Khosrow

In Iran, rulers of the Sassanid dynasty:

Khosrow I (surnamed Anushirvan [literally, “of the immortal soul”]). Died 579.

Khosrow I ascended the throne in 531 after the suppression of the Mazdakite movement. He carried out reforms begun by his father, Kavadh I, which consolidated the power of the monarch and reflected Iran’s feudalization. He introduced a fixed tax on land (the hard) and a per capita tax, restructured the bureaucracy in order to limit the power of the highest civil servants and the provincial rulers, and created a regular army and a new aristocracy totally dependent on the monarch. From the 540’s to 570’s, Khosrow I waged a series of wars with the Byzantine Empire: circa 570 he captured Yemen from Byzantium’s ally Ethiopia, and in the 560’s he routed the Epthalites in the east.

Khosrow II (surnamed Parviz [literally, “the victor”]). Died 628.

Khosrow II was brought to the throne in 591 with the aid of the Byzantine emperor Maurice. Using the murder of Maurice as a pretext, he initiated a war with the Byzantine Empire that lasted from 602 to 629; in the course of the war he seized the eastern and southern Byzantine provinces, including Egypt. In the 620’s Byzantium took the offensive and invaded Iran. Khosrow II was overthrown and killed by a group of nobles opposed to him.