VOL 5.5

[Sabur III]

Then there assumed the royal power Sabur.

He was the son of Sabur (n) Dhu al-Aktaf, son of Hurmuz (II),

son of Narsl. The subjects rejoiced at his accession and at the

return of his father's royal authority to him. He met with them in

the most handsome way possible, and wrote letters to the provin-

cial governors enjoining them to good conduct and to kindness

with the subjects, and he ordered the same thing to his viziers,

secretaries, and court entourage, and addressed them in eloquent

terms. He continued to behave justly to his subjects, showing

compassion to them because of the love, affection, and obedience

they clearly bore him. His paternal uncle, the deposed Ardashir

(II), behaved submissively toward him and vouchsafed obedience

to him. But the great men of state ( al-uzamd ’) and the members of

noble houses [ahl al-buyutat) cut the ropes of a large tent Sabur

had had erected in one of his palace courts, and the tent fell down

on top of him [and killed him]. He had reigned for five years . 184

183. Ardashir H's reign was 379-83. As Noldeke, trans. 69 n. 2, remarked, Ardashir must have been an old man when he came to the throne, since he was only slightly younger than his half-brother Shabur n, and he lived on into the next reign of Shabur HI (see below). Ardashir had been a governor at Hajab in Adiabene for Shabur II, and his depiction of himself in the Taq-i Bustan rock reliefs, together with his brother, as subduers of a slain Roman emperor (possibly Julian,- see R. Sellheim, "Taq-i Bustan und Kaiser Julian (361-363)," 354-66), implies that he participated in Shabur's wars with the Romans. Al-Tabari's information that Ardashir slaughtered many of the nobility points to his being a strong personality who continued Shabur's policy of firm rule. Ardashir's name appears on his coins as ’RTHSTR. See on his coins Paruck, Sasanian Coins, 59, 352-53, 435-36, XII, Table VHI; Gobi, Sasanian Numismatics, 47, Table VII, Plate 7; Sellwood, Whitting, and Williams, An Introduction to Sasanian Coins, 21, 104-105; Malek, "A Survey of Research on Sasanian Numismatics," 235.

The other Arabic sources on his reign include Ibn Qutaybah, Ma'arif, 659; al-

Ya'qubi, Ta'rikh, I, 183; al-Mas'udi, Muruj, H, 189 - § 61 I; idem, Tanblh, 100,

trans. 144; Hamzah al-Isfahani, 48; Ibn al-Athir, Kamil, I, 397. Of Persian sources, see Tabari-Bal'ami, trans. n, 102. Of modem studies, see Christensen, Sassanides, 254-55; Frye, "The Political History of Iran under the Sasanians," i4r, 178; Eh, s.v. ArdaSir II (A. Sh. Shahbazi).

184. Shabur Hi's reign was 383-88. As Noldeke, trans., 70 n. 2, observed, the

Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

69

[Bahiam IV]

[847]

Then there assumed the royal power after him his brother

Bahram (IV).

[He was] the son of Sabur (n) Dhu al-Aktaf, and had the title of

Kirman-Shah, since his father Sabur had made him governor of

Kirman during his own lifetime . 185 He wrote a letter to his army

commanders urging them to obedience and adjuring them to fear

God and to furnish sound advice to the king. At Kirman he built a

city. He governed his subjects in a commendable fashion and was

praised for his rule. His reign lasted eleven years. A group of murderous

evildoers rose up against him, and one of them killed him

by shooting an arrow at him . 186

briefness of the reigns of Shabur HI and his two successors, as well as their violent ends, show that this was a "time of troubles" for the Sasanid state, with enfeeblement of the crown and aggrandizement of the nobility. It was fortunate for the Persians that Rome was largely preoccupied with the Goths; the readjustments to the frontiers between Persian-protected Armenia and the smaller, Roman- protected part were achieved peacefully in the reigns of Shabur m and Bahram IV.

Shaburi s name appears on his coins as SHPWHRY. See on his coins Paruck,

Sasanian Coins, 59-60, 3534-56, 437-40, Plate XII, Table IX; Gobi, Sasanian

Numismatics, 47-48, Table VII, Plate 8; Sellwood, Whitting, and Williams, An

Introduction to Sasanian Coins, 21, 106-107; Malek, "A Survey of Research on

Sasanian Numismatics," 235.

The other Arabic sources on Shabur's reign include Ibn Qutaybah, Ma'arif, 659;

al-Ya'qubi, Ta’rikh, 1 , 183 (his death under die collapsing tent); al-Mas'udi, Muruj, H, 1 89 - § 61 1 (his wars against the Arabs of Iyad and other tribes; a confusion with the activities of Shabur n?); idem, Tanbih, 100, trans. 144; Hamzah al-l?fahanl, 48; Ibn al-Athlr, Kamil, I, 397-98. Of Persian sources, see Jabari-Bal'amI, trans. n, 89. For recent studies on Iris reign, see Christensen, Sassanides, 256-57, 259; Frye, "The Political History of Iran under the Sasanians," 141, 178.

185. It nevertheless seems more probable, as already noted by Noldeke, trans. 7 1

n. 2, that Bahram was a son of Shabur m.

186. Bahram IV's reign was 388-99. His name appears on his coins as WRHR’N.

See on his coins Paruck, Sasanian Coins, 60-61, 356-60, 440-43, Plates XII-XHI,

Table X; G6bl, Sasanian Numismatics, 48, Table Vm, Plate 8; Sellwood, Whitting, and Williams, An Introduction to Sasanian Coins, 21, 108-n; Malek, "A Survey of Research on Sasanian Numismatics," 235.

The other Arabic sources on his reign include Ibn Qutaybah, Ma'arif, 659,- al-

Ya'qubi, Ta'rikh, I, 183 (his pursuit of justice and good rule); al-Dinawari, al-

Akbbar al-jiwal, 5 1 (makes him the direct successor of his father Shabur II) ( rectem?); al-Mas'udi, Muruj, II, 190 - § 612; idem, Tanbih, 101, trans. 144; Hamzah al- Isfahani, Ta'rikh, 48 (a proud, harsh ruler, negligent of his subjects' welfare); Ibn al- Athir, Kamil, I, 398. Of Persian sources, see Jabari-Bal'ami, trans. n, 90-91. Of modem studies on his reign, see Christensen, Sassanides, 253-54, 269; Frye, "The Political History of Iran under the Sasanians," 142-43, 178; Eh, sv. Bahram IV (O.

70

Holders of Power after Ardashlr b. Babak

[Yazdajird I]

Then there assumed the royal power after him Yazdajird (I). 187

He had the epithet of "The Sinful One" ( al-Athim ), 188 and was

the son of Bahram (IV), who was called Kirman-Shah, son of Sabur

(II) Dhu al-Aktaf. Some of the scholars knowledgeable about the

genealogies of the Persians say [on the other hand] that this Yazdajird

 the Sinful One was the brother of Bahram, who had the title

Kirman-Shah, and not his son, and they state that he was Yazdajird,

son of Sabur Dhu al-Aktaf. Among those who attribute this

filiation to him and assert this, is Hisham b. Muhammad (sc., Ibn

al-Kalbi). 189

According to what has been mentioned, he was rough and harsh

and possessed many defects. One of the worst and most serious of

these last, it is said, was that he did not use his keenness of intellect,

his good education, and the wide-ranging varieties of knowledge

he had thoroughly mastered in their proper place, and also his

extensive delving into harmful things and his use of all the powers

he possessed for deceiving people, using his sharpness, wiles, and

trickery — all this together with his keen mind, which had a propensity

toward evil-doing, and his intense enjoyment in employing

these faculties of his. Also, he scoffed at and poured scorn upon

other people's knowledge and cultural attainments, counting

them as of no account, and he paraded at length before people his

own achievements. In addition to all that, he was ill-natured, of

Kllma). The name of the town Bahram built (when he was governor?) survives

today as the small town of Kirmanshah to the south-southeast of Yazd (and per-

haps survives also in the name of the better-known Kirmanshah of western Persia,

cf. Noldeke, trans., 7in. 3).

r87. Literally, "made by a god," Yazdgird being a MP formation from yazad (<

Avestan yazata -) and kird (< Old Persian krta-j ( yazata - denotes the lesser deities of Zoroastrianism, below the supreme position of Ahura Mazda), Greek Isdigerdes. See Noldeke, trans. 72 n. 3; Justi, Namenbuch, 148-49; Chr. Bartholomae, Alt - iranisches Worterbuch, cols. 443-48, 1279-80; Gignoux, Noms propies sassanides, no. ro47.

188. Hamzah al-Isfahanl, Ta'rikh, 49, and al-Khwarazml, Mafatih al-'ulum, 103,

give a Persian equivalent for al-athim al-mujrim, which Noldeke, trans. 72 n. 4,

interpreted as dabz ("rough, harsh" = Arabic ghaliz ) + bazah ("sin," whence bazagai "sinner").

189. The filiation is obviously confused here. Yazdagird I was the son of Shabur

HI and thus the brother of Bahram IV. See Noldeke, trans. 73 n. I; Frye, The

Heritage of Persia, genealogical table at p. 295.

Holders of Power after Ardashlr b. Babak

7i

bad morals, and of depraved propensities, to the point that his bad

nature and violent temper made him consider minor lapses as

great sins and and petty slips as enormities. As a result, no one,

whatever close relationship he might have with him, ever dared to

intercede on behalf of a person who had offended him in the

slightest way. He was suspicious of people for the whole period of

his life, and trusted no one in any thing whatever. He would never

recompense anyone who had done a good service, but if he conferred

the most exiguous benefit on a person, he made that out to

be a great favor. If anyone was bold enough to speak to him over

some matter which another person had already spoken to him

about, he would say to him, "The person on whose behalf you

have spoken to me, how much did he give you, or how much have

you already received from him ?" 190 Only delegations of envoys

coming to him from the rulers of the various nations could speak

with him on these things and similar topics. His subjects could

only preserve themselves from his harshness and the affliction of

his tyranny, and from the tout ensemble of his evil defects, by

holding fast to the good customs of the rulers before his period of

power and to their noble characters. They could only band together

and help each other in the face of his reprehensible conduct

and fear of his harshness. It was part of his policy that he should

punish anyone guilty of an error in regard to him, or who had

committed an offense against him, with such a severe penalty that

the sum stipulated could never be gathered together by the offender

in the space of three hundred years; and for the same reason,

such a person would never be beaten with a number of lashes

without expecting further punishment later on, which would be

even more unpleasant. Whenever he received a report that one of

his entourage had shown especial favor toward one of those dependent

on him, or whom he had encouraged and patronized (min ahl

fina'atihi), or one of those of equal social standing [[min ahl] tabaqatihi),

he sent him away from his service . 191

190. A recognition, if evidence were necessary, of the antiquity in Persian life of

the tradition of offering presents, plshkash, in return for expected favors from a

superior. See EP, s.w. Hiba. iv. Persia (H. Busse), Pishkash (A. K. S. Lambton).

19 1. The universally black picture of Yazdagird in tEe Islamic sources depending on the Persian historical tradition has been seen by modem scholars as the

72 Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

When Yazdajird had achieved power, he had appointed as his

vizier Narsi, the outstandingly wise man of his age; Narsi was

perfect in manners and education, excellent in all his conduct, and

the preeminent figure among the men of his time. They used to

call him Mihr Narsi or Mihr Narsih, and he had the by-name of al-

Hazarbandah. 192 The subjects hoped that his policies and his abilities

would take away some of Yazdajird's [bad] characteristics and

that Narsi would have a beneficial effect on him. But when Yazdajird

 became firmly established on his throne, his contempt for the

reflection of a struggle between the king and such powerful and ambitious classes

in the state as the nobility and the Zoroastrian priesthood. Noldeke, trans. 74 n - 3 ,

adduced as a counterbalance to this image, promulgated by aristocratic and clerical circles, the very favorable image of the king in contemporary Christian sources, and other faiths such as Judaism seem to have enjoyed more freedom during his time. According to one story (not, however, very probable), he married Shoshendukht, daughter of the Resh Galutha, the Jewish Exilarch; see Neusner, "Jews in Iran," 91s. While Frye, "The Political History of Iran under the Sasanians," 143- 44, states that not all Christian sources are eulogistic, and there was some persecution toward the end of his reign, he does agree that Yazdagird was, in comparison with earlier emperors, tolerant toward minority faiths in Persia, even if this may have involved an element of Realpolitik, in that he sought the maintenance of peace and good relations with the Romans.

One source optimistically states that Yazdagird was on the verge of becoming a Christian himself. Agathias calls Yazdagird "friendly and peaceable," a ruler who never once made war on the Romans; see Cameron, "Agathias on the Sassanians," 126-27. Procopius likewise praises Yazdagird's peace policy and retails the colorful story that the Roman emperor Arcadius (r. 383-408) entrusted his young son, the future Theodosius n, to Yazdagird's guardianship. See The Persian Wars, I.ii.r-io ; Garsoian, "Byzantium and the Sasanians," 578-79; Cameron, Procopius and the Sixth Century, 153-54. Also, it was during Yazdagird's reign, in 4ro, that the first synod of the Nestorian Church on Sasanid territory was held, under the headship of the Catholicos Mar Ishaq of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, and a hierarchy of metropolitan bishoprics, headed by Seleucia-Ctesiphon, set up. See Labourt, Le Christianisme dans l’empiie perse, 87-109; Asmussen, "Christians in Iran," 939-40; EP-, s.v. Sasanids (M. J. Morony); Elr, s.v. Christianity. I. In Pre-Islamic Persia (J. R. Russell), at V,

525.

192. Literally, "having or commanding a thousand slaves," see Justi, Namen-

buch, 128. Mihr Narseh was from one of the noblest families in Persia, the Spend-

iyars; for his genealogy, see al-Tabari, I, 868-69, pp. 103-104 below. See on him

Noldeke, trans., 439, and Lukonin, "Political, Social and Adminstrative Institu-

tions: Taxes and Trade," 704. That the emperor made him his chief minister

immediately on his accession is improbable, as Noldeke, trans. 76 n. 1, noted,

seeing that Mihr Narseh was active as a minister and field commander until forty

years later in the reigns of Bahram V and Yazdagird II; see al-Tabari, 1 , 866, 868, 871, 872, pp. 99-100, 103, xo6, 108 below.

Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

73

nobles and great men of state grew intense, he bore down hard on

the weak, shed copious amounts of blood, and exercised power in

so tyrannical a manner as the subjects had never experienced in

his time. When the prominent personages and the nobles perceived

that Yazdajird was only rushing further into the paths of

tyranny, they came together and complained [to God] about the

oppression by Yazdajird from which they were suffering. They

made humble supplications to their Lord and implored Him to

send them a speedy deliverance from Yazdajird.

They assert that Yazdajird was in furjan. 193 One day, he looked

out from his palace at a horse coming toward him, the like of

whose fine appearance and perfection of form had never before

been seen in a horse. It stopped at his gate. The people marveled at

it because the beast was of an extraordinary nature. Yazdajird was

told about it, and he then gave orders for it to be saddled and

bridled. His grooms and the master of his stables all tried to do this

but failed. Yazdajird was informed of the horse's refractoriness

with them, so he went out personally to the spot where that horse

was, placed a bridle on it with his own hand, threw a saddle

blanket over its back and a saddle on top of it, secured the girth

strap, and put a halter round its neck, without the horse moving

an inch at any of this. Finally, he lifted its tail to fix the crupper,

when the horse wheeled round behind him and struck him such a

blow on the heart that he died from it. Subsequently, that horse

was never seen again. It is said that the horse galloped off at a great

pace, without anyone being able to catch up with it, nor could

anyone ascertain the reason for its behavior. The subjects were

thus freed from him and exclaimed, "This is God's work and a

manifestation of His beneficence to us." 194

193. That is, the region at the southeastern end of the Caspian Sea, Gurgan, OP

Vrkana, classical Hyrcania. See Yaqut, Bulddn, n, 119-21-, Marquart, EranSahr,

72-74; Le Strange, Lands, 376-78; Barthold, Historical Geography, 88; EP-, s.v.

Gurgan (R. Hartmann-J. A. Boyle).

194. Following the reading of the Sprenger ms. given in Noldeke's text, n. a,

khala$at al-ra'iyyah minim. The remarkable mode of Yazdagird's death is closely

linked with the story in the Perso-Islamic sources concerning his evil ways, as

being a fittingly mysterious end for such an impious tyrant. See Ndldeke, trans. 77

74 Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

Some state that Yazdajird reigned for twenty-two years, five

months, and sixteen days, others that he reigned for twenty-one

years, five months, and eighteen days. 195

[The History of al-Hirah]

When 'Amr b. Imri’ al-Qays al-Bad’ b. 'Amr b. 'Adi died during

the time of Sabur, son of Sabur, 196 the latter appointed to his office

Aws b. Qal(l)am, according to Hisham (Ibn al-Kalbi]; Aws was one

of the Amalekites, from the tribe of 'Amr b. 'Amaliq (or 'Imliq).

But Jahjaba b. 'Atlk b. Lakhm rose up against him and killed him,

Aws having reigned for five years. 197 His death fell in the time of

Bahram, son of Sabur Dhu al-Aktaf. There was appointed to suc-

ceed him in the office Imru’ al-Qays al-Bad’, 198 the son of 'Amr b.

195. Yazdagird I's reign was 399-420. His name appears on his coins as (L’M§-

TRY) YZDKRTY, i.e., (Ramshahr) Yazdagird. See on his coins Paruck, Sasanian

Coins, 61-62, 360-62, 443-47, Plates XIH-XIV, Table XIH; Gobi, Sasanian

Numismatics, 48, Table Vm, Plate 9; Sellwood, Whitting, and Williams, An Introduction to Sasanian Coins, 21,112-15; Malek, "A Survey of Research on Sasanian Numismatics," 235.

The other Arabic sources on his reign include Ibn Qutaybah, Ma'arif, 659-60; al-

Ya'qubi, Ta’rikh, I, 183 (both sources on his evil ways and tyrannical rule); al-

Dinawari, al-Akhbar al-tiwal, 51-52 (his harsh rule and his sending his son

Bahram [V] to al-Hirah for his education); al-Mas'udi, Muruj, II, 190 - § 612; idem, Tanbih, 101, trans. 144; Hamzah al-I§fahani, Ta’rikh, 49; Ibn al-Athlr, Kamil, I, 398-401. Of Persian sources, see Tabari-Bal'ami, trans. n, 127-28. For recent studies of his reign, see Christensen, Sassanides, 269-73; Eryc, "The Political History of Iran under the Sasanians," 143-44, 178; El 2 , s.v. Sasamds (M. J. Morony).

196. Correctly, "during the time of Sabur (II), great-grandson of Sabur (I)." The

father of 'Amr, Imru’ al-Qays al-Bad’, was the "King of the Arabs" of the Namarah inscription; see al-Tabari, I, 834, p. 44 and n. 133 above.

197. The five years' rule of Aws b. Qal(l)am (fuller genealogy in Hamzah al-

I$fahani, 87: . . .b.Butayn(ah). . . b. Lihyan al-'Amaliqi) forms the first interregnum of Lakhmid domination in al-Hirah. Very little is known of Aws, whose reign must have fallen within the 380s or 390s if he died dining Bahram IV's reign, but he must have been a member of one of the leading Arab families of al-Hirah. It was a descendant of his, the Christian bishop of the town, Jabir b. Sham'un, who lent the impoverished last Lakhmid king al-Nu'man HI b. al-Mundhir IV (see al-Tabari, I, ioi6ff., pp. 339ff. below) eighty thousand dirhams so that he could live in a royal style (see Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani, Aghani 11,26= Aghani i 3 - H, 1 1 5 ). If al-'Amaliqi did occur as a tribal nisbah among the ancient Arabs, it cannot of course have had any direct connection with the

Old Testament Amalekites; cf. Noldeke, trans. 78 n. 1.

198. That is, Imru’ al-Qays (II), see Rothstein, Lahmiden, 52, 55, 58, 65. As

Noldeke, 79 n. 1, observed, it is highly improbable that two Lakhmid rulers could

both have had the cognomen al-Bad' "the first"; accordingly, we find in the text of

Holders of Power after Ardashlr b. Babak

75

Imri’ al-Qays [al-Bad’] (?) b. 'Amr, [who ruled for] twenty-five

years; he died in the time of Yazdajird the Sinful one. The latter

appointed in his stead his son al-Nu'man b. Imri’ al-Qays al-Bad’ b.

‘Amr b. Imri’ al-Qays b. 'Amr b. 'Adi, 199 whose mother was Shaqiqah,

daughter of Rabi’ah b. Dhuhl b. Shayban, [al-Nu'man being],

the rider of [the celebrated horse] Halimah and the builder of al-

Khawamaq.

The reason for his building al-Khawamaq, 200 according to what

has been mentioned, was that Yazdajird the Sinful One, the son of

Bahram the Kirman-Shah, son of Sabur Dhu al-Aktaf, had [at that

time] no surviving son. Hence he made enquiries concerning a

spot that was healthy and free from diseases and maladies. As a

result, he was directed to the elevated region of al-HIrah, and he

sent his [subsequently bom] son Bahram Jur to this al-Nu'man,

ordering the latter to build al-Khawamaq as a residence for him.

He made him reside there, and instructed him to send out Bahram

Jur into the deserts of the Arabs. The actual builder of al-Khawamaq

was a man called Sinnimar. 201 When Sinnimar had

completed its constmction, people were amazed at its beauty and

the perfection of its workmanship. Sinnimar, however, commented, "If I had believed that you (sc., al-Nu'man) would pay me

Hamzah al-I$faharu, 87, the second occurrence of al-Bad’ changed to (the meaningless in the context) al-Badan.

199. That is, al-Nu'man (I), called al-A'war "the one-eyed" and al-Sa’ih "the

wanderer, ascetic" (cf. regarding this last cognomen, p. 81 n. 117 below). See

Rothstein, Lahmidea, 52, 5s, 56, 58, 65-68; EP, s.v. Lakhmids (Irfan Shahid).

200. This famous palace of the Lakhmids would accordingly date from the first

two decades of the fifth century. It lay just to the east of al-HIrah, hence of the

Islamic al-Najaf also, and was regarded by the early Arabs as one of the wonders of the world. The name is most probably of Iranian origin. F. C. Andreas suggested an etymology from * huwama , "having a fine roof," but Mr F. C. de Blois has pointed out to the present writer the great unlikelihood of this, given that there is no trace of a word "warna- "roof" in Middle Persian. Al-Khawamaq was used as a palace in early 'Abbasid times, but later fell into ruins. Its site is visible today. See Yaqut, Buldan, II, 401-403; Rothstein, Labmiden, 15-16; Le Strange, Lands, 75-76; Musil, The Middle Euphrates, 35, 103-106; EP, s.v. al-Khawamak (L. Massignon). The story that it was built specially for the prince Bahram Gur would be, according to Noldeke, 79 n. 3, a later suggestion.

201 . Hamzah al-I$fahani, 90, gives him the nisbah of al-R umJ, "the Greek," and

makes him the builder of a palace called §innin ( ? ). Sinnimar's being described as a Rumi is a reflection of the Romans' reputation as architects and fine builders.

Nothing is known of the historicity of Sinnimar; see Ndldeke, 80 n. 1.

76

Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

the whole of my due and would have treated me as I deserve, I

would have constructed a building which would have gone round

with the sun, wherever it went in its course." The king then

exclaimed, "So you could have built something more splendid

than this, yet you didn't do it?" and he ordered him to be thrown

down from the top of al-Khawamaq . 202 It is in connection with

this that Abu al-Tamahan al-Qayni has recited : 203

He paid a recompense to her and her lord, just as Sinnimar was

paid a recompense — by Allat and al-TJzza! 204 — the

recompense which must be paid by someone seeking

release from an oath.

Salit b. Sa'd has likewise said , 205

Abu Ghaylan's sons recompensed him for his advanced age and

his handsome behaviour just as Sinnimar was recompensed.

Also, Yazid b. Iyas al-Nahshali has said , 206

May God recompense Kammal for his most evil action with the

recompense of Sinnimar, one which is paid out in full!

'Abd al-'Uzza b. Imri’ al-Qays al-Kalbl also related poetry [with

this reference ]. 207 It happened that he gave a present of some

202. Hence "the reward of Sinnimar" became proverbial; see Rothstein, loc. cit.

203. Abu al-Tamahan Hanzalah b. al-Sharql was a su'hik or bandit poet of the

mukhadiam. See Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani, AghanP, XIII, 3-14, with this verse

quoted at n, 145; Blachfcre, Histoiie de la litUiatuie aiabe, n, 318; EP Suppl., s.v.

Abu '1-Tamahan al-Kayni (ed.).

204. That is, the two goddesses of the pre-Islamic Arabs of Hijaz, who with

Manat made up the so-called Daughters of Allah, mentioned specifically in Qur’an, LID, 19-20. The shrine of Allat was at al-Ta’if and that of al-'Uzza at al-Nakhlah near Mecca. See Ibn al-Kalbi, Kitab al-asnam, text in F. Klinke-Rosenberger, Das Gotzenbuch. Kitab al-Asnam des Ibn al-Kalbi, 10-17, Ger. trans. 37-44; Eng. trans. N. A. Faris, The Book of Idols, 14-23; J. Wellhausen, Reste arabischen Heidentams 2 , 24, 29-45; T. Fahd, Le pantheon de l’Azabie centrale h la veille de l’higiie, 1 11-20, 163-82; El 1 ' s.v. al-'Uzza (F. Buhl); EP, s.v. al-Lat (Fahd).

205. The poet himself is obscure, but the verse is quoted in Abu al-Faraj al-

I$fahahi, AghanP, II, 145.

206. This poet is not traceable, but the Nahshal were a subtribe of Darim of

Tamim. See Ibn al-Kalbl-Caskel-Strenziok, Jamharat al-nasab, I, Tables 60, 62, II, 8, 433-

207. The story of 'Abd al-'Uzza and the Ghassanid king is given in Abu al-Faraj

al-Isfahani, AghanP, loc. cit., with the first two verses of the following poem.

Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

77

horses to al-Harith b. Mariyah al-Ghassani and went to him. 208

The horses delighted al-Harith, as did 'Abd al-'Uzza's own presence

and conversation. The king had a son who had been put out

for suckling among the Banu al-Hamim b. 'Awf of the Banu 'Abd

Wudd of Kalb. 209 A snake bit the son [and killed him], but the king

imagined that they had fallen upon and murdered him. He said to

'Abd al-'Uzza, "Bring these fellows to me!" 'Abd al-'Uzza replied,

"These are a free people, I have no superiority over them in lineage

or achievements [that I might compel them to come back with

me]." The king threatened, "Either you bring them to me or else I

shall do such-and-such [to you]!" He replied, "We expected something

 as a gift from you, but we are getting punishment from you

instead!" He summoned his two sons Sharahll and 'Abd al-Harith,

and sent the following verses with them to his people:

208. The Ghassan were a section of the great tribal group of Asd or Azd. The

tribe apparently migrated to west-central Arabia during the course of the fourth

century, and the Gs'n are mentioned in a South Arabian inscription dated 470 of

the Himyarite era/A.D. 360-61 (on the correspondence of these eras, see n. 409

below) as located in western Najd at Sijah/Siyyan (roughly midway between Mecca and the modem al-Riyad). Some of the Ghassan, though not necessarily all of them, migrated to the fringes of the Byzantine province of Arabia in the later fifth century, where they then assumed the role of frontier auxiliaries for the Byzantine emperors — a role corresponding to that of the Lakhmids for the Sasanids on the other side of the Syrian Desert — under chiefs from the family of Jafnah. See Chr. Robin, "Le royaume hujride, dit «royaume de Kinda» entre Himyar et Byzance," 693 and n. ior, 697 n. rr8, who, because of the fact that not all members of the Banu Ghassan necessarily established themselves in Syria, would prefer to style the chiefs in Syria who were allies of Byzantium "Jafriids" (see n. 2ti below), a point already made implicitly by Noldeke in the title of his pioneer monograph on the family. See in general on the Jafnid/Ghassanid chiefs at this time, Ibn al-Kalbi- Caskel-Strenziok, Jamharat al-nasab, I, Table 176,11, 31-33, 273; Noldeke, Die Ghassdnischen Pdrsten aus dem House Gafna’s, sff.j Shahid, Byzantium and the Arabs in the Fourth Century, 89-91; idem, Byzantium and the Arabs in the Fifth Century, 32-49, 61-72; EP, s.v. Ghassanids (Shahid).

The greatest of the jafnid/Ghassanid princes, Abu Shamir al-Harith b. Jabalah al-

A?far (r. 529-69) is here attributed to his mother, the famous Kindi princess Mar-

iyah. According to al-Mas'udi, Muiuj, II, 217 - § 1079, al-Harith, the son of Mar-

iyah Dhat al-Qurtayn bt. Arqam, was the third of the jafnid/Ghassanid governors

of Syria for the Byzantines. See EP, s.v. al-Harith b. Djabala (Irfan Shahid).

209. This ancient custom of placing babies with foster mothers in the healthy

environment of the desert is later seen in the infant Muhammad the Prophet's

being entrusted for suckling ( rida ') to a woman of the Sa'd b. Bakr tribe of the

Hawazin groups outside Mecca. See F. Buhl, Das Leben Muhammeds, 117, noting that such a custom goes back well before Muhammad's time; W. M. Watt, Muhammad at Mecca, 33.

Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

He has recompensed me — may God recompense him with the

worst of His recompenses — just as Sinnimar, who was

entirely innocent, was recompensed.

[It was] simply that he raised up the building over a period of

twenty years long, lavishing on it repeatedly fired bricks

and molten lead.

When [the king] saw that the building had reached a great

height and had become like a lofty mountain with steep

and difficult slopes,

It rendered him suspicious (or: he became suspicious of him)

after a long period of time and after the people of East and

West had shown abhorrence of him.

Sinnimar imagined that he would gain from him all sorts of joys

of life and achieve a position of affection and close

friendship with him.

But the king exclaimed, "Throw the barbarian (al-'il/) 210 from

the top of his own tower!" By God, this is one of the most

remarkable affairs!

And, as you well know, I am guilty of no offense against Ibn

Jafnah 211 that could make him swear an oath [to act]

against Kalb (sc., the poet's own tribe).

He will certainly seek out the heart of their lands with his

cavalrymen, but — may you avoid all curses! 212 — become

free of it by your far- traveling words!

210. In its original meaning, 'ilj means "coarse, strong, burly," but it was

applied — obviously with a deprecatory meaning — by the Arabs to non-Arabs, and especially to the Aramaic-speakers of Iraq and to the Persians. The implicit contrast is with the spare, lean Arabs, devoid of any superfluous flesh through their harsh and frugal desert way of life; cf . n. 8 1 3 below, where 'Adi b. Zayd counsels the Lakhmid al-Nu'man in to impress the emperor Hormizd IV by appearing before him as a lean, half-starved, battle-hardened desert warrior.

an. That is, the Jafnid/Ghassanid prince referred to in the poem, the name "Ibn

Jaf nah " going back to the eponymous founder of the line in its original Yemen

home, Jafnah b. 'Amr Muzayqiya b. 'Amir. See al-Mas'udx, Muruj, n, 182, 217, m, 391 «= §§ 1037, 1079, 1276; Hamzah al-l?fahanl, Ta’rlkh, 99; N6ldeke, Die

Ghassdnischen Fiirsten, 6.

212. abayta ‘1-la'na, a common formula in addressing Arab chiefs and princes of

the Jahiliyyah, with the implication "may you not do anything which will merit

your being cursed!" Used here, as Noldeke notes, trans. 8a n. 5, with a con-

temptuous tinge to the wish. Numerous examples from early Arabic literature of

its use are collected in M. Ullmann, WbKAS, n/ 2 , 859-60.

Holders of Power after Ardashlr b. Babak

79

Opposing what Ibn Jafnah has willed for himself are men who

repel the perpetrator of evil from the tribe!

Already the man Harith sent before you 213 has launched an

attack on us, but he has been left mortally wounded in the

lungs (literally, “afflicted by consumption") on the reddish-

colored hills.

Hisham has related: This al-Nu'man had raided Syria many

times and had brought down numerous calamities on its people,

taking captives and plunder . 214 He was one of the most violent of

kings in inflicting hurt on his enemies and one of the most effetive

in penetrating deeply into their lands. The king of Persia had

given him two corps of troops, one called Dawsar — these being

from Tanukh — and the other one called al-Shahba’ ("the Brightly

Gleaming Ones"), these being Persians 215 These are the two

213. One could also vocalize here min qibahka "on your authority."

214. Noldeke, trans. 83 n. 3, thought that such attacks were not impossible,

even within the period of general peace between Byzantium and Persia negotiated

by Theodosius II and Shabur m, but that it was more likely that a confusion has

been made with the Lakhmid al-Nu'man II (r. ca. 499-503), who was certainly

active in the Byzantine-Persian warfare in Upper Mesopotamia toward the end of

the fifth century. See Shahid, Byzantium and the Arabs in the Fifth Century, 121-

22.

215. The Arabic sources mention various groups on whom the Lakhmids relied

for military backing. Since they were a family in al-HIrah ruling over a population

which was in large part an urban, sedentary one, with the 'Ibid different also from

their rulers in their Christian faith, the Lakhmids had generally to rely on foreign

or mercenary troops except when they could take advantage of tribal conflicts

within Arabia and thus utilize as allies one of the tribal groups involved. As well as these two groups of the Dawsar and the Shahba’, supplied, according to al-Tabari, by the Persian emperors, the sources mention other groups in Lakhmid service.

These include the Wa<jla’i' (sing wadTah, "those set down, planted, mawdu',"

perhaps "garrison troops set down on the desert frontiers." or else "levied, stipu-

lated according to an agreement," wadFah); the $ana’i' (sing. $anTah, "creatures [of the king], those attached to his service through royal favor and patronage"); the Raha’in (sing, rahinah, "pledges, hostages, " taken from the nearby Arabian tribes); and others.

Rothstein, Lahmiden, 134-38, discussed these various bodies of troops at

length, and the discussion has been taken up more recently by M. J. Kister in his

"Al-Hira. Some Notes on Its Relations with Arabia," 165-68, who was able to use

important additional information on the Lakhmids in the British Library ms. of

Abu al-Baqa’ Hibat Allah al-Hilll's al-Manaqib al-mazyadiyyah fi akhbdr ah

muluk al-asadiyyah (since Kister wrote, available in the printed edition of $alib

Musa Danadikah and Muhammad 'Abd al-Qadir Khuraysat).

The Dawsar(ah), says Abd al-Baqa’, were an elite force of valiant and courageous

8o

Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

groups known as "the two tribes." He used to raid the land of Syria

and the Arabs who did not recognize his authority, by means of

these troops.

Hisham related: It has been mentioned to us — but God knows

best [the truth of it]— that al-Nu'man sat one spring day in his

audience chamber at al-Khawamaq and looked down at al-Najaf,

with the gardens, date-palms, orchards, and canals adjoining it, on

his western side, and down at the Euphrates on his eastern side, he

being on the ridge of al-Najaf. 216 He was pleased with all the

greenness, the flowers, and the water courses he could see, and

exclaimed to his vizier and companion, "Have you ever seen the

like of this view?" The vizier replied, "No ; if only it were to last!"

The king said, "What then endures?" He replied, "That which is

with God in the next world." The king asked, "How can that be

attained?" He replied, "By your abandoning this present world, by

devoting yourself to God and by seeking that which is laid up with

Him." So the king renounced his kingdom that very night; he put

on coarse garments and left secretly in flight, without anybody

knowing. The people came next morning, knowing nothing about

cavalrymen. The Shahba’ were called al-Ashahib (pi. of ash’hab, fern, shahba',

literally, "white mingled with grey," often applied to armies because of the glint of their weapons and breastplates) because of their handsomeness and splendid appearance ("the shi ning ones") (but according to an alternative tradition, these were a detachment of Persians, the Wada’i'). A third group, according to this author, ere the Malha’ (fern, of amlah, "greyish, ashen colored," thus called from their grey, iron cuirasses). See al-Manaqib al-mazyadiyyah, no, and cf. Kister, op. cit., 167, and Bosworth, "Iran and the Arabs before Islam," 599-600. No source offers an etymology for the name Dawsar, but Noldeke, trans. 83 n. 4, influenced by al- Tabari's information that these were troops sent by the Persian monarch, saw clearly in it Persian du sat "having two heads," without being able to suggest any reason for this designation. One might speculate that the contingent had two

component detachments, each with its own commander. Shahid, in his Byzan-

tium and the Arabs in the Fifth Century, 29 n. 26, cf. 30, has recently suggested a

possible link with the Arabian tribe Dawsar, the modem Dawasir, whose name is

enshrined in that of the Wad! al-Dawasir in southern Najd, see EP-, s.v. al-Dawasir (G. Rentz). The question remains unresolved.

216. Al-Najaf, in Islamic times known also as Mash'had 'All from its being the

last resting place of the fourth caliph, lay on the edge of the desert some six miles to the west of where the early Islamic misr or military encampment of al-Kufah was to arise; nothing, however, appears to be known of the pre-Islamic history of the place or whether this history was in any way separate from al-HIrah. See Yaqut, Buldan, V, 271-22; Le Strange, Lands, 76-78; Musil, The Middle Euphrates, 34- 35; EP-, s.v. al-Nadjaf (E. Honigmann-C. E. Bosworth).

Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

81

what had happened to him; they came to his door ; but received no

permission to enter into his presence, as he normally gave. When

they had waited for a considerable time without this permission

to enter, they made enquiries about him, but could find no trace of

him . 217

Concerning this, 'Adi b. Zayd al-'Ibadi says:

Consider the example of the lord of al-Khawamaq, when he

looked out one day, and he had an [inward| vision of divine

guidance.

His position made him rejoice, and the great extent over which

he ruled, the river [Euphrates] stretched out before him, and

al-Sadir . 218

But his heart became troubled and he said, "What happiness can

a king enjoy, when he is heading toward death?"

Then after prosperity, royal power, and ease of life, the graves

have closed over them there.

Then they have become like shriveled leaves, which the east

and west winds snatch away . 219

Al-Nu'man's reign, up to the point when he renounced the

world and wandered the earth, was twenty-nine years and four

months. Ibn al-Kalbi says that fifteen years of that fell within

Yazdajird's time and fourteen years within that of Bahram fur , 220

217. The theme of the ruler experiencing a revulsion from the world and sud-

denly renouncing it is a topos, but the Arabic sources do attribute ascetic ten-

dencies to al-Nu'man (whether ex post facto is unknown), whence his by-name of

al-Sa’ih, "the wanderer," and he is said to have visited the Syrian pillar saint,

Simeon Stylites, between 413 and 420. See Nfildeke, trans. 85 n. i; Shahid, Byzantium and the Arabs in the Fifth Century, 162-64; El 2 > s.v. Lakhmids (Shahid).

218. Another famed palace of the Lakhmids, often mentioned in Arabic lore and

linked with al-Khawamaq. Some of the Arabic philologists sought a forced etymology for its name in si dihli(z) "having three compartments, porticoes." See Yaqut, Buldan, m, 201-202; Rothstein, Lahmiden, 15-16, 96; Le Strange, Lands, 75.

219. The complete poem is in ’Adi's Diwan, 84-92, no. 16. Its atmosphere of

world-weariness would lead one to place it among 'Adi's habsiyyat, poems composed when he was in the prison to which a credulous and ungrateful al-Nu'man had consigned him.

220. Jur, the Arabized form of Persian gor, "wild ass," famed for its endurance

and hardiness. The epithet would thus be parallel to that of al-Himar given to the

last Umayyad caliph Marwan II b. Muhammad, and would be applied here to

Bahram for his heroic qualities. One could also take Bahram-i Gor as meaning

"Bahram of the wild asses," i.e., a hunter of those beasts. Popular romance

82

Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

son of Yazdajird; but as for the Persian scholars knowledgeable

about their historical accounts and affairs, they relate concerning

this what I am [now] about to relate.

[Bahram V fur]

[He was] the son of Yazdajird the Harsh One ( al-Khashin ), son of

Bahram (IV} Kirman-Shah, son of Sabur Dhu al-Aktaf.

It is mentioned that his birth took place on Hurmuzd day in the

month of Farwardln at the seventh hour of the day. 221 At the

instant of Bahrain's birth, his father Yazdajird summoned all the

astrologers who were at his court and ordered them to cast his

horoscope and to explain it in such a clear way that what was

going to happen to him in the whole of his life would be indicated.

They measured the height of the sun and observed the ascension

of the stars. Then they informed Yazdajird that God would make

Bahram the heir to his father's royal power, that he would be

suckled in a land not inhabited by the Persians, and that it was

advisable that he should be brought up outside his own land.

Yazdajird had it in mind that he should commit the child for

suckling and rearing to one of the Romans or Arabs or other non-

[855] Persians who were at his court. It now seemed best to Yazdajird to

choose the Arabs for rearing and bringing him up. Hence he -

connects Bahrain's acquisition of the name with a hunting feat when he killed both a lion and a wild ass with a single arrow, see the story as given by al-T abari, 1, 8 5 7, pp. 85-86 below, and n. 226 below; thus the etymology from gor "wild ass" became hallowed in romance and story. Various other bases for the name have been pro- posed, including one from a supposed Sogdian royal title, gula, which the Indo- Europeanist Olaf Hansen thought occurred, e.g., in the name of the Hephthalite or "White Hun" ruler over northern India Mihrakula/Mihragula, r. ca. 5 15-44 (but of which there is actually no trace in Sogdian), and an Indian one (cf. Ghirshman, Les Chionites-Hephtalites, 109 n. 4). In our present state of knowledge, the traditional explanation seems most feasible.

221. That is, toward midday on the Persian New Year's Day,- it is emphasised in

the popular romantic legends surrounding Bahram that he was bom at this most

auspicious and fortunate hour and date. Firdawsi's information that he was bom in

the eighth year of Yazdagird I's reign would make Bahram fourteen or fifteen years old at his accession, but the statement in al-Tabari, 1 , 863, p. 93 below, that Bahram was twenty years old when he became king seems more historically correct.

Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

83

summoned al-Mundhir b. al-Nu'man 222 and he committed to his

charge the upbringing of Bahrain. He lavished on al-Mundhir signs

of nobility and honour and gave him rule over the Arabs, and he

bestowed on him two high ranks, one of them called Ram-abzud-

Yazdajird, meaning "Yazdajird's joy has increased /' 223 and the

other called Mihisht, meaning "chiefest servant." He also singled

him out for presents and robes of honor befitting his high rank,

and he ordered al-Mundhir to take Bahram to the land of the

Arabs.

So al-Mundhir went with Bahram to his dwelling place in the

land of the Arabs. He selected for suckling him three women,

daughters of the nobles, with healthy bodies, keen intelligence,

and acceptable education: two of them from the Arab ladies and

one Persian lady. He gave orders for them to be provided with all

the clothing, carpets, food, drink, and other items they needed,

and they then took turns in suckling him over a period of three

years.

In the fourth year, he was weaned. When he was five, he said to

al-Mundhir, "Bring me knowledgeable teachers, well trained in

methods of instruction, who can teach me writing, archery, and

knowledge of law (fiqh; or perhaps just "intellectual skills"). Al-

Mundhir replied, "You are still young in years, and the time is not

yet ripe for you to embark on education. Occupy yourself with the

things young children concern themselves with until you reach an

age ready for being educated and for being taught good behavior;

then I will appoint teachers for everything in which you have

sought instruction." But Bahram told al-Mundhir, "By God, I am

indeed young in years, but my intelligence is that of a man of adult

judgment; whereas, you are old in years, yet your mind is that of a

weak child. Do you not know, O man, that everything which is

222. This is al-Mundhir I (r. ca. 418-62), son of al-Nu'man I (r. ca. 400-18), on

whom see Rothstein, Lahmiden, 52, 55, 58, 69-70? for al-Mundhir's role in

Lakhmid-Persian relations and his share in the war of 421-22 between Bahram and Byzantium, see Shahid, Byzantium and the Arabs in the Fifth Century, 28-32.

223. This title was restored, with difficulty, by Noldeke from the mss., see text,

n. b. In his trans., 86 n. 1, he noted that one would expect Rdm-abzHd (for afizud,

afzud ) ba-Yazdagird and that this seems to be an isolated attestation of the epithet

in the sources for Sasanid history, leading him to wonder whether its form has

arisen from a misunderstanding by the older Arab transmitters/authors.

84

Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

sought after prematurely is reached in its right time, that which is

sought in its own time is reached at some other time, and that

which is not sought at the right time (i.e., too late) is lost and not

attained at all? I am the offspring of kings, and with God's permission,

 royal power will come to me. Now the most appropriate

obligation for kings and the most important thing they should see

is beneficial knowledge, for this last is an adornment for them and

a pillar of their royal power; by means of it they become powerful.

So busy yourself and procure quickly for me the teachers for

whom I have asked you!"

The very moment that al-Mundhir heard these words of

Bahrain's, he sent envoys to the king [of Persia's] court who would

bring back to him a group of scholars of the Persians versed in law,

instructors in archery and the equestrian arts, and teachers in

writing and in all the share of attainments of those possessing a

good education. 224 He furthermore assembled for Bahram wise

men from among those of the Persians and Romans and retellers

of the stories of the Arabs. Bahram thereupon gave them binding

instructions, and he appointed specific times for the specialists in

each sector of those skills in which they were to come to him, and

he laid down a fixed period of time within which they had to

communicate to him all their appropriate knowledge. Bahram

devoted his skills exclusively to learning everything that he had

asked to be taught and to listening to the wise men and the transmitters

of stories. He firmly comprehended everything he heard

and quickly grasped everything he was taught with the minimum

of tuition. It was found that after he had reached twelve

years of age he had derived benefit from everything that had been

taught him, had stored it all in his mind, and had surpassed his

teachers and all the highly educated persons round him to such

an extent that they acknowledged to him his superiority over

themselves 225

Bahram now expressed his gratitude to al-Mundhir and his

224. The Cairo text has kha?sat an ■ "and especially those knowledgeable about

polite education," for Leiden's hissati.

225. Bahrain's education in both the Persian and the Arabic sciences and

knightly virues is also described, in much less detail, in al-Ya'qubi, Ta’rikh, 1 , 183; al-Dinawari, al-Akhbai al-tiwal, 51-52, Tabari-Bal'ami, trans. n, 1 10-12.

Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

85

teachers, and commanded the latter to return home. He now ordered

the instructors in archery and the equestrian arts to be present

with him, in order that he might acquire from them everything

requisite for him to be trained in and to achieve mastery

over. Then, [after having acquired these skills,] Bahram sent for al-

Nu'man b. al-Mundhir and instructed him to make the Arabs

come forward and bring their horses, both stallions and mares,

with information on their pedigrees. Hence al-Nu'man instructed

the Arabs to do that. When al-Mundhir was informed about

Bahrain's intention of selecting a horse as his mount, he said to

Bahram, "Don't require the Arabs to let their horses run forth [in

competition with each other], but order each of them to pass in

review his horse before you, and then take your pick, just as it

pleases you, and tether the horse for your own use." Bahram replied,

"You have spoken well; but I am the most outstanding of

men in rulership and nobility, and its is necessary that my mount

should only be the very best of horses. The superiority of one horse

over another can only be known by trial, and there can be no trial

without a competitive race." Al-Mundhir approved of his words,

and al-Nu'man ordered the Arabs to bring forward their horses.

Bahram and al-Mundhir rode out to the horses assembled for the

race. The horses went off from [a place which was] two farsakhs

[from the winning post]. A sorrel horse of al-Mundhir's out-

stripped all these horses and came in first, and then the rest of

them came along in successive groups, of two or three horses

following each other or coming in separately or coming right at

the end. Al-Mundhir led that sorrel horse over to Bahram with his

own hand, saying, "May God bring you blessing by means of it!"

Bahram ordered the steed to be secured for him; his joy was great,

and he gave thanks to al-Mundhir.

One day, Bahram rode the sorrel horse, which al-Mundhir had

given him as a mount, out hunting. He spotted a herd of wild

asses, loosed an arrow at them, and rode towards them, but lo and

behold, there was a lion that had seized one of the asses in the

herd, and had gripped its back with its jaws in order to smash it

and kill it! Bahram shot an arrow into the lion's back; the arrow

pierced through its body to its belly, and then to the wild ass's

back and its navel, until it ended up in the ground, penetrating

into it to about a third of its length, and was fluttering there for a

86

Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

considerable time. All this took place in the presence of a group of

Arabs and of Bahrain's guards and other persons. Bahram gave

orders for the episode of him, the lion, and the wild ass to be set

down in picture form in one of his court chambers . 226

Then Bahram informed al-Mundhir that he was going to return

to his father, so he set out to see the latter. But his father Yazdajird,

because of his evil character, paid no attention to any of his

children and merely took Bahram as one of his servants, so that

Bahram suffered great hardship in this . 227 At that point, an embassy

came to Yazdajird under a brother of the Roman Emperor,

called Thiyadhus (Theodosius), seeking a peace agreement and a

truce in fighting for the emperor and the Romans . 228 Hence

Bahram asked Thiyadus to speak with Yazdajird and to secure for

Bahram permission to return to al-Mundhir. So he returned to the

land of the Arabs, where he devoted himself to a life of ease and

enjoyment.

Bahrain's father Yazdajird died while Bahram was away. A

group of the great men of state and nobles came together and made

an agreement among themselves not to raise to the throne any of

Yazdajird's offspring because of his evil conduct. They said,

"Yazdajird has not left any son capable of assuming the royal

power except for Bahram,- but he has not yet governed any province

[of the realm] by means of which his abilities may be tested

and his capabilities thereby known. Nor has he had an education

226. The tale of Bahrain's prowess in the chase — thus explaining his sobriquet

"the Wild Ass," see n. 220 above— figures in or is echoed by various other sources.

See, e.g., Ibn Qutaybah, 'Uyun al-akhbar, I, 178; al-DInawari, al-Akhbar al-tiwal,

52; Tabari-Bal'ami, trans. n, 1 17-18; al-Mas'udi, Muruj, n, 191 - § 613, referring for further details to his Akhbdr al-zaman and his Kitab al-Awsat (both now lost,

despite the existence of apocryphal works bearing these titles, see Ahmad M. H.

Shboul, Al-Mas'udi and His World. A Muslim Humanist and His Interest in Non-

Muslims, 72-73 and nn. 126-27; EP-,s.v. al-Mas'udl [Ch. Pellat]). Hunting scenes

depicting Bahram, such as this adventure with the lion and wild ass, became

favorite subjects for later Persian miniature painting. See Elr, s.v. Bahram. vi.

Bahram V Gur in Persian Legend and Literature (W. L. Hanaway).

227. Although this piece of information would seem to be just one more item

with which to blacken Yazdagird's reputation, Noldeke, trans. 90 n. 2, thought

that there might conceivably have been some bad blood between father and son,

with Bahrain's being sent to al-Hirah as a sort of exile. This is, however, pure

conjecture.

228 . The name of the "brother of the Roman Emperor" is in fact that of the then

emperor himself, Theodosius II (r. 408-50).

Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

87

in Persian ways, but his education has been solely in Arab ways, so

that his nature is like the Arabs' nature, seeing that he has grown

up among them." The view of the great men of state and the

nobles agreed with that of the mass of people (' ammah J (i.e., of the

military and landed classes below the topmost ranks of society):

that the royal power should be diverted from Bahram to a man

from the family of Ardashir, son of Babak (i.e., a man from a

collateral line of descent from the first Sasanid emperor) called

Kisra, and without delay they raised this last to the royal

power. 229

The news of Yazdajird's death, and the leading men's raising of

Kisra to the throne, reached Bahram at a time when he was out in

the Arabian Desert. He sent for al-Mundhir and his son al-

Nu'man, plus a group of the chiefs of the Arabs, and said to them,

"I feel sure that you will not deny my father's special favor

[khi^Isa] which you have enjoyed, O Arabs, and the beneficence

and largesse he has showered upon you, while at the same time he

has been harsh and savage against the Persians." He then passed

on to them the information that had reached him announcing his

father's death and the Persians' appointment of a king as a result of

deliberations among themselves. Al-Mundhir replied, "Don't let

that make you apprehensive; I will find some stratagem for dealing

with the situation." Al-Mundhir therefore fitted out a force of

ten thousand cavalrymen from the Arabs and sent them, under his

son's command, against Ctesiphon and Bih-Ardashir, the two

royal cities. 230 He further ordered him to encamp near to them

and to keep sending forward reconnaissance units against them. If

anyone were to make a move toward giving battle to him, he

should fight him, and he should raid into the territory adjacent to

229. Before this happened, Shabur, the eldest of Yazdagird's three sons, in fact

hastened from Persian Armenia, where he had acted as king since the death of its

Arsacid ruler in 414, to Ctesiphon in order to enforce his claim by seniority to the

crown, but was killed at the capital by the nobles and priests, according to the

Armenian writer Moses Khorenac'i. See Noldeke, trans. 91 n. 4; Christensen,

Sassanides, 274-75; Frye, "The Political History of Iran under the Sasanians," 144; Eh, s.v. Bahram V (O. Klima).

230. Presumably from the Dawsar, the Shahba' and other units of the Lakhmid

forces. The forces sent to the Sawad and to Bih Ardashir near Ctesiphon in order to support Bahrain's bid for the throne may well have been numerous, but ten thousand looks like a suspiciously round number.

88

Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

the two cities, take captives, adults and children; but he forbade

him to shed blood. Al-Nu'man advanced until he encamped near

to the two cities, sent out advanced reconnaisance units toward

them, and made fighting with the Persians his chief task.

Then the great men of state and the nobles at the [Persian] court

dispatched Juwani , 231 the head of Yazdajird's chancery, to al-

Mundhir, and they wrote letters to the latter informing him of

what al-Nu'man was doing. When Juwani reached al-Mundhir and

read out the letter that had been written to him, al-Mundhir said,

"Go and meet King Bahrain," and he provided him with someone

who would conduct him to Bahram. Juwani went into Bahrain's

presence, but the sight of Bahrain's handsomeness and splendid

appearance reduced him to a state of alarm and, out of confusion,

he forgot to prostrate himself before Bahram. Bahram realized at

that moment that Juwani had only omitted the prostration because

he had been awe-stricken by his own outstandingly beautiful form . 232

Bahram spoke to him and personally assured him of

promises of favor. He sent him back to al-Mundhir, whom he told

that he would give an answer to what he had written. Al-Mundhir

said to Juwani, "I have been thinking about the letter which you

have brought to me. It was only King Bahram who sent al-Nu'man

to your region, since God has given him the royal power after his

father and conferred [power] on him over you." When Juwani

heard al-Mundhir's words, and recalled to mind Bahrain's outstandingly

beautiful form, which he had seen face to face, and the awe

for Bahram he had felt in his spirit, [he realized] that all those who

231. Thus in Noldeke's text, but interpreted by him in his trans., 92 n. 1, as

Juwanuyah, with the Persian hypocoristic ending -oyl uyah, which the Arab phi-

lologists turned into -wayhi, and as probably being a contracted form of some

compound name like Juwanmard or Juwanshir. Cf. Justi, Namenbuch, 123.

232. This is the royal xvaianah of the Avesta, MP xwarzah or fari(ah), NP fan,

the divine aura of the ruler, one of the most enduring concepts in Persian national

history, the "royal glory" that legitimized the authority of theocratic rulers and

brought them success. See Marquart, "Beitrage zur Geschichte und Sage von

Eran," 667-69; Yarshater, "Iranian Common Beliefs and World View," 345-46,

and the references at 345 n. 2; Almut Hintze, Dei Zamydd-YaSt. Edition, Ubei-

setzung, Kommentar, 15-33, with further literature (the most up-to-date discus-

sion of the term's etymology and meaning; she believes that it means

"Gliicksglanz").

Holders of Power after Ardashlr b. Babak 89

had advised depriving Bahrain of his royal power were revealed as

persons to be discounted and rejected in argument. He said to al-

Mundhir, "I am not going to take back any reply. 233 But you yourself,

 if you see fit, go to the royal residence, so that the great men of

state and the nobles who are there may gather round you and take

counsel together about the matter. Bring forward good arguments,

for they will oppose you in nothing which you advise."

Al-Mundhir then sent back Juwani to those who had sent him

in the first place. He made his preparations and went forth, just

one day after JuwanTs departure, in company with Bahram and at

the head of thirty thousand cavalrymen, courageous and mighty

warriors, from amongst the Arabs, against the two cities of the

[Persian] king. When they reached the two cities, he gave orders,

and the people gathered together, with Bahram seated on a golden

throne ( minbai } encrusted with jewels and al-Mundhir at his right

hand. The great men of state and the nobles of the Persians spoke,

and in their speech set out before al-Mundhir how harsh Bahrain's

father had been and his evil conduct; how, through his perverted

judgment, the land had been ruined; and how he had killed large

numbers of people unjustly and had even slaughtered the people of

his own land; and [they recounted] many other enormities. They

mentioned that it was only because of these facts that they had

taken counsel together and made an agreement to divert the royal

power away from Yazdajird's offspring. They asked al-Mundhir

not to force them to accept anything in regard to the royal power

that they would dislike. Al-Mundhir fully comprehended all that

they had pointed out regarding this matter, but he said to Bahram,

"It is more fitting that you, rather than me should answer the

people."

Bahram replied, "I cannot deny as false, O group of spokesmen,

any part of the deeds for which you have accused Yazdajird of

responsibility, because I am myself convinced of its truth. I have

personally denounced him for his evil example and have avoided

him, on account of his way of behavior and belief; hence I have

unceasingly asked God graciously to bestow upon me the royal

233. Reading, with the Cairo text, muhir“ for the Leiden text's mukhbii an

90

Holders of Power after Ardashlr b. Babak

power so that I might put right all that he has done wrong and

repair what he has split asunder. 234 If I reign for just one year and

have not fulfilled all the things I have enumerated to you, then I

will freely and willingly renounce all claim to the throne. I call

upon God, His angels, and the Chief Mobadh to bear witness that I

do this, and let the last named be the arbiter and judge between us.

Moreover, despite what I have explained to you, I am ready to tell

you that I am content to accept your appointing as king the person

who can snatch the crown and the regalia from between two ravening

lions with their cubs; 235 let such a person be king!"

When the people heard these words of Bahram/s and what he

had, personally and from the heart, promised, they rejoiced at that,

their hopes were raised, and they said among themselves, "We

cannot reject Bahrain's words. Seeing that, if we carry to its conclusion

 the decision to exclude Bahram from the throne, we will

thereby be thrown into fear of bringing about our own destruction,

given the large numbers of Arabs he has brought to his aid and has

summoned up. We shall, on the other hand, be able to test him in

regard to what he has laid before us, promises which only confidence

in his own strength, bravery, and boldness would have led

him to make. If he is really as he has described himself, our decision

can only be to hand over the royal power to him and to show

him obedience and submsission. But if he perishes through weakness

and impotence, we shall be guiltless of any part in his death

and secure from any malevolence and trouble from him."

With this resolution, they dispersed. Bahram came back again

[on the next day] after he had originally spoken to them and sat

down just has he had sat down the previous day. The persons who

had previously opposed him were also there. He told them: "Either

you agree to what I proposed to you yesterday or else you keep

silent, humbling yourselves and giving obedience." The people

answered: "We ourselves have made the choice of Kisra to direct

the affairs of state, and have only experienced good actions from

234. According to Noldeke, trans. 94 n. a, the Sprenger manuscript elaborates

on this prayer: that Bahram promises to lower the land tax, to increase the army's

pay, and to give the nobles and great men still higher offices. Noldeke thought that these express promises certainly belonged to the original source used here.

235. That is, alluding to the contest, described below, between himself and the

rival contender for the throne, Khusraw.

Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

9i

him. Nevertheless, we are willing that the crown and regalia

should be set down, as you have suggested, before two lions and

that you and Kisra should contend together for them; to whichever

 you manages to snatch them from among the lions we will

transfer the royal power."

Bahrain was agreeable to what they proposed, so the Chief

Mobadh, who was responsible for placing the crown on the head of

every king who was invested with royal power, 236 brought in the

crown and regalia, and he placed them at one side. Bistam the

I^bahbadh 237 brought in two fierce, hungry lions with their cubs,

and stationed one of them at the side of the place where the crown

and regalia had been set down and the other opposite it, and released

their chains. Bahram said to Kisra, "You have first go at the

crown and regalia!" Kisra responded, "It is more fitting that you

should have the first attempt at getting them for yourself, because

you are seeking the royal power by right of inheritance while I am

an usurper in regard to it." Bahram had nothing against his words

because of his confidence in his own bravery and strength. He

took up a mace 238 and made toward the crown and regalia. The

236. Ndldeke, trans. 96 n. i, noted that, among the Persian Arsacids and in

Armenia, it was one of the leading nobles who had the hereditary right to crown

the ruler.

237. The Spahbed or "Army chief," Arabized as Ifbabadh, whose title goes back

to Achaemenid times, was the supreme military commander and war minister in

the Sasanid empire. In the first three centuries or so of the dynasty's rule, there was a single, supreme Spahbed, but in the sixth century Khusraw Anusharwan, fearing such a concentration of power in the hands of a single person, divided the office and appointed four Spahbeds for each of the quarters of the realm. See Justi, Namen - buch, 306; Marquart, "Beitrlge zur Geschichte und Sage von Eran," 635-39; Christensen, Sassanides, 99, 104, 130-31, 370-71, 519-21; Eilers, "Iranisches Lehngut im arabischen Lexikon," 215; Wiesehofer, Ancient Persia, 198; EP, s.v. Ispahbadh |C. E. Bosworth).

BisfanTis the Arabized form of NP Bistahm, horn the unattested OP * Vistaxma,

with the parallel form Gustahm, literally, "melding far-extending power." See

Justi, Namenbuch, 371-72? Eh, s.v. Besjam (W. Eilers). The Spahpat named here

as Bistahm or Bistam is apparently the Bistim, "l$bahbadh of the Sawad, who

held the rank of Hazar-raft" (on which latter title, see Ndldeke, trans. 76 n. 2, and

Justi, op. cit., 88, 128), who, according to al-Dinawari, al-Akhbar al-fiwdl, 5 5, was one of the great men of state who had met together on Yazdagird's death to exclude any descendant of the deceased ruler from the succession in favor of the

remote kinsman Khusraw (al-Tabari, I, 858, p. 86 above, cf. also I, 993, p. 303 and n. 71 1 below).

238. The mace or club (Pers. gurz, here Arabized to jurz) appears in Persian lore

92

Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

Chief Mobadh said to him "What you have embarked upon puts

you in mortal danger; this is all done freely and of your own accord,

and none of the Persians has put the idea into your head. We

are blameless before God of your [possible} self-destruction."

Bahram replied, "[Yes], you are absolved of all responsibility and

have no burden of blame regarding it." Then he darted quickly

toward the lions. When the Chief Mobadh perceived Bahrain's

vigor in confronting the lions, he cried out to him [again], saying,

"Confess openly your sins and show repentance for them, then

step forward, if you are completely determined on doing so."

Bahram confessed the sins he had committed 239 and advanced

towards the two lions. One of them sprang towards him, but when

it got near, Bahram leapt with a single bound onto its back,

squeezed the lion's flanks with his thighs so firmly that he threw

the lion into distress, and he set about beating its head with the

mace he had brought.

At that point, the other lion hurled itself at him, but he seized it

by its two ears, rubbed them violently with both his hands, and

kept on dashing its head against the head of the other lion on

which he was riding until he had battered out their brains; then he

killed them both by raining blows on their heads with the mace he

had with him. This action he did before the eyes of Kisra and all

the persons assembled for the occasion . 240 After that, Bahram

took up for himself the crown and regalia. Kisra was the first to

call out to him, saying, "May God grant you long life, Bahram, to

whom all around are giving their ear and their obedience, and may

He give you rule over the seven climes of the earth! " 241 At that, all

and epic as the weapon par excellence of heroes. Hamzah al-Isfahani, Ta'rikh, 49,

describes Bahram Gur, after representations which he had seen, as seated on his

throne with a mace in his hand.

239. A touch noted by Noldeke, trans. 97 n. 1, as very characteristic of the Perso-

Islamic transmission of this story.

240. The story of Bahram 's contest with the lions appears in al-Ya’qubi, Ta’rikh,

I, 183-84; al-Mas'udl, Muruj, n, 191 =■= § 613; Tabari-Bal'ami, trans. n, 117-18. It became a favorite tale in the Islamic adab works,- see, e.g., Ps.-al-Jahiz, Kitab al-tdj fi akhldq al-muluk, tr. Ch. Pellat, Le livre de la couionne, 182-84.

241. Here, aqdlim, sing, iqlim, refers to the ancient Iranian idea of the seven

kishwars or "regions of the earth" grouped round the central kishwai, the inhabited world, the region most favored by nature for human life and human development, the Avestan x w aniratha-, MP khwaniiah; see C. Brunner, "Geographical

Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

93

those present cried out, saying, "We submit to King Bahram, we

humble ourselves before him and are content to have him as

king," and they sent up profuse prayers for him. The great men of

state, the nobles, the provincial governors and the viziers came to

al-Mundhir after that day, and besought him to speak with

Bahram, asking forgiveness for their injurious conduct toward

him, pardon, and overlooking of their faults. Al-Mundhir spoke to

Bahram regarding their request, and asked him to bestow now as

benevolence all the personal animus he had [previously] borne

against them. Bahram satisfied al-Mundhir in what he had asked,

and gave them hopes of future beneficence. 242

Bahram assumed the royal power when he was twenty years old.

On the very same day, he ordered his subjects to celebrate a general

holiday and festivities. After that, he sat in public audience

for all the people for seven days continuously, giving them promises

 of his benevolent rule and enjoining upon them fear of God

and obedience to Him. But when he had become king, Bahram

continuously devoted himself to pleasure, to the exclusion of everything

else, until his subjects reproached him profusely for this

conduct and the neighboring monarchs became desirous of conquering

 his land and seizing his kingdom. 243

and Administrative Divisions: Settlements and Economy/' 747. The idea later

took shape that the six lands surrounding Persia were those of India, China, the

Turks, the Rum, Africa, and the Arabs? see EP, s.v. Iklim (A. Miquel).

242. Noldeke, trans. 98 n. 1, held that Bahram had succeeded to power against

the desires of the nobility and priesthood, and was now in a position of strength

vis-sk-vis those two classes. In fact, this inital lack of support from the nobility

probably placed Bahram in a somewhat weak position, and explains his coopera-

tion with the commanding figure in the state of Mihr Narseh. The latter was

known as an implacable foe of the Christians, and almost immediately on

Bahrain's accession, the emperor ordered, or at least condoned, a savage persecu-

tion of the Persian Christians? several members of the Persian nobility suffered. It

was reaction to the plight of refugees from the western frontier regions of Persia

fleeing to Byzantine territory which led to the Perso-Byzantine war of 421-22,

mentioned by al-Tabari, I, 868, p. 103, and see n. 261 below. See Labourt, Le

Christianisme dans V empire perse, 109? Christensen, Sassanides, 280-81? Frye,

"The Political History of Iran under the Sasanians," 148? Asmussen, "Christians in Iran," 940-41.

243. Other sources, such as al-Ya'qubl, Ta'rikh, I, 184, and al-Dinawari, al-

Akhbdr al-fiwal, 56, describe Bahrain's excessive love of sport and diversion ( ldhw ) and of hunting, until he was reproached for this by the great men of the kingdom, and ambitious neighboring rulers, like the king of the Turks, were emboldened to

94

Holders of Power after Ardashlr b. Babak

The first ruler to set himself up as a rival to Bahram in power

was Khaqan, the king of the Turks, who attacked Bahram with an

army of 250,000 Turks. 244 News of Khaqan's approaching their

land with a powerful force reached the Persians. It appeared to

them a catastrophe and terrified them. A group of the Persian great

men of state, known for their firm judgment and their solicitude

attack Persia. Hamzah al-I?fahani, 49, has a story about Bahrain's passion that

people should enjoy themselves and busy themselves with music making, to the

extent that he sent to the king of India a request for musicians \mulhin). The king

sent twelve thousand of these, whom Bahram spread throughout his realm,- this

was the origin of the Zutt, i.e., gypsies. Al-Mas'udi, Muruj, II, 157-58 - § 582,

states that Bahram promoted musicians to a higher rank in society than

previously.

244. The mention here of the Turks, with their grossly inflated army, is, as

noted in n. 148 above, probably an anachronism, although there seem to have been Turks in the Eurasian steppelands by the fifth century, as was certainly the case in the sixth century when the first Turk empire, with its western and eastern wings, was constituted. See D. Sinor and S. G. Klyashtomy, "The Turk Empire," 33 2 ~ 35 ; Sinor, "The Establishment and Dissolution of the Turk Empire," 285, 287,- EP, s.v. Turks. I. History. 1. The Pre-Islamic Period (L. Bazin). The "Turks" mentioned here by al-Tabari were, in Bahrain's time, quite likely the Kidarites or Chionites, successors to the Kushans in Bactria, i.e., the upper Oxus lands and what is now northern Afghanistan; the Sprenger manuscript speaks of a maizban-i Kushan who guarded the eastern frontiers of the Sasanid kingdom, but "the land of the Kushans" was by now a generic term for all the lands in the east. See Noldeke, trans. 99 n. 1, 102 n. 2; Ghirshman, Les Chionites-Hephtalites, 83-84; Frye, "The Political History of Iran under the Sasanians," 142; A. D. H. Bivar, "The History of Eastern Iran," 21 1-14.

The rendering in Arabic, Khaqan, of the Turkish ruler's title corresponds to the

oldest attestation of the title in Turkish, the Qaghan of the Tonyuquq inscription

in Mongolia (ca. 720), and in the Orkhon inscriptions it has the meaning of "an

independent ruler over a people or tribe," hence not only applicable to the Qaghans of the two empires of the Eastern and Western Turks but also, e.g., to the Chinese emperor, referred to as Tabghach Qaghan in both the Tonyuquq and the Kul Tigin inscriptions.

In Byzantine Greek sources of this time it appears as Chaganos (Gy.

Moravcsik, Byzantinoturcica. II. Sprachieste der Tiirkvolker in den byzan-

tinischen Quellen, 332-34). The title is undoubtedly an ancient one, clearly recog-

nizable as a royal title of such Inner Asian peoples as the Juan-juan and the T’u-yii- hu (ca. a.d. 400) but possibly recognisable from Chinese transcriptions as a title of the much earlier Hsiung-nu, according to E. G., Pulleyblank, "The Consonantal System of Old Chinese. Part II," 260-62, and Doerfer, confirming the earlier opinion of Marquart, EranSahr, 54. Its etymology must accordingly be lost in the obscurity surrounding these Inner Asian peoples known to us only as names from the Chinese sources. See the discussions in C. E. Bosworth and Sir Gerard Clauson, "Al-Xwarazmi on the Peoples of Central Asia," 9 ; G. Doerfer, Turkische und mongolische Elemente im Neupersischen. Turkische Elemente, II, 141-79 no. 1160; Clauson, An Etymological Dictionary of Pie-Thiiteenth-Century Turkish, 611.

Holders of Power after Ardashir b. Babak

95

for the masses of the people, went into Bahrain's presence and told

him, "O king, there has suddenly come upon you the calamitous

appearance of the enemy, and this should be enough to rouse you

from the pleasure and merrymaking in which you are sunk. So get

ready to tackle it, lest we become afflicted by something which

will entail revilement and shame for you." Bahram merely replied,

"God, our Lord, is powerful, and we are under His protection,"

and he only increased in his exclusive pursuit of pleasure

and merry-making. But then he fitted out an expedition and proceeded

to Azerbaijan, in order to worship at the fire temple

there, 245 then to Armenia to seek game for hunting in its thickets

and to enjoy himself on the way. He was accompanied by a group

of seven of the great men of state and the nobles plus three hundred

mighty and courageous men from his personal guard. He left

one of his brothers, called Narsi, to act as his governor over the

kingdom.