Spahbed

Spāhbed (Middle Persian: ; also spelled spahbod and spahbad, early form spāhpat) is a Middle Persian title meaning "army chief" used chiefly in the Sassanid Empire. Originally there was a single spāhbed, called the Ērān-spāhbed, who functioned as the generalissimo of the Sassanid army. From the time of Khosrau I (r. 531–579) on, the office was split in four, with a spāhbed for each of the cardinal directions. After the Muslim conquest of Persia, the spāhbed of the East managed to retain his authority over the inaccessible mountainous region of Tabaristan on the southern shore of the Caspian Sea, where the title, often in its Islamic form ispahbadh (Persian: اسپهبذ‎‎; in Arabic: اصبهبذ‎‎ işbahbadh), survived as a regnal title until the Mongol conquests of the 13th century. An equivalent title of Persian origin, ispahsālār, gained great currency across the Muslim world in the 10th–15th centuries.

The title was also adopted by the Armenians ([a]sparapet) and the Georgians (spaspeti), as well as Khotan (spāta) and the Sogdians (spʾdpt) in Central Asia. It is also attested in Greek sources as aspabedēs (ἀσπαβέδης). The title was revived in the 20th century by the Pahlavi dynasty, in the Modern Persian form sepahbod (سپهبد), equivalent to a three-star Lieutenant General, ranking below arteshbod (full General).

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