Editing Khosrow I (section)

===War in the East===
[[File:Sasanian expansion in the east under Kavad I and Khosrow I.svg|thumb|Sasanian expansion in the east]]
With a stable peace agreement with the Byzantines in the west, Khosrow was now able to focus his attention on the eastern Hephthalites{{sfn|Farrokh|2007|p=238}} and end their domination over [[Central Asia]].{{sfn|Shahbazi|2005}} Even with the growth of Iranian military power under Khosrow's reforms, the Sasanians were still uneasy at the prospect of attacking the [[Hephthalite]] on their own and began to seek allies.{{sfn|Farrokh|2007|p=238}} Their answer came in the form of [[Turkic peoples|Turkic]] incursions into Central Asia.{{sfn|Daryaee|2014|p=30}} The movement of Turkic people into Central Asia very quickly made them natural enemies and competitors to the Hephthalites.{{sfn|Farrokh|2007|p=238}}

The Hephthalites were a strong military power but they lacked the organization to fight on multiple fronts.{{sfn|Farrokh|2007|p=238}} The Sasanians and the [[First Turkic Khaganate]] made an alliance and in 557 launched a two pronged attack on the Hephthalites, taking advantage of their disorganization and disunity. The Hephthalite Empire was destroyed after the [[battle of Gol-Zarriun]], and broke into several minor kingdoms around the Oxus. The Hephthalite king Ghadfar and what was left of his men fled southward to Sasanian territory, where they took refuge.{{sfn|Rezakhani|2017|pp=141-142}} Meanwhile, the Turkic [[Khagan]] [[Istämi|Sinjibu]] reached an agreement with the Hephthalite nobility, and appointed [[Faghanish]], the ruler of [[Chaghaniyan]], as the new Hephthalite king.{{sfn|Rezakhani|2017|p=142}}
[[File:KhosrauITokharistanCoinHistoryofIran.jpg|left|thumb|Later imitation of a drachm of Khosrow I from the [[Surkhan Darya]] valley, [[Tokharistan]], a region that was lost during the reign of [[Peroz I]], but was later reconquered by Khosrow I.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Zeimal' |first1=E. V. |title=The Circulation of Coins in Central Asia during the Early Medieval Period (Fifth–Eighth Centuries A.D.) |journal=Bulletin of the Asia Institute |date=1994 |volume=8 |pages=245–267 |jstor=24048777 |issn=0890-4464}}</ref>]]

This was much to the dislike of Khosrow, who considered the Turkic collaboration with the Hephthalites to pose a danger for his rule in the east, and thus marched towards the Sasanian-Turkic border in [[Hyrcania|Gurgan]]. When he reached the place, he was met by a Turkic delegate of Sinjibu that presented him gifts.{{sfn|Rezakhani|2017|p=142}} There Khosrow asserted his authority and military potency, and persuaded the Turks to make an alliance with him. The alliance contained a treaty that made it obligatory for Faghanish to be sent to the Sasanian court in [[Ctesiphon]] and gain the approval of Khosrow for his status as Hephthalite king.{{sfn|Rezakhani|2017|p=142}} Faghanish and his kingdom of Chaghaniyan thus became a vassal of the Sasanian Empire, which set the [[Amu Darya|Oxus]] as the eastern frontier the Sasanians and Turks.{{sfn|Litvinsky|Dani|1996|pp=176-177}}{{sfn|Bivar|2003|pp=198-201}} However, friendly relations between Turks and Sasanians quickly deteriorated after that. Both Turks and Iranians wanted to dominate the [[Silk Road]] and the trade industry between the west and the far east.{{sfn|Frye|1984}} In 562 Khosrow II defeated the [[Hephthalites]] once again, and then stopped the threat of the Turks.{{sfn|Shahbazi|2005}}

In 568 a Turkic embassy was sent to Byzantine to propose an alliance and two pronged attack on the Sasanian Empire. Fortunately for the Sasanians, nothing ever came from this proposal.{{sfn|Dignas|Winter|2007|p=115}} Later in 569/570, Sinjibu attacked and pillaged Sasanian border lands, but a treaty was soon signed.{{sfn|Shahbazi|2005}} Khosrow then sent a [[House of Mihran|Mihranid]] named [[Mihransitad]], to estimate the quality of the daughter of the Turkic Khagan.{{sfn|Pourshariati|2008|p=103}} According to Armenian sources her name was Kayen,<ref>Ter-Mkrticnyan L.H. Armyanskiye istochniki - Sredney Azii V - VII vv., p. 57.</ref> while Persian sources states that her name was Qaqim-khaqan.<ref>The Farsnama of Ibnu'l-Balkhi, pp. 24, 94.</ref> After Mihransitad's visit in [[Central Asia]], Khosrow married Qaqim-khaqan. According to some sources, [[Hormizd IV]], the successor of Khosrow, was the son of the Turkic princess. However, ''[[Encyclopædia Iranica]]'' states that the "marriage with the daughter of the Turkic khaqan is chronologically impossible", and says that Hormizd was born in 540, thirty years before Khosrow's marriage.{{sfn|Shahbazi|2005}}