Editing Sunpadh (section)

== Background ==
Sunpadh was a [[Zoroastrianism|Zoroastrian]] nobleman, who was a native of a village called Ahan in [[Nishapur]], [[Greater Khorasan|Khorasan]].{{sfn|McAuliffe|1995|p=44}} He most likely belonged to the ancient [[House of Karen]], formerly one of the [[Seven Great Houses of Iran|seven great houses]] of the pre-Islamic [[Parthian Empire|Parthian]] and [[Sasanian Empire|Sasanian]] eras.{{sfn|Pourshariati|2017}} Khorasan had originally been a fief of the Karenids, but the family lost control of the province at the [[battle of Nishapur]] during the [[Muslim conquest of Persia|Arab conquest of Iran]], thus forcing many Karenid nobles to withdraw to Tabaristan, where a branch of the family, the [[Qarinvand dynasty]], had managed to withstand the Arab incursions.{{sfn|Pourshariati|2017}}