In the Shadow of the Sword: The Birth of Islam and the Rise of the Global Arab Empire

Iranshahr

Ardashir I (ruled AD 224–41)

Founder of the Sasanian Empire.

Shapur I (241–70)

The great warrior

Shahanshah

who captured the Roman emperor Valerian.

Peroz (459–84)

Hephthalite-fighter, Jew-persecutor, oath-breaker.

Raham

The head of the Mihrans, a Parthian aristocratic family; and the early power behind Peroz’s throne.

Kavad (488–96/498–531)

Son of Peroz, and a royal enthusiast for communism.

Sukhra

The head of the Karin, a Parthian aristocratic family, and a classic over-mighty subject.

Mazdak

A mysterious Persian prophet who appears to have preached communism and to have been sponsored by Kavad.

Zamasp (496–98)

Kavad’s brother and briefly installed on the throne as his replacement.

Aspebedes

A Parthian general, and brother-in-law of Kavad.

Kavus

Kavad’s eldest son, and a committed Mazdakite.

Khusrow I (531–79)

The son of Kavad and Aspebedes’s sister. Known to posterity as

Anushirvan—

“Immortal Soul.”

Hormizd IV (579–90)

The son of Khusrow I.

Bahram Chobin (590–1)

A Mihranid general, and the first Parthian dynast to usurp the Sasanian throne.

Khusrow II (590–628)

The son of Hormizd IV. Restored to the throne with Roman help, his reign witnessed the near destruction of the Roman Empire.

Shahrbaraz (630)

Mihranid general who conquered Syria and Palestine for Khusrow II.

Yazdegird III (633–51)

The last Sasanian

Shahanshah

.