Jamasp

Due to increased Sasanian interest in Kayanian history, Jamasp was named after Jamasp, the mythological minister of the Kayanian monarch Vishtaspa.^[1][2] The name is transliterated in Greek as Zamásphēs; Arabic Jāmāsb, Zāmāsb, and Zāmāsf; New Persian Jāmāsp and Zāmāsp.^[2]

In 484, Peroz I (r. 459–484) was defeated and killed by a Hephthalite^[a] army near Balkh.^[5][6] His army was completely destroyed, and his body was never found.^[7] Four of his sons and brothers had also died.^[8] The main Sasanian cities of the eastern region of Khorasan−Nishapur, Herat and Marw were now under Hephthalite rule.^[6] Sukhra, a member of the Parthian House of Karen, one of the Seven Great Houses of Iran, quickly raised a new force and stopped the Hephthalites from achieving further success.^[9] Peroz' brother, Balash, was elected as shah by the Iranian magnates, most notably Sukhra and the Mihranid general Shapur Mihran.^[10] However, Balash proved unpopular among the nobility and clergy who had him deposed after just four years in 488.^[11] Sukhra, who had played a key role in Balash's deposition,^[11] appointed Kavad I as the new shah of Iran.^[12]

In 496, due to the socioeconomic and religious changes implemented by Kavad I, the nobility and Zoroastrian clergy had him deposed.^[2] They installed his more impressionable brother Jamasp on the throne.^[13][14] One of the other reasons behind Kavad's deposal was his execution of Sukhra.^[6] Meanwhile, chaos was occurring in the country, notably in Mesopotamia.^[14] A council soon took place among the nobility to discuss what to do with Kavad. Gushnaspdad, a member of a prominent family of landowners (the Kanarangiyan) proposed that Kavad be executed. His suggestion was overruled, however, and Kavad was imprisoned instead in the Prison of Oblivion in Khuzestan.^[15][13] However, Kavad managed to escape and flee to the domains of the Hephthalites.^[6]

In 498 (or 499), Kavad returned to Iran with a Hephthalite army.^[16][6] When he crossed the domains of the Kanarangiyan family in Khorasan, he was met by Adergoudounbades, a member of the family, who agreed to help him.^[15] Another noble who supported Kavad was Zarmihr Karen, a son of Sukhra.^[6] Jamasp and the nobility and clergy did not resist as they wanted to prevent another civil war.^[17] They came to an agreement with Kavad that he would be shah again with the understanding that he would not hurt Jamasp or the elite.^[17] Jamasp was spared, albeit probably blinded, while Gushnaspdad and other nobles who had plotted against Kavad were executed.^[6] Kavad's reclamation of his throne displays the troubled circumstances of the empire, where in a time of anarchy a small force was able to overwhelm the nobility-clergy alliance.^[13]

Jamasp then went to Armenia, where he defeated the Khazars, conquered some of their territory, and married a woman from Armenia, who bore him a son named Narsi.^[18]

After Jamasp's death in 530/540, his son Narsi, who had a son named Piruz, expanded the domains of his family, which included Gilan.^[19] He then married one of the princesses of Gilan, who bore him a son Gilanshah.^[20] The latter had a son named Gil Gavbara, who later started the Dabuyid dynasty, and had two sons named Dabuya and Paduspan.^[21] His son Dabuya succeeded him as ispahbadh of the Dabuyid dynasty, while his other son, Paduspan, founded the Paduspanid dynasty.