Shapur of Ray

Shapur of Ray was a Sasanian military officer from the Mihran family. The city Ray in his name was the seat of the Mihran family.^[1]

According to Abu Hanifa Dinawari (d. 896), Shapur was the governor of the two Mesopotamian districts of Khutarniyah and Babylonia during Kavad I's reign.^[1] According to al-Tabari, he held the rank of "Supreme Commander of the Land" (iṣbahbadh al-bilād). Ferdowsi records him being recalled by Kavad I to destroy the powerful Sukhra of Karen family, who was also Shapur Razi's rival. Shapur Razi defeated and captured Sukhra in Shiraz. The Mihran-Karen rivalry became proverbial in the contemporary Sasanian society, as reflected in the expression "Sukhra's wind has died away, and a wind belonging to Mihran has now started to blow".^[1]

He briefly served as the governor (marzban) of Persian Armenia from 483 to 484.^[2]

References

1. Pourshariati 2008, pp. 80–81.
2. Grousset, René (1947). Histoire de l'Arménie des origines à 1071 (in French). Paris: Payot.

Sources

• Pourshariati, Parvaneh (2008). Decline and Fall of the Sasanian Empire: The Sasanian-Parthian Confederacy and the Arab Conquest of Iran. London and New York: I.B. Tauris. ISBN 978-1-84511-645-3.

Preceded by Zarmihr Hazarwuxt

Marzban of Persian Armenia 483–484

Succeeded by Vahan Mamikonian