Bahrām Chobin
General Bahrām Chobin (Chubin, Chobina) (in Persian بهرام چوبین) was a famous Eran spahbod (Iranian army-commander) during the late 6th century in Persia, usurping the Sassanid throne for a year as Bahram VI (590-591).[1]
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[edit] Life
Descended from the House of Mihran, one of the Seven Parthian clans, his first great victory came in Herat in 589, which is reported in a number of sources.[2] He successfully defeated a large Göktürk army in great Turkish War. Reportedly, the Turkish forces outnumbered his troops five to one. Relying on the discipline and superior training of his Persian Cataphract cavalry, Bahram trapped and defeated the Turks, killing the Göktürk Bagha/Yabghu Qaghan. After suffering a minor defeat in battle against the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire, Shah Hormizd IV humiliated him, sending him women's clothing to wear. Thus, he along with the main Persian army, rebelled against the Shah and marched toward Ctesiphon. Hormizd was killed and his son, Khosrau II, unable to fight such an army, fled to Byzantine territory and Bahram sat on the throne.
Bindoy, the uncle of Khosrau, who had accompanied him into exile, was sent with a large army granted by the Byzantine Emperor Maurice. They went to Armenia to outflank Bahram, who was defeated in the lowlands and lost Ctesiphon. He retreated to Azerbaijan but was finally defeated at the Battle of Blarathon and fled to the Turks in Central Asia and settled in Ferghana.[3] However, after some time he was murdered by the hired assassin sent by Khusrau II.[4]
[edit] Legacy
There are many fables attributed to Bahram VI, as is the norm for many heroes in Persian literature. The chapters in Volume VIII of Ferdowsi's 11th-century Shahnameh[5] on the reigns of "Hurmuzd, Son of Nushirwan," and "Khusrau Parviz," both of which are almost as much about Bahram Chobin as about Hormizd or his son. The sections on Bahram Chobin's sister, Gordiyeh, are of special interest. According to traditions outside the Shāhnāmeh, she was also his wife.
Following the collapse of the Sassanid empire, the Samanid dynasty, one of the first independent Persian dynasties, were descendants of Bahram Chobin.[6]
[edit] References
- ^ Tabari, The History of al-Tabari:The Sāsānids, the Byzantines, the Lakhmids, and Yemen, Vol.V, trans. Clifford Edmund Bosworth, (State University of New York Press, 1999), 311.
- ^ Touraj Daryaee, Sasanian Persia:The Rise and Fall of an Empire, (I.B.Tauris, 2010), 31.
- ^ Gumilev L.N. Bahram Chubin, pp. 229 - 230
- ^ Usanova M. Ismoil Somonii waqfnomasi, p. 29.
- ^ online at http://persian.packhum.org/persian/
- ^ Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Jaʻfar Narshakhī, History of Bukhara, Transl. Richard Nelson Fyre, (Markus Weiner Publishers, 2007), 77-78.
[edit] External links
| Preceded by Khosrau II |
Sassanid Rulers 590–591 |
Succeeded by Khosrau II |
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