ADMINISTRATIVE THEORY AND PRACTICECONTROL AND ENFORCEMENTConfidential Agents and Informers
The ma~iilim court was only one way of securing central control
over subordinate and distant officials and of ensuring their conformity
to the polices of the regime. The use of internal administrative checks,
overlapping responsibilities, parallel officials, and informers was fairly
developed in the Sasanian system. Even so, such a system depended
ultimately on the personal loyalty, integrity, and reliability of persons
on whom the monarch could count to carry out his orders. Such
persons might be entrusted with especially delicate tasks and were
often personal friends of the ruler or members of his entourage. For
example, we hear of royal confidantes (Syr. sharire dhe malkha) in the
reign of Shapiir 11 (309-79),216 and a district scribe (N.P. shahrdawir)
named Mihrburzin who was in charge of the execution of Mar Pethion
in 448 is described as a sharirii.^217 This term is also used for the cavalry
officer who informed the imprisoned head of the Christian Church (L.
ciitholicos), Mar Aba, of Khusraw Aniishirvan's intention to have him
blinded and thrown into a pit.^218 A sharirii was also involved in the
execution of George of Izla/Mihramgushnasp in 615.^219
The explanation of the Aramaic root 5" by ostikiin (M.P. true,
trustworthy) in the Middle Persian manual called the Frahang-i
Pahlavikllo strengthens the suggestion that thiqa (Ar. trustworthy,
reliable) and its derivatives should be regarded as Arabic renderings
of this term in materials dealing with the Sasanians. The confidential
officers and trustworthy men (Ar. thiqiit) of the Sasanian king were
posted at the palace gate on days of public audience, were entrusted
by Khusraw Aniishirvan to put his tax reforms into effect, and were
used as spies and messengers.^221 The courtiers and officials who stayed
by Khusraw Parviz when everyone else defected to Bahram Chubin at
Nahrawan in 590 were called thiqiit Kisrii.^222 Prokopios, on the events
of 541, speaks of those with whom Khusraw Aniishirvan alone shared
his secrets and he describes one of them, a royal secretary who was
sent to deliver a formal protest to Belisarios in 540, as a man of great
216 Hoffmann, Persischer Miirtyrer, pp. 10, 26, 27.
217 Corluy, "Mar Pethion," p. 32; Hoffman, Persischer Miirtyrer, p. 65.
218 Pigulevskaya, Villes, p. 227.
219 Hoffmann, Persischer Miirtyrer, p. 111.
220 Ebeling, Frahang-i Pahlavik, p. 32.
221 Dinawari, AkhbaraNiwal, pp. 73, 89; Taj, p. 160; Tha'alibi, Ghurar, pp. 620,
628, 692, 713.
222 Dinawari, Akhbar at-pwal, p. 90.