The Parthians (Latin: Parthi, Iranian: Pehlewan/Pahlawan/Pahlewan) were a people in the Greater region of Westen and Central Asia, who spoke a Northwest Iranian language.

A Narrative by Piroz (initially contributed to Wikipedia)

The Parthians are often associated with the Arsacid dynasty (Persian: اشکانیان), which was named after its founder Aškān I (also Araš, Aršaka or Arsaces, in English also Arsak I.). With the founding of the Arsacid dynasty, the foundation was also laid for the Arsacid Empire, whose population was now referred to as “Parthians” after their new homeland (Parthia) (Wiesehöfer 2001: 67).

However, the Parthian people survived the Arsacid Empire, as various Parthian noble families remained of great importance in both the succeeding Sasano-Parthian Confederacy and later Islamic Iran (Pardi 2023: 72). With the Islamic conquest of Iran, the formerly Parthian regions gradually became increasingly culturally and linguistically heterogeneous over time, as was the case in the region of Pahla.

Arsacid Empire

According to some ancient authors, the founding of the Parthian Empire goes back to the Parni, who themselves were part of the tribal confederation of the Dahae, who were settled in present-day Turkmenistan. They are said to have succeeded in driving out the Seleucids from the satrapy of Parthia. The trail of the Parni is lost in the following period. For the new kingdom founded by the dynasty of the Arsacids, the name Parthia (Old Persian Parθava, Parthian Parθaw, Middle Iranian Pahlaw) became common, and its inhabitants were known as Parthians.

In the following years, the Arsacid rulers succeeded in becoming the dominant power in the Iranian highlands and adjacent areas, particularly in Mesopotamia, through constant wars against the Seleucids and the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom. The Parthian Empire was characterized by numerous regional sub-kingdoms, some of which had previously been Seleucid vassal states, such as Armenia and Media Atropatene, while others re-emerged during the decline and dissolution of the Seleucid Empire in the “Upper Satrapies”, such as Persis, Elymais, Characene, Adiabene, Osroene, Gordyene, or under the Arsacid overlordship, the kingdom of Hatra. The core territories of the empire were Babylonia with the capital city of Ctesiphon, and the Greater Media region, called Pahla (the post-Islamic core region of the Parthians), or the later province of Jibal in the Caliphate. This led to conflicts with the Romans and Central Asian peoples, as well as to division of the empire. There are only sparse accounts of the events in the east of the empire, where an Indo-Parthian Kingdom was formed. Armenia remained predominantly a Roman client kingdom, but a branch of the Arsacids managed to establish themselves as rulers under Roman suzerainty.

Internal power struggles, the ongoing Roman expansion, which could be partly successfully fought, and alleged conflicts with the steppe peoples of the Saka (Scythians) and Kushan weakened the Parthian Empire. Ardashir I from the House of  Sasanids, who ruled as a vassal of the Arsacids in Persis, took advantage of the internal strife of the Parthians and organized a rebellion. With the conquest of the cities in the Iranian plateau and Mesopotamia, he ended the rule of the Arsacid dynasty.

Sasano-Parthian Confederacy

In the Sasano-Parthian Confederacy, founded by  Ardashir I, the Parthian noble families still held great influence. In fact, the inner structure of the empire did not change much. The noble families provided soldiers for the Sasanian army, but also generals (Spahbod) who enjoyed a chivalric rank and bore the title Pahlav. One of the most prominent supporters of the House of Sasan were the Parthian houses of Suran and Ispahbudan, who had supported Ardashir I in his rebellion against Ardawan IV (Pardi 2023: 72-73).

During the Sasanid conflicts with the Byzantines, Farrukh Horzmid from the Parthian House of Ispahbudhan, together with Shahrbaraz from the Parthian House of Mihran, rebelled. They overthrew Khosrow II with Kavadh II, which led to a division of the Sasano-Parthian Confederacy into a Parthian (pehlewanig) faction in the north and a Persian (parsig) one in the south (Shahbazi 2005).

The following situation in the face of the Islamic invasion is described by al-Athir as follows (Pardi 2023: 138):

At this time, the population was divided into two groups: The fahlawaj (i.e. Pahlawig, Parthians) supported Rustam, while the people of Fars (ahl-i fars, Persians) supported Firuzan.

— Pardi 2023: 138

The situation in the 7th century is further attested to by Tabari, who mentions the political alliances between the Parthians and Persians (Pardi 2023: 138):

The cavalry of Fars allied their forces with those of the Fahluj (fahlawaj), the inhabitants of al-Jibal.

— Pardi 2023: 138

With Tabari’s reports on the military mobilization in the Sasano-Parthian Confederacy to counter the Islamic invasion, it becomes clear what the ethnic composition looked like towards the end of the Confederacy (Pardi 2023: 138-140). For the Parthian mobilization, Tabari lists 30,000 men between al-Bab (Derbent, today in Russia, Dagestan) and Hulwan (today Serpelli Zehaw, Sarpole Sahab), and 60,000 men between Hulwan and Khorasan. He also adds 60,000 men to the Persian mobilization between Sistan and Fars, as well as Fars and Huwlan or Jibal/Pahla (Pardi 2023: 138-140).

Islamic Conquest

Siyavakhsh, grandson of the famous Bahram Chobin, who ruled in Rey, ended the civil war between the Parthian and Persian factions by assassinating Farrukh Hormizd. It was then decided with the wuzurgan (meaning “the Elders”) to appoint Yazdegerd III as the king of the Sasanid Empire.

At the same time, the Arabs invaded the weakened Sasanid Empire under the banner of Islam. Prominent Parthians fought in battles such as the Battle of al-Qādisīyah and the Battle of Nehawend. At Ayn al-Tamr, Mihran Bahram-i Chubin from the House of Mihran organized a resistance with the help of Christian Arabs, who were ultimately defeated by the Muslim army. Rostam Farrokzhad from the House of Ispahbudhan led several battles against the Muslim Arabs. He sent Bahman Jaduya who managed to hold off the Muslim army for three years in the Battle of the Bridge. After being recalled by the Sasanid King Yazdegerd III from Ctesiphon, Rostam Farrokhzad fought alongside figures such as Javanshir, Piroz Nehawendi, Hormuzan, and Piroz Khosrow in Qādisīyah against the Muslims, where he fell in battle.

After the Battle of Nehawend in 642, the Sasano-Parthian Confederacy disintegrated, along with the administrative structures that had survived since the Arsacid era. The Parthian noble families scattered throughout different regions of Iran or disappeared altogether. Piroz Nehawendi, who had served under Rostam Farrokhzad, was captured by the Muslim army and served as a slave to Caliph Omar, whom he murdered while he was praying.

Following the Islamic conquest, Parthian identity declined, while Persian identity was able to assert itself thanks to the Persian language. The terms Parthian, pahlaw, pahlawan, pahlawi, and others were transliterated into the Arabic script as fahla, fahlawi, and so on.

The Region of Pahla (Fahla)

After the collapse of the Sasano-Parthian Confederacy, various Islamic historians refer to the region of Fahla (pahla, meaning Parthia in English) and define the area through their definitions. According to Mehrdad Ghodrat-Dizaji of Urmia University,^[12] the following historians and geographers give various extents for the region of fahla (Ghodrat-Dizaji 2012: 110-111):

• ad-Dīnawarī (Ghodrat-Dizaji 2012: 110): Dinawar, Hamadan, Kirmanshah, Masabadhan, Mihrajanqadhaq (Mihragankadag), Nihawand
• Biruni (Olshausen 1876: 20): Ispahan, Rey and “the other countries of the Fahla” (Olshausen 1876: 20: womit zu vergleichen ist, was Quatremere (Journ. des Sav. 1840. p. 344.) aus Mas’ûdî anführt: die Perser waren in Fârs, den beiden Mâh’s, (d.i. im westlichen Medien,) und den übrigen Ländern […] der Fahlûs, […]. Hiernach kann über die weite Ausdehnung des Landes Pahlav kein Zweifel bestehen, und wenn bei Vullers im Lexicon ohne Angabe der Quelle Pahlav auch als Name der Gegend von Ispahan augeführt wird, so ist dies eine Verwendung des Ausdrucks als Localname, auf die nachher zurückzukommen ist.)
• al-Chwarizmi (Ghodrat-Dizaji 2012: 110): Aserbaidschan, Hamadan, Isfahan, Nihawand, Rey
• al-Masʿūdī (Ghodrat-Dizaji 2012: 110): Aserbaidschan, Dinawar, Hamadan, Masabadhan, Nihawand
• al-Muqaddasī (Ghodrat-Dizaji 2012: 110): Dinawar, Hamadan, Masabadhan, Mihrajanqadhaq, Nihawand
• Burhan-i Qati (persian dictionary of the 17th century.) (Olshausen 1876: 20): Dinawar, Ispahan, Rey
• Hamzah al-Isfahani (Ghodrat-Dizaji 2012: 110): Aserbaidschan, Hamadan, Isfahan, Nihawand, Rey
• Ibn al-Faqih (Ghodrat-Dizaji 2012: 110): Dinawar, Hamadan, Kirmanshah, Masabadhan, Mihrajanqadhaq, Nihawand, Qom
• Ibn al-Muqaffa’ (Olshausen 1876: 19-20, Ghodrat-Dizaji 2012: 110): Aserbaidschan, Hamadan, Isfahan, Nihawand, Rey
• Ibn Chordadhbeh (Ghodrat-Dizaji 2012: 110): Dinawar, Hamadan, Isfahan, Masabadhan, Mihrajanqadhaq, Nihawand, Qazvin, Rey
• Shîraweihi bin Shahrdâr (according to Jâqût) (Olshausen 1876: 20): Hamadan, Qarmisin, Masabadhan, Mah al-Bacra (Nihawand), Qumm
• Yāqūt ar-Rūmī (Ghodrat-Dizaji 2012: 110): Dinawar, Hamadan, Kirmanschah, Masabadhan, Mihrajanqadhaq, Nihawand, Qom

In today’s context, this corresponds to the regions that still speak a Northwestern Iranian language. This area includes the current Azari regions (Azerbaijan; West Azerbaijan, East Azerbaijan, Ardabil, Zanjan), the Kurdish regions of Iran (Kermanshah, Kurdistan, Hamadan), Lorestan and the former Median regions of Isfahan, Rey, and Qazvin. In historical understanding, the region of fahla corresponds to the former province of Media (including Atropatene) or the Arabic re-designation Jibal and Azerbaijan.

The Fahlaviyat

In Fahlaviyat, the terms Parthian and Pahlaw have been preserved (Tafażżolī 2012), which today refers to a collection of lyrical texts originating from the region of Pahla (fahla). These texts show strong Parthian influences (Ghodrat-Dizaji 2012: 111) and is described as containing Parthoid dialects (Paul 2013, also: a bundle of “Parthoid” dialects, forerunners of the northwest Iranian languages and dialects spoken there until today, such as Ṭāleši, Southern Tāti, or variants of Āḏari), but also contain elements of Old Azeri, Kurdish, and the Persian dialects spoken in the aforementioned regions, which exhibit a strong  northwestern Iranian character. Among the authors or books of this poetry collection are:

• Awhadi Maraghai
• Ayn al-Quzat Hamadani
• Baba Tahir
• Safi-ad-din Ardabili
• Mama ‘Esmat Tabrizi
• Maghrebi Tabrizi
• Homam Tabrizi
• Bundar Razi
• Safina-yi Tabriz

Cities and regions

Further remnants of the word Pahlaw can be found in cities such as Pahleh in Ilam, Bahleh in West Azerbaijan, and Palu in Elazig, which are located in areas where the Parthians had a strong influence. Ghodrat-Dizaji suggests that during the early Islamic period in Iran, the region of Khorasan, which was the homeland of the Parthians, was no longer inhabited by Parthians, as this region is not included in the fahla definition of Islamic historians and geographers. Lazard confirms this assumption by referring to early Sasanian military colonies in the east of the empire (Gyselen 2016: 61-68)

The westward migration of the Parthians and their settlement in western and northern Iran led either to assimilation of the local (Median) population or to a strong Parthian influence on these peoples. Today, the former core regions of the Parthians are inhabited by northwestern Iranian peoples whose languages are close to Arsacid Parthian or a Parthian language variant.

The misassociation with Middle Persian

The term pahlavi or pahlawi is still used in linguistics today with varying meanings. It is now used for both Middle Persian, whose self-designation was Pārsīg, and for Middle Iranian, but also recalls old Parthian roots in the form of Pahlawani. The later designation of Middle Persian (Sasanid) by historians as pahlavi caused confusion in the academic world, as the connotation of pahla originally meant Parthian. This error is due to the fact that during the Sasanid period until the 5th century AD, Parthian, or pahlawi, was spoken at the court, and therefore the language of the Sasanid kings was known as pahlawi. With the change of this tradition – Middle Persian replaced Parthian – and the assumption that the spoken language was still pahlawi, the mistake was made in the Middle Ages that Sasanid Persian was pahlawi. Today, the term (zaban-e) parsi-ye miyane (Middle Persian) is used predominantly in Iran for Sasanid Persian, and pahlawi and pahlawani are used for Parthian. The Kurdish scholar Mehrdad Izady argues that Zakariya al-Qazwini’s works have not been translated into Western languages. In his work Al-Mu‘jam, the existing dialects of Pahlawani are treated, which would include the groups of Awrami, Gurani, and Dimili. (Izady 2004: 205). The areas of the mentioned languages include the fahla region and also the Arsacid Armenian region.

In the Arsacid-Parthian Empire

• Aškan I, (Iranian: Araš, also known as Arsaces, Ashkan), founder of the Arsacid dynasty.
• Mihrdat I, (Iranian: Mehrdad I.; Mithridates I), expanded the Arsacid-Parthian Empire with the conquest of Media, Persis, Mesopotamia, and parts of the Greco-Bactrian realm.
• Mihrdat II (Iranian: Mehrdad II; Mithridates), the first King of Kings (Shahanshah) since the Achaemenids; ruled over the Arsacid-Parthian Empire.
• Ardawan IV (Iranian: Ardawan; Artabanus), successfully fought against the Romans but was overthrown by Ardashir.

In the Sasano-Parthian Confederacy

• Suren Pahlav, a nobleman from the House of Suren who served under the Sasanid king Bahram V.
• Bahram Chobin, a famous Spahbod from the House of Mihran who overthrew Khosrow II and ruled the Sasanid Empire for one year as a usurper with the regnal name Bahram VI. He successfully fought against the Byzantines and was appointed Spahbod of Atropatene and Media. In the east, he successfully fought the Gokturks in the Khorasan region and conquered Balkh and Bukhara.
• Shahrbaraz, a Spahbod who possibly originated from the House of Mihran. He led successful campaigns against the Byzantines and ruled as a usurper for a short time in 630.
• Farrukh Hormizd, a Spahbod from the House of Ispahbudhan who briefly divided the Sasanid Empire into a Parthian (pahlawanig) and Persian (parsig) faction.
• Mihran Bahram-i Chubin, son of Bahram Chobin from the House of Mihran, who mobilized Christian Arabs during the battle of Ayn al-Tamr. Little is known about his fate.
• Siyavakhsh, son of Mihran Bahram-i Chubin, an aristocrat from the House of Mihran who ended the civil war in the Sasanid Empire by assassinating Farrukh Hormizd. He died in the war against Farrukhzad and his Arab allies al-Nu’man ibn Muqrin in Rey.
• Farrukhzad, an aristocrat from the House of Ispahbudhan and son of Farrukh Hormizd. He founded the Bavand dynasty after the Muslim invasion of Tabaristan. After escaping the Muslim army, he allied with Muslim commander Al-Nu’man ibn Muqrin and killed Siyavakhsh, who had murdered his father. In order to set an example, al-Nu’man destroyed the aristocratic quarter of Rey, which Farrochsad later rebuilt.
• Rostam Farrokhzad, a nobleman and Spahbod from the House of Ispahbudhan who ruled over Atropatene and Khorasan. He rebelled with his father Farrukh Hormizd against Khosrow II and belonged to the Parthian (pahlawanig) faction. After the civil war in the Sasanid Empire, he played an important role in the fight against the Muslim invaders and died in the Battle of al-Qadisiyyah. Rostam was immortalized as an epic hero in the work Shāhnāme by Ferdowsi.
• Piruz Nahavandi (also known as Piruzān or Abū-Lū’ūlah by the Arabs), a soldier from the Parthian city of Nehavand. He served under the command of Rostam Farrokhzad. Captured, he was held as a slave by the Caliph Omar. He succeeded in assassinating the Caliph who had led the expansion against the Sasanid Empire.

After the Islamic Conquest

• Babak Khorramdin, the leader of the spiritual movement of the Khorramdinan, who fought against the Arabs.
• Sunpadh, a Mithraic leader of the house of the Karen. He swore the march against Mekka and destroy the Kaaba.
• Mazyar, a prince of the Karenwands (Qarinwands), a late branch of the House of Karen. He ruled Tabaristan and thought against the Arabs.

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