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129-848: The title was also adopted by the Armenians ( Armenian : սպարապետ , [a]sparapet ) and the Georgians ( Georgian : სპასპეტი , spaspeti ), as well as Khotan ( spāta ) and the Sogdians ( spʾdpt ) in Central Asia . It is also attested in Greek sources as aspabedēs ( ἀσπαβέδης ). The title was revived in the 20th century by the Pahlavi dynasty , in the Modern Persian form sepahbod ( سپهبد ), equivalent to

258-522: A mobad (priest) named Mazdak caught Kavad's attention. Mazdak was the chief representative of a religious and philosophical movement called Mazdakism . Not only did it consist of theological teachings, but it also advocated for political and social reforms that would impact the nobility and clergy. The Mazdak movement was nonviolent and called for the sharing of wealth, women and property, an archaic form of communism . According to modern historians Touraj Daryaee and Matthew Canepa , 'sharing women'

387-546: A "warrior nobility" ( arteshtaran ), it still had a significantly smaller population, was more impoverished, and was a less centralized state compared to the Roman Empire . As a result, the Sasanian shahs had access to fewer full-time fighters, and depended on recruits from the nobility instead. Some exceptions were the royal cavalry bodyguard, garrison soldiers, and units recruited from places outside Iran. The bulk of

516-470: A barbarian. In the end the negotiations did not reach a consensus. Khosrow reportedly felt insulted by the Byzantines, and his attitude towards them deteriorated. Mahbod, who with Siyawush, had acted as the diplomats in the negotiations accused him of purposely sabotaging them. Further accusations were made against Siyawush, which included his reverence for new deities, and having his dead wife buried,

645-749: A bastion of Iranian presence in the Caucasus. The Sasanians exerted considerable influence on trade in the region under Kavad. By using the strategic location of the Persian Gulf , the Sasanians interfered to prevent Byzantine traders from taking take part in the India trade. They accomplished this either by bargaining with trade associates in the Indian subcontinent —ranging from the Gupta Empire in

774-730: A brief period, from 1918 to 1920, Armenia was an independent republic plagued by socio-economic crises such as large-scale Muslim uprisings . In late 1920, the communists came to power following an invasion of Armenia by the Red Army ; in 1922, Armenia became part of the Transcaucasian SFSR of the Soviet Union , later on forming the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic (1936 to 21 September 1991). In 1991, Armenia declared independence from

903-495: A common origin of the Armenian and Greek languages. Some linguists tentatively conclude that Armenian, Greek (and Phrygian ) and Indo-Iranian were dialectally close to each other; within this hypothetical dialect group, Proto-Armenian was situated between Proto-Greek ( centum subgroup) and Proto-Indo-Iranian ( satem subgroup). This has led some scholars to propose a hypothetical Graeco-Armenian-Aryan clade within

1032-399: A dating system starting from the Sasanian dynasty's fall in 651 and claimed the titles Gīlgīlan , Padashwargarshah ("Shah of Patashwargar ", the old name of Tabaristan's mountains), and ispahbadh ( اسپهبذ , a New Persian form of spahbad ) of Khurasan. The title ispahbadh was also claimed by other lines of local rulers in the region, who claimed distant descent from the Sasanian past:

1161-402: A dispute over Lazica . Although Kavad's forces suffered two notable losses at the battles of Dara and Satala , the war was largely indecisive, with both sides suffering heavy losses. In 531, while the Sasanian army was besieging Martyropolis , Kavad died from an illness. He was succeeded by Khosrow I, who inherited a reinvigorated and mighty empire equal to that of the Byzantines. Because of

1290-614: A few elements regarding identification of its pantheon with Greco-Roman deities). In the early years of the 4th century, likely 301 CE, partly in defiance of the Sassanids it seems. In the late Parthian period, Armenia was a predominantly Zoroastrian-adhering land, but by the Christianisation, previously predominant Zoroastrianism and paganism in Armenia gradually declined. This is the period that an Armenian community

1419-453: A key role in Balash's deposition, appointed Kavad as the new shah of Iran. According to Miskawayh (d. 1030), Sukhra was Kavad's maternal uncle. Kavad ascended the throne in 488 at the age of 15. His youth is emphasized on his coins, which show him with short whiskers. He inherited an empire that had reached its lowest ebb. The nobility and clergy exerted great influence and authority over

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1548-409: A local chieftain. In Khurasan, the title survived in usage among the local Soghdian princes. The ispahbadh of Balkh is mentioned in 709, al-Ishkand, the ispahbadh of Nasa in 737, and the same title is used in connection with the king of Kabul in the early 9th century. In the 1090s, it appears as the personal name of a Seljuk commander, Isfabadh ibn Sawtigin, who seized control of Mecca for

1677-761: A member of the Parthian House of Karen , one of the Seven Great Houses of Iran , quickly raised a new force and stopped the Hephthalites from achieving further success. Peroz' brother, Balash , was elected as shah by the Iranian magnates, most notably Sukhra and the Mihranid general Shapur Mihran . However, Balash proved unpopular among the nobility and clergy who had him blinded and deposed after just four years in 488. Sukhra, who had played

1806-567: A new office corresponding to the Byzantine magister officiorum , supposedly instituted by Kavadh I shortly before 503 for the purpose of weakening the authority of the wuzurg framadar . But it is likely that this Syriac word is simply a corrupted form of spāhbed (which is normally recorded as aspabid in Syriac), or possibly asp(a)bed ("chief of the cavalry"), since the Greek sources give

1935-449: A poll-tax on his subjects, and thus secured the release of Kavad before he mounted his third campaign in 484. There, Peroz was defeated and killed by a Hephthalite army, possibly near Balkh . His army was completely destroyed, and his body was never found. Four of his sons and brothers had also died. The main Sasanian cities of the eastern region of Khorasan − Nishapur , Herat and Marw were now under Hephthalite rule. Sukhra ,

2064-399: A result, the siege was lifted and peace was made between Kavad's successor Khosrow I and Justinian. The provinces of Gorgan, Khuzestan, and Asoristan provided the most Sasanian coinage for Kavad during his reign. His reign marks the introduction of distinctive traits on the obverse sides of the coin which includes astral symbols, particularly, a crescent on both of his shoulders, and

2193-482: A star in the left corner. The reverse side shows the traditional fire altar flanked by two attendants facing it in veneration. Kavad used the title of kay ( Kayanian ) on his coins, a title that had been used since the reign of his grandfather Yazdegerd II ( r.  438–457 ). Kavad was, however, the last Sasanian shah to have kay inscribed on his coins—the last one issued in 513. The regular obverse inscription on his coins simply has his name; in 504, however,

2322-555: A three-star Lieutenant General , ranking below arteshbod (full General). The title is attested in the Achaemenid Empire in its Old Persian form, spādapati (from * spāda- "army" and * pati- "chief"), signifying the army's commander-in-chief. The title continued in use under the Arsacid Parthian Empire , where it seems to have been a hereditary position in one of the seven great houses of

2451-515: A variously modified manner, survived into medieval and early modern Georgia down to the Russian annexation early in the 19th century. Armenians Armenians ( Armenian : հայեր , romanized :  hayer , [hɑˈjɛɾ] ) are an ethnic group and nation native to the Armenian highlands of West Asia. Armenians constitute the main population of Armenia and constituted

2580-406: A violation of Iranian law. Siyawush was thus most likely a Mazdakite, the religious sect that Kavad had originally, but now no longer, supported. Although Siyawush was a close friend of Kavad and had helped him escape imprisonment, Kavad did not try to prevent his execution. Seemingly his purpose was to restrict Siyawush's immense authority as the head of the Sasanian army, a post which was disliked by

2709-420: A vision of Jesus whilst besieging Amida, which encouraged him to remain resolute in his effort. Jesus guaranteed to give him Amida within three days, which happened. Kavad's forces then sacked the city, taking much booty. The city's church was spared, however, due to the relationship between Kavad and Jesus. Kavad was even thought to have venerated a figure of Jesus. According to modern historian Richard Payne,

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2838-682: A while. The Kingdom of Armenia , which was ruled by a branch of the Parthian Arsacid dynasty, adopted the term first in its Old Persian form, giving Armenian [a]parapet and then again, under Sasanian influence, from the Middle Persian form, giving the form aspahapet . The title was used, as in Persia, for the commander-in-chief of the royal army, and was borne in hereditary right by the Mamikonian family. The institution of

2967-465: A year after the new Byzantine emperor Justinian I ( r.  527–565 ) had been crowned. This was supposedly the result of the Byzantines not acknowledging Khosrow as Kavad's heir. According to the Greek chronicler John Malalas , military clashes first took place in Lazica , which had been disputed between the two empires since 522. Not long after this the battles also spread down to Mesopotamia, where

3096-543: Is different. He says that Kavad's sister helped him to escape by rolling him in a carpet, which she made the guard believe was soaked with her menstrual blood. The guard did not object or investigate the carpet, "fearing lest he become polluted by it". One of the authors of the Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire , John Robert Martindale, proposes she may have been Sambice , Kavad's sister-wife, who

3225-399: Is emphasized by al-Tabari , who states that Sukhra "was in charge of government of the kingdom and the management of affairs ... [T]he people came to Sukhra and undertook all their dealings with him, treating Kavad as a person of no importance and regarding his commands with contempt." Numerous regions and the representatives of the elite paid tribute to Sukhra not to Kavad. Sukhra controlled

3354-690: Is said to have founded the city Eran-asan-kerd-Kawad in Media ; Fahraj in Spahan ; and Weh-Kawad, Eran-win(n)ard-Kawad, Kawad-khwarrah, and Arrajan in Pars . He rebuilt Kirmanshah in Media, which he also used as one of his residences. He is also said to have founded a township in Meybod , which was named Haft-adhar ("seven fires"), because of a Zoroastrian fire temple being established there. Its original fire

3483-620: Is transliterated in Greek as Kabates , Chü-he-to in Chinese , and Qubādh in Arabic . The son of the Sasanian shah Peroz I ( r.  459–484 ), Kavad was born in 473. The Sasanian family had been the monarchs of Iran since 224 after the triumph of the first Sasanian shah Ardashir I ( r.  224–242 ) over the Parthian (Arsacid) Empire . Although Iranian society was greatly militarised and its elite designated themselves as

3612-521: The Denkard , and the Zand-i Wahman yasn . Later Islamic-era sources, particularly al-Tabari , also mention Mazdak. These later writings were perhaps corrupted by Iranian oral folklore, given that blame put on Mazdak for the redistribution of aristocratic properties to the people, is a topic repeated in Iranian oral history. Other 'villains' in pre-Islamic Iranian history, namely Gaumata in

3741-736: The Armenian Highland . Each of the aforementioned nations and tribes participated in the ethnogenesis of the Armenian people. Under Ashurbanipal (669–627 BCE), the Assyrian empire reached the Caucasus Mountains (modern Armenia , Georgia and Azerbaijan ). Luwianologist John D. Hawkins proposed that "Hai" people were possibly mentioned in the 10th century BCE Hieroglyphic Luwian inscriptions from Carchemish . A.E. Redgate later clarified that these "Hai" people may have been Armenians. The first geographical entity that

3870-523: The Armenian language is classified as an Indo-European language , its placement within the broader Indo-European language family is a matter of debate. Until fairly recently, scholars believed Armenian to be most closely related to Greek and Ancient Macedonian . Eric P. Hamp placed Armenian in the "Pontic Indo-European" (also called Graeco-Armenian or Helleno-Armenian) subgroup of Indo-European languages in his 2012 Indo-European family tree. There are two possible explanations, not mutually exclusive, for

3999-704: The Behistun Inscription of the Achaemenid king Darius the Great ( r.  522 – 486 BC ), and Wahnam in the Paikuli inscription of the Sasanian king Narseh ( r.  293–302 ) are frequently accused of similar misdeeds. The nobility deposed Kavad in 496 for his support of the Mazdakites and his execution of Sukhra. They installed his more impressionable brother Jamasp on

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4128-693: The Bronze Age Trialeti-Vanadzor culture and sites such as the burial complexes at Verin and Nerkin Naver are indicative of an Indo-European presence in Armenia by the end of the 3rd millennium BCE. The controversial Armenian hypothesis , put forward by some scholars, such as Thomas Gamkrelidze and Vyacheslav V. Ivanov , proposes that the Indo-European homeland was around the Armenian Highland. This theory

4257-715: The Bronze Age , several states flourished in the area of Greater Armenia, including the Hittite Empire (at the height of its power in the 14th century BCE), ( Mitanni (South-Western historical Armenia, 1500–1300 BCE), and Hayasa-Azzi (1500–1200 BCE). Soon after Hayasa-Azzi came Arme-Shupria (1300s–1190 BCE), the Nairi Confederation (1200–900 BCE), and the Kingdom of Urartu (860–590 BCE), who successively established their sovereignty over

4386-740: The Iranologist Ehsan Yarshater . Khosrow's mother was in reality a noblewoman from the House of Ispahbudhan , one of the Seven Great Houses. At the Hephthalite court in Bactria , Kavad gained the support of the Hephthalite king, and also married his daughter, who was Kavad's niece. During his stay, Kavad might have witnessed the rise of the Hephthalites to a better position than that of their former suzerains ,

4515-677: The Karen family, who saw themselves as heirs of the Dabuyids and ruled central and western Tabaristan until 839/840, and the Bavandid dynasty in the eastern mountains, whose various branches survived until well after the Mongol conquests of the 13th century. The title was also used by the Daylamites neighbouring Tabaristan. In some later texts from this region, the title came to signify simply

4644-641: The Kidarites , a Hun dynasty. The present-day district of Qobadian (the Arabicized form of Kavadian) near Balkh, which was then under Hephthalite rule, was perhaps founded by Kavad and possibly served as his source of revenue. In 498 (or 499), Kavad returned to Iran with a Hephthalite army. When he crossed the domains of the Kanarangiyan in Khorasan, he was met by Adergoudounbades , a member of

4773-584: The Mushki and the Kaskians . The Urumu apparently settled in the vicinity of Sason , lending their name to the regions of Arme and the nearby lands of Urme and Inner Urumu. The location of the older site of Armani is a matter of debate. Some modern researchers have placed it in the same general area as Arme, near modern Samsat , and have suggested it was populated, at least partially, by an early Indo-European-speaking people . The relationship between Armani and

4902-455: The Muslim conquest of Persia , the spahbad of Khurasan apparently retired to the mountains of Tabaristan . There he invited the last Sasanian shah, Yazdgerd III , to find refuge, but Yazdgerd refused, and was killed in 651. Like many other local rulers throughout the former Sasanian domains, including those of the neighboring provinces of Gurgan and Gilan , the spahbad then made terms with

5031-848: The Proto Indo-European words póti (meaning "lord" or "master") or *h₂éyos / *áyos (meaning "metal"). Khorenatsi wrote that the word Armenian originated from the name Armenak or Aram (the descendant of Hayk). Khorenatsi refers to both Armenia and Armenians as Hayk‘ (Armenian: Հայք) (not to be confused with the aforementioned patriarch, Hayk). Pontic Steppe Caucasus East Asia Eastern Europe Northern Europe Pontic Steppe Northern/Eastern Steppe Europe South Asia Steppe Europe Caucasus India Indo-Aryans Iranians East Asia Europe East Asia Europe Indo-Aryan Iranian Indo-Aryan Iranian Others European While

5160-673: The Russian Empire following Iran's forced ceding of the territories after its loss in the Russo-Persian War (1826-1828) and the outcoming Treaty of Turkmenchay . Western Armenia however, remained in Ottoman hands. The ethnic cleansing of Armenians during the final years of the Ottoman Empire is widely considered a genocide , resulting in an estimated 1.2 million victims. The first wave of persecution

5289-570: The USSR and established the second Republic of Armenia. Also in 1991, the ethnic Armenian-majority Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (later the Republic of Artsakh ), declared independence from Azerbaijan which lasted until 2023. Armenians are believed to have had a presence in the Armenian Highland for over 4,000 years. According to legend, Hayk , the patriarch and founder of the Armenian nation, led Armenians to victory over Bel of Babylon and settled in

Spahbed - Misplaced Pages Continue

5418-659: The "army chief of the East ( Khurasan )" ( kust ī khwarāsān spāhbed ), the "army chief of the South" ( kust ī nēmrōz spāhbed ), the "army chief of the West" ( kust ī khwarbārān spāhbed ), and the "army chief of Azerbaijan " ( kust ī Ādurbādagān spāhbed , where the northwestern province of Azerbaijan substitutes the term "north" because of the latter's negative connotations). The exact geographical definition of each command has been retrieved from Anania Shirakatsi 's Geography . As this reform

5547-679: The 4th century in the Holy Land , and one of the quarters of the walled Old City of Jerusalem is called the Armenian Quarter . An Armenian Catholic monastic community of 35 founded in 1717 exists on an island near Venice , Italy. The region of Western Armenia was an influential part of the Eastern Roman Empire , which was absorbed by the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century. The Armenian population of

5676-414: The Arabs, which allowed him to remain as the practically independent ruler of Tabaristan in exchange for an annual tribute. This marked the foundation of the Dabuyid dynasty , which ruled Tabaristan until 759–761, when it was conquered by the Abbasids and incorporated into the Caliphate as a province. The early rulers of the dynasty are ill-attested; they minted coins of their own with Pahlavi legends and

5805-450: The Armenian Taurus , and reached Martyropolis , where its governor Theodore, surrendered without any resistance and gave Kavad two years worth of taxes collected from the province of Sophene . Because of this, Kavad let Theodore keep his position as governor of the city. Kavad then besieged the fortress-city of Amida through the autumn and winter (502–503). The siege proved to be a far more difficult enterprise than Kavad had expected;

5934-399: The Armenian Highland. Today, with a population of 3.5 million (although more recent estimates place the population closer to 2.9 million), they constitute an overwhelming majority in Armenia, Armenians in the diaspora informally refer to them as Hayastantsi s ( Armenian : հայաստանցի ), meaning those that are from Armenia (that is, those born and raised in Armenia). They, as well as

6063-448: The Armenian genocide, primarily in the Armenian diasporan communities. The unique Armenian alphabet was invented in 405 AD by Mesrop Mashtots . Most Armenians adhere to the Armenian Apostolic Church , a non-Chalcedonian Christian church, which is also the world's oldest national church . Christianity began to spread in Armenia soon after Jesus' death, due to the efforts of two of his apostles, St. Thaddeus and St. Bartholomew . In

6192-488: The Armenians of Iran and Russia, speak the Eastern dialect of the Armenian language. The country itself is secular as a result of Soviet domination, but most of its citizens identify themselves as Apostolic Armenian Christian. While the largest Armenian diaspora populations reside in Russia , the United States , France , and other countries, small Armenian trading and religious communities have existed outside Armenia for centuries. A prominent community has continued since

6321-492: The Byzantine city of Antioch in 540, conquered Yemen in the 570s, and under the Parthian military commander Bahram Chobin defeated the Hephthalites and their allies, the Western Turkic Khaganate , in the Perso-Turkic war of 588–589 . Although the reforms were beneficial for the Empire, they may also have resulted in the decline of the traditional links between the aristocracy and the crown under Hormizd IV ( r.  579–590 ) and Khosrow II ( r.  590–628 ), to

6450-411: The Byzantine emperor Justin I , Kavad proposed that he adopt Khosrow. This proposal was greeted initially with enthusiasm by the Byzantine emperor and his nephew, Justinian . However, Justinian's quaestor , Proclus, opposed the move concerned over the possibility that Khosrow might attempt to take over the Byzantine throne. The Byzantines made a counter-proposal to adopt Khosrow not as a Roman but as

6579-447: The Byzantine province of Commagene . When the Byzantine army under Belisarius approached, Azarethes and his men withdrew east, halting at Callinicum . In the ensuing battle the Byzantines suffered a heavy defeat, but Iranian losses were so great Kavad was displeased with Azarethes, and relieved him of his command. In 531, the Iranians besieged Martyropolis . During the siege, however, Kavad became ill and died on 13 September. As

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6708-461: The Byzantines did not end with a decisive winner, the conquest of Amida was the greatest accomplishment achieved by a Sasanian force since 359, when the same city had been captured by Shapur II. Kavad's relationship with his Christian subjects is unclear. In Christian Iberia, where the Sasanians had earlier tried to spread Zoroastrianism, Kavad represented himself as an advocate of orthodox Zoroastrianism. In Armenia, however, he settled disputes with

6837-400: The Byzantines suffered a heavy defeat near the border. In 530, one of the famous open-field battles took place between the Byzantine and Sasanian troops at Dara . The Sasanian army led by Perozes , Pityaxes and Baresmanas suffered a severe defeat. The battle did not, however, bring an end to the conflict. The following year Kavad raised an army, which he sent under Azarethes to invade

6966-504: The Christians and appears to have continued Balash's peaceful approach. The Christians of Mesopotamia and Iran proper practised their religion without any persecution, despite the punishment of Christians in Iran proper being briefly mentioned in c.  512/3 . Like Jamasp, Kavad also supported the patriarch of the Church of the East , Babai , and Christians served in high offices at the Sasanian court. According to Eberhard Sauer, Sasanian monarchs only persecuted other religions when it

7095-477: The Church of the East. His work was then translated from Syriac to Middle Persian and presented to Kavad. This work has since been lost . Kavad's reign marked a new turn in Sasanian–Christian relations; before his reign, Jesus had been seen solely as the defender of the Byzantines. This changed under Kavad. According to an apocryphal account in the Chronicle of Pseudo–Zachariah of Mytilene , written by an anonymous West Syrian monk at Amida in 569, Kavad saw

7224-410: The Eastern Mediterranean world suddenly and violently collapsed. Armenians have since remained isolated and genetic structure within the population developed ~500 years ago when Armenia was divided between the Ottomans and the Safavid Empire in Iran. A genetic study (Wang et al. 2018) supports the indigenous origin for Armenians in a region south of the Caucasus which he calls "Greater Caucasus". In

7353-426: The Georgian rank spaspet , like its rough equivalent sparapet in neighboring Armenia, was designed under the influence of the Sasanian Persian spahbad , but differed in that it was a non-hereditary rank and included not only military but also civil functions. According to the medieval Georgian chronicles, the rank of spaspet was introduced by the first king P’arnavaz in the 3rd century BC. The office, in

7482-486: The Great of Persia refers to Urashtu (in Babylonian ) as Armina ( Old Persian : 𐎠𐎼𐎷𐎡𐎴) and Harminuya (in Elamite). In Greek , Armenios ( Αρμένιοι ) is attested from about the same time, perhaps the earliest reference being a fragment attributed to Hecataeus of Miletus (476 BC). Xenophon , a Greek general serving in some of the Persian expeditions, describes many aspects of Armenian village life and hospitality in around 401 BC. Some have linked

7611-457: The Great , a member of the Artaxiad (Artashesian) dynasty , the Kingdom of Armenia extended from the Caucasus all the way to what is now central Turkey , Lebanon , and northern Iran . The Arsacid Kingdom of Armenia , itself a branch of the Arsacid dynasty of Parthia , was the first state to adopt Christianity as its religion (it had formerly been adherent to Armenian paganism , which was influenced by Zoroastrianism , while later on adopting

7740-502: The Indo-European language family from which the Armenian, Greek, Indo-Iranian, and possibly Phrygian languages all descend. According to Kim (2018), however, there is insufficient evidence for a cladistic connection between Armenian and Greek, and common features between these two languages can be explained as a result of contact. Contact is also the most likely explanation for morphological features shared by Armenian with Indo-Iranian and Balto-Slavic languages . It has been suggested that

7869-407: The Ottoman Empire is estimated to have been between 1.5 and 2.5 million in the early 20th century. Most of the modern Armenian diaspora consists of Armenians scattered throughout the world as a direct consequence of massacres and genocide in the Ottoman Empire . However, Armenian communities in Iran , Georgia ( Tbilisi ), and Syria existed since antiquity . During the Middle Ages and

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7998-419: The Parthian nobility worked for the Sasanian shah for personal benefit, personal oath, and, conceivably, a common awareness of the "Aryan" (Iranian) kinship they shared with their Persian overlords. Another vital component of the army was the Armenian cavalry, which was recruited from outside the ranks of the Parthian wuzurgan . However, the revolt of Armenia in 451 and the loss of its cavalry had weakened

8127-464: The Parthian nobility. The Sasanian Empire , which succeeded the Arsacids, retained the title, which is attested in a series of inscriptions from the 3rd century, recorded in Middle Persian ( Inscriptional Pahlavi script) as 𐭮𐭯𐭠𐭧𐭯𐭲𐭩 spʾhpty and 𐭮𐭯𐭠𐭧𐭯𐭲 spʾhpt (read as spāhbed ) and in Parthian ( Inscriptional Parthian script) as 𐭀𐭎𐭐𐭀𐭃𐭐𐭕𐭉 ‎ ʾspʾdpty and 𐭎𐭐𐭃𐭐𐭕𐭉 ‎ spdpty (read as (a)spāẟbed ). Until

8256-480: The Sasanian capital of Ctesiphon . Even in prison, Sukhra was considered too powerful and was executed. This caused displeasure among some prominent members of the nobility weakening Kavad's status as shah. It also marked the temporary loss of authority of the House of Karen, whose members were exiled in the regions of Tabaristan and Zabulistan , which was away from the Sasanian court in Ctesiphon. According to classical sources, not long after Sukhra's execution,

8385-429: The Sasanian's attempts to keep the Hunnic tribes (i.e. the Hephthalites , Kidarites , Chionites and Alkhans ) of the northeastern border in check. Indeed, Kavad's grandfather Yazdegerd II ( r.  438–457 ) had managed to hold off the Kidarites during his wars against them, which had occupied him throughout most of his reign. Now, however, Sasanian authority in Central Asia began to decay. In 474 and

8514-441: The Sasanians could now be viewed as adherents of Jesus and his saints, if not Christianity itself. Not much is known about Kavad's wars in the east. According to Procopius, Kavad was forced to leave for the eastern frontier in 503 to deal with an attack by "hostile Huns", one of the many clashes in a reportedly lengthy war. After the Sasanian disaster in 484, all of Khorasan was seized by the Hephthalites; no Sasanian coins minted in

8643-504: The Zoroastrian priesthood but also Christian and Jewish leaders slandered Mazdak and his followers. According to the Shahnameh , written several centuries later by the medieval Persian poet Ferdowsi , Kavad had Mazdak and his supporters sent to Khosrow. His supporters were killed in a walled orchard, buried head first with only their feet visible. Khosrow then summoned Mazdak to look at his garden, saying: "You will find trees there that no-one has ever seen and no-one ever heard of even from

8772-406: The aid of his sister and an officer named Siyawush , Kavad and some of his followers fled east to the territory of the Hephthalite king who provided him with an army. This enabled Kavad to restore himself to the throne in 498/9. Bankrupted by this hiatus, Kavad applied for subsidies from the Byzantine emperor Anastasius I . The Byzantines had originally paid the Iranians voluntarily to maintain

8901-405: The area (Nishapur, Herat, Marw) have been found from his first reign. The increase in the number of coins minted at Gorgan (which was now the northernmost Sasanian point) during his first reign may indicate a yearly tribute he paid to the Hephthalites. During his second reign, his fortunes changed. A Sasanian campaign in 508 led to the conquest of the Zundaber (Zumdaber) Castellum, associated with

9030-527: The centuries prior to the genocide, additional communities were formed in Greece , Bulgaria , Hungary , Kievan Rus' and the territories of Russia, Poland , Austria , and Lebanon . There are also remnants of historic communities in Turkey ( Istanbul ), India , Myanmar , Thailand , Belgium , the Netherlands , Portugal , Italy , Israel-Palestine , Iraq , Romania , Serbia , Ethiopia , Sudan and Egypt . Kavadh I Kavad I ( Middle Persian : 𐭪𐭥𐭠𐭲 Kawād ; 473 – 13 September 531)

9159-410: The city. Kavad then tried unsuccessfully to capture Edessa in Osroene . In 505 an invasion of Armenia by the Huns from the Caucasus led to an armistice; the Byzantines paid subsidies to the Iranians for the maintenance of the fortifications on the Caucasus, in return for Amida. The peace treaty was signed by the Ispahbudhan aristocrat Bawi , Kavad's brother-in-law. Although Kavad's first war with

9288-417: The commander of the prison. They came to an understanding that she would be allowed to see Kavad in exchange for sleeping with him. Kavad's friend, Siyawush , who was regularly in the same area as the prison, planned his friend's escape by preparing horses near the prison. Kavad changed clothes with his wife to disguise himself as a woman, and escaped from the prison and fled with Siyawush. Tabari's account

9417-448: The continuation of their authority despite the efforts by Kavad and Khosrow. A new priestly office was also created known as the "advocate and judge of the poor" ( driyōšān jādag-gōw ud dādwar ), which assisted the clergy to help the poor and underprivileged, which they had possibly ignored previously. The power of the dehqan , a class of small land-owning magnates, increased substantially (and possibly even led to their establishment in

9546-471: The defenders, although unsupported by troops, repelled the Iranian assaults for three months before they were finally defeated. He had its inhabitants deported to a city in southern Iran, which he named "Kavad's Better Amida" ( Weh-az-Amid-Kawad ). He left a garrison in Amida which included his general Glon, two marzbans ( margraves ) and 3,000 soldiers. The Byzantines failed in their attempt to recapture

9675-523: The defense of the Caucasus against attacks from the north. Anastasius refused the subsidies, which led Kavad to invade his domains, thus starting the Anastasian War . Kavad first seized Theodosiopolis and Martyropolis respectively, and then Amida after holding the city under siege for three months. The two empires made peace in 506, with the Byzantines agreeing to pay subsidies to Kavad for

9804-463: The degree that many belonging to the wuzurgan class, notably Bahram Chobin of the Mihran family, and later Shahrbaraz of the same family, were bold enough to dispute the legitimacy of the Sasanian family and lay claims to the throne. With his reforms under way by the 520s, Kavad no longer had any use for Mazdak and he officially stopped supporting the Mazdakites. A debate was arranged where not only

9933-400: The early 4th century, the Kingdom of Armenia became the first state to adopt Christianity as a state religion, followed by the first pilgrimages to the Holy Land where a community established the Armenian Quarter of Old Jerusalem . The earliest attestations of the exonym Armenia date around the 6th century BC. In his trilingual Behistun Inscription dated to 517 BC, Darius I

10062-474: The early 6th century, there was a single holder of the title, the Ērān -spāhbed , who according to the list of precedence provided by the 9th-century Muslim historian Ya'qubi occupied the fifth position in the court hierarchy. Two spahbad s, both named Raxš, are recorded in Shapur-KZ and Paikuli inscriptions. The Byzantine and Syriac sources record a number of senior officers who might be holders of

10191-518: The family, who agreed to help him. Another noble who supported Kavad was Zarmihr Karen , a son of Sukhra. Jamasp and the nobility and clergy did not resist as they wanted to prevent another civil war. They agreed that he would be king again with the understanding that he would not hurt Jamasp or the elite. Jamasp was spared, albeit probably blinded, while Gushnaspdad and other nobles who had plotted against Kavad were executed. Generally, however, Kavad secured his position by lenience. Adergoudounbades

10320-489: The first place). A group of these dehqans was enlisted into a group of cavalry men, who were managed directly by the shah and earned steady wages. This was done to decrease the reliance on the Parthian cavalry. Soldiers were also enlisted from Sasanian allies, such as the Hephthalites, Arabs , and Daylamites . As a result, the newly rejuvenated Sasanian army proved successful in its efforts in subsequent decades. It sacked

10449-454: The high nobility included the powerful Parthian noble families (known as the wuzurgan ) that were centered on the Iranian plateau . They served as the backbone of the Sasanian feudal army and were largely autonomous. The Sasanian shahs had noticeably little control over the wuzurgan ; attempts to restrict their self-determination usually resulted in the murder of the shah. Ultimately,

10578-406: The late 470s/early 480s, Peroz was defeated and captured twice by the Hephthalites respectively. In his second defeat, he offered to pay thirty mule packs of silver drachms in ransom, but could only pay twenty. Unable to pay the other ten, he sent Kavad in 482 as a hostage to the Hephthalite court until he could pay the rest. He eventually managed to gain the ten mule packs of silver by imposing

10707-590: The later Arme-Shupria, if any, is undetermined. Additionally, their connections to Armenians is inconclusive as it is not known what languages were spoken in these regions. It has also been speculated that the land of Ermenen (located in or near Minni ), mentioned by the Egyptian pharaoh Thutmose III in 1446 BCE, could be a reference to Armenia. Armenians call themselves Hay ( Armenian : հայ , pronounced [ˈhaj]; plural: հայեր, [haˈjɛɾ]). The name has traditionally been derived from Hayk ( Armenian : Հայկ ),

10836-607: The legendary patriarch of the Armenians and a great-great-grandson of Noah , who, according to Movses Khorenatsi (Moses of Khorene) , defeated the Babylonian king Bel in 2492 BC and established his nation in the Ararat region. It is also further postulated that the name Hay comes from, or is related to, one of the two confederated, Hittite vassal states— Hayasa -Azzi (1600–1200 BC). Ultimately, Hay may derive from

10965-517: The lower classes. The historicity of the persona of Mazdak has been questioned. He may have been a fabrication to take the blame away from Kavad. Contemporary historians, including Procopius and Joshua the Stylite make no mention of Mazdak naming Kavad as the figure behind the movement. Mention of Mazdak only emerges in later Middle Persian Zoroastrian documents, namely the Bundahishn ,

11094-710: The main population of the breakaway Republic of Artsakh until the 2023 Azerbaijani offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh and the subsequent flight of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians . There is a wide-ranging diaspora of around five million people of full or partial Armenian ancestry living outside modern Armenia. The largest Armenian populations today exist in Russia , the United States , France , Georgia , Iran , Germany , Ukraine , Lebanon , Brazil , Argentina , Syria , and Turkey. The present-day Armenian diaspora

11223-478: The maintenance of the fortifications on the Caucasus in return for Amida. Around this time, Kavad also fought a lengthy war against his former allies, the Hephthalites; by 513 he had re-taken the region of Khorasan from them. In 528, the Iberian War erupted between the Sasanians and Byzantines in what is now eastern Georgia because the Byzantines refused to acknowledge Khosrow as Kavad's heir and because of

11352-517: The manpower to do so, however, as the army was controlled by Sukhra and the Sasanians relied mainly on the military of the Seven Great Houses of Iran. He found his solution in Shapur of Ray , a powerful nobleman from the House of Mihran, and a resolute opponent of Sukhra. Shapur, at the head of an army of his own men and disgruntled nobles, marched to Shiraz, defeated Sukhra's forces, and imprisoned him in

11481-626: The many challenges and issues Kavad successfully overcame, he is considered one of the most effective and successful kings to rule the Sasanian Empire. In the words of the Iranologist Nikolaus Schindel, he was "a genius in his own right, even if of a somewhat Machiavellian type." Due to increased Sasanian interest in Kayanian history, Kavad was named after the mythological Kayanian king Kavi Kavata . The name

11610-421: The money by force. In 502, Kavad invaded Byzantine Armenia with a force that included Hephthalite soldiers. He captured Theodosiopolis , perhaps with local support; in any case, the city was undefended by troops and weakly fortified. He then marched through southwestern Armenia, reportedly without facing any resistance, and entrusted local governor with the administration of the area. He proceeded to cross

11739-505: The mouth of the ancient sages." Mazdak, seeing his followers' corpses, screamed and passed out. He was executed afterwards by Khosrow, who had his feet fastened on a gallows and had his men shoot arrows at Mazdak. The validity of the story is uncertain; Ferdowsi used much earlier reports of events to write the Shahnameh , and thus the story may report some form of contemporary memory. Many places were founded or re-built under Kavad. He

11868-601: The name Armenia with the Early Bronze Age state of Armani (Armanum, Armi) or the Late Bronze Age state of Arme (Shupria) . Armini , Urartian for "inhabitant of Arme" or "Armean country", referring to the region of Shupria, to the immediate west of Lake Van. The Arme tribe of Urartian texts may have been the Urumu, who in the 12th century BC attempted to invade Assyria from the north with their allies

11997-446: The name of the second man as Aspebedes (Latin: Aspebedus ), Aspevedes , or Aspetios (Latin: Aspetius ). Again, during the Iberian War (526–532), a man named Aspebedes (i.e. Bawi ), according to the historian Procopius a maternal uncle of Khosrow I (r. 531–579), appears. In 527 he took part in negotiations with Byzantine envoys, and in 531 he led an invasion of Mesopotamia along with Chanaranges and Mermeroes . He

12126-410: The nation, and were able to act as king-makers, as seen by their choice to depose Balash. Economically, the empire was not doing well either, the result of drought, famine, and the crushing defeats delivered by the Hephthalites. They had not only seized large parts of its eastern provinces, but had also forced the Sasanians to pay vast amounts of tribute to them, which had depleted the royal treasury of

12255-610: The next few centuries, Djenghis Khan , Timurids , and the tribal Turkic federations of the Ak Koyunlu and the Kara Koyunlu ruled over the Armenians. From the early 16th century, both Western Armenia and Eastern Armenia fell under Iranian Safavid rule . Owing to the century long Turco-Iranian geo-political rivalry that would last in Western Asia, significant parts of the region were frequently fought over between

12384-422: The nobility and clergy weakened by the Mazdakites. They would not be completed under his reign but were continued by his son, Khosrow I. The serious blows the Sasanians had suffered at the hands of the Hephthalites in the last quarter of the 5th century was a key reason behind the reforms the two made. Tax reform was implemented, a poll tax was created, and a review of taxable land was undertaken to ensure taxation

12513-521: The north to the Anuradhapura monarchs of Sri Lanka in the south—or by attacking the Byzantine boats. Iranian traders were also able to seize Indian vessels well before they could make contact with Byzantine traders. These advantages resulted in the Iranian traders establishing something resembling a monopoly over the India trade. The Sasanians and Byzantines had kept peace since the brief Byzantine–Sasanian War of 440 . The last major war between

12642-409: The other nobles. Siyawush was executed, and his office was abolished. Despite the breakdown of the negotiations, it was not until 530 that full-scale warfare on the main western frontier broke out. In the intervening years, the two sides preferred waging war by proxy, through Arab allies in the south and Huns in the north. Hostility between the two powers erupted into conflict once again in 528, just

12771-505: The rank are difficult to identify from the literary sources, since the office of spāhbed was held in tandem with other offices and titles, such as Shahrwarāz ("Boar of the Empire"), which are often treated as personal names. A further factor of confusion in later literary sources is the interchangeable use of the rank with the junior provincial ranks of marzbān ("frontier-warden, margrave") and pāygōsbān ("district guardian"). During

12900-503: The rank in the early 6th century. Thus during the Anastasian War of 502–506, a certain Boes ( Bōē ), who negotiated with the Byzantine magister officiorum Celer and died in 505, is named in the Syriac sources as an ' astable' (also spelled astabed , astabad , astabadh ). His unnamed successor in the negotiations also bore this title. Some modern scholars have interpreted astabed as

13029-537: The reign of Peroz I and named Perozabad ("the city of Peroz"), was fortified by Kavad and called Perozkavad ("victorious Kavad"). The Albanian former capital of Kabala , a large urban area that included the headquarters of one of the Albanian bishops, was also fortified by Kavad. He founded the city of Baylakan , which by most researchers is identified with the ruins of Oren-kala. Ultimately, these extensive buildings and fortifications transformed Caucasian Albania into

13158-471: The rivaling Byzantine and Sassanid Persian empires, until the Muslim conquest of Persia overran also the regions in which Armenians lived. In 885 CE the Armenians reestablished themselves as a sovereign kingdom under the leadership of Ashot I of the Bagratid Dynasty . A considerable portion of the Armenian nobility and peasantry fled the Byzantine occupation of Bagratid Armenia in 1045, and

13287-435: The royal treasury and the Iranian military. In 493, Kavad, having reached adulthood, wanted to put an end to Sukhra's dominance, and had him exiled to his native Shiraz in southwestern Iran. Even in exile, however, Sukhra was in control of everything except the kingly crown. He bragged about having put Kavad on the throne. Alarmed by the thought that Sukhra might rebel, Kavad wanted to get rid of him completely. He lacked

13416-413: The shah. Rebellions were occurring in the western provinces including Armenia and Iberia . Simultaneously, the country's peasant class was growing more and more uneasy and alienated from the elite. The young and inexperienced Kavad was tutored by Sukhra during his first five years as shah. During this period, Kavad was a mere figurehead , whilst Sukhra was the de facto ruler of the empire. This

13545-428: The slogan abzōn ("may he prosper/increase") was added. According to Procopius and other historians, Kavad had written a succession plan that favoured Khosrow just before his death. Historian John Malalas stated that Kavad crowned Khosrow himself. However, at the beginning of Khosrow's reign in 531, Bawi, and other members of the Iranian aristocracy, became involved in a conspiracy to overthrow Khosrow and make Kavad,

13674-434: The son of Kavad's second eldest son Jamasp , the shah of Iran. Upon learning of the plot, Khosrow executed all of his brothers and their offspring, as well as Bawi and the other nobles who were involved. Khosrow also ordered the execution of Kavad, who was still a child, and was away from the court, being raised by Adergoudounbades. He sent orders to kill Kavad, but Adergoudounbades disobeyed and secretly raised him until he

13803-550: The subsequent invasion of the region by Seljuk Turks in 1064. They settled in large numbers in Cilicia , an Anatolian region where Armenians were already established as a minority since Roman times. In 1080, they founded an independent Armenian Principality then Kingdom of Cilicia , which became the focus of Armenian nationalism. The Armenians developed close social, cultural, military, and religious ties with nearby Crusader States , but eventually succumbed to Mamluk invasions. In

13932-555: The temple of az-Zunin in the area of ad-Dawar, situated between Bust and Kandahar . A Sasanian coin dating to 512/3 has been found in Marw. This indicates the Sasanians under Kavad had managed to re-conquer Khorasan after successfully dealing with the Hephthalites. Around 520 to secure the succession of his youngest son Khosrow, whose position was threatened by rival brothers and the Mazdakite sect, and to improve his relationship with

14061-529: The throne. A council soon took place among the nobility to discuss what to do with Kavad. Gushnaspdad , a member of the Kanarangiyan, the family that held the important title of kanarang (military leader of Abarshahr ), proposed Kavad be executed. His suggestion was overruled and Kavad was imprisoned instead in the Castle of Oblivion in Khuzestan . According to Procopius' account, Kavad's wife approached

14190-626: The two empires had been during the reign of Shapur II ( r.  309–379 ). However, war finally erupted in 502. Bankrupted by his hiatus in 496–498/9, Kavad applied for subsidies to the Byzantine Empire , who originally had paid the Iranians voluntarily to maintain the defense of the Caucasus against attacks from the north. The Iranians seemingly saw the money as a debt due to them. But now Emperor Anastasius I ( r.  491–518 ) refused subsidies forcing Kavad to attempt to obtain

14319-613: The two rivalling empires. From the mid 16th century with the Peace of Amasya , and decisively from the first half of the 17th century with the Treaty of Zuhab until the first half of the 19th century, Eastern Armenia was ruled by the successive Iranian Safavid, Afsharid and Qajar empires, while Western Armenia remained under Ottoman rule. In the late 1820s, the parts of historic Armenia under Iranian control centering on Yerevan and Lake Sevan (all of Eastern Armenia) were incorporated into

14448-486: The way of a war, or that killings of Armenians were justified by their individual or collective support for the enemies of the Ottoman Empire. Passage of legislation in various foreign countries, condemning the persecution of the Armenians as genocide, has often provoked diplomatic conflict. (See recognition of the Armenian genocide ) Following the breakup of the Russian Empire in the aftermath of World War I for

14577-537: The words of Iranologist Nikolaus Schindel he was "a genius in his own right, even if of a somewhat Machiavellian type." He was successful in his efforts to reinvigorate his declining empire paving the way for a smooth transition to his son Khosrow I, who inherited a powerful empire. Khosrow improved it further during his reign, becoming one of the most popular shahs of Iran earning the epithet Anushirvan ("the immortal soul"). The Ziyarid dynasty , which mainly ruled over Tabaristan and Gorgan between 931–1090, claimed that

14706-446: Was appointed the new kanarang, while Siyawush was appointed the head of the Sasanian army ( arteshtaran-salar ). Another of Sukhra's sons, Bozorgmehr , was made Kavad's great minister ( wuzurg framadar ). Kavad's reclamation of his throne displays the troubled circumstances of the empire; a small force was able to overwhelm the nobility-clergy alliance. Kavad's reign is noteworthy for his reforms, which he had been able to make with

14835-471: Was betrayed to the shah in 541 by his own son, Bahram. Khosrow had him executed, but Kavad, or someone claiming to be him, managed to flee to the Byzantine Empire. Kavad's reign is considered a turning point in Sasanian history. As a result of the many challenges and issues Kavad successfully handled, he is considered one of the most effective and successful kings to rule the Sasanian Empire. In

14964-673: Was called Armenia by neighboring peoples (such as by Hecataeus of Miletus and on the Achaemenid Behistun Inscription) was the Satrapy of Armenia , established in the late 6th century BCE under the Orontid (Yervanduni) dynasty within the Achaemenid Persian Empire . The Orontids later ruled the independent Kingdom of Armenia . At its zenith (95–65 BCE), under the imperial reign of Tigran

15093-472: Was completed by his son and successor, Khosrow I . They were made possible by Kavad's use of the Mazdakite preacher Mazdak , leading to a social revolution that weakened the authority of the nobility and the clergy. Because of this, and the execution of the powerful king-maker Sukhra , Kavad was imprisoned in the Castle of Oblivion ending his reign. He was replaced by his brother Jamasp . However, with

15222-538: Was created by fire brought from seven other temples in Pars, Balkh, Adurbadagan , Nisa , Spahan , Ghazni , and Ctesiphon. In the Caucasus , Kavad had new fortifications built at Derbent , and ordered the construction of the Apzut Kawat wall ( Middle Persian : *Abzūd Kawād , "Kavad increased [in glory]" or "has prospered"). The prominent Caucasian Albanian capital of P'artaw , which had been rebuilt during

15351-532: Was established in Judea (modern-day Palestine -Israel), leading to the Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem . Later on, to further strengthen Armenian national identity, Mesrop Mashtots invented the Armenian alphabet , in 405 CE. This event ushered the Golden Age of Armenia , during which many foreign books and manuscripts were translated to Armenian by Mesrop's pupils. Armenia lost its sovereignty again in 428 CE to

15480-457: Was executed by Khosrow shortly after his accession for plotting with other nobles to overthrow him in favor of his brother Zames . To curb the power of the over-mighty generalissimo, Khosrow I—although this reform may already have been planned by his father, Kavadh I (r. 499–531)—split the office of the Ērān-spāhbed into four regional commands, corresponding to the four traditional cardinal directions ( kust , cf. Šahrestānīhā ī Ērānšahr ):

15609-480: Was fair. The empire was divided into four frontier regions ( kust in Middle Persian), with a spāhbed (military commander) in charge of each district; a chancery was also added to keep the soldiers equipped. Before Kavad and Khosrow's reforms, the Iranians' general ( Eran-spahbed ) managed the empire's army. Many of these military commanders were notably from the wuzurgan class of Parthia , indicating

15738-475: Was formed mainly as a result of the Armenian genocide with the exceptions of Iran, former Soviet states , and parts of the Levant . Armenian is an Indo-European language . It has two mutually intelligible spoken and written forms: Eastern Armenian , today spoken mainly in Armenia, Artsakh, Iran , and the former Soviet republics; and Western Armenian , used in the historical Western Armenia and, after

15867-575: Was in the years 1894 to 1896, the second one culminating in the events of the Armenian genocide in 1915 and 1916. With World War I in progress, the Ottoman Empire accused the (Christian) Armenians as liable to ally with Imperial Russia , and used it as a pretext to deal with the entire Armenian population as an enemy within their empire. Governments of the Republic of Turkey since that time have consistently rejected charges of genocide, typically arguing either that those Armenians who died were simply in

15996-533: Was in their urgent political interests to do so. According to the Chronicle of Seert and the historian Mari ibn Sulayman , Kavad ordered all the religious communities in the empire to submit written descriptions of their beliefs. This took place sometime before 496. In response to this command, the Patriarch Aqaq commissioned Elishaʿ bar Quzbaye , interpreter of the school of Nisibis , to write for

16125-489: Was mentioned only in later literary sources, the historicity of this division, or its survival after Khosrow I's reign, was questioned in the past, but a series of thirteen recently discovered seals, which provide the names of eight spāhbed s, provide contemporary evidence from the reigns of Khosrow I and his successor, Hormizd IV (r. 579–590); P. Pourshariati suggests that two may date to the reign of Khosrow II (r. 590–628). The eight known spāhbed s are: Other holders of

16254-399: Was most likely an overstatement and defamation deriving from Mazdak's decree that loosened marriage laws to help the lower classes. Powerful families saw this as a tactic to weaken their lineage and advantages, which was most likely the case. Kavad used the movement as a political tool to curb the power of the nobility and clergy. Royal granaries were distributed, and land was shared among

16383-684: Was partially confirmed by the research of geneticist David Reich (et al. 2018), among others. Similarly Grolle (et al. 2018) supports not only a homeland for Armenians on the Armenian highlands, but also that the Armenian highlands are the homeland for the "pre-proto-Indo-Europeans". A large genetic study in 2022 showed that many Armenians are "direct patrilineal descendants of the Yamnaya ". Genetic studies explain Armenian diversity by several mixtures of Eurasian populations that occurred between 3000 and 2000 BCE. But genetic signals of population mixture cease after 1200 BCE when Bronze Age civilizations in

16512-497: Was the Sasanian King of Kings of Iran from 488 to 531, with a two or three-year interruption. A son of Peroz I ( r.  459–484 ), he was crowned by the nobles to replace his deposed and unpopular uncle Balash ( r. 484–488 ). Inheriting a declining empire where the authority and status of the Sasanian kings had largely ended, Kavad tried to reorganize his empire by introducing many reforms whose implementation

16641-441: Was the mother of his eldest son, Kawus . Regardless, Kavad managed to escape imprisonment and fled to the court of the Hephthalite king, where he took refuge. According to the narratives included in the history of al-Tabari, during his flight Kavad met a peasant girl from Nishapur, named Niwandukht, who became pregnant with his child, who would ascend the throne as Khosrow I . However, the story has been dismissed as "fable" by

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