Sasanian Iberia

Sasanian Iberia
Direct Sassanid Persian rule (523-580 AD), abolishment of the monarchy in 580 and subsequent control through Sassanid-appointed Marzpans until 626/627.
523–626/627
Capital		Armazi Mtskheta Tbilisi
Languages		Georgian Middle Persian
Government		Fully subordinate monarchy (up to 580), governorate
Historical era		Antiquity
•	Dachi of Iberia's reign (direct subject of Kavadh I)	523
•	Abolishment of the Iberian monarchy. Sasanian Marzpanate period through the Principality of Iberia	580
•	Disestablishment. Largely annexed by the Byzantines.	626/627
Preceded by Succeeded by Caucasian Iberia Byzantine Empire Rashidun Caliphate
Today part of		Georgia Turkey Russia Armenia Azerbaijan

Sasanian Iberia refers to the period the Kingdom of Iberia (Kartli, eastern Georgia) became a province of the Sasanian Empire, as well as when it was ruled by Marzpans (governors) appointed by the Sasanid Iranian king, including later through the Principality of Iberia. It furthermore covers up the period up to including the loss of major parts of it during the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628 to the neighboring Byzantine Empire, just shortly prior to the Muslim conquest of Persia.

History

The Georgian kingdoms were contested between the Sasanids and the neighboring rivalling Roman-Byzantine Empire ever since the 3rd century. Over the span of the next hundreds of years, both the Byzantines and the Sasanids managed to establish protectorates and vassalships over these regions, although sometimes assuming direct control as well, through the creation of a province. At the remaining times, the Georgian kings managed to retain their autonomy. From 252-272 AD, the Georgian kingdom of Caucasian Iberia was a Sasanian tributary state, while between 363-482 and 502-523, it was a vassal state.

The continuing rivalry between Byzantium and Sasanian Persia for supremacy in the Caucasus, and the next unsuccessful insurrection (523) of the Georgians under Gurgen had severe consequences for the country. Thereafter, the king of Iberia had only nominal power, while the country was effectively ruled by the Persians. However, When the king of a unified Iberia, Bakur III, died in 580, the Sassanid government of Persia under Hormizd IV (578-590) seized on the opportunity to abolish the Iberian monarchy. Iberia became a Persian province, ruled by a marzpan (governor).

The Iberian nobles acquiesced to this change without resistance, while the heirs of the royal house withdrew to their highland fortresses – the main Chosroid line in Kakheti, and the younger Guaramid branch in Klarjeti and Javakheti. However, the direct Persian control brought about heavy taxation and an energetic promotion of Zoroastrianism in a largely Christian country. Therefore, when the Eastern Roman emperor Maurice embarked upon a military campaign against Persia in 582, the Iberian nobles requested that he helped restore the monarchy. Maurice did respond, and, in 588, sent his protégé, Guaram I of the Guaramids, as a new ruler to Iberia. However, Guaram was not crowned as king, but recognized as a presiding prince and bestowed with the Eastern Roman title of curopalates. The Byzantine-Sassanid treaty of 591 confirmed this new rearrangement, but left Iberia divided into Roman- and Sassanid-dominated parts at the town of Tbilisi. Mtskheta came to be under Byzantine control.

Guaram's successor, the second presiding prince Stephen I (Stephanoz I), reoriented his politics towards Persia in a quest to reunite a divided Iberia, a goal he seems to have accomplished, but this cost him his life when the Byzantine emperor Heraclius attacked Tbilisi in 626, during the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628, marking the definite Byzantine predominance in most of Georgia by 627-628 at the expense of the Sasanids until the Muslim conquest of Persia.

Sasanian governors of Iberia

• Arvand Gushnasp

See also

• Roman Georgia
• Muslim conquest of Persia
• Principality of Iberia
• Arab rule in Georgia