Bastam

Bastam (Persian: بسطام‎‎, also romanized as Basṭām; also known as Busṭām and Bisṭām) is a city in and capital of the Bastam District of Shahrud County, Semnan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 7,382, in 1,997 families.

Bastam was founded in the 6th century in the Greater Khorasan. It is 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) north of Shahrud. The town is known for its Islamic monuments from the Ilkhanid period and its association with the mystic Bayazid Bastami. The Alborz are to the north of the town.

The 19th-century poet, Abbas Foroughi Bastami, lived in Bastam for a time and thence acquired its name as his own.

A tradition says that the town was founded by Vistahm, uncle of the Sasanian king Khosrau II.

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Vistahm

Bistam or Vistahm (also transliterated Wistaxm, Persian: بیستام‎‎), was a Parthian dynast of the Ispahbudhan house, and maternal uncle of the Sasanian shah of Persia, Khosrau II (reigned 591–628). Vistahm helped Khosrau regain his throne after the rebellion of Bahram Chobin, but later led a revolt himself, which encompassed the entire Iranian East before being suppressed.

Early life

Vistahm and his brother Vinduyih were sons of Shapur and grandsons of Bawi. They belonged to the Ispahbudhan, one of the seven Parthian clans that formed the elite aristocracy of the Sasanian Empire. The Ispahbudhan in particular enjoyed such a high status that they were acknowledged as "kin and partners of the Sasanians". The family also held the important position of spahbed of the West, i.e. the Sasanian Empire's southwestern regions (the Sawad). A sister of Vistahm had even married the Sasanian shah Hormizd IV (r. 579–590), and was the mother of Hormizd's heir, Khosrau II.