The First Perso-Turkic War was fought during 588–589 between the
Sasanian Empire and
Hephthalite principalities and its lord the
Göktürks. The conflict started with the invasion of the Sasanian Empire by the Turks and ended with a decisive Sasanian victory and the reconquest of lost lands.
Background
In 557,
Khosrow I (), the king (''
shah
Shah (; fa, شاه, , ) is a royal title that was historically used by the leading figures of Iranian monarchies.Yarshater, EhsaPersia or Iran, Persian or Farsi, ''Iranian Studies'', vol. XXII no. 1 (1989) It was also used by a variety of ...
'') of the
Sasanian Empire, who had greatly increased the authority of his empire, decided to put an end to the
Hephthalite Empire domination over
Central Asia
Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...
. He thus allied with the
Göktürks in order to defeat the Hephthalites. The campaign was successful and the region north of the
Oxus
The Amu Darya, tk, Amyderýa/ uz, Amudaryo// tg, Амударё, Amudaryo ps, , tr, Ceyhun / Amu Derya grc, Ὦξος, Ôxos (also called the Amu, Amo River and historically known by its Latin name or Greek ) is a major river in Central Asi ...
went to the Turks whilst the south came under Sasanian rule. An agreement was established between Khosrow I and the Turkic Khagan
Istämi
Istämi (or Dizabul or Ishtemi Sir Yabghu Khagan; )
was the ruler of the western part of the Göktürks, which became the Western Turkic Khaganate and dominated the Sogdians. He was the yabgu (vassal) of his brother Bumin Qaghan in 552 AD. He wa ...
which set the Oxus as the frontier between the two empires. However, in 588, the
Turkic Khagan Bagha Qaghan
Bagha Qaghan was the seventh ruler (587–589) of the Turkic Kaganate. He may have been
the 'great kaghan' that was killed with an arrow by Persian commander Bahrām Chobin during First Perso-Turkic War.
He is given as ''Chǔluóhóu'' (处 ...
(known as Sabeh/Saba in
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
sources), together with his
Hephthalite subjects, invaded the Sasanian territories south of the Oxus, where they attacked and routed the Sasanian soldiers stationed in
Balkh, and then proceeded to conquer the city along with
Talaqan,
Badghis
Bādghīs ( Dari: ) is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan, located in the northwest of the country, on the border with Turkmenistan. It is considered to be one of the country's most underdeveloped provinces, with the highest povert ...
, and
Herat
Herāt (; Persian: ) is an oasis city and the third-largest city of Afghanistan. In 2020, it had an estimated population of 574,276, and serves as the capital of Herat Province, situated south of the Paropamisus Mountains (''Selseleh-ye Safē ...
.
The war
In a council of war, Bahram was chosen to lead an army against them and was given the governorship of
Khorasan. Bahram's army supposedly consisted of 12,000 hand-picked horsemen. His army ambushed a large army of Turks and Hephthalites in April 588, at the Battle of Hyrcanian Rock, and again in 589, re-conquering Balkh, where Bahram captured the Turkic treasury and the golden throne of the Khagan. He then proceeded to cross the Oxus river and won a decisive victory over the Turks, personally killing Bagha Qaghan with an arrowshot. He managed to reach as far as Baykand, near
Bukhara, and also contain an attack by the son of the deceased Khagan, Birmudha, whom Bahram had captured and sent to the Sasanian capital of
Ctesiphon. Birmudha was well received there, and was forty days later sent back to Bahram with the order that the Turkic prince should get sent back to Transoxiana. The Sasanians now held suzerainty over the
Sogdian cities of
Chach and
Samarkand, where Hormizd minted coins.
Ferdowsi's ''
Shahnameh
The ''Shahnameh'' or ''Shahnama'' ( fa, شاهنامه, Šāhnāme, lit=The Book of Kings, ) is a long epic poem written by the Persian poet Ferdowsi between c. 977 and 1010 CE and is the national epic of Greater Iran. Consisting of some 50 ...
'' (C.E. 1010) describes in legendary detail the dealings of Bahram Chubin and the
Turkic "King Sawa" before and during the battle in which Bahram with his 12,000 men kills Sawa.
[Volume VIII of the online Shah Nama a]
under "The Reign of Hurmuzd, Son of Nushirwan."
References
Sources
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{{Göktürks
Wars involving the Sasanian Empire, Turkic War 1
580s conflicts
589
Military history of the Göktürks