Khwarāsān () was one of the four '' kusts'' (frontier regions) of the

Sasanian Empire 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 History of Iran, last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th cen ...

, formed during the reign 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). Khwarasan was commanded by a ''

spahbed ''Spāhbed'' (also spelled ''spahbod'' and ''spahbad'') is a Middle Persian title meaning "army chief" used chiefly in the Sasanian Empire. Originally there was a single ''spāhbed'', called the , who functioned as the generalissimo of the Sasani ...

'' from one of the

seven Parthian clans The Seven Great Houses of Iran, also known as the seven Parthian clans, were seven feudal aristocracies of Parthian origin, who were allied with the Sasanian court. The Parthian clans all claimed ancestry from Achaemenid Persians. The seven Great ...

. The appointed ''spahbed'' of the ''kust'' was given the title of ''

aspbed Aspbed (also spelled Aspbad and asppat; literally “commander of the cavalry”, from Old Iranian *''aspa-pati-''), was a title of Iranian origin used by the Parthian and Sasanian empires. History The word is first attested in an ''ostracon'' f ...

''. The name Khwarasan is a combination of ''khwar'' (meaning "sun") and ''āsān'' (from ''āyān'', literally meaning "to come" or "coming" or "about to come").

Sources

* James Howard-Johnston, ‘The Late Sasanian Army’. In: Bernheimer, T. – Silverstein, A. (eds.), ''Late Antiquity: Eastern perspectives'', Exeter 2012, pp. 87–127. * * {{cite encyclopedia , title = SPĀHBED , encyclopedia = Encyclopaedia Iranica, Online Edition , last = Gyselen , first = Rika , url = http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/spahbed , date = 20 July 2004 , accessdate = 21 May 2016 History of Khorasan Sasanian Empire

See also

Sources