39 Facts About Hormizd IV

Hormizd IV was the Sasanian King of Kings of Iran from 579 to 590.

Hormizd IV was the son and successor of Khosrow I and his mother was a Khazar princess.

Hormizd IV's reign was marked by constant warfare: to the west, he fought a long and indecisive war with the Byzantine Empire, which had been ongoing since the reign of his father; and to the east, the Iranian general Bahram Chobin successfully contained and defeated the Western Turkic Khaganate during the First Perso-Turkic War.

Hormizd IV was noted for his religious tolerance, declining appeals by the Zoroastrian priesthood to persecute the Christian population of the country.

Hormizd IV is the Middle Persian version of the name of the supreme deity in Zoroastrianism, known in Avestan as Ahura Mazda.

Hormizd IV was the son of Khosrow I, one of the most celebrated Sasanian shahs.

Hormizd IV is thus called a Turkzad in the Shahnameh, or 'son of a Turk'.

Hormizd IV was thus not only an offspring of the highly esteemed Khosrow I of the ruling family of Iran, but belonged to a royal Turkic dynasty, which according to Sebeos "made Hormizd IV even greater than his paternal ancestors and equally greater and wilder than his maternal relatives".

Khosrow I, aware that Hormizd IV had shown himself as a leader of quality, appointed Hormizd IV as his heir.

Hormizd IV came to the throne in 579: according to the narratives included in the history of al-Tabari, Hormizd IV was well learned and full of good aspirations of kindness toward the poor and weak.

Hormizd IV was seemingly less warlike than his predecessors, but was resolute enough to continue their reforms.

Hormizd IV did resort to executions in order to maintain his father's policies, and as a result became the subject of hostility by the Zoroastrians.

Hormizd IV declined an appeal by the priesthood to persecute the Christian population by asserting his wish that "all his subjects were to exercise their religion freely".

Hormizd IV reportedly had many members of the priesthood killed, including the chief priest himself.

Hormizd IV strained his relationship with the aristocracy by having thousands of them killed.

Hormizd IV was himself related to the family, with his paternal grandmother being a sister of Bawi, the father of Shapur.

Hormizd IV was not the first Sasanian shah to kill a close relative from the Ispahbudhan family: his father Khosrow I had ordered the execution of Bawi in the early 530s.

From his father, Hormizd IV had inherited an ongoing war against the East Roman Empire.

Hormizd IV further demanded the payment of the yearly tribute that was made during the reign of Justinian I, and thus caused the negotiations to be broken off.

Hormizd IV appointed his son Khosrow as the governor of Caucasian Albania, who negotiated with the Iberian aristocracy and won their support, so successfully incorporating the country into the Sasanian Empire.

Hormizd IV then sued for peace: in 584, an Iranian envoy arrived at Constantinople, while a Roman envoy arrived at Ctesiphon.

Hormizd IV then proceeded to cross the Oxus river and won a decisive victory over the Turks, personally killing Bagha Qaghan with an arrowshot.

Hormizd IV managed to reach as far as Baykand, near Bukhara, and contain an attack by the son of the deceased Khagan, Birmudha, whom Bahram had captured and sent to Ctesiphon.

Hormizd IV was made commander of the Sasanian forces against the Byzantines, and successfully defeated a Byzantine force in Georgia.

Hormizd IV, who was jealous of Bahram, used this defeat as an excuse to dismiss him from his office, and had him humiliated.

Furthermore, Hormizd IV sent him a chain and a spindle to show that he considered him as a lowly slave "as ungrateful as a woman".

Hormizd IV sent a force under Sarames the Elder to arrest Bahram.

Hormizd IV was defeated by the latter, who had him trampled to death by an elephant.

Hormizd IV then left for the Great Zab River in order to cut communications between Ctesiphon and the Iranian soldiers on the Byzantine border.

Around that time the soldiers, who were situated outside Nisibis, the chief city in northern Mesopotamia, rebelled against Hormizd IV and pledged their allegiance to Bahram when reached the city.

Hormizd IV then sent an envoy to placate Bahram, while he started to make preparations to collect the royal treasure, destroy the bridge of the Tigris, and take sanctuary in al-Hira, the capital of the Lakhmids.

Shortly before the departure of the army, Hormizd IV had approved a request by Farrukhan.

Hormizd IV had asked the king for the release of an aristocratic prisoner named Zadspram, whom he regarded as an important figure in his efforts against Bahram.

Hormizd IV, like all other Sasanian rulers, was an adherent of Zoroastrianism.

Hormizd IV was as a result suspected of harboring Christian beliefs.

Hormizd IV superstitiously wore a talisman against death, and stressed the importance of astrology.

Gold coins were rarely minted under the Sasanians, with Hormizd IV being one of the rulers to never mint them.

Two of Hormizd IV's wives are known, one of them being an Ispahbudhan noblewoman, who was the daughter of Shapur, whilst the other one was a Christian woman.

Besides Khosrow II, Hormizd IV had an unnamed daughter, who married Shahrbaraz of the House of Mihran.