{
 "id": "person/khosrow-ii",
 "class": "person",
 "slug": "khosrow-ii",
 "label": {
  "en": "Khosrow II",
  "ar": "كسرى الثاني"
 },
 "summary": {
  "en": "The last great Sasanian shah (590–628), whose armies took Jerusalem and reached Constantinople's walls before Heraclius broke his empire. The tradition records that he tore up the Prophet's letter — and died within months.",
  "ar": "آخر عظام ملوك الساسانيين (590–628م)، أخذت جيوشه القدس وبلغت أسوار القسطنطينية قبل أن يكسر هرقل إمبراطوريته. وتروي الرواية أنه مزّق رسالة النبي — ومات بعد شهور."
 },
 "stub": false,
 "wings": [
  "people"
 ],
 "regions": [
  "persia-central-asia",
  "levant-iraq"
 ],
 "periods": [
  "period/pre-islamic-arabia",
  "period/prophetic-era"
 ],
 "tags": [],
 "aliases": [],
 "themes": [
  "islam-and-zoroastrianism",
  "wars-and-campaigns"
 ],
 "span": {
  "earliest": 570.0013689535035,
  "latest": 628.1599895959216
 },
 "display": {
  "start": {
   "edtf": "0570~",
   "calendar": "julian",
   "precision": "year",
   "status": "historical",
   "sources": [
    "source/tabari-bosworth-1999"
   ]
  },
  "end": {
   "edtf": "0628-02-28",
   "calendar": "julian",
   "precision": "day",
   "status": "historical",
   "note": "Deposed and executed in the coup of his son Kavadh II, February 628 CE.",
   "sources": [
    "source/tabari-bosworth-1999",
    "source/kaegi-2003"
   ]
  }
 },
 "data": {
  "names": [
   {
    "kind": "full",
    "lang": "ar-Latn",
    "value": "Khosrow Parviz (Khosrow the Victorious)"
   }
  ],
  "gender": "male",
  "born": {
   "edtf": "0570~",
   "calendar": "julian",
   "precision": "year",
   "status": "historical",
   "sources": [
    "source/tabari-bosworth-1999"
   ]
  },
  "died": {
   "edtf": "0628-02-28",
   "calendar": "julian",
   "precision": "day",
   "status": "historical",
   "note": "Deposed and executed in the coup of his son Kavadh II, February 628 CE.",
   "sources": [
    "source/tabari-bosworth-1999",
    "source/kaegi-2003"
   ]
  },
  "roles": [
   "ruler"
  ],
  "traditions": [],
  "story_roles": [
   {
    "role": "ruler",
    "toward": "polity/sasanian-empire",
    "start": {
     "edtf": "0590"
    },
    "end": {
     "edtf": "0628"
    },
    "status": "historical",
    "sources": [
     "source/tabari-bosworth-1999"
    ]
   },
   {
    "role": "interlocutor",
    "toward": "person/muhammad",
    "start": {
     "edtf": "0627~"
    },
    "status": "tradition",
    "note": "The tradition records that he received the Prophet's letter, tore it, and ordered Yemen's governor to seize the Prophet — before his own fall.",
    "sources": [
     "source/ibn-sad-tabaqat-bewley",
     "source/tabari-bosworth-1999"
    ]
   }
  ],
  "faith": [
   {
    "value": "zoroastrian",
    "basis": "documented",
    "note": "Sasanian shahanshah; the empire's Zoroastrian establishment stood behind his throne.",
    "sources": [
     "source/tabari-bosworth-1999"
    ]
   }
  ],
  "sources": [
   "source/tabari-bosworth-1999",
   "source/kaegi-2003"
  ],
  "status": {
   "review": "draft",
   "completeness": 2,
   "generated_by": "Devin; 2026-10-11"
  }
 },
 "prose": {
  "ar": {
   "sections": [
    {
     "heading": "نبذة",
     "markdown": "كسرى الثاني «الأبرويز» آخر عظام شاهات فارس الساسانية (590–628م). ابتلعت إمبراطوريته نصف بلاد بيزنطة ثم تكسّرت؛ وتذكره الرواية الملك الذي مزّق رسالة النبي."
    },
    {
     "heading": "الحياة",
     "markdown": "وصل كسرى إلى الحكم لاجئًا استغاث ببيزنطة، ثم خاض عقدين من الحرب جعلت جيوش فارس سادة مصر وواقفة بأسوار القسطنطينية {cite:tabari-bosworth-1999}. وكسرت حملة هرقل المضادة الإمبراطورية؛ وفي فبراير سنة 628م عزله ابنه وأعدمه {cite:kaegi-2003}.\n\nوتضع المصادر الإسلامية سقوطه في ترتيب مقصود مع رسالة: يُروى أن النبي كتب «من محمد رسول الله إلى كسرى ملك فارس»، فمزّق الشاه الرسالة وأمر عامل اليمن بأخذ النبي — قبل أن يأتيه خبر انقلابه {cite:ibn-sad-tabaqat-bewley} {cite:tabari-bosworth-1999}."
    },
    {
     "heading": "الأثر",
     "markdown": "في جيل واحد بعد موته ابتلعت الخلافة عالم الساسانيين كله — الإمبراطورية التي حكمت إيران أربعة قرون. وفي ذاكرة المسلمين هو الملك المكبّر الذي أُنذر فتجاهل؛ وفي الذاكرة الإيرانية بدء النهاية."
    },
    {
     "heading": "للزوار الصغار",
     "markdown": "مزّق ملك ثاني عظمى الدنيا رسالة النبي. وبعد شهور مات — وبعد ثلاثين سنة اختفت إمبراطوريته كلها."
    }
   ],
   "frontmatter": {
    "id": "person/khosrow-ii",
    "lang": "ar",
    "source_lang": "en",
    "translators": []
   }
  },
  "en": {
   "sections": [
    {
     "heading": "Brief",
     "markdown": "Khosrow II — \"Khosrow the Victorious\" — was the last great shah of Sasanian Persia (590–628). His empire swallowed half of Byzantium's lands, then shattered; the tradition remembers him as the king who tore up the Prophet's letter."
    },
    {
     "heading": "Life",
     "markdown": "Khosrow came to power as a fugitive who had appealed to Byzantium, then spent two decades waging the war that made Sasanian armies masters of Egypt and stood before Constantinople {cite:tabari-bosworth-1999}. Heraclius's counter-invasion broke the empire; in February 628 Khosrow was deposed by his own son and executed {cite:kaegi-2003}.\n\nThe Islamic sources place his fall in pointed sequence with a letter: the Prophet is reported to have written \"From Muhammad, God's Messenger, to Kisra, king of Persia,\" and the shah to have torn the letter and ordered the governor of Yemen to seize the Prophet — before news of his own overthrow arrived {cite:ibn-sad-tabaqat-bewley, tabari-bosworth-1999}."
    },
    {
     "heading": "Legacy",
     "markdown": "Within a generation of his death the whole Sasanian world — the empire that had ruled Iran for four centuries — was absorbed into the caliphate. In Islamic memory he is the proud king warned and ignored; in Iranian memory, the beginning of an ending."
    },
    {
     "heading": "For young visitors",
     "markdown": "The king of the world's second superpower tore up the Prophet's letter. Within months he was dead — and within thirty years his whole empire was gone."
    }
   ],
   "frontmatter": {
    "id": "person/khosrow-ii",
    "lang": "en",
    "source_lang": "en",
    "translators": []
   }
  }
 },
 "degree": 6,
 "contemporaries": [
  "person/abbas-ibn-abd-al-muttalib",
  "person/abdullah-ibn-salam",
  "person/abu-sufyan-ibn-harb",
  "person/halima-al-sadiyya",
  "person/muhammad",
  "person/salman-al-farisi",
  "person/suhayl-ibn-amr",
  "person/umm-ayman",
  "person/hamza",
  "person/abu-bakr",
  "person/amr-ibn-al-as",
  "person/abu-lahab"
 ],
 "connections": [
  {
   "to": "polity/sasanian-empire",
   "type": "ruler_of",
   "inverse": false,
   "start": {
    "edtf": "0590"
   },
   "end": {
    "edtf": "0628"
   },
   "sources": [
    "source/tabari-bosworth-1999"
   ]
  },
  {
   "to": "person/muhammad",
   "type": "corresponded_with",
   "inverse": false,
   "note": "The tradition reports the Prophet's letter to Kisra and the shah's contemptuous reply.",
   "sources": [
    "source/ibn-sad-tabaqat-bewley",
    "source/tabari-bosworth-1999"
   ]
  },
  {
   "to": "polity/byzantine-empire",
   "type": "fought",
   "inverse": false,
   "start": {
    "edtf": "0602"
   },
   "end": {
    "edtf": "0628"
   },
   "note": "The great Byzantine-Sasanian war that exhausted both empires.",
   "sources": [
    "source/kaegi-2003",
    "source/tabari-bosworth-1999"
   ]
  }
 ],
 "related": [
  "event/siege-of-taif",
  "person/amr-ibn-al-as",
  "person/heraclius",
  "person/khalid-ibn-al-walid",
  "person/salman-al-farisi",
  "person/umar-ibn-al-khattab",
  "event/abu-quhafa-conversion",
  "event/abu-sufyan-conversion"
 ],
 "license": {
  "prose": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
  "data": "CC0 1.0"
 }
}