The Titles of the (h)argbed, the artēštārān sālār and the spāhbed in the Iranian and Non-Iranian Sources

The difficulty of the research on the Sasanians, especially their administrative hierarchy, is a shortage of the Iranian sources, which would allow reconstruction of the competences of the particular offices. The purpose of the following discussion is to attempt to clarify the meaning of the three highest the offices, which in the differing sources are described as being associated with the Sasanian army. The starting point of the following considerations is an account, by the classical Arabic historian of Ṭabarī. He ranks the spāh’s three most important military titles as the (h)argbed, the artēštārān sālār, and the spāhbed.