the most notable exponent of the Hiran school of poets, in whom the

indigenous Arabic, the Christian culture of the 'Ibid and, probably, Persian cul-

ture, all combined. Hence ‘Adi's poetry mingles Christian and Biblical themes

with the ascetic and fatalist strains of desert life. His administrative career was

spent in the Persian capital Ctesiphon as a translator and advisor on Arab affairs for Khusraw Abarwez and, after 580, at al-Hirah with al-Nu'man in, till the jealousies and intrigues of his enemies brought about his death ca. 600, as detailed by al- Tabari, I, 1016-24, pp. 339-si below. His complete Diwan has not survived and only scattered verses are known. See Rothstein, Lahmiden, 109-11? Siddiqi, Studien iibei die peisische Fremdworter, 76-77-, Blachfere, Histoiie de la littiratuxe aiabe, n, 300-301? EP, s.v. 'Adi b. Zayd (F. Gabrieli).

These famous verses by 'Adi on the lost glories of al-Hadr are from the long poem

in the Diwan, ed. al-Mu'aybidi, 88, fragment no. 16.

1 17. Shadh Sabur was both a town and a kurab or administrative district in

Maysan, the later Islamic administrative division of Ard Kaskar? see Morony, Iraq after the Muslim Conquest, 155. Marquart suggested that the place's full name might have been Erin-shad Shabuhr "the joy of the Iranians (is] Shibur"? see Markwart-Messina, Catalogue of the Provincial Capitals, 102. The local nabatf name of Dima (in the Cairo text, the equally incomprehensible Rima) remains obscure.

38

Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

In the time of Sabur, there arose Mani the Zindlq . 118

It is said that, when Sabur proceeded to the site of Junday Sabur

in order to lay down the city's foundations, he came across an aged

man there called Bil. So he asked him, "Is it permissible for a city

to be constructed on this spot?" Bil replied, "If I am vouchsafed

the ability to write, despite my having reached an advanced age,

then it is allowable for you to build a city in this place." Sabur said

to him, "Now indeed, the two things whose possibility you deny

shall come to pass," and he thereupon sketched out the plan of the

city and handed Bil over to an instructor, with instructions to

teach him to write and to be able to do arithmetical calculations

within one year. The instructor shut himself up with Bil, and

began by shaving off Bil's hair and his beard, lest these two things

distract him, and then taught him thoroughly. After this, he

brought Bil to the king, Bil having bcome effective and skillful in

his studies. So Sabur entrusted to him the job of calculating expenditure

on the city and of setting up a proper accounting procedure

for these payments. The king established the region (i.e., of the

city and its surrounding rural areas) as a separate administrative

division ( kurah ) 119 and called it Bih-az-Andiw-i Sabur, which

118. On the rise of Mani, son of Patik, and his movement at this time, see G.

Widengren, "Manichaeism and Its Iranian Background," 965-90. The founder of

the new faith actually stemmed, according to the much later Islamic historian al-

Birunl, from Kutha to the south of Ctesiphon, on the canal connecting the Tigris

and the Euphrates. In later Arabic lore, he appears as Man! b. Fatik or Fattik; see

EP, s.v. Mani b. Fattik (C. E. Bosworth).

The term zindlq came to be applied in Sasanid times not only to the Man-

ichaeans but also, subsequently, to the Mazdakites, while in early Islamic times its

use was generalized to cover adherents of many heretical movements, especially

within 'Abbasid Iraq, and as a general term of abuse for any religious deviants. See G. Vajda, "Les zindiqs en pays d'Islam au debut de la periode abbaside," 173-229,- F.

Gabrieli, "La «zandaqa» au I er sibcle abbaside," 23-38; EP> s.v. Zindik (L. Massignon). Some older authorities sought an etymology for zindlq in Aramaic zaddiqa "righteous (one)" or even Greek, but more recently the view has been put forward that it is an indigenous Iranian term, from MP zandik, a person who has a deviant interpretation ( zand ) of the sacred text of the Avesta; hence early Armenian writers contrast the zandlks with the orthodox Zoroastrian Magians. The question remains open. See Sir Harold Bailey's Note appended to Widengren's chapter, in CHI, m/2, 907; EP, s.v. Zindik (F. C. de Blois), opting for an Aramaic origin.

1 19. For this term, probably stemming from Greek chord, see EP, s.v. Kura (D.

Sourdel). It denoted something like an administrative division within a province

(Fars, for instance, having within it five kiirahs in Sasanid and early Islamic times), the equivalent, according to Yaqut, quoting Hamzah al-Isfahanl, of the Persian

Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

39

means "the city of Sabur's which is better than Antioch ." 120 This

is the city that is [now] called Junday Sabur, which the people of

al-Ahwaz, however, call Bil, from the name of the man who was

overseer of the city's construction . 121

When Sabur was near to death, he appointed as ruler his son

Hurmuz and laid upon him testamentary instructions, ordering

him to base his conduct upon them. There are differing views on

the length of Sabur's reign. Some authorities put it at thirty years

and fifteen days, others at thirty-one years, six months, and nine-

teen days . 122

istan/ustan, and was itself divided up into component tassujs and rustaqs. F.

Lokkegaard, Islamic Taxation in the Classic Period, with Special Reference to

Circumstances in Iraq, 164-67, assumed a descending order of istan/kurah —

tassuj — rustdq — dih/qaryah for the hierarchy of administrative subdivisions in

Sasanid Mesopotamia and Persia and these same lands during early Islamic times,

but the texts are, however, inconsistent and at times contradictory. The Sirat

Anusharwan | see on this n. 624 below) posits, in the context of Khusraw Anushar's administrative and fiscal reforms (see al-Tabari, I, 960-63, pp. 255-62 below) a hierarchy of province or region ( balad ), administrative division (kurah),

rural district [rustdq), village ( qaryah ), down to individual taxpayer, and this corresponds largely to how al-Tabari, I, 814, pp. 3-5 above, describes Ardashir I's origins. See Noldeke, trans. 446-47 Excursus 3; Wadie Juwaideh, The Introductory Chapters ofYaqut’s Mu'jam al-Buldan, 56, 57-58; Valeria F. Piacentini, "Madina/ shahr, qarya/dih, ndhiy a/ rustdq. The city as pohtical-administrative institution: the continuity of a Sasanian model," 96-99; and above all, the detailed discussion of G. Widengren, "Recherches sur le feudalisme iranien," 122-48.

120. See nn. 58, 93 above.

121. This tale of Bll's educational achievement revolves round learning the

notoriously difficult and ambiguous Pahlavi script.

122. Shabur I's reign was 240-70, since he was crowned as coruler with his

father Ardashir I in 240, probably in April of that year, almost two years before the latter's death; see the discussion on the regnal dates of Shabur by Kettenhofen in his Die romisch-persischen Kriege des 3. fahrhunderts nach Chi., 46-49. Shabur's name appears on his coins as SHPWHRY - Shabuhr. See on his coins Paruck, Sasanian Coins, 52-53, 316-22, 416-19, Plates IV-V, Table II; Gobi, Sasanian Numismatics, 43, Table n, Plate 2; Sellwood, Whitting, and Williams, An Introduction to Sasanian Coins, 21, 79-83; Malek, "A Survey of Research on Sasanian Numismatics," 233.

The other Arabic sources on his reign include Ibn Qutaybah, Ma'drif, 654 (brief

entry); al-Ya'qubi, Ta’rikh, I, 180-81 (brief note of Sabur's Roman campaign, but

mainly concerned with the appearance of Mani, the polemical works he composed, and Sabur's own attraction to Manichaeism before he was brought back to al- majusiyyah by the Chief Mobadh); al-DInawari, al-Akhbar al-^iwal, 46 (only a short notice, on Sabur's Roman campaign and capture of the Roman emperor, and his construction works in Khuzistan and at Jundaysabur); al-Mas'udi, Muruj, n, 163-66 - §§589-93 (Mani's rise to prominence and Sabur's part in it, together with

40

Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

[Hurmuz I]

Then after Sabur (I), son of Ardashir (I), son of Babak, the royal

power was assumed by his son Hurmuz (I ). 123

He was called "the Bold" ( al-jari V 24 and resembled Ardashir in

bodily constitution and appearance, but did not come up to him in

judgment and skillful management . 125 Nevertheless, he was out-

standing for his fortitude in battle, boldness, and massive build.

His mother, according to what is said, was one of the daughters

of King Mihrak, whom Ardashir killed at Ardashir Khurrah . 126

This arose from the fact that Ardashir's astrologers had told him

that a person would arise from Mihrak's stock who would attain

the royal power. So Ardashir hunted down all of his stock and

killed them. However, Hurmuz's mother, who was an intelligent,

beautiful, perfectly formed, and physically strong person, slipped

the latter's counsels on good rule and the maintenance of an efficient army); idem,

Tanbih, ioo, trans. 144; Hamzah al-Isfahani, Ta'iikh, 44-45 (enumerates in fair

detail all the cities Sabur built, with their names and comments on their plans); Ibn al-Athlr, Kamil, I, 385-88. Of Persian sources, see Tabari-Bal'ami, trans. II, 75-85.

Shabur seems to have been a less zealous adherent of Zoroastrianism than his

father, and is even said by some sources to have been favorable toward Manichae-

ism, although Zoroastrianism was at this time being consolidated as the state

religion of Persia through the untiring efforts of men like the Chief Herbed Kerder. During his time, the influence in the state of Kerder and the prophet Mani seems to have been evenly balanced. Shabur's deportations from Antioch and elsewhere in Syria and in Upper Mesopotamia actually brought increased numbers of Christians into the Persian Empire, so that Christian communities were now implanted in the towns of the heartland Fars and in places like Ardashir Khurrah, the preferred residence of Ardashir I. See Labourt, Le Chiistianisme dans V empire perse, 19-20; Chaumont, "Les Sassanides et la Christianisme de l'Empire iranien," 168-80; S. Brock, "Christians in the Sasanian Empire: A Case of Divided Loyalties," iff.

For recent studies on Shabur's reign in general, see, e.g., Christensen,

Sassanides, 179ft, 218-26; Frye, The Heritage of Persia, 208-17; idem, "The Political History of Iran under the Sasanians," 124-27, 178; EP-, sw. Sasanids (M. Morony), Shapur (C. E. Bosworth).

123. In Pahlavi, Ohrmazd, Greek Hormisdes, from Ahura Mazda, the name in

the Avesta of the great divinity of ancient Iranian religion. See Justi, Namenbuch,

7— 9; Gignoux, Noms propres sassanides, no. 702; Elr, s.v. Ahura Mazda (M. Boyce).

124. In al-Mas'udi, Muruj, n, 1 66 => §593, and al-Khwarazmi, Mafatih al-'ulum,

102, we have for this al-batal "the warrior, hero." Cf. Noldeke, trans. 43 n.2.

125. Noldeke, trans., 43 n. 3, observes that the forty years or so from Shapur I's

death to the accession of Shapur II were ones of comparative weakness and decline for the Sasanids.

126. See al-Tabari, I, 817, pp. 10-11 above.

Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

4i

away surreptitiously into the desert and took refuge with some

shepherds.

Now Sabur set out one day hunting. He pursued his quarry enthusiastically,

and became very thirsty. At that point, the tents

where Hurmuz's mother had sought refuge came into his view. He

made for them, but found the shepherds away. He asked for water,

and the woman there gave him some. He perceived that she was

outstandingly beautiful and had a remarkable carriage and a noble

face. Shortly afterward, the shepherds returned. Sabur asked them

about her, and since one of the shepherds gave out that she was a

member of his family, Sabur asked him to give her to him in

marriage. The shepherd conceded this to him, so Sabur went off

with her to his own encampment, commanded her to be washed

clean, suitably clothed, and adorned. He wanted to have conjugal

relations with her. But when he was alone wih her, and sought

from her what men usually seek from women, she held back and

fended him off when he tried to get near her, with a degree of force

he found unpleasing, and he marveled at her physical strength.

When she behaved like this for some time, it aroused his anger,

and he enquired after the cause. So she told him that she was the

daughter of Mihrak, and that she had only done what she had done

in order to spare him from Ardashir. He made an agreement with

her to conceal her real position, and had sexual congress with her.

She then gave birth to Hurmuz, but Sabur subsequently concealed

the whole matter.

When Hurmuz was several years old, Ardashir rode out one day,

and turned aside to Sabur's dwelling because he wanted to tell

Sabur something. He went into the house unexpectedly. When

Ardashir had stretched himself out comfortably, Hurmuz came

forth, having by this time grown into a sturdy youth. He had in his

hand a polo stick that he was playing with, and was crying out in

pursuit of the ball. When Ardashlr's eye fell on him, this perturbed

him, and he became aware of the resemblance in the youth to his

own family, because the qualities of Persian kingship ( al -

kayiyyah ) 127 characteristic of Ardashlr's house could not be -

127. An Arabic abstract noun coined from the name of the ancient, at best

semilegendary, ruling dynasty of the Kayanids, Kay (Avestan Kawi) being the

princely title used by these, passing into MP and NP with the generalized sense of

42

Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

concealed and could not be disregarded by anyone, because of certain

specific traits visible in members of that house: a handsome face, a

stout physique, and other bodily features by which Ardashlr's

house was distinguished. So Ardashir made him come near, and

asked Sabur about him. The latter fell down [before him] in obeisance, acknowledging his fault over all that he had done, and told

his father the truth about the whole affair. Ardashir, nevertheless,

expressed joy over him, and told him that he had now [for the first

time] realized the truth of what the astrologers had said regarding

Mihrak's offspring and regarding the one from them who would

reign as king; the astrologers had simply been envisaging Hurmuz

in this connection, since he was from the stock of Mihrak; and

this had now provided consolation for the perturbation in his

mind and had dispelled it.

When Ardashir died, and the royal power passed to Sabur, he

appointed Hurmuz governor of Khurasan and dispatched him

thither. Hurmuz adopted an independent policy, subdued the

rulers of the nations in adjacent lands, and behaved as a highly

proud and effective ruler. Hence various calumniators delated him

to Sabur and implanted the delusion in the latter's mind that, if

Sabur were to summon Hurmuz [to his court], the latter would not

respond, and that he was planning to seize the royal power from

him. News of this reached Hurmuz. It is said that he went aside

into a private place, and cut into his hand and severed it, placed on

the hand some preservative, wrapped it up in a piece of costly

clothing, put it in a casket and sent it off to Sabur. He wrote a

letter to him about what he had heard (sc., the calumnies concerning him),

 and [explained] that he had only done what he had done

(i.e., cut off and dispatched the hand) in order to dispel all suspicions

about him, for among their customs was the practice of not

raising anyone to kingly power who had a physical defect. 128

When the letter and the accompanying casket reached Sabur, he

"king." See Christensen, Les Kayanides, 9-10, 17ft., 43; Yarshater, "Iranian Na-

tional History," 436ff. ; El 2 , s.v. Kayanids (ed.).

128. Noldeke, trans. 45 n. 1, noted the information of the Byzantine historian

Procopius that "a one-eyed person or someone afflicted by any other serious defect, could not become king of Persia"; but this was probably a near-universal principle in the Ancient Near East and the classical Eastern Mediterranean world, and was one of continued validity in later times, since physical wholeness was certainly required for the Byzantine emperors and the Islamic caliphs.

Holders of Power after Ardashir b. fiabak 43

became cut up through grief, and wrote back to Hurmuz telling

him how filled with affliction he had become at Hurmuz's action,

excused himself and informed him that, if Hurmuz were to cut up

his body limb by limb, he would not choose anyone else for the

royal power. He then proclaimed him [his successor as] king.

It is said that, when Sabur placed the crown on Hurmuz's head,

the great men of state came into his presence and invoked blessings

on him. He returned a kindly answer to them, and they then

realized from him the [real] truth of the affair. He behaved benevolently

toward them, meted out justice to the subjects, and followed the

 [praiseworthy] ways of his forefathers, and he laid out

the district ( kuiah ) of Ram Hurmuz. 129 Hurmuz's reign lasted one

year and ten days. 130

[Bahiam I]

After him, there succeeded to the royal power his son Bahrain

(I). He was Bahram, son of Hurmuz [I], son of Sabur (I), son of

Ajdashlr (I), son of Babak. 131

129. A town of southeastern Khuzistan, in early Islamic times a flourishing

market town and in the modem period a center for the oil industry. It was clearly

an old town, though little mentioned by the historians. The Pahlavi town list

confirms al-jabari's information here that it was founded by Hormizd I, son of

Shabur I (Markwart-Messina, Catalogue of the Provincial Capitals, 19, 95-96), but some sources, e.g., Hamzah al-I$fahani, 43, attribute it to Ardashir I. See Marquart, EranSahr, 145; Le Strange, Lands, 243-44; Schwarz, Iran, 332-35, Barthold, Historical Geography, 194, EP, sv. Ram-Hurmuz (V. Minorsky and C. E. Bosworth).

130. Hormizd I Ardashlr's reign was 170-71, Hormizd's name appears on his

coins as WHRMZDY. See on his coins Paruck, Sasanian coins, 53, 322-23, 419,

Plate V, Table HI; G6bl, Sasanian Numismatics, 43, Table n, Plate 3, Sellwood,

Whitting, and Williams, An Introduction to Sasanian Coins, 21, 84-85, Malek, "A

Survey of Research on Sasanian Numismatics," 233.

The other Arabic sources on his reign include Ibn Qutaybah, Ma'drif, 654, al-

Ya’qubl, Ta'tikh, I, 187 (extremely brief), al-Dinawari, al-Akhbdt al-tiwdl, 47

(mainly on his execution of Mani, thus attributed to Hurmuz); al-Mas'udi, Muruj,

n, 166-67 - §593 (his counsels to his commanders); idem, Tanbih, roo, trans. 144,

Hamzah al-l§fahanl, 45 (notes his considerable gifts, but that he fell short of his

father), Ibn al-Athlr, Kamil, I, 388-89. Of Persian sources, see T a bari-Bal'ami,

trans. II, 85-89.

For recent studies on Hormizd's reign in general, see Christensen, Sassanides,

ro2, 226-28; Frye, "The Political History of Iran under the Sasanians," 127-28,

178; Morony, P, s.v. Sisanids.

1 31. MP Warahran, Wahram, Greek Ouararanes, Baramas, etc., Syriac War-

athran, from the name of the Avestan god of victory Varathraghna. See Ndldeke,

44 Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

[The History of al-Hirah]

After the demise of 'Amr b. 'Adi b. Nasr b. Rabi’ah, the governor

for Sabur b. Ardashir, and for Hurmuz b. Sabur, and for Bahram [b.

Hurmuz] b. Sabur, over the frontier region of [the land of] the

Arabs of Rabi’ah, Mudar, and the rest of the tribes in the deserts of

Iraq, Hijaz, and Jazirah, 132 was at that time a son of 'Amr b. 'Adi

called Imru’ al-Qays al-Bad’. He was the first of the kings from the

house of Nasr b. Rabi’ah and the governors for the kings of the

Persians who became a Christian. 133 According to what Hisham

b. Muhammad (sc., Ibn al-Kalbi) has mentioned, he ruled over his

charge as a vassal prince for 1 14 years, comprising twenty-three

years and one month under Sabur, son of Ardashir, one year and

trans. 46 n. 3; Justi, Namenbuch, 361-65; Gignoux, Noms piopies sassanides, no.

926; Eli, s.v. Bahram, heading,

132. This enormous sphere of control and influence attributed to the early

Lakhmid governors is vastly exaggerated, since their authority as representatives

of imperial Persia was mainly exercised along the Syrian Desert fringes of Meso-

potamia and in northeastern Arabia, and only sporadically within the Arabian

interior. The two great tribal groups of Rabi'ah and Mudar dominated northern

Arabia, with members of their component tribes pushing northward through Iraq

into Jazirah, where the names of their dwelling places and pasture grounds, the

Diyar of Rabi'ah, Mudar, and Bakr, reflect their presence in early Islamic times. See EP, s.v. Rabi'a and Mudar (H. Kindermann). It was, however, true that elements of the South Arabian Lakhm had spread from their original home quite early in the pre-Islamic period not only into Iraq but also into Syria. See Ibn al-Kalbl-CaskelStrenziok, Jamharat al-nasab, I, Tables 176, 246, n, 54-56, 375-76; EP, s.v. Lakhm (H. Lammens-Irfan Shahid).

133. al-Bad' , "the first, the originator." This is Imru’ al-Qays (I), the famous

"Imru’ al-Qays, King of all the Arabs" of the proto-Arabic al-Namarah tomb in-

scription of 328, al-Namarah being situated in the district of al-§afa’ between

Damascus and Bosra in what was then the Roman province of Arabia. In explana-

tion of the apparent paradox why this Lakhmid king in al-Hirah should have been

buried far from his homeland of the desert fringes of Iraq, Irfan Shahid has plausibly suggested that Imru’ al-Qays was the first of his line to become a Christian and therefore deserted his allegiance to the Zoroastrian Sasanids and went over to the Romans in Syria, becoming one of their client rulers; also, he may have been affronted by Shabur ITs campaign against the Arabs of eastern Arabia (see al- Tabari, I, 838-39, pp. 54-56 below), which challenged his own claim to the headship of all the Arabs, however inflated this might have been (see n. 232 above). Noldeke, tr. 47 n. 2, denied that Imru’ al-Qays al-Bad’ could have been a Christian, in the light of the vigorous paganism of later Lakhmid kings, and thought that al- Tabari's source Ibn al-Kalbi had here confused this Imru’ al-Qays (I) with a later one of the same name. But Noldeke was writing before the discovery of the Namarah inscription in Syria at the end of the nineteenth century. See Shahid's detailed discussion of the king and his inscription, in Byzantium and the Arabs in the Fourth Century, 31-47, and also Rothstein, Lahmiden, 52, 55ff., 61, 63-64, 139.

Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

45

ten days under Hurmuz, son of Sabur, and three years, three

months, and three days under Bahram, son of Hurmuz, son of

Sabur, and eighteen years under Bahram, son of Bahram, son of

Hurmuz, son of Sabur, son of Ardashir . 134

According to what has been mentioned, Bahram b. Hurmuz was

a forebearing and mild person, so that the people rejoiced when he

came to power. He behaved in a praiseworthy manner toward

them, and in his policy of rule over the people followed the practices

of his forefathers.

According to what has been mentioned, Mam the Zindlq summoned

him to his religion. So Bahram enquired exhaustively into

Mam's beliefs, and found that he was a propagandist for Satan. So

he ordered him to be executed and his body to be skinned and

stuffed with straw, and then for it to be hung from one of the city

gates of funday Sabur, which is [because of this] called Mani's

Gate. He also killed his followers and those who had joined his

faith . 135 Bahrain's reign lasted, according to what is said, for three

years, three months, and three days . 136

134. A total, in reality, of forty-five years, four-and-a-half months (but Shabur I's

reign is usually taken as thirty or thirty-one years, as in al-Tabari, 831, p. 39

above). Also, Bahram I was the son of Shabur I, not of Hormizd I, and Bahram II was the son of Bahram I, hence Hormizd I's nephew and not his son.

135. The date of Mani's execution is controversial, and its exact placing is

bound up with uncertainty over the chronology of the early Sasanid rulers, see n.

S 6 above, and, specifically, with the dates for Bahram I's brief reign, during which it appears Mani was killed. Hence the chronology for the dating of Shabur I's death, Hormizd I's reign, Bahram I's reign, and Bahram D's accession proposed by Henning is followed here (see nn. 122, 130 and 134 above, and nn. 136-37 below).

Basing himself on the dating of 27 1 -74 for Bahram I's reign and on evidence from a wide range of sources, including Manichaean ones, Henning suggested that Mani may have been executed on Monday, the 4th of the Babylonian month of Addaru in the year 5 84 of the Seleucid era - 2 March a.d. 274; but he allowed the possibility of divergent dates, such as a date in a.d. 277 proposed by S. H. Taqizadeh. See Taqizadeh and Henning, "The dates of Mani's Life," 505-20 and especially 515-20. See also for further suggestions regarding the date, such as that of 276, W. Hinz,

"Mani and Karder," 490-92; Widengren, "Manichaeism and Its Iranian Back-

ground," 971-72.

136. Bahram I's reign was 271-74, but very little is known about his reign. His

name appears on his coins as WRtfR’N. See on his coins Paruck, Sasanian Coins,

53 - 54 , 324-25 , 419-22, Plates V-VI, Table HI; GQbl, Sasanian Numismatics, 43, Table n, Plate 3; Sellwood, Whitting, and Williams, An Introduction to Sasanian Coins, 21, 86-87; Malek, "A Survey of Research on Sasanian Numismatics," 233.

The other Arabic sources on his reign include Ibn Qutaybah, Ma'arif, 655; al-

Ya'qubi, Ta'rikh, 1 , 182 (on his relations with Mani, and his execution of him); al- Dinawari, al-Akhbar al-tfwdl, 47 (lists his name only); al-Mas'udi, Murdj, n, 147-