Azadan

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title: "Azadan" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["social-class-in-the-sasanian-empire", "iranian-nobility", "parthian-empire", "iranian-words-and-phrases"] description: "Class of Iranian nobles" topic_path: "geography/iran" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azadan" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Class of Iranian nobles ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/Bishapur_relief_of_Sasanian_cavalry_(1).jpg" caption="[[Sasanian]]-era [[rock relief]] in [[Bishapur]] depicting cavalrymen, who were generally drawn from the ranks of the ''azadan'' and ''[[wuzurgan]]''"] ::

The Azadan (Middle Persian: pal, Parthian: xpr; meaning 'free' and 'noble') were a class of Iranian nobles. They are probably identical to the el ('the free ones') mentioned in Greek sources to refer to a group of Parthian nobles. According to the 1st-century Romano-Jewish historian Josephus (died 100 AD), the Parthian army led by prince Pacorus I during the invasion of Judea consisted of members of the el. The Kingdom of Armenia adopted the same hierarchy as that of the Parthians, which included the pal class (hy), which was used to label the Armenian middle and lower nobility. The name of the Georgian nobility, ka, also corresponded to that of pal. A class of pal are also attested in Sogdia, an Iranian civilization located in Central Asia.

The Sasanians, who supplanted the Parthians in 224, maintained the same divisions of the nobility as their predecessor. Under the Sasanians, the pal were members of the lower nobility and the last class-rank of the four types of the Sasanian nobility. The four ranks consisted of the pal (vassal kings and dynasts), the pal (princes of royal blood), the pal (grandees) and the pal (lower nobility). The pal and pal formed the bulk of the cavalry (pal), which in turn formed the backbone of the Sasanian army. The pal were analogous to the knights of Medieval Europe.

The pal are first attested in the bilingual Hajjiabad inscription of the King of Kings (pal) Shapur I ():

They are later mentioned in the Paikuli inscription of 293, erected by Shapur I's grandson Narseh (), who mentions the pal along with other groups of the nobility. They are likewise mentioned in the inscription of Shapur II () at Meshkinshahr. According to the 5th-century Byzantine Armenian historian Faustus of Byzantium, the pal formed the bulk of Shapur II's royal bodyguard regiment.

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