Hurmuz ibn Hurmuz

Hurmuz ibn Hurmuz (died ca. 12 AH / 633 CE) was a Sassanid Persian military commander who was one of the first major opponents the early Muslim forces encountered in the Iraq campaigns. He was a border lord (marzban) in charge of the territory of al-Ubulla near Basra and was reported to be one of the most haughty and arrogant of the Persian commanders, a man whose pride in his nobility was legendary.

He was killed at the Battle of the Chains (Dhat al-Salasil) — so named because the Persian soldiers reportedly chained themselves together to prevent fleeing — which was one of the opening engagements of the Muslim conquest of Iraq in 12 AH. Khalid ibn al-Walid was brought from the Ridda wars to command this operation, and it was through his generalship that Hurmuz was defeated and killed.

The death of Hurmuz and his army opened the way for the initial Muslim penetration into the Sassanid lowlands. He was considered one of the most prized opponents to face in single combat because of his legendary armor, weapons, and the ransom his equipment represented. His personal belongings taken as spoils were substantial.

His story appears in the early chronicles of the conquest of Iraq as a representative of the Sassanid nobility's fatal combination of arrogance and military rigidity. The chaining of soldiers — whether historical or legendary — became a symbol of the difference between the flexible Muslim cavalry and the rigid Sassanid approach that would ultimately prove unable to adapt to the new form of warfare the early Muslim armies brought.