Khosrau I

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Khosrau I

Khosrau I or Khosrow I (Chosroes I in classical sources, most commonly known in Persian as Anushirvan, Persian:

Persian language

name=Persian|nativename=|pronunciation=[f??r'si]|image=|caption=Farsi in Perso-Arabic script |states= Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Bahrain....
????????? meaning the immortal soul), also known as Anushiravan the Just (????????? ???? , Anushiravan-e-adel or ????????? ?????, Anushiravan-e-dadgar) (Born 501, ruled 531–579), was the favourite son and successor of Kavadh I

Kavadh I

Kavadh I , son of Peroz I , was the nineteenth Sassanid Empire King of Persia from 488 to 531. He was crowned by the nobles in place of his deposed and blinded uncle Balash ....
(488–531), twentieth 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....
Emperor of Persia, and the most famous and celebrated of the Sassanid Emperors.

He laid the foundations of many cities and opulent palaces, and oversaw the repair of trade roads as well as the building of numerous bridges and dams. During Khosrau I's ambitious reign, art and science flourished in Persia and the Sassanid Empire reached its peak of glory and prosperity.

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Khosrau I or Khosrow I (Chosroes I in classical sources, most commonly known in Persian as Anushirvan, Persian:

Persian language

Kavadh I

Sassanid Empire

Khosrau II

Khosrau II or Khosrow II was the twenty-second Sassanid Empire King of Persia from 590 to 628. He was the son of Hormizd IV and grandson of Khosrau I ....
's (590–628) whose reign came to be considered the dark age in the history of the Sassanid Empire.

Early life

According to early historical sourse, Khosrau I was Kavadh I's third son through a hephthal princess Newandukht, granddaughter of Hephthal III, commonly called Turandot

Turandot

Turandot is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, set to a libretto in Italian by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni. Though Puccini's first interest in the subject was based on his reading of Friedrich Schiller's adaptation of the play, his work is most nearly based on the earlier text Turandot by Carlo Gozzi....
. His mother endeavored to ascend him to throne, then expatriated his half-brother, Kavadh. After proclaimed as heir apparent, he appears to have had a major influence over his father Kavadh I of Persia and helped him in the worst situations during the later years of his rule. He was apparently also behind many of his father's decisions.

According to the Roman Historian Procopius of Caesarea, Kavadh I tried to have his third son Khosrau adopted by the Eastern Roman emperor 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....
in the mid-520s. This is the first time that Khosrau is mentioned in the sources. After Romans and Persians had failed to reach an agreement about the adoption, a new war began in 526 which was to last until 532.

Conquests

At the beginning of his reign Khosrau I concluded an "Eternal Peace" with the Roman Emperor

Roman Emperor

The Roman Emperor was the ruler of the Roman Empire during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office: Latin language titles such as imperator , Augustus , Caesar and princeps were all associated with it....
Justinian I

Justinian I

Flavius Petrus Sabbatius Iustinianus , AD 482 or 483 ? 13 or 14 November 565, was the second member of the Justinian Dynasty and List of Roman Emperors from 527 until his death....
(527–565) in 532, who wanted to have his hands free for the conquest of Africa

North Africa during the Classical Period

Carthage and the BerbersPhoenician traders arrived on the North African coast around 900 BC and established Carthage around 800 BC. By the sixth century BC, a Phoenician presence existed at Tipasa ....
and Sicily

Sicily

Sicily is an Autonomous regions with special statute of Italy. Of all the regions of Italy, Sicily covers the largest land area at 25,708 km? and currently has just over five million inhabitants....
. But (according to 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....
) his successes against the Vandals

Vandals

The Vandals were an East Germanic tribe that entered the late Roman Empire during the 5th century. The Goths Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths and regent of the Visigoths, was allied by marriage with the Vandals as well as with the Burgundians and the Franks under Clovis I....
and Goths

Goths

The Goths were East Germanic tribes who, in the 3rd and 4th centuries, invasion the Roman Empire and later adopted Arian Christianity. In the 5th and 6th centuries, divided as the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, they established powerful successor-states of the Roman Empire in the Iberian peninsula and Italy....
caused Khosrau I to begin the war again in 540.

He invaded Syria

Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is an Arab-majority country in Southwest Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Israel to the southwest, Jordan to the south, Iraq to the east, and Turkey to the north....
and sacked the great city of Antioch

Antioch

Antioch on the Orontes was an ancient city on the eastern side of the Orontes River. It is near the modern city of Antakya, Turkey.Founded near the end of the 4th century BC by Seleucus I Nicator, one of Alexander the Great's generals, Antioch eventually rivaled Alexandria as the chief city of the nearer East and was a cradle of gentile hi...
, deporting its people to Mesopotamia, where he built for them a new city near Ctesiphon

Ctesiphon

Ctesiphon was one of the great cities of the Persian Empire, located on the east bank of the Tigris.Ctesiphon was an imperial capital of the Arsacids and of their successors, the Sassanids....
under the name of "Khosrau-Antioch" or "Chosro-Antioch". During the following years he secured the defection of Lazica and fought inconclusively in 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....
.

In 545, an armistice was concluded, but in 547 the Lazi returned to their Roman allegiance and the Lazic War

Lazic War

The Lazic War also known as the Great War of Egrisi in Georgian historiography and the Colchian War, was fought between the Byzantine Empire and Sassanid Empire for controlling the region of Lazica locally known as Egrisi, what is now western Georgia ....
resumed, continuing until a truce was agreed in 557. At last, in 562, a peace was concluded for fifty years, in which the Persians left Lazica to the Romans, and promised not to persecute the Christians

Christianity

Christianity is a Monotheistic religion #Christian view religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus as New Testament view on Jesus' life....
, if they did not attempt to make proselytes among the Zarathustrians

Zoroaster

Zoroaster or Zarathushtra , also referred to as Zartosht , was an ancient Iranian peoples prophet and religious poet. The hymns attributed to him, the Gathas, are at the liturgical core of Zoroastrianism....
; on the other hand, the Romans had to pay annual subsidies to Persia.

Meanwhile in the east, the Hephthalites had been attacked by the Turks

Turkic peoples

The Turkic peoples are Eurasian peoples residing in northern, central and western Eurasia, and who mostly speak languages belonging to the Turkic languages....
(Göktürks

Göktürks

The G?kt?rks were a powerful nomadic confederation of medieval Inner Asia. Known in China sources as T'u k?e , the G?kt?rks under the leadership of Bumin Khan and his sons succeeded the Rouran as the main power in the region and took hold of the lucrative Silk Road trade....
). About 560, Khosrau I united with them to destroy the Hephthalite Empire. In 567 he conquered Bactria

Bactria

Bactria is a historical region of Greater Iran. Known by the ancient Greeks as "Bactriana" the region is located between the range of the Hindu Kush and the Amu Darya ; in later times, the region became known as Tokharistan. The name of the region has survived to present time in the name of Afghan province "Balkh"....
, while he left the country north of the Oxus to the Turks. Many other rebellious tribes were subjected. About 570 the Himyarite dynasts of Yemen

Yemen

Yemen , officially the Republic of Yemen is an Arab country located on the Arabian Peninsula in Southwest Asia. Yemen has an estimated population of more than 23 million people and is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the North, the Red Sea to the West, the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Aden to the South, and Oman to the east....
, who had been subdued by the Ethiopia

Ethiopia

Ethiopia , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Sudan to the west, Kenya to the south, Somalia to the east and Djibouti to the northeast....
ns of Axum

Axum

Axum, or Aksum, is a city in northern Ethiopia named after the Kingdom of Aksum, a naval and trading power that ruled from the region ca....
, applied to Khosrau I for help. The Emperor Khosrau sent a fleet with a small army under Vahriz

Vahriz

Vahriz was a Deylamite spahbod in the service of the Sassanid Empire of Persian Empire. He was the head of a small expeditionary force of low ranking Sassanid_army#Azadan_nobility nobility numbering around 700 sent by Khosrau I to Yemen to help repel the invading Ethiopians of Axum....
, who expelled the Ethiopians. From that time till the conquests by Islam

Islam

Islam is a Monotheism, Abrahamic religion originating with the teachings of the Prophets of Islam Muhammad, a 7th century Arab religious and political figure....
, Yemen was dependent on Persia, and a Persian governor resided here. In 572, Armenia

Armenia

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

Caucasian Iberia

Iberia , also known as Iveria , was a name given by the ancient Ancient Greece and Roman Empire to the ancient Georgia kingdom of Kartli corresponding roughly to the eastern and southern parts of the present day Georgia....
rebelled against Persia with Roman support, beginning a new war in which Khosrau I conquered the city of Dara

Dara (Mesopotamia)

Dara or Daras was an important East Roman Empire fortress city in northern Mesopotamia on the border with the Sassanid Empire. Because of its great strategic importance, it featured prominently in the Roman-Persian Wars of the 6th century, with the famous Battle of Dara taking place before its walls in 530....
on the Euphrates

Euphrates

The Euphrates is the western of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia which flows from Anatolia....
in 573, but after a largely unsuccessful incursion of Anatolia in 576 he was heavily defeated by the Romans in a battle near Melitene. He sued for peace in 579, but while negotiations with the Emperor Tiberius II (578–582) were still going on, Khosrau I died and was succeeded by his son Hormizd IV

Hormizd IV

Hormizd IV, son of Khosrau I, reigned as the twenty-first Sassanid Empire from 579 to 590.He seems to have been imperious and violent, but not without some kindness of heart....
(579–590).

Religious tolerance

Although Khosrau I had in the last years of his father extirpated the heretic

Heresy

Heresy is an introduced change to some system of belief, especially a religion, that conflicts with the previously established canon of that belief....
al and communistic Persian sect of the Mazdakites (see Kavadh I of Persia), he was a sincere adherent of Zoroastrian

Zoroastrianism

Zoroastrianism is the religion and philosophy based on the teachings ascribed to the prophet Zoroaster, after whom the religion is named. The term Zoroastrianism is in general usage, essentially synonymous with Mazdaism, i.e., the worship of Ahura Mazda, exalted by Zoroaster as the supreme divine authority....
orthodoxy and even ordered that the religion's holy text, the Avesta
Avesta

The Avesta is the primary collection of sacred texts of Zoroastrianism, composed in the Avestan language....
be codified, but he was not fanatical or prone to persecution. He tolerated every Christian confession. When one of his sons had rebelled about 550 and was taken prisoner, he did not execute him; nor did he punish the Christians who had perhaps supported him.

After Justinian I had closed the Academy

Academy

An academy is an institution of higher learning, research, or honorary membership.The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 385 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the goddess of wisdom, north of Ancient Athens, Greece....
of Athens

Athens

Athens , the Capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery; as one of the List of cities by time of continuous habitation, its recorded history spans around 3,400 years....
, one of the last seats of paganism in the Roman Empire

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
, the last seven teachers of Neoplatonism

Neoplatonism

Neoplatonism is the modern term for a school of religious and mystical philosophy that took shape in the 3rd century AD, founded by Plotinus and based on the teachings of Plato and earlier Platonism....
emigrated to Persia in 531. But they soon found out that neither Khosrau I nor his state corresponded to the Plato

Plato

Plato , was a Classical Greece Greeks philosopher, mathematician, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Platonic Academy in Ancient Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the western world....
nic ideal, and Khosrau I, in his treaty with Justinian I, stipulated that they should return unmolested.

Reforms

Khosrau I introduced a rational system of taxation, based upon a survey of landed possessions, which his father had begun, and tried in every way to increase the welfare and the revenues of his empire. In Babylonia

Babylonia

Babylonia was a state in Lower Mesopotamia , Babylon as its franklin. Babylonia emerged when Hammurabi created an empire out of the territories of the former kingdoms of Sumer and Akkad....
he built or restored the canal

Canal

Canals are artificial channels for water. There are two types of canals: Aqueduct canals, which are used for the conveyance and delivery of water, and waterways, which are navigable transportation canals used for passage of goods and people, often connected to existing lakes, rivers, or oceans....
s. His army was in discipline decidedly superior to the Romans, and apparently was well paid. He was also interested in literature

Literature

Literature is the art of written works. Literally translated, the word means "acquaintance with letters" . In Western culture the most basic written literary types include fiction and non-fiction....
and philosophical

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, truth, beauty, justice, validity, mind, and language....
discussions. Under his reign, chess

Chess

Chess is a recreational and competitive game played between two Player . Sometimes called Western chess or international chess to distinguish it from History of chess and other chess variants, the current form of the game emerged in Southern Europe during the second half of the 15th century after evolving from similar, much older...
was introduced from India

India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
and many books were brought from India and translated into Pahlavi. Some of these later found their way into the literature of the Islamic world. His famous minister Burzoe

Burzoe

Burzoe or Bozorgmehr was a famous Iranian statesman and physician of the Sassanid era of the Persian Empire in the sixth century. He was the chancellor of Khosrau I ....
translated Indian Panchatantra

Panchatantra

The Panchatantra or Tantrakhyayika also known in other cultures as Kalileh o Demneh or Anvar-e Soheyli or Kalilag and Damnag or Kalilah wa Dimnah or Kalila and Dimna or The Fables of Bidpai or The Morall Philosophie of Doni was originally a canon...
from Sanskrit

Sanskrit

Sanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India....
into middle Persian language of Pahlavi and named it Kelileh o Demneh

Panchatantra

Middle Persian

Middle Persian is the Iranian languages language/ethnolect of Southwestern Iran that during Sassanid times became a prestige dialect and so came to be spoken in other regions as well....
version was a few centuries later translated by Iranian Muslims into Arabic and then found its way to Europe. The Arabic version was also used to render a New Persian version of the book.

Khosrau I

Early life

Conquests

Religious tolerance

Reforms

See also

External links