Bahrám V "of the Wild Ass", King of Persia

Occupation: Shah of Persia

His descendants were the Mikalids family (Persian: آل میکال‎, romanized: Āl-e Mīkāl) , also known as the Mikalis. They were a pre-Islamic nobility of Samarkand of Khorasan from the 9th century to the 11th century.

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Bahram V (Persian: بهرام گور) was the fourteenth Sassanid King of Persia (421–438). He was also called Bahramgur.

After the sudden death (or assassination) of his father, Bahram gur gained the crown against the opposition of the grandees by the help of Mundhir, the Arabic dynast of al-Hirah.

Bahram V began his reign with a systematic persecution of the Christians, (one of these Christians being Saint James Intercisus).

The persecution of James Intercisus led to a war with the Roman Empire in the year 420. The Romans sent their general Ardaburius with an extensive contingent into Armenia. Ardaburius defeated the Persian commander Narsehi and proceeded to plunder the province of Arzanene and lay siege to Nisibis. Ardaburius abandoned the siege in the face of an advancing army under Bahram, who then besieged Theodosiopolis. After an abortive round of negotiations, the Persians were again defeated by Ardaburius and Procopius. Peace was then concluded between the Persians and Romans.

The situation in Armenia occupied Bahram immediately after the conclusion of peace with Rome. Armenia had been without a king since Bahramgur's brother Shapur had vacated the country in 418. Bahramgur now desired that a descendant of the royal line of kings, a scion of the Arshakunis should be on the throne of Armenia. With this intention in mind, he selected an Arshakuni named Artaxias IV, a son of Vram-Shapuh and made him King of Armenia.

But the newly appointed king did not have a favorable personal character. The frustrated nobles petitioned Bahramgur to remove Artaxias and admit Armenia into the Persian Empire so that the province would be under the direct control of the Sassanian Emperor. However, the annexation of Armenia by Persia was strongly opposed by the Armenian patriarch Isaac of Armenia who felt the rule of a Christian better than that of a non-Christian regardless of his character or ability. Despite his strong protests, however, Armenia was still annexed by Bahramgur who placed it under the charge of a Persian Governor in 428.

Numerous legends have been associated with Bahramgur. One account says that he aided an Indian king in his war against China and that, in return for his help, the Indian King made over the provinces of Makran and Sindh to Persia. The Lurs of Persia, it is argued, are the descendants of musicians sent to Persia by the grateful Indian monarch. However there does not exist any historical proof in support of this story. Other accounts suggest that he married an Indian princess. (Does this mean that we might have ancestors from India?) However, the conclusion of such a marriage alliance is regarded as highly dubious once again due to lack of evidence. His name is also associated with a legendary Indian prince of the Punjab.

Bahram V has left behind a rich and colorful legacy which has survived to the present day. He is especially a favorite of the writers who have woven numerous legends and fantastical tales around him. His fame has survived the annihilation of Zorostrianism and the Anti-Iranian measures of the Umayyads and the Mongols and many of the stories have been incorporated in contemporary Islamic lore.

His legacy even survives outside Iran. He is the King who receives The Three Princes of Serendip in the tale that gave rise to the word Serendipity. He is believed to be the inspiration for the legend of Bahramgur prevalent in the Punjab.

He is a great favourite in Persian tradition, which relates many stories of his valour and beauty, of his victories over the Romans, Turks, Indians and Africans, and of his adventures in hunting and in love; he is called Bahram Gur, "Onager," on account of his love for hunting, and in particular, hunting onagers.

For example, the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, by Edward Fitzgerald, quatrain 17:

"They say the Lion and the Lizard keep

The Courts where Jamshyd gloried and drank deep:

And Bahram, that great Hunter - the Wild Ass

Stamps o'er his Head, and he lies fast asleep."

To which Fitzgerald adds the following footnote (1st edition, 1859): "Bahram Gur - Bahram of the Wild Ass from his fame in hunting it - a Sassanian sovereign, had also his seven castles, each of a different color; each with a Royal mistress within; each of whom recounts to Bahram a romance. The ruins of three of these towers are yet shown by the peasantry; as also the swamp in which Bahram sunk while pursuing his Gur.

Some have judged Bahram V to have been rather a weak monarch, after the heart of the grandees and the priests. He is said to have built many great fire-temples, with large gardens and villages (Tabari).

The coins of Bahram V are chiefly remarkable for their rude and coarse workmanship and for the number of the mints from which they were issued. The mint-marks include Ctesiphon, Ecbatana, Ispahan, Arbela, Ledan, Nehavend, Assyria, Chuzistan, Media, and Kerman, or Carmania. The head-dress has the mural crown in front and behind, but interposes between these two detached fragments a crescent and a circle, emblems, no doubt, of the sun and moon gods. The reverse shows the usual fire-altar, with guards, or attendants, watching it. The king's head appears in the flame upon the altar.

During the later part of Bahram V's reign, Persia was invaded from the north-east by Hephthalite hordes who ravaged northern Iran under the command of their Great Khan. They crossed the Elburz into Khorasan and proceeded as far as the ancient town of Rei. Unprepared, Bahram initially made an offer or peace and submission which was well-received by the Khan of the Hephthalites. But crossing Tabaristan, Hyrcania and Nishapur by night, he took the Huns unawares and massacred them along with their Khan and taking the Khan's wife hostage. The retreating Huns were pursued and slaughtered up to the Oxus. One of Bahram's generals followed the Huns deep into Hun territory and destroyed their power. His portrait which survived for centuries on the coinage of Bukhara (in contemporary Uzbekistan) is considered to be an evidence of his victory over the Huns.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahram_V for more information.

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Bahram V[1] (Persian: بهرام گور) was the fourteenth Sassanid King of Persia (421–438). Also called Bahramgur, he was a son of Yazdegerd I (399–421), after whose sudden death (or assassination) he gained the crown against the opposition of the grandees by the help of Mundhir, the Arabic dynast of al-Hirah.

Contents [hide]

1 Reign

1.1 War with Rome

1.2 Relations with Armenia

1.3 Invasion of the Huns

2 Legends associated with Bahramgur

3 Legacy

4 Coins of Bahram V

5 Notes

6 References

[edit]Reign

Bahram V began his reign with a systematic persecution of the Christians, among whom James Intercisus.

[edit]War with Rome

The persecution of James Intercisus led to a war with the Eastern Romans.

In the year 421, the Romans sent their general Ardaburius with an extensive contingent into Armenia. Ardaburius defeated the Persian commander Narseh and proceeded to plunder the province of Arzanene and lay siege to Nisibis. Ardaburius abandoned the siege in the face of an advancing army under Bahram, who in turn besieged Theodosiopolis (probably Theodosiopolis in Osroene).

Peace was then concluded between the Persians and Romans (422) with a return to status quo ante bellum.

[edit]Relations with Armenia

The situation in Armenia occupied Bahram immediately after the conclusion of peace with Rome. Armenia had been without a king since Bahramgur's brother Shapur had vacated the country in 418. Bahramgur now desired that a descendant of the royal line of kings, a scion of the Arshakunis should be on the throne of Armenia. With this intention in mind, he selected an Arshakuni named Artaxias IV, a son of Vram-Shapuh and made him King of Armenia.

But the newly appointed king did not have a favorable personal character. The frustrated nobles petitioned Bahramgur to remove Artaxias and admit Armenia into the Persian Empire so that the province would be under the direct control of the Sassanian Emperor[citation needed]. However, the annexation of Armenia by Persia was strongly opposed by the Armenian patriarch Isaac of Armenia who felt the rule of a Christian better than that of a non-Christian regardless of his character or ability. Despite his strong protests, however, Armenia was still annexed by Bahramgur who placed it under the charge of a Persian Governor in 428.

[edit]Invasion of the Huns

During the later part of Bahram V's reign, Persia was invaded from the north-east by Hephthalite hordes who ravaged northern Iran under the command of their Great Khan. They crossed the Elburz into Khorasan and proceeded as far as the ancient town of Rei. Unprepared, Bahram initially made an offer or peace and submission which was well-received by the Khan of the Hephthalites. But crossing Tabaristan, Hyrcania and Nishapur by night, he took the Huns unawares and massacred them along with their Khan, taking the Khan's wife hostage. The retreating Huns were pursued and slaughtered up to the Oxus. One of Bahram's generals followed the Huns deep into Hun territory and destroyed their power. His portrait which survived for centuries on the coinage of Bukhara (in contemporary Uzbekistan) is considered to be an evidence of his victory over the Huns.

Bahram Gur is a great favorite in Persian literature and poetry. "Bahram and the Indian princess in the black pavilion." Depiction of a Khamsa (Quintet) by the great Persian poet Nizami, mid-16th-century Safavid era.

[edit]Legends associated with Bahramgur

Numerous legends have been associated with Bahram. One account says that he aided an Indian king in his war against China and that, in return for his help, the Indian king made over the provinces of Makran and Sindh to Persia. The Lurs of Persia, it is argued, are the descendants of musicians sent to Persia by the grateful Indian monarch. However there does not exist any historical proof in support of this story. Other accounts suggest that he married an Indian princess. However, the conclusion of such a marriage alliance is regarded as highly dubious once again due to lack of evidence. His name is also associated with a legendary Indian prince of the Punjab.

Another legend , as it has been written in Shahnameh , is about Bahram-e-gur slaying two lions and gaining the crown between them.

[edit]Legacy

Bahram V has left behind a rich and colorful legacy which has survived to the present day. He is especially a favorite of the writers who have woven numerous legends and fantastical tales around him. His fame has survived the annihilation of Zorostrianism and the Anti-Iranian measures of the Umayyads and the Mongols and many of the stories have been incorporated in contemporary Islamic lore.

His legacy even survives outside Iran. He is the King who receives The Three Princes of Serendip in the tale that gave rise to the word Serendipity. He is believed to be the inspiration for the legend of Bahramgur prevalent in the Punjab.

He is a great favourite in Persian tradition, which relates many stories of his valour and beauty, of his victories over the Romans, Turks, Indians and Africans, and of his adventures in hunting and in love; he is called Bahram Gur, "Onager," on account of his love for hunting, and in particular, hunting onagers.

For example, the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, by Edward Fitzgerald, quatrain 17:

"They say the Lion and the Lizard keep

The Courts where Jamshyd gloried and drank deep:

And Bahram, that great Hunter - the Wild Ass

Stamps o'er his Head, and he lies fast asleep."

To which Fitzgerald adds the following footnote (1st edition, 1859): "Bahram Gur - Bahram of the Wild Ass from his fame in hunting it - a Sassanian sovereign, had also his seven palaces, each of a different colour; each with a Royal mistress within; each of whom recounts to Bahram a romance. The ruins of three of these towers are yet shown by the peasantry; as also the swamp in which Bahram sunk while pursuing his Gur.

Some have judged Bahram V to have been rather a weak monarch, after the heart of the grandees and the priests. He is said to have built many great fire-temples, with large gardens and villages (Tabari).

[edit]Coins of Bahram V

The coins of Bahram V are chiefly remarkable for their rude and coarse workmanship and for the number of the mints from which they were issued. The mint-marks include Ctesiphon, Ecbatana, Ispahan, Arbela, Ledan, Nehavend, Assyria, Chuzistan, Media, and Kerman, or Carmania. The head-dress has the mural crown in front and behind, but interposes between these two detached fragments a crescent and a circle, emblems, no doubt, of the sun and moon gods. The reverse shows the usual fire-altar, with guards, or attendants, watching it. The king's head appears in the flame upon the altar.

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Bahrām V Gōr

Bahrām V Gōr, son and successor of Yazdegerd I, reigned from 420 to 438. His mother was said to have been Šōšanduxt, a daughter of the Jewish exilarch (Markwart, Provincial Capitals, par. 74). As a youth he was brought up at the court of the Lakhmid kings of Ḥīra, Noʿmān and his son Monḏer (he had probably been banished thither upon some disagreement with his father, see Nöldeke, Geschichte der Perser, p. 90 n. 2). Since the death of Šāpūr II in 379, nobles and priests had increased their prestige and power at the expense of central authority, electing, deposing and killing kings (among them Yazdegerd I) at will; and they now intended to exclude Yazdegerd’s sons from the succession (Christensen, Iran Sass., pp. 253ff.). The eldest son, Šāpūr, governor of Persarmenia, hurried to Ctesiphon to seize the throne but was murdered by the nobles, who elected a prince of Sasanian descent, Ḵosrow by name, as king (Nöldeke, op. cit., p. 91, n. 4).

Bahrām asked and received military assistance from Monḏer, and marched on the capital. Alarmed, the nobles negotiated with him and accepted his claim after exacting from him the promise that he would right his father’s misrule. According to the Persian tradition celebrated in the Šāh-nāma (Moscow, VII, pp. 296-303) and other Sasanian-based sources, Bahrām opted for an ordeal, suggesting that the royal crown and garb be placed between two lions, and whoever could retrieve them by killing the beasts should be acknowledged as the divinely favored king; and while Ḵosrow withdrew, Bahrām underwent the ordeal and won the throne. He left the task of administration to his father’s officials, especially to Mihr Narseh, grand minister (wuzurg framadār) of the empire. He also remitted taxes and public debts at festive occasions, promoted musicians to higher rank and brought thousands of Indian minstrels (lūrīs) into Iran to amuse his subjects, and he himself indulged in pleasure-loving activities, particularly hunting (his memorable shooting of a wonderful onager, gōr, is said to have given origin to his nickname Gōr “Onager [hunter]”). These measures made Bahrām one of the most popular kings in Iranian history. Right after his accession, he proved himself in battle against the White Huns (the Hephthalites) who had invaded eastern Iran. Leaving his brother Narseh as regent, Bahrām took the road from Nisa via Marv to Kušmēhan, where he fell upon the enemy, won a resounding victory, and obtained precious booty from which he made rich offerings to the fire temple of Ādur Gušnasp. On his return, he appointed Narseh governor of Khorasan. However, on the western front, Bahrām was less successful. Many Armenian Christians had appealed or defected to the Romans, and the refusal to surrender them resulted in open hostility in 421. Mihr Narseh led the Persian forces but engagements were indecisive, and finally a treaty was signed giving freedom of religion to the Christians in Iran and Zoroastrians in the Byzantine empire, and obliging the Romans to contribute financially to the defense of the Caucasus passes against the Huns. Bahrām then deposed the Armenian king, Artašeš (Ardašīr), son of Bahrāmšāpūr (Vrāmšapuh), and replaced him with a margrave (marzbān).

Bahrām V is exceedingly popular in Iranian literature and art (see below). His coins show him as wearing a crown with three-step crenellations and a large crescent of the moon; they also introduce certain novelties such as the appearance of the crowned king’s bust within the flames of the fire altar on the reverse (R. Göbl, Sasanian Numismatics, Brunswick, 1971, p. 49, pl. 9 nos. 153-58). No monument has survived of Bahrām V. His death is said in one tradition to have occurred during a hunt; according to another version, he died a natural death (summer of 438).

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Bahram V (Middle Persian: 𐭥𐭫𐭧𐭫𐭠𐭭 Wahrām, New Persian: بهرام پنجم Bahrām) was the fifteenth Sasanian King of Persia (420–438). Also called Bahram Gōr or Bahram Gūr (New Persian: بهرام گور), he was a son of Yazdegerd I (399–420). After his father's assassination, Bahram V gained the crown against the opposition of the grandees by the help of Al-Mundhir I ibn al-Nu'man, the king of the Lakhmid dynasty.

War with Rome Bahram V began his reign with a systematic persecution of the Christians, among whom was James Intercisus, which led to a war with the Eastern Romans.

In the year 421, the Romans sent their general Ardaburius with an extensive contingent into Armenia. Ardaburius defeated the Persian commander Narseh and proceeded to plunder the province of Arzanene and lay siege to Nisibis. Ardaburius abandoned the siege in the face of an advancing army under Bahram, who in turn besieged Theodosiopolis (probably Theodosiopolis in Osroene).

Peace was then concluded between the Persians and Romans (422) with a return to status quo ante bellum.

Relations with Armenia The situation in Armenia occupied Bahram immediately after the conclusion of peace with Rome. Armenia had been without a king since Bahram's brother Shapur had vacated the country in 418. Bahram now desired that a descendant of the royal line of kings, a scion of the Arshakunis, should be on the throne of Armenia. With this intention in mind, he selected an Arshakuni named Artaxias IV (Artashir IV), a son of Vramshapuh, and made him King of Armenia

Invasion of the Huns During the later part of Bahram V's reign, Persia was invaded from the northeast by Hephthalite hordes who ravaged northern Iran under the command of their leader. His portrait which survived for centuries on the coinage of Bukhara (in contemporary Uzbekistan) is considered to be an evidence of his victory over the Huns.

Bahram V has left behind a rich and colorful legacy, with numerous legends and fantastical tales. His fame has survived the downplay of Zoroastrianism and the anti-Iranian measures of the Umayyads and the Mongols, and many of the stories have been incorporated in contemporary Islamic lore.

His legacy even survives outside Iran. He is the king who receives the Three Princes of Serendip in the tale that gave rise to the word Serendipity. He is believed to be the inspiration for the legend of Bahramgur prevalent in the Punjab.

He is a great favourite in Persian tradition, which relates many stories of his valour and beauty; of his victories over the Romans, Hephthalites, Indians, and Africans; and of his adventures in hunting and in love. He is called Bahram Gur, "Onager," on account of his love for hunting, and in particular, hunting onagers

از ویکی‌پدیا، دانشنامهٔ آزاد (تغییرمسیر از بهرام پنجم) بهرام گور شاهنشاه ساسانی BahramVCoinHistoryofIran.jpg سکه‌ای از بهرام گور دوران ۴۲۰ - ۴۳۸ میلادی لقب(ها) بهرام گور مرگ ۴۳۸ میلادی پیش از یزدگرد دوم پس از یزدگرد یکم همسر سپینود دودمان خاندان ساسان پدر یزدگرد یکم مادر شوشاندخت فرزندان یزدگرد دوم دین زرتشتی بهرام پنجم یا وهرام پنجم یا بهرام گور از ۴۲۱ تا سال ۴۳۸ میلادی پادشاه ساسانی بود. وی به جای پدر، یزدگرد یکم، بر تخت نشست. بهرام گور از جمله شناخته‌شده‌ترین پادشاهان ساسانیان است که داستان‌های بسیاری را در ادبیات فارسی به او نسبت داده و شعرهای فراوانی را راجع به او سروده‌اند. بهرام پسر یزدگرد یکم بود که او را در ابتدا به لخمیان که دست‌نشاندهٔ شاهنشاهی ساسانی بود سپردند تا تربیت شود. پس از مرگ پدر، سپاهی از منذر بن نعمان گرفت، به تیسپون آمد و تاج و تختش را پس گرفت. بهرام هپتالیان را شکست داد، به هندوستان حمله کرد، و با بیزانس جنگید. او به شکار گورخر علاقه بسیاری داشت و در تاریخ‌های سنتی آمده است که نهایت یک روز در حین شکار گور در باتلاقی فرو رفت از دنیا رفت.

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