Shapur of Ray was a Sasanian military officer from the Mihran family. The city Ray in his name was the seat of the Mihran family. [1]
According to Abu Hanifa Dinawari (d. 896), Shapur was the governor of the two Mesopotamian districts of Khutarniyah and Babylonia during Kavad I's reign. [1] According to al-Tabari, he held the rank of "Supreme Commander of the Land" (iṣbahbadh al-bilād). Ferdowsi records him being recalled by Kavad I to destroy the powerful Sukhra of Karen family, who was also Shapur Razi's rival. Shapur Razi defeated and captured Sukhra in Shiraz. The Mihran-Karen rivalry became proverbial in the contemporary Sasanian society, as reflected in the expression "Sukhra's wind has died away, and a wind belonging to Mihran has now started to blow". [1]
He briefly served as the governor ( marzban ) of Persian Armenia from 483 to 484. [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.
Shērōē, better known by his dynastic name of Kavad II, was king (shah) of the Sasanian Empire briefly in 628. He was the son of Khosrow II, whom he succeeded after having him overthrown in a coup d'état. Kavad'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.
Khosrow II, also known as Khosrow Parviz, is considered to be the last great Sasanian king (shah) of Iran, ruling from 590 to 628, with an interruption of one year.
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 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. At his accession, 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 of himself 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 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 near Balkh.
Shahrbaraz, was shah (king) of the Sasanian Empire from 27 April 630 to 9 June 630. He usurped the throne from Ardashir III, and was killed by Iranian nobles after forty days. Before usurping the Sasanian throne he was a spahbed (general) under Khosrow II (590–628). He is furthermore noted for his important role during the climactic Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628, and the events that followed afterwards.
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.
Boran was Sasanian queen of Iran from 630 to 632, with an interruption of some months. She was the daughter of king Khosrow II and the Byzantine princess Maria. She is the second of only three women to rule in Iranian history, the others being Musa of Parthia, and Boran's sister Azarmidokht.
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 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 historigraphical 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.
The Seven Great Houses of Iran, also known as the seven Parthian clans, were seven feudal aristocracies of Parthian origin, who were allied with the Sasanian court.
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.
Azarmidokht was Sasanian queen (banbishn) of Iran from 630 to 631. She was the daughter of king (shah) Khosrow II. She was the second Sasanian queen; her sister Boran ruled before and after her. Azarmidokht came to power in Iran after her cousin Shapur-i Shahrvaraz was deposed by the Parsig faction, led by Piruz Khosrow, who helped Azarmidokht ascend the throne. She was, however, the following year killed by Rostam Farrokhzad in retaliation for having his father killed. She was succeeded by Boran.
The Bavand dynasty, or simply the Bavandids, was an Iranian dynasty that ruled in parts of Tabaristan (Mazandaran) in what is now northern Iran from 651 until 1349, alternating between outright independence and submission as vassals to more powerful regional rulers.
Hormuzan was an Iranian aristocrat who served as the governor of Khuzestan, and was one of the Sasanian military officers at the Battle of al-Qādisiyyah. He was later taken prisoner by the Muslims after the fall of Shushtar in 642. Two years later, he was accused of the assassination of the Rashidun caliph Umar, and was killed by 'Ubaid-Allah, the deceased caliph's son.
Farrukhzad, was an Iranian aristocrat from the House of Ispahbudhan and the founder of the Bavand dynasty, ruling from 651 to 665. Originally a powerful servant of the Sasanian king Khosrow II, he, along with several other powerful aristocrats made a conspiracy against the latter and ended his tyrannical rule. They thereafter put Khosrow's son Kavadh II on the throne, whose rule lasted only a few months, before he was killed by a plague, being succeeded by his son Ardashir III, who was only after one year murdered by the rebellious former Sasanian army chief (spahbed) Shahrbaraz, who usurped the throne.
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.
Piruz Khosrow, also known as Piruzan or Firuzan, was a powerful Persian aristocrat who was the leader of the Parsig (Persian) faction that controlled much of the affairs of the Sasanian Empire during the Sasanian civil war of 628-632. He was killed at the Battle of Nahāvand in 642.
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.
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.
Preceded by Zarmihr Hazarwuxt | Marzban of Persian Armenia 483–484 | Succeeded by Vahan Mamikonian |