Hephthalite–Sasanian War of 484

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Hephthalite–Sasanian War of 484
Part of Hephthalite–Sasanian Wars

The defeat and death of Peroz I in the Shahnameh.
Date484 CE
Location
Near Balkh
Result Decisive Hephthalite victory
Belligerents
Hephthalite Empire
 Sasanian Empire
Commanders and leaders
Khushnavaz
 Peroz I †
Mihran †
Strength
Unknown Unknown
Casualties and losses
Unknown Entire army[1]

The Hephthalite–Sasanian War of 484 was a

Khushnavaz
. The battle was a catastrophic defeat for the Sasanian forces who were almost completely wiped out. Peroz, the Sassanid king, was killed in the action.

Context

In 459, the Hephthalites occupied Bactria and were confronted by the forces of the Sassanid king, Hormizd III. It was then that Peroz, in an apparent pact with the Hephthalites,[2] killed Hormizd, his brother, and established himself as the new king. He would go on to kill the majority of his family and began a persecution of various Christian sects in his territories.

Peroz quickly moved to maintain peaceful relations with the

Kavadh, as a hostage for three years, further paying a ransom for his release.[2]

It was this humiliating defeat which led Peroz to launch a new campaign against the Hephthalites.

The battle

In 484, after the liberation of his son, Peroz formed an enormous army and marched northeast to confront the Hephthalites. The king marched his forces all the way to

Khushnavaz. Peroz's forces advanced from Herat to Balkh. The Huns, learning of Peroz's way of advance, set up a ambush for him. In the ensuing battle, Peroz was defeated and killed by a Hephthalite army near Balkh.[3][4] His army was completely destroyed, whilst his body was never found.[1] Four of his sons and brothers had also died.[5] The main Sasanian cities of the eastern region of Khorasan−Nishapur, Herat, and Marw were now under Hephthalite rule.[4]

In Procopius's account, the Hephthalites used an overextended and camouflaged ditch to defeat the Sasanians, but the Khonsarinejad et al. (2021) argues the ditch story to be dubious.[6]

Aftermath

The Huns invaded the Sassanid territories which had been left without a central government following the death of the king. Much of the Sassanid land was pillaged repeatedly for a period of two years

Djamasp was installed on the throne for two years until Kavadh returned at the head of an army of 30,000 troops[8]
and retook his throne, reigning from 498 until his death in 531, when he was succeeded by his son, Khosrau I.

According to

Irfan Shahid, the tactic of using trenches by the Hephthalites in this war was adopted by the Persians who successfully used it later at the Battle of Thannuris (528) against the Byzantines. The Persian tactic was subsequently adopted and successfully used by the Byzantines at Battle of Dara (530) and even by the Muslims at the Battle of the Trench (627).[9]

References

  1. ^ a b Payne 2015b, p. 287.
  2. ^ a b Frye, 1996: 178
  3. ^ McDonough 2011, p. 305.
  4. ^ a b Schindel 2013a, pp. 136–141.
  5. ^ Potts 2018, p. 295.
  6. ISSN 2299-2464
    .
  7. ^ Christian, 1998: 220
  8. ^ a b Dani, 1999: 140
  9. ISBN 978-0-88402-214-5
    .

Sources
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