Topic summary
Sassanid army
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Military of the Sasanian Empire.
Divisions
The Sassanid army was organized in accordance with the "decimal system", that is, its structural units were units that consistently counted tens, hundreds, thousands and tens of thousands of soldiers. It is known from Sasanian sources that a tens was called radag, a hundred - tahm, commanded by an officer with the rank of tahmdār. A unit of 500 warriors was called a wašt, commanded by an officer with the rank of wašt-sālār. Drafš was a large detachment (possibly numbering 1000 soldiers) under the command of an officer with the rank of drafš-sālār. Units of 5,000 warriors were called gund, and they were commanded by a commander in the rank of gund-sālār. An army of 10,000 warriors was called spāh and was commanded by a general with the rank of spāhbed. The head of the military estate of Sasanian Iran was called artēštārān-sālār.