Khosrow I
Khosrow I, traditionally known by his epithet of Anushirvan, was the Sasanian King of Kings of Iran from 531 to 579. He was the son and successor of Kavad I.
Inheriting a reinvigorated empire at war with the Byzantines, Khosrow I signed a peace treaty with them in 532, known as the Perpetual Peace, in which the Byzantine emperor Justinian I paid 11,000 pounds of gold to the Sasanians. Khosrow then focused on consolidating his power, executing conspirators, including his uncle Bawi. Dissatisfied with the actions of the Byzantine clients and vassals, the Ghassanids, and encouraged by Ostrogoth envoys from Italy, Khosrow violated the peace treaty and declared war against the Byzantines in 540. He sacked the major city of Antioch and deported its population to Persia. In 541, he invaded Lazica and made it an Iranian protectorate, thus initiating the Lazic War. In 545, the two empires agreed to halt the wars in Mesopotamia and Syria while continuing to fight in Lazica. A truce was declared in 557, and by 562 the fifty-year peace treaty was signed.
In 572, Justin II, the successor of Justinian, broke the peace treaty and sent a Byzantine force into the Sasanian region of Arzanene. The following year, Khosrow besieged and captured the important Byzantine fortress-city of Dara, which led to Justin II's insanity. The war lasted until 591, outliving Khosrow. Khosrow's wars were not only focused in the west. To the east, in an alliance with the Göktürks, he finally put an end to the Hephthalite Empire, which had inflicted a handful of defeats on the Sasanians in the 5th century, killing Khosrow's grandfather Peroz I. To the south, Iranian forces led by Wahrez defeated the Aksumites and conquered Yemen.
Khosrow I is known for his character, virtue and knowledge. During his ambitious reign, he continued his father's project of making major social, military, and economic reforms, promoting the welfare of the people, increasing state revenues, establishing a professional army, and founding or rebuilding many cities, palaces, and much infrastructure. He was interested in literature and philosophy, and under his reign, art and science flourished in Iran. He was the most distinguished of the Sasanian kings, and his name became a royal title, like that of Caesar in Roman history.
At the time of his death, the Sasanian Empire had reached its greatest extent since Shapur II, stretching from Yemen in the west to Gandhara in the east. He was succeeded by his son Hormizd IV.
Name and titles
Khosrow is the New Persian variant of his name used by scholars; his original name was Middle Persian, Husraw, itself derived from Avestan Haosrauuah. The name is rendered in Greek as Chosroes and in Arabic as Kisra. Besides his personal name, he is widely known in sources by his epithet of Anushirvan, a New Persian rendering of Middle Persian anūšag-ruwān. He received this title after his death to distinguish him from Khosrow II. It referred to his religious reforms and promotion of the prosperity of the realm and probably also connected him with the mythical immortal king Kay Khosrow. Other variants of the name are Anoshirvan, Anushiravan and Nowshīrvān. Khosrow was also known by the epithets Dādgar and, in Islamic times,Historiography
Many sources dating to the Islamic era, such as the Arabic History of the Prophets and Kings by al-Tabari and the medieval Persian epic Shahnameh by Ferdowsi, give much information regarding Khosrow's reforms, and thus most likely drew both of their information from the Middle Persian history book Khwaday-Namag. Other works were made independently, such as the Sirat Anushirwan, which was reportedly an autobiography made by Khosrow himself, and survives in the work of Miskawayh. Khosrow is also mentioned in several Greek sources, such as those of Procopius, Agathias and Menander Protector, who all give important information regarding Khosrow's management of the Irano-Roman wars. Syriac authors such as John of Ephesus and Zacharias Rhetor also include Khosrow in their work, offering a perspective of the consequences that his expeditions brought on the people who lived on the Roman border.Background
Khosrow I was reportedly born between 512 and 514 at Ardestan, a town located in the Spahan province in central Iran. The town, dating back to the Achaemenid period, thrived during Khosrow's age, and also included a fire temple, which was said to be founded by the mythological Kayanian king Kay Bahman, from whom the Sasanians claimed their descent. Khosrow was the youngest son of Kavad I, the ruling Sasanian shah. His mother was an Ispahbudhan princess, who was the sister of the leading Iranian general Bawi. The Ispahbudhan were one of the Seven Great Houses of Iran that formed the elite aristocracy of the Sasanian Empire. In particular, they enjoyed such a high status that they were acknowledged as "kin and partners of the Sasanians". The family also held the important position of spahbed of the West, i.e., the Sasanian Empire's southwestern regions.Following the tradition of the aristocratic or upper-class families, Khosrow would have started at school between the ages of five and seven. There he would learn to write and would learn the yashts, Hadokht, Bayān Yasn and Vendidad, following the same pattern of schooling made for a future priest. Furthermore, he would listen to the Middle Persian translation of the Avesta, the Zend. Afterwards, he would be schooled in riding, archery, polo and military creativity.
Early life
Negotiations with the Byzantines over the adoption of Khosrow
In, Kavad, in order to secure the succession of Khosrow, whose position was threatened by rival brothers and the Mazdakite sect, proposed that Emperor Justin I adopt him. The proposal was initially greeted with enthusiasm by the Byzantine Emperor and his nephew, Justinian, but Justin's quaestor, Proclus, opposed the move, due to the concern of Khosrow possibly later try to take over the Byzantine throne. The Byzantines instead made a counter-proposal to adopt Khosrow not as a Roman, but a barbarian. In the end the negotiations did not come to a consensus. Khosrow reportedly felt insulted by the Byzantines, and his attitude towards them deteriorated.Mahbod, who had along with Siyawush acted as the diplomats of the negotiations, accused the latter of purposely sabotaging the negotiations. Further accusations were made towards Siyawush, which included the reverence of new deities and having his dead wife buried, which was a violation of Iranian laws. Siyawush was thus most likely a Mazdakite, the religious sect that Kavad originally supported but now had withdrawn his support from. Although Siyawush was a close friend of Kavad and had helped him escape from imprisonment, the latter did not try to prevent his execution, seemingly with the purpose of restricting Siyawush's immense authority as the head of the Sasanian army, a post which was disliked by the other nobles. Siyawush was executed, and his office was abolished. Despite the breakdown of the negotiations, it was not until 530 that full-scale warfare on the main eastern frontier broke out. In the intervening years, the two sides preferred to wage war by proxy, through Arab allies in the south and Huns in the north.
Persecution of Mazdak and his followers
was the chief representative of a religious and philosophical teaching called Mazdakism, which opposed violence, and reportedly called for the sharing of wealth, women and property, an archaic form of communism. Mazdakism not only consisted of theological and cosmological aspects, but also political and social impacts, which was to the disadvantage of the nobility and clergy. According to modern historians Touraj Daryaee and Matthew Canepa, the charge of sharing women was most likely an overstatement and defamation deriving from Mazdak's decree that loosened marriage rules to help the lower classes. Powerful families saw this as a tactic to weaken their lineage and advantages, which was most likely the case. Kavad used the movement as a political tool to curb the power of the nobility and clergy. With the nobility and clergy weakened, Kavad was able to make reforms with less difficulty. By the 520s, Kavad's reforms were progressing smoothly, and he no longer had any use for Mazdak. As a result, he officially withdrew his support from the Mazdakites. A debate was arranged where not only the Zoroastrian priesthood, but also the Christian and Jewish ones slandered Mazdak and his followers.According to the Shahnameh, Kavad had Mazdak and his supporters sent to Khosrow, who had his supporters killed by burying their heads in a walled orchard, with only their feet being visible. Khosrow then summoned Mazdak to look at his garden, saying the following: "You will find trees there that no-one has ever seen and no-one ever heard of even from the mouth of the ancient sages." Mazdak, seeing his followers corpses, screamed and passed out. He was afterwards executed by Khosrow, who had his feet fastened on a gallows, and had his men shoot arrows at him. The validity of the story is uncertain; Ferdowsi used much earlier reports of events to write the Shahnameh, and thus the story may report some form of contemporary memory.