| Harev Harēw | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Province of Sasanian Empire | |||||||||
| ca. 230–651 | |||||||||
 Map of Harev and its surroundings | |||||||||
| Capital | Harev | ||||||||
| History | |||||||||
| Historical era | Late Antiquity | ||||||||
• Established | ca. 230 | ||||||||
| 651 | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Today part of | Afghanistan Iran Turkmenistan | ||||||||
Harev (also known as Harey), was a Sasanian province in Late Antiquity, that lay within the kust of Khorasan. The province bordered Kushanshahr in the west, Abarshahr in the east, Marv in the north, and Sakastan in the south.
The Middle Iranian name of Harev (Middle Persian : 𐭧𐭥𐭩𐭥Harēw, Parthian : 𐭇𐭓𐭉𐭅Harēw, Sogdian: Harēw) is derived from Old Persian 𐏃𐎼𐎡𐎺Haraiva.
Harev is first mentioned in Shapur I's inscription on the Ka'ba-ye Zartosht. It was also during his reign that the town Pushang was established near the capital of Harev, [1] which had the same name as its province, and is today known as Herat. In ca. 430, a Christian community is mentioned in the capital. [2]
The province played a key role in the boundless wars between the Sasanians and the Xionites and Hephthalites, a nomadic people who had settled in Transoxiana and Tokharistan in the late 4th-century. During the reign of Peroz I (r. 459–484), a group of Armenian nobles were settled in Harev by his foster brother Izad Gushnasp. [3] In 484, Peroz I was defeated and killed by a Hephthalite army under Khushnavaz, who thereafter conquered Harev. The province remained in Hephthalite hands until Kavadh I (r. 488–496 & 498–531) reconquered the province during the early part of his second reign. [4] During the reign of his son and successor Khosrow I (r. 531-579), the province became part of the kust of Khorasan.
In 588, during the reign of Hormizd IV (r. 579–590), Nestorian bishops from Harev went to the Sasanian capital Ctesiphon to be present at the synod of Ishoyahb I. [5] In the same year, Harev was briefly occupied by the Göktürk ruler Bagha Qaghan (known as Sava/Saba in medieval Iranian sources). He was, however, defeated and killed by Hormizd IV's military commander Bahram Chobin. [5] After the death of the last Sasanian king Yazdegerd III (r. 632–651) in 651, the province was annexed by the Hephthalite ruler of Badghis, Nezak Tarkhan. One year later, the province was conquered by the Arabs. [6]
Harev served as a coin minting workshop; several gold and copper coins have been found in its capital, which are clearly from the Sasanian era. Although the Sasanians did not normally mint gold coins, Harev was an exception. The gold coins show a portrait of the ruler on one side, while a fire altar on the other. Some of the names of the governors on the coins has a close resemblance to the names of the Indo-Sasanians, which suggests that the Indo-Sasanian governor also had control over Harev at times. [2]
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-Ardashir, better known by his dynastic name of Hormizd I, was the third Sasanian King of Kings (shahanshah) of Iran, who ruled from May 270 to June 271. He was the third-born son of Shapur I, under whom he was governor-king of Armenia, and also took part in his father's wars against the Roman Empire. Hormizd I's brief time as ruler of Iran was largely uneventful. He built the city of Hormizd-Ardashir, which remains a major city today in Iran. He promoted the Zoroastrian priest Kartir to the rank of chief priest (mowbed) and gave the Manichaean prophet Mani permission to continue his preaching.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
Ardashir III was the Sasanian King of Kings of Iran from 6 September 628 to 27 April 630.
Jamasp was Sasanian King of Kings of Iran from 496 to 498/9. He was a son of Peroz I and younger brother of Kavad I. Jamasp was installed on the Sasanian throne upon the deposition of the latter by the nobility and clergy.
Bozorgmehr-e Bokhtagan, also known as Burzmihr, Dadmihr and Dadburzmihr, was an Iranian sage and dignitary from the Karen family, who served as minister of the Sasanian king (shah) Kavad I, and the latter's son and successor Khosrow I. He also served as the military commander (spahbed) of Khwarasan under Khosrow I and his successor Hormizd IV. According to Persian and Arabic sources, Bozorgmehr was a man of "exceptional wisdom and sage counsels" and later became a characterisation of the expression. His name appears in several important works in Persian literature, most notably in the Shahnameh. The historian Arthur Christensen has suggested that Bozorgmehr was the same person as Borzuya, but historiographical studies of post-Sasanian Persian literature, as well as linguistic analysis show otherwise. However, the word "Borzuya" can sometimes be considered a shortened form of Bozorgmehr.
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.
Sakastan was a Sasanian province in Late Antiquity, that lay within the kust of Nemroz. The province bordered Kirman in the west, Spahan in the north west, Kushanshahr in the north east, and Turan in the south east. The governor of the province held the title of marzban. The governor also held the title of "Sakanshah" until the title was abolished in ca. 459/60.
Sistān, known in ancient times as Sakastān, is a historical and geographical region in present-day Eastern Iran and Southern Afghanistan. Largely desert, the region is bisected by the Helmand River, the largest river in Afghanistan, which empties into the Hamun Lake that forms part of the border between the two countries.
The Hephthalite–Sasanian War of 484 was a military confrontation that took place in 484 between an invading force of the Sasanian Empire under the command of Peroz I and a smaller army of the Hephthalite Empire under the command of Khushnavaz. The battle was a catastrophic defeat for the Sasanian forces who were almost completely wiped out. Peroz, the Sassanid king, was killed in the action.
The Hephthalite–Sasanian Wars were a series of conflicts between the Hephthalites and the Sasanian Empire.
Sukhra was an Iranian nobleman from the House of Karen, who was the de facto ruler of the Sasanian Empire from 484 to 493. He was active during the reign of shah Peroz I, Balash and Kavad I. He is often confused with his father Zarmihr Hazarwuxt and son Zarmihr Karen.
Zarmihr Hazarwuxt was an Iranian military leader from the House of Karen, who served as the marzban of Sasanian Armenia briefly in 483.
Shapur Mihran, known in Armenian sources as Shapuh Mihran, was a Sasanian nobleman from the House of Mihran. He served as the marzban of Persian Armenia briefly in 482.
Wuzurgan, also known by its Modern Persian form of Bozorgan (بزرگان), was the name of the high nobility and the third class-rank of the four of the Sasanian aristocracy. After the fall of the Sasanian Empire, they reappear under the Dabuyid dynasty.
Sukhra's Hephthalite campaign took place in 484 between the Hephthalites and the Sasanian Empire.
Provinces of the Sasanian Empire | ||
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* indicates short living provinces | ||
