The House of Mihrān or House of Mehrān (
Middle Persian
Middle Persian, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg ( Inscriptional Pahlavi script: , Manichaean script: , Avestan script: ) in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasania ...
: 𐭬𐭨𐭥𐭠𐭭;
New Persian
New Persian (), also known as Modern Persian () is the current stage of the Persian language spoken since the 8th to 9th centuries until now in Greater Iran and surroundings. It is conventionally divided into three stages: Early New Persian (8th ...
: ), was a leading
Iranian
Iranian () may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Iran
** Iranian diaspora, Iranians living outside Iran
** Iranian architecture, architecture of Iran and parts of the rest of West Asia
** Iranian cuisine, cooking traditions and practic ...
noble family (''šahrdārān''), one of the
Seven Great Houses of the
Sasanian İranian Empire which claimed descent from the earlier
Arsacid dynasty
The Parthian Empire (), also known as the Arsacid Empire (), was a major Iranian political and cultural power centered in ancient Iran from 247 BC to 224 AD. Its latter name comes from its founder, Arsaces I, who led the Parni tribe ...
. A branch of the family formed the
Mihranid The Mihranids were an Iranian peoples, Iranian family which ruled several regions of Caucasus from 330 to 821. They claimed to be of Sasanian, Sasanian Persian descent but were of Parthian origin.
History
The dynasty was founded when a certain Mi ...
line of the kings of
Caucasian Albania
Caucasian Albania is a modern exonym for a former state located in ancient times in the Caucasus, mostly in what is now Azerbaijan (where both of its capitals were located). The modern endonyms for the area are ''Aghwank'' and ''Aluank'', among ...
and the
Chosroid Dynasty
The Chosroid dynasty (a Latinization of ''Khosro anni'', ka, ხოსრო ანები), also known as the Iberian Mihranids, were a dynasty of kings and later presiding princes of the early Georgian state of Iberia from the 4th to t ...
of
Kartli
Kartli ( ka, ქართლი ) is a historical region in central-to-eastern Georgia traversed by the river Mtkvari (Kura), on which Georgia's capital, Tbilisi, is situated. Known to the Classical authors as Iberia, Kartli played a crucial rol ...
.
History
First mentioned in a mid-3rd-century CE trilingual inscription at the ''
Ka'ba-i Zartosht
Kaaba, Ka'ba-ye Zartosht (), also called the Kaaba or Cube of Zoroaster, is a rectangular stepped stone structure in the Naqsh-e Rustam compound beside Zangiabad, Fars, Zangiabad village in Marvdasht county in Fars province, Fars, Iran. The Naqs ...
'', concerning the political, military, and religious activities of
Shapur I
Shapur I (also spelled Shabuhr I; ) was the second Sasanian Empire, Sasanian King of Kings of Iran. The precise dating of his reign is disputed, but it is generally agreed that he ruled from 240 to 270, with his father Ardashir I as co-regent u ...
, the second Sassanid
king of Iran
King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a constitutional monarch if his power is restrained by fi ...
, the family remained the hereditary "
margrave
Margrave was originally the Middle Ages, medieval title for the military commander assigned to maintain the defence of one of the border provinces of the Holy Roman Empire or a monarchy, kingdom. That position became hereditary in certain Feudal ...
s" of
Ray
Ray or RAY may refer to:
Fish
* Ray (fish), any cartilaginous fish of the superorder Batoidea
* Ray (fish fin anatomy), the bony or horny spine on ray-finned fish
Science and mathematics
* Half-line (geometry) or ray, half of a line split at an ...
throughout the Sassanid period. Several members of the family served as generals in the
Roman–Persian Wars, where they are mentioned simply as Mihran or , ''mirranēs'', in
Greek
Greek may refer to:
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 of all kno ...
sources. Indeed,
Procopius
Procopius of Caesarea (; ''Prokópios ho Kaisareús''; ; – 565) was a prominent Late antiquity, late antique Byzantine Greeks, Greek scholar and historian from Caesarea Maritima. Accompanying the Roman general Belisarius in Justinian I, Empe ...
, in his ''History of the Wars'', holds that the family name ''Mihran'' is a title equivalent to General.
Notable generals from the Mihran clan included:
Shapur Mihran
Shapur Mihran (), known in Armenian sources as Shapuh Mihran (Armenian: Շապուհ Միհրան), was a Sasanian nobleman from the House of Mihran. He served as the marzban of Persian Armenia briefly in 482.
Biography
Shapur belonged to the H ...
, who served as the
marzban
Marzbān, or Marzpān (Middle Persian: 𐭬𐭫𐭱𐭰𐭠𐭭𐭯 transliteration: mrzwpn, derived from Middle Persian: 𐭬𐭫𐭱 ''marz'' "border, boundary" and the Middle Persian suffix: 𐭡𐭭𐭯 ''-pān'' "guardian"; Modern Persian: ...
of
Persian Armenia
Sasanian Armenia, also known as Persian Armenia and Persarmenia ( – ''Parskahayastan''), may either refer to the periods in which Armenia ( – ''Armin'') was under the suzerainty of the Sasanian Empire or specifically to the parts of Armeni ...
briefly in 482,
Perozes
Perozes (, from Middle Persian '' Pērōz'') was the Sasanian Persian general opposing the Byzantines under Belisarius at the Battle of Dara (530).
According to the description of the Byzantine historian Procopius of Caesarea, he was "a Persian ...
, the Persian commander-in-chief during the
Anastasian War
The Anastasian War was fought from 502 to 506 between the Byzantine Empire and the Sasanian Empire. It was the first major conflict between the two powers since 440, and would be the prelude to a long series of destructive conflicts between the t ...
and the
Battle of Dara
The Battle of Dara was fought between the Eastern Roman Empire and the Sasanians in 530 AD. It was one of the battles of the Iberian War.
Procopius's account of this engagement is among the most detailed descriptions of a late Roman battle.
...
,
Mihransitad, a diplomat of
Khosrow I
Khosrow I (also spelled Khosrau, Khusro or Chosroes; ), traditionally known by his epithet of Anushirvan ("the Immortal Soul"), was the Sasanian King of Kings of Iran from 531 to 579. He was the son and successor of Kavad I ().
Inheriting a rei ...
,
Golon Mihran, who fought against the Byzantines in Armenia in 572–573, and
Bahram Chobin
Bahrām Chōbīn () or Wahrām Chōbēn (Middle Persian: ; died 591), also known by his epithet Mehrbandak ("servant of Mithra"), was a nobleman, general, and political leader of the late Sasanian Empire and briefly its ruler as Bahram VI ().
So ...
, who led a coup against
Khosrau II
Khosrow II (spelled Chosroes II in classical sources; and ''Khosrau''), commonly known as Khosrow Parviz (New Persian: , "Khosrow the Victorious"), is considered to be the last great Sasanian King of Kings (Shahanshah) of Iran, ruling from 590 ...
and briefly usurped the crown from 590 to 591, and
Shahrwaraz, a commander of the last Roman-Persian war and a usurper.
In the course of the 4th century, the purported branches of this family acquired the crowns of three
Caucasian polities:
Iberia
The Iberian Peninsula ( ), also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in south-western Europe. Mostly separated from the rest of the European landmass by the Pyrenees, it includes the territories of peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal, compri ...
(
Chosroids
The Chosroid dynasty (a Latinization of ''Khosro anni'', ka, ხოსრო ანები), also known as the Iberian Mihranids, were a dynasty of kings and later presiding princes of the early Georgian state of Iberia from the 4th to t ...
),
Gogarene
Gugark (, , ) was the 13th province of the ancient kingdom of Armenia. It now comprises parts of northern Armenia, northeast Turkey, and southwest Georgia.
Etymology
Etymologically, Gugark in Armenian language denotes land of Gugars. word " ...
and
Caucasian Albania
Caucasian Albania is a modern exonym for a former state located in ancient times in the Caucasus, mostly in what is now Azerbaijan (where both of its capitals were located). The modern endonyms for the area are ''Aghwank'' and ''Aluank'', among ...
/
Gardman
Gardman (), also known as Gardmank' or Gardmanadzor, was one of the eight cantons of the ancient province of Utik' in the Kingdom of Armenia and simultaneously, together with the canton of Tuch'katak, an Armenian principality. It roughly corres ...
(
Mihranids The Mihranids were an Iranian family which ruled several regions of Caucasus from 330 to 821. They claimed to be of Sasanian Persian descent but were of Parthian origin.
History
The dynasty was founded when a certain Mihran, a distant relative o ...
).
Toumanoff, Cyril
Cyril Leo Toumanoff ( ka, კირილ თუმანოვი; ; 10 October 1913 – 4 February 1997) was a Georgian-American historian, and academic genealogist who mostly specialized in the history and genealogies of medieval Georgia, Armen ...
. Introduction to Christian Caucasian History, II: States and Dynasties of the Formative Period. ''Traditio'' 17 (1961), p. 38.
The much later
Samanid dynasty
The Samanid Empire () was a Persianate Sunni Muslim empire, ruled by a dynasty of Iranian ''dehqan'' origin. The empire was centred in Khorasan and Transoxiana, at its greatest extent encompassing northeastern Iran and Central Asia, from 819 t ...
that ruled most of Iran in the 9th and 10th centuries claimed descent from Bahrām Chōbin.
[Britannica, "The Samanids", ''Their eponym was Sāmān-Khodā, a landlord in the district of Balkh and, according to the dynasty’s claims, a descendant of Bahrām Chūbīn, the Sāsānian general']
o
/ref>[Kamoliddin, Shamsiddin S]
"To the Question of the Origin of the Samanids"
''Transoxiana: Journal Libre de Estudios Orientales'', ][''Iran and America: Re-Kind ng a Love Lost'' By Badi Badiozamani, Ghazal Badiozamani, pg. 123][''History of Bukhara'' by Narshakhi, Chapter XXIV, Pg 79]
References
Sources
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mihran, House of
Ancient history of the Caucasus
Families from the Sasanian Empire