Chosrau I.

Depiction of a hunting scene with Chosrau I (Sassanid depiction of the 7th century), Cabinet des Medailles, Paris

Chosrau I. ( Persian خسرو, DMG Ḫosrau , [ xosˈroʊ̯ ]; Greek: Chosroes ; alternative spellings: Husrav , Xusro , Chusro , Ḫusraw ), called Anuschirwan or Anuschirawan ("with the immortal soul";انوشيروان, DMG Anūšīr [a] wān [ ænuːʃi: rˈvɔːn ]), was the Persian great king from 531 until his death in 579 . He came from the Sassanid family . A date of birth is not known, but the king is likely to have reached a very old age, since he came to the throne as a grown man.

Chosrau I was the opponent of the Eastern Roman emperor Justinian I (527-565). He led the late antique Sassanid Empire to a climax and is considered an important ruler, which also found its echo in the mythology of the Orient. His name lives on as Kisra ( Kisrā ) to this day as an Arabic name for a king (comparable to the German word Kaiser von Caesar ).

Assumption of power

Chosrau was the third son of King Kavadh I. He was preferred by his father over his two older brothers Kāwūs (Greek Kaoses) and Zham (Greek Zames) and prepared for the succession. Kāwūs had made himself unpopular because of his sympathy for the Mazdakites , Zham was seen as unable to rule because he was missing an eye. Therefore Kavadh tried around the middle of the 520s to have Chosrau adopted by the Eastern Roman Emperor Justin I in order to secure the planned succession regulation, but the negotiations failed. When Kavadh died on September 13, 531, Chosrau immediately took power, was (allegedly to the surprise of Kāwūs) appointed the new ruler by the nobility council and then crowned. His bypassed older brothers, however, did not accept it, but tried to enforce their claims, whereby they found approval in parts of the nobility. Since Zham himself was out of the question as king, his followers wanted to put his underage son Kavadh (in Greek: Kabades) on the throne, with Zham as guardian and regent. Shortly after Chosraus took office, apparently still in 531, there were therefore one or two conspiracies with the aim of ousting him; however, she was struck down, and Chosrau had his brothers executed. His nephew Kavadh probably fled to the Romans.

Foreign policy

See also : Roman-Persian Wars

The Romans and Sassanids were at war against each other again from around 526. In the fighting on the Persian-Eastern Roman border in Mesopotamia , the Eastern Roman generals Belisarius and Sittas were initially able to assert themselves . Belisarius won the Battle of Dara in 530 but suffered a defeat a year later. With Chosrau's accession to power, there was now the opportunity for peace negotiations. In 532, the so-called “ Eternal Peace ” was concluded with Justinian , which was associated with quite high (one-off) Roman payments to the great king. An important source for these events is the report of the Eastern Roman historian Prokopios of Caesarea in his histories .

Fighting broke out again in 540. The main reason was disputes between Arab tribes in Persian and Roman services. Perhaps Chosrau was pursuing an old goal: reaching the Mediterranean and restoring the borders of the old Achaemenid Empire . It is more likely, however, that the king was only interested in the largest possible booty and an increase in prestige. In fact, the Roman eastern border was bared from troops, since most of the powerful units were deployed in Italy to break the resistance of the Ostrogoths there. To what extent the Ostrogoths encouraged the Sassanids to resume fighting is controversial.

Eastern Current and the Persian Empire around 562. The borders of the Sassanid Empire are, however, not reproduced completely correctly, since the southern coast of the Persian Gulf came under Persian rule around 570.

Chosrau was able to engage in a war against Justinian because his position inside was now secured and peace reigned on the other borders of the Persian Empire: the " Hunnic " Hephthalites , who had threatened Persia for decades, were weakened. The fighting with the Romans started in Syria . Chosrau crossed the border with a large army in 540 and conquered, among other cities, Antioch on the Orontes , one of the most important and largest cities of the Roman Empire. The reinforcements promised by Justinian did not arrive or only in insufficient numbers. Justinian's cousin, General Germanus , therefore had to withdraw from Antioch with his small troop of only 300 bucellarii (bodyguards). The city refused Chosrau's offer to withdraw in peace for a large sum and was taken by storm by the Persians. Some of the inhabitants were deported to the Persian Empire and the city itself was thoroughly plundered. According to an old tradition, Chosrau is said to have taken a ritual bath in the Mediterranean near Seleukeia Pieria, the port of Antioch, and sacrificed it to the sun god. In the suburb of Daphne, he sacrificed in the famous Musenhain. The conquest of Antioch had a definite shock effect on the Romans, who would remember it years later. Meanwhile, Chosrau received cash payments from other cities, for which he spared them, while the fortress Dara withstood an attack. Soon afterwards, Chosrau withdrew after having had circus games held in Apamea on the Orontes in the manner of a Roman emperor - another provocation.

Because of this humiliation, Justinian turned down an offer of peace from Chosrau, and a long war began. In 543 (or rather 544) a large-scale attack on the Roman Edessa failed . The struggles, in which Chosrau participated mostly personally until 544, expanded in 541 to the Caucasus ( Lazika ), where both powers pursued interests. The fighting dragged on over the following years, leading to short-term armistices. Ultimately, however, the Persians failed to force access to the Black Sea or to move the border into Mesopotamia; conversely, the Romans did not achieve a decisive victory. In the long term, the two great powers proved to be equally strong, and Justinian was therefore able to keep the Roman eastern border at great sacrifice.

In 562 a peace was made with Justinian, this time limited to 50 years (negotiated on the Roman side by Patricius Flavius ​​Petrus ), after which the Romans committed themselves to annual tribute payments, but received Lazika in return . The Christians in Persia and the Zoroastrians in the Roman Empire were guaranteed freedom of belief. However, the peace was broken as early as 572 by Emperor Justin II ; Chosrau had tried in vain to prevent this. At first, however, the Persians achieved great success; Chosrau led his troops first personally against the Gök Turks allied with the Romans, whose invasion could be repelled in the northeast, and then turned in 573 to the west, where he was able to conquer the important fortress Dara. This defeat is said to have driven the Roman emperor insane. However, in 575 (or 576) Chosrau suffered a heavy defeat at Melitene against Justinian , a general of Justin II; Chosrau managed to escape only with difficulty. However, this battle was not decisive either: when the king died in 579, the war between the East and the Sassanid Empire was still ongoing.

Around 560 (the exact time is disputed), Chosrau succeeded on the northern border in alliance with the Kök Turks under Sizabulos (Istämi) to finally push back the Hephthalites and destroy their empire - an event that, among other things, 500 years later in Firdausi's Schahnama was immortalized. However, with the Turks, new, dangerous opponents appeared there, who soon turned against the Persians. Chosrau was partly to blame for this, since he apparently wanted to block the Persian market for silk from late ancient Central Asia , which Sogdian traders controlled as subjects of the Turks. When the Sogdians were harshly rejected, the Sogdian Maniakh proposed an alliance with Ostrom to his master Sizabulos, which was also concluded in 570 and lasted for a short time.

In southern Arabia, Chosrau was able to expand the influence of the Sassanids around 570 to what is now Yemen and in doing so also fend off Eastern Roman attempts at intervention. Trade interests played an important role here, as important sea and land routes for Indian trade ran in this area .

Domestic politics

Chosrau I as a just ruler. Relief , Palace of Justice, Tehran , Iran .

Internally, Chosrau apparently succeeded in centralizing the state more strongly. He partially supplemented the old "feudal nobility" with a nobility of officials who depended on the benevolence of the king. At the beginning of his government he also forcibly pushed back the Mazdakite movement, which had previously led to unrest and a weakening of part of the powerful nobility, and used the magnates' temporary weakness to increase the power of the crown. He strengthened the monarchy from the ground up through the creation of a lower nobility or "knighthood" (the Dehgānān ) directly dependent on the king (initially) as well as tax and agricultural reforms. It is possible that his tax reform (conversion of the income tax into a fixed property tax) was modeled on the late Roman system of Capitatio-Iugatio . The exact reforms, their extent and their effectiveness, have long been the subject of scientific discussion, since all the testimonies report from a long period of time and often contradict each other. At least in the short term, however, the measures seem to have strengthened the royal position.

The king divided the empire into four military districts, each with a supreme commander, as it was recently finally proven (perhaps the similar Roman office of magister militum served as a model). It was probably only from this point in time that a notable standing army existed , while the kings had previously largely been dependent on the posse of the high nobility. The western and eastern commanders had a special responsibility, as they were most likely to face invaders. However, the king gave them a lot of power, which - as in later times - encouraged usurpation attempts. Above all, the usurpation attempt by his son Anōšazād was threatening (traditionally dated to the year 550, but in fact probably already 542/43), even if Anōšazād was unsuccessful; Prokopios of Caesarea , Firdausi and Tabari report on this .

Chosrau was interested in Greek philosophy, science and art. Under him, the empire experienced a cultural boom. He drew scholars to his court and was reputed to have a good philosophical education. The view that he was a philosopher-king was not only widespread in his own realm, but also among the Eastern Romans from the beginning of his rule. However, this view was contradicted by the historian Agathias , who polemically described Chosrau as an apparently educated barbarian. Chosrau dealt intensively with the philosophy of antiquity and had texts by Greek philosophers and Indian fairy tales translated into (Middle) Persian; they were later received by the Arabs (see also the Academy of Gundischapur and Burzoe , Chosraus Chancellor and personal physician). The court of the Sassanids developed a great charisma and - like the state system in general - later became the model for the Abbasid Empire . The reign of Chosrau is also considered to be a possible nucleus of the game of chess (see history of the game of chess ).

In religious policy, Christians were guaranteed freedom of belief, but converting from Zoroastrianism to Christianity was principally punished with death, which is also proven by some acts of martyrdom. In 562 Christians were officially allowed to bury their dead, and at least once the king himself appointed a new bishop. Meanwhile, the Nestorians were temporarily persecuted.

After Justinian had forbidden the last pagan Neoplatonists in Athens to teach in 529 , they decided to emigrate to the Sassanid Empire in 531/532, because they had heard of the philosophical interests of the new ruler Chosrau. Chosrau accepted them at his court, but as early as 532 the emigrants, including the great philosophers Damascius and Simplikios , decided to return home. Chosrau had himself guaranteed in the peace treaty with Ostrom 532 that they would not suffer any harm on their return.

Chosrau relied heavily on the deportation of prisoners and created new colonies with them, for example the city of Veh Antiok Khusrau near his capital Ktesiphon from 540 (for example: "Chosrau built this better than Antioch"). This city was subordinate to the king only and was out of the reach of the aristocracy. Roman prisoners of war and craftsmen were also used to build canals, bridges, etc.; In addition, the king employed Eastern Roman specialists who volunteered for him and were apparently sent to him by Justinian in peacetime.

Chosrau I in a Persian miniature from the Safavid era

Afterlife and Modern Assessment

Chosrau I is considered one of the most important rulers of late antiquity , although he is almost forgotten in Europe, unlike in the Orient . Reports describe how in the throne room of Chosraus I there were three ceremonial throne chairs next to the king's throne, one each for the emperor of Rome, the emperor of China and the khagan of the Turks, if they were to come as vassals to the king of kings . In addition to the (at least formal) claim to supremacy that was thus formulated, this also indicated the political and economic horizon of the Sassanid Empire in the time of Chosrau.

Chosrau led the Sassanid Persian Empire to a new high point, but at the cost of the country being exhausted by the long wars. With his involvement in the west, south and north, the great king has probably overstretched Persia's resources; Above all, however, his attempts to strengthen the position of royalty seem to have been crowned only with short-term success. At the end of his long reign, according to Zeev Rubin, the first symptoms of crisis were already showing. Chosrau left the kingdom to his son Hormizd IV , who continued the father's wars.

In the mythical world of the Orient, Chosrau lives on as Anuschirwan , who also appears in the fairy tales from the Arabian Nights . The daughter of Anuschirwan is called Turandocht ("daughter of Turan "), who was appointed by her father as his rightful heir, but never ascended the throne.

swell

An important source is the Greek historian Prokopios of Caesarea , who in his historical work ( Historien or Bella ) reports on the Persian Wars in books 1, 2 and 8 and describes the king mostly negatively. There are also Agathias , Euagrios Scholastikos and Menander Protektor ; Only a few fragments have survived from the histories of Theophanes of Byzantium and John of Epiphaneia , which described the end of the reign of Chosraus. In Perso-Arab sources, including above all Tabari's universal history and the historical work of ad-Dīnawarī , which processed material from the late Sassanid period, Chosrau is praised as wise and just.

literature

• Henning Börm : The Persian King in the Roman Empire. Chosroes I and the Sasanid invasion of the Eastern Roman Empire in 540 AD. In: Chiron 36 (2006), pp. 299–328.
• Henning Börm: Khusro I . In: Yann Le Bohec (Ed.): Encyclopedia of the Roman Army. Blackwell, Chichester 2015, pp. 571f.
• Andrea Gariboldi: Il regno di Xusraw dall'anima immortale. Riforme economiche e rivolti sociali nell'Iran sasanide del VI secolo. Milan 2006.
• Christelle Jullien (Ed.): Husraw Ier. Reconstructions d'un règne . Paris 2015. (Collection of English and French contributions from leading experts.)
• John Martindale: The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire IIIa (PLRE). Cambridge 1992, pp. 303-306.
• Philip Rance: Chosroes I. In: Roger S. Bagnall u. a. (Ed.): The Encyclopedia of Ancient History. Blackwell, Chichester 2013, pp. 1473f.
• Zeev Rubin: The Reforms of Khusro Anurshiwan . In: Averil Cameron (ed.): The Byzantine and early Islamic Near East. Vol. 3, Princeton 1995, pp. 227-298.
• Klaus Schippmann : Basic features of the history of the Sassanid Empire. WBG, Darmstadt 1990.
• Josef Wiesehöfer : Chusro I. and the Sasanid Empire. The king of kings "with the immortal soul" . In: Mischa Meier (Ed.): They created Europe. Beck, Munich 2007, pp. 195-215.
• Josef Wiesehöfer: The Late Sasanian Near East. In: Chase Robinson (Ed.): The New Cambridge History of Islam . Vol. 1. Cambridge 2010, pp. 98-152.

See also the references to Justinian I and the article Sassanid Empire .

Web links

• The Reforms of Khosrow Anushirvan , written by Richard Frye (originally in Frye, History of Ancient Iran ; here without footnotes).

Remarks

1. ↑ Apparently the project was sabotaged by "Falken" at both farms; see. Henning Börm: Prokop and the Persians. Stuttgart 2007, pp. 311-325.
2. ↑ For the dating see Udo Hartmann : Geist im Exil. Roman philosophers at the court of the Sasanids . In: Monika Schuol , Udo Hartmann, Andreas Luther (eds.): Border crossing. Forms of contact between Orient and Occident in antiquity. Stuttgart 2002, p. 136 and note 44.
3. ↑ For details and the dating see Udo Hartmann: Geist im Exil. Roman philosophers at the court of the Sasanids. In: Monika Schuol, Udo Hartmann, Andreas Luther (eds.): Border crossing. Forms of contact between Orient and Occident in antiquity. Stuttgart 2002, p. 150f. and note 90.
4. ↑ Detailed description by Henning Börm: The Persian King in the Imperium Romanum. Chosroes I and the Sasanid invasion of the Eastern Roman Empire in 540 AD. In: Chiron 36 (2006), pp. 299–328.
5. ↑ See also Glen Bowersock : The Throne of Adulis. Red Sea Wars on the Eve of Islam. Oxford 2013.
6. ↑ Agathias , Historien , 2.28 and John of Ephesus , Church History , Part 3, 6.20. See Udo Reinhold Jeck: Platonica Orientalia . Frankfurt a. M. 2004, p. 86ff .; Udo Hartmann: Spirit in Exile. Roman philosophers at the court of the Sasanids. In: Monika Schuol, Udo Hartmann, Andreas Luther (eds.): Border crossing. Forms of contact between Orient and Occident in antiquity. Stuttgart 2002, pp. 125-133.
7. ↑ For the circumstances and reasons see Udo Hartmann: Geist im Exil. Roman philosophers at the court of the Sasanids. In: Monika Schuol, Udo Hartmann, Andreas Luther (eds.): Border crossing. Forms of contact between Orient and Occident in antiquity. Stuttgart 2002, pp. 149-154. See also Edward Watts: Where to Live the Philosophical Life in the Sixth Century? Damascius, Simplicius, and the Return from Persia . In: Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 45 (2005), pp. 285-315.
8. ^ Peter Brown : The World of Late Antiquity AD 150-750. London 1971, p. 160; Matthew P. Canepa: The Two Eyes of the Earth. Art and Ritual of Kingship between Rome and Sasanian Iran. Berkeley 2009, p. 143 (with English translation of the relevant source).
9. ↑ See for example: Nuschirwan and the cautious girl as well as Nuschirwan researching the state of his country .
10. ^ Karl Schlamminger, Peter Lamborn Wilson : Weaver of Tales. Persian Picture Rugs / Persian tapestries. Linked myths. Callwey, Munich 1980, ISBN 3-7667-0532-6 , p. 120 f.

predecessor	Office	successor
Kavadh I.	King of the New Persian Empire 531–579	Hormizd IV.