Template:Short description Template:Good article Template:Infobox royalty Yazdegerd II (also spelled Yazdgerd and Yazdgird; Template:Langx), was the Sasanian King of Kings ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) of Iran from 438 to 457. He was the successor and son of Bahram V (Template:Reign).
His reign was marked by wars against the Eastern Roman Empire in the west and the Kidarites in the east, as well as by his efforts and attempts to strengthen royal centralisation in the bureaucracy by imposing Zoroastrianism on the non-Zoroastrians within the country, namely the Christians. This backfired in Armenia, culminating in a large-scale rebellion led by the military leader Vardan Mamikonian, who was ultimately defeated and killed at the Battle of Avarayr in 451. Nevertheless, religious freedom was subsequently allowed in the country.
Yazdegerd II was the first Sasanian ruler to assume the title of kay ("king"), which evidently associates him and the dynasty to the mythical Kayanian dynasty commemorated in the Avesta. His death led to a dynastic struggle between his two sons Hormizd III and Peroz I for the throne, with the latter emerging victorious.
EtymologyEdit
The name of Yazdegerd is a combination of the Old Iranian yazad yazata- "divine being" and -karta "made", and thus stands for "God-made", comparable to Iranian Bagkart and Greek Theoktistos.Template:Sfn The name of Yazdegerd is known in other languages as; Pahlavi Yazdekert; New Persian Yazd(e)gerd; Syriac Yazdegerd, Izdegerd, and Yazdeger; Armenian Yazkert; Talmudic Izdeger and Azger; Arabic Yazdeijerd; Greek Isdigerdes.Template:Sfn
War with the RomansEdit
In 438, shah Bahram V (Template:Reign) died, and was succeeded by Yazdegerd II. His western neighbours, the Romans, had since their peace treaty with Iran in 387 agreed that both empires were obligated to cooperate in the defense of the Caucasus against nomadic attacks.Template:Sfn The Romans helped in the defense of the Caucasus by paying the Iranians roughly 500 lbs (226 kg) of gold at irregular intervals.Template:Sfn While the Romans saw this payment as political subsidies, the Iranians saw it as tribute, which proved that Rome was the deputy of Iran.Template:Sfn The Roman emperor Theodosius II's unwillingness to continue the payment made Yazdegerd II declare war against the Romans,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn which had ultimately little success for either side.Template:Sfn
The Romans were invaded in their southern provinces by the Vandals, causing Theodosius II to ask for peace and send his commander, Anatolius, personally to Yazdegerd II's camp.Template:Sfn In the ensuing negotiations in 440, both empires promised not to build any new fortifications in Mesopotamia and that the Sasanian Empire would get some payment in order to protect the Caucasus from incursions.Template:Sfn
War with the HunsEdit
Since the reign of Shapur II (Template:Reign), Iran had to deal with nomadic invaders in the east known as "Iranian Huns" and made up of Hephthalites, Kidarites, Chionites and Alkhans).Template:Sfn They seized Tokharistan and Gandhara from Shapur II and his Kushano-Sasanian clients, and eventually Kabul from Shapur III (Template:Reign).Template:Sfnm Archaeological, numismatic, and sigillographic evidence demonstrates the Huns ruled a realm just as refined as that of the Sasanians. They swiftly adopted Iranian imperial symbolism and titulature.Template:Sfn Their coins also imitated Sasanian imperial coinage.Template:Sfn The modern historian Richard Payne states: "Far from the destructive xyonan of the Iranian accounts or the marauding barbarians of the Roman historians, the Hun kingdoms of post-Iranian Central Asia were city-based, tax-raising, ideologically innovative states the kings of kings found themselves hard pressed to unseat".Template:Sfn Hard-pressed by the Huns, Iran fought an almost uninterrupted war with them on its northern and northeastern marches, notably under Bahram V and Yazdegerd II, who both attempted to regain Tokharistan, but only succeeded in preserving Abarshahr.Template:Sfn The Sasanian efforts were disrupted in the early 5th century by the Kidarites, who forced Yazdegerd I (Template:Reign), Bahram V, and/or Yazdegerd II to pay them tribute.Template:Sfnm Although this did not trouble the Iranian treasury, it was nevertheless humiliating.Template:Sfn Yazdegerd II eventually refused to pay tribute.Template:Sfnm
In 450, he launched an expedition into deep Kidarite territory in Central Asia, raiding and capturing forts and cities, which resulted in the accumulation of many captives and riches.Template:Sfn In 453, he moved his court to Nishapur in Abarshahr to face the threat from the Kidarites and left his minister (wuzurg framadar) Mihr Narseh in charge of the Sasanian Empire.Template:Sfn He spent many years at war against the Kidarites.Template:Sfn His forces initially suffered a severe defeat, but fighting continued.Template:Sfn According to the Šahrestānīhā ī Ērānšahr ("The Provincial Capitals of Iran"), Yazdegerd II fortified the city of Damghan and turned it into a strong border post against the Kidarites.Template:Sfn It was sometime during this period that Yazdegerd II created the province of Eran-Khwarrah-Yazdegerd ("Iran, glory of Yazdegerd"), which was in the northern part of the Gurgan province.Template:Sfn After he managed to secure the eastern portion of his empire against the Kidarite incursions, Yazdegerd II shifted his focus on Armenia and Caucasian Albania to defend the Caucasus with the Romans against the increasing Hun threat.Template:Sfn
Religious policyEdit
The policies of Yazdegerd II have been a matter of discussion. While the Armenian and Syriac portray him as a religious fanatic, Arabic and Persian portray him as a pious king who clashed with the aristocracy. A large portion of modern historiography has incorporated the former.Template:Sfn The unsteadiness of the empire was ever-increasing under Yazdegerd II, who had an uneasy relationship with the aristocracy and was facing a great challenge by the Kidarite in the east.Template:Sfn At the beginning of Yazdegerd II's reign, he suffered several defeats at the hands of the Kidarites, for which he put the blame on the Christians, due to much of his cavalry consisting of Iberians and Armenians.Template:Sfn Persecutions of Christians first started in 446 with the Christian nobles of Karkh in Mesopotamia, and later the Christian aristocracy of Iberia and Armenia.Template:Sfn He seems to have mainly targeted the non-Zoroastrian aristocracy.Template:Sfn
Yazdegerd II had originally continued his father's policies of appeasing the magnates. However, after some time, he turned away from them and started a policy of his own. When the magnates told him that his new policies had offended the people, he disagreed, saying that: "it is not correct for you to presume that the ways in which my father behaved towards you, maintaining you close to him, and bestowing upon you all that bounty, are incumbent upon all the kings that come after him ... each age has its own customs".Template:Sfn Yazdegerd II, however, was still fully aware of the longstanding conflict between the crown and the nobility and priesthood, which had culminated in the murder of several Sasanian monarchs.Template:Sfn
Yazdegerd II needed the cooperation of the aristocracy so that he could have an organized government to combat the external and internal issues endangering the empire.Template:Sfn His later dismissal of Vasak Siwni in 451 and allowance of religious freedom, according to modern historian Eberhard W. Sauer, is a "position hardly compatible with one taken by a religious zealot."Template:Sfn According to another modern historian, Scott McDonough, the Zoroastrian faith was perhaps a "test of personal loyalty" for Yazdegerd II.Template:Sfn He also targeted Zoroastrian aristocrats, dismantling their advantage of entry to the court and castrated men in his field armies to generate eunuchs more dutiful to him than to their own families.Template:Sfn However, Yazdegerd II's policy of integrating the Christian nobility into the bureaucracy still had problematic consequences; before the appointment of Adhur-Hormizd, Armenia had been plunged into a major rebellion.Template:Sfnm The cause of the rebellion was the attempt of Mihr Narseh to impose the Zurvanite variant of Zoroastrianism in Armenia.Template:Sfn His intentions differed from those of Yazdegerd II.Template:Sfn As a result, many of the Armenian nobles (but not all) rallied under Vardan Mamikonian, the supreme commander (sparapet) of Armenia.Template:Sfn The Armenian rebels tried to appeal to the Romans for help, but to no avail.Template:Sfn Meanwhile, another faction of Armenians, led by the marzban Vasak Siwni allied themselves with the Sasanians.Template:Sfn
On 2 June 451, the Sasanian and rebel forces clashed at Avarayr, with the Sasanians emerging victorious.Template:Sfn Nine generals, including Vardan Mamikonian, were killed, with a large number of the Armenian nobles and soldiers meeting the same fate.Template:Sfn The Sasanians, however, had also suffered heavy losses due to the resolute struggle by the Armenian rebels.Template:Sfn Although Yazdegerd II put an end to the persecutions in the country afterward, tensions continued until 510 when a kinsman of Vardan Mamikonian, Vard Mamikonian, was appointed marzban by Yazdegerd II's grandson, Kavad I (Template:Reign).Template:Sfn
Jews were also the subject of persecution under Yazdegerd II; he is said to have issued decrees prohibiting them from observing the Sabbath openly,Template:Sfn and ordered executions of several Jewish leaders.Template:Sfn The Jewish community of Spahan fought back by flaying two Zoroastrian priests alive, which in turn escalated the persecution they were already facing.Template:Sfn
PersonalityEdit
Yazdegerd II was an astute and well-read ruler whose motto was "Question, examine, see. Let us choose and hold that which is best".Template:Sfn He is generally praised in Persian sources, and is described as a compassionate and benevolent ruler.Template:Sfn He is commended for abandoning his father's overindulgence in hunting, feasting, and having long audience sessions.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn According to the medieval historians Ibn al-Balkhi and Hamza al-Isfahani, he was known as "Yazdegerd the Gentle" (Yazdegerd-e Narm).Template:Sfn However, the favorable account of Yazdegerd II is due to his policy of persecuting non-Zoroastrians within the empire, which appeased the Iranian aristocracy and especially the Zoroastrian priesthood, which sought to use the Sasanian Empire to impose their authority over the religious and cultural life of its people.Template:Sfn This is the opposite of the policy of his grandfather and namesake, Yazdegerd I (known as the "sinner"), who is the subject of hostility in Persian sources due to his tolerant policy towards his non-Zoroastrian subjects, and his refusal to comply with the demands of the aristocracy and priesthood.Template:Sfn
FortificationsEdit
In the 440s, Yazdegerd II had a mudbrick defensive system constructed at Derbent to fend off incursions from the north.Template:Sfn An inscription on one of its walls report that the tribute paid by the Romans was used for the renewal of the fortress.Template:Sfn Near the city, he founded the fortified settlement of Shahristan-i Yazdegerd (present-day ruins of Torpakh-kala), which became the main hub of the soldiers stationed in the region, whose leader held the title of "marzban of Chol".Template:Sfn According to the New Persian chronicle Tarikh-i Yazd ("History of Yazd") of 1441, the city of Yazd in central Iran was refounded by Yazdegerd II.Template:Sfn
Coin mints and imperial ideologyEdit
The reign of Yazdegerd II marks the start of a new inscription on the Sasanian coins; mazdēsn bay kay ("The Mazda-worshipping majesty, the king"), which displays his fondness of the legendary Avestan dynasty, the Kayanians, who also used the title of kay.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Efn This is due to a shift in the political perspective of the Sasanian Empire−originally disposed towards the West, was now changed to the East.Template:Sfn This shift, which had already started under Yazdegerd I and Bahram V, reached its zenith under Yazdegerd II and his son and successor Peroz I (Template:Reign).Template:Sfn It may have been triggered due to the advent of hostile tribes on the eastern front of Iran.Template:Sfn The war against the Hunnic tribes may have awakened the mythical rivalry existing between the Iranian Kayanian rulers and their Turanian enemies, which is demonstrated in the Younger Avesta.Template:Sfn It may have thus been as a result of the conflict between Iran and its eastern enemies, that resulted in the adoption of the title of kay, used by the very same Iranian mythical kings in their war against the Turanians in the East.Template:Sfn
Likewise, it was most likely during this period that legendary and epic texts were collected by the Sasanians, including the legend of the Iranian hero-king Fereydun (Frēdōn in Middle Persian), who split up his kingdom among his three sons; his eldest son Salm receiving the empire of the West, Rome; the second eldest Tur receiving the empire of the East, Turan; and the youngest Iraj receiving the heartland of the empire, Iran.Template:Sfn Accordingly, influenced by the texts about the Kayanians, Yazdegerd II may believed to be the heir of the Fereydun and Iraj, thus possibly deeming not only Roman domains in West as belonging to Iran, but also the eastern domains of the Huns.Template:Sfn Thus the Sasanians may have sought to symbolically assert their rights over those lands by assuming the Kayanian title of kay.Template:Sfn The traditional titulature of "King of Kings" was generally missing from Yazdegerd II's coinage.Template:Sfn
A new design also appeared on the reverse of the Sasanian coins, where the traditional fire altar flanked by two attendants, now imitates them in a more venerated manner.Template:Sfn This presumably further demonstrates Yazdegerd II's fealty to Zoroastrianism.Template:Sfn The provinces of Asoristan and Khuzistan provided the most mints for Yazdegerd II in the west, whilst the provinces of Gurgan and Marw provided the most in the east, undoubtedly to support the Sasanians in their wars on the two fronts.Template:Sfn
Death and successionEdit
Yazdegerd II died in 457; he had reportedly not designed a successor and instead—according to the medieval historian al-Tha'alibi—entrusted the task to the elite.Template:Sfn Civil war soon followed; his eldest son Hormizd III ascended to the throne at the city of Ray in northern Iran, while Peroz fled to the northeastern part of the empire and began raising an army in order to claim the throne for himself.Template:Sfnm The empire thus fell into a dynastic struggle and became divided. The mother of the two brothers, Denag, temporarily ruled as regent of the empire from its capital, Ctesiphon.Template:Sfn
FamilyEdit
MarriagesEdit
- Denag, an Iranian princess, possibly from the royal Sasanian family.
IssueEdit
- Hormizd III, seventeenth shah of the Sasanian Empire (Template:Reign).Template:Sfn
- Peroz I, eighteenth shah of the Sasanian Empire (Template:Reign).Template:Sfn
- Zarer, Sasanian prince, who tried to claim the throne by rebelling in 485.Template:Sfn
- Balash, nineteenth shah of the Sasanian Empire (Template:Reign).Template:Sfn
- Vachagan III (Template:Reign), king of Caucasian Albania. His exact relation with Yazdegerd II is uncertain, he was either a son or nephew of his.Template:Sfn
- Unnamed daughter, who married the Caucasian Albanian king Aswagen (Template:Reign).Template:Sfn
NotesEdit
ReferencesEdit
SourcesEdit
- Template:ODLA
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite encyclopedia
- Template:Cite encyclopedia
- Template:Cambridge History of Iran
- Template:Cite journal
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite encyclopedia
- Template:Cite encyclopedia
- Template:Cite book
- Template:ODLA
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite journal
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book Template:Registration required
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite encyclopedia
- Template:Cite encyclopedia
- Template:Cite book
Further readingEdit
Template:S-start Template:S-hou Template:S-bef Template:S-ttl Template:S-aft Template:S-end