Seven Parthian clans

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The Seven Parthian clans or Seven Houses (in Persian "Haft Khandan") were seven purportedly "Parthian" feudal aristocracies allied with the Sassanid court.

Only two of the seven - the House of Suren and the House of Karen - are actually attested in sources dateable to the Arsacid period. The placement of the remaining five in Parthian times is "in all probability not in accordance with reality." "It may be that [...] members of them made up their own genealogies in order to emphasize the antiquity of their families."^[1]

During Sassanid times, the seven feudal houses were all members in the Dahae Confederacy, and several played a significant role at the Sassanid court. Bahram Chobin, a famed military commander of Khosrau II, was from the House of Mihran.

The seven houses with their respective main fiefs and family seats were:

• the House of Aspahapet, of Apartvaticene (Yazd)
• the House of Dahae, of Astabene (Kuchan)
• the House of Karen, of Hyrcania (Gorgan)
• the House of Mihran, of Comisene (Semnan)
• the House of Parni, of Parthyene (Parthaunis)
• the House of Sohae, of Margiane (Merv)
• the House of Suren, of Sakestan (Sistan)

[edit] See also

• Iranian society under Sassanids

[edit] References

^ Lukonin 1983, p. 704.

Lukonin, V. G. (1983), “Political, Social and Administrative Institutions”, in Yarshater, Ehsan, Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 3.2, London: Cambridge UP, pp. 681-747