Mihransitad (also spelled Mihran Sitad) was an

Iranian Iranian may refer to: * Iran, a sovereign state * Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran * Iranian lan ...

nobleman from the

House of Mihran The House of Mihrān or House of Mehrān (Middle Persian: 𐭬𐭨𐭥𐭠𐭭; new Persian: مهران), was a leading Iranian noble family (''šahrdārān''), one of the Seven Great Houses of the Sassanid Persian Empire which claimed descent f ...

, who often served as an adviser and diplomat for 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 ...

Biography

Mihransitad is first mentioned around 570, when, after king Khosrow's peace treaty with the

Turks Turk or Turks may refer to: Communities and ethnic groups * Turkic peoples, a collection of ethnic groups who speak Turkic languages * Turkish people, or the Turks, a Turkic ethnic group and nation * Turkish citizen, a citizen of the Republic o ...

, he was sent to estimate the quality of the daughter of the Turkic Khan

Istämi Istämi (or Dizabul or Ishtemi Sir Yabghu Khagan; ) was the ruler of the western part of the Göktürks, which became the Western Turkic Khaganate and dominated the Sogdians. He was the yabgu (vassal) of his brother Bumin Qaghan in 552 AD. He was ...

. According to

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''Ox ...

n sources her name was Kayen while Persian sources states that her name was Qaqim-khaqan. After Mihransitad's visit in

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...

, Khosrow married Qaqim-khaqan. According to some sources,

Hormizd IV Hormizd IV (also spelled Hormozd IV or Ohrmazd IV; pal, 𐭠𐭥𐭧𐭥𐭬𐭦𐭣) was the Sasanian King of Kings of Iran from 579 to 590. He was the son and successor of Khosrow I () and his mother was a Khazar princess. During his reign, Ho ...

, the successor of Khosrow, was the son of the Turkic princess. However,

Encyclopædia Iranica ''Encyclopædia Iranica'' is a project whose goal is to create a comprehensive and authoritative English language encyclopedia about the history, culture, and civilization of Iranian peoples from prehistory to modern times. Scope The ''Encycl ...

states that the marriage with the daughter of the Turkic khaqan is chronologically impossible, and says that Hormizd was born in 540, thirty years before Khosrow's marriage.HORMOZD IV – Encyclopaedia Iranica
/ref> Mihransitad's son Nastuh later took part in the campaigns of Khosrow against the Byzantines. Mihransitad is later mentioned as being retired in his hometown Ray and keeping apart from society. In 588, however, the Sasanian Empire was in chaos, and he was summoned by Hormizd IV at the urging of Nastuh. According to

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 ...

, he told the Sasanian king that the astrologers had predicted that a certain

Bahram Chobin Bahrām Chōbīn ( fa, بهرام چوبین) or Wahrām Chōbēn (Middle Persian: ), also known by his epithet Mehrbandak ("servant of Mithra"), was a nobleman, general, and political leader of the late Sasanian Empire and briefly its ruler as Ba ...

would be the savior of Iran. He then suggested that Bahram Chobin should be summoned to the Sasanian court. The aged Mihransitad reportedly immediately died after that.Pourshariati (2008), p. 124

References

Sources

*{{cite book, last=Pourshariati, first=Parvaneh, title=Decline and Fall of the Sasanian Empire: The Sasanian-Parthian Confederacy and the Arab Conquest of Iran, location=London, United Kingdom, publisher=I.B. Tauris, year=2008, isbn=978-1-84511-645-3, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I-xtAAAAMAAJ 6th-century births 588 deaths 6th-century Iranian people House of Mihran People from Ray, Iran Shahnameh characters Khosrow I Officials of the Sasanian Empire