ADMINISTRATIONcan do without the other. "Religion is the foundation of kingship and
kingship is the protector [of religion]. For whatever lacks a foundation
must perish, and whatever lacks a protector disappears."l1
The ruler himself was hedged about with a special sanctity. The
divine glory or fortune (M.P. xVarnah), which was limited to members
of the dynasty, was the supernatural source and symbol of their le-
gitimacy. It took the form of a ram or of a radiant light around the
head of the monarch, as reflected in the luster of the pearls and the
symbolism of the stars in his crown or on his coins. The imagery of
fire, as well as solar, lunar, and astral symbols, served both to identify
the Sas ani an ruler as the choice and representative of Ohrmazd, the
god of light, and to announce his claim to cosmic rule. As mythic
sacrificer, dragon slayer, and rainmaker, his person was sacred and
his office required ritual physical perfection and ritual seclusion behind
a curtain or a veil. It was a sacrilege to kill him, but blinding was
enough to disqualify him as king, as was done to Hurmizd IV when
he was deposed.^12
The prerogatives of kingship included a monopoly on the symbols
of power and wealth: the crown, throne, mace, and the limitation of
the right to issue coins to the reigning monarch, who guaranteed their
weight and purity and who kept large cash reserves in the royal treasury
as the necessary insurance to support the system. Although the usurper
Bahram Chiibin (590-91) never took the royal title himself and only
called himself the guardian of the empire, he issued his own coins and
is said to have ascended a golden throne, placed the crown on his
head, held audience, received taxes, paid salaries, and administered
the entire kingdom according to the laws.13 This is a rather idealized
11 Mas'iidI, Muriij, I, 289. The imagery of twins ties this concept to Zurvanism, and
the myth which gives Ohrmazd the priesthood and Ahriman the kingship reflects the
ambivalence of this relationship. See Mary Boyce, "Some Reflections on Zurvanism,"
BSOAS 19 (1957): 309; and idem, The Letter of Tansar (Rome, 1968), pp. 16, 33-
34.
12 Contemporary, sixth-century evidence is in Prokopios, History of the Wars, Lv.
2-3, 7; vi. 17; xi. 3-4, and in Theophylactus Simocatta, who describes the jewel-
encrusted golden crown and royal vestments of Hurmizd IV in his Historiae iv. 3, 7-
8 (Stuttgart, 1972), p. 153. For accounts in later Arabic literature, see A. Scher, "Histoire
nestorienne (Chronique de Seert)," 11(2), PO 13 (1919),444; TabarI, Ta'rtkh, I, 1046;
Tha'alibI, Ghurar, p. 661; Ya'qiibI, Ta'rzkh, I, 190. For these aspects of Iranian king-
ship, see Geo Widengren, "The Sacral Kingship of Iran," in The Sacral Kingship, Studies
in the History of Religions, supp. to Numen 4, (Leiden, 1959).
\3 H. Zotenberg, Chronique de Abou-Djafar-Mo'hammed-ben·-Djarir-ben-Yezid Ta-
bari, traduite sur la version persane d'Abou-'Ali Mo'hammed Bel'ami (Paris, 1938),
11,285-86.
'2{\