Khosrau II

Silver coin of Khosrau II, dating to ca. A.D. 600.

Egyptian woven pattern woolen curtain or trousers, which was a copy of a Sassanid silk import, which was in turn based on a fresco of Persian King Khosrau II fighting Ethiopian forces in Yemen, 5-6th century.

Khosrau II (Chosroes II in classical sources, sometimes called Parvez, "the ever Victorious" – in Persian: خسرو پرویز) was a King of Persia from 590 to 628. He was the son of Hormizd IV (579–590) and grandson of Khosrau I (531–579).

Khosrau II was raised to the throne by the magnates who had rebelled against Hormizd IV, who soon after had his father blinded and killed. But at the same time the general Bahram Chobin had proclaimed himself King Bahram VI (590–591), and Khosrau II was not able to maintain himself.

Khosrau II is also remembered to be one of the powerful kings of the Persian Empire to whom prophet Mohammed had sent messengers to preach the religion of Islam, like he sent messengers to other emperors near the Arabian Peninsula. However, Khosrau II is said to have torn prophet Mohammed's letter preaching Islam to him, and insulting the messenger and the teachings of Islam. It is narrated by some Islamic traditions that his disrespect of various religions, was one of the reasons for the kings' downfall.

The war with the Romans, which had begun in 571, had not yet come to an end. Khosrau II fled to Syria, and persuaded the Emperor Maurice (582–602) to send help. Many leading men and part of the troops acknowledged Khosrau II, and in 591 he was brought back to Ctesiphon. Bahram VI was defeated and he fled to the Turkics, among whom he was murdered. Peace with Rome was then concluded.

Maurice made no use of his advantage; he merely restored the former frontier and abolished the subsidies which had formerly been paid to the Persians. Khosrau II was much inferior to his grandfather. He was haughty and cruel, rapacious and given to luxury; he was neither a general nor an administrator. At the beginning of his reign he favoured the Christians; but when in 602 Maurice had been murdered by Phocas (602–610), he began war with Rome to avenge his death. His armies plundered Syria and Asia Minor, and in 608 advanced to Chalcedon.

In 613 and 614 Damascus and Jerusalem were taken by the general Shahrbaraz, and the True Cross was carried away in triumph. Soon after, even Egypt was conquered. The Romans could offer but little resistance, as they were torn by internal dissensions, and pressed by the Avars and Slavs. At last, in 622, the Emperor Heraclius (who had succeeded Phocas in 610 and ruled until 641) was able to take the field. In 624 he advanced into northern Media, where he destroyed the great fire-temple of Gandzak (Gazaca); in 626 he fought in Lazistan (Colchis), while Shahrbaraz advanced to Chalcedon, and tried in vain, united with the Avars, to conquer Constantinople.

In 627 Heraclius defeated the Persian army at the Battle of Nineveh and advanced towards Ctesiphon. Khosrau II fled from his favourite residence, Dastagei (near Baghdad), without offering resistance; and as his despotism and indolence had roused opposition everywhere, his eldest son Kavadh II (he ruled briefly in 628), whom Khosrau II had imprisoned, was set free by some of the leading men and proclaimed King (night of 23-4 February, 628).^[1] Four days afterwards, Khosrau II was murdered in his palace. Meanwhile, Heraclius returned in triumph to Constantinople; in 629 the Cross was given back to him and Egypt evacuated, while the Persian empire, from the apparent greatness which it had reached ten years ago, sank into hopeless anarchy. It was overtaken by the armies of the first Islamic Caliphs beginning in 634.

In reality, the Sassanid empire had been brought on the verge of anarchy and disintegration as a result of warmongering and ambitious exploitations of Khosrau II and a decade-long intrigue of courtiers and Zoroastrian magi attempting to occupy the throne following his murder.

See also

• Shirin Beloved wife of Khosrau
• Non-Muslims Interactants with Muslims During Muhammad's Era

References

1. ^ According James Howard-Johnston in his notes to The Armenian History attributed to Sebeos (trans. R.W. Thomson; Liverpool: University Press, 1999), p. 221

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

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