Kavadh I

	Email		Print
	Bookmark		Link

Kavadh I

Kavadh I (born 449; ruled 488–531, also spelled Kaveh, Kavad), son of Peroz I

Peroz I

Peroz I , was the seventeenth Sassanid dynasty King of Persia, who ruled from 457 to 484. Peroz I was the eldest son of Yazdegerd II of Persia ....
(457–484), was the nineteenth Sassanid

Sassanid Empire

The Sassanid Empire or Sassanian Dynasty is the name of the last pre-Islamic Iranian empire. It was one of the two main powers in Western Asia for a period of more than 400 years....
King of Persia from 488 to 531. He was crowned by the nobles in place of his deposed and blinded uncle Balash

Balash

Balash , the eighteenth Sassanid dynasty King of Persia in 484–488, was the brother and successor of Peroz I of Persia , who had died in a battle against the Hephthalites who invaded Persian Empire from the east....
(484–488).
his time the empire was utterly disorganized by the invasion of the Ephthalites or White Huns from the east.

Discussion

Ask a question about 'Kavadh I'

Start a new discussion about 'Kavadh I'

Answer questions from other users

Full Discussion Forum

Encyclopedia

Kavadh I (born 449; ruled 488–531, also spelled Kaveh, Kavad), son of Peroz I

Peroz I

Peroz I , was the seventeenth Sassanid dynasty King of Persia, who ruled from 457 to 484. Peroz I was the eldest son of Yazdegerd II of Persia ....
(457–484), was the nineteenth Sassanid

Sassanid Empire

Balash

State of the Sassanid Empire

At this time the empire was utterly disorganized by the invasion of the Ephthalites or White Huns from the east. After one of their victories against Peroz I, Kavadh I had been a hostage among them for two years, pending the payment of a heavy ransom. In 484 Peroz I had been defeated and slain with his whole army. Balash was not able to restore the royal authority. The hopes of the magnates and high priests that Kavadh I would suit their purpose were soon disappointed.

Mazdaki sect

Kavadh I gave his support to the communistic sect founded by Mazdak

Mazdak

Mazdak was a proto-socialism Iran reformer who gained influence under the reign of the Sassanid dynasty king Kavadh I. He claimed to be a prophet of God, and instituted communal possessions and social welfare programs....
, son of Bamdad, who demanded that the rich should divide their wives and their wealth with the poor. His intention evidently was, by adopting the doctrine of the Mazdakites, to break the influence of the magnates. But in 496 he was deposed and incarcerated in the "Castle of Oblivion (Lethe

Lethe

In Classical Greek, Lethe literally means "forgetfulness" or "concealment". It is related to the Greek word for "truth": a-lethe-ia , meaning "un-forgetfulness" or "un-concealment"....
)" in Susiana, and his brother Djamasp

Djamasp

Djamasp was a Sassanid king who ruled from 496-498. He was a younger brother of king Kavadh I and was installed on the Sassanid throne upon the deposition of the latter by members of the nobility....
(496–498) was raised to the throne.

Return from exile

Kavadh I, however, escaped and found refuge with the Ephthalites, whose King gave him his daughter in marriage and aided him to return to Persia. In 498 Kavadh I became King again and punished his opponents. He had to pay a tribute to the Ephthalites and applied for subsidies to Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city, with 2,724,347 residents in an urban area of some ....
, which had before supported the Persians. But now the Emperor Anastasius I

Anastasius I (emperor)

Flavius Anastasius or Anastasius I was Byzantine Emperor from 11 April 491 until his death. He was born at Dyrrhachium not later than 430/431....
(491–518) refused subsidies, expecting that the two rival powers of the East would exhaust one another in war. At the same time he intervened in the affairs of the Persian part of Armenia

Armenia

Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in South Caucasus between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea....
.

War and succession

Kavadh I joined the Ephthalites and began war against the Byzantine Empire

Byzantine Empire

Byzantine Empire and Eastern Roman Empire are conventional names used to describe the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered on its capital of Constantinople....
. In 502 he took Theodosiopolis (Erzurum

Erzurum

Erzurum is a List of cities in Turkey in eastern Anatolia, Turkey. The name "Erzurum" derives from "Arz-u R?m" .Erzurum has a population of 361,235 ....
) in Armenia; in 503 Amida (Diarbekr) on the Tigris

Tigris

The Tigris is the eastern member of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, along with the Euphrates, which flows from the mountains of southeastern Turkey through Iraq....
. In 505 an invasion of Armenia by the western Huns from the Caucasus

Caucasus

The Caucasus or Caucas is a geopolitical region located between Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. It is home to Europe's highest mountain ....
led to an armistice, during which the Romans paid subsidies to the Persians for the maintenance of the fortifications on the Caucasus.

When Justin I

Justin I

Flavius Iustinus , known in English as Justin I, was a List of Byzantine Emperors , who rose through the ranks of the army of the Byzantine Empire and ultimately became its emperor, in spite of the fact he was illiterate and almost seventy years old at the time of accession....
(518–527) came to the throne in Constantinople, the conflict began anew. The Persian vassal, al-Mundhir IV ibn al-Mundhir

Lakhmids

The Lakhmids , Banu Lakhm , Muntherids , were a group of Arab Christians who lived in Southern Iraq, and made al-Hirah their capital in ....
, laid waste Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia is the area of the Tigris-Euphrates river system, along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, largely corresponding to modern Iraq, as well as some parts of northeastern Syria, some parts of southeastern Turkey, and some parts of the Khuzestan Province of southwestern Iran....
and slaughtered the monks and nuns. In 531 Belisarius

Belisarius

Flavius Belisarius is often described as one of the greatest generals of the Byzantine Empire. He was instrumental to Byzantine Emperor Justinian I's ambitious project of reconquering much of the Western Roman Empire, which had been lost just under a century previously....
was defeated at the Battle of Callinicum

Battle of Callinicum

The Battle of Callinicum took place between the armies of the Eastern Roman Empire under the command of General Belisarius and Sassanid Empire under Azarethes on 19 April AD 531 during the Iberian War....
. Shortly afterwards Kavadh I died, at the age of eighty-two, in September 531. During his last years his favourite son Khosrau I

Khosrau I

Khosrau I or Khosrow I , also known as Anushiravan the Just , was the favourite son and successor of Kavadh I , twentieth Sassanid Empire Emperor of Persia, and the most famous and celebrated of the Sassanid Emperors....
had had great influence over him and had been proclaimed successor. He also induced Kavadh I to break with the Mazdakites, whose doctrine had spread widely and caused great social confusion throughout Persia.

Effect on Sassanid Empire

In 529 Mazdaki doctrine was formally refuted in a theological discussion held before the throne of the King by the orthodox Magians, and were slaughtered and persecuted everywhere; Mazdak himself was hanged. Kavadh I evidently was, as Procopius

Procopius

Procopius of Caesarea was a prominent Byzantine Empire scholar of the family Procopius . A participant himself in the wars of the Emperor Justinian I, he was the major historian of the 6th century, writing the Wars of Justinian, the Buildings of Justinian and the celebrated Secret History....
(Pers. i.6) calls him, an unusually clear-sighted and energetic ruler. Although he could not free himself from the yoke of the Ephthalites, he succeeded in restoring order in the interior and fought with success against the Romans. He built some towns which were named after him, and began to regulate the taxation.