DENŠAPUH

 

DENŠAPUH, short form of Vehdenšapuh (Mid. Pers. *Wehdēnšābuhr), Sasanian hambārakapet (quartermaster; Faustus, tr. Garsoian, p. 530) involved in the campaign of Yazdagerd II (438-57) to force Christian Armenians to abjure their faith and return to Zoroastrianism (Łazar Pʿarpecʿi, pp. 293, 309-10, 314, 317, 319; Ełišē, ed. Tēr-Minasean, pp. 19-139; cf. Hübschmann, Armenische Grammatik, p. 37 no. 56); a gem bearing his name is preserved in the British Museum in London (Thomas, no. 117; cf. Nöldeke, Geschichte der Perser, p. 444). Stepʿanos Tarawnacʿi (p. 83) claimed that Denšapuh “increased adultery and lit an Ohrmazd fire in Rštunikʿ,” a district south of Lake Van. These claims are references to the Sasanian suppression of sacerdotal celibacy and encouragement of marriage between next of kin, as well as to the conversion of churches into fire temples, as at Echmiadzin (Ēǰmiacin).

 

Bibliography:

(For cited works not found in this bibliography, see “Short References.”) Łazar Pʿarpecʿi, Patmagirkʿ hayocʿ, ed. G. Tēr-Mkrtčʿean and S. Malxasean, Tiflis, 1904; repr. Delmar, N.Y., 1985; tr. R. W. Thomson as The History of Lazar Pʿarpecʿi, Atlanta, 1991.

Stepʿanos Tarawnacʿi, Tiezerakanpatmutʿiwn, St. Petersburg, 1885.

E. Thomas, Early Sassanian Inscriptions, Seals and Coins, London, 1868.

 

(James Russell)

Originally Published: December 15, 1994

Last Updated: November 21, 2011

This article is available in print.
Vol. VII, Fasc. 3, p. 292