Anōshazād (

Middle Persian Middle Persian or Pahlavi, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg () in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasanian Empire. For some time after the Sasanian collapse, Middle Per ...

), known in the

Shahnameh The ''Shahnameh'' or ''Shahnama'' ( fa, شاهنامه, Šāhnāme, lit=The Book of Kings, ) is a long epic poem written by the Persian poet Ferdowsi between c. 977 and 1010 CE and is the national epic of Greater Iran. Consisting of some 50,00 ...

as Nōshzād ( fa, نوشزاد), was a

Sasanian The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th centuries AD. Named ...

prince who was the leader of a revolt in southwestern province of

Khuzistan Khuzestan Province (also spelled Xuzestan; fa, استان خوزستان ''Ostān-e Xūzestān'') is one of the 31 provinces of Iran. It is in the southwest of the country, bordering Iraq and the Persian Gulf. Its capital is Ahvaz and it covers ...

in the 540s. He was the oldest son of king

Khosrow I Khosrow I (also spelled Khosrau, Khusro or Chosroes; pal, 𐭧𐭥𐭮𐭫𐭥𐭣𐭩; New Persian: []), traditionally known by his epithet of Anushirvan ( [] "the Immortal Soul"), was the Sasanian Empire, Sasanian King of Kings of Iran from ...

(r. 531-579), while his mother was a

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

and the daughter of the judge (''

dadwar ''Dadwar'' (Middle Persian: ''Dādwar'', meaning "bearer of law") was a Sasanian administrative office which corresponded to a sort of judge, who, as a deputy of the ''mowbed'' (chief priest), evaluated civil cases at a district level. The ''(ham)s ...

'') of Ray.

Etymology

''Anūšzad'' is a

name meaning "son of the immortal". ''Nōshzād'' () is the

New Persian New Persian ( fa, فارسی نو), also known as Modern Persian () and Dari (), is the current stage of the Persian language spoken since the 8th to 9th centuries until now in Greater Iran and surroundings. It is conventionally divided into thre ...

form, whilst the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

form of the name is ''Anasozados''.

Biography

According to several sources, Anushzad was sometime before his revolt imprisoned in

Gundeshapur Gundeshapur ( pal, 𐭥𐭧𐭩𐭠𐭭𐭣𐭩𐭥𐭪𐭱𐭧𐭯𐭥𐭧𐭥𐭩, ''Weh-Andiōk-Šābuhr''; New Persian: , ''Gondēshāpūr'') was the intellectual centre of the Sassanid Empire and the home of the Academy of Gundishapur, founde ...

by his father. According to

Dinavari Abū Ḥanīfa Aḥmad ibn Dāwūd Dīnawarī ( fa, ابوحنيفه دينوری; died 895) was a Persian Islamic Golden Age polymath, astronomer, agriculturist, botanist, metallurgist, geographer, mathematician, and historian. Life Dinawa ...

and

Ferdowsi Abul-Qâsem Ferdowsi Tusi ( fa, ; 940 – 1019/1025 CE), also Firdawsi or Ferdowsi (), was a Persians, Persian poet and the author of ''Shahnameh'' ("Book of Kings"), which is one of the world's longest epic poetry, epic poems created by a sin ...

, it was because he had converted to

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

. However, this is unlikely since neither

Procopius Procopius of Caesarea ( grc-gre, Προκόπιος ὁ Καισαρεύς ''Prokópios ho Kaisareús''; la, Procopius Caesariensis; – after 565) was a prominent late antique Greek scholar from Caesarea Maritima. Accompanying the Roman gener ...

nor

Ibn al-Athir Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ash-Shaybānī, better known as ʿAlī ʿIzz ad-Dīn Ibn al-Athīr al-Jazarī ( ar, علي عز الدین بن الاثیر الجزري) lived 1160–1233) was an Arab or Kurdish historian a ...

calls him a Christian; according to Procopius, Anushzad was imprisoned for seducing some of his father's wives, while Ibn al-Athir states that he was imprisoned because he was suspected of being a crypto-

Manichaean Manichaeism (; in New Persian ; ) is a former major religionR. van den Broek, Wouter J. Hanegraaff ''Gnosis and Hermeticism from Antiquity to Modern Times''SUNY Press, 1998 p. 37 founded in the 3rd century AD by the Parthian Empire, Parthian ...

. According to Dinavari, while Khosrow I was campaigning in Syria against the Byzantines, he fell ill at

Emesa Homs ( , , , ; ar, حِمْص / ALA-LC: ; Levantine Arabic: / ''Ḥomṣ'' ), known in pre-Islamic Syria as Emesa ( ; grc, Ἔμεσα, Émesa), is a city in western Syria and the capital of the Homs Governorate. It is Metres above sea level ...

—according to Nöldeke, however, Khosrow never reached the city and instead returned to his capital,

Ctesiphon Ctesiphon ( ; Middle Persian: 𐭲𐭩𐭮𐭯𐭥𐭭 ''tyspwn'' or ''tysfwn''; fa, تیسفون; grc-gre, Κτησιφῶν, ; syr, ܩܛܝܣܦܘܢThomas A. Carlson et al., “Ctesiphon — ܩܛܝܣܦܘܢ ” in The Syriac Gazetteer last modi ...

. He further states that Anushzad had spread false rumours of Khosrow having a deadly sickness. Anushzad thereafter raised an army, which consisted of prisoners and Christians from

Hormizd-Ardashir Ahvaz ( fa, اهواز, Ahvâz ) is a city in the southwest of Iran and the capital of Khuzestan province. Ahvaz's population is about 1,300,000 and its built-up area with the nearby town of Sheybani is home to 1,136,989 inhabitants. It is home ...

and Gundeshapur. However, according to Nöldeke, Fariburz most likely didn't manage to get support from a large number of Christians, which he tried to do so by stating that his mother was a Christian. Nevertheless, he managed to capture Ahvaz and seize its riches. Burzin, who was Khosrow's vice-regent at Ctesiphon, shortly sent an army under

Fariburz Fariburz, known in Byzantine sources as Phabrizus ( el, Φάβριζος), was a 6th-century Iranian military officer from the Mihran family, who served under the Sasanian king Khosrau I (r. 531–579). Biography He was the brother of the diplo ...

to besiege Gundeshapur, and informed Khosrow of the revolt. Khosrow thereafter ordered him bring Anushzad back alive if possible, and to kill all the nobles participating in his revolt, but not the ordinary people. The revolt of Anushzad was eventually suppressed, while he was captured and taken to Ctesiphon, where he was blinded.

References

Sources

* * *{{cite book, editor1-last=Martindale, editor1-first=John Robert, editor2-last=Jones, editor2-first=Arnold Hugh Martin, editor3-last=Morris, editor3-first=J., title=The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, Volume III: A.D. 527–641, year=1992, location=Cambridge, United Kingdom, publisher=Cambridge University Press, isbn=978-0-521-20160-5, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=110PAQAAMAAJ 6th-century Iranian people Year of death unknown Year of birth unknown Sasanian princes Rebellions against the Sasanian Empire 6th-century births 6th-century deaths Khosrow I