Natrā was a brother of the khagan of the Turks who gave refuge to the Persian rebel Bahram Chobin.[1] Bahram had fled to that khagan after his defeat in 591.[2] Tabari gives Natrā’s name. The Arabic history of the Persian kings by aṯ-Ṯaʿālibī tells the same story of “the khagan’s brother” without it.[1][3]

The account of Tabari

Khosrow II sent an agent to the Turks.[1] The agent won over the khatun, the khagan’s wife. She had Bahram murdered.[1] The khagan grieved at the murder.[1] He sent his condolences to Gordiya, Bahram’s sister and wife. He asked her hand for his brother Natrā.[1] Gordiya answered kindly but refused the match.[1] She took her brother’s old companions in arms and left the land of the Turks with them, towards the frontiers of Persia.[1] “Natrā, the Turk, followed her with twelve thousand warriors, but Gordiya killed him with her own hand.”[1] She then obtained the pardon of Khosrow. Khosrow married her.[1]

The account of aṯ-Ṯaʿālibī

In aṯ-Ṯaʿālibī, Bahram’s companions left the khagan’s land secretly. They were four thousand riders, and Gordiya was among them in the dress of a horseman.[3] The khagan was angry. He ordered his brother to pursue them and to bring them back bound if they would not return of their own will.[3] The brother set out with a strong force and overtook them on the fourth day.[3] He was struck by Gordiya’s beauty and her skill on horseback.[4] He told her of the khagan’s order, and then of his own wish to marry her.[4] She asked to answer him away from the two armies.[4] There she told him that she was Bahram’s sister and wife. She would submit to him only if he could master her.[5] Her arrow went through his belt and breastplate and came out at his back. She threw him from the saddle.[6] Her men routed the Turks. They crossed the Oxus into Persia.[6]

Name

The translator of Tabari writes the name Natrâ and marks the reading with a query.[7] In aṯ-Ṯaʿālibī the khagan whose brother he was is the son of Barmūdha, whom Tabari calls Parmudha.[8] That khagan may be Barmūdha’s son and successor, the Turkish prince who ruled in the country of Bukhara.[9] In both accounts the khagan’s brother fell at the hand of the woman he wanted to marry.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Tabari; Nöldeke 1879, p. 289
  2. ^ Chavannes 1903, p. 244–245
  3. ^ a b c d aṯ-Ṯaʿālibī; Zotenberg 1900, p. 684
  4. ^ a b c aṯ-Ṯaʿālibī; Zotenberg 1900, p. 685
  5. ^ aṯ-Ṯaʿālibī; Zotenberg 1900, p. 685–686
  6. ^ a b aṯ-Ṯaʿālibī; Zotenberg 1900, p. 686
  7. ^ Nöldeke 1879, p. 289
  8. ^ aṯ-Ṯaʿālibī; Zotenberg 1900, p. 674
  9. ^ 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)
  • Édouard Chavannes, Documents sur les Tou-Kiue (Turcs) occidentaux (1903)

Related

What links here1

Battles & Events
Murder of Bahram Chobin

Cite this article

Yavuz, Emre-E. “Natra.” Turkic Atlas, revised 8 November 2026. https://turkicatlas.org/persons/natra/

Last revised: 8 November 2026