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Azarmidokht and the years of the claimants
Azarmidokht, another daughter of Khosrow II, succeeded her sister Boran. According to Ṭabari, Farrukh Hormizd, a powerful spahbed, asked to marry her and she had him killed. His son Rostam came with an army, blinded her and killed her. Her reign lasted about six months. Between 630 and 632 several other claimants also held the crown for days or months. This page groups them together.
- months of reign
- ~6
- claimants in 630–632
- 6+
Map: Azarmidokht and the claimants
Administration & economylate 631 CE1 of 7
Accession
Azarmidokht, daughter of Khosrow II, succeeded Boran. Ṭabari says she proclaimed: “Our way of conduct will be that of our father Kisra, the victorious one, and if anyone rebels against us, we will shed his blood.”
Certainty: Secure (contemporary source)
Sources: al-Ṭabarī, tr. C. E. Bosworth, 1999 · Ph. Gignoux, Encyclopaedia Iranica, 1987
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Three separate layers
Each section has three layers: “Historical evidence” is only what the sources say; “Philosophical interpretation” is our reading by the standard of property and liberty; “Modern cultural meaning”. Quotations come only from published translations, with references.
Historical evidencePhilosophical interpretationModern cultural meaning
Dossier · 1
Azarmidokht and Farrukh Hormizd
Ṭabari says Azarmidokht was one of the most beautiful women of the Persians. Farrukh Hormizd asked to marry her. She replied that marriage to a queen was not permissible and invited him to the palace one night; then she had him killed and his body thrown into the square before the palace. His son Rostam came from Khorasan, blinded her and killed her. Coins of hers are known, one from the mint of Shiraz, with her own name and her father’s effigy.
She wrote back, “Marriage to a queen is not permissible. I realize full well that your intention in what you are proposing is to satisfy your own [sexual] needs and lust with me; so come to me on such-and-such night.”
The sources do not agree on Farrukh Hormizd’s base: Ṭabari calls him spahbed of Khorasan, Sebeos prince of Ādurbādagān. The face on Azarmidokht’s coins is bearded. Bosworth’s note calls it her father Khosrow II’s effigy; Emrani suggests the beard was there to show that the ruler was not a woman but a king. Which reading is right is disputed.
In these years the crown no longer brought power; power came from the generals’ armies. Whoever had an army could make or unmake a ruler. This is our reading.
Sources: al-Ṭabarī, tr. C. E. Bosworth · Ph. Gignoux, Encyclopaedia Iranica · H. Emrani · M. L. Chaumont, Encyclopaedia Iranica
Dossier · 2
The short-lived claimants (630–632)
After Boran and Azarmidokht, Ṭabari and other sources name several claimants. None has a separate page, since little more than a few sentences survives about any of them:
• Jushnas Dih: a remote descendant of Khosrow II’s paternal uncle; less than a month after Boran.
• Kisra (Khosrow III?), son of Mihr Jushnas: of the stock of Ardashir I, living in al-Ahwāz; a few days.
• Fayruz (Peroz II?), son of Mihran Jushnas: through his mother a grandson of Yazdāndādh son of Khosrow I, living in Maysān; a few days. No coins of his survive.
• Khurrazadh Khusraw and Farrukhzadh Khusraw: a son of Khosrow II who had fled to the Stone Fortress near Nisibis; a few days, or six months.
• Hormizd (V or VI): coins in his name exist; the Armenian sources place his centre at Nisibis.
• Khosrow IV: struck coins as HWSRWB; possibly the same man as Farrukhzadh Khusraw.
Some sources also mention another Khosrow who had grown up in “the land of the Turks” and was killed by the governor of Khorasan after three months.
He was a man with a large head, and when he was crowned he exclaimed, “How tight this crown is!” The great men of state drew a bad omen from his beginning his reign by speaking of tightness and narrowness, hence killed him after he had reigned for [only] a few days.
Bosworth notes that the sources confuse these names: Khurrazadh and Farrukhzadh Khusraw may be one man, and Jushnas Dih and Fayruz may be one man too. Hormizd and Khosrow IV were probably recognised only in parts of the realm. The numbers III, IV, V and VI were given by modern historians and vary between books.
In four years, from the coup of 628 to the rise of Yazdegerd III, perhaps ten people held the crown. When there is no clear rule of succession and fratricide has emptied the dynasty, every general makes his own king. In exactly these years Arab forces reached the borders of Iraq.
Sources: al-Ṭabarī, tr. C. E. Bosworth
Synthesis
Azarmidokht, the second of Khosrow’s daughters on the throne, ruled about six months and was killed by Rostam (or poisoned). After her and before Yazdegerd III several short-lived claimants came and went. Their order and identities are disputed.
Bibliography
- al-Ṭabarī, tr. C. E. Bosworth, The History of al-Ṭabarī V: The Sāsānids, the Byzantines, the Lakhmids, and Yemen (Albany) (1999). https://archive.org/details/vol.-5.-the-sasanids-the-byzantines-the-lakhmids-and-yemen
- Ph. Gignoux, Encyclopaedia Iranica, Āzarmīgduxt (1987). https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/azarmigduxt/
- H. Emrani, “Like Father, Like Daughter: Late Sasanian Imperial Ideology and the Rise of Bōrān to Power”, e-Sasanika 5 (2009).
- M. L. Chaumont, Encyclopaedia Iranica, Bōrān (1989). https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/boran-pers/
All photos are from Wikimedia Commons; licence and author were checked on each file page.
Boran, her sisterKhosrow II, her fatherYazdegerd III, the last kingThe Sasanian dynasty