2021-02-15 Mon

Khosrow II “Khosrow the Victorious” was Sasanian king of Persia reigning from 590 to 628. He is considered to be the last great Sasanian king (shah) of Iran under whom the empire achieved its greatest expansion. Defeated at last in a war with the Byzantines, he was deposed in a palace revolution and executed.

He was the son of Hormizd IV (reigned 579–590) and the grandson of Khosrow I (reigned 531–579). Khosrow II was the last king of Iran to have a lengthy reign before the Muslim conquest of Iran, which began five years after his execution.

He started minting coins, where he is on the front imitated as an exalted figure, bearded and wearing a crenellation-shaped crown with two crescents of the moon, whilst the reverse shows the traditional fire altar flanked by two attendants.

During his second reign, added the ideogram GDH, meaning xwarrah ("royal splendour") on his coins. He combined this together with the word abzot ("he has increased"), making the full inscription thus read as: "Khosrow, he has increased the royal splendour" (Khusrokhwarrah abzot).

Image Source: Wikipedia.org