BAHRAM VI CHUBIN

flourished 6th century AD Sasanian king (reigned 590591). A general and head of the house of Mihran at Rayy (near modern Tehran), he performed, in gaining the throne, a feat exceptional for one not of Sasanian royal blood. Prominent as master of the household in the Byzantine wars of the Sasanian king Hormizd IV, Bahram later received the supreme command in Khorasan and was able to repel a Turkish invasion. Following a defeat by the Romans in 589, however, he was harshly treated by Hormizd. Bahram, with the support of his army, rebelled; in the ensuing disorder, Hormizd was assassinated, and Khosrow II, his successor, marched against the irreconcilable general. The royal troops, however, mutinied, and Khosrow fled to the Byzantines. Bahram then proclaimed himself king. In 591, with Byzantine support, Khosrow regained the throne. Bahram escaped to Turkistan, where he was assassinated. His colourful career became the subject of a Middle Persian popular romance.