The ''Azadan'' (

Middle Persian Middle Persian or Pahlavi, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg () in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasanian Empire. For some time after the Sasanian collapse, Middle Per ...

: , Parthian: ; meaning 'free' and 'noble') were a class of

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkm ...

ian nobles. They are probably identical to the ('the free ones') mentioned in

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

sources to refer to a group of Parthian nobles. According to the 1st-century

Romano-Jewish The history of the Jews in the Roman Empire ( la, Iudaeorum Romanum) traces the interaction of Jews and Romans during the period of the Roman Empire (27 BCE – CE 476). A Jewish diaspora had migrated to Rome and to the territories of Roma ...

historian

Josephus Flavius Josephus (; grc-gre, Ἰώσηπος, ; 37 – 100) was a first-century Romano-Jewish historian and military leader, best known for '' The Jewish War'', who was born in Jerusalem—then part of Roman Judea—to a father of priestly d ...

(died 100 AD), the Parthian army led by prince Pacorus I during the invasion of Judea consisted of members of the . The Kingdom of Armenia adopted the same hierarchy as that of the Parthians, which included the class (), which was used to label the Armenian middle and lower nobility. The name of the

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to t ...

n nobility, , also corresponded to that of . A class of are also attested in

Sogdia Sogdia ( Sogdian: ) or Sogdiana was an ancient Iranian civilization between the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya, and in present-day Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. Sogdiana was also a province of the Achaemenid Em ...

, an Iranian civilization located in

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a 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 the former ...

. The

Sasanians The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th centuries AD. Named ...

, who supplanted the Parthians in 224, maintained the same divisions of the nobility as their predecessor. Under the Sasanians, the were members of the lower nobility and the last class-rank of the four types of the Sasanian nobility. The four ranks consisted of the (vassal kings and dynasts), the (princes of royal blood), the (grandees) and the (lower nobility). The and formed the bulk of the cavalry (), which in turn formed the backbone of the Sasanian army. The were analogous to the

knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the G ...

s of

Medieval Europe In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

. The are first attested in the bilingual Hajjiabad inscription of the King of Kings ()

Shapur I Shapur I (also spelled Shabuhr I; pal, 𐭱𐭧𐭯𐭥𐭧𐭥𐭩, Šābuhr ) was the second Sasanian King of Kings of Iran. The dating of his reign is disputed, but it is generally agreed that he ruled from 240 to 270, with his father Ar ...

(): They are later mentioned in the Paikuli inscription of 293, erected by Shapur I's grandson

Narseh Narseh (also spelled Narses or Narseus; pal, 𐭭𐭥𐭮𐭧𐭩, New Persian: , ''Narsē'') was the seventh Sasanian King of Kings of Iran from 293 to 303. The youngest son of Shapur I (), Narseh served as the governor of Sakastan, Hind a ...

(), who mentions the along with other groups of the nobility. They are likewise mentioned in the inscription of

Shapur II Shapur II ( pal, 𐭱𐭧𐭯𐭥𐭧𐭥𐭩 ; New Persian: , ''Šāpur'', 309 – 379), also known as Shapur the Great, was the tenth Sasanian Empire, Sasanian King of Kings (Shahanshah) of Iran. The List of longest-reigning monarchs, longest ...

() at Meshkinshahr. According to the 5th-century Byzantine Armenian historian Faustus of Byzantium, the formed the bulk of Shapur II's royal bodyguard regiment.

References

Sources

* * * * * * * * * {{citation , last=Zakeri , first=Mohsen , date=1995 , title=Sasanid Soldiers in Early Muslim Society: The Origins of 'Ayyārān and Futuwwa , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VfYnu5F20coC , publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag , isbn=9783447036528 Social class in the Sasanian Empire Iranian nobility Parthian Empire Iranian words and phrases