Khurshid of Tabaristan

Khurshid (Book Pahlavi: hwlšyt'; Tabari/, Spāhbed Khōrshīd 'General Khorshid'; 734–761), erroneously designated Khurshid II by earlier scholars, was the last Dabuyid ispahbadh of Tabaristan. He succeeded to the throne at an early age, and was supervised by his uncle as regent until he reached the age of fourteen. Khurshid supported various rebellions and maintained diplomatic contacts with Tang China. Finally, the Abbasids conquered his country in 759–760, and captured most members of his family. Khurshid fled to Daylam, where he ended his life.

Biography

Khurshid was born in 734/735, the son of Dadhburzmihr or Dadmihr (died 740) and grandson of Farrukhan the Great (died ca. 728), the first ruler (ispahbadh) of the Dabuyid dynasty from whose reign coins are known. According to the traditional account, the Dabuyids had established themselves as the autonomous rulers of Tabaristan in the 640s, during the tumults of the Muslim conquest of Persia and the collapse of the Sasanian Empire. They owed only the payment tribute to the Arab Caliphate, and managed, despite repeated Muslim attempts at invasion, to maintain their autonomy by exploiting the inaccessible terrain of their country. A more recent interpretation of the sources by P. Pourshariati, however, supports that Farrukhan was the one who actually established the family's rule over Tabaristan, sometime in the 670s. In earlier works on the dynasty, Khurshid is named Khurshid II, due to erroneous interpretation of numismatic evidence, which led earlier scholars to interpolate a first Khurshid before Farrukhan, whose rule was thought to have begun ca. 710. The historian Ibn Isfandiyar gives a vivid description of the prosperity of Tabaristan at this time, which was a major centre for textile production (including silk), and which traded with the Turks of Central Asia, probably via the Caspian Sea. Khurshid is said to have contributed to this prosperity by building numerous bazaars and caravanserais. Khurshid also tried to consolidate and even extend his royal power, and used the turmoil within the Umayyad Caliphate during the Third Fitna to this effect, rebelling against Caliph Marwan II (r. 744–750), and even sending an embassy to the Tang court in 746, which recognized him ("king Hu-lu-ban") as a vassal prince. Al-Mansur sent his son and heir, al-Mahdi (r. 775–785), to recover the treasure of Abu Muslim. Khurshid denied having it, and al-Mansur tried to unseat Khurshid by crowning one of his cousins as ispahbadh. This did not have the desired effect of challenging the loyalty of Khurshid's subjects, but Khurshid was eventually forced to accommodate the Abbasids by accepting an increase in the annual tribute, which brought it to the level paid to the Sassanids.

Soon after, nevertheless, Khurshid took advantage of the rebellion of Abd al-Jabar ibn Abd al-Rahman, the governor of Khurasan, to once again throw off allegiance to the Caliphate. Al-Mansur sent his generals Abu al-Khaṣīb Marzuq and Khazim bin Khuzaymah into Tabaristan, with the intention of completely subduing the country and making it a province. Khurshid fled to the fortress of al-Tak in the mountains, where he was besieged in 759–760. Although Khurshid himself escaped to nearby Daylam, the fortress eventually fell, and with it his family fell into the hands of the Abbasids and brought to Baghdad.

Tabaristan became a regular province of the Caliphate, ruled from Amul by an Arab governor, although the local dynasties of the Bavandids, Karinids and Zarmihrids, formerly subject to the Dabuyids, continued to control the mountainous interior as tributary vassals of the Abbasid government. Coins were minted in Tabaristan in Khurshid's name until 764, whereafter the name of the Abbasid governor was substituted. As a result, some earlier works also mention 767 as the date of Khurshid's death.

Family After their capture, Khurshid's sons, the crown prince Dadmihr, Hormozd and Vandad-Hormozd, received Arabic names, but otherwise their fate is unknown. According to Chinese sources, on the other hand, one of them was on embassy in the Tang court at the time Tabaristan was conquered. Khurshid's daughters were distributed as concubines to members of the Abbasid dynasty. The names and genealogy of these princesses are confused, but one was taken by al-Mansur himself and another by his brother, Abbas ibn Muhammad. Al-Bakhtariyya, a daughter of Farrukhan-i Kuchak, became the concubine of al-Mahdi, and it is reported that another of al-Mahdi's concubines, Shakla, was a daughter of Khurshid. In 817, during the Fourth Fitna, the populace of Baghdad turned to their sons to make them caliphs in opposition to al-Ma'mun (r. 813–833). Al-Bakhtariyya's son al-Mansur ibn al-Mahdi refused, but his half-brother Ibrahim ibn al-Mahdi accepted and ruled as anti-caliph until 819.