Spahbed

Spāhbad (also spelled Spāhbed or Spāhbod) is a Middle Persian title meaning "army chief" or commander used chiefly in the Sasanian Empire. Originally there was a single spāhbad, called the Ērān-spāhbad, who functioned as the generalissimo of the Sasanian army. From the time of Khosrow I (r. 531–579) on, the office was split in four, with a spāhbad for each of the cardinal directions. After the Muslim conquest of Persia, the spāhbad of the East managed to retain his authority over the inaccessible mountainous region of Tabaristan on the southern shore of the Caspian Sea, where the title, often in its Islamic form ispahbadh (New Persian: اسپهبذ, romanized: ʾispahbaḏ, Arabic: ‏اصبهبذ‎, romanized: ʾiṣbahbaḏ), survived as a regnal title until the Mongol conquests of the 13th century. An equivalent title of Persian origin, ispāhsālār or sipāhsālār, gained great currency across the Muslim world in the 10th–15th centuries. The title was also adopted by the Armenians (սպարապետ, [a]sparapet) and the Georgians (სპასპეტი, spaspeti), as well as Khotan (spāta) and the Sogdians (spʾdpt) in Central Asia. It is also attested in Greek sources as aspabedēs (ἀσπαβέδης). The title was revived in the 20th century by the Pahlavi dynasty, in the Modern Persian form sipahbud (سپهبد), equivalent to a three-star Lieutenant General, ranking below artišbud (full General).