Khosrow and Shirin, Part 3

We left off two days ago (because of the Farhad Tarash interlude) with the "wrong" ending of their love story, one we know didn't happen because we know when the two lovers lived and died. The idea that Khosrow's son kills Khosrow in order to marry Shirin, and Shirin killing herself to avoid this, does not fit the few facts we know.

The fact is that the two were married. Shirin was a Christian, and her presence in his life was likely an influence on his tolerance for the various Christian offshoots, although he did take sides. The ongoing conflict between Monophysite (Jesus had only one nature) and Nestorian (Jesus had a human and divine nature) Christians led Khosrow to favor his wife's version and declare that Monophysitism should be followed by Christians in his empire.

Shirin bore a son, Mardanshah, whom she would have liked to be Khosrow's successor.

Also, despite the part of the story that has Shirin also romantically interested in the sculptor Farhad, she lives on in legend as a faithful wife. She played a more public role than Gordiya (the sister of Khosrow's one-time enemy, Bahram Chobin), or Mariam (said to be the daughter of the Byzantine Emperor Maurice). Each of his wives bore him sons. It was a son of Mariam who was to cause the greatest grief for the couple.

During the Persian-Turkic War of 627-629, the Turks captured Khosrow's home in Dastagird, whereupon Khosrow fled to the capital of Ctesiphon. Once he reached Ctesiphon, Khosrow intended to recognize Mardanshah as his heir. Hearing this, Sheroe sent a message to a general who once led opposition to Khosrow. Sheroe promised to promote conspirators, increase the army's salaries, and end the war with the Byzantine Empire.

With those assurances, the general arranged for a coup d'état in favor of Sheroe, who started calling himself Kavad II as a regnal name. This was in 628.

Sheroe had his father imprisoned, and a list of accusations was made against him for mis-management and corruption. Khosrow dismissed the accusations. Kavad then had all his siblings rounded up and executed. He then had an Iranian nobleman kill Khosrow, after which he had the nobleman killed. Khosrow's daughters criticized their brother. Shirin is also said to have died in 628, but the idea that she committed suicide because her step-son wants to marry her was unlikely. (The illustration is a carved capital that depicts Khosrow.)

To end the war, Kavad would have to deal with Byzantine Emperor Heraclius. Let's meet him tomorrow.

Gordiya

The woman whose name keeps showing up in the last few posts was the wife of three powerful men in 6th-century Iran, one of whom was her brother.

Born to one of the Seven Great Houses of Iran, Gordiya's father was a military officer under Emperor Khosrow I (531 - 579). She had three brothers, one of whom was Bahram Chobin, who later started a civil war against Khosrow's son (Hormizd IV) and then grandson, Khosrow II. She was married to Bahram; it is not known for certain, but they may have been half-siblings from different mothers.

Not much is known of Gordiya's early life. After Bahram's death in 590, when Khosrow II's uncle Vistahm rebelled against his nephew and created his own principality in eastern Iran, Gordiya saw a chance to be connected again to a powerful man and married Vistahm. This increased his authority with her brother's former followers.

Vistahm, however, was not going to be allowed to run his independent mini-kingdom, and ultimately Khosrow sent an army to conquer him. Vistahm was killed either by a supporter of Khosrow's or by Gordiya herself. Whether she was responsible is not able to be proven, but the identity of her third husband might shed some light on the incident.

She married Khosrow II.

If it is possible that Khosrow made a secret offer to her to make her his empress, then that could be sufficient motivation for her—a woman who saw marriage to powerful men as a way to gain status—to eliminate Vistahm.

Dinawari, a 9th-century Iranian polymath, wrote a history that mentions Gordiya giving Khosrow a son, Juvanshir, who was briefly a king of Iran in 630. If that were the case, however, there is no other evidence, neither written records nor coins minted with his information on them.

Let's get back to Khosrow II; with rebellions suppressed, we can now find out what else was significant about his reign, starting tomorrow.

Uncle Vistahm

An uncle willing to kill your father might not be the best person in whom to put your faith. Vistahm and his brother Vinduyih killed Iranian Emperor Hormizd IV (they had revenge reasons) and put his son on the throne as Khosrow II.

They had helped Khosrow during a civil war against his enemy, Bahram Chobin, but eventually he had to order them executed to distance himself from their murder of his father. Vinduyih was caught up with and killed, but Vistahm found enough supporters—including supporters of Bahram Chobin when Bahram's sister Gordiya married Vistahm—to create a little kingdom for himself inside Persian territory.

Because of the coins Vistahm was printing with his name and dates (see illustration), we know that he was ruling that area for seven years. Khosrow sent soldiers several times to capture and kill Vistahm, but Vistahm's following was too great. Ultimately, however, Vistahm had to flee to the mountainous province of Gilan.

Although some Armenian sections of Khosrow's army defected to Vistahm, he was finally tracked down and captured by forces led by an Armenian Prince, Smbat IV Bagratuni. Vistahm was killed, but there are two stories about that. One is that, at Khosrow's request, a prince of Transoxiana, Pariowk, killed him. The other is that the urging came from Gordiya herself.

Why would his wife be involved, whose brother was killed by forces of which Vistahm was originally part? She seems to have had a good head for figuring out where her best future options lay. Once it looked like Vistahm was no longer going to be successful, she was willing to abandon him for something else.

What was that "something else"? Would you be surprised to know that her next husband was a younger man, a powerful man; in fact, that his name was Khosrow II?

Maybe it's time to learn more about Gordiya. See you tomorrow.

Dealing with the Uncles

So Khosrow II had regained his throne and the usurper Bahram Chobin had fled and been killed. Order was restored in the Iranian Empire. Khosrow had originally been put on the throne when his two uncles on his mother's side, Vistahm and Vinduyih, who absolutely hated Khosrow's father, Hormizd IV (who had persecuted aristocratic clans to have more control himself and had killed their father), deposed Hormizd.

During the approach of Bahram's army to Ctesiphon, when Khosrow fled to Azerbaijan, Vinduyih even pretended to be Khosrow when Bahram's force caught up with them, and allowed himself to be captured in order to save his nephew.

Both uncles were rewarded handsomely with money and positions. Vinduyih became the royal treasurer. Vistahm took over his father's title of military chief in the east. 

The shadow of Hormizd's murder hung over Khosrow's reign, however. In order to distance himself from any complicity, Khosrow chose to have his uncles executed. Vinduyih tried to flee to Vistahm, but was captured and killed.

Then Vistahm (understandably) rebelled against Khosrow, sending him a message:

You are not worthier to rule than I am. Indeed, I am more deserving on account of my descent from Darius, son of Darius, who fought Alexander. You Sassanians deceitfully gained superiority over us and usurped our right, and treated us with injustice. Your ancestor Sasan was no more than a shepherd.

There was plenty of support for Vistahm, aided by an unexpected marriage. Bahram's sister, the influential noblewoman Gordiya (see illustration), went to Vistahm and married him. This brought many of Bahram's supporters to Vistahm's side.

Vistahm managed to carve out a very nice principality for himself, thumbing his nose at Khosrow. The estimates of his reign are from 590 to c.594/5. If he had stayed quiet, he might have lasted longer, but he decided to expand toward Khosrow-controlled territory. This set up a more serious clash between the two, about which I will say more tomorrow.