Beate Dignas & Engelbert Winter - Kaveh Farrokh

11 The Sasanian monarchy 99
and because the Persians are not allowed to appoint a man as king who is by birth
a common man, unless it is the case that the royal family is totally extinct. (3) As
soon as Balāˇs had assumed the royal title he gathered the nobility and held council
regarding Kavādh (I)’s fate. . . 113
Political changes and his own socio-political initiatives provoked Kavādh I’s
downfall. In an attempt to secure his position against the powerful nobility
the king grew closer with a man named Mazdak. The so-called ‘Mazdakite
revolt’, which derives its name from this figure, features primarily in the
Eastern sources. 114 Many scholars have speculated about and discussed without
agreement the possible religious, social and political origins as well as
goals of this movement. 115 According to Tabarī’s account Kavādh I joined
the Mazdakites after ten years of his reign. These, as the author sets out,
postulated that all men shared wealth and property equally and that the
rich, who possessed too much money, too many women and too much
property, should have this surplus taken away from them and instead it
should be given to the poor. The king tolerated the severe political unrest
and actual raids that took place in consequence of this doctrine. In turn
the nobility and clergy decided to depose Kavādh and to imprison him.
Procopius confirms Tabarī’s words. The nobility replaced Kavādh, who
was taken to a ‘place of oblivion’, 116 with his brother, ˘ Gāmāsp (497–9),
who became the new Sasanian ruler. 117 The sources describe in detail how
Kavādh managed to escape from his prison in Hūzistān and found refuge
with the Hephthalites. With their help he returned and regained the royal
throne. 118 Procopius claims that at this point Kavādh renewed the Sasanian
monarchy and henceforth reigned with a firm hand. 119 The political unrest
caused by the Mazdakite revolt broke the power of the traditional nobility
once and for all. 120 Towards the end of Kavādh’s reign his son Xusrō and
the Zoroastrian clergy finally persuaded the king to break with Mazdak and
to crush the Mazdakite movement. During the reign of Kavādh’s successor
Xusrō I Anōˇsārvan (531–79) both the position of the monarch and the
Sasanian state as a whole were restored and reached new power. 121
113 Procopius mistakes Kavādh’s paternal uncle Balāˇs, whose reign (484–8) he dates too late, for Gāmāsp ˘
(497–9), whom he apparently does not know.
114 Cf. above all Tabarī’s detailed account (tr. Nöldeke 140–7 and 162–3; Bosworth 131–9 [885–888] and
155–6 [897]); see also the references in Wiesehöfer 2001: 208–9 and 294–8.
115 Klima 1957; Shaki 1978: 289–306; Gaube 1982: 111–22; Yarshater 1983a: 991–1024; Crone 1991: 21–42.
116 Proc. BP i.5.7.
117 Tabarī, tr. Nöldeke 140–1 and 143–4; Bosworth 132 (885) and 135 (887).
118 Ibid. 144–5. 119 Proc. BP i.6.18.
120 On the relationship between monarch and nobility during the late Sasanian era see Wieschöfer
2001: 165–91.
121 On Xusrō’s reforms see the references given above, p. 39 n. 112.