Bahram Choubin

Lieutenant General Bahram Choubin was a famous military commander during Khosrau II's rule in Sassanid Iran. Descended from the House of Mihran, one of the Seven Parthian clans, his first great victory came in Herat in 589, which is reported in a number of sources. He successfully defeated a large army in great Turkish War. Reportedly, the Turkish forces outnumbered his troops five to one. Relying on the discipline and superior training of his Persian Cataphract cavalry, Bahram trapped and defeated the Turks. After suffering a minor defeat in ####battle against the Eastern Roman empire, Shah Hormizd IV humiliated him, sending him women's clothing to wear. Thus, he along with the army rebelled against the Shah and marched toward Ctesiphon. Hormizid was killed and his son, Khosrau II, unable to fight such an army, fled to Roman territory and Bahram sat on the throne as King Bahram VI for about a year (590 - 591). Bindoy, the uncle of Khosrau, who had accompanied him into exile, was sent with a 70,000 man Byzantine army granted by the Byzantine Emperor Maurice. They went to Armenia to outflank Bahram, who was defeated in the lowlands and lost Ctesiphon. He retreated to Azerbaijan but was finally defeated and fled to the Turks in Central Asia where he received asylum, where he was assassinated a year later. After collapse of Sassanid empire and Islamic conquest of Persia, the Samanid dynasty, one of the first independent Persian dynasties, considered themselves from Bahram Chobin's lineage.

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