Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T11:05:42.472Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The “Warrior of the Lords”: Smbat Bagratuni at the Center and Periphery of Late Sasanian Iran

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Scott McDonough
Scott McDonough*
Affiliation:
William Paterson University in Wayne, New Jersey, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The Armenian general Smbat Bagratuni's remarkable rise to military and political preeminence in the late sixth- and early seventh-century Sasanian Empire presents a fascinating historical question: how did a liminal figure, a Christian from a frontier region, become the “Joy of Ḵusrō” and “Warrior of the Lords” of king Ḵusrō II Aparvēz (590–628 CE)? This essay argues that Bagratuni's accomplishments were rooted in Sasanian patterns of political decentralization, provincial regionalism and strategic politics. The Sasanians were ethnically Persian, but Parthian and Armenian aristocrats from the periphery of the empire played a central role in upholding the regime. Granting titles, wealth and personal support, the king sought to turn aristocratic families against each other to enhance royal authority. Simultaneously, regional aristocrats like Smbat Bagratuni used royal patronage to advance their local interests, often at the expense of the royal center. The life of Smbat Bagratuni illustrates how complex negotiations of individual and collective identity shaped relations of “center” and “periphery” in Sasanian Iran.

Keywords

IranSasanid EmpireArmeniaSmbat Bagratunitory at the Will
Type
Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 49 , Issue 2: Sasanian Iran and Beyond: A Special Volume in Honour of Michael G. Morony and His Contributions to Late Antique History , March 2016 , pp. 233 - 245
Copyright
Copyright © The International Society for Iranian Studies 2016

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abgaryan, G. V. Patmut‘iwn Sebēosi [History of Sebēos]. Yerevan: Haykakan SSH Gitutʻyunneri Akademiayi Hratarakchʻutʻyun, 1979.Google Scholar
Adontz, Nicholas. Armenia in the Period of Justinian. Translated by Garsoïan, Nina. Lisbon: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, 1970.Google Scholar
Cowe, S. Peter. The Armenian Version of Daniel. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1992.Google Scholar
Crone, Patricia. “Kavad's Heresy and Mazdak's Revolt.” Iran 29 (1991): 21–42. doi: 10.2307/4299846CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crone, Patricia. “Zoroastrian Communism.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 36 (1994): 447–462. doi: 10.1017/S0010417500019198CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Daryaee, Touraj. “The Fall of the Sasanian Empire to the Arab Muslims: From Two Centuries of Silence to Decline and Fall of the Sasanian Empire: The Partho-Sasanian Confederacy and the Arab Conquest of Iran.” Journal of Persianate Studies 3 (2010): 239–254. doi: 10.1163/187471610X537280CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Daryaee, Touraj. Sasanian Persia: The Rise and Fall of an Empire. London: I.B Tauris, 2013.Google Scholar
De Boor, Carolus, ed. Theophylacti Simocattae historiae [History of Theophylact Simocatta]. Revised by Peter Wirth. Stuttgart: B. G. Teubner, 1972.Google Scholar
De la Vaissière, Etienne. “Theophylact's Turkish Exkurs Revisited.” In De Samarcande à Istanbul: étapes orientales. Hommages à Pierre Chuvin—II, edited by Schiltz, V. 91–102. Paris 2015.Google Scholar
Donabédian, Patrick. L'âge d'or de l'architecture arménienne. Marseille: Éd. Parenthèses, 2008.Google Scholar
Garsoïan, Nina. “Prolegomena to a Study of the Iranian Elements in Arsacid Armenia.” Handes Amsorea 90 (1976): 177–234.Google Scholar
Garsoïan, Nina. “The Iranian Substratum of the ‘Agat‘angełos Cycle’.” In East of Byzantium, edited by Garsoïan, Nina G. Mathews, Thomas F. and Thomson, Robert W. 151–189. Washington, DC: East of Byzantium, 1982.Google Scholar
Garsoïan, Nina. The Epic Histories. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989.Google Scholar
Garsoïan, Nina. “The Two Voices of Armenian Mediaeval Historiography: The Iranian Index.” Studia Iranica 25 (1996): 7–43. doi: 10.2143/SI.25.1.2003965CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garsoïan, Nina. L'Eglise Arménienne et le Grand Schisme d'Orient. CSCO 574, subs. 100. Louvain la Neuve: Peeters, 1999.Google Scholar
Garsoïan, Nina. “Le ‘guerrier des seigneurs’.” Studia Iranica 32, no. 2 (2003): 177–184. doi: 10.2143/SI.32.2.563200CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garsoïan, Nina. “Smbat Bagratuni.” Encyclopædia Iranica. Online ed. 2005. Accessed August 16, 2015. http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/smbat-bagratuniGoogle Scholar
Garsoïan, Nina. Interregnum: Introduction to a Study on the Formation of Armenian Identity (ca. 600‒750) Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium: Subsidia 127. Leuven: Peeters, 2011.Google Scholar
Gnoli, Gerhardo. The Idea of Iran: An Essay on Its Origin. Rome: Brill, 1989.Google Scholar
Greatrex, Geoffrey. “Khusro II and the Christians of his Empire.” Journal of the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies 3 (2003): 78–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greatrex, Geoffrey and Lieu, Samuel N. C. The Roman Eastern Frontier and the Persian Wars (Part II, 363–630 AD). New York: Routledge, 2002.Google Scholar
Gyselen, Rika. La géographie administrative de l'Empire sassanide. Les témoignages sigillographiques. Res Orientales 1. Paris: Peeters, 1991.Google Scholar
Gyselen, Rika. The Four Generals of the Sasanian Empire: Some Sigillographic Evidence. Rome: Istituto italiano per l'Africa e l'Oriente, 2000.Google Scholar
Gyselen, Rika. “Le kadag-xwadāy sassanide: quelques réflexions à partir de nouvelles données sigillographiques.” Studia Iranica 31, no. 2 (2002): 61–69. doi: 10.2143/SI.31.1.277CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gyselen, Rika. “Spāhbed.” Encyclopædia Iranica. Online ed. 2004. Accessed August 16, 2015. http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/spahbedGoogle Scholar
Gyselen, Rika. Sasanian Seals and Sealings in the A. Saeedi Collection. Leuven: Peeters, 2007.Google Scholar
Gyselen, Rika. “Primary Sources and Historiography on the Sasanian Empire.” Studia Iranica 38 (2009): 173–185. doi: 10.2143/SI.38.2.2046914CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hovanissian, Richard, ed. The Armenian People from Ancient to Modern Times. Vol. 1. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1997.Google Scholar
Howard-Johnston, James. “The Two Great Powers in Late Antiquity: A Comparison.” In The Byzantine and Early Islamic Near East III. States, Resources and Armies, edited by Cameron, Averil 157–226. Princeton, NJ: Darwin Press, 1995.Google Scholar
Howard-Johnston, James. “State and Society in Late Antique Iran.” In The Sasanian Era. The Idea of Iran. Volume III, edited by Sarkhosh Curtis, Vesta and Stewart, Sarah 118–131. London: I.B. Tauris, 2008.Google Scholar
Howard-Johnston, James. Witnesses to a World Crisis. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoyland, Robert. In God's Path: The Arab Conquests and the Creation of an Islamic Empire. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.Google Scholar
Jullien, Christelle and Jullien, Florence. “Aux frontières de l'Iranité: ‘Nāṣraye’ et ‘Kristyone’ des inscriptions du mobad Kirdir: enquête littéraire et historique.” Numen 49 (2002): 282–335. doi: 10.1163/156852702320263945CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kalentarian, Aram A. Dvin: Histoire et archeologie de la ville medievale (Civilisations du proche-orient). Paris: Recherches et publications, 1996.Google Scholar
Maranci, Christina. “Building Churches in Armenia: Medieval Art at the Borders of Empire and the Edge of the Canon.” Art Bulletin 88 (2006): 656–675. doi: 10.1080/00043079.2006.10786313CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maranci, Christina. Vigilant Powers: Three Churches of Early Medieval Armenia. Turnhout: Brepols, 2015.Google Scholar
McDonough, Scott. Power by Negotiation: Institutional Reform in the Fifth Century Sasanian Empire. Los Angeles 2005.Google Scholar
McDonough, Scott. “A Question of Faith? Persecution and Political Centralization in the Sasanian Empire of Yazdgard II (438–457 CE).” In Violence in Late Antiquity. Perceptions and Practices, edited by Drake, H. A. 69–81. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006.Google Scholar
McDonough, Scott. “Military and Society in Sasanian Iran.” In The Oxford Handbook of Warfare in the Classical World, edited by Campbell, Brian and Tritle, Lawrence A. 605–608. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.Google Scholar
Morony, Michael G. “Religious Communities in Late Sasanian and Early Muslim Iraq.” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 17 (1974): 113–135.Google Scholar
Morony, Michael G. Iraq After the Muslim Conquest. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984.Google Scholar
Payne, Richard. “Cosmology and the Expansion of the Iranian Empire.” Past and Present 220, no. 1 (2013): 3‒33. doi: 10.1093/pastj/gtt008CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Payne, Richard E. “The Reinvention of Iran.” In The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Attila, edited by Maas, Michael 282–300. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Payne, Richard E. A State of Mixture: Christians, Zoroastrians, and Iranian Political Culture in Late Antiquity. Oakland: University of California, 2015.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pourshariati, Parvaneh. Decline and Fall of the Sasanian Empire. London: I.B. Tauris, 2008.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Połarean, N., ed. Girk‘ T‘łt‘oc‘ [Book of Letters]. Jerusalem: St. James Press, 1994.Google Scholar
Rapp, Steven H. Studies in Medieval Georgian Historiography. Leuven: Peeters, 2003.Google Scholar
Rapp, Steven H. The Sasanian World through Georgian Eyes. Farnham: Ashgate, 2014.Google Scholar
Rubin, Ze'ev. “The Reforms of Khusro Anurshiwan.” In The Byzantine and Early Islamic Near East III. States, Resources and Armies, edited by Cameron, Averil 227–298. Princeton, NJ: Darwin Press, 1995.Google Scholar
Rubin, Ze'ev. “Nobility, Monarchy and Legitimation Under the Later Sasanians.” In The Byzantine and Early Islamic Near East VI. Elites Old and New, edited by Haldon, John and Conrad, Lawrence I. 235–273. Princeton: Darwin Press, 2004.Google Scholar
Schoell, Rudolfus and Kroll, Guilelmus, eds. Corpus Iuris Civilis. Volumen Tertium. Novellae. Berlin: Widemann, 1912.Google Scholar
Shabazi, A. Shapur. “Bahrām VI Čōbīn.” Encyclopædia Iranica. Online ed. 2011. Accessed August 16, 2015. http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/bahram-the-name-of-six-sasanian-kings#pt7Google Scholar
Tēr-Minasyan, E. Ełišēi vasn Vardanay ew Hayocʿ Paterazmin [Ełišē. History of Vardan and the Armenian War]. Yerevan: Haykakan SSṚ Gitutʻyunneri Akademiayi Hratarakchʻutʻyun, 1957.Google Scholar
Tēr-Mkrtchʾean, G. and Kanayeatsʾ, St. eds. Agatʾ-angełay Patmutʾiwn Hayotsʾ [Agathangełos. History of Armenia]. Tiflis: Martiroseanç, 1909.Google Scholar
Thomson, Robert W. History of Vardan and the Armenian War. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1982.Google Scholar
Thomson, Robert W., trans., with Howard-Johnston, James and Greenwood, Tim. The Armenian History Attributed to Sebeos. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1999.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walker, Joel T. The Legend of Mar Qardagh. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006.Google Scholar
Whitby, Michael. The Emperor Maurice and his Historian. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988.Google Scholar
Whitby, Michael and Whitby, Mary, trans. The History of Theophylact Simocatta. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986.Google Scholar
Zakeri, Mohsen. Sāsānid Soldiers in Early Muslim Society. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 1995.Google Scholar