ADMINISTRATIONdoes not appear to have been a single title for people who performed
this duty in the Sasanian period, although the use of ~iijib and even
of grand chamberlain (Ar. akbar ~ujjiib)179 in the Arabic literature
;hat refers to the Sasanians tends to encourage the impression of a
relationship between Sasanian practice and the office of ~iijib in the
Islamic period.
There appear to have been three related aspects to the duties of
officials who acted as doorkeepers for the Sasanians. One was pro-
tective, with an inherent military dimension since the duties of a cham-
berlain were often performed by an army officer who was in charge
of guarding the palace gate. Another was mediation between the sov-
ereign who was secluded by a curtain from the sight of subjects who
were admitted to his presence. One of the best examples of this aspect
of the office is the way the chamberlain Farrukhan announced the
arrival of the delegation of Nestorian bishops to Khusraw Parvlz in
612 and then acted as go-between in their discussion with the monarch
by carrying their messages back and forth.^180 The chamberlain's own
access to the monarch and his duty as private message bearer for the
king made him a useful diplomatic representative of the king.
Yazdgushnasp, the chamberlain of Khusraw Anushirvan, was em-
ployed for the negotiations with the Byzantine ambassador which led
to the treaty of 56l,181 The third dimension of this office was that of
controlling access to the monarch by screening his visitors. The door-
keeper could refuse admission, or admit and announce those who were
allowed to enter, whether they were great nobles and personal friends
who shared the king's table and private entertainments or whether
they were petitioners from the general public who came on days of
formal audience.^182
Only this last aspect appears to be equivalent to the duties of the
early Islamic ~iijib. Although the meaning of the Arabic root ~jb is to
conceal, shelter, or prevent, and the responsibility of ~ijiiba in pagan
179 Tha'alibi, Ghurar, p. 625.
180 Chabot, Synodicon, pp. 631-32. The deception practiced by Bindoe on Bahram
ibn Siyawushan when Khusraw Parviz hid in a monastery in his flight from Bahram
Chubln in 590 was also based on the role of the chamberlain as intermediary (DInawarl,
Akhbar at-tiwal, pp. 92-93).
181 P. Devos, "Sainte Sirin, martyr sous Khosrau ler Anosarvan," Analecta Bollan-
diana 64 (1940), 101.
182 For a general discussion of these Sasanian practices, see Chaumont, "Chiliarque."
For Byzantine parallels, see A.E.R. Boak and J. E. Dunlap, Two Studies in Later Roman
and Byzantine Administration (New York, 1924).