Bahram V
The 15th Sassanid Emperor (421–438)
Bahram V (also spelled Wahram V or Warahran V; Middle Persian: 𐭥𐭫𐭧𐭫𐭠𐭭), also known as Bahram Gur (New Persian: بهرام گور, "Bahram the onager [hunter]"), was the Sasanian King of Kings (shahanshah) from 420 to 438.
The son of the incumbent Sasanian shah Yazdegerd I (r. 399–420), Bahram was at an early age sent to the Lahkmid court in al-Hira, where he was raised under the tutelage of the Lakhmid kings. After the assassination of his father, Bahram hurried to the Sasanian capital of Ctesiphon with a Lakhmid army, and won the favour of the nobles and priests, according to a long-existing popular legend, after withstanding a trial against two lions.
Bahram V's reign was generally peaceful, with two brief wars—first against his western neighbours, the Eastern Roman Empire, and then against his eastern neighbours, the Kidarites, who were disturbing the Sasanian eastern provinces. It was also during his reign that the Arsacid line of Armenia was replaced by a marzban (governor of a frontier province, "margrave"), which marked the start of a new era in Armenia, known in Armenian historiography as the "Marzpanate period".
Bahram V is a central figure in several of the most famous works in Persian literature. He is mentioned in Ferdowsi's Shahnameh ("Book of Kings") written between 977 and 1010, and he is the protagonist of Nizami Ganjavi's romantic epic Haft Peykar (also known as the "Bahramnameh"), written in 1197. The Seven Beauties were princesses, which—in Nizami's imagination—became Bahram's wives and each received her own residence in his palace. He visited them on a rotating basis, and they entertained him with exciting stories. He is also the focal point in the Hasht-Behesht ("Eight Paradises"), written by Amir Khusrau in ca.
“Bahram V” enters the record as the 15th Sassanid Emperor (421–438). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Bahram, 15th and Sassanid can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q299271. VIAF identifies the subject as 54058814. The Library of Congress control number is nr98001026. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1010 and 1197.
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