Ardashir I Kushanshah

Ardashir I Kushanshah was the first Kushanshah of the Kushano-Sasanian Kingdom from 233 to 245. He was succeeded by Peroz I Kushanshah.

Ardashir I Kushanshah
Coin of Ardashir I Kushanshah, Marw mint
Kushanshah of the Kushano-Sasanian Kingdom
Reign	233–245
Successor	Peroz I Kushanshah
Died	245
Religion	Zoroastrianism

Name

Ardashir is the Middle Persian form of the Old Persian Ṛtaxšira (also spelled Artaxšaçā, meaning "whose reign is through truth").^[1][2] The Latin variant of the name is Artaxerxes.^[1] Three kings of the Achaemenid Empire were known to have the same name.^[1]

Reign

Map of the Kushano-Sasanian Kingdom

"Kushano-Sasanian" is a historiographic term used by modern scholars when referring to a dynasty of monarchs who supplanted the Kushan Empire in the Tukharistan region, and ultimately in both Kabulistan and Gandhara as well.^[3] According to the historian Khodadad Rezakhani, the dynasty was seemingly a young branch of the House of Sasan, and perhaps a offspring of one of the Sasanian King of Kings.^[3] It was founded in 233 by Ardashir I Kushanshah after his appointment by the first Sasanian King of Kings, Ardashir I (r. 224–242).^[4][2] The Kushano-Sasanians, in the same manner as the Kushans, used the title of Kushanshah ("Kushan King"), thus demonstrating a continuum with their predecessors.^[3]

The coins of Ardashir I Kushanshah had the Bactrian legend AP∆AÞΟPΟ KΟÞANΟ ÞAΟ, "Ardashir, the Kushan Shah".^[5] Some of his coins also had a Pahlavi legend on the reverse reading mzdysn bgy arthštr RBA kwšan MLK "The Mazda-worshipping lord Ardashir the Great Kushan Shah".^[5] The reverse of his Bactrian-written coins depicted the goddess Anahita, whilst the ones written in Pahlavi depicted Mithra.^[6] Several of Ardashir I Kushanshah's coins have been found together with coins of the Kushan ruler Vasishka, suggesting a level of interaction between the two rulers.^[5]