Kavadh II

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Kavadh II
𐭪𐭥𐭠𐭲
King of kings of Iran and Aniran
Coin of the Sasanian king Kavadh II (cropped), minted at Ray in 628.jpg
Coin of Kavadh II, minted at Ray in 628
Shahanshah of the Sasanian Empire
Reign25 February 628 –
6 September 628
Predecessor Khosrow II
Successor Ardashir III
Born590
Died6 September 628(628-09-06) (aged 37–38)
Dastagird
SpouseAnzoy the Roman
Issue Ardashir III
House House of Sasan
Father Khosrow II
Mother Maria
Religion Zoroastrianism

Shērōē (also spelled Shīrūya, New Persian: شیرویه), better known by his dynastic name of Kavadh II (Middle Persian : 𐭪𐭥𐭠𐭲‎Kawād; New Persian: قباد Qobād or Qabād), was king (shah) of the Sasanian Empire briefly in 628. He was the son of Khosrow II (r. 590–628), whom he succeeded after having him overthrown in a coup d'état. Kavadh's reign is seen as a turning point in Sasanian history, and has been argued by some scholars as playing a key role in the fall of the Sasanian Empire.

Shah Persian title

Shah is a title given to the emperors, kings, princes and lords of Iran. It was also adopted by the kings of Shirvan namely the Shirvanshahs. It was also used by Persianate societies such as the rulers and offspring of the Ottoman Empire, Mughal emperors of the Indian Subcontinent, the Bengal Sultanate, as well as in Afghanistan. In Iran the title was continuously used; rather than King in the European sense, each Persian ruler regarded himself as the Shahanshah or Padishah of the Persian Empire.

Sasanian Empire last Persian empire before the rise of Islam

The Sasanian Empire, also known as the Sassanian, Sasanid, Sassanid or Neo-Persian Empire, was the last kingdom of the Persian Empire before the rise of Islam. Named after the House of Sasan, it ruled from 224 to 651 AD. The Sasanian Empire succeeded the Parthian Empire and was recognised as one of the leading world powers alongside its neighbouring arch-rival the Roman-Byzantine Empire for a period of more than 400 years.

Khosrow II Sassanian king

Khosrow II, entitled "Aparvēz", also Khusraw Parvēz, was the last great king of the Sasanian Empire, reigning from 590 to 628.

Contents

Background and rise

Sheroe was the son of Khosrow II, the last prominent king (shah) of the Sasanian Empire, and Maria, a Greek woman, who was reportedly a Byzantine princess. Sheroe was later imprisoned by his father, who wanted to ensure the succession of his favorite son Mardanshah, the son of his favorite wife, Shirin. His father's reputation had been ruined during the last phase of the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628. In 627, the Sasanian general Rhahzadh was slain and Dastgerd, the king's favorite residence, had been sacked into oblivion by Byzantine emperor Heraclius, who was advancing towards the nearby Sasanian capital of Ctesiphon. In 628, Sheroe was released by the feudal families of the Sasanian Empire, which included the Ispahbudhan spahbed ("army chief") Farrukh Hormizd and his two sons Rostam Farrokhzad and Farrukhzad; Shahrbaraz of the House of Mihran; the Armenian faction represented by Varaztirots II Bagratuni and finally the kanarang of the eastern Sasanian province of Abarshahr. [1]

Maria or Maryam was, according to the 12th-century chronicle of Michael the Syrian, a daughter of the Byzantine emperor Maurice, and wife of the Sassanid Persian shah Khosrau II.

Byzantine Empire Roman Empire during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages

The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinople. It survived the fragmentation and fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD and continued to exist for an additional thousand years until it fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. During most of its existence, the empire was the most powerful economic, cultural, and military force in Europe. Both the terms "Byzantine Empire" and "Eastern Roman Empire" are historiographical terms created after the end of the realm; its citizens continued to refer to their empire simply as the Roman Empire, or Romania (Ῥωμανία), and to themselves as "Romans".

Mardanshah was a 7th-century Sasanian prince. He was the son of the Sasanian shah Khosrau II and Shirin, and was the preferred successor of the Sasanian Empire. He was later killed along with his brothers and half-brothers by his half-brother Kavadh II in 628.

Reign

On 25 February, Sheroe, along with his commander Aspad Gushnasp, captured Ctesiphon and imprisoned Khosrow II. He then proclaimed himself as shah of the Sasanian Empire and assumed the dynastic name of Kavadh II. He proceeded to have all his brothers and half-brothers executed, including the heir Mardanshah, who was Khosrow's favourite son. The murder of all his brothers, "all well-educated, valiant, and chivalrous men", [2] strapped the Sasanian dynasty of a future competent ruler, and has been described as a "mad rampage" and "reckless". [3] Three days later he ordered Mihr Hormozd to execute his father. However, after the regicide of his father, Kavadh also proceeded to have Mihr Hormozd killed. [4]

Aspad Gushnasp, known as Gousdanaspa in Byzantine sources, was an Iranian commander (hazarbed) of the Sasanian royal guard, who played a key role in the overthrow of the last great Sasanian king (shah) Khosrow II and the enthronement of the latters son, Kavad II Sheroe.

Mihr Hormozd

Mihr Hormozd was an Iranian nobleman from the House of Suren. He was the son of Mardanshah, the padhuspan of Nemroz, who was later executed by the orders of the Sasanian king Khosrau II. In 628, Khosrau was overthrown by his son Kavadh II, and was taken to prison, where he was shortly executed by Mihr Hormozd who sought to avenge his father's death. However, after the execution, Kavadh had Mihr Hormizd killed.

Due to Kavadh's actions, his reign is seen as a turning point in Sasanian history, and has been argued by some scholars as playing a key role in the fall of the Sasanian Empire. [3] The overthrow and death of Khosrow culminated in a chaotic civil war, with the most powerful members of the nobility gaining full autonomy and starting to create their own government. The hostilities between the Persian (Parsig) and Parthian (Pahlav) noble-families were also resumed, which split up the wealth of the nation. [2] With the agreement of the Iranian nobles, he then made peace with the victorious emperor Heraclius, which allowed the Byzantines to (re)gain all their lost territories, their captured soldiers, a war indemnity, along with the True Cross and other relics that were lost in Jerusalem in 614. [5]

Sasanian civil war of 628–632

The Sasanian civil 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 Sasanian nobles of different factions, notably the Parthian 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 fourteen years and thirteen 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.

Parthia region of north-eastern Iran

Parthia is a historical region located in north-eastern Iran. It was conquered and subjugated by the empire of the Medes during the 7th century BC, was incorporated into the subsequent Achaemenid Empire under Cyrus the Great in the 6th century BC, and formed part of the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire following the 4th-century-BC conquests of Alexander the Great. The region later served as the political and cultural base of the Eastern-Iranian Parni people and Arsacid dynasty, rulers of the Parthian Empire. The Sasanian Empire, the last state of pre-Islamic Persia, also held the region and maintained the Seven Parthian clans as part of their feudal aristocracy.

True Cross

The True Cross is the name for physical remnants which, by a Christian Church tradition, are said to be from the cross upon which Jesus was crucified.

Kavadh also appointed Armenian nobleman Varaztirots II Bagratuni as marzban (general of a frontier province, "margrave") of Sasanian Armenia, and appointed Ishoyahb II (628–645) as the new Catholicos (Eastern Patriarch) of the Nestorian Church of the East (at Seleucia-Ctesiphon). [6] Kavadh later died from plague after a few months' reign on 6 September 628. The grandees ( wuzurgan ) of the empire elected his eight-year-old son Ardashir III. In reality, however, he exercised little power and his empire was controlled by his vizier Mah-Adhur Gushnasp, whose duty was to protect the empire until Ardashir became old enough to rule.

Varaztirots II Bagratuni was an Armenian nakharar from the Bagratuni family, the son of Smbat IV Bagratuni. He was marzpan of Armenia c. 628, fled to the Byzantine Empire soon thereafter and was exiled for several years to Africa for his participation in a plot against Heraclius. On his return c. 645/6, he was named curopalates and presiding prince of Armenia, but died before being formally invested.

Marzbān, or Marzpān were a class of margraves, warden of the marches, and by extension military commanders, in charge of border provinces of the Parthian Empire and mostly Sasanian Empire of Iran.

Margrave was originally the medieval title for the military commander assigned to maintain the defence of one of the border provinces of the Holy Roman Empire or of a kingdom. That position became hereditary in certain feudal families in the Empire, and the title came to be borne by rulers of some Imperial principalities until the abolition of the Empire in 1806. Thereafter, those domains were absorbed in larger realms or the titleholders adopted titles indicative of full sovereignty.

Marriage

A passage of the Chronicle of Edessa identifies "Anzoy the Roman" as the wife of Kavadh II and mother of Ardashir III. She was probably a Christian princess from the Byzantine Empire. [7]

The Chronicle of Edessa is a record of the history of Edessa written in the mid 6th century in Syriac language.

Siroe is the subject of operas by a number of composers on a libretto by Metastasio, including Pasquale Errichelli, Johann Adolph Hasse, Leonardo Vinci, Antonio Vivaldi and George Frideric Handel.

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References

  1. ↑ Pourshariati 2008, p. 173.
  2. 1 2 Shahbazi 2005.
  3. 1 2 Kia 2016, pp. 255-256.
  4. ↑ Al-Tabari 1999, pp. 398.
  5. ↑ Oman 1893, p. 212.
  6. ↑ Nahal Tajadod, Les Porteurs de Lumière, Plon, Paris, 1993, 323–324.
  7. ↑ Martindale, Jones & Morris 1992, p. 94.

Sources

Kavadh II
Preceded by
Khosrow II 		King of kings of Iran and Aniran
25 February 628 – 6 September 628		Succeeded by
Ardashir III
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