UC Irvine

Despite his literary popularity, the Sasanian King Bahrām V (r. 421- 438 CE) is a neglected figure in the historical study of Iran. His life and reign have so far been a mystery waiting to be analyzed and reconstructed. This dissertation provides a resolution to the unanswered questions pertaining to Bahrām’s life, reign, and literary depiction by closely analyzing of Perso-Arabic texts in light of Greco-Roman, Armenian, and Syriac narratives. In order to provide a reconstructed history of Bahrām’s life and reign, it is also essential to study and highlight the various ways in which the Sasanian administration, under the leadership of Yazdegerd I, adopted a more centralized and diplomatic foreign policy in the face of Hunnic invasions. I conclude that several forces, namely victory over the Huns, contextualized within the Kayānid ideology and promoted by the peace of the fifth century, allowed for the literary transformation of Bahrām from a royal figure into the great hero of late antique Iran.