Revolt of Bahram Chobin and the restoration of Khosrow II
Bahram Chobin, the general who had routed the Turks, rebelled against Hormizd IV; while he marched on Ctesiphon a palace coup deposed and killed Hormizd and crowned his son Khosrow II, but Bahram took the capital and made himself king. Khosrow fled to the Romans, and in 591 the emperor Maurice restored him with an army, receiving in return frontier fortresses, most of Persian Armenia and western Iberia.
- Date
- 589–591year known · duration: ≈ 2 years
- Place
- Ctesiphontoday: Salman Pak, Baghdad Governorate, Iraq · Middle East and Egypt
- Participants
- Bahram Chobin, Hormizd IV, Khosrow II Parviz, Maurice, Sasanian Empire, Byzantine Empire, First Turkic Khaganate
- Threads
- Middle East and Egypt (6th–10th c.)
- Also known as
- Sasanian civil war of 589–591; Revolt of Bahram Chobin; Battle of Blarathon; Bahram VI; Сасанидская гражданская война (589—591); Восстание Бахрама Чубина; Битва при Бларафоне; Битва при Бларатоне
Khosrow I’s son Hormizd IV (579–590) pursued his father’s struggle with the great noble houses so harshly that he alienated both the aristocracy and the priesthood. In 588 a Turkic and Hephthalite army overran the eastern provinces; Bahram Chobin of the Parthian house of Mihran, appointed spahbed of Khorasan with a picked force of 12,000 horsemen, routed it and killed the Turkic khagan. When Bahram was later defeated by the Romans on the Araxes, the jealous king dismissed and humiliated him, and Bahram rose in revolt — the first time a Parthian noble house challenged the Sasanians’ right to the throne.
In 590, as the rebels approached, the brothers Vistahm and Vinduyih — uncles of the crown prince — seized power in Ctesiphon, blinded Hormizd and soon had him killed, and proclaimed his son Khosrow II. Bahram marched on regardless, defeated Khosrow’s outnumbered troops at the Nahrawan canal and entered Ctesiphon, where he reigned as Bahram VI. Khosrow fled with a small retinue to Roman territory and appealed to Maurice, who agreed to help in return for the frontier cities of Dara, Martyropolis, Amida and Carrhae and a free hand in Iberia and Armenia.
In 591 Khosrow invaded Mesopotamia with Roman troops, first under Comentiolus and then under Narses: Nisibis and Martyropolis went over to him, Dara and Mardin were taken, and his supporters recovered Ctesiphon, while his uncles and the Roman general John Mystacon advanced through Azerbaijan. At Blarathon the combined armies defeated Bahram, who fled to the Turks and was soon murdered at Khosrow’s instigation. The peace that followed gave Byzantium most of Persian Armenia and western Georgia and freed it from its payments to Persia; it held until Maurice was murdered in 602. Bahram lived on as a hero of Persian romance and of Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh.
Connections
Related events
- Reign of Khosrow I Anushirvan531–579 · Middle East and Egyptthe struggle between the crown and the great houses waged by Kavad and Khosrow I culminated in the revolt of the Mihranid Bahram
- Maurice’s Balkan campaigns582–602 · Balkans and Anatoliaafter Maurice helped Khosrow II regain the throne, the peace of 591 freed his armies for the Danube
- Civil war and split of the Turkic Khaganate581–603 · Central and Northern AsiaBahram Chobin defeated the Turks in 588 and after his fall fled to them
Same participants
- The Turks and Sasanians destroy the Hephthalite Empire (Battle of Gol-Zarriun)between 557 and 567 · Central and Northern Asiavia Sasanian Empire
- The Turks take Bosporusbetween 576 and 577 · Eastern Europevia Byzantine Empire
- The Bugut inscription, earliest monument of the Turkic Khaganatebetween 581 and 587 · Central and Northern Asiavia First Turkic Khaganate
- Avar–Persian siege of Constantinople29 June – 7 August 626 · Balkans and Anatoliavia Sasanian Empire
Same place
- Reign of Vologases I51–78 · Middle East and Egypt
- Trajan’s Parthian campaign114–117 · Middle East and Egypt
- Roman–Parthian War of 161–166161–166 · Middle East and Egypt
- Reign of Vologases IV147–191 · Middle East and Egypt
- Mani begins his mission240 · Middle East and Egypt
- Reign of Shapur II309–379 · Middle East and Egypt
- Julian’s Persian expedition and the Peace of 3635 March 363 – July 363 · Middle East and Egypt
- Council of Seleucia-Ctesiphon410 · Middle East and Egypt
- Reign of Bahram V Gurbetween 420 and 421 – 438 · Middle East and Egypt
- Suppression of the Mazdakitesbetween 524 and 529 · Middle East and Egypt
- Siege of Baghdad29 January – 10 February 1258 · Middle East and Egypt
- Capture of Baghdad by Suleiman Ibetween November and December 1534 · Middle East and Egypt
Adjacent events in the thread
- Abraha’s expedition against Mecca: the Year of the Elephantbetween 552 and 571 · Middle East and Egypt
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within a year of this event
Western and Central Europe
- Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britainbetween 410 and 449 – between 550 and 625
Eastern Europe
- Kyi, Shchek and Khoryv: the legendary founding of Kyivbetween 500 and 700
- Early Slavic cultures: Prague-Korchak, Penkovka and Kolochinc. 450 – c. 700
Balkans and Anatolia
- Maurice’s Balkan campaigns582–602
Central and Northern Asia
East Asia
- Sui conquers the Chen and reunites China22 January – between 2 February and 10 February 589
- Soga no Umako builds Asuka-dera, Japan’s first great Buddhist temple588–596
Southeast Asia and Oceania
- Chenla absorbs Funanbetween 550 and 600 – between 627 and 637
- The inscriptions of Purnavarman, king of Taruma in western Javabetween 400 and 600
- Gold pendant copying a coin of Antoninus Pius at Óc Eobetween 152 and 600
- Óc Eo, the port of Funanbetween 1 and 100 – between 601 and 700
North America
- Basketmaker III: pottery, beans and the bow on the Colorado Plateauc. 500 – c. 750
- The Late Woodland period in eastern North Americac. 500 – c. 1000
Latin America
- The burning of Teotihuacan’s ceremonial centrebetween 550 and 650
- The great drought of 563–594 and the crisis of the Mochec. 563 – c. 594
- Nazca culture and the Nazca Linesbetween 200 and 100 BC – between 500 and 800
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Sasanian civil war of 589–591
- Wikipedia (English): Bahram Chobin
- Wikipedia (English): Hormizd IV
- Wikipedia (English): Khosrow II
- Wikipedia (Russian): Сасанидская гражданская война (589—591)
- Wikipedia (Russian): Бахрам Чубин
- Wikipedia (Russian): Хосров II Парвиз
- Theophylact Simocatta. History, IV–V.
- Greatrex G., Lieu S. N. C. The Roman Eastern Frontier and the Persian Wars. Part II: AD 363–630. — London: Routledge, 2002.
- Wikidata: Q16931639