Seven Parthian clans

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The Seven Parthian clans, also known as the Seven Great Houses of Iran, [1] or Seven (Great) Houses, were seven feudal aristocracies of Parthian origin, who were allied with the Sasanian court.

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.

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History

Only two of the seven - the House of Suren and the House of Karen - are actually attested in sources date-able to the Parthian period.

House of Suren or Surenas are one of two Parthian noble families explicitly mentioned by name in sources dateable to the Arsacid period.

House of Karen noble family

The House of Karen, also known as Karen-Pahlavi (Kārēn-Pahlaw) was one of the Seven Great Houses of Iran. The seat of the house lay at Nahavand, about 65 km south of Ecbatana.

Parthian Empire Iranian empire ruled by Arsacids

The Parthian Empire, also known as the Arsacid Empire, was a major Iranian political and cultural power in ancient Iran. Its latter name comes from Arsaces I of Parthia who, as leader of the Parni tribe, founded it in the mid-3rd century BC when he conquered the region of Parthia in Iran's northeast, then a satrapy (province) under Andragoras, in rebellion against the Seleucid Empire. Mithridates I of Parthia (r. c. 171–138 BC) greatly expanded the empire by seizing Media and Mesopotamia from the Seleucids. At its height, the Parthian Empire stretched from the northern reaches of the Euphrates, in what is now central-eastern Turkey, to eastern Iran. The empire, located on the Silk Road trade route between the Roman Empire in the Mediterranean Basin and the Han Empire of China, became a center of trade and commerce.

During Sasanian times, the seven feudal houses played a significant role at the Sasanian court. Bahram Chobin, a famed military commander of Hormizd IV (r. 579–590), was from the House of Mihran.

Bahram Chobin Sasanian general and usurper

Bahrām Chōbīn or Wahrām Chōbēn, also known by his epithet Mihrevandak, was a nobleman, general, and political leader of the late Sasanian Empire and briefly its ruler as Bahram VI.

Hormizd IV King of Persia

Hormizd IV, was king of the Sasanian Empire from 579 to 590. He was the son and successor of Khosrow I.

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 clans

The seven houses with their respective main fiefs and ruling-family seats were:

The House of Ispahbudhan or the House of Aspahbadh was one of the seven Parthian clans of the Sasanian Empire. Like the Sasanians, they claimed descent from the Achaemenids. They also claimed descent from the legendary Kayanid figure Isfandiyar, who was the son of the Vishtaspa, who according to Zoroastrian sources was one of Zoroaster's early followers.

Greater Khorasan historical region of Persia

Khorasan, sometimes called Greater Khorasan, is a historical region lying in northeast of Greater Persia, including part of Central Asia and Afghanistan. The name simply means "East, Orient" and loosely includes the territory of the Sasanian Empire north-east of Persia proper. Early Islamic usage often regarded everywhere east of so-called Jibal or what was subsequently termed 'Iraq Ajami', as being included in a vast and loosely-defined region of Khorasan, which might even extend to the Indus Valley and Sindh. During the Islamic period, Khorasan along with Persian Iraq were two important territories. The boundary between these two was the region surrounding the cities of Gurgan and Qumis. In particular, the Ghaznavids, Seljuqs and Timurids divided their empires into Iraqi and Khorasani regions.

Nahavand City in Hamadan, Iran

Nahavand is a city and capital of Nahavand County, Hamadan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 72,218, in 19,419 families. It is located south of Hamadan, east of Malayer and northwest of Borujerd. Nahavand is one of the oldest existing cities in Iran.

See also

Seven Achaemenid Clans or seven Achaemenid houses were seven family important which had key rules during Achaemenid era. Only one of them had regnant pedigree.

The Khosro[v]ianni, Latinized as Chosroids, also known as the Iberian Mihranids or Mihranids of Iberia, were a dynasty of the kings and later of the presiding princes of the early Georgian state of Iberia, natively known as Kartli, from the 4th to the 9th centuries. The family, of Iranian Mihranid origin, accepted Christianity as their official religion c. 337, and maneuvered between the Byzantine Empire and Sassanid Iran to retain a degree of independence. After the abolition of the Iberian kingship by the Sassanids c. 580, the dynasty survived in its two closely related, but sometimes competing princely branches—the elder Chosroid and the younger Guaramid—down to the early ninth century when they were succeeded by the Georgian Bagratids on the throne of Iberia.

Related Research Articles

Sunpadh was an Iranian nobleman from the House of Karen, who incited an uprising against the Abbasid Caliphate in the 8th century.

Gondophares

Gondophares I was the founder of the Indo-Parthian Kingdom and its most prominent king, ruling from 19 to 46. A member of the House of Suren, he belonged to a line of local princes who had governed the Parthian province of Drangiana since its disruption by the Indo-Scythians in c. 129 BC. During his reign, his kingdom became independent from Parthian authority and was transformed into an empire, which encompassed Drangiana, Arachosia, and Gandhara. He is generally known from the dubious Acts of Thomas, the Takht-i-Bahi inscription, and coin-mints in silver and copper.

Sakastan (Sasanian province) province of Sasanian Empire

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.

Rustaham Suren, better simply known as Surena or Suren was a Parthian spahbed during the 1st century BC. He was the leader of the House of Suren and was best known for defeating the Romans in the Battle of Carrhae. Under his command Parthians decisively defeated a numerically superior Roman invasion force under the command of Marcus Licinius Crassus. It is commonly seen as one of the earliest and most important battles between the Roman and Parthian empires and one of the most crushing defeats in Roman history.

Māhōē Sūrī, known in Islamic sources as Māhūy Sūrī, was an Iranian aristocrat, who served as the marzbān of Merv during the reign of the last Sasanian king Yazdegerd III.

Zarrin Kafsh also Zarrinkafsh is the name of a Persian tribe in Kordestān of Iranian ("Aryan") origin which took part in the history of the Iranian Kurdistan Province especially the city of Sanandaj under the rule of the Ardalan princes. The families of Zarrinnaal and Zarrinkafsh belong to this tribe.

Hephthalite–Persian Wars

The Hephthalite–Persian Wars, refers to a series of conflicts between the Hephthalites and the Sasanian Empire.

Farrukh Hormizd Persian prince

Farrukh Hormizd or Farrokh Hormizd, also known as Hormizd V, was a spahbed in northern Persia, he was a prince of Atropatene. He later came in conflict with the Sassanid nobles, "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 Farrokhzād and Farrukhzad.

Dadhburzmihr

Dadhburzmihr or Dadmihr was the independent ruler (ispahbadh) of Tabaristan. He succeeded his father Farrukhan the Great in 728 and reigned until his death in 740/741. His 6 year old son, Khurshid succeeded him.

Mihran-i Bahram-i Razi, better simply known as Mihran Razi, was an Iranian military officer from the Mihran family. He was killed in 637 at the battle of Jalula.

Mihran Bahram-i Chubin was an Iranian nobleman from the House of Mihran. He was the son of Bahram Chobin, the famous Sasanian spahbed and briefly shahanshah. Mihran, with the aid of Christian Arab tribes, fought against the Muslim Arabs at Ayn al-Tamir. He was however, defeated. What happened to Mihran afterwards is unknown; however, it is known that he had a son named Siyavakhsh, who fell to the Arabs in 651 at Ray.

Dabuya or Dabuyih, was the Dabuyid ruler (ispahbadh) of Tabaristan. He succeeded his father Gil Gavbara in 660 and reigned until his death in 712. His son, Farrukhan the Great succeeded him.

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.

Dastagird human settlement in Iraq

Dastagird, was an ancient Sasanian city in present-day Iraq, and was close to its capital, Ctesiphon.

The House of Spandiyadh was one of the seven great houses of the Sasanian Empire. Like the House of Mihran, their seat laid at Ray, which made the German scholar Theodor Nöldeke suggest that they may have been the same family. Like most of the other seven great houses, the House of Spandiyadh was of Parthian origin. The family claimed descent from the legendary Kayanid figure Isfandiyar, who was the son of the Vishtaspa, who according to Zoroastrian sources was one of Zoroaster's early followers.

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