Jan 18

Shapoor II Became King Before Birth, And Chained The Arabs, In Revenge For Their Invading And Conquering Bahrain

Shapoor II On 18 January AD 311 the crisis that occurred, due to the problem of selecting a leader for the country and had suspended the government decisions, ended. On that day, after a few sessions of discussion, the governing bodies finally decided to designate the unborn child of the deceased king as the king of Iran, because one mobed (a Zoroastrian priest), who knew medicine, after interviewing the wife of the deceased king, had commented that most probably the infant to be born was a boy. After this decision that was taken in presence of the deceased king’s wife, the regent was also designated in that meeting. Thus, Shapoor II (Zolaktof) who took the rein of power at the age of 17, is the only king whose length of reign is longer than his age. One of the problems in the period when the governing authorities were playing for time, was the emigration of an Arab tribe from the desert to Bahrain and conquer of this place by the Arabs demanded the need      for determining the king as soon as possible.     Shapoor II, who had grudge against the Arabs from childhood, defeated them in the worst manner and according to some historians, tied the prisoners of war to each other by piercing a rope into their shoulders and so the Arabs call him Zolktaf, but the then Roman historians have written that this nickname was because Shapoor had broad shoulders.          Translation by Rowshan Lohrasbpour (AmordadNews writer)