Editing Kavad I (section)

== Imprisonment, flight and return ==
[[Image:Zamarzp.jpg|thumb|alt=Obverse and reverse sides of a coin featuring Jamasp |Drachma of [[Jamasp]] ({{reign|496|498/9}})]]
[[Image:Hephthalites chieftain late 5th century.jpg|thumb|150px|Drachma of a [[Hephthalites|Hephthalite]] chieftain]]
A council soon took place among the nobility to discuss what to do with Kavad. [[Gushnaspdad]], a member of the Kanarangiyan, the family that held the important title of ''[[kanarang]]'' (military leader of [[Abarshahr]]), proposed Kavad be executed. His suggestion was overruled and Kavad was imprisoned instead in the [[Castle of Oblivion]] in [[Khuzistan (Sasanian province)|Khuzestan]].{{sfn|Pourshariati|2008|p=267}}{{sfn|Daryaee|2014|p=27}} According to Procopius' account, Kavad's wife approached the commander of the prison. They came to an understanding that she would be allowed to see Kavad in exchange for sleeping with him.<ref name="PRO6" /> Kavad's friend, [[Siyawush]], who was regularly in the same area as the prison, planned his friend's escape by preparing horses near the prison.<ref name="PRO6" /> Kavad changed clothes with his wife to disguise himself as a woman, and escaped from the prison and fled with Siyawush.<ref name="PRO6" />

Tabari's account is different. He says that Kavad's sister helped him to escape by rolling him in a carpet, which she made the guard believe was soaked with her menstrual blood.{{sfn|Bosworth|1999|p=135}} The guard did not object or investigate the carpet, "fearing lest he become polluted by it".{{sfn|Bosworth|1999|p=135}} One of the authors of the ''[[Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire]]'', John Robert Martindale, proposes she may have been [[Sambice]], Kavad's sister-wife, who was the mother of his eldest son, [[Kawus]].{{sfn|Martindale|1980|pp=974-975}}

Regardless, Kavad managed to escape imprisonment and fled to the court of the Hephthalite king, where he took refuge.<ref name="PRO6">Procopius, [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16764/16764-h/16764-h.htm VI].</ref>{{sfn|Daryaee|2014|p=27}} According to the narratives included in the history of al-Tabari, during his flight Kavad met a peasant girl from Nishapur, named Niwandukht, who became pregnant with his child, who would ascend the throne as [[Khosrow I]].{{sfn|Bosworth|1999|p=128}}{{efn|Although [[al-Tabari]] places this event before Kavad's first reign, modern scholars agree that it took place in the interlude before his second reign.{{sfn|Kia|2016|p=257}}{{sfn|Rezakhani|2017|p=133 (note 22)}}}} However, the story has been dismissed as "fable" by the [[Iranologist]] [[Ehsan Yarshater]].{{sfn|Bosworth|1999|p=p. 128 (note 330)}} Khosrow's mother was in reality a noblewoman from the [[House of Ispahbudhan]], one of the Seven Great Houses.<ref>{{harvnb|Bosworth|1999|p=128 (note 330)}}; {{harvnb|Rezakhani|2017|p=133 (note 22)}}; {{harvnb|Martindale|1992|pp=381–382}}; {{harvnb|Pourshariati|2008|pp=110–111}}</ref>

At the Hephthalite court in [[Bactria]], Kavad gained the support of the Hephthalite king, and also married his daughter, who was Kavad's niece.{{sfn|Schindel|2013a|pp=136–141}} During his stay, Kavad might have witnessed the rise of the Hephthalites to a better position than that of their former [[suzerainty|suzerains]], the Kidarites.{{sfn|Rezakhani|2017|p=133}} The present-day district of [[Qubodiyon|Qobadian]] (the Arabicized form of Kavadian) near Balkh, which was then under Hephthalite rule, was perhaps founded by Kavad and possibly served as his source of revenue.{{sfn|Rezakhani|2017|p=133 (note 23)}} In 498 (or 499), Kavad returned to Iran with a Hephthalite army.{{sfn|Rezakhani|2017|p=131}}{{sfn|Schindel|2013a|pp=136–141}} When he crossed the domains of the Kanarangiyan in Khorasan, he was met by [[Adergoudounbades]], a member of the family, who agreed to help him.{{sfn|Pourshariati|2008|p=267}} Another noble who supported Kavad was [[Zarmihr Karen]], a son of Sukhra.{{sfn|Schindel|2013a|pp=136–141}}

Jamasp and the nobility and clergy did not resist as they wanted to prevent another civil war.{{sfn|Pourshariati|2008|p=114}} They agreed that he would be king again with the understanding that he would not hurt Jamasp or the elite.{{sfn|Pourshariati|2008|p=114}} Jamasp was spared, albeit probably blinded, while Gushnaspdad and other nobles who had plotted against Kavad were executed.{{sfn|Schindel|2013a|pp=136–141}} Generally, however, Kavad secured his position by lenience.{{sfn|Frye|1983|p=150}} Adergoudounbades was appointed the new ''kanarang'',{{sfn|Pourshariati|2008|pp=267–268}} while Siyawush was appointed the head of the Sasanian army (''arteshtaran-salar'').<ref name="PRO6" /> Another of Sukhra's sons, [[Bozorgmehr]], was made Kavad's great minister (''[[wuzurg framadar]]'').{{sfn|Pourshariati|2008|p=114}} Kavad's reclamation of his throne displays the troubled circumstances of the empire; a small force was able to overwhelm the nobility-clergy alliance.{{sfn|Daryaee|2014|p=27}}