Farhad Tarash

I mentioned yesterday a sculptor named Farhad who was punished by Khosrow II for becoming a rival for the love of Shirin. He was given the impossible task to carve steps into the cliffs of Mount Behistun.

As it happens, if you go to Mount Behistun in western Iran you'll find a long smooth section carved into the stone that is decidedly not natural. Called the Farhād Tarāsh, it is 30 meters high and 200 meters long.

Its origin is unknown. A medieval geographer named Istakhri, who died in 957, had no idea whence it came. Near the Farhād Tarāsh are several hundred dressed stone blocks that would be suitable for the start of a wall or a building's foundation. They have been dated to the same era as the wall carving.

Farhad is only known from Nizami Ganjavi's famous tragic romance Khosrow and Shirin, which he started writing in c. 1180. Did Nizami Ganjavi know something about the history of Mount Behistun? Or did he simply take a mystery and come up with a fiction that explained it and added a tragic note to his story? (In the story, Farhad threw himself off the cliff when he was told that Shirin was dead.)

One archaeologist thought the stone face was created to be the frame for an inscription by Darius the Great (reigned 522-486 BCE). Another theorized it was the beginning of a planned palace by Khosrow II, and that the literary link to his reign was evidence of such. Khosrow also reigned over a Golden Age of sorts before the Muslim conquest of Iran.

None of the theories can be proven, but it makes for an interesting footnote to the romance of Khosrow and Shirin, which we will get back to tomorrow.

Khosrow and Shirin, Part 1

Once the rebellions were finished, the reign of Khosrow II (590 - 628) experienced a golden age in some respects. One facet of his reign was his tolerance of Christians, which may have had something to do with undoing the persecutions in the times of his immediate ancestors, and also to do with one of his wives, Shirin.

Shirin was a Christian, a member of the Church of the East and later a member of the Syriac Orthodox Church. When Jerusalem was conquered in 614 by the Sassanians and the True Cross was captured, it was brought to Ctesiphon where Shirin took possession of it.

How Khosrow came to be married to a Christian is the subject of speculation, and many varying accounts were created over the years. One is that she was a servant in a Persian home he used to visit when he was young. A 12th-century Persian poet, Nizami Ganjavi, wrote a very popular poem called "Khosrow and Shirin" in which he tells the beautiful (and no doubt extremely fictional) story of the two lovers.

Nizami paints Shirin as the flawlessly beautiful niece of an Armenian queen. A friend of Khosrow travels at his behest to find Shirin and show her a picture of Khosrow, with whom she falls in love. She decides to flee her home to go to find Khosrow. Ironically, Khosrow at the time decided to flee his father's anger and go to Armenia to find Shirin.

Coincidentally, Khosrow (disguised as a peasant) sees a young woman bathing in a river. It is Shirin, who does not recognize him because of his disguise. He does not realize that she is the woman he seeks, so he continues. They miss each other several times in the story, until he flees to Armenia after his overthrow by Bahram Chobin. He finally meets Shirin, but leaves her in Armenia to travel to Constantinople to get help from the Byzantine Emperor Maurice against Bahram Chobin.

Maurice agrees to help, but on the condition that Khosrow marry his daughter Mariam, and to marry no one else so long as Mariam is alive. To further complicate things, a sculptor named Farhad falls in love with Shirin.

The romance of Khosrow and Shirin was known long before Nizami, but he turned it into a famous Iranian epic. Tomorrow we'll find out what happened to the lovers.

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.

Khosrow II and Bahram

After Hormizd IV was strangled with his own turban by his own followers in 590, his son, now Iranian Emperor Khosrow II, faced the threat of the civil war leader Bahram Chobin heading his way. Khosrow sent a message to Bahram with a gentle warning:

Khosrow, kings of kings, ruler over the ruling, lord of the peoples, prince of peace, salvation of men, among gods the good and eternally living man, among men the most esteemed god, the highly illustrious, the victor, the one who rises with the sun and who lends the night his eyesight, the one famed through his ancestors, the king who hates, the benefactor who engaged the Sassanians and saved the Iranians their kingship—to Bahram, the general of the Iranians, our friend.... We have also taken over the royal throne in a lawful manner and have upset no Iranian customs.... We have so firmly decided not to take off the diadem that we even expected to rule over other worlds, if this were possible.... If you wish your welfare, think about what is to be done.

Bahram continued his march to the capital of Ctesiphon. Khosrow's loyalists initially held off Bahram's forces, despite being outnumbered, but were eventually worn down. Khosrow, his wives, his uncles Vistahm and Vinduyih (who had killed Hormizd) and 30 nobles fled west to lands controlled by the Byzantine Empire.

Bahram declared himself emperor in the summer of 590. Bahram supported his claim by linking his existence and success to a Zoroastrian legend of a savior (mentioned here). He proceeded to do what rulers do: minting his own gold coins (illustration) with his name and likeness on them.

Khosrow, meanwhile, made the desperate move of writing to the Byzantine Emperor Maurice (mentioned here) to ask for help regaining his throne. Despite the frequent Byzantine/Persian clashing, Maurice agreed, in exchange for the return of some cities to Byzantine possession and Iran stopping interfering with Iberia and Armenia.

Some vicious fighting followed, as Khosrow and his people attacked Bahram-controlled territory. General Narses made enough progress into Bahram's territory that Khosrow was again declared king there. Vistahm and Vinduyih also were making progress. Bahram was sufficiently defeated that he fled eastward where he found refuge with the Khagan of the Turks.

Khosrow was back on the throne after having ruled for less than a year and then been exiled for less than a year. Understanding that Bahram was very popular and could still pose a threat, Khosrow sent men to execute him. It would be convenient to say that Bahram's legacy no longer intertwined with Khosrow's, but history doesn't always tie up loose ends neatly. Tomorrow we'll look at Khosrow's reign, new/old threats, and a surprise marriage.

The End of Hormizd IV

So Hormizd IV was dealing with a civil war when a successful military leader decided he was destined to lead the Iranian Empire. Hormizd asked his general Farrukhan to go put down the rebellion. Before setting out, Farrukhan requested that Hormizd release a political prisoner, Zadspram, a military leader whom Farrukhan considered important to success. Zadspram was released.

The armies of Hormizd under Farrukhan faced the army of Bahram Chobin across the River Zab. Neither wanted to be the first to try crossing the river and putting themselves into a vulnerable position. Farrukhan might also have delayed in hopes that the rebellion would dissolve over time.

Unfortunately, Zadspram deserted Farrukhan. This desertion demoralized the army. Two of Farrukhan's officers killed Farrukhan, and the loyalist army fell apart.

Meanwhile, Hormizd was in Ctesiphon, the Iranian royal capital for over 800 years. Enter Vistahm and Vinduyih. They were Hormizd's brothers-in-law, and they hated him. They decided to get Hormizd off the throne, so they blinded him with a red-hot needle in 590. The brothers elevated his son, their nephew Khosrow II (born c.570), to the position of emperor. Not long after, the two dealt with Hormizd permanently by strangling him with his own turban.

Accounts written later disagree on whether Khosrow II was involved in the murder of his father. A few years after the event, Khosrow executed both uncles for the murder of his father, along with others he considered co-conspirators. (More own this in the next few days.)

With the news of the death of Hormizd, Bahram Chobin continued his march to the capital under the public pretext of avenging the assassination of the emperor. Now, however, he was Khosrow II's problem. Whether this would make Khosrow II's reign a short one will be seen tomorrow.

Hormizd IV

Iranian Emperor Khosrow I maintained a level of religious tolerance (except for Mazdakism), during his reign (531 - 579). His son was also tolerant.

Hormizd IV (reigned 579 - 590) turned down requests by the Zoroastrian clergy to persecute Christians. His explanation was:

Just as our royal throne cannot stand on its two front legs without the two back ones, our kingdom cannot stand or endure firmly if we cause the Christians and adherents of other faiths, who differ in belief from ourselves, to become hostile to us. So refrain from harming the Christians and become assiduous in good works, so that the Christians and the adherents of other faiths may see this, praise you for it, and feel themselves drawn toward your religion.

He wanted all living within the empire to be treated as citizens of the empire. One of Hormizd's wives was a Christian, and he is said to have prayed to St. Sergius, a 4th-century Christian soldier.

The Zoroastrian clergy were not okay with this, and treated him with hostility. Hormizd felt it prudent to deal with their threat by executing Zoroastrian clergy who opposed him. There was another Zoroastrian threat, however, that did not come from the clergy.

Bahram Chobin was a military leader from one of the Seven Great Houses of the Sassanian Iranian Empire. He started a civil war against Hormizd. The religious element came from a Zoroastrian holy book that predicted:

...a man shall come from the frontiers of Kavulistan, with whom there will be glory, also of the royal family, whom they will name Kay Bahram; and all men will return with him, and he will rule even over India, Rome, and Turkistan, over all the frontiers.

Bahram's activities were near the end of the millennium of Zoroaster (which had to have started with the Seleucids in 312 BCE to make this work). Bahram began to be hailed by some as the fulfillment of a prophecy. Bahram himself claimed to be the personification of the fire of Mithra.

Hormizd, of course, had his own army, and the two forces faced each other across a river, neither wanting to make the first move and become vulnerable while trying to cross. Tomorrow I'll tell you what ended the civil war about to take place.

Mazdak and Kavad

During the reign of the Sassanian dynasty's Emperor Kavad I (r. 488–531), Zoroastrianism was the dominant religion. An Iranian priest named Mazdak started preaching a different version that came to be called Mazdakism.

The Zoroastrian clergy were very powerful, wealthy through donations at a time when the empire was having economic problems due to the need to provide tributes to some of their neighbors who had defeated them in some military struggles. The control of the Zoroastrian clergy meant the population was ready to embrace something new, but also meant that something new would not be received well by those in the upper class.

Mazdakism preached a dualistic Manichaeism cosmology, that there was a struggle between a good spiritual world of light, and an evil material world of darkness. Mazdakism also opposed war, consumption of meat, and said greed should be eliminated by eliminating personal property. It also said women should be held in common, which may have been an attempt by Mazdak to promote polygamy.

During a famine, grain was being hoarded by the wealthy nobility. Mazdak urged Kavad to help the people by sharing the grain. Kavad was dealing with an increasingly powerful nobility and Zoroastrian clergy, and saw helping the people as a way to garner more popular support to himself.

Kavad was actually deposed by the nobles for his support of Mazdak. He was imprisoned, and his brother Jamasp was enthroned in 496. Procopius tells the story that Kavad's wife went to the man guarding Kavad, offering herself to the guard for sex in exchange for getting to speak to her husband. While in his cell, Kavad and his wife exchanged clothes. An Iranian officer and friend of Kavad had horses ready nearby, helping him escape.

Kavad returned two years after his imprisonment with an army at his back. Fearing a devastating civil war, Jamasp stepped down with the promise that he would not be harmed. Those who plotted the usurpation were executed, however.

Kavad instituted several reforms that were influenced by Mazdakism: pacifism, anti-clericalism, and aid for the poor.

The Zoroastrian clergy were still powerful, however. When Kavad died, they asserted control over the succession. His elder son, Kawus, who had been a supporter of Mazdak, was considered unsuitable. The youngest, Khosrow, became Emperor Khosrow I. Under Khosrow, Mazdakism (and Mazdak) would come to a grisly end. Yesterday's post promised that today, but we will have to wait until tomorrow for the details.

Khosrow the Philosopher King

Although the youngest of four sons and not truly expected to ever become king, Khosrow I (531 - 579) received an extensive education in his youth. Once he became king, he cared deeply about advancing knowledge and culture.

The intellectual center of the Iranian Empire was the city of Gundeshapur, founded centuries earlier as a place to house Roman prisoners of war and used as a royal winter residence. There was an Academy of Gundishapur that Khosrow expanded significantly. It taught astronomy, medicine, philosophy, physics, poetry, and rhetoric. The academy combined knowledge from Greek and Indian sources as well as Iranian.

Gundeshapur taught medicine not under an apprenticeship system. Students worked in a hospital supervised by the entire medical faculty. It is thought that there were even exams required before completion of study. The academy also had a department focused on the study of maritime diseases and their treatment, likely the first in history.

The Encyclopedia Iranica tells us:

John of Ephesus, who even apologizes for eulogizing ... an enemy, states that Ḵosrow “was a prudent and wise man, and all his lifetime he assiduously devoted himself to the perusal of philosophical works … He took pains to collect the religious books of all creeds, and read and studied them, that he might learn which one were true and wise and which were foolish.”

Khosrow himself is believed to have said:

We have not declined to adopt anything which was good nor to avoid anything which was bad. Affection for our forebears did not lead us to accept customs which were not good.

Khosrow's name in Iranian texts during and after his reign is mentioned numerous times. He created a golden age of culture. Part of his ability to do so much was because he concentrated power on his central authority, which angered many of the nobles in the far-reaching empire. After his death, there were significant changes.

He was succeeded by his son, but before we get into that, I want to talk about how Christians fared inside the Iranian Empire whose ruler followed Zoroastrianism. That will be for tomorrow.

Khosrow and The Panchatantra

The Emperor of Iran, Khosrow I (531 - 579) was not just a leader who wanted to go to war with the Byzantines. He wanted to advance his people and culture in all ways, not just militarily.

Yesterday we told the story of the creation of chess and then backgammon as part of a challenge between India and Iran. There was another "cultural exchange" between the two worth mentioning (and was touched on here a few years ago).

The Panchatantra is an ancient Sanskrit collection of animal fables, written down by an anonymous author from stories preserved by oral tradition. It was enormously popular in India, and consists of five frame stories (Panchatantra means "Five Treatises"), each of which has fables that contribute to the main theme. The theme in many is the duty that a leader has to a people.

When Khosrow learned about the Panchatantra, he sent his physician Borzuya to India to make a copy of it. Why a physician? Because what Khosrow heard was that in India was something that could raise the dead.

(Note: yesterday we learned of Khosrow's advisor Borzogmehr. Some think Borzogmehr and Borzuya are the same person, because "Borzuya" can be a shortened form of "Borzogmehr." Other sources say they were two different men.)

Borzuya sailed to India and inquired about the "plant"; he learned it was actually a book, the Panchatantra. The ruler of India did not allow him to make a copy, but Borzuya was allowed to read it in the palace. Borzuya would read a story each day, then at night in his room he would write out what he had memorized and send what he wrote back to Iran.

Khosrow's reaction to reading the fables was to say the book "has given my soul new life." In a sense, therefore, it brought something back to life.

It's refreshing to talk about a ruler without talking about war. Tomorrow let's see what else Khosrow might have done culturally.

Games of Diplomacy

A 7th-century Sanskrit biography of the Indian emperor Harshavardhana written by his court poet Banabhatta contains the first literary mention (we believe) of the game of chess. In it we read that the Indian emperor sent a gift to the Sassanian King Khosrow I. The gift was a game that contained pieces that have been translated in different ways: "royal figures of sculptors" or "fighting terracotta-warriors" or even "When this king reigns, the fight among kings is confined to terracotta statuettes."

The strong assertion is that this was a chess game. (More detail available here; just search for "chess.")

The biography explains that the king of India sent it to Khosrow with a challenge, or taunt:

As your name is the King of Kings, all your emperorship over us connotes that your wise men should be wiser than ours. Either you send us an explanation of this game of chess or send revenue and tribute to us.

Khosrow tossed the challenge to his vizier, Bozorgmehr, who had been an advisor and military commander under Khosrow's father. It took three days, but Bozorgmehr figured out the arrangement and rules of the game of chess. (The illustration shows Bozorgmehr challenging the Indian envoy to a game.)

Khosrow decided that turnabout was fair play, so he had Bozorgmehr design a board game to send to India. The game was called Nard, and was designed to represent Zoroastrian philosophy:

• 30 Checkers: Represent the 30 days of a month.
• 24 Points (Squares): Represent the 24 hours of a day.
• 4 Sections of the Board: Represent the 4 seasons of the year.
• Two Colors (Black and White): Symbolize night and day.
• The Dice: Represent the stars of fate, fortune, and life's unpredictability

Khosrow sent it to the Indian emperor with the same challenge. They failed to decipher the playing of the game, and therefore were obliged to pay tribute to Persia.

And that (we are told) is how these two wildly popular games came to be. Tomorrow we will return to more serious matters, perhaps fables.

Khosrow I

I thought we should learn about the man who was causing such trouble for Justinian I and the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire.

Khosrow was the supreme ruler of Iran from 531 to 579, a very long reign during which he instituted important reforms and created prosperity that survived after his death. Because of the lasting effects of his reign he gained the epithet Anushirvan, Middle Persian for "the Immortal Soul."

When he succeeded his father, Kavad I, Khosrow was still a teenager. As a child he would have started school young and learned reading, writing, riding, archery, and military strategy. As the youngest of four sons, he would not have been expected to become ruler after his father.

About 520, when the Byzantines and the Persians were fighting without definitive victories and therefore making peace treaties, Khosrow's father Kavad suggested to Emperor Justin I (Justinian's father) that Justin adopt Khosrow as a Roman citizen. This was at a time when it seemed highly unlikely that Khosrow would be in the line of succession. This idea of fostering Khosrow at the Byzantine court was a move toward creating more understanding and amity between the two empires. Justin and Justinian were for this, but an advisor warned against it, lest circumstance lead to Khosrow trying to take over the Byzantine throne. Instead they offered to take Khosrow, but only with the rights offered to outsiders, barbarians. Khosrow was insulted, which probably colored his attitude toward the empire to the west in the decades to come.

As it turned out, his three older brothers all had strikes against them that prevented them becoming king.

The eldest, Kawus, was the likeliest heir presumptive, but after a revolt by followers of an offshoot of Zoroastrianism led by a man named Mazdak, and the support that Kawus gave to Mazdak, he was considered disqualified for the succession by the nobles who were all strict Zoroastrians. (Khosrow was a Zoroastrian.)

The next, Jamasp, lost an eye in a battle and was therefore considered unsuitable. The third, Xerxes, led an army that defeated Byzantines in 528 at the Battle of Thannuris. Although a victory, Xerxes was disgraced by Kavad because 500 of his own soldiers were killed.

So when Kavad died, Khosrow became the obvious choice. Before we get into the start of his long and impressive reign however, let's take a departure into the invention of two popular table games connected with him. See you tomorrow.

The Lazic War

While the Byzantine Empire under Justinian I and the Sassanids under Khosrow I might have decided to stop fighting on their southern borders, but hostilities continued in the area east of the Black Sea. This was a 20-year conflict, from 541 to 562.

The Byzantine control had been settled years earlier, in a treaty made in 532 that was called "Eternal Peace" (!) after five years of conflict. Iran recognized the Byzantine control of the place, and the monarch of Lazica, Tzath I, was even made to convert to Christianity and given royal recognition by Justinian's predecessor, Justin I.

In 536, Constantinople reduced their king's authority when the Byzantine general John Tsibus was given military command over Lazica. Tribes also promoted Byzantine merchants over the locals, leading to an uprising in 541. Then-Lazican king Gubazes II requested help from the Persians.

Khosrow I answered the call for help, advancing to Lazica and capturing the Roman-built trade city of Petra. Khosrow declared Lazica under his protection, and withdrew. A Roman invasion of Armenia in 543 was defeated by the Persians.

Lazica had many Christians by that time, and they objected to the increasing Persian influence and control. The Christians threatened an uprising, and this time Gubazes II decided he had to assuage his people, so he requested help from Justinian against the Persians.

Justinian sent 7000 soldiers, who besieged the well-defended Petra unsuccessfully. Persian reinforcements arrived and drove away the siege. Then, 5000 Persians marched to Armenia, but they were defeated by the Byzantines in 549. 

A later siege of Petra was successful, and its defenses were dismantled. Byzantine control of the area around the Black Sea was maintained. Khosrow had his men spread out and conquer as much of Lazica as they could. Meanwhile, Gubazes was arguing with the Byzantine commanders, who killed him. His younger brother Tzathes was made king. The assassination was investigated and the men responsible were executed.

Fighting went back and forth, with no clear victor. This was the perfect time for a treaty to stop wasting men and materiel. A truce was declared with the Fifty Years of Peace treaty in 562.

Khosrow was certainly a thorn in the side of the Byzantines, but they were a thorn in his side just as much. Let's meet the man tomorrow.

Justinian and Iran

When Justinian I became emperor (527 - 565), he inherited from his uncle the war with the Sassanid Empire to the east. This Iranian Empire was ruled by the House of Sassan from 224 to 651 CE.

His chief adversary was Khosrow I, who ruled the Sassanids from 531 to 579. Khosrow inherited the war from his father, Kavad I.

In 541, Justinian sent General Belisarius to the east to take command of Byzantine forces facing the Iranians. Belisarius had recently come from Italy where he had been successful in the Gothic Wars, Justinian's attempts to reunite the Western Roman Empire with his Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire. Belisarius was recalled shortly after, possibly because of concerns about his loyalty (especially after a stratagem he used in Italy).

Hostilities between the two empires were halted in 541 at the outbreak of what we call the Justinian Plague, the first appearance of Bubonic Plague in the west. A rebellion in Persia also forced Khosrow to divide his attention between quelling it and the Byzantine front.

Knowing about the rebellion, Justinian ordered a 30,000-strong military invasion of Persian Armenia in 543. They were defeated, partially because (we saw this recently in posts about the Gothic wars), the commanders of the different divisions did not communicate well, nor did they coordinate well. The Byzantine forces were scattered.

Khosrow besieged the Roman-held city of Edessa the following year. He was unsuccessful. 

Without each side making much progress—and the effects of the plague—they lost their taste for strife. In 545 they declared a truce along the southern Roman-Persian border. 

The northern border was another matter. That area was part of a two-decade war called (among other things) the Lazic War. I'll talk about that tomorrow.

Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi, Astronomer

MS. Marsh 144, fol. 135v, Bodleian

The contributions of the Muslim world to astronomy are many, and I have only briefly touched on some of them (such as here). There were nine Muslim astronomers in particular who made major contributions. One of them was the Iranian Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi (7 December 903 - 25 May 986). His name indicates that he was a Sufi Muslim, like Rumi.

al-Sufi translated and expanded on the work of the Greeks, especially attempting to reconcile the Greek and Arabic star charts and constellations. In 964 he published Suwar al-Kawakib al-Thabitah, the "Book of Fixed Stars."* In it he gave the latitude and longitude of hundreds of stars for the year 964 from two views: from both the exterior and interior of a celestial globe. The oldest surviving manuscript known is in the Bodleian Library and was created about 1009 by al-Sufi's son. There was no English translation of this book until 2013.

Among the "firsts" that can be credited to al-Sufi's work are the following identifications:

Ursa Major

• "the little cloud" that we call the Andromeda Galaxy.
• the Large Magellanic Cloud*
• the Omicron Velorum star cluster
• a "nebulous object" in Vulpecula, now called "Al Sufi's Cluster"

He also describes the astrolabe and lists a thousand uses of it.

The significance of al-Sufi's work led the astronomical community to name other objects after him, such as a a lunar crater (Azophi) and 12621 Alsufi, a minor plant in the asteroid belt with a period of 2000 days.

*There is an argument that he could not have known of the Magellanic Cloud until the same time as Western European astronomers in the 15th century because of its position in the Southern Hemisphere.

The Jalāli Calendar

Syrian Astrolabe

Yesterday I mentioned that Omar Khayyam spent some of his time working on calendar reform. This was not the same calendar reform being done in the Christian world, however. The Persian calendar was—and still is—far more accurate than the Gregorian calendar.

Originally, the Persian calendar was lunar, following the 28-day cycle of the Moon. Since the year does not fit into an equal number of lunar cycles, however, the lunar calendar creates "seasonal drift" without a lot of alterations. This calendar was begun over 1000 years BCE. Khayyam was one of several scholars using astronomical observations to create a revised version. It was approved on 15 March 1079 by the Seljuk Sultan, Malik Shah I.

Khayyam and his team calculated the length of the year to be 365.24219858156 days; modern science puts it at 365.2422464 days. Some aspects of the new calendar:

• The year started within a day of March 21st, the vernal equinox
• Months were based on when the sun transited to a new sign of the zodiac, not 12:00AM
• Months could last from 29-32 days, and
• Months could change their length from year to year

That 4th point is because of the 2nd point. Months weren't given arbitrary numbers of days as in the West. The Jalāli calendar depended on strict astronomical data, not cultural numerical choices. Therefore, the 6th month of the year might have 30 days one year and 31 days the next, depending on when the sun passed across the line in the sky that separated the zodiacal signs. It also means that seasonal drift—the tendency of seasons to start and end on widely varying dates over time—never exceeded one day. Leap years were unnecessary.

Eventually, the varying length of the months was considered a liability. The calendar—still used in Iran and Afghanistan—was changed in 1925 in order to have a more regular look and to save the hassle of applying the results of constant astronomical observation.