Bawi | |
|---|---|
| Died | 531 Ctesiphon |
| Allegiance |  Sasanian Empire |
| Service/ | Sasanian army |
| Rank | Spahbed |
| Battles/wars | Iberian War Anastasian War |
Bawi was a Sasanian military officer from the Ispahbudhan family who was involved in the Anastasian War and the Iberian War between the Sasanian and Byzantine Empire. He is also known as Aspebedes, which is a corruption of the title spahbed . [1]
According to Procopius, coins of Bawi were minted during the reign of Kavadh I (r. 488-496, 499-531) due to the marriage of the latter with his sister, and, therefore, he became the uncle of the future king Khosrau I (r. 531-579). [2] [3] Apparently he was the father of a person known as Asparapet, whose original name was Shapur, who was the grandfather of Shah Khosrau II (r. 591-628), the son of Shapur's daughter and Hormizd IV (r. 579-590); beyond this relationship, it is known that Shapur was the father of Vistahm and Vinduyih. [1]
According to some sources, Bawi participated in the negotiations that led to the peace of 506 between Anastasius I (r. 491-518) and Kavadh I, which ended the Anastasian War. After the Sasanian defeat at the battle of Dara during the Iberian War, Kavadh organized an invasion of Byzantine territory, in which a large army, commanded by Mihr-Mihroe, Chanaranges and Bawi, who invaded Mesopotamia and besieged the city of Martyropolis, which at that time was being protected by Buzes and Bessas. [4] While commanding a large force, with winter approaching and Byzantine reinforcements coming from Amida and the sudden death of Kavadh, the Sasanians lifted the siege in November or December. [5]
At the beginning of Khosrau I's reign in 531, Bawi, along with other members of the Persian aristocracy became involved in a conspiracy in which they tried to overthrow Khosrau and make Kavadh, the son of Kavadh's second eldest son Djamasp (Zames), [6] the king of the Sasanian Empire. Upon learning of the plot, Khosrau executed all his brothers, their offspring, along with Bawi and the other "Persian notables" who were involved. [3] Khosrau also ordered the execution of Kavadh, who was still a child, and was away from the court, being raised by Adergoudounbades. Khosrau sent orders to kill Kavadh, but Adergoudounbades disobeyed and brought him up in secret, until he was betrayed to the shah in 541 by his own son, Bahram (Varranes). Khosrau had him executed, but Kavadh, or someone claiming to be him, managed to flee to the Byzantine Empire. [7]
| Bawi | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Shapur | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Vinduyih | Vistahm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Farrukh Hormizd | Tiruyih | Vinduyih | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rostam Farrokhzād | Farrukhzad | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Shahram | Surkhab I | Isfandyadh | Bahram | Farrukhan | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Khosrow I, traditionally known by his epithet of Anushirvan, was the Sasanian King of Kings of Iran from 531 to 579. He was the son and successor of Kavad I.
Kavad I was the Sasanian King of Kings of Iran from 488 to 531, with a two or three-year interruption. A son of Peroz I, he was crowned by the nobles to replace his deposed and unpopular uncle Balash.
Hormizd IV was the Sasanian King of Kings of Iran from 579 to 590. He was the son and successor of Khosrow I and his mother was a Khazar princess.
Spāhbed is a Middle Persian title meaning "army chief" used chiefly in the Sasanian Empire. Originally there was a single spāhbed, called the Ērān-spāhbed, who functioned as the generalissimo of the Sasanian army. From the time of Khosrow I on, the office was split in four, with a spāhbed for each of the cardinal directions. After the Muslim conquest of Persia, the spāhbed of the East managed to retain his authority over the inaccessible mountainous region of Tabaristan on the southern shore of the Caspian Sea, where the title, often in its Islamic form ispahbadh, survived as a regnal title until the Mongol conquests of the 13th century. An equivalent title of Persian origin, ispahsālār or sipahsālār, gained great currency across the Muslim world in the 10th–15th centuries.
The Roman–Persian Wars, also known as the Roman–Iranian Wars, were a series of conflicts between states of the Greco-Roman world and two successive Iranian empires: the Parthian and the Sasanian. Battles between the Parthian Empire and the Roman Republic began in 54 BC; wars began under the late Republic, and continued through the Roman and Sasanian empires. Various vassal kingdoms and allied nomadic nations in the form of buffer states and proxies also played a role. The wars were ended by the Arab Muslim Conquests, which led to the fall of the Sasanian Empire and huge territorial losses for the Byzantine Empire, shortly after the end of the last war between them.
The Iberian War was fought from 526 to 532 between the Byzantine Empire and the Sasanian Empire over the eastern Georgian kingdom of Iberia—a Sasanian client state that defected to the Byzantines. Conflict erupted among tensions over tribute and the spice trade.
Shahen or Shahin was a senior Sasanian general (spahbed) during the reign of Khosrow II (590–628). He was a member of the House of Spandiyadh.
The House of Mihrān or House of Mehrān, was a leading Iranian noble family (šahrdārān), one of the Seven Great Houses of the Sassanid Persian Empire which claimed descent from the earlier Arsacid dynasty. A branch of the family formed the Mihranid line of the kings of Caucasian Albania and the Chosroid Dynasty of Kartli.
The Anastasian War was fought from 502 to 506 between the Byzantine Empire and the Sasanian Empire. It was the first major conflict between the two powers since 440, and would be the prelude to a long series of destructive conflicts between the two empires over the next century.
Hermogenes was an East Roman (Byzantine) official who served as magister officiorum, military commander and diplomatic envoy during the Iberian War against Sassanid Persia in the early reign of Emperor Justinian I.
Mihr-Mihroe, in Middle Persian either Mihr-Mihrōē or Mihrmāh-rōy; in Byzantine sources Mermeroes, was a 6th-century Sasanian general, and one of the leading commanders of the Byzantine–Sassanid Wars of the time.
Adergoudounbadēs, was a prominent Sasanian nobleman, general, and kanarang during the reigns of Kavadh I and Khosrow I. His life is known only through the work of the Byzantine historian Procopius. His native name was probably Adurgundbad, an abbreviation of Adurgushnaspbad. Pourshariati records the native name as Ādhargulbād (آذرگلباد).
The Perpetual Peace, signed in 532 between the East Roman (Byzantine) Empire and Sassanid Persia, was a peace treaty of indefinite duration, which concluded the Iberian War (527–531) between the two powers. It heralded a period of relatively cordial relations, but lasted only until 540, when hostilities resumed over the control of Lazica.
The Sasanian civil war of 589–591 was a conflict that broke out in 589, due to the great deal of dissatisfaction among the nobles towards the rule of Hormizd IV. The civil war lasted until 591, ending with the overthrow of the Mihranid usurper Bahram Chobin and the restoration of the Sasanian family as the rulers of Iran.
The Siege of Amida occurred in 502–503, during the Anastasian War. The city was not garrisoned by any troops of the Byzantine Empire but nevertheless resisted for three months before falling to the military of the Sasanian Empire under Kavadh I. According to the detailed account of Zacharias Rhetor, the city's sack was particularly brutal, and accompanied by a massacre of the population for three days and nights. The fall of the city urged the Emperor Anastasius I Dicorus to react militarily, before a truce was agreed between both parts in 505.
Farrukh Hormizd or Farrokh Hormizd, also known as Hormizd V, was an Iranian prince, who was one of the leading figures in Sasanian Iran in the early 7th-century. He served as the military commander (spahbed) of northern Iran. He later came in conflict with the Iranian nobility, "dividing the resources of the country". He was later killed by Siyavakhsh in a palace plot on the orders of Azarmidokht after he proposed to her in an attempt to usurp the Sasanian throne. He had two children, Rostam Farrokhzad and Farrukhzad.
The Sasanian civil war of 628–632, also known as the Sasanian Interregnum was a conflict that broke out after the execution of the Sasanian king Khosrau II between the nobles of different factions, notably the Parthian (Pahlav) faction, the Persian (Parsig) faction, the Nimruzi faction, and the faction of general Shahrbaraz. Rapid turnover of rulers and increasing provincial landholder power further diminished the empire. Over a period of four years and fourteen successive kings, the Sasanian Empire weakened considerably, and the power of the central authority passed into the hands of its generals, contributing to its fall.
Fariburz, known in Byzantine sources as Phabrizus, was a 6th-century Iranian military officer from the Mihran family, who served under the Sasanian king Khosrau I.
A siege of Martyropolis occurred in Autumn of 531 during the Iberian War between the Sasanian Empire under Kavadh I and Byzantine Empire under Justinian I.
Jamasp was a 6th-century Sasanian prince, who was the second oldest son of the incumbent king (shah) Kavad I. Jamasp was greatly admired for his ability in war, but was disqualified from succession due to have having lost an eye. The following year after the accession of his brother Khosrow I, Bawi along with other members of the Iranian aristocracy, became involved in a conspiracy in which they tried to overthrow Khosrow and make Jamasp's son Kavad the new shah, so Jamasp could rule as regent. The conspiracy, however, was revealed and Jamasp was murdered.