h the princes were married to members
of the house of Abbas.

The descendants of the Badusepan, whom Zahireddin carefully traces in
all the branches of the family, ruled over Ruyan, Rustamdar, Nur and
Kujur, down to the year 1453, when they divided themselves into two
branches which continued to reign till 1567, and 1576.

Another dynasty was the mountain rulers of Qaren, which is named after
its founder. The first Qaren was the son of Sokhra, the brother of
Zarmihr. These princes were also styled _Ispehbeds_. A descendant of
Qaren was Vindad-Hormizd, who in conjunction with Shervin I of the house
of Bavend, and with the Badusepan, Shahriyar I, conquered the Arabs in
783, but subsequently surrendered himself to Hadi and went to Baghdad
till the latter became Khalif in 785. There is some confusion in the
chronology of this dynasty also. A few rulers appear to be wanting
because between the beginning of the dynasty in 565 to its close in 839
the average reign of the six princes would come to 45 or 46 years.
Maziyar, son of Qaren, and grandson of Vindad-Hurmizd was at first
defeated by Shahryar the son of Shervin of the Bavend dynasty and took
refuge with the Khalif Mamun in 816-17, and returned after the victory
over Musa Ibn Hafs in 825 but was himself worsened by the Arabs in 839
and executed. Thereupon Tabaristan came into the power of the Tahirides,
the nominal governors of the Khalif in Khorasan. Our authorities are
Beladhori 134, 14; Masudi 7, 137; Kitab ol Oyun 399, 6; Yaqut 3, 284, 4.
506, 10; Abulfida 2, 212, 2.

The Bavend dynasty is a continuation of the Masmughans. Their original
ancestor Bav who is characterised as son of Shahpur, son of Kayos,
received from Khusraw II the governorship of Istakhr, Adharbaijan and
Tabaristan, but retired himself into a fire-temple in the time of queen
Azarmidukht. When the Arabs in 655 had advanced to the vicinity of Amul,
the Mazenderanis invited him to lead them and he was the founder of the
Bavend dynasty called after him. Now Bav was killed by Valash in 679,
who did not belong to the dynasty and it was only 8 years later on that
the son of Bav, Suhrab, more correctly Surkhab, came to the throne. With
the last potentate of this first line of the Bavends was united by
marriage the house of Ziyar which produced two celebrated princes of
Gurgan, Vashmgir and Qabus. The other line, the "mountain kings" proper,
sprang from a son of the last prince of the first line and was
ex