Editing Khosrow I (section)

==Reforms==

===Summary===
Khosrow I represents the epitome of the [[philosopher king]] in the Sasanian Empire. Upon his ascent to the throne, Khosrow did not restore power to the feudal nobility or the magi, but centralized his government.{{sfn|Daryaee|2014|p=29}} Khosrow's reign is considered to be one of the most successful within the Sasanian Empire. The peace agreement between Rome and Iran in 531 gave Khosrow the chance to consolidate power and focus his attention on internal improvement.{{sfn|Dignas|Winter|2007|p=28}} His reforms and military campaigns marked a renaissance of the Sasanian Empire, which spread philosophic beliefs as well as trade goods from the [[far east]] to the far west.

The internal reforms under Khosrow were much more important than those on the exterior frontier. The subsequent reforms resulted in the rise of a bureaucratic state at the expense of the great noble families, strengthening the [[centralized government|central government]] and the power of the Shahanshah. The army too was reorganized and tied to the central government rather than local nobility allowing greater organization, faster mobilization and a far greater cavalry corps. Reforms in taxation provided the empire with stability and a much stronger economy, allowing prolonged military campaigns as well as greater revenues for the bureaucracy.{{sfn|Frye|1984}}

=== Tax reforms ===
Khosrow's tax reforms have been praised by several scholars, the most notable of whom is F. Altheim.{{sfn|Frye|1984}} The tax reforms, which were started under Kavad I and completely implemented by Khosrow, greatly strengthened the royal court.{{sfn|Frye|1984}} Prior to Khosrow and Kavad's reigns, a majority of the land was owned by [[seven Parthian clans|seven Parthian families]]: [[House of Suren|Suren]], Waraz, [[House of Karen|Karen]], [[House of Ispahbudhan|Ispahbudhan]], [[House of Spandiyadh|Spandiyadh]], [[House of Mihran|Mihran]] and Zik.{{sfn|Curtis|Stewart|2008|p=126}} These great landowners enjoyed tax exemptions from the Sasanian empire, and were tax collectors within their local provincial areas.{{sfn|Frye|1984}}

With the outbreak of the Mazdakite revolution, there was a great uprising of peasants and lower-class citizens who grabbed large portions of land under egalitarian values. As a result of this there was great confusion on land possession and ownership. Khosrow surveyed all the land within the empire indiscriminately and began to tax all land under a single program. Tax revenues that previously went to the local noble family now went to the central government treasury.{{sfn|Frye|1984}} The fixed tax that Khosrow implemented created a more stable form of income for the treasury.

Because the tax did not vary, the treasury could easily estimate the year's revenue.{{sfn|Frye|1984}} Prior to Khosrow's tax reforms, taxes were collected based on the yield that the land had produced. The new system calculated and averaged taxation based on the water rights for each piece of property. Lands which grew [[Phoenix dactylifera|date palms]] and [[olive|olive trees]] used a slightly different method of taxation based on the amount of producing trees that the land contained.{{sfn|Frye|1984}} These tax reforms of Khosrow were the steppingstone which enabled subsequent reforms in the bureaucracy and the military to take place.

=== Administrative reforms ===
The hallmark of Khosrow's bureaucratic reform was the creation of a new social class. Before, the Sasanian Empire consisted of only three social classes, magi, nobles and peasants/commoners. Khosrow added a fourth class to this hierarchy between the nobles and the peasants, called the [[dehqan|''dehqans'']].{{sfn|Pourshariati|2008|p=500}} The ''dehqans'' were small landowning citizens of the Sasanian Empire and were considered lower nobility.

Khosrow promoted honest government officials based on trust and honesty, rather than corrupt nobles and magi.{{sfn|Farrokh|2007|pp=230–230}} The small landowning ''dehqans'' were favored over the high-ranking nobles because they tended to be more trustworthy and owed their loyalty to the Shah for their position in the bureaucracy.{{sfn|Daryaee|2014|p=29}} The rise of the ''dehqans'' became the backbone of the empire because they now held the majority of land and positions in local and provincial administration.{{sfn|Frye|1984}}

The reduction of power of the great families improved the empire. This was because previously, each great family ruled a large chunk of land and had their own king. The name Shahanshah, meaning King of Kings, derived from the fact that there were many [[feudalism|feudal]] kings in Sasanian Iran with the Shahanshah as the ruler of them all. Their fall meant their power was redirected to the central government and all taxes now went to the central government rather than to the local nobility.

===Military reforms===
[[File:Plate of Khosrow I Anushirvan.jpg|thumb|Plate of Khosrow on horseback]]
Major reforms to the military made the Iranian army capable of fighting sustained wars, battling on multiple fronts, and deploy itself faster.{{sfn|Farrokh|2007|p=229}} Prior to Khosrow's reign, much like other aspects of the empire, the military was dependent on the feudal lords of the great families to provide soldiers and cavalry. Each family would provide their own army and equipment when called by the Shahanshah. This system was replaced with the emergence of the lower ''dehqan'' nobility class, who was paid and provided by the central government.{{sfn|Frye|1984}}

The main force of the Sasanian army was the cavalry, or [[Aswaran|''aswaran'']]. Previously only nobles could enlist in the ''aswaran'', which created shortages in well-trained soldiers. Now that the ''dehqan'' class was considered nobility, they were able to join the cavalry force and boosted its number significantly.{{sfn|Farrokh|2007|p=229}}

The military reform focused more on organization and training of troops. The cavalry was still the most important aspect of the Iranian military, with foot archers being less important, and mass peasant forces being at the bottom of the spectrum.

Khosrow made four military districts with a ''[[spahbed]]'', or general, in charge of each district.{{sfn|Frye|1984}} Before the reforms of Khosrow, the general of the Iranians (''[[Eran-spahbed]]'') controlled the military of the entire empire.{{sfn|Daryaee|2014|p=124}} The four zones consisted of Mesopotamia in the west, the [[Caucasus]] region in the north, the [[Persian Gulf]] in the central and southwest region, and Central Asia in the east. This new quadripartition of the Empire not only created a more efficient military system but also "[administration] of a vast, multiregional, multicultural, and multiracial empire".{{sfn|Farrokh|2007|p=229}}

====Equipment====
During Khosrow's reign, a "list" for equipment for the cavalry (''[[aswaran]]'') was written. The list comprised a helmet, a gorget, a chain mail shirt, a lamellar coat or cuirass, leg armour, gauntlets, sword, shield, two bows with spare strings, 30 arrows, axe or mace, and horse armour.<ref name="Bivar 1972 271–291">{{cite journal|last=Bivar|first=ADH|title=Cavalry equipment and tactics on the Euphrates frontier|journal=Dumbarton Oaks Papers|year=1972|volume=26|pages=271–291|doi=10.2307/1291323|jstor=1291323}}</ref>

Sasanian bullae showing the four ''spahbeds'' show that horses were still fully armoured during this period and heavy cavalry tactics were still used by the Sasanian cavalry. It is highly likely that the stirrup had been introduced to the Sasanian cavalry two centuries before Khosrow's reforms<ref>{{cite journal|last=Herrmann|first=Georgina|author-link=Georgina Herrmann|title=Parthian and Sassanian saddlery|journal=Archaeologia Iraníca et Orientalis|year=1989}}</ref> (and are mentioned in Bivar (1972)<ref name="Bivar 1972 271–291"/>), and a "stirruped" foot position can be seen on the Sasanian bullae and at Taq-e-Bostan.