Faghfūra was the brother of Šāba-Šāh, the khagan of the Turks whom Bahram Chobin defeated and killed in the war of 588 and 589.[1] He is known from the Arabic history of the Persian kings by aṯ-Ṯaʿālibī.[2] Tabari tells the same war more briefly. He does not name Faghfūra.[3]

When Bahram set out against the Turks, aṯ-Ṯaʿālibī says, he passed a seller of sheep’s heads.[2] He galloped up and carried off two of the heads on his lance. He cried that by the fortune of King Hormizd he would carry off the heads of Šāba-Šāh and of his brother Faghfūra in the same way.[2] The king’s soothsayer, who had seen it, foretold that Bahram would defeat the enemy and then rebel against his master.[2]

The embassy to Bahram

When Bahram came near the enemy camp, Šāba-Šāh sent his brother Faghfūra to him with a message.[4] The khagan praised Bahram’s courage and political skill and offered him a choice.[4] He could go home unharmed with his men, or come under the khagan’s protection, receive high office and be made ruler of Iran.[4] Bahram rejected the offer.[5] He answered that his master thought so little of the khagan that he had sent the least of his servants against him. The servant had orders to bring back the khagan’s head.[5] When Faghfūra returned with this answer, Šāba-Šāh flew into a rage and ordered the attack.[5]

Death

Bahram feigned retreat and then charged. Šāba-Šāh fell to his arrow.[6] The next morning Bahram had the booty gathered and the dead identified.[7] Faghfūra was found among them.[7] His head was taken and joined to his brother’s. Bahram sent both heads to Hormizd IV with the news of the victory.[7] When Šāba-Šāh’s son Barmūdha, Parmudha in Tabari, marched against Bahram, he came, in Bahram’s words, to avenge his father and his uncle.[8] Tabari counts the war in the eleventh year of Hormizd, from the summer of 588 to the summer of 589.[9][10] The name Faghfūra, like that of his brother, belongs to the Perso-Arabic tradition alone.

References

  1. ^ aṯ-Ṯaʿālibī; Zotenberg 1900, p. 644–648
  2. ^ a b c d aṯ-Ṯaʿālibī; Zotenberg 1900, p. 644
  3. ^ Tabari; Nöldeke 1879, p. 269–272
  4. ^ a b c aṯ-Ṯaʿālibī; Zotenberg 1900, p. 645
  5. ^ a b c aṯ-Ṯaʿālibī; Zotenberg 1900, p. 646
  6. ^ aṯ-Ṯaʿālibī; Zotenberg 1900, p. 647
  7. ^ a b c aṯ-Ṯaʿālibī; Zotenberg 1900, p. 648
  8. ^ aṯ-Ṯaʿālibī; Zotenberg 1900, p. 651
  9. ^ Tabari; Nöldeke 1879, p. 269
  10. ^ Nöldeke 1879, p. 269

Sources

Literature

  • Hermann Zotenberg (ed., trans.), Histoire des rois des Perses par Abou Mansour ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Mohammad ibn Ismaʿil al-Thaʿalibi (1900)
  • 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)

Related

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Sources
aṯ-Ṯaʿālibī

Cite this article

Yavuz, Emre-E. “Faghfura.” Turkic Atlas, revised 22 October 2026. https://turkicatlas.org/persons/faghfura/

Last revised: 22 October 2026