Aswaran

The Aswārān (singular aswār), also spelled Asbārān and Savaran, was a cavalry force that formed the backbone of the army of the Sasanian Empire.

The Arabic word asāwira (أساورة), used to refer to a certain faction of the Sasanian cavalry after the Muslim conquest, is a broken plural form of the Middle Persian aswār.

In the Sassanian inscriptions, the formula asp ud mard (literally "horse and man")[3] was commonly used to collectively refer to the cavalry and the infantry of the military.

[4] A system which disperses soldiers to estates outside the main fighting season does slow down mobilization and limit opportunities for unit drill, but it also provides on-the-spot capability to respond to local uprisings, brigandage or raids.

The asbaran have often been demonstrated as an example of existence of feudalism in Iran by modern scholars, who simply refer them as either chevalier, knight, or ritter.

They mastered in single combat in battles (mard o-mard), rode on elephants and horses, and their valor was recognized with ornamental emblems.

Titles such as hazārmard ("whose strength is equal to one thousand men"), zih asbār ("superior rider"), and pahlawān-i gēhān ("hero or champion of the world"), were their epithets.

They wrote the name of the Sasanian emperor and their valuable family members on their arrows as a good omen.

However, by the late 6th to early 7th century AD, they would have been decorated with flowers and purple ball with mail and small areas through which to breathe and see.

[21] The late aswaran reportedly also used a device called panjagan which was supposedly able to fire a volley of five arrows.

Some aswaran members with superior bravery, character, and equestrian skills were receiving honorary bracelets, recorded in Islamic sources as suwārī, with the wearer being called a musawwar.