Mazyar

Mazyar (Middle Persian: Māh-Izād; Mazandarani/) was an Iranian prince from the Qarinvand dynasty, who was the ruler (ispahbadh) of the mountainous region of Tabaristan from 825/6 to 839. For his resistance to the Abbasid Caliphate, Mazyar is considered one of the national heroes of Iran by twentieth-century Iranian nationalist historiography. His name means "protected by the yazata of the moon".

== Origin == Mazyar belonged to the Qarinvand dynasty, which was descended from Sukhra, a powerful magnate from the House of Karen, who was the de facto ruler of the Sasanian Empire from 484 to 493. However, due to his great influence and power, he was exiled and executed by the Sasanian king Kavadh I (r. 488–496 & 498–531). Sukhra was survived by eight sons, one of them being Karin, who in return for aiding Kavadh I's son and successor Khosrow I (r. 531–579) against the Western Turkic Khaganate in the 550s, received land to the south of Amol in Tabaristan, thus starting the Qarinvand dynasty.