The House of Mihrān or House of Mehrān (
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 ...
: 𐭬𐭨𐭥𐭠𐭭;
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 thr ...
: مهران), was a leading
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 ...
noble family (''šahrdārān''), one of the
Seven Great Houses of the
Sassanid Persian 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 last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th centuries AD. Named ...
which claimed descent from the earlier
Arsacid dynasty
The Parthian Empire (), also known as the Arsacid Empire (), was a major Iranian political and cultural power in ancient Iran from 247 BC to 224 AD. Its latter name comes from its founder, Arsaces I, who led the Parni tribe in conque ...
. A branch of the family formed the
Mihranid The Mihranids were an Iranian family which ruled several regions of Caucasus from 330 to 821. They claimed to be of Sasanian Persian descent but were of Parthian origin.
History
The dynasty was founded when a certain Mihran, a distant relative o ...
line of the kings of
Caucasian Albania and the
Chosroid Dynasty
The Chosroid dynasty (a Latinization of ''Khosro anni'', ka, ხოსრო ანები), also known as the Iberian Mihranids, were a dynasty of the kings and later the presiding princes of the early Georgian state of Iberia from the 4 ...
of
Kartli
Kartli ( ka, ქართლი ) is a historical region in central-to-eastern Georgia traversed by the river Mtkvari (Kura), on which Georgia's capital, Tbilisi, is situated. Known to the Classical authors as Iberia, Kartli played a crucial rol ...
.
History
First mentioned in a mid-3rd-century CE trilingual inscription at the ''
Ka'ba-i Zartosht
The Ka'ba-ye Zartosht ( fa, کعبه زرتشت), or the Cube of Zarathustra, is a stone quadrangular stepped structure in the Naqsh-e Rustam compound beside Zangiabad village in Marvdasht county in Fars, Iran. The Naqsh-e Rustam compound also ...
'', concerning the political, military, and religious activities of
Shapur I
Shapur I (also spelled Shabuhr I; pal, 𐭱𐭧𐭯𐭥𐭧𐭥𐭩, Šābuhr ) was the second Sasanian King of Kings of Iran. The dating of his reign is disputed, but it is generally agreed that he ruled from 240 to 270, with his father Ardas ...
, the second Sassanid
king of Iran
This is a list of monarchs of Persia (or monarchs of the Iranic peoples, in present-day Iran), which are known by the royal title Shah or Shahanshah. This list starts from the establishment of the Medes around 671 BCE until the deposition of the ...
, the family remained the hereditary "
margrave
Margrave was originally the medieval title for the military commander assigned to maintain the defence of one of the border provinces of the Holy Roman Empire or of a kingdom. That position became hereditary in certain feudal families in the Em ...
s" of
Ray throughout the Sassanid period. Several members of the family served as generals in the
Roman–Persian Wars
The Roman–Persian Wars, also known as the Roman–Iranian Wars, were a series of conflicts between states of the Greco-Roman world and two successive Iranian empires: the Parthian and the Sasanian. Battles between the Parthian Empire and the ...
, where they are mentioned simply as Mihran or , ''mirranēs'', in
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 ...
sources. Indeed,
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 gen ...
, in his ''History of the Wars'', holds that the family name ''Mihran'' is a title equivalent to General.
Notable generals from the Mihran clan included:
Shapur Mihran
Shapur Mihran ( pal, 𐭱𐭧𐭯𐭥𐭧𐭥𐭩 𐭬𐭲𐭥), known in Armenian sources as Shapuh Mihran ( Armenian: Շապուհ Միհրան), was a Sasanian nobleman from the House of Mihran. He served as the marzban of Persian Armenia briefl ...
, who served as the
marzban
Marzbān, or Marzpān (Middle Persian transliteration: mrzwpn, derived from ''marz'' "border, boundary" and the suffix ''-pān'' "guardian"; Modern Persian: ''Marzbān'') were a class of margraves, warden of the marches, and by extension milita ...
of
Persian Armenia briefly in 482,
Perozes, the Persian commander-in-chief during the
Anastasian War
The Anastasian War was fought from 502 to 506 between the Byzantine Empire and the Sasanian Empire. It was the first major conflict between the two powers since 440, and would be the prelude to a long series of destructive conflicts between the t ...
and the
Battle of Dara
The Battle of Dara was fought between the Eastern Roman Empire and the Sasanians in 530 AD. It was one of the battles of the Iberian War.
Procopius's account of this engagement is among the most detailed descriptions of a late Roman battle.
Bac ...
,
Mihransitad, a diplomat of
Khosrow I,
Golon Mihran, who fought against the Byzantines in Armenia in 572–573, and
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 ...
, who led a coup against
Khosrau II
Khosrow II (spelled Chosroes II in classical sources; pal, 𐭧𐭥𐭮𐭫𐭥𐭣𐭩, Husrō), also known as Khosrow Parviz (New Persian: , "Khosrow the Victorious"), is considered to be the last great Sasanian king (shah) of Iran, ruling fr ...
and briefly usurped the crown from 590 to 591, and
Shahrwaraz, a commander of the last Roman-Persian war and a usurper.
In the course of the 4th century, the purported branches of this family acquired the crowns of three
Caucasian polities:
Iberia
The Iberian Peninsula (),
**
* Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica''
**
**
* french: Péninsule Ibérique
* mwl, Península Eibérica
* eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, defi ...
(
Chosroids
The Chosroid dynasty (a Latinization of ''Khosro anni'', ka, ხოსრო ანები), also known as the Iberian Mihranids, were a dynasty of the kings and later the presiding princes of the early Georgian state of Iberia from the 4 ...
),
Gogarene
Gugark ( hy, Գուգարք, lat, Gogarene, Greek: ''Γογαρινή'') was the 13th province of the ancient kingdom of Armenia. It now comprises parts of northern Armenia, northeast Turkey, and southwest Georgia.
Etymology
Etymologically ...
and
Caucasian Albania/
Gardman
Gardman ( hy, Գարդման), also known as Gardmank, was one of the eight cantons of the ancient province of Utik in the Kingdom of Armenia and simultaneously, together with the canton of Tuchkatak, an Armenian principality. It roughly corre ...
(
Mihranids The Mihranids were an Iranian family which ruled several regions of Caucasus from 330 to 821. They claimed to be of Sasanian Persian descent but were of Parthian origin.
History
The dynasty was founded when a certain Mihran, a distant relative o ...
).
Toumanoff, Cyril
Cyril Leo Toumanoff (russian: Кирилл Львович Туманов; 13 October 1913 – 4 February 1997) was a Russian-born Georgian historian and genealogist who mostly specialized in the history and genealogies of medieval Georgia, Armenia, ...
. Introduction to Christian Caucasian History, II: States and Dynasties of the Formative Period. ''Traditio'' 17 (1961), p. 38.
The much later
Samanid dynasty
The Samanid Empire ( fa, سامانیان, Sāmāniyān) also known as the Samanian Empire, Samanid dynasty, Samanid amirate, or simply as the Samanids) was a Persianate Sunni Muslim empire, of Iranian dehqan origin. The empire was centred in Kho ...
that ruled most of Iran in the 9th and 10th centuries claimed descent from Bahrām Chōbin
[Britannica, "The Samanids", ''Their eponym was Sāmān-Khodā, a landlord in the district of Balkh and, according to the dynasty’s claims, a descendant of Bahrām Chūbīn, the Sāsānian general']
o
/ref>[Kamoliddin, Shamsiddin S]
"To the Question of the Origin of the Samanids"
''Transoxiana: Journal Libre de Estudios Orientales'', ][''Iran and America: Re-Kind ng a Love Lost'' By Badi Badiozamani, Ghazal Badiozamani, pg. 123][''History of Bukhara'' by Narshakhi, Chapter XXIV, Pg 79] and thus the House of Mihran, though the veracity of this claim is unclear.
References
Sources
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mihran, House of
Ancient history of the Caucasus
Families from the Sasanian Empire