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Khosrau Anushirawan: Like Father, Like Son - Extra History - #1 (Patreon)

Published:
2017-12-08 18:00:00
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

Disaster had struck Iran. The power of the shah seemed in peril. Yet somehow this turbulent age gave rise to Khosrau Anushirawan, one of the greatest shahs of the Middle Ages. How did it all begin? 

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Khosrau Anushirawan: Like Father, Like Son - Extra History - #1

Khosrau Anushirawan ushered in a golden age of Iran, but only after his father Kavadh suffered through the near collapse of the empire. Once he broke free from a controlling miinster and radical religious reformer, Kavadh realized that the empire needed to change. Support us on Patreon! http://bit.ly/EHPatreon (--More below) Grab your Extra Credits gear at the store! http://bit.ly/ExtraStore Subscribe for new episodes every Saturday! http://bit.ly/SubToEC Play games with us on Extra Play! http://bit.ly/WatchEXP Talk to us on Twitter (@ExtraCreditz): http://bit.ly/ECTweet Follow us on Facebook: http://bit.ly/ECFBPage Get our list of recommended games on Steam: http://bit.ly/ECCurator ____________ ♪ Get the intro music here! http://bit.ly/1EQA5N7 *Music by Demetori: http://bit.ly/1AaJG4H ♪ Get the outro music here! http://bit.ly/23isQfx *Music by Sean and Dean Kiner: http://bit.ly/1WdBhnm

Comments

Martin Verran

I was Playing Total War: Rome II a couple of Months ago as the Romans with Two Armies and One was in a Straight Line while the other had formed up diagonally, and I envisioned a Conversation between the Two Generals in which One was saying to the other, "You call THAT a Battle Line?!? I Call it a DISGRACE!!!"

Christopher Smith

The Fortress of Oblivion just wasn't as good as the Fortress of Morrowind.

Cifer

By the way, what year are we talking about here? The episode seemed somewhat lacking in dates... (Also, calling something the "Fortress of Oblivion" is just kind of asking for trouble...)

Jason Youngberg

It's great to learn about the history of other areas of the world! Thanks!

Pavel Yakushevich
>>8765491

Got to give it to them, it does sound badass even in English. Wonder how it was called in Persian; there's probably some double entendre missed in translation or some interesting story behind this name.

Pavel Yakushevich

Mazdak is not only a damn hippie, but also a damn commie. Calling it now: if this guy continues to do what he's doing, no later than in 2nd or 3rd episode Persia will face huge economic problems.

Ryan Wojciechowski

Awesome episode, can't wait for Justinian to show up!

Kathyrne

I thought that looked like Lili's art. A great episode! Looking forward to the rest. -Happy Kitty-

Aidan Forero

Hold on... Redistributing the wealth and removing the higher ups in the political system? Is that communism I her? *Soviet Union anthem starts blasting*

Sean Sarff

When Sudakh was defeated did he openly revolt or did he just lose massive favor with his king and get jumped by the other nobles?

Christina Maria Jessen
>>8769185

It's been a perennial issue for religious reformers. When the Lollard rebellion following the thoughts of Wycliffe started in England during the 100-years war, the slogan was "When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then the noble man?" The goal was as much about overthrowing the nobility and distributing the land as it was about finer points of theology. Early Hussites expressed similar thoughts and also inspired peasant rebellions. The Yellow Turbans in China, a Daoist rebellion that ended the Han dynasty, had similar thoughts. So did the Taiping Rebellion in the 19th century.

Robert S
>>8769185

so long as there are people in power who have their boots on someones neck, there will be someone who wants to remove that boot

Colin

This is amazing! Thank you so much for doing this series! I'm looking forward to seeing how Khosaru's reign goes! Mazdak sounds like a really interesting character. I'd heard of him and his proto-communism before, but I'd love to see a whole series on him someday!

Farzad Mansouri

Holy cow, how is it I grew up in a Persian home and NOT hear about this! This is game of thrones set in Iran how is this not a thing! And that prison title, granted in Farsi the words can also mean forgotten castle, how awesome is that!

ExtraCredits
>>8765491

I gave the time twiiiiice (2:56 and6:23) but I'm learning that I need to signpost that info better, which is good feedback for me. Pavel, the Fortress of Oblivion was called that because it was meant to be a political prison where, once someone was sent there, they were supposed to be cast into oblivion i.e. forgotten and their name completely erased from memory. Doesn't work when the prisoner keeps breaking out, though! -Soraya

ExtraCredits
>>8767591

They're gonna face a lot of problems next episode, though Mazdak is not necessarily the driving factor behind the economic ones. Dun dun DUN!

ExtraCredits
>>8768509

Yep, she and Nick are now the ones taking turns on each series! They're both so fun to work with.

ExtraCredits
>>8769185

Comparing Mazdak's reforms to communism has been a trend in a lot of the books I read about him; as Christina says, it's not a terribly uncommon response to suppression by higher classes. I did find it very interesting to see that rough concept already being passed around (and even taking hold) here in Middle Ages Iran.

ExtraCredits
>>8769910

He massively lost favor and got jumped! Kavadh was wielding the only weapon still available to him there: political intrigue. ;)

ExtraCredits
>>8783063

Sadly, I don't think there's enough information on Mazdak to do a good series or even one-off on him! Most of the information we do have on him is already contained in this episode; the sources on him are so scanty that I've read a few scholarly texts debating whether or not he actually existed or was a figurehead made up by later historians so they'd have someone to scapegoat. I do personally lean towards "did exist" because I do think there are enough supporting references to justify that, but we don't have anything detailed like "where was he born" or "what inspired him to start teaching this way." -Soraya

ExtraCredits
>>8784071

Hey, maybe now you'll have some cool stories to share with the family about Middle Ages Iran! And then, if your family is anything like my father always is when I learn new Moroccan history, it'll turn out they already know and just never thought to tell those stories to you. Sigh. :) -Soraya

Aimée

I just needed to say how much i adored the image of the peas as a stand in for peace lol

Jason Youngberg
>>8765989

Honestly, I don't think I did vote when this was selected (or if I did, I forgot which one I voted for). Extra Credits has always done a great job with these series that I would be happy regardless of which topic won. I love learning about the areas of history not really covered in US schools. One problem I have is keeping all the names straight and EC really helps with that in the way things are presented.

Calvin McClory

I don't want to become an 8$ patron, but I would pay a one time fee to make a suggestion. Has EH consider this one time model before? I'm not sure how topic suggestion works exactly, but I'm going to find out before the price hike.

Colin
>>8783063

Aww... that's unfortunate. But understandable. That's still pretty impressive you've managed to find out what you had then! Thanks guys!

Calvin McClory
>>8794135

One should always read the fine print before accepting the charges. Have a metal winter solstice everyone.

Ramin Hafezi

WOW! U guys finally did it!! I remember suggesting something like this topic waaaay back in the Justinian vids. Never thought i'd get to see it. EC u guys rock!

Ramin Hafezi

I love how whenever you guys bring up Iran or the Persians; you always depict the models/characters as having a diverse makeup. Some characters are tan, some lighter, some brown...Iran has always been a diverse/multi-ethnic society. & the attention to detail & accuracy I MEAN COME ON!!! :D when I saw how the different kings had different crowns & the other noble's clothes & u even wrote Iranshahr in the original Pahlavi script...I MEAN WOW! Mad props guys! do-do-do-doot-IRAN!

ExtraCredits
>>8791759

Lil winds up using them for the rest of the series. I think they may be a feature now. ;)

ExtraCredits
>>8796099

Haha, thanks! I had a lot of fun researching this episode; I'm sure there were still some things that slipped by me but I sure as heck tried. As far as the crowns go, I read in one of my books that the primary way historians can tell different monarchs apart on their coinage was to look at the crown, since each shahanshah made a different crown for himself. We figured it'd be a fun way to give them a different look in the series as well! -Soraya

Sudarshan Ramani

This is a wonderful, hilarious and genuinely informative episode. I might have come off as harsh in my Bismarck videos so I want to praise this time. This is awesome. I wonder what primary sources are available from the Sasanian years for this/

Marcel Haddad

Not a single mention of the century when all this happened!! It would be nice to know I think :)

Will Weaver
>>8800909

The video does mention events that occur in 488 CE, but yeah, it is hard to piece together a timeline of things.

Joël Quenneville
>>8800909

As someone unfamiliar with with Persian/Iranian history, I also struggled to place this in its historical time context. The use of the term "Sassanians" gave me a rough feel of what time period they're talking about. Eventually, they mention "5th Century" at the 6:23 mark :)

Joël Quenneville

I notice you use the term "Iranian" for the people in this episode. Is this what they would have called themselves? For some reason I was under the impression that the Achaemenid/Parthian/Sassanian empires called themselves Persians. Is "Persian" just what Greek/Western writers have called these people? Have they called themselves Iranians all along?

Christina Maria Jessen
>>8811291

Iranian is a larger ethnic and linguistic group. Persian refers to the people of the southwestern highlands of modern Iran, the region of Fars/Pars. While the people from that region were dominant in the Achaemenid empire, it heavily integrated much of the southwestern Iranian cultures and later Persian empires weren't necessarily dominated by that region. A notable number of medieval and early modern Shahs were Kurdish, for example, including the founder of the Safavid dynasty. And in Iran, the empire has always been known as Iran, not Persia which is only that one region in the southwest. The Parthian Empire specifically is actually not named for a dynasty, but rather an ethnic group. The Parni or Parthians from the region of Parthia in northeastern Iran, near the border to Turkmenistan. That said, the dominant language of Iran is Farsi/Parsi/Persian, not Iranian, which is an entire branch of the Indoeuropean language family.

ExtraCredits
>>8794135

The one-time donation model isn't built into Patreon but you can absolutely do it just by choosing to bump your donation for a given month! Word to the wise, it's still a raffle (i.e. the choice happens randomly) but whenever you're feeling lucky, go for it. I'd probably recommend checking with me beforehand though just to make sure that the raffle for the month hasn't already happened yet; you're welcome to DM us any time to ask!

ExtraCredits
>>8798427

No worries, though I appreciate the kind words and I'm really glad you enjoyed it! Very few primary sources from this era survived; what we have are sources from later eras which copied down things that were written in this one. For example, later on we'll talk (though not by name) about the Xaday-namag, the great compilation of Iranian history patronized by Khosrau, and how it disappeared but not before it formed the basis for later works like the Shanahmeh (which we DO still have). There's also Justinian's historian, Procopius, who gives the Roman perspective on some of these affairs. Then we have a few Armenian bishops and some later Arabic sources like al-Dinawari (which, admittedly, I could only find snippets of in translation).

ExtraCredits
>>8800909

I promise there will be more years given in the next episode! Sorry for causing confusion. :) -Soraya

ExtraCredits
>>8811291

Christina is amazing. :) To add a little further note to that, rulers of the Sasanian Dynasty went by "Shahanshah Eran" ("King of Kings of the Aryan People") as part of their official royal title, so the specific word and name Iran itself was very much in active use during their time, and would have been how Khosrau described his land as well. The Encyclopedia Iranica (which is fantastic) has a pretty detailed article about it: <a href="http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/eran-eransah" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/eran-eransah</a>

Sudarshan Ramani
>>8798427

It's so rare to explore this period, and I have been a fan of the Persian Empire ever since I read Gore Vidal's CREATION

Bill Lemmond

Thanks for yet another great look at history, in this case a subject about which and whom I knew nothing. Hmm. Persia and the Hepthalites argued over a border town? France and Germany argued over the Sudetenland. Wouldn't mutually recognizing a buffer state be the best solution? What's wrong with people?

Bill Lemmond
>>8811291

... Sorry, Christina Maria, I just realized I misused the P word (Persia). I was trying to remember all the details, and couldn't, and "Persia" was handy.