PEOPLEbeen assigned the entire crown province of Kaskar about 624 as a
land grant (Ar. qat' 'a). The special property assigned for his support
was at Nirsiyan, provided with storehouses and protected by a strong-
hold, which was called his preserve (Ar. hima) and is probably to be
identified with the Dar Narsi in the district of Kaskar. At the time of
the Islamic conquest, this stronghold was in the possession of NarsI's
daughter, Tamahij, and her husband Anoshagan, son of Gushnasp-
mah, who was NarsI's paternal nephew. If he is to be identified with
Anoshagan, son of the hirbadh, it would mean that Narsi's own brother
was a hirbadh. Bis!am ibn Narsi, the dihqan of Burs at the time of
the conquest, is likely to have been the son of this member of the royal
familyP
Directly below the royal family and sharing many of its privileges
was a small number of families of very high nobility (M.P. vaspuhr,
Ar. ahl al-buyutat) who were believed to have been descended from
the vassal kings of the Parthian period. They are said to have been
allowed to retain the rank of "kings" and the right to wear a crown
because their ancestors had been the equals of the Sasanians.^28 They
also wore the yarqan (M.P., torque), golden belts, and armbands.
Traditionally, only seven families had these privileges, the most visible
of which was the right to wear a tall, conical hat called a qalansuwwa
(A. ?) worth one hundred thousand dirhams.^29 However, Mas'iidi
speaks of only three great families established by the Sasanians in the
Sawad,30 and, in fact, only representatives of the Siiren, Qaren, Mih-
ran, and Hurmuzan families can be found even peripherally associated
with Iraq.31 But there were other people of the same level of nobility
in Iraq at the time of the conquest, among whom were the Sasanian
27 Baladhuri, Futii!J, p. 340; Justi, Namenbuch, p. 17; Paruck, Sasanian Coins, p. 2;
Tabari, Ta'rikh, I, 2168, 2245. Justi regards the name of an-Nushajan ibn Jusnasma
in Tabari as the Arabicized form of Anoshagan-i Gushnaspmah. Anoshagan means
"descendent of the house of Anosh," and his father's name, which means "stallion of
Media," suggests that the family had only been in the Sawad for a generation. For
Bistam ibn Narsi, see Baladhuri, Futii!J, pp. 259, 457-58; Tabari, Ta'rikh, I, 2421; and
Ya'qubi, Ta'rikh, Il, 176. Bistam was also the name of a brother of Hurmizd IV who
was the uncle of both Khusraw II Parviz and Narsl.
28 L0kkegaard, Islamic Taxation, p. 171; Zotenberg, Chronique, Ill, 448.
29 Tabari, Ta'rikh, I, 2025. Golden rings, belts, and jewelry were symbols of great
honor in sixth century Iran and royal permission was necessary to wear them (Prokopios,
Wars, 1, xvii).
30 Mas'iidi, Muriij, I, 327.
31 Elias of Nasibin, Opus Chron%gicum, I, CSCO, Ser. Syri, 21:56, 57; 23:31;
Tabari, Ta'rikh, I, 2025, 2027, 2534; Thomas of Margha, Governors, Il, 150-151;
Hoffmann, Persischer Miirtyrer, p. 210.