Spahbed (; early form
spahpat, New Persian as
Spahbod and
Spahbad) is a Middle Persian title meaning "army chief" used chiefly in the
Sassanid Empire. Originally there was a single
spahbed, called the
Eran-spahbed, who functioned as the
generalissimo of the
Sassanid army. From the time of
Khosrau I (r. 531–579) on, the office was split in four, with a
spahbed for each of the
cardinal directions. After the
Muslim conquest of Persia, the
spahbed 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 (;
Arabic form
isbahbadh), survived as a regnal title until the
Mongol conquests of the 13th century.
