| Yazdegerd III 𐭩𐭦𐭣𐭪𐭥𐭲𐭩 | |
|---|---|
| King of Kings of Iranians and non-Iranians | |
.jpg) Drachma of Yazdegerd III, minted in 651. | |
| Shahanshah of theSasanian Empire | |
| Reign | 16 June 632 – 651 |
| Coronation | Istakhr |
| Predecessor | Boran |
| Successor | Office abolished |
| Born | 624 Istakhr |
| Died | 651 (aged 27) Marw |
| Issue | Peroz III Bahram VII Shahrbanu Izdundad |
| House | House of Sasan |
| Father | Shahriyar |
| Religion | Zoroastrianism |
Yazdegerd III (also Romanized asYazdgerd,Yazdgird) was the lastSasanianKing of Kings from 632 to 651. His father wasShahriyar and his grandfather wasKhosrow II.
Ascending the throne at the age of eight, the youngshah lacked authority and reigned as afigurehead, whilst real power was in the hands of the army commanders, courtiers, and powerful members of the aristocracy, who engaged in internecine warfare. The Sasanian Empire was weakened severely by these internal conflicts, resulting in invasions by theGöktürks from the east, andKhazars from the west.[1] Yazdegerd was unable to contain theRashidun conquest of Iran, and spent most of his reign fleeing from one province to another in the vain hope of raising an army. Yazdegerd met his end at the hands of a miller nearMerv in 651, bringing an end to the last pre-Islamic Iranian empire after more than 400 years of rule.[1]
'Yazdegerd' is atheophoric name that means 'God-made'. It is a combination of theOld Iranianyazad yazata- 'divine being' andkarta- 'made'. It is comparable toPersianBagkart andGreekTheoktistos.[2] Yazdegerd is known in other languages as follows:Middle Persian—Yazdekert;New Persian—Yazd(e)gerd;Syriac—Yazdegerd,Izdegerd, andYazdeger;Armenian—Yazkert;TalmudicIzdeger andAzger;Arabic—Yazdeijerd; GreekIsdigerdes.[2]
Yazdegerd was the son of princeShahriyar and the grandson ofKhosrow II (r. 590–628), the last prominent shah of Iran. Khosrow II had been overthrown and executed in 628 by his own son Sheroe, who took the nameKavad II upon gaining the throne. Kavad then ordered the execution of all his brothers and half-brothers, including Yazdegerd's father Shahriyar.[3] The purging of the ranks of the ruling family dealt a blow to the empire from which it would never recover.
The murder of Khosrow II ignited acivil war that lasted four years, as the most powerful members of the nobility created their own autonomous government. Hostilities between thePersian (Parsig) andParthian (Pahlav) noble families also resumed; they divided the treasury between themselves.[4] And months later, adevastating plague swept through the western Sasanian provinces and killed half of the population. Kavad II was one of its victims.[4]
Kavad was succeeded by his eight-year-old sonArdashir IIIwho was killed two years later by the distinguished Sasanian generalShahrbaraz. Forty days later Shahrbaraz was deposed and murdered by the Pahlav leaderFarrukh Hormizd, who installed the daughter of Khosrow II,Boran, on the throne.[5][page needed] She was deposed a year later, and a succession of rulers followed until Boran was sovereign once more in 631, only to be murdered the following year by theParsig leaderPiruz Khosrow.[6]
Eventually the two most powerful magnates in the empire,Rostam Farrokhzad[a] and Piruz Khosrow—threatened by their own men—agreed to ally. They installed Yazdegerd III on the throne, putting an end to the civil war.[7] He was crowned in theTemple of Anahita, Istakhr, where he had been hiding during the civil war. The site was chosen to be a symbol of the empire's rejuvenation, as it was the very place where the first Sasanian shahArdashir I (r. 224–242) had crowned himself four centuries earlier.[8] Due to Kavad's massacre of his family, the new shah was among the few surviving members of theHouse of Sasan.[9] Most scholars agree that Yazdegerd was eight years old at his coronation.[4][3][10] His coronation occurred around the same time thatAbu Bakr became Caliph.[11]
The eight-year-old Yazdegerd lacked the authority needed to bring stability to an empire that was quickly falling apart due to ceaseless internal conflict. Army commanders, courtiers, and powerful members of the aristocracy fought amongst each other in feuds that were often deadly. Many regional governors had proclaimed their independence from the crown and carved out their own kingdoms.[3] The governors of the provinces ofMazun andYemen had already asserted their independence during the civil war of 628–632, resulting in the disintegration of Sasanian rule over theArab tribes of theArabian Peninsulawho had united under the banner of Islam.[12] TheIranologistKhodadad Rezakhani argues that the Sasanians had likely already lost many of their possessions after Khosrow II's overthrow in 628.[13]
By 632, the Sasanian state resembled thefeudal system of theParthian Empire at its collapse in 224.[14] Yazdegerd, though acknowledged by both theParsig andPahlav factions as the rightful monarch, was not in control of the empire. Indeed, during the first years of his rule thePahlav, based in the north, refused to mint coins of him.[15]
His coins were minted inPars,Sakastan, andKhuzestan, approximately corresponding to the regions of the southwest (Xwarwarān) and southeast (Nēmrōz), where theParsig was based.[15] In the south, a Sasanian claimant to the throne who called himselfKhosrow IV minted his own coinage atSusa inKhuzestan; he would do so till 636.[16] According to Rezakhani, Yazdegerd also lost control overMesopotamia and the imperial capitalCtesiphon. He argues that the conspiring aristocrats and the population of Ctesiphon "do not appear to have been too successful or eager in bringing Yazdgerd to the capital."[13]
The empire was being invaded on two fronts; by theGöktürks in the east and byKhazars in the west. The Khazars raidedArmenia andAdurbadagan.[1] The Sasanian army had been heavily weakened due to thewar with the Byzantines and to its continuous internal conflict.[17] The circumstances were so chaotic, and the condition of the state so alarming, that "the Persians openly spoke of the imminent downfall of their empire, and saw its portents in natural calamities."[4]
In 633 Muslim Arabs defeated a Sasanian force underAzadbeh near the strategically important Sasanian cityHira, which the victors then occupied in short order. Yazdegerd's ministers began paying heed to the Muslims after the loss of Hira.Rostam Farrokhzad sent an army commanded byBahman Jadhuyih and theArmenianJalinus to face the enemy. Rostam ordered Bahman to return with Jalinus's head if the Armenian general lost.[18] The Sasanian army managed to defeat the Muslims at theBattle of the Bridge.
In 636 Yazdegerd ordered Rostam to subdue the invading Arabs, telling him "Today you are the [most prominent] man among the Iranians...[T]he people of Iran have not faced a situation like this since the family ofArdashir I assumed power."[18] Notwithstanding this speech, advisors asked Yazdegerd to dismiss Rostam and replace him with someone more popular and around whom the people would rally.[19]
Yazdegerd ordered Rostam to assess the Arab forces camped at Qadisiyyah.[20] Rostam reported that the Arabs were "a pack of wolves, falling upon unsuspecting shepherds and annihilating them."[20] Yazdegerd responded to Rostam thus:
It is not like that. The Arabs and the Persians are comparable to an eagle who looked upon a mountain where birds take shelter at night and stay in their nests at the foot of it. When morning came, the birds looked around and saw that he was watching them. Whenever a bird became separated from the rest, the eagle snatched him. The worst thing that could happen to them would be that all would escape save one.[21]
The two armies clashed again 636. TheBattle of al-Qadisiyyah resulted in a crushing defeat for the Sasanian army. Rostam, Bahman Jaduya, Jalinus, and the Armenian princes Grigor II Novirak andMushegh III Mamikonian were all slain in the fighting. The Arabs then headed for the imperial capital Ctesiphon, meeting no resistance along the way. Yazdegerd fled with the treasury and 1,000 servants toHulwan inMedia, leaving Rostam's brotherFarrukhzad in charge of the capital. But rather than stay and fight the Arabs, Farrukhzad also fled to Hulwan. The Arabs reached Ctesiphon in 637,besieged the western parts of the city, and soon occupied all of it.[22][23]
The Iranian defeat at al-Qadisiyyah has often been described as a turning point in the Arab invasion of Iran. The Iranians had finally became cognizant of the destructive consequences of their factionalism and internecine feuding.[24]Al-Tabari wrote that after the fall of Ctesiphon "the people... were about to go their separate ways, [but] they started to incite one another: 'If you disperse now, you will never get together again; this is a spot that sends us in different directions'."[25]
In 637 Arabs defeated another Sasanian army at theBattle of Jalula, and Yazdegerd fled deeper intoMedia.[26] He raised a new army there and ordered it toNahavand to retakeCtesiphon in the hope of preventing Muslim advances.[12] The threat presented by the new army promptedUmar to combine his Arab forces. He orderedAl-Nu’man ibn Muqrin to take command of the armies ofKufa andBasra, with additional reinforcements fromSyria andOman.
In 642 this massive army attacked the Sasanians. The ensuingBattle of Nahavand is said to have lasted several days, with major losses on both sides. The dead included al-Nu'man ibn Muqrin and the Iranian generalsMardanshah andPiruz Khosrow. It marked a second military disaster for the Sasanians, six years after the crushing defeat at al-Qadisiyyah in 636.[12]
In the aftermath of the debacle at Nahavand, Yazdegerd fled toIsfahan where he raised a small army. He placed it under the command of an officer named Siyah who had lost property to the Arabs. But Siyah and his troops also agreed to fight for the Arabs in exchange for places to live[28] andmutinied against Yazdegerd. Meanwhile, Yazdegerd had arrived inIstakhr where he tried to establish a base of resistance inPars Province. But in 650, the governor of Arab-controlled Basra,Abdullah ibn Aamir, invaded Pars and put an end to the Persian resistance. 40,000 Iranian defenders were slain—many of them nobles—and Istakhr was left in ruins. Following the Arab conquest of Pars, Yazdegerd fled toKirman, pursued by an Arab force.[12] Yazdegerd managed to flee from the Arabs in a snowstorm at Bimand.
In Kirman, Yazdegerd managed to alienate themarzban (frontier military governor or "margrave"), before leaving forSakastan. Then another Arab army from Basra arrived at Kirman. A fierce battle ensued in which themarzban was slain. And Yazdegerd alienated the governor ofSakastan with his demands for more and higher taxes to fund the army.[12] Yazdegerd next embarked to Merv to meet the leader of theTurks in the hope of forming an alliance. But when he reachedKhorasan, the war-weary populace insisted on peace with the Arabs, and Yazdegerd refused. In 650–652, an Arab army entered Sakastan and captured the city.[12] Yazdegerd did secure the troops from thePrincipality of Chaghaniyan. He made the same demands on themarzban of Merv that he made in Kirman and Sakastsn and met with the same results. Themarzban joined withNezak Tarkan, theHephthalite ruler ofBadghis, and together they defeat Yazdegerd and his followers.
%2c_visiting_the_court_of_the_Tang_Dynasty._The_Gathering_of_Kings_(%25E7%258E%258B%25E4%25BC%259A%25E5%259B%25BE)_circa_650_CE.jpg)
Yazdegerd had sent an envoy to the Chinese emperor seeking assistance in 638 after his first defeat to the Arabs, but nothing seems to have come of the visit.[29] He sent another envoy to theTang dynasty court in 639 "for offering tribute”.[30] Yazdegerd continued to send envoys to China in 647 and again 647, even as he suffered defeats, in order to “seek assistance from the Chinese court with the hope to form a new army".[30] The Chinese did eventually send assistance, but only after Yazdegerd was dead. His sonPeroz III again sent envoys in 654 and 661. Following the second of these embassies, the Chinese established a "Persian military commandery" (波斯都督府) in 661 in the city ofZābol (疾陵城Jilingcheng) inTokharistan, and Peroz was appointed as Military Commander (都督Dudu).[30] In 679 a Chinese army accompaniedNarsieh, the exiled son of Peroz, with orders to restore him to the Sasanian throne. But the army was detained in Tokharistan to repel the invasion ofWestern Turkic KhanAshina Duzhi, which left Narsieh to fight against the Muslim Arabs without Chinese assistance for the next twenty years.[30] Yazdegard III's grandson Prince Khosrau, son ofBahram VII (recorded asJuluo (Chinese:俱羅;pinyin:Jū Luó) in Chinese sources) attempted to continue his father's military efforts. He is likely the same "Khosrow" mentioned by al-Tabari. Khosrau's campaigns, and his first invasion of Persia, proved unsuccessful.[31]
After his defeat in 651, Yazdegerd sought refuge with a miller nearMerv. Rather than sheltering Yazdegerd, the miller murdered him. According to Kia, the miller killed Yazdegerd for his jewelry,[32] whilstThe Cambridge History of Iran states that the miller was sent byMahoe Suri.[33]
Mahoe sends the miller to cut off his head on pain of losing his own, and having none of his race left alive. His chiefs hear this and cry out against him, and amowbed of the name of Radui tells him that to kill a king or prophet will bring evil upon him and his son, and is supported in what he says by a holy man of the name of Hormuzd Kharad Shehran, and Mehronush. The miller most unwillingly goes in and stabs him with a dagger in the middle. Mahoe's horsemen all go and see him and take off his clothing and ornaments, leaving him on the ground. All the nobles curse Mahoe and wish him the same fate.
The death of Yazdegerd marked the end of the Sasanian Empire, and made it easier for the Arabs to conquer the rest of Iran. All of Khorasan was soon conquered by the Arabs, who would use it as a base toattack Transoxiana.[32] The death of Yazdegerd thus marked the end of the last pre-Islamic Iranian empire after more than 400 years of rule. The empire—which had a generation earlier conqueredEgypt andAsia Minor,reaching as a far as Constantinople—fell to a force of lightly-equipped Arabs used to skirmishes and desert warfare. The heavy Sasaniancavalry was too sluggish and systematized to contain them; employing light-armed Arab or East Iranian mercenaries from Khorasan andTransoxiana would have been more effective.[35]
Yazdegerd was according to tradition buried byChristian monks in Merv, in a tall tomb situated in a garden and decorated with silk and musk. A funeral and mausoleum were organized byChurch of the East bishopElias of Merv in honor of Yazdegerd's Christian grandmotherShirin. For his part in the murder of the Sassanian king,Mahoe had his arms, legs, ears and nose cut off by theTurks, who eventually left him to die under the scorching summer sun. The corpse of Mahoe was thenburned at the stake, along with the bodies of his three sons.[36]
According to one tradition, the monks cursed Mahoe and made a hymn to Yazdegerd, mourning the fall of a "combative" king and the "house ofArdashir I".[37] Whether the tradition was factual or not, it emphasizes that the Christians of the empire remained loyal to theZoroastrian Sasanians, even possibly more than the Iranian nobles who had deserted Yazdegerd.[37] Indeed, there were close links between the late Sasanian rulers and Christians, whose conditions had greatly improved compared to that of the early Sasanian era. Yazdegerd's wife was according to folklore a Christian, whilst his son and heir,Peroz III was seemingly an adherent of Christianity, and had a church built in China where he had taken refuge.[38] Yazdegerd became remembered in history as a martyred prince; many rulers and officers of Islamic Iran would claim descent from him.[4]
Yazdegerd was well-educated and cultured, but his arrogance, pride and inability to compare his demands with the real situation led to his constantly falling out with his governors and to his influence diminishing as he, pursued by Arabs, moved from one city to another. At each new place, he behaved as if he was still the all-powerful monarch of the kingdom and not an outcast running away from enemies. Combined with his military failures, this arrogance turned many of his most loyal subjects away from him.[39]
TheZoroastrian religious calendar, which is still in use today, uses theregnal year of Yazdegerd III as its base year,[40] and itscalendar era (year numbering system) is accompanied by a Y.Z. suffix.[12]
Magians took Yazdegerd III's death as the end of the millennium ofZoroaster and the beginning of the millennium ofOshetar (see "Saoshyant".[12]
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Media related toYazdegerd III at Wikimedia CommonsYazdegerd III Born: 624 Died: 651 | ||
| Preceded by | King of Kings of Iran and non-Iran 632–651 | Succeeded by Sasanian Empire abolished |
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