Andarzbad (from Middle Persian: Andarz, "advice, counsel") was a Sasanian administrative office meaning "chief advisor", "chief councillor" or "chief of staff". [1] [2] The andarzbads were assigned to cities within the Sasanian Empire such as Ardashir-Khwarrah (i.e. Gor) or entire provinces, such as Sakastan. [1] [2] The main court andarzbad, known as the darandarzbad, served the Shahanshah ("King of Kings") directly and was one of the highest-ranking dignitaries within the Sasanian court. [1] [2] However, there were also andarzbads who served in other functions. [2] There was the andarzbad ī aswāragān, who instructed the Sasanian knights, or according to Anahit Perikhanian the andarzbadī wāspuhragān, who exercised executive authority within the King's domain. [1] [2] The "andarzbad of the queens" (Middle Persian: bʾnykn hndrcpt; Parthian: MLKTEn hndrzpty) dates back to the reign of Shapur I (r. 240–170) and is attested in his inscription at the Ka'ba-ye Zartosht. [1] [2] The mōgān-andarzbad ("advisor of the magi") was a dignitary who effectively functioned as a legal consultant and held status as "one of the highest ranking dignitaries of the priestly class". [1] [2] M. L. Chaumont adds that the mōgān-andarzbad office "was quite different from that of the mōbadān mōbad ". [1] Andarzgar ("counselor", "teacher"), a less familiar Sasanian title, may have been modeled on andarzbad but this remains uncertain. [3]
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 I, also spelled Yazdgerd I and Yazdgird 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.
Balash was the Sasanian King of Kings of Iran from 484 to 488. He was the brother and successor of Peroz I, who had been defeated and killed by a Hephthalite army.
Bahram IV, was the Sasanian King of Kings of Iran from 388 to 399. He was likely the son and successor of Shapur III.
Shapur III, was the Sasanian King of Kings of Iran from 383 to 388. He was the son of Shapur II and succeeded his uncle Ardashir II.
Arsaces I was the first king of Parthia, as well as the founder and eponym of the Arsacid dynasty of Parthia, ruling from 247 BC to 217 BC. The leader of the Parni, one of the three tribes of the Dahae confederacy, Arsaces founded his dynasty in the mid-3rd century BC when he conquered the satrapy of Parthia from Andragoras, who had rebelled against the Seleucid Empire. He spent the rest of his reign consolidating his rule in the region, and successfully stopped the Seleucid efforts to reconquer Parthia. Due to Arsaces' achievements, he became a popular figure amongst the Arsacid monarchs, who used his name as a royal honorific. By the time of his death, Arsaces had laid the foundations of a strong state, which would eventually transform into an empire under his great-grand nephew, Mithridates I, who assumed the ancient Near Eastern royal title of King of Kings. Arsaces was succeeded by his son Arsaces II.
Vologases V was King of Kings of the Parthian Empire from 191 to 208. As king of Armenia, he is known as Vologases II. Not much is known about his period of kingship of the Armenia, except that he put his son Rev I (r. 186–216) on the Iberian throne in 189. Vologases succeeded his father Vologases IV as king of the Parthian Empire in 191; it is uncertain if the transition of power was peaceful or if Vologases took the throne in a civil war. When Vologases acceded the Parthian throne, he passed the Armenian throne to his son Khosrov I.
Artaxias I was the founder of the Artaxiad dynasty of Armenia, ruling from 189 BC to 160 BC. He was succeeded by his son Artavasdes I.
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 page details the timeline of History of Iran.
Mushegh I Mamikonian was an Armenian military officer from the Mamikonian family, who occupied the hereditary office of sparapet (generalissimo) of the Kingdom of Armenia under the Arsacid kings Pap and Varazdat. He took part in the Armenian resistance against the forces of the Sasanian monarch Shapur II, notably taking part in the Battle of Bagavan, where the Iranian forces were defeated. He was the regent of Armenia under the young and inexperienced Varazdat, who eventually suspected him of posing a danger to his rule, and thus had him executed, in 377/8.
Hyspaosines was an Iranian prince, and the founder of Characene, a kingdom situated in southern Mesopotamia. He was originally a Seleucid satrap installed by king Antiochus IV Epiphanes, but declared independence in 141 BC after collapse of Seleucid authority in Iran and Babylonia to the Parthians. Hyspaosines briefly occupied the Parthian city of Babylon in 127 BC, where he is recorded in records as king (šarru). In 124 BC, however, he was forced to acknowledge Parthian suzerainty. He died in the same year, and was succeeded by his juvenile son Apodakos.
Varsken was an Iranian prince from the Mihranid family of Gugark, who served as the bidaxsh (margrave) of the region from 470 to 482. He was the son and successor of Arshusha II.
Akhshunwar was a ruling title used by the Hephthalite kings in the 5th and 6th-centuries.
Adur-Anahid was a high-ranking 3rd-century Iranian noblewoman from the royal Sasanian family, who wielded the title of Queen of Queens. She was a daughter of the second Sasanian King of Kings of Iran, Shapur I.
The White Palace was the main residence of the Sasanian King of Kings in the capital of Ctesiphon, most likely founded by the second Sasanian monarch Shapur I.
The Hyrcanian plain was a plain near Sardis, the provincial capital of the Achaemenid Persian satrapy (province) of Lydia. Located in the Hermos valley, in what is present-day western Turkey, according to the ancient geographer and historian Strabo, the plain derived its name from a colony of Hyrcanians who were settled there by the Achaemenids. According to the modern historian and archaeologist Nicholas Victor Sekunda, the plain was either "confined to the valley of the Pidasos, or it extended in a broad band along the Phrygios from Thyateira to Magnesia-on-Sipylos to the west, and possibly even as far as Sardis to the southeast".
Abu al-Qasim Kashani was a Persian historian from the Abu Tahir family, who was active during the late Ilkhanate era. He is notable for claiming that the vizier of the Ilkhanate, Rashid al-Din Hamadani, had stolen credit for the historical work Jami' al-tawarikh. Although modern scholarship regard Rashid al-Din as the overall author of the work, he is generally considered to have been aided by several assistants, including Kashani.
Baha al-Din Baghdadi was a Persian secretary of the Khwarazmshahs, who is notable for his expertise in Persian letter-writing. He served as the head of the divan-e insha (chancellery) under Ala ad-Din Tekish.