ADMINISTRATIONhow the night-watch (IJurras) at Mada'in would call out the name of
the reigning king as it passed through the streets at night, and how
the replacement of the watchword "Shahanshah Abarwiz" by "Sha-
hanshah Qubadh" signaled the coup by which Khusraw Parviz was
deposed and his son Shiroe enthroned as Qubadh 11 in 628.^246
The person of the monarch was protected by a body of royal guards-
men (M.P. pushtzgbanan) or palace guards (M.P. darzgan, Ar. IJaras
babihi l-kha~~a) who were an elite cavalry force which was recruited
among the great nobles, escorted him everywhere, and stayed by him
night and day. The commander of the royal guard (M.P. hazarabad,
"commander of a thousand"; M.P. dar"igbad; Ar. ~aIJib al-lJaras or
ra'zs al-lJaras) controlled entry to the palace, admitted and presented
visitors to the king as his IJajib, might serve as royal executioner, and
as one of the monarch's trustworthy men might be given military
command or used in diplomacy. The commander of the guard for
Ardashir III in 630 was responsible for opening the gates of Mada'in
to the rebel Shahrbaraz. Whenever the Sasanian monarch went out to
ride, his guards--equipped with armor, helmets, shields, swords, and
spears-formed two ranks. When the king passed in front of them,
each man laid his shield on his saddle bow and put his forehead to
his shield, as if bowing. It was during this ceremony that the usurper
Shahrbaraz was killed by a spear thrown by one of the guardsmen.^247
Footmen were used to run before mounted officials, nobles, and the
monarch himself to clear the way on official occasions. Men carrying
whips kept people from crowding into Achaemenian royal processions,
and this custom appears to have survived or to have been revived in
the Sasanian period. Seven such "forerunners" (M.P. pzsh-asp-paygan)
of Shapiir 11 were in the retinue of one of his eunuchs who acted as
his emissary, and in 596 footmen armed with whips or clubs were
used to clear away the crowds in Mada'in for the procession that took
Sabhrisho', who had been mounted on a horse provided by the mon-
arch, from the church at Koke to the palace at Aspanpur for his royal
confirmation as catholicos.^248
The employment of special security forces by Muslims to protect
246 Tha'aJihi, Ghurar, p. 715.
247 Chaumont, "Chiliarque," pp. 145-59; Dinawari, Akhbiir at-tiwiii, p. 106; Tahari,
Ta'rikh, I, 1043, 1062-63. Zadhan-Farriikh was commander of the palace guard for
Khusraw Parviz in 628.
248 Dvornik, Intelligence Services, p. 27; Hoffman, Persischer Miirtyrer, p. 14; Scher,
"Histoire nestorienne," II(2), 489.