Aswaran

250px|thumb|right|Sasanian silverware, showing a combat between two noble horsemen wearing scale armor, cuirass, chaps, and equipped with kontos (weapon)|kontos, swords, quivers and arrows The Aswārān (singular aswār), also spelled Asbārān and Savaran, was a cavalry force that formed the backbone of the army of the Sasanian Empire. They were provided by the aristocracy, were heavily armored, and ranged from archers to cataphracts.

==Etymology== The word comes from the Old Persian word (from asa- and bar, a frequently used Achaemenid military technical term). The various other renderings of the word are the following: Parthian (spelt spbr or SWSYN), Middle Persian (spelt ʼswbʼl or SWSYA), Classical Persian suwār (), uswār/iswār (), Modern Persian (). The Arabic word (), used to refer to a certain faction of the Sasanian cavalry after the Muslim conquest, is a broken plural form of the Middle Persian . However, the word aswār only means "horseman" in Middle Persian literature, and it is only the late Arabic term that has a more specialized meaning. In the Sassanian inscriptions, the formula asp ud mard (literally "horse and man") was commonly used to collectively refer to the cavalry and the infantry of the military.