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Hormizd III, was the seventeenth king (shah) of the Sasanian Empire, ruling briefly from 457 to 459. He was the son and successor of Yazdegerd II. His reign was marked by the rebellion of his younger brother Peroz I, who with the aid of one of the Seven Great Houses of Iran, the House of Mihran, and the eastern neighbours of the Sasanians, the Hephthalites, had him captured and executed.
Peroz I was the Sasanian King of Kings of Iran from 459 to 484. A son of Yazdegerd II, he disputed the rule of his elder brother and incumbent king Hormizd III, eventually seizing the throne after a two-year struggle. His reign was marked by war and famine. Early in his reign, he successfully quelled a rebellion in Caucasian Albania in the west, and put an end to the Kidarites in the east, briefly expanding Sasanian rule into Tokharistan, where he issued gold coins with his likeness at Balkh. Simultaneously, Iran was suffering from a seven-year famine. He soon clashed with the former subjects of the Kidarites, the Hephthalites, who possibly had previously helped him to gain his throne. He was defeated and captured twice by the Hephthalites and lost his recently acquired possessions.
Yazdegerd II, was the Sasanian King of Kings of Iran from 438 to 457. He was the successor and son of Bahram V.
Yazdegerd I was the Sasanian King of Kings of Iran from 399 to 420. A son of Shapur III, he succeeded his brother Bahram IV after the latter's assassination.
Bahram II was the fifth Sasanian King of Kings (shahanshah) of Iran, from 274 to 293. He was the son and successor of Bahram I. Bahram II, while still in his teens, ascended the throne with the aid of the powerful Zoroastrian priest Kartir, just like his father had done.
Bahram V, also known as Bahram Gur, was the Sasanian King of Kings (shahanshah) from 420 to 438.
Istakhr was an ancient city in Fars province, five kilometres north of Persepolis in southwestern Iran. It flourished as the capital of the Persian Frataraka governors and Kings of Persis from the third century BC to the early 3rd century AD. It reached its apex under the Sasanian Empire, and was the hometown of the Sasanian dynasty. Istakhr briefly served as the first capital of the Sasanian Empire from 224 to 226 AD and then as principal city, region, and religious centre of the Sasanian province of Pars.
Bānbishn was a Middle Persian title meaning "queen", and was held by royal women in Sasanian Iran who were the king's daughters and sisters, and also by the consorts of the Sasanian princes that ruled parts of the country as governors. The full version of the title was bānbishnān bānbishn.
The Sasanian Empire or Sassanid Empire, sometimes referred to as the Second Persian Empire or Neo-Persian Empire, officially known as Eranshahr, was the last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th to 8th centuries. Named after the House of Sasan, it endured for over four centuries, from 224 to 651, making it the second longest-lived Persian imperial dynasty after the Arsacids of the Parthian Empire.
Kartir was a powerful and influential Zoroastrian priest during the reigns of four Sasanian kings in the 3rd century. His name is cited in the inscriptions of Shapur I and the Paikuli inscription of Narseh. Kartir also had inscriptions of his own made in the present-day Fars Province. His inscriptions narrates his rise to power throughout the reigns of Shapur I, Hormizd I, Bahram I, and Bahram II. During the brief reign of Bahram II's son and successor Bahram III, Kartir was amongst the nobles who supported the rebellion of Narseh, who overthrew Bahram III and ascended the throne. During Narseh's reign, Kartir faded into obscurity.
Ardashir-Khwarrah was one of the four administrative divisions of the Sasanian province of Pars. The other administrative divisions were Shapur-Khwarrah, Istakhr and Darabgerd, while a fifth named Arrajan was founded in the early 6th century by Kavadh I.
Sasanian Armenia, also known as Persian Armenia and Persarmenia, may either refer to the periods in which Armenia was under the suzerainty of the Sasanian Empire or specifically to the parts of Armenia under its control such as after the partition of 387 when parts of western Armenia were incorporated into the Eastern Roman Empire while the rest of Armenia came under Sasanian suzerainty but maintained its existing kingdom until 428.
Mihr-Narseh, was a powerful Iranian dignitary from the House of Suren, who served as minister of the Sasanian shahanshahs Yazdegerd I, Bahram V, Yazdegerd II and Peroz I. According to the Iranologist Richard N. Frye, Mihr-Narseh was the "prototype of the later Islamic grand vizier."
Wuzurg framadār was a Sasanian office which was equivalent to the office of Grand Vizier in the later Islamic period.
Pars was a Sasanian province in Late Antiquity, which almost corresponded to the present-day province of Fars. The province bordered Khuzestan in the west, Kirman in the east, Spahan in the north, and Mazun in the south.
Adur Gushnasp was the name of a Zoroastrian sacred fire of the highest grade, which served as one of the three most sacred fires of pre-Islamic Iran; the two others being the Adur Farnbag and Adur Burzen-Mihr. Out of the three, Adur Gushnasp is the only fire whose temple structure has been discovered and "for which archaeological, sigillographical, and textual evidence are all available."
Khosrow-Yazdegerd was a 5th-century statesman in Sasanian Iran, who was active during the reign of shah Yazdegerd I. He first appears in 410, when he was sent with Mihr-Shapur as the shah's representative to the Nestorian Council of Seleucia-Ctesiphon. Khosrow-Yazdegerd is the second person known to occupy the office of wuzurg framadar after Abarsam, who was active under Ardashir I. He was most likely succeeded by Mihr Narseh.
The Temple of Anahita was an ancient fire temple in Istakhr dedicated to the worship of the Iranian goddess Anahid.
Mushkan Niusalavurt was a 5th-century Iranian military officer, who was active during the reign of the Sasanian King of Kings (shahanshah) Yazdegerd II. When the Christian Armenians rebelled in 450 under the leadership of Vardan Mamikonian, the wuzurg-framadar (minister) Mihr-Narseh appointed Mushkan as the head of Iranian forces. The following year (451), he took part in the Battle of Avarayr, where the insurgents were defeated, and nine of their generals killed, including Vardan. Mushken survived but was heavily wounded.
