Shahin Vahmanzadegan Information
Shahin (Persian: شاهین, Shaw-heen, Persian for "Peregrine falcon"; in Greek sources: Σαὴν; died c. 626) was a senior Sassanid general (spahbod) during the reign of Khosrau II (590–628). Shahin was a member of the House of Suren through his father and a member of the (likewise Parthian) House of Karen through his mother.
After the outbreak of the Byzantine-Sassanid War of 602–628, Shahin commanded forces invading Eastern Roman territory in the Transcaucasia, winning a battle against Domentziolus near Theodosiopolis in 607/8. Following the expulsion of Roman forces from that region, in 611 Shahin led an advance into Anatolia, capturing Caesarea Mazaca, but was driven out by Roman counter-attack led by the Emperor Heraclius in the summer of 612 and forced to withdraw to Armenia. In 613 the Roman offensive pressed on into Syria, but the combined Persian armies under Shahin and Shahrbaraz crushingly defeated Heraclius near Antioch and again near the Cilician Gates. As a result, in 614 Shahin was able to campaign all the way across Anatolia to Chalcedon on the shore of the Bosphoros opposite Constantinople.
On the shore of Chalcedon, Heraclius held a conference with Shahin, who, before Heraclius descended from his galley, saluted with reverence and pity the majesty of the purple. The friendly offer of Shahin to conduct an embassy to the presence of the great king, was accepted with the warmest gratitude, and the prayer for pardon and peace was humbly presented by the Praetorian praefect, the praefect of the city, and one of the first ecclesiastics of the patriarchal church. But the lieutenant of Chosroes had fatally mistaken the intentions of his master:
| “ | It was not an embassy, it was the person of Heraclius, bound in chains, that he should have brought to the foot of my throne. I will never give peace to the emperor of Rome, till he had abjured his crucified God, and embraced the worship of the sun. | ” |
According to the history of the Patriarch Nicephorus, Shahin, for his presumption, was flayed alive and his skin was used to make a bag. However this is inconsistent with the account of Theophanes, who claims that Shahin fought against Roman forces in the following years.
Despite overwhelming Persian successes spanning almost two decades of war, from 622 Heraclius led a fresh counter-offensive in the Transcaucasus which brought about a remarkable revival of Roman fortunes. In 625 Shahin led an army to join others commanded by Shahrbaraz and Shahraplakan and combine against Heraclius, but by the time he arrived the other two generals had already begun their attack on Heraclius and been routed. Joining the fight, Shahin's troops were likewise defeated and their baggage train was captured. He then joined forces with Shahbaraz, shadowing Heraclius through Armenia in an inconclusive campaign for the remainder of that year. In 626 Khosrau ordered an exceptional levy of troops from across his empire to revive the faltering war effort. Shahin was put in charge of these new recruits, together with a large number of veterans, and sent against Heraclius, but was heavily defeated by the emperor's brother Theodore. The dejected Shahin fell ill and Khosrau, enraged at Shahin's failure, mistreated the general's corpse, which had been sent to him preserved in salt.
References
- Theophanes, The Chronicle of Theophanes — Anni mundi 6095-6305 (A.D. 602-813), ed. Harry Turtledove (Philadelphia 1982)
- Geoffrey Greatrex, Samuel N.C. Lieu, The Roman Eastern Frontier and the Persian Wars, (Part II, 363-630) (London 2002)
- Clive Foss, 'The Persians in Asia Minor and the End of Antiquity', English Historical Review 90 (1975), pp. 721-747
- Virasp Mehta, Causes of the Downfall of the Sassanian Empire (Palo Alto 2007)
- Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapter 46
See also
- Shahin's invasion of Asia Minor (615)
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