Bahram II

Kartir is the only person besides the kings to leave long inscriptions in his own name in early Sasanian times: on the Kaʿba-ye Zardosht (KKZ), and at Naqsh-e Rostam, Naqsh-e Rajab and Sar Mashhad. In them he lists his titles under four kings: hērbed under Shapur, “mowbed of Ohrmazd” under Hormizd and Bahram I, and a new title under Bahram II. He says that in the land Jews, Shamans (Buddhists), Brahmans, Christians, Nazarenes, Makdags and Zandīgs (Manichaeans) were “struck down”, and idols were destroyed.

The meaning of the new title is disputed. The older reading was “saviour of Bahram’s soul”; Skjærvø in Iranica thinks “whose soul was saved by Bahram” more likely. The real scale of the persecutions is also unclear: Iranica (Shayegan) calls Kartir’s claim historically tenuous, and scholars such as Kalmin doubt that synagogues were destroyed.

Kartir boasted of persecuting others and carved it in stone. These inscriptions are the first Iranian record of an official religion backed by the state; and wherever the state becomes judge of people’s beliefs, minorities’ lives, property and places of worship are at risk.

Bahram II’s coins are of four types: the king alone; with Queen Šāpūrduxtak, daughter of Shapur king of Mesene; with the crown prince Bahram Sakān Šāh; and, most often, king and queen facing the crown prince. His winged crown is the emblem of the god Bahram.

Shahbazi reads the lion hunt at Sar Mashhad mainly as a real show of royal courage rather than an allegory. The two mounted combats at Naqsh-e Rostam have been linked to the war with Carus; that link is only an interpretation.

A queen and crown prince on the coins meant a clear succession message. The crisis after his death showed that a message on a coin could not replace the consent of the nobles.