CHAPTER IV

THE SASANIDES, THE EPHTHALITES, AND THE TURKS

THE history of Central Asia during the earlier centuries of our era is bound up in that of Persia, and its course was moulded by the fortunes of the great dynasty called after the grandfather of its founder, the Sāsānide, which governed the empire from A.D. 219 until the Arab invasion more than four centuries later. In the third century (A.D. 200) of our era the condition of Persia resembled that of France before the power of feudalism was broken by the crafts and iron will of Louis XI. The authority of the reigning dynasty was little more than nominal, and the land was parcelled out among a host of petty tribes whose mountain fastnesses enabled them to bid defiance to the Parthian dynasty. Among the

followers of one of their rabble chieftains was a certain Pāpak, a native of a village lying to the east of Shīrāz. With the aid of a son named Ardashir, he overthrew his master, and usurped authority over the province of Fars. Ardashir's bold and restless character appears to have inspired his father with some distrust, for on his death he left his dominions to another son, named Shāpūr. succession was contested by Ardashīr, but when he was about to enforce his claim with the sword, Shāpūr died, in all probability by poison.1 Ardashir's thirst for

The

1 The best accounts of the Sasanide dynasty are to be found in Nöldeke's admirable translation of the portion of Tabari's annals dealing with that period

empire now led him to attack his neighbouring potentates. One after another succumbed to his genius; and he became master, in turn, of Kirman, Susiana, and other eastern States. Then finding himself in a position to strike a blow for the sovereignty of Persia, he bade defiance to Ardavan,1 the last of the Parthian line. A decisive battle was fought between them, probably in Babylonia, in the year 218. Ardavān was slain, and Ardashir was crowned "king of kings" on the field. His capital was Istakhr, but he chose Ctesiphon (or Madā'in) as a residence. How far Ardashir's personal conquests actually extended, it is hard to define. Oriental historians have greatly exaggerated the extent of his empire, which they allege to have stretched from the Euphrates on one side, to Khwārazm on the other. Ardashir was a wise and just ruler, and his career can be compared only with Napoleon's. Without the prestige of birth or fortune he won an empire, and was able to maintain order in extended realms which had for centuries been a prey to anarchy. He died in 241, and For the first ten

was succeeded by his son Shāpūr I. years of his reign he was, like his father, engaged in chronic warfare with Rome, which did not terminate till 260, when the Emperor Valerian fell into his hands, dying afterwards in captivity. According to extant coins, Shāpūr I. made himself master of the non-Iranian lands to the east of Khorāsān, and to him is ascribed the conquest of Nishāpūr, and Shāpūr in Northern Persia. In 272 he was succeeded by his son Hormuz, who con- Geschichte der Araber und Perser zur Zeit der Säsäniden, Leyden 1879, and his Aufsätze zur Persischen Geschichte, Leipzig, 1887. From these sources we have derived most of our details, and will therefore give no further references.

1 Or Artabanus.

* Some authorities maintain that this city was founded by Shāpūr 11. about 340.

tinued the struggle with the Romans, in which Syria, Asia Minor, and Armenia were alternatively subjects of contention.

The succeeding reigns have little bearing on history until we come to that of Bahram Gūr, which was signalised by a persecution of the Christians, and a recommencement of warfare with Rome. Bahrām Gūr was worsted in the latter, and entered into a treaty with the Western Empire, which bound the contracting parties to tolerate the Christian and Zoroastrian cults respectively. The Romans further undertook to pay an annual subsidy towards the maintenance of the fortifications on the Dariel Pass in the Caucasus, by which both kingdoms were protected from the inroads of the wild hordes of the North. Bahrām took advantage of his truce with the Romans to make an expedition into Bactria, where he encountered the Ephthalites, or White Huns, whom, according to Persian accounts, he utterly defeated. We are told that the Khākān 5 of the "tribes of Transoxiana," being informed that Bahrām and his court were immersed in luxury and had entirely lost their martial spirit, ventured to cross the Oxus and laid waste the whole of Khorasan. He was soon undeceived, for Bahrām, at the head of seven thousand men, fell upon the Turks by night,

1 Gür means "wild ass." The king, who is one of the favourites of Persian tradition, received this sobriquet on account of his passion for hunting wild asses. He usurped the crown.

2 The Sasanides were fire-worshippers, disciples of Zoroaster.

3

This pass is traversed by the famous Georgian Military Road connecting Vladikavkaz with Tiflis.

4 Transoxiana was never included in the kingdom of the Sasanides; the possessions of Achemenides stretched far farther east than those of the Sāsānians.

5 Cf. p. 21, note 2, supra.

6 Here we follow Malcolm (History of Persia), who bases his account on those of various well-known Persian historians, such as Mirkhwand and Khwändamir.

and put them utterly to rout, the Khākān perishing by the king's own hand. Bahram then crossed the Oxus and concluded a peace with his eastern neighbours.1 Bahrām died in 438, and was succeeded by his son Yezdijerd II. During his reign of nineteen years his attention was engrossed by Armenia and by Khorāsān, where he suffered many reverses at the hands of the Ephthalites. On his death in A.D. 457 his two sons, Hormuz III. and Pīrūz, became rival claimants to the throne. Their father, who preferred the former, but feared a quarrel between the brothers, had given Pīrūz the governorship of a distant province, Sīstān. Pīrūz, on learning that his brother had seized the throne and won the support of the nobility, fled across the Oxus, and implored the chief Khakan2 of the Ephthalites to espouse The Huns consented, and sent an army thirty thousand strong to his aid.3 With this accession of strength, Pirūz invaded Persia, and defeated his brother in a pitched battle. Hormuz III. thus lost his crown, and was put to death together with three of his nearest relatives. The reign of his successful rival was fraught with useful domestic measures. He had to contend against a famine which lasted for seven years; but, so prompt and effectual were the means adopted to combat it, that, if Tabari is to be believed, there was not a single death from starvation. Pīrūz's foreign policy was by no

his cause.

1 We are told that when Bahram Gur returned from this expedition to his capital, Ctesiphon, he appointed his brother Governor of Khorāsān, designating Balkh as his residence.

2 According to the Persian historians, the Khākān was named KhushNawaz. Nöldeke, however, disapproved of this reading, the invention he thinks of Firdawsi, and employs that of Akh-Shunwar.

3 Tabari tells us that Pīruz had previously ceded to the Khākān the important frontier town of Tālikān.

4 Some of the means would hardly commend themselves to modern economists. Pīrūz remitted taxes and large sums from the treasury; but he also compelled the rich to feed their poorer neighbours from these taxes.

means so praiseworthy: though he owed his crown to the ready help of the Khākān of the Ephthalites, we find him in 480 freely attacking his benefactor's son and successor. This apparent ingratitude is ascribed by Joseph Stylites to the intrigue of the Romans, whose jealousy of the power of Persia induced them to incite the Huns to attack her eastern frontier. Nöldeke suggests as the cause of this rupture the exorbitant nature of the demands made by the Huns as the price of their assistance in placing Pīrūz on the throne. Be this as it may, the struggle was disastrous to the Persian army. After obtaining some trivial successes, Pīrūz was obliged to conclude more than one humiliating treaty with the Huns, the terms of which he did not loyally fulfil. On one occasion his son Kobād was left for two years in their hands as a hostage for the payment of a large indemnity. A little later we find Pīrūz himself a

prisoner.

A crisis in his affairs came in 484, when he led an immense force against his inveterate foes, only to suffer a crushing defeat at their hands, and to lose his life; while his daughter was taken prisoner and forced to enter the Khākān's harem. Persia now lay at the mercy of the barbarians whose hordes overran the country, drowning its civilisation in blood. From this anarchy the land was saved by the efforts of a great noble named Sukhrā, or Zermihr. At the time of the Huns' invasion he was essaying to quell one of the periodical revolts in Armenia. Hurrying back to the Persian capital with a considerable force, he established a semblance of order, and placed Balash, a brother of Piruz, on the throne. The new king bought off the White Huns, probably by undertaking to pay a yearly tribute. But his treasury was empty. He was able to attach no party in the State to his banner, and in 488 he incurred the resentment of

I