Khosrow II

Khosrow II (died ad 628) was a late Sāsānian king of Persia (reigned 590–628), under whom the empire achieved its greatest expansion. Defeated at last in a war with the Byzantines, he was deposed in a palace revolution and executed.

Expansion of the empire

The son of Hormizd IV, Khosrow was proclaimed king in ad 590 in turbulent times. Hormizd’s general, Bahrām Chūbīn, after his defeat by the Byzantine army at Lazica, had been openly insulted by the king. During a subsequent palace revolt led by Bostām and Bindōē (brothers-in-law of Hormizd), which culminated in the king’s assassination, Bahrām Chūbīn renounced the allegiance of his army to the monarchy and forced the new king Khosrow to flee to Mesopotamia. Khosrow’s pursuers were held off by the military tactics of his uncle Bindōē, until eventually the Byzantine emperor Maurice provided Khosrow with forces to defeat his adversary. Bahrām Chūbīn was subsequently assassinated.

Insecure and unpopular, Khosrow now eliminated those connected with his father’s murder, including Bindōē, on whose support he had relied. Although he retained a bodyguard of Byzantine legionaries, he resented the Byzantine presence in Armenia, which he had been forced to cede. Using the murder of Maurice (602) and his replacement as emperor by Phocas as a pretext and encouraged by the fact that Narces, who had commanded the Byzantine force that established Khosrow on the throne, refused to recognize Phocas, Khosrow’s armies invaded Armenia and Mesopotamia. The Byzantine forces in Mesopotamia were weak, and the towns of Dara, Amida, and Edessa soon fell (604). Crossing the Euphrates, Khosrow took Hierapolis and Beroea (Aleppo). Internal dissensions made the eastern Byzantine provinces easy prey, and Armenia and central Asia Minor were overrun by the Persians—though apparently not permanently occupied or administered. Nor was the Persian advance checked when Heraclius became emperor in 610 and sued for peace.

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A second invasion of Mesopotamia, by Khosrow’s ablest general, Shahrbarāz, took place in 613. Damascus was taken in that year, and in 614 Jerusalem fell. The Holy Sepulchre was destroyed and the True Cross carried to Ctesiphon. Although Khosrow himself was generally tolerant of Christianity, Shahrbarāz permitted thousands of Christian prisoners to be tortured by his Jewish aides. In 616 Alexandria was captured, and in 617 Chalcedon (opposite Byzantium), which had long been under siege by another of Khosrow’s generals, Shāhīn, finally fell to the Persians.

This tide of conquest was turned by Heraclius in a series of brilliant campaigns between 622 and 627. Since he retained command of the sea, Heraclius was able to sail to Issus and rout the Persian army near the Armenian border. In alliance with the Khazar kingdom north of the Caucasus, he invaded Armenia again in 623, gaining victory over the King’s army near Canzaca. The town and fire temple were destroyed, together with the temple at Lake Urmia, traditionally associated with Zoroaster. The campaigns of 624 and 625 ranged across northern Syria and Mesopotamia and culminated in a reversal for Shahrbarāz’ forces on the river Saras.

Khosrow rallied his forces in 626 and, in alliance with the Avars, a people who were also in conflict with Byzantium at this time, sent one army to besiege Constantinople and another to oppose Heraclius. Constantinople held, and Shāhīn was defeated; the Persian second force was outmanoeuvred in 628 by Heraclius’ brave dash to Dastagird, the royal residence 70 miles (113 kilometres) north of Ctesiphon. An important but indecisive battle was fought near Nineveh, but, as the Byzantine army reapproached Dastagird, Khosrow fled. His letters calling Shahrbarāz to his aid had been intercepted, and, although his resources were by now drastically reduced, he refused peace terms.

Khosrow’s prestige was shattered, and he was now sick. The execution of Shahrbarāz and the desecration of Shāhīn’s corpse were followed by revolution in the royal household. Khosrow was condemned to death and executed (628), and his youngest son and heir, Mardānshāh, was murdered before his eyes. His eldest son, Kavadh (Qobad) II, Shērōē, signed the peace.

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Cultural and economic influence

Khosrow was a serious patron of the arts; silverworking and carpet weaving reached their peak during his reign. Sources tell of the enormous “Spring of Khosrow,” a carpet whose design was a garden. A splendid silver dish in the Bibliothèque Nationale is thought to depict him in the traditional Sāsānian royal hunt. Most authorities attribute to Khosrow II the grottos at Taq-e Bostan (Kermanshah), taking them as evidence of a renaissance of rock sculpture in his reign. The reliefs depict the King in hunting scenes and standing motionless listening to a group of harpists—a reminder of the famous musicians Bārbad and Sarkash, who were kept at Khosrow’s court. His architectural work is chiefly known from the ruins of the enormous palace Imirat-e Khosrow near Qasr-e Shīrīn (near Khānaqīn) and at nearby Hawsk-Kuri. A provincial palace exists at Qaṣr al-Mushattā, Jordan.

Booty and taxes brought Khosrow enormous wealth, including thousands of elephants, camels, horses, and women. The 9th-century Arab historian aṭ-Ṭabarī describes his golden throne supported by legs of rubies, as well as such curios as a piece of malleable gold and an asbestos napkin. But, despite widespread trade connections and the amassing of individual fortunes, there is no evidence that the economy flourished. High taxation and the uncertainties of war did nothing for the merchant class. By creating a military aristocracy, Khosrow II had weakened the authority of the king, while his administrative reforms and bureaucratic centralization removed the power of regional dynasties and their feudal armies, which might have resisted the invasion of the Arabs 12 years after Khosrow’s death. Already in 611 the Arabs had inflicted a defeat on the Sāsānian army at Dhu-Qar. The destruction by Khosrow II of the Christian Arab states of the Lakhmids and Ghassānids in Syria and western Iraq was a further factor exposing Iran to Arab attack.

The love of Khosrow for his Christian wife Shīrīn was celebrated by the poets, especially by the 12th-century poet Neẓāmī in Khosrow-va-Shīrīn.