Smbat Bagratuni was an Armenian noble in the service of the Persian king Khosrow II. He commanded against the Kushans on the north-eastern frontier of Persia.[1] The kings of the Kushans called in the great khan, “king of the regions of the North”.[2] A Göktürk host crossed the Oxus and defeated a Persian army. It raided as far as Rey and Isfahan and then withdrew on the khan’s order.[3] In a second campaign, fought without the Göktürks, Smbat killed the king of the Kushans in single combat.[4] Only the Armenian history attributed to Sebeos tells the war. Its date has to be inferred, and it is disputed.[5]

The first campaign

When winter had passed, Khosrow summoned Smbat to his palace at Great Dastakert.[6] He gave him the office of tanuter, with the name Khosrov Shum. He robed him in silk woven with gold and raised him with honours.[1] Then he gave him an army against the Kushans in the east.[2] Smbat called up his own Armenian troops from Vrkan, about two thousand horsemen. He went east.[2] He found the Kushan army raiding across the country. He caught it and put it to flight.[2] He camped at Apr Shahr, in the province of Tos. He took quarters with three hundred men in a walled village called Khrokht.[2]

Then the kings of the Kushans asked the great khan for help.[2] “A host of 300,000” came to their support and crossed the river Vehrot, which is the Oxus.[2][7] The host camped on the bank and sent raids westwards. It surrounded Khrokht unexpectedly.[8] Smbat ordered his three hundred men into the fort in the middle of the village.[8] He himself rode out with three companions, cut through the press at the gate and escaped.[8]

A relief force came up under a Persian prince named Datoyean.[8] Smbat told him to withdraw. Datoyean would not obey and gave battle. The enemy defeated the Persians and put him to flight.[8] The victors raided as far as the borders of Rey and the province of Isfahan. They plundered the whole region and returned to their camp.[8] Then a command came from the great khan to the Chembukh. The army recrossed the river and went home.[8]

The Chembukh is a title, not a name.[7] Some scholars regard it as a mangled form of the title of the second-ranking Göktürk ruler, the yabgu khan.[9] In the form Chepetukh, Sebeos uses the same title for the commander who later led the army of the north through the pass of Chor.[9][10]

The second campaign

An inspector came from the court. The surviving troops cleared Smbat of blame.[11] Datoyean was taken to the court in bonds. The king put him to death.[4] Smbat rebuilt his army and brought in other troops. He marched against the Kushans and the Hephthalite king.[4] The king of the Kushans proposed that the two commanders fight alone between the lines.[4] Smbat’s lance split the king’s chain-mail from Balkh and his cuirass. The king fell dead.[4]

The king’s army fled. The Persians pursued it as far as Bahl, the capital of the Kushans, which is Balkh.[4] They plundered the country, Herat, Badghis, all Tokharistan and Talakan. They burnt many fortresses.[12] Smbat returned and camped in the province of Merv.[13] The Göktürks took no part in this campaign.[5] The king of the Kushans was of Hephthalite origin and subject to the khan.[14]

Date

Sebeos gives no year for the campaigns.[5] One account dates the Göktürk invasion to 606 and 607.[15] In that account the Göktürks pushed deep into Persian territory, as far as Rey and Isfahan. For an unknown reason the yabgu of the west, Shegui, withdrew the army to Central Asia.[15] The Armenian general Bagratuni then defeated the Hephthalites, still vassals of the Göktürks, near Balkh without difficulty.[15] Eight years later the Göktürks regained Bactria under Tong Yabgu.[15]

A second dating puts the expedition in 597 and 598, about the time when the emperor Maurice received the letter of the Göktürk khan.[16] A third counts back from Smbat’s death. Sebeos puts that death in the twenty-eighth year of Khosrow’s reign, June 616 to June 617.[10][5] It sets the two campaigns in 614 and 615, or less likely in 615 and 616.[5] The Göktürks then struck while Khosrow’s armies were taking Jerusalem and Asia Minor.[17] They stayed away in the second season because the great khan Yami had died in 614. His son Shibi turned against the Sui and besieged the emperor at Yanmen.[17]

Consequences

The expedition has been seen as no more than a raid. It shows the limits of Persian power in the east.[18] Tokharistan, Balkh, Badghis, Herat and Talakan did not belong to Persia. They belonged to Kushan princes who recognised the overlordship of the Göktürks.[18] Merv was the western limit of Persia in that country.[18] The war belongs to the Göktürk expansion along the Silk Road. It shows a Göktürk army on the Iranian plateau, sent and recalled at the khan’s word.

References

  1. ^ a b Sebeos, ch. 28; Howard-Johnston 1999, p. 49–50
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Sebeos, ch. 28; Howard-Johnston 1999, p. 50
  3. ^ Sebeos, ch. 28; Howard-Johnston 1999, p. 50–51
  4. ^ a b c d e f Sebeos, ch. 28; Howard-Johnston 1999, p. 52
  5. ^ a b c d e Howard-Johnston 1999, p. 184
  6. ^ Sebeos, ch. 28; Howard-Johnston 1999, p. 49
  7. ^ a b Howard-Johnston 1999, p. 51
  8. ^ a b c d e f g Sebeos, ch. 28; Howard-Johnston 1999, p. 51
  9. ^ a b Howard-Johnston 1999, p. 187
  10. ^ a b Sebeos, ch. 29; Howard-Johnston 1999, p. 54
  11. ^ Sebeos, ch. 28; Howard-Johnston 1999, p. 51–52
  12. ^ Sebeos, ch. 28; Howard-Johnston 1999, p. 52–53
  13. ^ Sebeos, ch. 28; Howard-Johnston 1999, p. 53
  14. ^ Howard-Johnston 1999, p. 52
  15. ^ a b c d Yavuz 2025, p. 359
  16. ^ Chavannes 1903, p. 251
  17. ^ a b Howard-Johnston 1999, p. 186
  18. ^ a b c Chavannes 1903, p. 252

Sources

Literature

  • R. W. Thomson (trans.), James Howard-Johnston (commentary), The Armenian History attributed to Sebeos (1999)
  • Édouard Chavannes, Documents sur les Tou-Kiue (Turcs) occidentaux (1903)
  • Emre-E. Yavuz, The Gokturk Empire: 2nd Edition (2025)

Related

What links here4

Places
Badghis · Gurgan · Khorasan
Institutions and Titles
Chepetukh

Cite this article

Yavuz, Emre-E. “Smbat Bagratuni's war with the khan.” Turkic Atlas, revised 8 November 2026. https://turkicatlas.org/events/smbats-war-with-the-khagan/

Last revised: 8 November 2026