page_title: Bahram V
section_title: Early life and rise to power
hierarchical_section_title: Bahram V / Early life and rise to power
caption_attribution_description: English: In this folio from Walters manuscript W.607, Bahram Gur seizes the crown after having killed two lions.
context_page_description: Bahram V, also known as Bahram Gor was the fifteenth king of the Sasanian Empire, ruling from 420 to 438.
  The son of Yazdegerd I, Bahram was exiled at an early age to the Lahkmid court in al-Hira, where he was raised under the tutelage of the Lakhmid kings. After the assassination of Yazdegerd I, Bahram hurried to the Sasanian capital of Ctesiphon with a Lakhmid army, and won the favour of the nobles and priests, according to a long-existing popular legend, after withstanding a trial against two lions.
  Bahram V's reign was generally peaceful, with two brief wars—first against his western neighbours, the Eastern Roman Empire, and then against his eastern neighbours, the Hephthalites, who were disturbing the Sasanian eastern provinces. It was also during his reign that the Arsacid line of Armenia was replaced by a marzban, which marked the start of a new era in Armenia, known in Armenian historiography as the "Marzpanate period".
  Bahram V is a central figure in several of the most famous works in Persian literature. He is mentioned in Ferdowsi's Shahnameh written between 977 and 1010, and he is the protagonist of Nizami Ganjavi's romantic epic Haft Peykar, written in 1197.
context_section_description: Bahram V was born around 400. He was the son of shah Yazdegerd I (r. 399–420) and Shushandukht, a daughter of the Jewish exilarch. Richard Frye believes that Yazdagird's marriage to a daughter of the patriarch of the Jews is "probably folk tales". Bahram, during his youth, fell out with his father due to a disagreement, which made the latter send him to exile in the Lakhmid court in al-Hira, where he was raised under the tutelage of the Lakhmid king al-Nu'man I ibn Imru' al-Qays (r. 390–418). There al-Nu'man provided Bahram with teachers from the Sasanian court, where Bahram was taught law, archery, and equestrian arts.
  Since the death of the powerful Sasanian shah Shapur II (r. 309–379), the aristocrats and priests had expanded their influence and authority at the cost of the Sasanian government, nominating, dethroning, and murdering shahs, which included Yazdegerd I, who was murdered on 21 January 420. They now sought to stop the sons of Yazdegerd I from ascending the throne—Shapur IV, who was the eldest son of Yazdegerd I and governor of Armenia, quickly rushed to the Sasanian capital of Ctesiphon, and ascended the throne. He was, however, shortly after, murdered by the nobles and priests, who elected a son of Bahram IV, Khosrow, as shah.
  Bahram was informed about the news of Yazdegerd I's death when he was in the Arabian Desert—he opposed the decision of the nobles, and asked al-Mundhir I ibn al-Nu'man (who had succeeded his father al-Nu'man I) for military assistance, who agreed to help him. Bahram and al-Mundhir I, at the head of an army of numerous soldiers, marched towards Ctesiphon, where Bahram promised that he would not reign like his father Yazdegerd I did. According to a long-existing popular legend written in the Shahnameh ("The Book of Kings"), Bahram suggested that the royal crown and attire should be placed between two lions, and the person who retrieved them by killing the wild animals should be recognized as the shah of Iran. 
  Khosrow chose to pull out, whilst Bahram withstood the trial and won the throne. Bahram distrusted the nobles, who had been unreliable to the earlier Sasanian shahs, and thus chose instead to seek support from the Zoroastrian priesthood. He was the first Sasanian shah to not be crowned by a noble, but by a chief priest (mowbed).
caption: Bahram V seizes the crown after having killed two lions.
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