The title is attested in the
Achaemenid Empire in its
Old Persian form,
spādapati (from *
spāda- "army" and *
pati- "chief" Until the early 6th century, there was a single holder of the title, the
Ērān-spāhbed, who according to the list of precedence provided by the 9th-century Muslim historian
Ya'qubi occupied the fifth position in the court hierarchy. Again, during the
Iberian War (526–532), a man named Aspebedes (i.e.
Bawi), according to the historian
Procopius a maternal uncle of
Khosrow I (r. 531–579), appears. In 527 he took part in negotiations with Byzantine envoys, and in 531 he led
an invasion of Mesopotamia along with
Chanaranges and
Mermeroes. He was executed by Khosrow shortly after his accession for plotting with other nobles to overthrow him in favor of his brother
Zames.
Khosrow I's reform To curb the power of the over-mighty generalissimo, Khosrow I—although this reform may already have been planned by his father,
Kavadh I (r. 499–531)—split the office of the
Ērān-spāhbed into four regional commands, corresponding to the four traditional
cardinal directions (
kust, cf.
Šahrestānīhā ī Ērānšahr): the "army chief of the East (
Khurasan)" (
kust ī khwarāsān spāhbed), the "army chief of the South" (
kust ī nēmrōz spāhbed), the "army chief of the West" (
kust ī khwarbārān spāhbed), and the "army chief of
Azerbaijan" (
kust ī Ādurbādagān spāhbed, where the northwestern province of Azerbaijan substitutes the term "north" because of the latter's negative connotations). The exact geographical definition of each command has been retrieved from
Anania Shirakatsi's
Geography. As this reform was mentioned only in later literary sources, the historicity of this division, or its survival after Khosrow I's reign, was questioned in the past, but a series of thirteen recently discovered seals, which provide the names of eight
spāhbeds, provide contemporary evidence from the reigns of Khosrow I and his successor,
Hormizd IV (r. 579–590);
P. Pourshariati suggests that two may date to the reign of
Khosrow II (r. 590–628). The eight known
spāhbeds are: Other holders of the rank are difficult to identify from the literary sources, since the office of
spāhbed was held in tandem with other offices and titles, such as
Shahrwarāz ("Boar of the Empire"), which are often treated as personal names. A further factor of confusion in later literary sources is the interchangeable use of the rank with the junior provincial ranks of
marzbān ("frontier-warden, margrave") and
pāygōsbān ("district guardian"). == Islamic period ==