Bahram Chobin was the Persian general who had beaten the Göktürks in the war of 588 and 589. He rose against his own kings, lost, and fled to the Göktürks.[1] There he was killed at the instigation of Khosrow II, the king of Persia.[2] The Arabic and Persian tradition makes the khan’s chief wife, the khatun, the instrument of the murder.[2][3] The Armenian history attributed to Sebeos places his death at Balkh.[4] One report has a Persian agent poison him at Suyab.[1]

The flight

In 591 the armies of Khosrow and his Roman allies defeated Bahram, and he escaped.[5][4] Some of the prisoners from his army were Göktürks. Khosrow sent them to the emperor Maurice, and they bore a cross on their foreheads.[6] The Arabic historian Tabari says that Bahram fled to Khorasan and from there to the Göktürks.[7] In the account of aṯ-Ṯaʿālibī, who also wrote in Arabic, Bahram went by way of Nishapur into Transoxiana. There he asked the protection of the khan, the son of Barmūdha.[8] During his revolt Bahram had already made peace with this khan. He had given him back his country and concluded a pact of friendship with him.[9]

The khan came out to meet him with his household and his commanders.[8] Each dismounted before the other, and they gave each other their hands as men equal in rank.[8] Tabari says that Bahram remained highly honoured in the land of the Göktürks, with their king.[2] One report has him rise to be a respected general at Suyab. In that account he also uncovers a conspiracy within the Ashina house.[1]

Khosrow’s demand

Khosrow could not rule at ease while his enemy lived.[10] He wrote to the khan and reproached him for giving refuge to “my fugitive slave”.[10] If the khan sent Bahram back in chains, he would have the king’s gratitude and friendship. If not, a war would follow that would melt iron and whiten the hair of little children.[11] The khan answered that Bahram had asked for his protection. He would not hand him over as long as his soul was bound to his body.[12]

Khosrow then sent the ablest man of his court, Hormizd Jarābzīn, with many presents and secret instructions.[13] Tabari calls him only a man named Hormizd, who brought a precious jewel and other things.[2] He is probably the Zalabzan who appears in Theophylact on difficult diplomatic missions.[14] The khan received Hormizd with honour. When Hormizd urged him to send Bahram to Khosrow in chains, the khan flew into a rage.[15] He said that he would have Hormizd killed, were Hormizd not an ambassador.[16] Bahram, for his part, roused in the khan the wish to own Iran. The khan gave him troops and money for the war and told him to camp on the Oxus.[16]

The khatun

Hormizd turned to the khatun, the khan’s principal wife.[16] He won her over with words, presents and jewels that Khosrow had given him for the purpose. She undertook to have Bahram killed.[17] Hormizd advised her to use a Göktürk of the khan’s court, a strong man who did not fear to shed blood.[18] She found such a man and promised him a hundred thousand dirhams, half of it paid at once.[19] Hormizd then asked the khan for a sealed pass across the river. He put on the dress of a merchant and left the country.[20]

The next day was the day of Bahram in the Persian month, on which the astrologers had warned him not to show himself.[21] He was unwell and had ordered that no one be admitted, not even the khan.[21] The Göktürk came with a dagger dipped in poison hidden in his boot. He said that the khatun had sent him on urgent business.[22] Admitted alone, he bent to Bahram’s ear and stabbed him in the side and in the belly.[23] The guards cut him to pieces as he ran out.[23]

Bahram named Mardān-Sineh, the chief of his commanders, as his successor and died.[24] When the khan heard of it, he tore his clothes and laid aside his crown. He wept and kept the rites of mourning for a week.[24] He heaped reproaches on the khatun.[24] Tabari says that the khan was grieved by the murder and divorced the khatun for it.[2]

Aftermath

The khan sent his condolences to Bahram’s sister and wife, Gordiya. In Tabari he also asked her hand for his brother.[2] She declined and led her brother’s old companions out of the land of the Göktürks toward the Persian frontier.[2] The khan’s brother followed her with twelve thousand warriors, and she killed him with her own hand.[2] In aṯ-Ṯaʿālibī her company numbered four thousand riders. The khan sent his brother after them in anger.[25] Gordiya later went over to Khosrow, who married her.[2]

The accounts

The accounts disagree on the place and the manner of death. Tabari has hired assassins set on Bahram by the khatun.[2] Aṯ-Ṯaʿālibī has a single Göktürk of the court with a poisoned dagger.[22] Sebeos has Bahram take refuge in Balkh, where its people put him to death by Khosrow’s order.[4] One report has a Persian agent of Khosrow poison him at Suyab.[1] The translator of Theophylact has him murdered soon after the battle of 591, in eastern Iran, while he was gathering fresh forces.[26]

The fuller Arabic and Persian accounts go back, it is thought, to a Persian romance of Bahram. It was written in the last years of the Sasanian state.[27] Its author had good historical knowledge but handled the facts freely, and intrigue plays a large part in it.[28] Sebeos may already have known that book.[29] The khan who sheltered Bahram has been taken for Barmūdha’s son and successor, the Göktürk prince who ruled in the region of Bukhara.[30]

In every version Khosrow reached his enemy among the Göktürks through their court or their country, and not by war. The general who had destroyed a Göktürk army ended his life as the guest of a Göktürk khan.

References

  1. ^ a b c d Yavuz 2025, p. 325
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Tabari; Nöldeke 1879, p. 289
  3. ^ aṯ-Ṯaʿālibī; Zotenberg 1900, p. 678–680
  4. ^ a b c Sebeos; Howard-Johnston 1999, p. 23
  5. ^ Howard-Johnston 1999, p. 23
  6. ^ Theophylact Simocatta; Whitby 1986, p. 146
  7. ^ Tabari; Nöldeke 1879, p. 287
  8. ^ a b c aṯ-Ṯaʿālibī; Zotenberg 1900, p. 674
  9. ^ aṯ-Ṯaʿālibī; Zotenberg 1900, p. 658
  10. ^ a b aṯ-Ṯaʿālibī; Zotenberg 1900, p. 675
  11. ^ aṯ-Ṯaʿālibī; Zotenberg 1900, p. 675–676
  12. ^ aṯ-Ṯaʿālibī; Zotenberg 1900, p. 676
  13. ^ aṯ-Ṯaʿālibī; Zotenberg 1900, p. 676–677
  14. ^ Nöldeke 1879, p. 289
  15. ^ aṯ-Ṯaʿālibī; Zotenberg 1900, p. 677–678
  16. ^ a b c aṯ-Ṯaʿālibī; Zotenberg 1900, p. 678
  17. ^ aṯ-Ṯaʿālibī; Zotenberg 1900, p. 678–679
  18. ^ aṯ-Ṯaʿālibī; Zotenberg 1900, p. 679
  19. ^ aṯ-Ṯaʿālibī; Zotenberg 1900, p. 680
  20. ^ aṯ-Ṯaʿālibī; Zotenberg 1900, p. 680–681
  21. ^ a b aṯ-Ṯaʿālibī; Zotenberg 1900, p. 681
  22. ^ a b aṯ-Ṯaʿālibī; Zotenberg 1900, p. 681–682
  23. ^ a b aṯ-Ṯaʿālibī; Zotenberg 1900, p. 682
  24. ^ a b c aṯ-Ṯaʿālibī; Zotenberg 1900, p. 683
  25. ^ aṯ-Ṯaʿālibī; Zotenberg 1900, p. 684
  26. ^ Whitby 1986, p. 153
  27. ^ Nöldeke 1879, p. 475–477
  28. ^ Nöldeke 1879, p. 476–477
  29. ^ Nöldeke 1879, p. 477
  30. ^ Chavannes 1903, p. 245

Sources

Literature

  • Theodor Nöldeke, Geschichte der Perser und Araber zur Zeit der Sasaniden. Aus der arabischen Chronik des Tabari übersetzt und mit ausführlichen Erläuterungen und Ergänzungen versehn (1879)
  • Hermann Zotenberg (ed., trans.), Histoire des rois des Perses par Abou Mansour ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Mohammad ibn Ismaʿil al-Thaʿalibi (1900)
  • R. W. Thomson (trans.), James Howard-Johnston (commentary), The Armenian History attributed to Sebeos (1999)
  • Michael Whitby, Mary Whitby (trans.), The History of Theophylact Simocatta (1986)
  • Édouard Chavannes, Documents sur les Tou-Kiue (Turcs) occidentaux (1903)
  • Emre-E. Yavuz, The Gokturk Empire: 2nd Edition (2025)

Related

What links here5

Persons
Bahram Chobin · Natra · Parmudha
Battles & Events
Göktürk prisoners with the cross (591)
Places
Khorasan

Cite this article

Yavuz, Emre-E. “Murder of Bahram Chobin.” Turkic Atlas, revised 8 November 2026. https://turkicatlas.org/events/murder-of-bahram-chobin/

Last revised: 8 November 2026