Smbat IV Bagratuni Սմբատ Դ Բագրատունի | |
---|---|
Marzban of Hyrcania | |
Reign | 595 - 602 |
Predecessor | Unknown |
Successor | Unknown |
Marzban of Persian Armenia | |
Reign | 607 - 616/617 |
Predecessor | Boutmah |
Successor | Shahrayeanpet |
Born | Unknown |
Died | 616 or 617 |
House | House of Bagratuni |
Father | Manuel Bagratuni |
Religion | Christianity |
Smbat IV Bagratuni (Armenian : Սմբատ Դ Բագրատունի; Greek : Συμβάτιος) was an Armenian prince from the Bagratuni dynasty who served first in the Byzantine army before switching, ca. 595, to the Sasanian Empire, where he had a distinguished military career and earned high honours until his death in 616/7. He was succeeded by his son, Varaztirots.
Smbat was the son of Manuel Bagratuni. He is first mentioned some time in the 580s, when the Byzantine emperor Maurice (r. 582–602) requested the Armenian nobles to raise cavalry for service in his wars against the Avars. Smbat and Sahak Mamikonian led a thousand-strong unit each to Constantinople, where they were richly rewarded and sent home. Sebeos also adds that Maurice supposedly adopted Smbat at this occasion. [1] In 589, however, Smbat led a rebellion against the Byzantines, was captured and sent to Constantinople, where he was condemned to death and was thrown to be devoured by the beasts in the Hippodrome of Constantinople. He was pardoned at the last minute by Maurice, who then banished him to some "distant islands" and later to Africa. [1]
Smbat returned from exile some time after, and entered the service of the Sasanian shah Khosrow II, who in 595 appointed him marzban (military governor) of Hyrcania (the southern coastlands of the Caspian Sea). [1] [2] Smbat served in this post until 602, but was initially employed in suppressing the rebellion of Vistahm in Khorasan, before being recalled to reside at the royal court in Ctesiphon. There he received further honours, and was also appointed Lesser Minister of Finance. [1] [2]
In ca. 607 ("the eighteenth year of Khosrow's reign") he was sent back to Armenia with extensive powers as "Commander of the army of the lords of houses". His tenure in Armenia was short but productive: as N. Garsoian writes, "Smbat’s extraordinary powers allowed him to reaffirm the authority of the Persian crown in Persarmenia, to restore the prestige of the weakened Armenian Church by summoning a council that elected a new katholikos , Abraham I, after a vacancy of three years, and to rebuild the cathedral of the Armenian administrative capital of Duin, overriding the objections of the local Persian authorities". [2] In the next year, Smbat received the honorific title Khosrow Shun ("the Joy or Satisfaction of Khosrow"), and about this time led a campaign on behalf of Khosrow against the Hephthalites, whom he defeated, possibly killing their king in single combat. [1] [2]
After that, he retired to the royal court, where he lived amidst the honours accorded to him by Khosrow until his death in 616/7. He was succeeded by his son, Varaztirots. [1] [2]
Khosrow I, traditionally known by his epithet of Anushirvan, was the King of Kings of the Sassanian Empire from 531 to 579. He was the son and successor of Kavad I.
Kavad II was the Sasanian King of Kings of Iran briefly in 628.
Khosrow II, commonly 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 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.
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.
Shirin was wife of the Sasanian emperor Khosrow II. In the revolution after the death of Khosrow's father Hormizd IV, the General Bahram Chobin took power over the Persian empire. Shirin fled with Khosrow to Roman Syria, where they lived under the protection of Byzantine emperor Maurice.
Mamikonian, or Mamikonean, was an Armenian aristocratic dynasty which dominated Armenian politics between the 4th and 8th centuries. They were the most notable noble house in Early Christian Armenia after the ruling Arsacid dynasty and held the hereditary positions of sparapet and dayeak, allowing them to play the role of kingmaker for the later Armenian kings. They ruled over extensive territories, including the Armenian regions of Tayk, Taron, Sasun, and Bagrevand, among others. The Mamikonians had a reputation as supporters of the Roman Empire in Armenia against Sasanian Iran, although they also served as viceroys under Persian rule. Their influence over Armenian affairs began to decline at the end of the 6th century and suffered a final, decisive blow after a failed rebellion against Arab rule over Armenia in 774/75.
Smbat I, sometimes Smbat A Martyr was the second king of the medieval Kingdom of Armenia of the Bagratuni dynasty, and son of Ashot I. He is the father of Ashot II and Abas I.
Ashot I was a king of Armenia who oversaw the beginning of Armenia's second golden age. He was the son of Smbat VIII the Confessor and was a member of the Bagratuni dynasty.
Bahrām Chōbīn or Wahrām Chōbēn, also known by his epithet Mehrbandak, was a nobleman, general, and political leader of the late Sasanian Empire and briefly its ruler as Bahram VI.
The Sasanian Empire, officially Ērānšahr, was the last pre-Islamic Iranian empire. Named after the House of Sasan, it endured for over four centuries, from 224 to 651, making it the second longest-lived Persian imperial dynasty after the directly preceding Arsacid dynasty of Parthia. It fell to the Rashidun Caliphate during the early Muslim conquests, which marked the beginning of a monumental societal shift by initiating the Islamization of Iran.
The Hephthalite–Gokturk raids of 614–616 were incursions by the Hephthalites and Gokturks into the Sasanian Empire. The Sasanid army led by Smbat Bagratuni quickly defeated the Hephthalites raid who, in response, called the Gokturk Empire for assistance. The Gokturks responded with a large army that raided as far as Ray and the province of Isfahan. The raid was defeated with Smbat killing the Hephthalites leader in single combat.
Bagratid Armenia was an independent Armenian state established by Ashot I of the Bagratuni dynasty in the early 880s following nearly two centuries of foreign domination of Greater Armenia under Arab Umayyad and Abbasid rule. With each of the two contemporary powers in the region—the Abbasids and Byzantines—too preoccupied to concentrate their forces on subjugating the region, and with the dissipation of several of the Armenian nakharar noble families, Ashot succeeded in asserting himself as the leading figure of a movement to dislodge the Arabs from Armenia.
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.
The Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628 was the final and most devastating of the series of wars fought between the Byzantine Empire and the Persian Sasanian Empire. The previous war between the two powers had ended in 591 after Emperor Maurice helped the Sasanian king Khosrow II regain his throne. In 602, Maurice was murdered by his political rival Phocas. Khosrow declared war, ostensibly to avenge the death of the deposed emperor Maurice. This became a decades-long conflict, the longest war in the series, and was fought throughout the Middle East: in Egypt, the Levant, Mesopotamia, the Caucasus, Anatolia, Armenia, the Aegean Sea and before the walls of Constantinople itself.
Vistahm or Bistam, was a Parthian dynasty of the Ispahbudhan house, and maternal uncle of the Sasanian king of kings of Iran, Khosrow II. Vistahm helped Khosrow regain his throne after the rebellion of another Parthian noble Bahram Chobin, of House of Mihran, but later led a revolt himself, and ruled independently over a region which encompassed the entire Iranian East until he was defeated by Khosrow and his allies.
The Bagratuni or Bagratid dynasty was an Armenian royal dynasty which ruled the medieval Kingdom of Armenia from c. 885 until 1045. Originating as vassals of the Kingdom of Armenia of antiquity, they rose to become the most prominent Armenian noble family during the period of Arab rule in Armenia, eventually establishing their own independent kingdom. Their domain included regions of Armenia such as Shirak, Bagrevand, Kogovit, Syunik, Lori, Vaspurakan, Vanand and Taron. Many historians, such as Cyril Toumanoff, Nicholas Adontz and Ronald Suny, consider them to be the progenitors of the Georgian royal Bagrationi dynasty.
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 Sassanid Empire or Sassanian Dynasty is the name used for the Persian dynasty which lasted from 224 to 651 AD.