VOL 5.4

46

Holders of Power after Ardashlr b. Babak

[Bahrain II]

Then there succeeded him in the royal power his son Bahram

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

(I), son of Ardashlr (I). He is said to have been knowledgeable about

the affairs [of government!. When he was crowned, the great men

of state called down blessings on his head, just as they had done for

[835] his forefathers, and he returned to them greetings in a handsome

manner and behaved in a praiseworthy fashion toward them. He

was wont to say: “If fortune furthers our designs, we receive this

with thankfulness; if the reverse, we are content with our share."

There are varying reports about the duration of his reign. Some say

that he ruled for eighteen years, others for seventeen years. 137

48 - §594 (Mani's rise, Bahrain's feigned sympathy for his, and an explanation of

the term zindlq = one who makes (heretical) interpretations, zands, of the Avesta;

cf. n. 1 18 above); idem, Tanbih, ioo, trans. 144; Hamzah al-I§fahani, Ta'iikh, 47

(his interrogation and execution of Mani); Ibn al-Athir, Kamil, I, 390. Of Persian

sources, see Tabari-Bal'amI, trans. II, 89-90. Of modem studies, see Christensen,

Sassanides, 226-27-, Frye, "The Political History of Iran under the Sasanians,"

127-28, 178; EP-, s.v. Sasanids (M. Morony); Eh, s.v. Bahram I (A. Sh. Shahbazi).

137. Bahram IPs reign was 274-91. His reign was a troubled one, although few

details of its events are known. There was the lengthy rebellion of his brother

Hormizd centered on Sijistan, so that the Romans were able to take advantage of

Bahrain's preoccupation with the east of his realm and invade Mesopotamia, an

attack on Ctesiphon only being averted by the death in 283 of the Roman emperor

Cams. Bahram IPs name appears on his coins as WRHR’N. See on his coins Paruck, Sasanian Coins, 54—5 5, 326-34, 422-25, Plates VI-VDI, Table IV; Gobi, Sasanian Numismatics, 43-45, Tables III-IV, Plates IV-V; Sellwood, Whitting, and Williams, An Introduction to Sasanian Coins, 21, 88-92; 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 (name and length of reign only); al-Dinawari, al-Akhbar al- tiwal, 47 (name only); al-Mas'udl, Muruj, II, 168-74 * §§ 595— 99 (lengthy entry: stresses Bahrain's life of pleasure and neglect of state affairs); idem, Tanbih, 100, trans. 144; Hamzah al-Isfahanl, Ta’rikh, 46; Ibn al-Athir, Kamil, I, 390. Of Persian sources, see Tabari-Bal'amI, trans. II, 90.

Bahram was a fervent Zoroastrian and was strongly under the influence of Kerder, whom he regarded as his mentor and on whom he bestowed the title of

"Saviour of Bahrain's soul"; also, Kerder appears on all but one of Bahrain's numerous rock reliefs with the sovereign himself (see Herrmann, The Iranian Revival, 98-99, 106). In the previous reigns of Shabur I and Bahram I, Kerder had had to share royal patronage and favor with the prophet Mani. Now, with the advent of Bahram n, as Hinz has pointed out, the balance tipped definitely in Kerder's favor, and some two years into the new reign, Mani was arrested and died in imprisonment (see n. 1 3 5 above). With Kerder's ascendancy now complete, non-Zoroastrian faiths within Persia came under attack, as is seen in his Ka'ba-yi Zardusht inscription, where it is stated that Kerder humbled, among others like the Manichaeans

Holders of Power after Ardashlr b. Babak

47

[Bahrain III]

Then there reigned Bahram (ID), who had the honorific title of

Sakanshah . 138 [He was] the son of Bahram [H], son of Bahram [I],

son of Hurmuz (I), son of Sabur (I), son of Ardashlr (I). When he was

crowned, the great men of state gathered together around him, and

called down on his head blessings for the auspiciousness of his

rule and for his long life, and he returned to them greetings in a

handsome manner. Before he had succeeded to the royal power, he

had been appointed ruler of Sijistan. He reigned for four years . 139

and Jews, the "Nazarenes" (Jewish Christians?!, and the Kristiy&n (mainstream,

Catholic, Nicene Christians?) (the exact defintion of the latter two terms is

disputed; thus Wiesehofer, Ancient Persia, 203, following Brock, "Christians in

the Sasanian Empire," 3, 6, and n. 21, assumes a distinction based on territorial-

cultural origins, so that "Nazarenes - the indigenous Persian Christians, and

Kristiyan - the Christian deportees from lands further west and their descendants);

the Chronicle of Arbela has some mention of persecutions during Bahrain's reign.

It seems to have been the Jews who, in practice, suffered the least molestation. See,- Chaumont, "Les Sassanides et la Christianisme de l'Empire iranien," 187-97; J. Neusner, "Jews in Iran," 914-15.

Of modem studies, see Christensen, Sassanides, 227-3 1; Frye, "The Political

History of Iran under the Sasanians," 128-29, 178; EP, s.v. Sasanids (M. Morony); Elr, s.v. Bahram II (A. Sh. Shahbazi).

138. al-Tabari's text has Shahanshah "Supreme king," but as is apparent from

the words at the end of this section on him, this is an old misreading; the correct

reading appears in Hamzah al-l$fah&nl, Ta’rikh, 46, and al-Khwarazmi, Mafatih

al-'ulum, 102. Sakan Shah means literally "king of the Sakas," i.e., of the people

controling or inhabiting Sakastan/Sagastan, Islamic Sijistan, Sistan; see EP, s.v.

Sistan (C. E. Bosworth). Bahram III had acquired his post during his predecessor's

reign, following the early Sasanid practice of granting out provincial appanages to

royal princes; in this case, he was appointed to Sagastan because of its importance

as a bastion against powerful peoples of the eastern fringes, such as the Sakas and

Kushans, or because it had recently been conquered by Bahram n after the revolt

there of his brother Hormizd (n. 137 above). Agathias says that it was the custom of the Persian kings, when they had subdued a land or people, to give their sons titles expressing dominion over that people. See Noldeke, trans. 49 n. 2; Christensen, Sassanides, 228-29; Cameron, "Agathias on the Sassanians," 122-23, 143; Frye, "The Political History of Iran under the Sasanians," 128-29.

139. Bahram ID's reign was for four months only in the early part of the year 292

until he was deposed after a revolt by his great-uncle Narseh (see below). Coins

attributed to Bahrain's name are exiguous in number, and the readings of their

legends are ambiguous, with coins variously assigned to him and to his successor

Narseh. See on these Paruck, Sasanian Coins, 56, 334-35, 425-26, Plate VIII,

Table V; Sellwood, Whitting, and Williams, An Introduction to Sasanian Coins,

21, 93-94; Malek, "A Survey of Research on Sasanian Numismatics," 234.

The other Arabic sources on his reign, all very laconic (with al-Dinawari omit-

ting him altogether), arelbn Qutaybah, Ma'aiif, 655; al-Ya'qubl, Ta'rikh, 1 , 182; al- Mas'udi, Muruj, n, 174 - § 6oo ; idem, Tanbih, too, trans. 144; Ibn al-Athir, Kamil,

48

Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

[Narsi]

Then there took charge of the royal power after him Narsi, son of

Bahrain (I) and also the brother of Bahram ( 13). 140 When he was

crowned, the nobles and great men of state came into his presence

and called down blessings on him. He gave them promises of

benevolence and adjured them to aid him in the business of ruling.

He behaved toward them in a highly just manner. On the day he

became king he said, "We must never lose an opportunity in giving

thanks to God for His bountifulness to us." He reigned for nine

years. 141

I, 39i. Of modem studies, see Christensen, Sassanides, 23 1; Frye, "The Political

History of Iran under the Sasanians," 129, 178; EP-, s.v. Sasanids (M. Morony); Eh, s.v. Bahram III (O. Klima).

140. The name Narseh, Greek Narses, Narsaios, goes back to Nairyosanha, the

name in the Avesta of the messenger of Ahura Mazda. See Justi, Namenbuch, 221- 25; Gignoux, Noms piopies sassanides, no. 678. Narseh was actually yet another son of Shabur I, hence brother of Bahram I, uncle of Bahram II and great-uncle of Bahram m. Cf. Noldeke, tr. 50 n. i, Christensen, Sassanides, 231; Frye, "The Political History of Iran under the Sasanians," 129, 178; EP-, s.v. Sasanids (M. Morony). Only in al-Mas'udi, Muruj, II, 238 - § 660, quoting from Abu 'Ubaydah's history of Persia, taken from *Umar called Kisra (?), is the correct filiation "Narsi, son of Sabur (I)" given in the other Arabic sources, for which see n. 141 below.

141. Narseh's reign was 292-302. His name appears on his coins as NRSHY. See

on his coins Paruck, Sasanian Coins, 56, 335-3^, 426-28, Plate VIII, Table V; Gobi,

Sasanian Numismatics, 45, Table V, Plate 5; Sellwood, Whitting, and Williams,

An Introduction to Sasanian Coins, 21, 95-96; Malek, "A Survey of Research on

Sasanian Numismatics," 234.

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

Ya'qubi, Ta’iikh, loc. cit. (name and length of reign only); al-Dinawari, al-Akhbar

al-tiwal, 47 (name and length of reign); al-Mas'udi, loc. cit.; idem, Tanbih, loc. cit.;

Hamzah al-Isfahani, Ta’rikh, 46-47; Ibn al-Athir, Kamil, loc. cit. Of Persian

sources, see Tabari-Bal'ami, trans. n, 90. Of modem studies, see Christensen,

Sassanides, 102, 231-32; Frye, The Heritage of Persia, 218, 220-21; idem, "The

Political History of Iran under the Sasanians," 129-31, 178.

Narseh had become "High King of Armenia" on his father Shabur I's death. The

story of his eventual achievement of the throne and the setting aside of Bahram HI; the enumeration of local kings or princes on the fringes of the Sasanid empire who were presumably tribute to him ; and the exposition of his concept of his own royal power, are set forth in the inscription (NPi) which he had carved on the commemorative tower built by him at Paikuli in Kurdistan. He also made known his feeling that his legitimate right to the throne after Hormizd Ardashir's death had been usurped by the succession of the three Bahrams, by altering Bahram H's

investiture relief at BIshapur and substituting his own name for that of his elder

brother; and he added to the relief the prostrate figure of a vanquished foe under the monarch's horse (this enemy being probably the noble Wahnam who had organized the putsch in Fars raising Bahram III to the throne). See E. Herzfeld, Paikuli. Monument and Inscriptions of the Early History of the Sasanian Empire, I, 94-

Holders of Power after Ardashlr b. Babak

49

[Hurmuz II]

Then there ruled Hurmuz (II), son of Narsi, son of Bahrain (II), 142

son of Bahram (I), son of Hurmuz (I), son of Sabur (I), son of Ardashlr

(I). The people had been in awe of him, and had experienced

harshness and severity [from him). But he told them that he had

been fully aware of their fears over his severity and strong rule,

and informed them that he had exchanged the roughness and

harshness in his nature for mildness and clemency. He then ruled

them in the most considerate fashion and behaved in the most

equitable manner possible. He was eager to succor and revive the

weak, to render the land prosperous and flourishing, and to spread

justice among the subjects. Then he died without leaving any son.

The people were distressed at that and, because of their favorable

feeling for him, they asked about his wives and were told that a

certain one of them was pregnant. Others have said, moreover,

that Hurmuz had entrusted the royal power to that unborn child

in his mother's womb, and that the woman in question gave birth

to [the future] Sabur (II) Dhu al-Aktaf ("The Man with the

Shoulders"). 143 Hurmuz's tenure of royal power, according to

119, and now H. Humbach and P. O. Skjaerve, The Sassanian Inscription of

Paikuli, m/1-2, Herrmann, The Iranian Revival, 99, 106-107; Wiesehdfer, An-

cient Persia, 184-85.

Narseh's warfare against the Romans was not very successful, though we have

little information on the actual course of events. The Romans were able to restore

their protdgd, the Armenian Arsacid Tiridates I, to the throne of Armenia, and the

Persian had to cede part of Little Armenia to Rome. However, the peace of 298

between Narseh and Diocletian was to endure for forty years. Narseh is also said to have been tolerant toward the Christians and Manichaeans, possibly in the hope of securing the support of their coreligionists within the boundaries of the Roman

territories. See Noldeke, trans. 50 n. 3; Christensen, Sassanides, 233; Stein, Histo-

ire du Bas-Empire, I, 79-80; Chaumont, "Les Sassanides et la Christianisme de

l'Empire iranien," 200; Frye, "The Political History of Iran under the Sasanians,"

loc. cit.; Eh, s.v. Armenia and Iran. ii. The Pre-Islamic Period (M. -L. Chaumont), at n, 426.

142. For the correct filiation here, see p. 45 n. 134 above.

143. Noldeke, trans. 52 n. 1, surmised that this sobriquet was initially one of

honor, "the man with broad shoulders." i.e., suitable for bearing the burdens of

royal power and leadership in war. The folkloric explanation of the Arabic sources, given by al-Tabari, I, 843-44, P- 63 below, that Shabur acquired the title from piercing the shoulders of Arab captives from eastern Arabia, would accordingly be a later, fanciful explanation. Al-Tabari's younger contemporary, Hamzah al- Isfahanl, Ta'nkh, 47, followed by al-Khwarazmi, Mafatih al-ulum, 102-103, give the alleged Persian original of "shoulder borer" as huyah sunba (thus vocalized by al-Khwirazmi's editor Van Vloten: NP huyah/bubah "shoulder" + sunbd, "auger,

50

Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

what some authorities say, was six years and five months, but

according to others, seven years and five months . 144

[Sabui II Dhu al-Aktaf]

Then there was bom Sabur Dhu al-Aktaf, son of Hurmuz (n),

son of Narsi, son of Bahram (II), son of Bahram (I ), 145 son of Sabur

(I), son of Ardashir (I), who succeeded to the royal power by virtue

of the testament of his father Hurmuz's appointment of him as his

successor . 146 The people rejoiced at his birth; they spread the

news about it to the farthest lands, they wrote letters and the

couriers of the postal and intelligence system ( al-bumd ) conveyed

news of it to the most distant regions and frontiers . 147 The viziers

instrument for boring"). Whether this goes back to a Pahlavi original or is a later,

back formation from the Arabic, is, as Noldeke observed, impossible to determine.

144. Hormizd IPs reign was 302-309. His name appears on his coins as

’WHRMZDY. See on his coins Paruck, Sasanian Coins, 57-58, 337-41, 428-30,

Plates Vffl-IX, Table VI; Gobi, Sasanian Numismatics, 45-46, Table V, Plate 5;

Sell wood, Whitting, and Williams, An Introduction to Sasanian Coins, 21, 97-98;

Malek, "A Survey of Research on Sasanian Coins," 234.

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

Ya'qubi, Ta’rlkh, 1, 182 (name and length of reign, death while Sabur (II) was still a baby) al-Dinawari, al-Akhbar al-tiwal, 47 (information that he died when his wife was several months pregnant; the succession of his putative son was confirmed by placing the crown on his wife's abdomen, a tale known also to Western historians such as Agathias, see Cameron, "Agathias on the Sassanians," 122-25, 144); al- Mas'udi, Muruj, II, 174 - § 6oo ; idem, Tanbih, 100, trans. 144 (name and reign only); Hamzah al-Isfahanl, Ta’rikh, 47 (he founded a rustdq in the Ram-Hurmuz district); Ibn al-Athir, Kamil, I, 391-92. Of Persian sources, See Tabari-Bal'ami, trans. n, 90-91. Of modem studies, see Noldeke, trans. 51 nn. 1, 2; Christensen, Sassanides, 233-34; Frye, "The Political History of Iran under the Sasanians," 131-32, 178; El 2 , s.v. Sasanids (M. J. Morony).

145. For the correct filiation here, see p. 45 n. 134 above.

146. Concerning the folkloric touch of Hormizd's entrusting the royal power to

his infant Shabur while he was still in his mother's womb, aside from the fact that

he could not have known the sex of the child at that point, the ascertainable

historical facts are that Hormizd left several sons by various wives, all older than

Shabur. The great men of state and the Zoroastrian priesthood saw their chance of

securing a dominant influence in affairs, hence killed the natural successor to

power, Hormizd's eldest son Adhar Narseh, blinded another, forced a third to flee

to Roman territory, and then raised to nominal headship of the realm the infant

Shabur, bom forty days after his father's death. See the references in n. 144 above,

and Eli, s.v. ArdaSir n (A. Sh. Shahbazi)

147. The institution of a state-organized postal and intelligence network was an

ancient Near Eastern one, known in Persia from as far back as Achaemenid times

and in such neighbors of the Sasanids as the Romans and Byzantines. While there is

Holders of Power after Ardashlr b. Babak

5i

and secretaries retained the official functions they had held during

his father's reign. They continued in these positions until news

about them (sc., about these officials} spread, and there was

disseminated on the distant frontiers of the land of the Persians

[the news] that the people there had no king and that the Persians

were merely waiting for a child, [at that time] in the cradle, not

knowing how he would turn out. Hence the Turks 148 and the

Romans cast envious eyes on the lands of the Persians.

Now the lands of the Arabs were the nearest ones to Fars , 149 and

these Arabs were among the most needy of all the nations for

something to provide them with daily sustenance and with lands,

because of their wretched condition and the harshness of their

way of life. So a great horde of them crossed the sea from the

region of the lands of 'Abd al-Qays, al-Bahrayn, and al-Kazimah,

until they set up military encampments against ( anakhu 'ala) [the

town of] Abruwan, on the shores that had Ardashlr Khurrah as

their hinterland [sawahil Aidashii Khun ah) and in the coastlands

( asydf ) of Fars . 150 They seized the local people's herds of cattle,

little direct information on the postal and intelligence network of the Sasanids, a

certain amount of information can be inferred from both Pahlavi sources and from

Firdawsi's Shah-namah; see B. Geiger, "Zum Postwesen der Perser," 309-14. As

well as the rapid conveyance of information and intelligence, such a system of

riding-beasts and post-houses provided one of the few possible means for rulers to

exercise control over the remoter parts of their kingdoms. Popular early Islamic

etymology derived the term band (sing, of burud) from Persian bundab-dunb

"having a docked tail/' but the true derivation is from Late Latin veiedus "post-

horse" (whence veredarius "courier"), as was recognized by Quatremfere over a

century and a half ago. See Bosworth, "Abu 'Abdallah al-Khwarazml on the Tech-

nical Terms of the Secretary's Art," 141-42; EP, s.v. Band (D. Sourdel); Eh, s.v.

Band (C. E. Bosworth).

148. N6ldeke, trans. 53 n. 2, held that mention here of "Turks" was anachronis-

tic and pointed to al-Tabari's source having been composed in the later sixth

century at the earliest, because only in that century did Khusraw Anusharwan

come into contact with the Turks, those of the Western Turk empire, which had

established its influence over both sides of the Tien Shan and over Transoxania

(see al-Jabari, I, 895-96, pp. 152-53 below). This is probably true, but it is not

totally impossible that the "Turks" whom Bahram V Gur repelled from the eastern

borders of his kingdom in the second quarter of the fifth century included elements of genuine Turks, but perhaps as members of the following of die hordes like those of the Kidarites or Chionites. See the discussion in n. 244 below.

149. Altheim and Stiehl have pointed out (Die Arabei, II, 346) that NQldeke,

trans. 5 3, was mistaken in rendering Fars here as "Persien" when the geographical context makes it clear that the province of Fars is meant. When, as in 1 , 839, p. 55 below, al-Tabari specifically means "the land of Persia," he has mamlakat Fars.

1 50. 'Abd al-Qays were an ancient Arab tribe, originally from the inland regions

52

Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

their cultivated lands, and their means of subsistence, and did a

great deal of damage in those regions.

They (sc., the Arab invaders) remained engaged in these activities

for a considerable time, with none of the Persians able to

launch a counterattack because they had set the royal crown on the

head of a mere child and because of people's [consequent] lack of

awe and respect for him. [This continued] until Sabur grew up and

became stirred to action. When he was grown up, the first thing

that was manifested of his good management of affairs and his

acute understanding, so it has been mentioned, was that he was

awakened from sleep one night, toward early morning, in the royal

palace at Ctesiphon, by the anguished clamor of the people. He

enquired what that was, and was told that it was the clamor of the

people crowded together on the bridge over the Tigris, coming and

going. So he gave orders for another bridge to be built, so that one of

the bridges could be used for people crossing in one direction and

the other bridge for people crossing from the opposite direction;

thus people using the two bridges would no longer be crowded

together. When the people perceived the acuteness of his mind in

of eastern Najd, and accounted genealogically as part of Rabl'ah. They early mi-

grated toward the western shores of the Persian Gulf, to Qatif and Bahrayn, which, as al-Tabari shortly relates (I, 838-39, pp. 54-56 below) were from Shabur H's time directly under Persian rule, with garrisons and governors, and then made over to the Persians' representatives, the Lakhmids. The 'Abd al-Qays were thus well placed, under the stimulus of inadequate resources for supporting them in the

oases of the eastern Arabian coastlands, to make incursions across the gulf to the

coast (si/, pi. asyaf ) of Fars. See Ibn al-Kalbi-Caskel-Strenziok, famharat al-nasab, I, Tables 141, 168, n, 28-29, I2 7> £/*/ s.v. 'Abd al-Qays (W. Caskel); Eh, s.v. 'Abd- al-Qays (P. Oberling). Al-Kazimah was a place on the Bahrayn coast south of the mouth of the Shatt al-'Arab but not further specified. See al-Bakri, Mu’ jam md ista'jam, HI, 1109-10; Yaqut, Buldan, IV, 43I.

The reading of the name rendered here as Abruwan (tentatively translated by

Noldeke, trans. 53, as RIshahr, on which see al-Tabari, I, 820, p. 16 and n. 62 above) varies greatly in the mss.

 Altheim and Stiehl, Die Araber in dei Alten Welt, n, 347-48, have

suggested that this is the town of ‘Abruwan mentioned by al-Tabari,

I, 870, p. 105 below, as being in the province of Ardashir Khurrah and as a place

where Mihr Narsi erected lofty buildings (see p. 105 n. 267 below, for varying

suggestions about this place-name). Also, Altheim and Stiehl have suggested, as

certainly seems appropriate in the context, that one should follow ms. C's reading

anakhu 'aid, "they set up encampments against ..." (thus likewise in the Cairo

edition, n, 55, apparently following here the Constantinople/Istanbul ms.), instead

of the text's weaker anakhu bi-, "they halted at . . ." (cf. Dozy, Supplement, II,

734, on anakha 'ala: "se presenter hostilement devant [une place ou un homme]").

Holders of Power after Ardashlr b. Babak

53

working out a solution for this problem, despite his tender years,

they rejoiced at this, and hastened to fulfil what had been commanded

regarding this [construction of the new bridge]. It is mentioned

 that the [second] bridge was constructed in the vicinity of

the existing bridge before sunset of that day. In this way, the people

were relieved of the necessity of endangering their lives when

crossing the bridge. The child [Sabur] grew in stature and prestige

in that single day, what for others would have taken a long period.

The secretaries and viziers began successively to lay before

Sabur various state matters. Among the matters they brought to

his notice was the position of the troops along the frontiers and

those directly facing enemies there, for news had arrived that the

greater part of them had been reduced to a sorry state. The secretaries

and viziers stressed to him the seriousness of the situation,

but Sabur told them, "Don't worry about this excessively, since

the remedy for it is simple." Then he ordered a letter to be sent to

the whole of these troops, stating that he had learned about how

long they had been stationed in those regions of the provinces

where they were, and about the intensity of their deprivation of

their dependents and brothers. 151 Hence whosoever wished to return

to his family was free to do so, with full permission for that;

and whosoever wished to complete the rest of his service by remaining

standfast in his post, that would be reckoned to him

favorably. He further ordered that those who chose to return could

remain with their families on their own lands until the time when

they were needed again. When the viziers heard all these words of

his, they approved of them highly and said, "Even if this youth had

had long experience of state affairs and the management of troops,

his judgment and the soundness of his eloquent speech could not

be greater than what we have just heard!"

151. Complaints about the long periods of service along distant frontiers, entail-

ing separation from homes and families, were among the accusations hurled two

centuries or so later at Khusraw II Abarwez by his own son and supplanter Sheroy, see al-Tabari, I, 1047, p. 383 below. Also, in early Islamic times complaints about this process, called in Arabic tajmii (literally, "bringing together, collecting," i.e., of troops in garrisons, with the Arab warriors or muqatilah being stationed on the inhospitable fringes of what is now Afghanistan, were a powerful factor in the revolt of 'Abd al-Rahman Ibn al-Ash'ath and the "Peacock Army" in 81-82/700- 701 which nearly toppled the Umayyad government. See EP-, s.w. Ibn al-Ash’ath (L. Veccia Vaglieri) and Tadjmir (C. E. Bosworth).

54 Holders of Power after Ardashlr b. Babak

Then there were issued successively his instructions to the

provinces and the frontier lands, which gave heart to his own

troops and humbled his enemies. At last he reached sixteen years

of age and was able to bear weapons and ride cavalry horses, and

his physical strength became great. He summoned together the

commanders of his guards and troops and made an oration to

them. He mentioned how bountiful God had been to him and to

them through his forefathers, what these last had accomplished

through their good conduct and how they had crushed their enemies,

and how all these achievements of theirs had, however,

fallen into confusion in the period that had elapsed during his

youth. He then told them that he was going to make a start on the

work [of restoring the position] by securely defending the heartland;

and that [after that] he was making plans to move against one

of his enemies and make war on him, and that he was going to take

with him a force of one thousand warriors only. The assembled

people rose up, calling down blessings [on him] and expressing

their thanks, but asking that he should remain in his place and

send forward in his stead the commanders and troops on this

expedition he had planned.

He rejected their request, however, that he should stay in his

capital. Then they requested him to increase the number [of

troops] he had mentioned, but again he refused. [On the contrary,]

he selected one thousand cavalrymen from among the stoutest

and most heroic of the troops. He commanded them to go forward

and accomplish his design and forbade them to spare any of the

Arabs they encountered or to turn aside in order to seize booty.

Then he led them forth, and fell upon those Arabs who had treated

Fars as their pasture ground while they were unaware, wrought

great slaughter among them, reduced [others of] them to the

harshest form of captivity, and put the remainder to flight. 152

[839] Then he crossed the sea at the head of his troops and reached al-

Khatt. He marched through the land of al-Bahrayn, killing its people,

 not letting himself be bought off by any kind of payment and

not turning aside to take plunder. He went back on his tracks and

reached Hajar, 153 where there were Bedouins from the tribes of

152. Reading here wa-hanaba.

153. That is, the western Persian Gulf coastland, of what is now Kuwait, Qatar,

and eastern Saudi Arabia, the term appearing in Syriac sources as Hagar ; it was also

Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

55

Tamlm, Bakr b. Wall, and 'Abd al-Qays. He spread general slaughter

among them, and shed so much of their blood that it flowed

like a torrent swollen by a rainstorm. Those who were able to flee

realized that no cave in a mountain nor any island in the sea was

going to save them.

After this he turned aside to the lands of the 'Abd al-Qays and

destroyed all the people there except for those who fled into the

desert sands. He passed on to al-Yamamah , 154 where he made

general slaughter like that of the previous occasion. He did not

pass by any of the local Arabs' springs of water without blocking

them up, nor any of their cisterns without filling them in. He

approached the neighborhood of Medina and killed the Arabs

whom he found there and took captives. Then he turned aside to

the lands of the Bakr and Taghlib, which lie between the land of

Persia ( mamlakat Pars) and the frontier fortresses ( manazir ) 155 of

the Romans in the land of Syria. He killed the Arabs lie found

there, took captives, and filled in their water sources. He settled

members of the tribe of Taghlib, who were in al-Bahrayn, at Darin

and al-Samahij, and at al-Kha^t ; 156 members of the 'Abd al-Qays

called al-Bahrayn (in this sense comprehending both the island and the adjacent

mainland) in early Islamic times and, right up to modem times, al-Ahsa’ or al-

Hasa. See N&ldeke, trans. $6 n. i, EP-, s.v. al-Hasa (F. S. Vidal). For al-Khatf, see n. 64 above.

154. An extensive region of eastern Arabia, with several important oases, run-

ning westward to the scarp of the Jabal Tnwayq and eastward to the Dabna’, i.e.,

comprising much of the modem Saudi provinces of al-Riyad, al-Kharj, and al-'Arid- At the beginning of the Islamic period, Yamamah was the home of the semi- Christianized Banu Hanifah and die epicenter of activity by the rival prophet to Muhammad, Musaylimah. See El 1 - s.v. al-Yamama (A. Grohmann).

155. Sing, manual ah, literally "look-out posts," largely synonymous with the

more common term for these frontier guard stations, maslafya, pi. masdlih .

156. Taghlib b. Wa’il were an important tribe of the Rabfah group who lived in

Najd till their defeat in the famous "War of Basus" (early sixth century), and

already within the sphere of the Sasanids and their Lakhmid allies, as Shabur Ts

policy here shows. When the Lakhmids regained control of al-Hirah after the

interlude of Kindah control there in the 520s, the considerably Christianized Taghlib became one of the firm supports of Lakhmid power there. See Ibn al-Kalbi- Caskel-Strenziok, Jamharat al-aasab, I, Tables 141, 163, n, 27-28, 541-42; EP-, s.v. Taghlib b. Wa’il (M. Lecker).

The mediaeval geographers were confused and vague about these places in al-

Bahrayn. According to Yaqut, Buldan, n, 432, Darin was either on Bahrayn island

or on the nearby Persian Gulf coast. Concerning Samahij, see al-Bakri, Mu' jam, HI, 754, IV, 1382: "a place in al-Bahrayn belonging to the 'Abd al-Qays" (but in Yaqut, op. cit., IE, 432, an island in the gulf). Al-Tabari's text here, Dailn wa-ismuhd

56 Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

and some groups of the Banu Tamim in Hajar; and those members

of the Bakr b. Wa’il who were in Kirman (the so-called Bakr

Aban} 157 and those of them from the Banu Hanzalah at al-

Ramaliyyah in the province of al-Ahwaz. 158

He gave orders for the building of a city in the Sawad, which he

called Buzurj Sabur, [that is, Ukbara, and another city which he

Hayj, is disturbed, and should should be corrected to Darin wa-Samahij in the

light of the parallel passage in Ibn al-'Adim's Bughyat al-falab. It is not surprising

that Noldeke, trans. 57 n. 2, was unable to find anything about a putative place

called Hayj. In fact, we have here reference to two distinct places. Darin was the

main town of the island of Tarut, still known today as such and lying in the bay off the eastern Arabian coast near the modem towns of al-Qa$if and al-Dammam.

Samahij was a village on the island of al-Muharraq lying just off the northern edge of the main al-Bahrayn island (and now linked to it by a causeway); it is mentioned around this time as the seat of a Nestorian Christian bishopric. See the detailed discussion of these place-names by Joelle Beaucamp and Chr. Robin, "L'€vSch6 nestorien des MaSmahig dans l'archipel d'al-Bahrayn (V e -EX e sifecle)," 171-96; D.

T. Potts, The Arabian Gulf in Antiquity, II, 151-52.

157. Bakr b. Wa’il were also a tribe of Rabi'ah, originally nomadizing in the

Yamamah region, but, also like the Taghlib, migrating northward to the desert

fringes of the lower and middle Euphrates. Hence they came into contact with the

Lakhmids, especially after Taghlib moved on again into Upper Mesopotamia, and

began to clash with the rival pastoralists of Tamim, a discord subsequently re-

flected in the events leading up to the skirmish of Dhu Qar (see al-Tabari, I, 1030,

pp. 359-60 below). Several leading poets of Bakr, including Tarafah b.'Abd, al-

Harith b. Hillizah, and al-A'sha Maymun, came within the cultural ambit of the

Lakhmid court. See Ibn al-Kalbi-Caskel-Strenziok, Jamharat al-nasab, I, Tables

141, 162-66, n, 22-23, 123 ; El 2 , s.v. Bakr b. Wa’il (W. Caskel).

Aban was a place in eastern Fars, lying to the southeast of Yazd in the district of

Rudhan, and is now the modem town of Anar. See Noldeke, trans., 57 n. 3; Le

Strange, Lands, 286; Schwarz, Iran, 21, 191-92.

158. Hanzalah b. Malik were a subdivision of the great tribe of Tamim b. Mur-

rah or Ma'add, forming the main group within its branch of Zayd Manat. Tamim's

center was in Yamamah, where they were rivals and opponents of the Rabi'ah

tribes of Taghlib and Bakr. Tamim in general had close connections with the

Sasanids and Lakhmids, cooperating with the Persian authorities in Hajar and

policing trade routes across central Arabia to Yemen for the above two powers. See Ibn al-Kalbi-Caskel-Strenziok, Jamharat al-nasab, I, Tables 59, 68, 72-73, n, 7-10, 298; El 2 , s.w. Hanzala b. Malik (W. Montgomery Watt) and Tamim b. Murra (M. Lecker).

Al-Ramaliyyah may well be the Qaryat al-Ramal of subsequent Islamic times

situated in western Khuzistan, between Qurqub and the Nahr Tira on or near the

Karkha affluent of the Karun. In the later third/eighth century, it was the scene of

amphibious operations led by the Regent al-Muwaffaq against the Zanj rebels,

according to al-Tabari, HI, 1952-53, tr. P. M. Fields, The History of al-Tabari, an

Annotated Translation, XXXVII, The 'Abbasid Recovery. The War against the

Zanj Ends, 17-18. See Noldeke, trans. 57 n. 4; Schwarz, Iran, 368.

Holders of Power after Ardashlr b. Babak

57

called Fayruz Sabur, that is] al-Anbar. 159 He further founded in the

province of al-Ahwaz two cities, one called Iran-Khurrah-Sabur,

which means "Sabur and his land," and which is called in Syriac

al-Karkh, and the other al-Sus, a city he built at the side of the

fortress that has within it a sarcophagus containing the corpse of

the prophet Daniyal (Daniel), may God pray over him and grant

him peace. 160 He led an expedition into the land of the Romans,

took a great number of prisoners there, and then planted [them] in

the city of Iran-Khurrah-Sabur, which the Arabs called al-Sus after

1 59. The interpolated words were supplied by Noldeke; see text, n. e, and trans.

57 n. 5. 'Ukbara, Syriac ‘Okbara, was a town on the east bank of the Tigris above

Ctesiphon, famed for its gardens and vineyards. Arabic authorities like Ibn Khur-

radadhbih, Hamzah al-I$fahani and Yaqut confirm that its Persian name was in-

deed Buzurg Shapur. See Yaqut, Buldan, TV, 142; Le Strange, Lands, 50-51. Anbar (for which, see n. 77 above) was doubtless meant as one of trie fortified points in the belt of strongholds and garrisons [masdlil}) protecting the Sawad, and would have had Arab auxiliaries planted along this line as frontier guards, the equivalent of the limitanei of the Romans and Byzantines on the opposite, western side of the Syrian Desert. Not mentioned by al-Tabari but known from other Arabic sources, e.g., al- Baladhuri, Futuh, 298, is the defensive trench and rampart, the khandaq Sabur, which the Sasanid ruler had dug out from Hit in the north to al-Ka?imah, south of where the Islamic mi$i of al-Ba$rah was later to be laid out. See Altheim and Stiehl, Die Arabet in der Alten Welt, n, 349-50; Frye, "The Political History of Iran under the Sasanians," 138.

160. The text is somewhat disturbed here, as pointed out by Altheim and Stehl,

Die Araber, U, 352. The definition "Sabur and his land" must in reality go with

Iran-Shahr-Sabur, this being the first of Shabur's two foundations; the second, Iran- Khurrah-Sabur, must be Sus, especially as Hamzah al-l$fahanl, 47, specifically equates Khurrah Sabur with al-Sus. We thus have Iran-Shahr-Sabur - Karkh, and Iran-Khurrah-Sabur - Sus.

Both towns lay in the ancient region of Susiana. Al-Karkh(ah) (Syriac karkh -

"fortified town") appears in the Eastern Christian sources as Karkha dha Ledhan or Redhan, and was the seat of a Nestorian bishop; it was situated near Susa/al-Sus, with its present site marked by the ruins called locally Aywan-i Karkh. See Yaqut, Buldan, IV, 449, Marquart, ErdnSabr, 145; Le Strange, Lands, 240; Barthold, Historical Geography, 185; Markwart-Messina, Catalogue of the Provincial Capitals, 97? Altheim and Stiehl, op. cit., H, 353-5 5; EP, s.v. Karkha (P. Schwarz-A. Miquel); Elr, s.v. Eran-Xwarrah-Sabuhr (Rika Gyselen).

(Al-)Sus was the early Islamic form for the ancient city of Susa (also the seat of a

bishopric in later Sasanid and early Islamic times), which lay on the plain between the Karun and Kharkha rivers. One of its greatest attractions for religious devotees was that it claimed to have the tomb of Daniel, the Islamic prophet Daniyal, although another town of Khuzistan, Rustar or Shushtar, also claimed to have it.

See Yaqut, Buldan, HI, 280-81; Noldeke, trans. 58 n. 1, Marquart, Etdn&aht, 144-

45; Le Strange, Lands, 240-41; Schwarz, Iran, 358-64; Markwart-Messina,

Catalogue of the Provincial Capitals, 96-90; Barthold, Historical Geography, 185— 86; EP, s.w. Daniyal (G. Vajda), al-Sus (M. Streck-C. E. Bosworth).

58

Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

shortening the name . 161 He gave orders also for the building of a

city in Ba Jarma, which he called Khuni 162 Sabur (?), which he laid

out as an administrative region ( kurah ) and for the building of a

city in the land of Khurasan, which he named Naysabur and likewise

laid it out as an administrative region . 163

Sabur had made a truce with Qustantin (Constantine), the King

of the Romans, the one who built Constantinople and who was

the first king of the Romans who became a Christian . 164 Qustantin

died, and his kingdom was divided between three of his sons,

who also died, so that the Romans appointed as their king a man

from Qustantin's house named Lulyanus ( Julian[us]), who was an

adherent of the religion of the Romans that had prevailed before

Christianity . 165 He used to conceal this, and ostensibly follow

Christianity before he became king, but when he actually came to

power he openly proclaimed his adhesion to the religion of the

[ancient] Romans, restored it in its former state, and gave orders

for its revival. He commanded that the churches should be pulled

1 6 1. On Shabur's deportations and plantations of prisoners of war, see Noldeke,

trans. 59 n. i; Eh, s.v. Deportations, ii. In the Parthian and Sasanian Periods (E.

Ketterhofen), at VII, 299.

162. Text, J.ni, thought Noldeke though that the whole name was dubious. For

Ba Jarma, see al-Tabari, I, 827, p. 32 and n. 98 above.

163. Naysabur, the Arabised form of MP New-Shahbuhr, NP Nlku Shabur

Nishabur, less correctly Nishapur, "fair [city] of Shabur." Some sources attribute

its foundation to Shabur I, e.g., Hamzah al-Isfahanl, Ta’rikh, 44, presumably to be

considered as part of his consolidation of power in the realm described in al-Tabari, I, 819-20, pp. 14-15 above. Others attribute its foundation to Shabur II, and if he was its founder, this action may have been part of his activities in the East against the "Kushans," Cuseni, which are poorly documented but which apparently fell within the 350s or 360s while Shapur was also disputing control of Annenia with the Romans. What may have happened was a rebuilding by Shabur II of his great- grandfather's original foundation. See in addition to the references in n. 59 above, Yaqut, V, 331-33; Noldeke, trans. 59 n. 3; Marquart, EianSahi, 50; R. Ghirsham and T. Ghirshman, Les Chionites-Hephtalites, 70-74.

164. Constantine the Great (r. 324-37). See on him PW, IV/i, s.v. Constantinus

(der Grosse) (Benjamin).

165. Julian the Apostate (r. 361-63), successor to Constantine I's second son

Constantine II, was actually the son of a half-brother of Constantine the Great. See on him PW, XI/i, s.v. Iulianus (Apostata) (E. von Borries). The rendering here with initial 1 - stems from a Syriac form of the name, see Noldeke, trans. 60 n. 1, who also in 59 n. 4 points out that the following information is of no historical value, but must stem from the Syriac romance of the Emperor Julian, see his "Ueber den syrischen Roman von Kaiser Julian," 291-92 (see on this romance p. 63 n. 173 below).

Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

59

down and that the bishops and learned scholars of the Christians

should be killed. He assembled contingents of the Romans and

Khazars , 166 and of the Arabs who were within his kingdom, in

order to use them for ftiaking war on Sabur and the armies of

Persia.

The Arabs seized that opportunity as an occasion for revenge on

Sabur for his killing the Arabs. One hundred and seventy thousand

Arab warriors were gathered together in Lulyanus's army . 167 The

latter sent them forward under the command of one of the Patricians

of the Romans called Yusanus (Jovian[us ]), 168 whom he

placed in charge of his vanguard. Lulyanus marched on until he

1 66. Noldeke, trans. 60 n. 2, thought that this anachronistic mention of the

Turkish Khazars was an interpolation in the text of al-Tabari's source, since the

Khazars do not firmly appear in Middle Eastern history till the early seventh

century, when they were allies of Byzantium against the Persians in Trans-

caucasia; see EP-, s.v. Khazar (W. Barthold and P. B. Golden). Shahid has suggested, in his Byzantium andtke Arabs in the Fourth Century, 116 n. 38, that al-Tabari's "Khazars" were probably Goths (an important auxiliary element in the Roman forces at this time, the same nation whom Ammianus Marcellinus (see below, n. 167) calls "Scythians"), but this seems unlikely. It is admittedly true that the Scythians, the original Goths, and the Khazars all inhabited the South Russia-

lower Volga basin region.

167. The undeniable, if in many ways obscure, Arab dimension to Julian's short,

eighteen-months' reign, has been considered in close and perspicuous detail by

Shahid in his Byzantium and the Arabs in the Fourth Century, especially at 82-86,

iioff. and 132-37, depending, on the classical side, on such sources as the Latin

historian Ammianus Marcellinus's Res gestae, the Greek Libanius's Orations and

some church historians. Julian's own attitude toward the Arabs was somewhat

ambiguous, but became generally hostile: he himself describes them as lestas

"robbers," echoing Ammianus's stigmatizing of them as a natio pemiciosa. But

here it is very probably the Sarakenoi, the nomadic Arabs of the desert interiors of

Syria, Palestine, Sinai, and Egypt who are envisaged; whereas, the Romans' prime

contact with the Arabs was with the sedentary or semisedentary ones of the bor-

derlands between the desert and the town, the foederati or confederates, many of

them Christianized, those who at the time of the Arab conquests are described in

the sources as musta'ribah. Shahid argues that Julian failed to make the best use of

the Arab auxiliary element in his forces when he thrust through the northern part

of the Syrian Desert via his concentration point at Calliniciun (the later Islamic al-

Raqqah) across the Euphrates at Ctesiphon. For the Arabs were familiar with the

terrain, as well as with the Middle Eastern climate, whereas the Roman troops

were more used to fighting in the temperate climes of Europe and the Mediterra-

nean basin. Also, whereas many elements back in Rome were lukewarm about the

Persian campaign, arguing that the threat from the Goths was a more imminent

one than that from the Persians, the Arabs were, as al-Tabari notes, eager to take

vengeance for Shabur's savage treatment of their compatriots in eastern Arabia.

168. The Syriac form of Jovian's name, according to Ndldeke, trans. 60 n. 4.

6o

Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

reached the land of Persia. When Sabur got news of the magnitude

of Lulyanus's army — Romans, Arabs, and Khazars — he became

alarmed, and sent out spies to bring back to him information

about the size of their forces and their state of fighting spirit and

effectiveness for wreaking damage. But the reports these spies

brought back to him concerning Lulyanus and his troops were at

variance with each other. Hence Sabur disguised himself and went

along with a group of some men from his trusty entourage to see

for themselves the opposing army. When he drew near to the army

of Yusanus, the commander of Lulyanus's vanguard, he sent forward

a small group from those accompanying him to Yusanus's

army, in order that they might ferret out information and bring

back to him authentic reports. However, the Romans became

aware of them, seized them, and brought them back to Yusanus.

Not one of them confessed the purpose for which they had gone

out to Yusanus's army except for one man, who told Yusanus

about the whole affair, exactly as it was, and where Sabur was, and

who asked Yusanus to send back with him a detachment of troops

so that he might bring Sabur back to them. But when Yusanus

heard this story, he sent to Sabur one of his own close intimates

who would tell him what Yusanus had learned about Sabur's position

and warn him. Sabur accordingly rode away rapidly, back to

his own army. The Arab troops in Lulyanus's army asked him for

[842] permission to launch an attack on Sabur and he acceded to their

request. So they advanced toward Sabur, fought with him, routed

his force and wrought great slaughter among them. Sabur fled,

together with what remained of his army, and Lulyanus took pos-

session of Sabur's seat of power, the city of Ctesiphon, and seized

Sabur's stores of wealth and treasuries there. 169

169. Julian's army advanced into Persian Mesopotamia in spring 363 and won a

great victory over Shabur outside Ctesiphon. Al-Tabari emphasizes the outstanding role of the Arab auxiliary troops here, presumably as mounted lancers within the cavalry division of the army, whereas Ammianus Marcellinus does not mention it. Shahid, Byzantium and the Arabs in the Fourth Century, 117, notes the Latin historian's dislike of the Arabs, and thinks that the truth may be somewhere in between the two partisan viewpoints; for Noldeke, however, trans. 61 n. 1, the emphasis on the Arab role was a later addition to the story by an Arab hand concerned to vaunt the exploits of his nation. Despite the victory in the field over the Persian army, Ctesiphon resisted a siege by the Romans [pace al-Tabari's

information here that it was captured), and in June 363 Julian and his forces turned

Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

6 r

Sabur at that point sent letters to those elements of his army in

distant regions, telling them what he had suffered at the hands of

Lulyanus and his Arab contingents, and he ordered all the commanders

there to hasteii back to him with the troops of his army

under their command. Very soon, armies from all quarters of the

land had gathered round him. He then marched back again, attacked

Lulyanus, and recovered from him the city of Ctesiphon.

Luliyanus encamped with his army at the city of Bih-Ardashir 170

and in the region nearby. Envoys were at this point going backward

and forward between him and Sabur. One day, however,

Lulyanus was seated in his chamber when a stray arrow, from an

invisible hand, struck him in the heart and killed him. 171

The hearts of his troops were thrown into perturbation, and

they became fearful because of what had happened to him. They

fell into despair about extracting themselves from the land of Persia.

They coalesced into an advisory council, with no king or

leader, and asked Yusanus if he would take over the business of

ruling, and they would accordingly raise him to the throne. He

refused this, however, and when they pressed him, he told them

that he was a Christian and that he would not rule over a people

who were opposed to him in religion; but the Romans told him

that they were really Christians too, and that they had only concealed

this in fear of Lulyanus. So he agreed to their request, and

they made him their king and publicly displayed their Christian

faith. 172

back toward Antioch. Al-Dinawari, al-Akhbdr al-fiwdl, so, states that Julian's

army occupied the city of Ctesiphon but were held up outside its citadel [qa$r),

with Julian killed by a stray arrow in the course of the siege.

170. That is, Seleucia, the Bihrasir of al-Tabari, I, 819, p. 15 above.

171. The circumstances of Julian's sudden death in June 363 were mysterious.

Contemporaries were unsure whether he was killed, as al-Tabari says, by a stray

arrow or lance thrust, or whether he was struck down by an assassin; and if the

latter, was the murderer in the pay of the Persians or one from Julian's own troops?

The possibility that the assassin was an Arab and that it was the result of a grudge

against the emperor (since according to Ammianus, Julian had withheld the Arab

troops' pay) is discussed by Shahid, Byzantium and the Arabs in the Fourth Cen-

tury, 124-31.

172. On Julian's death, the Roman troops offered the imperial crown first to the

Praetorian Prefect Salutius Secundus, who refused it, and then to the commander

Jovian. See E. Stein, Histoire du Bas-Empire, 1 , 169-71.

62

Holders of Power after Ardashlr b. Babak

Sabur came to know about Lulyanus's death, and sent a message

to the commanders of the Roman army in which he said, "God has

brought you into our power and has made us to prevail over you, in

return for your violence towards us and your trampling over our

[843] land. We hope that you will perish there from hunger without our

having to wield a sword against you in battle or to point a spear at

you; but dispatch to us a leader [to treat with us], if you have

appointed a leader over yourselves." Yusanus resolved to go to

Sabur, even though none of his army commanders agreed with his

judgment in this. Nevertheless, he insisted on following his own

view here and went to Sabur with a guard of eighty of the noble

warriors from his camp and from his army, and wearing his crown.

Sabur received news of his coming; he went out to meet him, and

each of them prostrated themselves before the other [in obeisance],

and then Sabur embraced Yusanus out of thankfulness for

what he had previously done for him (i.e., letting him escape back

to his camp). He feasted with Sabur that day and felt at ease. Sabur

sent a message to the commanders of the Roman army and their

leaders informing them that, if they had raised to power anyone

except Yusanus, their destruction in the land of Persia would have

ensued, and that their appointing Yusanus as their king had

[alone] preserved them from his violence. Yusanus's prestige became strong through his action [on this occasion].

Sabur continued: "The Romans have launched attacks into our

land and have killed a great number of people. They have chopped

down date palms and other trees in the Sawad, and have ruined its

agricultural prosperity. So either you must pay us the full value of

what you have destroyed and ruined, or else you must hand over to

us, in recompense for all that damage, the town of Nisibin and its

surrounding region." Nisibin had previously been part of the kingdom

 of Persia, but the Romans had then conquered it. Yusanus

and the leading commanders of his army agreed to Sabur's demand

for reparations, and handed over Nisibin to him. The people of

Nisibin heard about this, and emigrated from there to various

cities in the Roman empire, fearful of their safety under the power

of a king opposed to their own religion (sc., to Christianity). When

news of this reached Sabur, he transferred twelve thousand persons

of good lineage from among the people of Istakhr, Isbahan,

and other regions of his country and his provinces, to Nisibin, and

Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

63

settled them there. Yusanus returned with his troops to Roman

territory, where he reigned for only a short time and then died. 173

Right up to his death, Sabur became occupied with great eagerness

in killing the Arabs and tearing out the shoulder-blades of

their leaders,- this was why they called him Dhu al-Aktaf "The

Man of the Shoulders." Certain of the historians [ahl al-akhbar)

mention that after Sabur had wrought great slaughter among the

Arabs and had expelled them from the regions they had entered,

namely the lands adjoining Fars, al-Bahrayn and al-Yamamah, 174

he went down into Syria and proceeded to the frontiers of the

Roman empire. 175 He explained to his companions that he intended

to enter the territory of the Romans in order to find out

173. Jovian died at Dadastana in central Anatolia en route from Antioch to

Constantinople, thus terminating his brief reign of slightly more than six months

(363-64). See on him PW, IX/2, s.v. Iovianus (Seeck). It seems quite likely that may Christians did flee from Ni?ibin before the Persians and that Shapur did resettle Persians from the interior of his kingdom in this strategically placed city of Ni$Ibin. The infusion of a Persian ethnic element there helps perhaps to explain the city's preference thereafter for the Persian connection. Jovian's action in making peace with Shapur enabled the Roman army to withdraw intact, but at the price of the cession of Ni$ibin, Singara (Sin jar), and the territories in Upper Mesopotamia conquered by Diocletian more than sixty years before. The peace treaty was, however, regarded by contemporaries in the Roman empire as a dishonorable one. Agathias expressed this view when he called it "a shameful and disgraceful truce, so bad that it is even now (i.e., ca. 570) harmful to the Roman state"; see Cameron, "Agathias on the Sassanians," 124-25, 146. From this time onward, Ni$ibin was to be the great bastion of Persian arms against Roman and Byzantine attacks and pressure from the west, and was never to return to Christian control.

The proceeding story of the Roman-Persian warfare during Shabur's reign is

paralleled in the account of these events in the Syriac romance of the Emperor

Julian, an original Syriac work and not a translation from Greek, probably written

in Roman-held Edessa. Noldeke thought that it was directly or indirectly known to the Arabs, since al-Tabari's account, derived from Ibn al-Kalbi, accords in general with the romance, especially in such episodes as Julian's being killed by a stray arrow, Shabur's secret visit to the enemy encampment and his personal understanding with Jovian. See his "Ueber den syrischen Roman von Kaiser Julian," 263-92.

174. This is a sketchy and not very accurate r6sum£ of Shabur's campaigns in

eastern Arabia in the year 326 already described by al-Tabari, I, 836-37, pp. 5 1-52 above.

175. The following story apparently contradicts the previous narrative of the

warfare of Julian and Jovian with Shabur, but is in Noldeke's view, trans. 64 n. 2,

really a genuine Persian recounting, not of events in the time of Shabur II but of

those in the time of Shabur I (see al-Tabari, I, 826-27, pp. 28-31 above), the

captured Qay$ar being, of course, Valerian.

64

Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

their secrets and to acquire information about their cities and the

numbers of their troops. Accordingly, he entered Roman territory

and wandered about there for a considerable period of time. News

reached him that Qaysar had given a great feast and had ordered all

the people to be gathered together to attend his feast. Sabur set

out, therefore, disguised as a beggar, with the aim of attending that

gathering, so that he might thereby see Qaysar, familiarize him-

self with his appearance, and discern how he behaved at his feast.

But his identity was discovered; he was arrested and Qaysar gave

orders for him to be wrapped in a bull's hide.

Qaysar now traveled with his troops toward the land of Persia,

bearing with him Sabur in that condition. He made extensive

slaughter and destroyed many cities and villages, and cut down

date palms and other trees until finally he came to the city of

Junday Sabur. The local people had fortified themselves in it, but

Qaysar set up ballistas {majaniq) and demolished part of the city.

Whiie matters stood thus, the Roman guards entrusted with

watching over Sabur were negligent one night. There were some

prisoners from al-Ahwaz in his vicinity, so he instructed them to

pour oil from nearby skins on to his bonds. They did this; the ox

hide became soft, and he wriggled out of the bonds. He then

slipped quietly away until he drew near to the city gate. He told

the city guards who he was. When he came out among its people,

they were overjoyed at seeing him. Their voices were raised in

praise and invocations to God, to such an extent that Qaysar's

troops woke up at the sound of the voices . 176

Sabur gathered together all those who were in the city, provided

them with weapons and equipment, and marched out against the

Romans that very same night toward the morning. He killed the

Romans, took Qaysar captive and seized as booty his treasuries

176. The whole story of Sabur' s foray into the Roman camp, his capture, and

escape, is part of a well-known topos, that of the prince slipping behind enemy

lines in disguise for spying purposes. Noldeke, trans. 6s n. 1, cites such a role being ascribed to Alexander the Great in the Alexander Romance , the legendary biography of the emperor by Pseudo-Callisthenes (whence taken over by Firdawsi into the Persian epic) (see Noldeke, "Beitrage zur Geschichte des Alexanderromans," 1-56); to a Roman emperor, probably Galerius (r. 305-n) by Synesius; and here to Shabur, being taken, as already noted, from the Syriac Julian Romance.

Holders of Power after Ardashlr b. Babak

65

and his womenfolk. Then he loaded Qaysar with iron fetters and

required him to restore to prosperity all that he had ruined. It is

said that Sabur required him to bring earth from the Roman lands

to al-Mada’in and Junday Sabur, so that he might thereby restore

what he had destroyed, and to plant olive trees in place of the date

palms and other trees he had chopped down. Then he cut off

Qaysar's heels, sewed them up, and sent him back to the Romans

on an ass with the words, "This is your punishment for your

crimes against us." Because of that, the Romans abandoned the

use of straps over the heels (i.e., for shoes and sandals) and sewed

up the parts of the shoes hanging down over the feet . 177

Sabur remained in his kingdom for a considerable time, and

then he led an expedition against the Romans. He killed many of

them and took many captives. He settled these last in a city he

built in the vicinity of al-Sus and called it Iranshahr-Sabur. Then

he sought peace with the Arabs, and settled some tribes of Taghlib,

 'Abd al-Qays, and Bakr b. Wa’il in Kirman, Tawwaj , 178 and al-

Ahwaz. He built the city of Naysabur and other cities in Sind and

Sijistan . 179 He had a physician brought from India and established

him at al-Karkh by al-Sus; when this man died, the people of Sus

1 77. Noldeke observed in his text, n. b, that he had not correctly understood this

last sentence when he made his translation, 66. Other Arabic sources, including

Ibn Qutaybah, Ma'arif, 657-58, and al-Mas'udi, Muruj, n, 181-83 - §§ 605-606,

608, give the story of Sabur's spying mission, his capture, his being sewn up in a

bull's hide, and his escape. This last historian, ibid., n, 184 - § 607, gives the story

of Sabur's mutilation of the captured Qay$ar in a slightly different form: that he

shod with iron the Roman's feet after cutting his Achilles tendons and cauterizing

his heels, which is why the Rum subsequently did not shoe their horses with iron

or themselves wear boots with heels ( al-khifaf al-mu'aqqabah).

178. Tawwaj or Tawwaz was an ancient town, the Taoke mentioned in the

itinerary of Alexander's Indian campaign and in the classical geographers. It lay in

western Firs on the Shabur river about midway between Kazarun and the Persian

Gulf shore. In early Islamic times it was an important center of the textile trade,

but in later mediaeval times it fell into ruins, and its exact site is now unknown.

See Yaqut, Buldan, II, 56-57; Le Strange, Lands, 259-60; Schwarz, Iran, 66-68;

Wilson, The Persian Gulf, 74-75 ; Markwart-Messina, A Catalogue of the Provin-

cial Capitals, 94-95; Barthold, Historical Geography, 163; El, s.v. Tawwadj (C. E.

Bosworth).

179. It is unlikely that Shabur could have built cities in a frontier province like

Sijistan, disputed with the Sakas and their epigoni, and almost impossible that he

could have constructed any in the Indian province of Sind, at this time under local

Brahman rulers.

66

Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

inherited his medical skill, and for this reason the people of that

region are the most expert of medical practitioners among the

Persians . 180 Shabur bequeathed the royal power to his brother

Ardashir (II). Sabur's reign lasted seventy-two years . 181

1 80. Although the Arabic sources mention an Indian connection for the foundation of medical studies as Sus and Jundayshabur, it is difficult to discern any factual basis for this beyond a general belief in early Islamic society that Indian physicians were especially skillful, a belief that was perpetuated because of the infinitesimal number of Indian physicians known against which the belief could be tested (but cf. the story given by al-Tabari, ID, 747-48, of Harun al-Rashid's summoning from India the physician Mankah to treat an obstinate illness). Much clearer than Indian influences are the undoubted Hellenistic ones brought by persons resettled in Khuzistan from the Byzantine lands and by Nestorian Christian immigrants, who brought the traditions and techniques of the medical schools of Antioch and Alexandria. See EP, s.v. Gondeshapur (Aydm Sayih).

1 81. Shabur H's reign was 309-79. Shabur's name appears on his coins as SHPW-

HRY. See on his coins Paruck, Sasanian Coins, 58-59, 341-527 430-35/ Plates IX- )d, Tables VI-VHI; Gobi, Sasanian Numismatics, 46-47/ Table VI, Plates 6-7;

Sell wood, Whitting, and Williams, An Introduction to Sasanian Coins, 21, 99-

103; Malek, "A Survey of Research on Sasanian Numismatics," 234-35.

The other Arabic sources on his reign include Ibn Qutaybah, Ma'aiif, 6 5 6-5 9; al-

Ya'qubi, Ta’rikh, I, 182-83 (his raids on and violence against the Arabs, and his

wars with the Romans); al-DInawari, al-Akhbdr al-tiwal, 47-5 r (a very detailed

section: the raids into Jazirah and the Sawad by a Ghassanid king [cf. Shahid,

Byzantium and the Arabs in the Fourth Century, 117J, Shabur's attacks on al-

Hadr, his war with Julian [here called Manus!] and acquisition of Ni?ibln, and his

urban foundations); al-Mas'udl, Muruj, II, 175-89 - §§ 601-11 (much detail on the

attacks of the Arabs on Iraq and Shabur's revenge, his adventures in Rum and his

plantation of Byzantine captives in Khuzistan); idem, Tanbih, 100, trans. 144;

Hamzah al-Isfahani, Ta'rlkh, 47-48 (his raids on the Arabs, his being captured

while spying in Rum, his captivity, his gaining of Ni$ibin, and his building works);

Ibn al-Athlr, Kamil, I, 392-97. Of Persian sources, see Tabari-Bal'ami, trans. H, 91- 102. Of modem studies on Shabur H's reign in general, see Christensen,

Sassanides, 234-53; Frye, The Heritage of Persia, 224; idem, "The Political Histo-

ry of Iran under the Sasanians," 132-41, 178; El 1 ' s.v. Shapur (V. F. Buchner); EP, s.w. Sasanids (M. J. Morony), Shapur (C. E. Bosworthf!

Noldeke, trans. 68 n. x, note? that the Arabic and Persian sources used by al-

Tabari and other Islamic writers mention nothing of Shabur's persecutions of the

Christian community in Persia and, to a lesser extent, of the Jews and Man-

ichaeans. The great sufferings of the Christians are, however, known to us from the Syriac Acts of the Martyrs and from such works as Sozomenus's Ecclesiastical

History. Thus in 341 the Catholicos in the see of Seleucia-Ctesiphon (whose pri-

macy had only become established with difficulty in the mid-fourth century),

Simon Bar §abba’e, was martyred after he had protested his inability to burden his indigent community with the capitation tax at double rate in order to finance

Shabur's wars with the Romans/Byzantines; and two years later, Narses, the met-

ropolitan of Beth Garmaye, was arrested and executed. Given that Shabur was

Holders of Power after Ardashlr b. Babak

67

[The History of al-Hirah]

During the reign of Sabur, his governor over the desert fringes of

Mudar and Rabi’ah was Imru’ al-Qays al-Bad’ b. 'Amr b. 'Adi b.

Rabi’ah b. Na§r, and then Sabur appointed over the latter's governorship

his son, 'Amr b. Imri’ al-Qays, according to what has been

mentioned. He remained in the office for the remainder of Sabur's

reign, the whole of his brother Ardashlr (II), son of Hurmuz (II) b.

Narsl's reign and part of that of Sabur (HI), son of Sabur (II). The

total length of his governorship over the Arabs, as I have just

mentioned, and his exercise of authority over them, amounted to

thirty years, according to Ibn al-Kalbi. 182

[Ardashlr II]

Then there took charge of the royal power, after Sabur (II) Dhu

al-Aktaf, his brother Ardashlr.

[He was] the son of Hurmuz (n), son of Narsi, son of Bahram (n),

son of Bahram (I), son of Hurmuz (I), son of Sabur (I), son of Ardashlr (I),

son of Babak. After he was crowned, he sat there [to

receive] the great men of state. When they came into his presence,

they prayed for his victoriousness and conveyed thanks to him for

his brother Sabur. Ardashlr replied to them enthusiastically and

told them about the warm place in his heart for their thanks to

him regarding his brother. When he was securely on the throne, he

turned his attention to the great men and the holders of authority,

indeed much involved with warfare against the Christian Romans/Byzantines, a

political element was doubtless at work here, but the king is known to have hated

the Christians and to have been a keen enforcer of Zoroastrian orthodoxy within

his dominions. Christians could not accept elements like the sun, earth, and fire as

objects of cultic reverence, and found such Zoroastrian practices as marriage within close degrees of relationship as equally abhorrent. Shabur's reign was the worst thirty or forty years or so that the Christians of Persia had to endure, and the total ruin of Christianity within Persia was only averted by his death and the succession of kings who either did not wish to continue his policy or did not have the means to do so. See Labourt, Le Christianisme dans V empire perse, 20-2 5, 43-82; J. P. Asmussen, "Christians in Iran," 936-39. Shabur's reign concomitantly saw a rise in power and prestige of the Zoroastrian priesthood, whom a strong monarch like Shabur could afford to cultivate and shower with favors.

182. The middle and later decades of the fourth century are an obscure period in

the history of the Lakhmids. See Rothstein, Labmiden, 4 iff.

68

Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

and killed a great number of them, The people then deposed him

from power after a reign of four years . 183